Your first ‘Micro’ will stay forever…
Marco Breddin
In 1984, I got the Commodore 64 as a Christmas present. I knew about it weeks in advance because I had found out where it was hidden in the apartment. So I climbed a ladder onto the cupboard and marvelled at the computer as often as I could. I still remember how much I was attracted by the colour palette on the packaging. And I literally thought: anything must be possible with this!
Together with a school friend, I worked with Koala Painter and used the joystick to make all the little windows light up in our version of ‘Battlestar Galactica’.
It didn't take long for us to realise that this machine was more fun to play with, and we became fierce competitors in the seemingly endless matches and tournaments of International Soccer and Leader Board Golf.
My first MicroComputer turned out to be a gaming oasis that, in retrospect, still fascinates me today. I associate my first C64 experiences with Pitfall!, Frogger, Impossible Mission, Little Computer People, Ghostbusters, BC’s Quest for Tires, and Congo Bongo. All this took place in a children’s room made of light-coloured wood, where the desire for a larger expedition remained rather limited.
Congo Bongo is considered the isometric Donkey Kong – there’s no way around the ape.
Fortunately, I was able to get hold of a stack of new disks from the dark cellars in our area, which significantly brightened up my adventures in computer life.
Accolade’s Law of the West whetted my appetite for cinematic Westerns. Ocean’s atmospheric Wizball got me into multiplayer gaming. I only wanted to play Domark’s Friday the 13th in the dark with the CRT turned up. The beautifully packaged Electronic Arts adventure Seven Cities of Gold finally drew me into a week-long gaming frenzy of exploring and conquering the ‘New World’, which was successfully continued in Ozark’s Heart of Africa.
Game design at the time was so special because it explored and opened up previously unknown areas, both physical and digital, for players and the gaming industry.
Intro, story and dialogues have made you a tough duellist in the Wild West.
The art of story and packaging as well as the more complex concept could drive you to week-long expeditions into new worlds.
Whatever today’s kids say, this “open world” was as captivating as it could possibly be.
Ready. Almost.
Microzeit is now in a position to produce a unique series of books on the history of such groundbreaking C64 games from 1982 to 1985. Starting with developments in the US and Japan, we will cover Europe and Canada in Volume 2.
The story of ?REDO FROM START will fill two comprehensive hardcover volumes with everlasting C64 magic. And it is almost ready to be published.
However, all these memories are represented by 64 game designers and publishers who lived and breathed this formative computer era and who are responsible for perhaps the most beautiful childhood memories of the ‘breadbox children’.
