Software
Although
the C64 supported a wide variety of business and productivity
software, such as Broderbund’s The Print Shop desktop
publishing package and Microsoft’s Multiplan spreadsheet
program, the game library is what brought most users to the system.
With such a huge library of commercial and public domain games
available, C64 owners had access to every conceivable genre. Even
when games originated on other systems, the C64 ports tended to
contain graphics and sound enhancements only available on the
platform.
“We were fresh out of ideas for whatever chips the rest of the
world might want us to do. So we decided to produce state-of-the-art
video and sound chips for the world’s next great video game.” --
Albert Charpentier, as quoted by Ian Matthews in “The Commodore 64:
The Machine of Destiny” on the Commodore.ca website
Even
into the early 1990s, long after the C64 and other 8-bit computers
were rendered technically obsolete by 16-bit machines like the Atari
ST and the Commodore Amiga, several major game developers continued
to offer scaled-down ports of their games for the system, like
Capcom’s Street
Fighter II (1992) arcade fighting game and Ocean’s
The Addams Family
(1992) platformer. Of course, there are still games being made by
independent developers for the system today, particularly in Eastern
Europe.
Accolade
pushed the audio-visual capabilities of the Commodore 64 as well as
any publisher, with classics like Test Drive (1987) and the games
from the pictured box backs, Psi 5 Trading Co. (1985) and Hardball!
(1985)
One
reason the C64 was able to endure for so long is somewhat
paradoxical. The longer software developers have to learn a
particular platform, the more likely they are to find innovative ways
to harness its power -- to pull off feats that the hardware engineers
never dreamed were possible. This phenomenon is demonstrated on the
C64, where many early games like Commodore’s Wizard
arcade
clone, Sirius Software’s The
Blade of Blackpoole text
and graphics adventure, and Broderbund’s
Choplifter! action
game, all released in 1982, look almost
childishly simplistic compared to Core Design’s Chuck
Rock or Thalamus’ Creatures
2: Torture Trouble platformers,
both released in 1992.
Datasoft
not only supported the Commodore 64 with licensed classics like
action platformer, Bruce Lee (1984), which featured an innovative two
player mode, but also with little known games like the Joust-inspired
racer, Mancopter (1984), shown via direct screen capture
Perhaps the most visually stunning C64 game
of all time was platformer Mayhem
in Monsterland, released in 1993 by Apex Computer
Productions. Mayhem in
Monsterland was so artfully programmed that some
gamers felt it could pass for a 16-bit console game.
Electronic
Arts released a wide range of software for the platform, including
their famous customization and construction set titles, including
Adventure Construction Set (1984), Mail Order Monsters (1985), Racing
Destruction Set (1985) and Pinball Construction Set (1983), box backs
pictured
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The system even had some amazing music with digitized sound. (Something that the hardware was not designed to support, but programmers found a way. (Meanwhile the NES couldn't even do it!) Meanwhile, the Apple and IBM computers could only display monochrome, or if you could afford the graphics card, 8 really ugly colors .
And 17 million sold worldwide? Wrong! Initially they had 17 million in sales in North America when it was popular. It continued to sell. In its lifetime they sold over 30 million worldwide.