The Commodore 64 - The King of 8 Bit Computer Games.

There is no doubt that this was the ultimate 8 bit home computer. It had the best sound, the best graphics in terms of scrolling and sprite capability and the huge software collection made it the best selling home computer.

The home computer was so successful especially in Europe that Commodore kept putting back it's discontinuation date due its demand. Even today, there is still a large fan base with some Eastern Manufacturers making clones of the machine and recently Nintendo started to introduce some of it's games on their online download service.

8 Bit Wars - Spectrum vs Amstrad vs Commodore.

The 8 Bit-era was just simply the best time for home computing. No virus, no booting and no online updates. It was also the era where you knew that if you have the skills you could program a game in the comfort of your bedroom. Nowadays, you have to spend so much money on a computer and the cost of development is absolutely astronomical!

The computers back then were the Spectrum, Amstrad and the Commodore 64. The Spectrum had the cheapest games and were the most playable since the graphics couldn't compete with the other two.

The Amstrad had better graphics than the Spectrum and the sound capabilities could not compete with the Commodore 64. However, when it came to the graphics it had a better palette than the Commodore and most of the software were available on a disk.

The Commodore 64 trounced the other two when it came to sound capabilities and the games had very smooth scrolling which both the Spectrum and the Amstrad seemed to struggle with.

What was interesting about the the three computers was the fact they each had very unique set of buyers. The Spectrum for the those on a budget, the Amstrad for those who needed business applications and the Commodore for those who could afford one.

Operation Wolf - Amstrad Action

This was simply an awesome game. It was the best version amongst the 8 bit trio.
It had the most colors and the action was non stop. The music was fantastic and created enough atmosphere to feel like you wanted to shoot some 8 bit pixellated enemy soldiers.

So what can you do? You can shoot dangerous animals so they can drop useful items. You can shoot helicopters, tanks, soldiers and throw grenades. What you can't do is shoot civilians and hostages as they will deplete your energy.

An absolutely stonking conversion of the original arcade machine!

Vectrex - Overlay Graphics

Never got to play this game machine until last week when I went over to my friends house and his brother had one in the garage. I told him to boot it up and amazingly it worked. I was so impressed with the vector graphics and what was even more impressive was the fact that it came with these card overlays that you put over the screen to act as the background graphics.

Mr Driller - Nintendo DS

This was a great game on the Nintendo DS. You drill down colorful blocks until you reach the bottom and along the way you must replenish your air supply.

What was great about this game was the fact that the game uses both screens rather than using one just as a menu or background. However, the presentation is not very well designed as it uses a bland color scheme compared to the in game graphics.

I also like the fact that every time you complete a level you not only get to challenge the next level, you also get points so you can upgrade your character. Talking about characters, after you complete a number of levels you also get different characters, each with different powers and special features.

This game is great to play for 5 minutes or for 30 minutes and you rarely have to use your brain which in my book is a good thing if your just taking a break or wasting time.

Konix Speed King - Best Joystick since the Kempston.

When the Kempston broke it was time for a new joystick and this is the one alternative above all else. This had great reviews and was the one of the joysticks to have. What was different about this joystick was that it had no suction cups and you had to hold it in your hand. The joystick's directional mechanism had a nice clickety clickety sound and was very responsive, except when you played games such as fighting games which require you to do quarter and half turns. It was a nightmare. But then fighting games back then were terrible anyway.

The Kempston Joystick - 7 Directional controls

This was simply the joystick to get back then. The autofire button, the pilot type grip and the suction cups at the bottom. It just made games even better, well compared to using the "a","z", "op" and "space bar" keys. There were many Kempston joysticks but the best one was the Kempston Quickshot. In fact most of the games had to be Quickshot compatible to work.

If only they didn't break so quickly. Well, what I mean is the 8 directional movement became 7, then 8, then 7 again, then 7 and a half if I pushed it hard enough.

Still, what a grip!

Roland in Time - Dr. Who?

This was a game that confirmed something that I have always known. I am just hopeless at platform games. Where people would rave about Jet Set Willy and Super Mario games, I was struggling with this game called Roland in Time. It was one of the those games that came with the 6128 on a 3 inch disk. I kept loading it because it was one of the first games on a 3 inch disk.

It had this Dr. Who title screen that warped when you started the game. The graphics were awful and the controls were too stiff. The enemies didn't seem to interest me and overall it was not pretty or enjoyable enough to even perservere with. I mean, there are some games, where you just keep going just to see what the next level is going to be like, not this game however.

Seabase delta - Wooosh! Beep!

Seabase delta

This was just a brilliant game. It was very atmospheric and I liked the underwater feeling and I loved the fact that it actually had sound effects. It was also one of the first interactive fiction typing games that actually had graphics that made it so immersively captivating, rather than just obligatory pretty pictures.

I really wanted to complete this game and even to this day, I still do and it's one of the few interactive fiction games where the parser is not too difficult, and the puzzles do seem logical compared to other games, which were absolutely nonsensical.

Amstrad CPC 6128 - 16 Colors and a Built in Disk Drive? Get Out of Here!

I was first exposed to this awesome computer when my father bought it from a garage sale. It came with a few games and I remembered my father telling me how he used to own a previous version and actually rented games on tape through a mail order company.

I remember going through some games looking only for movie titles and game compilations, some only came in tape form which wasn't what I was looking for.

Anyway, this was a sleek machine with a cool built in 3" disk drive which you have to switch sides to use up the full capacity. The disk was awesome and solid, none of the flimsy 5.25 inches or 3.5 inch type. This was hardcore.

The graphics were great even though it had 16 colors. However, I must admit some games were just bad ports from other 8bit computers and so sometimes used only 4 colors. It was also one of the few computers that had 80 column character displays. That was impressive back then.

What sets this computer apart from the rest is the fact that it had a built in disk drive and a matching monitor that was sold as a bundle.