The C64, Amiga and Zzap!64 days were just glorious and I'm so glad I got to grow up in this era. Thank you for creating this video and celebrating the halcyon days!

@oldstylegaming

3 ай бұрын

great times mate, kids will never feel what we felt back then, waiting for magazines to come out to see what we should buy next...

@jack_knife-1478

3 ай бұрын

Same here! Had tea and biscuits waiting for them to load🙂

@jel3726

3 ай бұрын

Yep good times the evolution of home computers and consoles, trips to the arcades and fantastic movies that have really rubbish sequels and remakes these days good times no wonder there is such a demand for retro gaming

@st04bez

3 ай бұрын

This post says it all

@CastleKnight7

3 ай бұрын

Same, though for me it was the Speccy and Crash.

24:52 That little elephant shouting C - C - CO*K! in Swedish will never NOT be funny. XD

Great work, OSG! I love the sound of the famous CID chip so much. In the right hands, it was truly remarkable.

@cv643d

3 ай бұрын

Its not CID chip its Zzid chip

@stevenmillward4105

3 ай бұрын

The Cound Interface Device?

@WSS_the_OG

3 ай бұрын

@@stevenmillward4105 Yikes, I can't believe I typed that. LOL.

Arkanoid load soundtrack at the intro - love it

You're right, the order is pretty bizarre for many of these games! None of them are bad games, but especially the US-made games seem almost randomly inserted. Thanks for putting this together, was a fun watch.

@gamingtonight1526

3 ай бұрын

But the class games still stand out!

@JustWasted3HoursHere

3 ай бұрын

That's true, Robin. Some great games on this list, but the order is a bit of a mystery. I guess different reviewers like different things and score them that way. I might put Bubble Bobble in the top ten, but number one?

I have every issue of Zzap! - the first one I bought was issue no. 6. I remember trying to get the first five from their back issues department, but they only had 2-5 available as the first issue had sold out, so I placed an ad in MicroMart to which Julian Rignall himself responded and enabled me to complete my collection! Brilliant! Not only did I get Issue One, but must've spent nearly 2 hours on the phone with him, talking about the Commodore 64! And, if I hadn't been such a shy, spotty and awkward young teenager, I might have got to have a go at the Scorelord's Challenge.....but when he was going "I AM the Scorelord", all I could come back with is "yeah, I know". He must have thought "what an idiot, he doesn't get it"..... Oh well. I blew it. If only, eh?

@oldstylegaming

3 ай бұрын

Haha

@tonysplattery

3 ай бұрын

@@oldstylegaming PS Have you got 'The Sentinel' by Firebird in there? They thought it was so good, they refused to give it a rating!

Zzap!64 What a fantastic mag! I bought it religiously every month, the reviewers were great and the reviews were almost always spot on. So many classic C64 games here! So much nostalgia! Would've been nice if you displayed the magazine cover from which the reviews came, Zzap!64 had some amazing cover artwork every month, they always stood out on the shelves....Great vid m8

@oldstylegaming

3 ай бұрын

lol you know I had them covers cos I gave them to you, it was just to intensive for my editor mate, it took over 3hrs to render this, on top of that about 5 hrs yesterday making the labels for each video...these 100 games lists are sooooo labour intensive

@oldstylegaming

3 ай бұрын

when I start streaming with RetroB8 you could come on as a guest and we could discuss your love for Zzap!

@Lucasrainford

3 ай бұрын

Yeah! I was just wondering why you hadn't used em! Yeah! 100 is a lot of work! Why not do the next one in 2 vids of 50 each maybe? @@oldstylegaming

@oldstylegaming

3 ай бұрын

maybe mate, I have a lot of ideas in my head as you know...its just getting them on screen thats the problem lol

@paolosixtyforeverdipace4416

3 ай бұрын

Where Salamander and Retrograde are😅

Top video. A lot of my youth was lost to many of these games. Great day's.

