Celebrating the weirdest, toughest, and worst Commodore 64 games that we loved to hate

Following up from Graeme Mason’s book ZX Nightmares about the worst games on the Spectrum this title covers the worst of the worst on the Commodore 64 including a lot of titles best left consigned to the garbage dump of history and for good reason! The dirty little secret of retro gaming as a lot of the games people are actually collecting are not to actually be played as they were terrible back in the day too!

There has been some criticism that this leans too much on the original reviews from ZZAP64 but that is what the original source is most of the time and also what the publishers have the rights to. I did get find out about some games I have never heard of and also some concepts that were attempted way before the technology was ready like procedurally generated games and games using AI that did not work at the time.

This is something that you are meant to dip in and out of as everything being negative can grate after a while. It is also a counterpoint to people who say games these days are “all crap” they weren’t too much better back then! Also we did not have the internet and easily shareable reviews. The gaming magazines would take 3 or 4 months to arrive by boat from the UK often several months after your birthday or Christmas when you got the actual game that turned out to be crappy.

I did end up sharing some of reviews with some people I know even someone who worked at one of the developers, he swore that was before his time. A likely story! Actually Double Dragon by Melbourne House on the Atari 2600 was the very last “new” Atari game I got for my birthday in 1990. There was a game featured that was made in 2020 in this book too so new games are still being made at least.

It is more niche of a title but if you already have an interest in retro gaming and particular the 8bit era and UK gaming development I would recommend it.

Rating: 3/5

Book details:

Author: Andrew Fisher

Cover and book design: Steve Day

Format: Colour, hard cover, A5, 274 pages

Publisher: Fusion Retro Books

Published: June 7, 2024

ISBN: 9781739400941

Contents:

Introduction

Loathsome Licences

Patience of a Saint

They Did WHAT?!

Simply Awful

Acknowledgements

Games Featured:

3D Stock Cars II, 4 Soccer Simulators, ’43: One Year After, Aaargh!, Afterburner (European version), Aftermath, American Tag-Team Wrestling, Beach-Buggy Simulator, Betrayal, Big Trouble in Little China, Bionic Granny, Blip Video Classics, Blood Valley, Bob Winner, Boing!, Booty, Brian Bloodaxe, Captain Dynamo, Caverns of Eriban, China Miner, Chubby Gristle, Circus Circus, Cisco Heat, Clever And Smnart, Cobra, Con-Quest, Cops ‘N’ Robbers, Cosmic Force, Cover Girl Strip Poker, Crazy Paving, Dandy, Defcom, Devasting Blow, Diamond, Dick Tracy, Dickie’s Diamonds, Di’s Baby, Double Dragon, Enduro Racer, Explorer, Fighting Soccer, Final Fight, Fist Fighter, Friday the 13th, Fruit Machine Simulator, Further Adventures of Alice in Wonderland, Gazza’s Super Soccer, Geoff Capes Strongman Challenge, Gertie Goose, Goshawk, Grange Hill, Grid Iron II, Groovy Garden, Gun.Smoke, Gunboat, Hard Drivin’, Highlander, Hoodoo Voodoo, Hopper Copper, Howard the Duck, Hunchback at the Olympics, Hyber Biker, Imhotep, Inspector Gadget, Jail Break, Jimmy’s Super League, Judge Dredd, Karnov, Kee Enfield: Tournament of Death, Kentucky Racing, Knight Racer, Laurel & Hardy, Lazer Tag, Los Angeles SWAT, Macadam Bumper, Mandroid, Micro MUD, Milk Race, Mountie Mick’s Death Ride, Mr Mephisto, Mr Wino, Ninja, Ninja Master, Nutcraka, Ollo I & II, Paste-Man Pat, Pink Panther, Popeye 3: Wrestle Crazy, Pro Golf, Psycastria, Purple Turtles, Road Warrior, Robobolt, Rogue, Room Ten, Roy of the Rovers, Sabotage, Samurai Trilogy, Shackled, Snap Dragon, Snooker & Pool, Soccer Challenge, Speed Zone, Sporting Triangles, Spy’s Demise & The Spy Strikes Back!, Street Machine, Strike!, Striker, Sub Battle Simulator, Super G-Man, Super Gran, Super Tolley, TechnoCop, Terrorpods, The Double, The Faery Tale Adventure, The Search For The Secret of Life, Thundercross, Time Fighter, Top Fuel Challenge, Turbo Esprit, Vectorball, Wanderer, Web Dimension, Werner, Who Framed Roger Rabbit?, Xybots

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