BEST EVER VIC 20 GAMES

The Cheese · Post by **The Cheese** » Tue May 24, 2005 1:18 pm

Hello to everyone. I've recently discovered this messageboard, but have had my Vic 20 since Oct 1982 and still use it regularly. I don't know if I am typical of the others who may read this, but I have about 150 - 200 different tape games plus about 40 cartridges. From what I gather in countries other than the UK the ratio of cartridge to tape games is almost the opposite of my totals.

Anyway for the benefit of anyone who is curious here is my list of the BEST VIC 20 GAMES ever sold. These are all UK games so some of you may not have heard of them, or may know them by different manufacturers or something. But trust me they are all outstanding in their field...

Best version of Defender - Star Defender - Anirog
Best version of Scramble - Skramble - Anirog
Best version of Pacman - Jelly Monsters cartridge - Commodore
Best version of Frogger - Jumpin' Jack - Sumlock
Best version of Space Invaders - Alien Blitz - Audiogenic
Best platform game - Pharoah's Curse - HES
Best flight simulator - ACE - Cascade
Best adventure - Mission Impossible cartridge - Commodore
Best alien zapper - Myriad - Rabbit
Best simulation game - Submarine Commander - Creative Sparks
Best Educational game - Alphabet Zoo - HES
Best use of multicolour graphics - Spiders of Mars - Audiogenic [everything changes colour every second level]
Best use of unexpanded memory - Rockman - Mastertronic and RIP - Mastertronic [joint winners]
Best use of expanded screen - Bongo - Anirog
Best use of sound effects - Wunda Walter! - Interceptor Micro's
Most different loading screens before game starts - Mega Vault - Imagine [there are 7]
Best loading screen - Mower Mania - Acme [it plays a tune AND has a stripey border while game loads]
Hardest game to master - Hell Gate - Llamasoft
Most addictive game - Bonzo - Audiogenic [just try quitting before beating the round with 4 monsters chasing you]

And I would give honourable mentions to the following 10 other games that I couldn't fit into the categories above...

Snake Bite - Firebird
Matrix - Llamasoft
Vicmen - Bug Byte
The Perils of Willy - Software Projects
Chariot Race - Micro Antics
Arcadia - Imagine
Asteroids - Bug Byte
Pinball Spectacular cartridge - Commodore
Shamus - HES
Jetpac - Ultimate Play The Game

These games have all been through thousands of hours of play testing over the years by myself and stand out as the best of the best. Would anyone like to see a list of my high scores by the way..??

Schlowski · Post by **Schlowski** » Wed May 25, 2005 12:53 am

Yes! Another Bonzo maniac

Those where the days...

Boray · Post by **Boray** » Wed May 25, 2005 2:55 am

What? No Omega Race????

Boray · Post by **Boray** » Wed May 25, 2005 3:00 am

But welcome anyway!

/Anders

The Cheese · Post by **The Cheese** » Wed May 25, 2005 11:15 am

Boray wrote:What? No Omega Race????

Omega Race was good, but I never felt I could truely master it. I remember getting sore fingers after a while from using the standard Commodore joystick which didn't have an autofire option. My highscore was 149800 by the way - don't know how that rates in the scheme of things.

I loved the way you could bring up 2 secret pages of instructions by pressing the right combination of keys though. And couldn't you change the screen colours too to have for example white mines on a white background.

Schema · Post by **Schema** » Wed May 25, 2005 12:02 pm

The Cheese wrote:I loved the way you could bring up 2 secret pages of instructions by pressing the right combination of keys though.

I hadn't heard of this before, any details?

And couldn't you change the screen colours too to have for example white mines on a white background.

Yellow mines on red or cyan screen for maximum psychadelia

fgasking · Post by **fgasking** » Sun Jun 05, 2005 8:22 am

I love Omega Race!.... the first game I played on the Vic 20, and far far better than the C64 version! I recently dug out some old audio tapes that I made with friends as a child, and there's bits on there with me and my old best friend playing Omega Race and going a bit hyperactive over it!

Other games I loved on the Vic 20 were...

Skramble (Terminal Software version!)
Jelly Monsters
Wanda Walta
Forbidden Forest (Atlantis)
Hellgate
Chariot Races

Its strange that pretty much anything Vic 20 wise I used to love. I felt that simple games in Basic fared much better than on the C64 too... something to do with the "chunkyness" of the machine in every sound, graphical and feel aspect

raziel73 · Post by **raziel73** » Sat Jul 23, 2005 11:59 am

i think Trout by Sirius Soft is the best eva......definitively a great game!
actually i havent a vic20 anymore

Plz....where i can find this game?....maybe i could use the rom with an emulator

but i cant find this game nowhere......

fgasking i have da same feelin of yours 'bout vic 20 graphix &sounds compared to the 64 ones....

ps

xscuse me for my defective eng...am italian!

ak199 · Post by **ak199** » Thu Jul 28, 2005 9:14 am

How about:

Best Multiplayer Game?
ARTILLERY DUEL - XONOX

Best Text Adventure? (The best kind of games for a Vic, IMO)
PIRATES COVE - SCOTT ADAMS (It was tough for a 5th grader!!)

carlsson · Post by **carlsson** » Thu Jul 28, 2005 10:16 am

Is Pirate's Cove more playable than the other four in the adventure series? Considering the few columns on screen, I'm not sure text games at all are VIC's strength. On the other hand, I don't know if there is one particular strength - maybe simple arcade games without too demanding colours and graphics.

vic user · Post by **vic user** » Thu Jul 28, 2005 10:39 am

PIRATES COVE - SCOTT ADAMS (It was tough for a 5th grader)

i agree, it's a good one.

i like adventureland as well, and would like to try voodoo castle some day.

the count drives me nuts, and i have come no where near defeating that game.

