Space Invaders

[Commie_User]

http://roms.zophar.net/download-file/69658

Nice chunky graphics, trainer mode for a slow reflex day and a lovely Commodore graphic at the beginning. What more can be said?

Loading's the usual affair; LOAD "*",8,1: <shift and run/stop>

[Analog-X64]

Great suggestion.

[Commie_User]

Yes, it is a good game isn't it. Cloned countless times, but it gives you a real variety on the C64, unlike with the Atari console owners who had to put up with a rather clumsy version of Space Invaders, not to mention their own hideous single version of Pacman for two years.

Less can be said of Great Giana Sisters, a travesty of a game which just insulted the Commodore 64:
http://roms.zophar.net/download-file/63120

I don't blame Nintendo for throwing a hissy-fit about someone else's chuckaway game just this once. I don't mind the blatant Super Mario rip-off, but it was done with little finesse as the control is clumsy, the gameplay and physics are clumsy and the collision detection can be a right pig. Good job this cracked copy has infinite lives and a toggleable invinsibility mode. Times come when you need it on the later levels.

There have been great mounds of gaming slurry for the Commie over the years, rightly slammed by reviewers and disgusted gamers across the world. But Giana Sisters had such a build up, with Commies even today cooing and purring over what a great game it is. Some of them even say it beats the original Super Mario! Does it heck! I never got sick of Super Mario in less than ten minutes.

(Though it has to be said the novelty of Super Mario on the c64 can be appealing anyway: http://roms.zophar.net/download-file/70411.
Remember to play on the real Commodore as the response delays in the emulator could make things a whole lot worse.)

[Commie_User]

I found the game more agreeable on the Amiga though: http://roms.zophar.net/download-file/215575

It handles better and is graphically slicker too. I quite liked this one, even playing for a while without the 'trainer' mode. It still has its quirks, but you can actually play this one.

Although there's no real point in wanting to see Mario on non-Nintendo machines, it still would have been nice to see the pirated Super Mario for the Amiga instead.

[Analog-X64]

Its funny how some 20+ Years later. Giana Sisters is now out for the Nintendo DS.

[Commie_User]

I just hope the DS version has been cracked and trained if it's anything like its shoddy parent.

Even playing the more forgiving Amiga version with the infinite lives going, it's still a frustratingly fiddly game which is just unplayable towards the end because too many movements have to timed just-so otherwise you get killed. And I'm talking pixel-accurate movements.

But still, for all the nostalgia, you could get away with releasing more s*** back in the old days.

Well, I'm off to enjoy a PROPER game. I really have a yen to dig out my Atari cartridge system now. What do you reckon, Bowling, Boxing, Mario Bros, Vanguard or Pheonix?

[Analog-X64]

I've had a chance to play the DS version and it is actually a pretty decent version but I havent played it long enough to find any problems.

Now for the Atari... Start with Vanguard.

[Commie_User]

If you've played Giana Sisters for longer than twenty seconds with no trouble, there probably isn't any. Not the kind I'm talking about.

How does it compare to its equivilent Super Mario title, be it 'Bros 1, 2, 3, 'World 1, 2, etc.?
________________________________________

Vanguard, oh yes mate: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mHHNeK-WAoI

[LMan]

Even though Giana is a clone, and the similarities are many, it's a different game. Direct comparison will lead to dislike either one or the other. Most here grew up with Giana - it plays and feels differently, but it's nothing like hard-to-beat or unplayable. With a little practise and proper timing, you could beat all the 32 levels in one session. You can't beat the Giana game, or even like it, if you try to control it like you would Mario - and vice versa. I tried Mario on a NES in a store and I didn't like it for the different feel. It was not until the emulation age that I came to appreciate Mario as the great game it is.

PS: My wife used to play Mario on GameBoy a lot. Now she plays Giana DS, and likes that too.

[Commie_User]

You can probably do more with it on the GS. The Amiga one is smoother and easier to operate than its C64 counterpart. But even then by the time I reach level 15 (I think), the quicker pace, over-meticulous movement requirement and sluggish joystick response always got me killed so often it just wasn't fun.

But you're right about the 'feel'. I always felt the Mario games handled much better, had superior dynamics, better collision detection and allowed far greater control over the characters. For me the old Giana Sisters was clunky and cumbersome in contrast, something inherent in most older games to me.