@oldstylegaming

Ай бұрын

They were great days mate, thanks for watching

i really enjoyed thank you

Not sure if ever reviewed but Bandits was an amazingly cool and addictive port of something. Also, a scrolling pinball game which I played for hours and hours..

that discord notification sound at 20:03 though

My first issue was Issue 45. Had a cover tape on the front with the Robocop demo and Full game Parallax. Reviewers were Gordo, Kati and Mat. Had Amiga reviews but they were at the back.

Great vid🎉 47:40 Why is in-game music different for Ghost'n'Goblins? Are there different versions?

@mcbpete

3 ай бұрын

Yeah the one in this video is actually the 'recent' remake released in 2015 called Ghosts'n Goblins Arcade (released by Nostalgia)

@scottbreon9448

2 ай бұрын

Yeah it's the new version that adds missing levels

Very cool to see all the best c64 games in one video! Or the best rated anyhow 😛. Turrican 😍

Wow what a cracking video.some amazing games on the list but a few dodgy scores too , golden axe would be great but no more than 3 enemies on screen at once so for me way better like target Renegade out there . Ghouls n ghosts not a great conversion bar the music lol

@ravengaming2597

3 ай бұрын

I thought Double Dragon 2 was a far better game than Golden Axe on the C64. And Cauldron 2 getting that score. Once that pumpkin starts bouncing it's uncontrollable.

need to play some of these games again, love the last ninja 3 soundtrack.

Great work and sweet memories! I remember HES Games as being called Going for Gold. Wasn’t that the UK name?

@buffyfantastico

3 ай бұрын

It was rereleased in the UK as Go For The Gold, Was also called Gold Medal Games in the states too. Was always one of my favourites. The hurdles in particular always stood out as being pretty much perfect when you managed to get the timing down

Zzap and commodore format i miss those days.. especially the tapes.. i would love to see if they've been packed into roms

The graphics of Entombed and the others in that series were so captivating, they really felt like adventures even though I couldn't get very far. I do remember Guardian as a really excellent Defender port. Missing: Gribbly's Day Out! Amazing game, if difficult.

Great playing of Green Beret, that one is really hard.

Hey OSG! So, I have an idea for a series of videos. What if you did a Zzap 64/Commodore Force review vs. a Commodore Format review, and which magazine had that game's review more accurate to how you would score it.

@oldstylegaming

3 ай бұрын

Great idea, ill note it down and do some research.

Mercenary was an incredible achievement. I remember the feeling that I was playing something that I'd never seen the like of before. Go where you want, when you want, how you want. I suppose it was just Elite on the ground but leaving Targ has stayed with me.

Had some crazy stuff on the old C64 amazing what some devs could squeeze into 64K

So many must haves! though the freescape games haven't aged well, the game you showed for Mercenary seconded city looks suspiciously like the first game. Golden axe was pants, I played alter ego years ago, great game couldn't beat Turrican though

This is an Epic compilation

Well my younger sister wouldn't argue with the #1 fosho! She was 16 by then, and her boyfriend would be at the house as I left for work some mornings. I'd stick my Commodore 64 on the coffee table in front of the TV for them to play 2 player games or whatever. And come back from work to find them marathoning that particular game. They had entire devious strats worked out whereby he would sacrifice his own character so she could progress without dying. Thereby getting all the level skip power ups to appear.

Ok settling in for this one, looking forward to it... must admit didnt think it would kick off with a game at 92%, that is a lot of games in that 8%. This would actually make an excellent set to go for the Zzap!64 100 set for us collectors.

The amount of work (and time) you put into these things...it really is appreciated, mate. Great vid. 🙂

@oldstylegaming

3 ай бұрын

yeah pain in the arse these long ones really with all the splicing and and labels

I loved Zzap!64 back in the day. I love shootemups and if Rignall liked it I knew I would. Looking back at some of these games I am not sure they have stood the test of time very well but for their day they were all pretty amazing. So much innovation coupled with some almost perfect arcade ports.......what a time to have been young and own a C64

@snozzlehead92

3 ай бұрын

It seems Zzap were very... generous... with handing out high-scoring reviews in their earlier issues.

