Commodore 64 Classics

It's not a hard task to conjure up a list of great Commodore 64 games when you're faced with a software library that's reportedly around the 10,000 mark. Between late 1982 and 1993, an almost constant stream of software highlights kept interest in the machine alive long after its logical sell-by date, so it's hardly surprising that the nostalgia value surrounding its finest games still runs high.

No, the really hard hard part about compiling a list of 50 of the most important, popular and timeless C64 game is deciding which ones to leave out, and, believe me, there are at least a hundred other wonderful games that deserve a mention. One day we'll find the time and energy to add all the deserving candidates - but for now, what follows are some of the games that mattered most to us here at Eurogamer, so apologies in advance if your own personal all-time favourites have missed the cut. Chances are, we'll stick them in next time. Start your campaign now, and tell us why you thought they were important. You never know, maybe we simply didn't get around to playing then - like we said, there were a lot of games released on the system, and some just fell by the wayside...

As regards what criteria we used as a selection process for 50 Commodore 64 classics: primarily, no arcade ports - and no ports of games which originated on competing systems (with a few exceptions). Where games were developed in tandem and launched simultaneously on both Spectrum and C64, for example (like Shadowfire, Lords of Midnight or Cybernoid) we chose what we felt to be the best version. So what we've ended up with here is a bunch of great games that have the 64's characteristics stamped all over them - the great SID soundtracks, the unique visual style, and - in many cases - games which relied heavily or exclusively on the disk drive.

Like you, we love the best old C64 games, so we hope you appreciate what we hope will turn into a popular and fast-growing part of Eurogamer. A gaming old folks home if you will...

Watch the video of the top 50 C64 games in action over on Eurogamer TV now.

• Alter Ego
  Second life.
• Armalyte
  I can't believe it's not Arma.
• Ballblazer
  Future sport, retro-style.
• Beach Head
  That's one big head.
• Boulder Dash
  The Rockford Files.
• Bounder
  Better than cad.
• Bounty Bob Strikes Back
  Raging against the machine.
• Bram Stoker's Dracula
  Bloody Hell.
• California Games
  Fun fun fun.
• Creatures
  Clyde Radcliffe Exterminates All The Unfriendly Repulsive Earth-ridden Slime.
• Cybernoid: The Fighting Machine
  Pissed-off robots' in other words.
• Deflektor
  Back when puzzle games were 'too retro'.
• Delta
  Feel the force.
• Emlyn Hughes' International Soccer
  Gentlemen prefer football.
• Frankie Goes To Hollywood
  Relax, it's...
• Hawkeye
  Half-man, half-robot. All good.
• I Ball
  You bat.
• IK+
  Three's a crowd.
• Impossible Mission
  Try not to stay forever.
• Katakis (aka Denaris)
  The real R-Type.
• Kikstart II
  It's got motorbikes in it!
• LaserSquad
  Turn based tactical treats.
• Last Ninja 2
  Final cut.
• Leaderboard
  When golf games got good.
• Little Computer People
  The Sim-ple life.
• Maniac Mansion
  The birth of point and click.
• Mayhem in Monsterland
  The C64's fond farewell.
• Mega Apocalypse
  Sp-Sp-Speedup.
• Mercenary
  Palyars, Mechanoids, and a highly pissed off brother-in-law.
• Microprose Soccer
  Sensible Soccer mk1.
• Mutants
  Psychedelia.
• Nebulus
  Round and round we go.
• Paradroid
  Rise of the robots.
• Parallax
  All the rage in 1986.
• Platoon
  Ocean in good licensed game shock!
• Quedex
  Strange and wonderful.
• Raid Over Moscow
  A point is all that you can score?
• Sanxion
  Non-economic.
• Shadowfire
  Iconic.
• Summer Games II
  Take on me.
• The Great Giana Sisters
  Absolutely no relation to Mario.
• The Rats
  Real-time text adventure strategy? What?
• The Sentinel
  Peek-a-boo.
• Trailblazer
  Southern softie? Hardly.
• Uridium
  Braybrook's finest hour.
• Wasteland
  Mega apocalypse.
• Winter Games
  Don't eat the yellow snow.
• Wizball
  Paint the whole world with a rainbow.
• World Games
  Ep on tour.