I was a ZX Spectrum gamer at the time and although I loved the Speccy and all it stood for, I had my eye on a C64, so began saving....and saving....and saving. Eventually a student at the University I was working at was selling his C64 with tape player and 1541 floppy drive, and though it was ridiculously beyond my budget I stumped up the cash plus some savings and took the plunge.
I can't remember what the real and actual first game I played on the C64 was. I have a horrible feeling it was probably "Gremlins" which was the only game I got with the thing (on floppy disk) but soon I remember making my first purchase, and being truly blown away by the loading music / loading screen for (of all things) Rambo II. The game itself was a terrible Commando clone that was ridiculously difficult (I don't think I ever got off the first level and still can't, even now) but it was clear that the C64 was a technical leap in the right direction.
Back then the only way to find out about new and exciting games was to buy a games magazine so I opted for Zzap 64. I liked the cheeky banter therein, and began to trust their reviews (well, most of their reviews, I still think Ballblazer stank!). I was even lucky enough to get a ranty letter published in the thing (it's the issue where the lads are riding a giant C64 through space, and stupidly I didn't sign the letter with my name, but if you look for "A ZZAP READER, BARTON ESTATE" that was me, laying into Julian Rignall's reviewing style with my pubescent humour (which hasn't changed a jot in the last 40 years, by the way).
Back to the C64 itself, and some of the games that truly blew my mind.
Paradroid
I hated the look of this game when I first saw the screenshots in Zzap, and I could not work out what all the fuss was about. But it was one of their most highly rated games that month so I stumped up the £5.99 or so for the cassette version, and got completely hooked. Andrew Braybrook's Craftgold games were definitely the gold standard on the C64, and Paradroid was unbelievably addictive, balancing the risk-rewards of being a humble 001 robot, taking over increasingly more powerful droids to explore an abandoned ship. I don't really remember there being much point to the game other than to attain a high score. There was practically no narrative but it had awesome smooth scrolling, great sound effects, plenty of blasting action and even a sneaky cameo by a Dalek representing one of the more beefy security droids lurking in the nether regions of the abandoned wreck.
Braybrook would go on to write hit after hit (Uridium is also worth a mention thanks to its smooth scrolling and challenging arcade shooter gameplay), with the odd miss here and there (Morpheus seemed to be a game that had huge promise when reading the developer diaries in Zzap but failed to become much more than just an interesting but flawed shooter).
Racing Destruction Set
This was one of the only games I ever bought on diskette (disk games were FLIPPING expensive!) - I remember picking this up at the Computer Games World expo in London after a harrowing pillion passenger ride up there on a motorbike. I swear my balls still vibrate at the memory of that journey!)
Long before Trackmania or other racers that let you build your own tracks, Ariolasoft's RDS let you build slot-car tracks and race tiny little cars on them, with all the twists, turns, sharp corners and spectacular jumps you could squeeze into the C64's tiny innards. I spent hours on this (literally hours as sometimes getting the game to 'check the track' could take 10 minutes or so. One of the greatest unsung racers on the C64 but time has not been kind, I still think there's room out there in the current modern era for a racer like this (that isn't loaded to the gills with expensive DLC or assets like Trackmania now is).
Koronis Rift
This was a LucasArts game, and one that blew me away with its fractal-generated planets, weird abandoned spaceship designs, and great balance of shooting and trading gameplay. Like an ancient version of No Mans Sky, it really pushed the C64 to its limits, and though Rescue on Fractalus (the game that proceeded this one for containing fractal-generated landscapes) got all the attention, Koronis Rift (and later The Eidolon) were amazing.
Gauntlet
Oh man, I was obsessed with this game in the arcades and I dreamed that we'd get a decent version of it at home. Amazngly, the C64 version was really good - even loading levels in piecemeal on tape wasn't too much of a chore. I remember picking up Gauntlet clone Druid just before the official game came out and even that was great fun, but the official game did a really excellent job of capturing the gameplay of the arcade machine really nicely.
Who Dares Wins II
Another game I was obsessed with in the arcades was Commando - and the official Commando conversion for the C64 was pretty awful. But Who Dares Wins II was a clone, but a far superior one, featuring tons of bombastic shooting action and a ton of varied levels (and the world's cheesiest intro tune based on the theme from The Great Escape). Great fun though even though it looks pretty awful by modern standards
Kikstart and Kikstart II
The era of £1.99 games from various labels ushered in some truly amazing little games for bargain prices. Kikstart and Kikstart II from Mastertronic were both awesome little side-scrolling motorcross games that had the perfect combination of level design and tricky gameplay. Kikstart II even had its own level designer, again something I remember spending hours tinkering with.
Boulder Dash
I was late to the party with this one, but wow what a game. Puzzle action based on digging through dirt with your weird little character Rockford - again a game that looks really simple but takes a lot of thinking and strategy to get the best out of it. Later versions came with a construction kit and yep, you can bet I was all over those when they arrived.
Alter Ego
Can you even describe this as a game? More like an extended psychological role playing simulation, this allowed you to be male or female - and guided you through a virtual life from babyhood right through to adulthood, old age and eventually death (death fairly early if you did some of the more 'out there' things the game suggested early on!) There were no graphics to speak of, just a lot of forking narrative that really let you try out decisions you would probably never make in real life. Still one of the most intriguing C64 games in existence, and in the modern era it's worth googling for the web version to see if it matches up to my hype (it still does, IMHO)
....and so many others!
Even though I've only listed a few here, there were so many other games that I spent crazy amounts of time on. Monty on the Run, Thing on a Spring, Chuckie Egg (I know right!), Pitstop II, Green Beret, Ghosts and Goblins, Way of the Exploding Fist, Yie Ar Kung Fu, Buggy Boy, Alleykat, Clumsy Colin all of these games showed off particular strengths and weaknesses of a truly fascinating and brilliant computer's capabilities.
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