Anyone know if there is a term for that late 64 era pixel style employed in games like Robocop, Dragon Ninja, Target Renegade, Navy Seals etc? Like, quite fine grained, less blocky, smaller character style?!

@oldstylegaming

3 ай бұрын

Personally I dont know, im not a coder, but Ill ask someone and reply back on here later...or he will reply on here

@Ulysees31

3 ай бұрын

Maybe another video. Lol

@8_Bit

3 ай бұрын

I think most or all of those games use the "sprite overlay" technique, which involves putting a high-resolution single-colour sprites (usually black) on top of a multi-colour sprite which when done right can give the impression of having a 4-colour hi-res sprite. The only problem is that you're using 2 sprites instead of 1 so it needs to fit in with the game design to only allow 4 of these sprites (instead of the usual 8) in any given horizontal area of the screen.

@marcusmalone

3 ай бұрын

@@8_Bit OMG thank you so much!!

@marcusmalone

3 ай бұрын

@@oldstylegaming 😀🙏

Tusker was amazing for its time too. I was also thinking that Rainbow Islands and Turrican should be have been on the list too :)

@aceabo88

3 ай бұрын

great video, but as you mentioned there are games missing, many in fact, the ones you mentioned plus Wizball, spindizzy, uridium, sanxion, the eidolon, thrust, spellbound, scarabaeus, winter games, summer games 2, world games, starquake, the untouchables, park patrol, slamball. All these plus a few more I can think of off the top of my head all scored above 92% so should have been included

tremendous idea for a video! They really never got to spend enough time with games, they've admitted as much since, but they did alright overall. Except with Hawkeye :D I could even smell a rat back then, sometimes all is not what it seems.

@oldstylegaming

3 ай бұрын

how in gods name did ballblazer get 98% thats what I want to know...maybe it was after a heavy night on the drink they reviewed that.....

@CraigGrannell

3 ай бұрын

@@oldstylegaming probably down to the two-player mode, which can be fun. It sucks as a solo game.

AH! The days of the Commodore 64 and Zzap! 64 indeed. Back when magazines would actually have free games on their covers. And often what were at the time AAA games. (Hawkeye from this list springs to mind.) Yeah.. You were paying for the magazine. So it wasn't like free games on Steam these days even. But for people like myself who bought the magazine every month anyway, the games were indeed free as per I paid nothing for them. Still own a vast chunk of Zzap! 64 magazines. I'm going to say the first 50 issues I think. Some are in bad bad condition. But then, some aren't. And I've had a folder on my PC with every page of every issue scanned for well over 20 years at this point. Along with a full set of CRASH! scans as well.

Two games off the top of my head that could have been in this list: Stunt Car Racer (92%) and Scarabaeus (96%).

I think Zzap! may have taken the odd kick-back here and there.

Zaxxon should have been on there, that game was amazing!

@scottbreon9448

2 ай бұрын

Which version though? There were two

So many masterpiece

I always found the German "PowerPlay" magazin so much more reliable & accurate with its ratings ❤ More retro channels on YT should take their reviews in account...

@oldstylegaming

3 ай бұрын

Ill take a look, maybe do a comparison between the magazines

Buggy boy a stonewall classic on c64. Didn't see shinobi on the list😢

Bubble Booble righfully deserved the top place. The C64 version surpasses the NES one by a mile.

@Monty-or9sb

3 ай бұрын

yup, my fave game of the whole 80's

MP Soccer is still the best football game out there! ;)

@oldstylegaming

3 ай бұрын

Great game mate, I spent half my life on that game when I was a kid, I actually like it better than Sensible Soccer but maybe thats down to nostalgia

@CreationBrosZone-km5be

3 ай бұрын

My mate and I always tried to get Ireland to the final: I would play the first half and he the second. It literally killed us just trying to draw against Brazil, hands and joysticks destroyed. Great gaming days. @@oldstylegaming

As someone who grew up with an NES and never got into Commodore/Amiga I appreciate these lists. There are too many games to go through for each system and I simply don't have the time. I'd rather focus on the best each system has to offer instead of wading through a tonne of crap to find one gem. I wish there were top 100 lists for games that didn't require any keyboard input, only controller inputs, though. I put together mini emulation devices for friends/family and most of them are not keen on PC style gaming. They just want to sit on their couch with a wireless controller and play games like that. With that said, I wish there was a database, or at least a top 100, of Commodore and Amiga games that you can play with a controller only so that I can expose them to some of these classic games without worrying that they may need to bring up a virtual keyboard to press specific buttons... you know, the KISS method, "Keep It Simple, Stupid."

