The Def Guide to Zzap!64

Ok..... so we all have mega nifty super computers the likes of which the Zzap team could only have imagined in a silicon fuelled nerdy wet dream all those years ago.... and yet the spirit and excitement of the 8 bit era has gone

Is it because of all the in game movies, sound tracks, amazing animation and totally realised worlds???

I reckon it might be....... looking back at Mercenary, Tau Ceti, Elite, Paradroid, Fractalus, Impossible Mission etc... back then imagination played a big part, we created our own pictures for these games and filled out the worlds ourselves. Maybe this made them more personal to us.

yes, i totally agree. In memories of playing Elite 20 years ago i can see the marking and damage on the ships and i can hear the orchastra play when the docking computer is turned on... filling in the gaps yourself makes it more realistic than any computer can... but that does not mean i dont like playing the new games... i mean we could never have imagined Quake 4 on the C64... the one thing that really shocks me though about going back and booting up the old games is the pay area... i mean, look at errr... say, Uridium... the sound and graphics are exactly as i remember them... but damn... has the pay area shrunk or WHAT!! I would have bet a hundred quid that it filled the screen in 1986! I got even more of a shock with Ant Attack on the specky... it was only 6 inches wide on my 50" plasma!

Gameplay had to be "purer" back then, for two reasons - limited memory and limited control methods.

Something else to bear in mind is that back then, home videogames were new. This generates an excitement of its own, which can never be matched by subsequent generations, however much more power they offer.

And let's be honest - we were more forgiving then. Imagine a platformer of today which locked you in an endless loop of unavoidable deaths if you left a screen by the wrong route, forcing you to watch as you lost life after life until it was Game Over. It would be crucified, wouldn't it? Yet Jet Set Willy is considered a classic...

I think the main reason is that back in the C64 heyday everything was new and we'd keep seeing games doing things we never dreamed possible. Now, with consoles being as powerful as they are, the sense of wonder has gone.

Having said that, my Nintendo Wii has gone some way to capturing that pioneering spirit.

Yeah, that's all true.

And i suppose the Playstation had that air of "new-ness" when it came out..... but nothing has overtaken my C64 memories.


Ah...... nostalgia has a lot to answer for.

nope it's because you're all older. Kids get just as much pleasure out of their games now as I did with mine.