My personal best in two of the bigger Mario titles for the NES and SNES was to get right to the end boss but lose my last life just one or two whacks before the end. (Same for the original Sonic The Hedgehog on the Master System). Just proves I was able to play a good game and am not just whining because I'm losing.

But surely one's a better game than the other for these reasons? Can't just say they're different. After all, the old Yugo cars were different from the Ford Escorts but the Escorts were better.

[LMan]

Trying to judge this from an unbiased position, I'd say Mario wins. Because:

- It's a great game
- It has more versatility / things to explore
- It was the original.

From my personal view, it's Giana. Because:

- It's a great game
- You can, and in fact have to control Giana much more precisely than Mario. This is not a flaw in Mario, it's just what makes the main difference in the feel IMO.
- Graphics are nicer (compared to NES of course)
- Music is better.

[Jan Lund Thomsen]

I recall being quite frustrated at Giana Sisters on the C64 at times. But I always blamed that on me not being an ubergamer, rather than the game being crap. Plus, games were generally harder back then.

That being said, I really enjoy Giana Sisters DS these days. Will have to give New Super Mario Bros. a go after I (hopefully) finish it.

[Commie_User]

I think there's a difference between games being harder and games being clumsy clodhoppers, or too fast, or trying to get you thinking about too many things at once. Doesn't help matters when many old games I play put those together. Cerebral games or games which test skill and memory can be hard but fair whilst others which just throw all and everything in your face aren't.

It also doesn't make things easy to discover that many old games I did enjoy playing are seemingly unusable now, as I've lost most of my gameplaying knack with age. And my responses have slowed, hence the speed control on the emulators and Action Replay coming in handy just to even a handicap. For example, I needed it for Joe Blade 2 and later levels on that game where you have to catch the bombs in the bucket.

One game I did and do still like is Rolling Ronny: http://roms.zophar.net/search?search=rolling+ronny. I've only played the C64 version in my life (and wish I'd kept at least the box when my original cassette copy gave up the ghost) and I like it a lot. I'm looking forward to piping the ADF file into my Amiga and seeing how that plays.

Another old favourite of mine is Kwik Snax, one of the few Dizzy games I was actually charmed by: http://roms.zophar.net/search?search=kwik+snax.

[Jan Lund Thomsen]

Another old favourite of mine is Kwik Snax, one of the few Dizzy games I was actually charmed by: http://roms.zophar.net/search?search=kwik+snax.

Kwik Snax has to be one of my favorite games, too. And certainly the best title Codemasters ever published on the C64.

One of the comments on it over on Lemon said that the Amstrad/Speccy versions were much better than their C64 counterpart, so I looked the various conversions up and they look like completely different games:

http://www.cpczone.net/game/529/
http://www.worldofspectrum.org/infoseek ... id=0009367
http://www.lemonamiga.com/?game_id=324

[Commie_User]

They look to be the same basic game but in slightly differing styles. Glad to see it's on the Amiga too, I'll certainly be downloading that one for use on both emulator and genuine machine.

(It also had a great cover of an old Scott Joplin ragtime tune. Along with the likes of Foxx Fights Back, Bomb Jack, Mean Car, The Untouchables or Sheep In Space (plus that c1984 one of Greensleeves), 'C64 remixing' was going from day one.)

I think that this retro scene is just wonderful. All those emulators, all those games and utilities freely available to download and use; it really hits home that a good machine is never truly obsolete and it doesn't matter how old it is. If a C64 is useful, it's useful.

I think it's ironic that the Commodore Format magazine I used to read solemnly declared the imposing demise of the 64 due to general interest and commercial viabilty petering out. Then, just the age of an infant later, it all came back through the conduit of the PC and internet.

Gets me to this very day. 1982-now, what a long life span.


___________________________________________________________________________________


And let's not overlook Tenth Frame: http://roms.zophar.net/commodore-64/mag ... re-uk-.d64

Mind you, I do also like the Atari version, particularly as the VCS version let you steer the ball after it had been lobbed and also had the little chap dancing if you knocked down all the pins.

http://www.google.co.uk/search?q=classi ... .com&hl=en