@oldstylegaming

3 ай бұрын

You can map keyboard keys to a joypad. For example TheC64 has mapped space, return, run/stop, F7 and P that covers a hell of a lot of c64 games as far as keyboard input goes

@oldstylegaming

3 ай бұрын

But.... you do have a point... i might look into a video like that.

@AFFL1CTED1

3 ай бұрын

@@oldstylegaming that would be awesome

Colossal score on Paradroid there, btw 👍

A reminder that 9x% in 1985 is very different from 9x% in 1990!

Rambo and Wizball were great games in my opinion, a shame they weren't featured high enough

@oldstylegaming

3 ай бұрын

Sorry mate...thats my fault, wizball defo scored high enough but for some reason went missing from my spread sheet

No Rainbow Island... was 92%, I suppose it didn't make the 100 entry cut... (I thought was higher than 92, "Zzap!", the italian version of "Zzap!64", gave it 95!)

I was quite surprised Cybernoid was in the list. It's a great game in many ways, but it's difficulty levels were so fierce I thought it might have lost a few % points.... Shows what I know !

@oldstylegaming

3 ай бұрын

Armalyte is rock hard too

@steelpatriot3683

3 ай бұрын

​@@oldstylegamingI should have waited till the end..... It's a great list with some corners, but Head Over Heels at 98%????? That must have been reviewed the day after a heavy Christmas party !

@oldstylegaming

3 ай бұрын

@@steelpatriot3683 lol, head over heals is pretty good mate

@scottbreon9448

2 ай бұрын

The developer of the original Spectrum version was known for making ridiculously hard games, But ZZap had a hard on for hard games anyway. They gave Hercules like 93 percent

Surprise Pool of Radiance didn't make it. Also Zak McCracken, and Turrican 1+2. Rick Dangerous was also quite fun.

@oldstylegaming

3 ай бұрын

they never made it cos they never got reviewed which is really surprising as Zzap was still going when they were released

@cressie176

3 ай бұрын

Zak McCracken was reviewed in issue 47 and given 93% on the C64. It even made the front cover@@oldstylegaming .

@robertomartin9124

3 ай бұрын

​@@oldstylegamingin zzap 61, Turrican had 97%, and Turrican 2 in zzap 70 had 96% ;)

@oldstylegaming

3 ай бұрын

@@robertomartin9124 oh... i have missed that, for some reason turrican 2 wasnt on my sheet.... ffs

@scottbreon9448

2 ай бұрын

Kind to think of it, I don't think they reviewed a lot of RPGs. Mostly general action games, platformers, sports games, shooters and adventure games.

Small nitpick, but for Ghosts n Goblins you used remake footage instead of original Elite release :)

@oldstylegaming

3 ай бұрын

Oh.... when i get footage I just save them into a folder to reuse, ive made a note of that

@flowerpot5207

3 ай бұрын

Likewise with Executive Leaderboard footage instead of the original Leaderboard. 😊

@scottbreon9448

2 ай бұрын

*Ghosts, I think you are confusing it with the sequel Ghouls n Ghosts

@metalcoola

2 ай бұрын

@@scottbreon9448 Fixed, thank you :)

For some reason I thought Mayhem In Monsterland and Lemmings were going to be top. I (mis)remember them getting crazy scores (something like 100% and 110% !) but I might be mixing it up with another c64 magazine ....

