Denial

I have a hopeless dream that one day I'll buy a copy of Retro Gamer and find a complete VIC-20 Collector's Guide within its pages.

In the standard Collector's Guide format, there's a section titled "PAL Games You Need to Own" which gives an extensive list of all the top games on the computer/console along with a colour code system to classify the different levels of rarity.

I thought it would be a fun exercise to determine which VIC-20 games should be included in such a list; there's plenty to choose from out of tape, cartridge and homebrew and it should be quite a challenge to pick out the games that provide a definitive VIC experience.

I'll start things off with a few classics and other people can just chime in with different suggestions/opinions:

Gridrunner
Traxx
Blitz
Jetpac
Jelly Monsters
Raid on Fort Knox
Keyquest
Garden Wars
Omega Race
TenTen
Berzerk MMX
Realms of Quest III

It's a lot more feasible with consoles, for the obvious reason that the entire release catalogue is a) known and b) smaller

I'd certainly love to produce something like that, but sadly it isn't likely to be feasible. However, in terms of games to play, did you miss issue #46? I wrote a hardware guide for the machine, and listed ten games you must play in a two page spread at the end. You might find the old thread where I canvassed ideas and opinion about that still here on Denial.

Oh, a quick search, here we go: http://sleepingelephant.com/ipw-web/bul ... php?t=2284

Mayhem wrote: did you miss issue #46?

Before my time .

I've got the PDF for the issue, I'll send it your way...

I'm always surprised that Avenger is omitted from so many "best of" lists for the VIC. It's a stunning Space Invaders clone for 1981 and still impressive in 2013.

The Atari 2600 version is still a great port for its time, however I think VIC Avengers is even better. The first time I saw it my mouth literally dropped open...

It's not bad, the Commodore MAX version is better though imo...

Mayhem wrote:I've got the PDF for the issue, I'll send it your way...

Thanks. That would be a great help .

akator wrote:I'm always surprised that Avenger is omitted from so many "best of" lists for the VIC. It's a stunning Space Invaders clone for 1981 and still impressive in 2013.

The Atari 2600 version is still a great port for its time, however I think VIC Avengers is even better. The first time I saw it my mouth literally dropped open...

I only discovered it the other day when it was mentioned in RGs article on Space Invaders. I've been playing Alien Blitz quite a lot lately which is a good clone if you discount the colour scheme (yellow border, blue background, white sprites and text).

From memory Krell is an interesting variant also but not pure Invaders

I really like Invaders by Livewire, it plays a fast game and looks a lot like the originial SI. Impressive for unexpanded machine. I also really like the cover art

ridgerunner wrote:I really like Invaders by Livewire, it plays a fast game and looks a lot like the originial SI. Impressive for unexpanded machine. I also really like the cover art

Invaders is on the Mega Cart. Livewire are the same people who made Beast of Eden, which is quite surprising given how different the two games are. Beast of Eden also has great cover art IMO.