What 16k games should I try?

[matburton]

A while ago I picked up a 16K memory expansion for my VIC20 (PAL).
(It's one of the Vixen ones with the switches)

However I haven't since taken the time to look for what games that now allows me to try.

Any suggestions on what I should give a go?
The games don't be to be good; different or interesting in some way is just as fun!

Note that I only have a C2N tape drive.

[Mayhem]

Bongo for sure.

[Vic20-Ian]

Star Defence - try it on normal and high speed mode.
- Function key F3 controls this at title screen I think - toggles a sound effect High speed is awesome

Laser Zone - 2 ship control

Matrix - great spin on Centipede

Hell Gate - 4 ship control

ACE - Jet flight sim, pretty good

Jetpac - multi level platform / shooter

Myriad - multi wave shooter

Wargames - from the movie

Omega Race - cart image - arcade conversion - Great

Jelly Monsters - cart image - Pacman clone

Choplifter- cart image

Berzerk MMX+ - Arcade conversion with speech

[Mayhem]

Most of those are not 16k (they are 8k) hence why I didn't say them

[beamrider]

Note that I only have a C2N tape drive.

Assuming you have a way of transferring games to tape?

[Vic20-Ian]

Most of those are not 16k (they are 8k) hence why I didn't say them

16k ram pack was an enabler not a constraint.

I just picked my favourite expanded games that work with 16k ram pack.

[Ola H]

Bongo is a pretty special game and a great choice for a 16k game but I find it infuriatingly difficult on Vice, playing with keyboard or gamepad (even worse IMO). On a real Vic 20 with a responsive joystick, it is much more enjoyable. My hi score from the 80s seem to be 36 000 if I can trust my old notes. (My notes actually say "circa 36 000" for both me and my brother so there is something fishy about it)

Other great 16k games are Sword of Fargoal and Tomb of Drewan. The latter is my favorite Vic rpg and is very large and complex for a Vic 20 game.

Same goes for Submarine Commander - astoundingly impressive in all respects and good fun

Zok's Kingdom is a fun arcade adventure - one of very few on the Vic.

Pharaoh's Curse is a fantastic shoot-and-jump platformer. And Wunda Walter, though a simple game, has unique style and great graphical variation.

These are all available om tape.

[matburton]

Thanks everyone Sorry about the slow reply, life's a bit crazy.

Assuming you have a way of transferring games to tape?

He he well since you asked, here's how I transfer to tape:

1. I take the .tap file and put it through a windows program so it's in Amiga colour clock timings
2. I take that file to my Amiga 500 where it modulates those timings via the parallel port
3. I have that connected via a XM1541 cable to my C64 and load tapserv from tape
4. Wait, and then from there I can just pop the tape in the C2N for the Vic 20

Yeh it's convoluted but it was fun coming up with that and so far it's worked every time

[javierglez]

16k
Manic Miner
Skramble
Moons of Jupiter (nice movements, similar to Asteroids)
Fourth Enconter (Galaxian style)
Xeno 2 (Jupiter Lander style)
8k
Tank Commander (I keep the original tape, but I don't know how to describe)
Skyhawk (nice graphics, Defender-like)
Cosmic Firebirds (Galaxian clone)
Carts
Qutworld (nice graphics)
Monster Maze (3D)

Ian already listed it but I double down on Myriad, it's very good

[joshuadenmark]

Pulse is my absolute favorite - By Sven Michael Klose (aka Pixel)

[matburton]

Thanks for all the suggestions. I'm in the process of making a Mixtape from the ones I could find and get working.

Am I right in thinking I can't play any of the cartridge games despite having enough RAM as I'd need RAM in bank $A000?

I found two others, Nibbler (3k) and Arukanoido (the 16k demo version).
I'm hoping I can play Arukanoido with the NEOS mouse.

Pulse is my absolute favorite - By Sven Michael Klose (aka Pixel)

Well this is an interesting one!

At first I thought it was taking forever to load, but then when I pressed fire the tape stopped and the game started.
So I tried again and this time stopped the tape and the slash screen music stopped.

So it seams the game is streaming music data from tape!?!
(It's a shame the music is a short loop, I would have been blown away quicker otherwise)

Are there any other games or demos that stream from tape like this, on any tape based platform?
(I've always wondered why on other platforms, where the tape audio was connected to the system audio, there was no game music put on tapes)

[Mike]

Am I right in thinking I can't play any of the cartridge games despite having enough RAM as I'd need RAM in bank $A000?

This.

Most RAM expansions can be modded to place their RAM in a different position (BLK5 instead of BLK2, for example), but then of course you lose that memory for BASIC use.

Note that I only have a C2N tape drive.

You really should consider buying at least a SD2IEC drive. There are a lot of nice games around, which require 16K and a disk drive. VICtoria, for example, is disk-only because it is multi-file and loads files from disk as needed. You simply can't do this kind of programs with tape.

[orion70]

You really don't want to miss VICtoria, which is the one and only God game set in ancient Rome for our beloved breadbin, with a wonderful colour map of the known world and one the best splash/intro screens ever