@oldstylegaming

3 ай бұрын

Commodore Format gave mayhem 100% i know

@scottbreon9448

2 ай бұрын

Mayhem was overrated in my opinion. Great technical achievement, but the gameplay is overrated. The Creatures games were FAR BETTER IMHO

I loved Zzap64, I bought it every month and would read it over and over, no other mag came close to being as entertaining, but it had some crazy takes sometimes. Ghostbusters, one of the best C64 games of all time (especially for the time it came out, 1984, very early on) got a review score of 40% !!! At least back then no-one was scared to actually use the full range of scoring, a crap game was a crap game and got a crap score. None of this modern review bullshit where everyone is scared to offend anyone and the worst game imaginable still gets a 70.

Alter Ego raised me - only had the Female version but I didn't mind, it was amazing!

@oldstylegaming

3 ай бұрын

yeah its like ChatGPT of the 80s

That's a sorry way to land an airplane 😂 #50 Chuck Yeager

@oldstylegaming

3 ай бұрын

Hahaha i know right

@jhuny

3 ай бұрын

​@@oldstylegaminghaha these game developers can be really mean lol how can you be expected to be good at all 100 games? 🤣

Although most of these games deserve their lofty praise, a few don't. Golden Axe getting 96% yet the far superior and much more playable Double Dragon 2 got around 68%. Must have been some brown paper envelopes doing the rounds. A butchered and cut down port of Ghosts'n'Goblins getting 97% and Cauldron 2 getting 94%. I'm sure some of these score's were either bribes or dependant on the moods of the reviewers on certain days. Can't argue with any of the top 20 though.

A lot of the 'wonky' scores can be traced straight back to whoever was editor or main reviewer of said game at the particular time. Rignall was famously not fond of anything that wasn't a shoot-em-up. Hell, he even had video game playing trophies from his pre-Zzap! 64 days. Penn liked all the cutesy games. And wasn't it Gordon and Kati/Katie in the later years? Once they arrived it just all felt a bit too industry led. Not that Penn and Rignall were innocent of that either. They were both so far up Jeff Minter's arse that anything he released got a straight 10% or more boost. Almost all of Minter's games were sizzlers as I recall. He even went as far as having a tammy huff with the lads when they reviewed one of his games less than stellar.

I really need to fix my Commodores

@oldstylegaming

3 ай бұрын

best thing you will ever do for memories

Usually really enjoy OSG. Not sure why no Summer Games 2 @ 97% or Winter Games @ 94% arent here? 2 of the most famous C64 games released in the 80s.

@oldstylegaming

3 ай бұрын

Yeah there has been an error when sorting in my excel file..... i removed duplicates as lots of games were re released on budget and re reviewed.... unfortunately it completely removed some great games...i will right this eventually.... dont not enjoy my videos over it though mate it was an honest mistake. Ill pin a comment tonight now i know why the issue happened

Zzap 64 was an incredible magazine at the time. Other magazines were really dry and boring and had a corporate feel... Zzap just did what they wanted and didn't care about giving a game 9% even if Commodore User gave it 5 stars... :D

@oldstylegaming

3 ай бұрын

I get it but sometimes that meant that really good games got low scores when in fact they deserved way higher.... for example Catalypse

Some games with very high scores are missing, aren't they? Summer Games with 97%, Winter Games with 94% or Exploding Fist with 93%, for example

@oldstylegaming

3 ай бұрын

Maybe my excel sheet has sorted them wrong but yes you are right. Pissed me off a bit now that as this took so long to make.

Miami Vice. Al day, Miami Vice

I was expecting Highlander to be higher?!

@scottbreon9448

2 ай бұрын

Because Highlander was a shit game

To this day I’ve no idea how Ferrari Formula 1 got 95%. It was undriveable. I was so disappointed.

@oldstylegaming

3 ай бұрын

yeah shocking score for that game which is mediocre at best

Weird no Commando at all?

Arac definitely didn't deserve to score so highly.

Do a video about turican on nintendo.

@scottbreon9448

2 ай бұрын

*Turrican

@angeleocorrodead

2 ай бұрын

@@scottbreon9448 yup.

