Apologies for my absence folks. I could make up some sort of plausable excuse regarding work, but anyone who read my 'Life & How Not To Live It' post a while back wouldn't be fooled for a moment. I could also give the usual 'family commitments' BS. No, instead I shall tell you the truth of the matter. I have been consumed by the desire to download as many old Commodore 64 computer games as possible. While my Playstation siezes up with rust and dust through lack of use, I'm merrily bashing away at games that were made between 15 and 25 years ago for a now obselete system. Early mid-life crisis? Possibly, but fuck it! I'm having fun............
A few things I've observed;
- The music!! It's amazing............It's something I never really thought about as a spotty young Herbert, but considering what they were operating with, the soundtracks for some games are astounding. All hail SID
- The one hassle with downloading these old games is that they've had 'intro's' tacked onto the front of them by various gangs of 'code crackers'. Boring!
- You have to re-think how you relate to the games. Some of them wouldn't look out of place today, but others have dated very badly and whilst still fun to play, you can't help but sneer at their quaintness. Racing games are worst for this. The cars sound like dying wasps and often the sense of movement is dreadful, like driving a tractor on the M8.
- My suspicions have been confirmed. The Spectrum really was a hopeless pile of shite! Monochrome hell and laughable attribute clash. You'd have more fun with a pencil and a piece of paper.
- I don't miss tape multi-loads. Can you imagine that nowadays? Load a game, then load the first level, play it, get killed, then have to rewind the tape, re-load the intro screen, then start the whole fandango again. All told, about half an hour of 'fun'. I used to do it, usually through gritted teeth, mainly because I'd just shelled out a tenner for the bloody game. I was gonna get my money's worth, even if it meant I had to play all night to get as far as level 2.
I have heard that Nintendo intend to allow emulation of old C64 games on the Wii. Mind you, they're charging about £4 quid per download, which is more than many old Commodore games ever sold for in the first place. Theres money to be made from old rope, don't you know..........
Songs of the summer No4: Say Yes - Elliot Smith
