1. According to the Guinness Book of World Records, what is the highest-selling home computer of all time?
2. Which machine boasts the greatest number of videogames ever released?
3. On which platform did industry giants Electronic Arts, Activision and Lucasfilm cut their videogaming teeth?
Okay, pens down. Swap papers. Here are the answers:
1. The Commodore 64
2. The Commodore 64
3. The Commodore 64
Nobody seems exactly sure how many C64s were shifted during its lifetime - estimates vary from as few as 12 million to as many as 30 million. However, what is agreed upon is that the Commodore 64 sold more units than any home computer before or since. Of course, some of these were employed in activates such as word processing and home accounting but the vast, vast majority were used for gaming. Due to its large teenage user base as well as its advanced graphic and sound capabilities, the C64 was essentially a gaming platform and during its lifetime it’s estimated that over 20,000 games were commercially released for it.
Let’s put that 20,000 into context. The massively successful Atari VCS had just over 500 games. The hugely popular Sega MegaDrive hosted less than 1000 games as did the NES and the SNES. Even the biggest selling games console in history – The PlayStation 2 – only saw around 4000 titles commercially released for it. Not only does the C64’s massive games back catalogue dwarf that of other machines, it’s also fair to say that many of the machines that came after the C64 wouldn’t have even existed without the enormous commercial success of the record-breaking Commodore computer.
Yet when I browse through the pages of Retro Gamer these days it’s almost as if the Commodore 64 never existed. Issue 159 contained just a single paragraph about an obscure C64 game called Bandana City, while the latest issue – 161 – contains not one C64 dedicated article. I appreciate that the mag has lots of systems to cover but the C64 remains repeatedly overlooked issue after issue. Surely such a significant machine, which fathered the modern games industry, deserves a little more respect?
In the latest issue Retro Gamer reveals that sales have never been better which leads me to conclude that the disappearance of the C64 from its pages is inevitable. Cover features on console mega franchises such as Mario, Pokemon and Tomb Raider are shifting more issues than ever before so maybe you can’t blame the magazine for producing more of them. Print medium is threatened with extinction so RG needs to do whatever it can to keep the cash coming in. It’s just a shame that it’s at the expense of the C64 (and other 80s 8bit computers which seem to be featuring less and less).
Fortunately, it’s not all doom and gloom on the C64 magazine front though. Fanzines such as Reset and Freeze 64 continue to go from strength to strength with both growing in popularity every issue. Both are brilliant mags created by C64 enthusiasts and produced to an excellent standard. If you haven’t checked them out I urge you to. You can find them here:
Freeze 64 – http://www.freeze64.co.uk
Reset – http://reset.cbm8bit.com/
Well that’s pretty much it for 2016 from me Commrades.
May I wish you an excellent 2017 and remember to keep it 64.
I wholeheartedly agree. Of course, of the 20.000 games released, only a few.thousand at the most are really worth talking about. And they did mention the c64 quite a bit in earlier issues. So for new readers I'd suggest getting the digital releases of older issues...plenty of c64-love there.
ReplyDeleteThanks for your comment - you make some good points. It's true, there was a lot of rubbish released BITD but even a few thousand is a hell of a lot! There is still a massive amount of C64 games uncovered by the magazine. I agree - the earlier issues have much more C64 coverage and I imagine that, as time passes and more systems come under the retro banner, coverage of the older systems will diminish further. That could be why system specific fanzines like Reset and Freeze are growing in popularity. Retro Gamer needs to take heed - as it grows it tries to please all of the people all of the time but in the end satisfies nobody.
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