Ballblazer 98%, ill have what they were drinking 😂

@scottbreon9448

2 ай бұрын

The original Atari 8-bit version of Ballblazer was great, all the ports were lacking though

@dennyhaynes3

2 ай бұрын

@@scottbreon9448 Maybe but 98% is way OTT!

Head over Heels would be #1 for me, in terms of playing time 🐶

@oldstylegaming

3 ай бұрын

still actually a great game to this day

Didn't they rebrand to 'Commodore Force' at one point?

@oldstylegaming

3 ай бұрын

Yeah for the last few issues i think after 100 or so zzaps they changed to commodore force... format was a rival to zzap

@Monty-or9sb

3 ай бұрын

@@oldstylegaming i remember getting Force and Format both for a while. So many demo tapes!

Bright 🍬 💖💛🧡💖❤💝

Wow! Nr.2 is an absolute misfit. Score 0%!

WHAAAT? No Turrican or Wizball? What in Hades is going on? There were some very poor games in that 100.

@oldstylegaming

3 ай бұрын

It appears ive made a clerical error when sorting my spread sheet out sorry, both the turricans and wizball should have been on...too late now though... but really they wouldnt have really changed the bad games in this list

@garytilford6503

3 ай бұрын

​​@@oldstylegamingJust looked these up, Turrican scored 97% and both Wizball and Turrican II scored 96%.

@oldstylegaming

3 ай бұрын

@@garytilford6503 yeah ive seen afterwards, i think what has happened is ive removed duplicates in excel and its messed up removing both games with similar names... ill not do that again

👍👍👍👍👍👍🕹🕹

Zzap always had kickass cover artwork. Oliver Frey never disappointed! Sad that he died in 2022 from MND.

@oldstylegaming

3 ай бұрын

Sad times

Nr.86 is the worst😂 alsoo nr.75, they should'nt even be on the list.😮

What I hate about the Amiga and C64 is that youtubers do not put the soundFX, only the music. So for me, the Atari 2600 videos are better than this musical non sense. A game is about sound FX first.

@8_Bit

3 ай бұрын

The majority of C64/Amiga games don't let the player choose between music or sound effects, you just get whatever the developers decided to do for audio, so it has nothing to do with the youtubers. And for those games that do allow the choice, the default was usually music instead of sound effects, so again, it's silly to fault the people making the video to show the default settings of the game. And even then, I'd guess the majority of C64 and Amiga fans would choose the music over the sound effects when given a choice.

@8_Bit

3 ай бұрын

But still, your complaint is interesting in that it raises the issue of the choices developers make when faced with limited resources like limited sound channels. How and what to prioritize. On systems with very limited music-making ability, like the Atari 2600 or Spectrum, sound effects were prioritized. On the music more musical systems like the Amiga and C64, music was prioritized. On later systems with lots of sound channels, you get both, and even control of relative volumes of those.

@oldstylegaming

3 ай бұрын

Hate is a strong word..... I suppose its down to personal preference.... i mean if you are playing a shoot em up that had only sound effects it becomes very boring very fast, games arent about 1 thing or the other, to get a truly great game you would have a balanced mix of the 2.... but really a game is about gameplay first

@scottbreon9448

2 ай бұрын

Most C64 games at the time only had music or sound, very few had BOTH. Some had the option of music OR sound, but most C64 games at the time only had ONE that could be played since most SIDs used all three channels for the music. Now some of the latter games did have sound due to the SID musician only using two channels for music, and the other for SFX For example, the reason why Bubble Bobble has SFX is that Peter Clarke only used two channels for music.

Sorry, but no voice over is a bit boring to me for an hour long video...

@oldstylegaming

3 ай бұрын

It would be even more boring listening to me harping on for an hour mate. Timewise though it wouldnt be feasible for me to voice over 100 games

@CasperEgas

3 ай бұрын

@@AfterBurnett indeed, I do too.

@CasperEgas

3 ай бұрын

@@AfterBurnett yeah I am looking for the insights, crazy facts, opinions. Just game footage, meh, I'll play then myself ;)

@oldstylegaming

3 ай бұрын

@@AfterBurnett noted