Is Pirate's Cove more playable than the other four in the adventure series? Considering the few columns on screen, I'm not sure text games at all are VIC's strength.

they all use the same format, IIRC.

i know i have discussed this with you before Anders (perhaps on the vintage comp. forum) but the colour scheme for the scott adams adventures drives me nuts. i find some of the colours used, make the text very hard to read.

chris

carlsson · Post by **carlsson** » Thu Jul 28, 2005 10:47 am

Ayep. By "playable", I mean if it is better atmosphere, more logical steps to take. The engine is the same, and unless I am mistaken, the same engine and colours but with other line length is used on the early C64 versions. While I'm not sure if Commodore released Scott Adams' early adventures on cartridge for the 64, I believe there are at least two or three different editions of the same adventures.

I suppose the colour coding was meant to distinguish input from output, locations from items and so on, but it may just as well have been omitted.

ak199 · Post by **ak199** » Fri Jul 29, 2005 9:42 am

The 40 column display was never an issue for me
when I played Scott Adams games. Probably
because I never knew anything else, the Vic was
my first computer. Anyway, 40 columns is way
more than enough for text. Case in point - Text
Messaging on cell phones, newspaper columns
and this very paragraph itself. I liked the colors
too, I miss seeing that cyan on white.

Voodoo Castle was the very first game I ever won. Pirates Cove was next. But The Count, good lord, it was so difficult, I THINK we finally beat it, because I remember being in the room with dracula in the coffin about to stake him. The trick was you only had a limited number of moves to do it. I climbed down that damn window so many times!! ARGGHH!!! I can still visualize being in the stove and the dumb waiter.

Adventureland was great, too. Again, for a 5th grader, these games were very challenging. My friend had a vic with the same games and we put our heads together to solve them. I could never find the other Scott Adams games though, probably because by 1985-86, they were out of totally out of print.

carlsson · Post by **carlsson** » Fri Jul 29, 2005 2:50 pm

But the VIC-20 defaults to 22 columns, not 40..

AFAIK, there were a total of at least 13 adventures(*) in the Adventure International series, of which the first five were available in cartridge form for the VIC-20. AI ranked them in difficulty as follows:

1. ADVENTURELAND: Moderate
2. PIRATE COVE/ADVENTURE: Beginner
3. MISSION IMPOSSIBLE: Advanced
4. VOODOO CASTLE: Moderate
5. THE COUNT: Moderate
6. STRANGE ODYSSEY: Moderate
7. THE MYSTERY FUN HOUSE: Moderate
8. PYRAMID OF DOOM: Moderate
9. GHOST TOWN: Advanced
10. SAVAGE ISLAND PART 1: Advanced
11. SAVAGE ISLAND PART 2: Advanced
12. GOLDEN VOYAGE: Advanced
13. SORCERER OF CLAYMORGUE CASTLE: Advanced

As per December 1984, AI themselves offered the adventures to the following computers:

S.A.G.A. Apple II 48K or Atari disk: 1-6, 13
Atari 400/800 48K tape: 1-13
Commodore 64 or Plus/4 disk: 13
Commodore 64 tape: 1-4
Texas Instruments: 1-12, 14 (!)
CoCo 16K tape: 1-13
TRS-80 Model I & III 32K disk: 1-13 (in packs of three adventures)
Northstar Horizon CP/M disk: 1-12 (in packs of three adventures)
TRS-80 Model II or CP/M disk: 1-12 (one package of eight disks)
IBM: 13

I wonder if the data format is the same between different ports, and if it would be possible to extract the data from e.g. an Atari game and link it with the game engine to play other adventures. I suppose everything is tightly bound, at least on the 16K cartridge form.

(*) Excluding the Buckaroo Banzai adventure and the illustrated Questprobe adventures in cooperation with Marvel comics; The Hulk, Spiderman and Fantastic Four. Apparently they were planning a total of 12 adventures in this series too but AI went out of business or so at the time for the fourth (X-Men) adventure.

vic user · Post by **vic user** » Sun Jul 31, 2005 4:14 pm

thanks for the list anders!

Ayep. By "playable", I mean if it is better atmosphere, more logical steps to take.

for me, pirate's cove seems to let you wander around a bit before any dicey encounters, so it lets me get mt feet wet in the game.

it was rated as beginner in that ranking you supplied, and that seems to fit with what i just wrote above.

off to see if gamebase 20 has those other adventures

chris

p.s.

i tried the rom for voodoo castle supplied in the gamebase 20, and it acts odd (and umplayable) in vice and on a real vic for me.

anyone else encounter this?

chris