IO Longplay (C64) [50 FPS]

[@LaszloPoszmik]

IO was on my first data casette back in 1990. It was so hard to play without cheat and also very frustrating yet i was impressed about the main theme and the overall graphics. As many people mentioned it the end scene was fantastic, i had to beat the game many times (with cheats) just to see the end sequence. Brilliant piece.

[@petrusscott3038]

What an incredible game. I can’t believe that it runs on a 64.

[@SendyTheEndless]

One of my favourite games to play from back in the day.

[@FLCL75]

Exceptional skill on display -- both from the player and the coder! SHMUPs like this, R-Type and Armalyte et al stressed rote memorization. Even with infinite lifes, IO is extremely difficult, but fair. Uncharacteristically for the day, IO also had a cool ending screen, impressive considering the entire game fits into 64 KB of memory - no multiloading. That's why there are only 3 levels and difficulty curve is vertical -- IO doesn't ease you in like R-Type, it was assumed you already beat R-Type in the arcade and were ready for a new challenge on your home system. Finally, I think the enemy jet fighters have the best sprite design.

[@tobiassoderlund7098]

Fantastic little shmup. Completely ruthless during the first few plays but then you realise it is a memorizer, start to see patterns and learn how to deal with the incoming enemies and hazards aswell as powering up. The difficulty curve is somewhat inverted in this one, as it gets easier the further you get simply because you are forced to get good at the game. While wasting tons of lives until reaching the third stage I had learnt so much that I could get through the entire stage on my first try much thanks to the logically placed smart bombs. Also, the Gradius syndrome is absent from this one as it is perfectly doable to get back on track even though losing all power ups after a death. The short lenght, no more than 10 minutes from start to finish, makes it way less frustrating to learn than those long a** shmups which takes forever to beat. One of the best shmups on the C64, indeed.

[@AL82RetrogamingLongplays]

He also did the graphics for Myth, which I definitely did have for my real C64. It's strange because it wasn't until the age of the internet and resources like Lemon64 that these people got the recognition that they deserved, at least not from the average person who bought the game.

[@sjake8308]

Bob Stevenson was amazing. He also worked on the C64 port of Salamander, which was another visual treat.

[@kez69ful]

The C64’s silky smooth scrolling is 2nd to none. Even the Amiga doesn’t pull it off as good! That and the extremely speedy and smooth animation of the enemy craft and great use of colour makes this one of the best looking shmups on any 8 or 16 bit computer. The C64 was made for these kinds of games! ❤

[@stunthumb]

A truly impressive game, slick and looks great. I remember being inspired by this game back in the day, especially with my SEUCK efforts.

[@jorgegarcia3089]

This brings back MEMORIES ...😍😍😍👏👏👏🔥🔥🔥

[@falksturmfels2737]

It took me exactly one week to beat this game back in the days. You have to get through with one live.

[@Andros2709]

The best shoot'em up on the C64, and the only one with a near-arcade quality. Fast, sleek and stylish (and 100% bug free, as opposed to Armalyte and Katakis), IO is a must have for any C64 enthusiast. Too bad it only has 4 levels and it's a bit on the easy side, but aside from that it's a perfect game.

[@Yawnpawn1]

X-out was great, too. Katakis was wonderful as well. Katakis had very few bugs. It was longer, however much easier. For a long time, I thought I could never beat IO.

[@garrgravarr]

I found this beautiful game mind-bogglingly hard as a kid

[@whynottalklikeapirat]

I learned drawing transparent bubbles from this game. Jewels I learned from Wizball, but I think they learned it from the old Dungeons and Dragons illustrations, it’s the same basic technique

[@steelpatriot3683]

was a big fan of this....although it was a damn hard game.

[@maulros]

My joysticks really felt my wrath in this :) Great and really hard game. I think these kind of games made me much more patient person in a long run.

[@robertdanker6193]

Agreed!!

[@leighbennett1961]

4th favourite h-scroller after armalyte, zybex and delta. Spent more time waiting for salamander to load than actually playing.

[@gerasmus]

This game was revolutionary for it's time, gfx and game mechanics. I was a broke in my late teens could barely afford blank disks.

[@back2skooldaze]

Rock solid game ;))))

[@darthsynthious244]

Music is fantastic!

[@CJWarlock]

This game is from 1987? I thought is was from ca. 1992 because it looked so modern in the 90's. It must have been ahead of its times when it comes to visual design. :)

[@ylette]

Such lush gfx and impressive sprite multiplexing. Unfortunately this game was apparently made for people with another perception of time than me. :)

[@przemekgawronski9695]

Hey, is that you, the Cruzer from Camelot ??? If so.... well, I don't know what to say other than I'm a huge fan of camelot ! Tower Power and Camel Park de best !

[@ylette]

Yep, and thanx a lot! Much appreciated. We've also done newer things btw.

[@carlopepi]

Bob Stevenson was the best 2d artist back in the day this myth and salamander

[@lordevyl8317]

I never played this one in my youth, mainly because I'm from Canada, and a lot of these games never made it here (unless someone had a pirated copy they got from a BBS) I finally got around to playing this the other day, and will say it's a banging game, although it can get awfully frustrating.

[@Simon0]

this game looks damn good. I would have loved this if i played it as a kid.

[@manganoid7426]

Simon0 I played it back in the days, took me years to master it XD

[@Yawnpawn1]

@@manganoid7426 Same here. Gave up a few times, thought I could never make it.

[@Attwooj]

Loved this game. I think I beat it without cheats, although watching this playthrough (and the amazing skills on display) I’m now wondering if I ‘Action Replayed’ my way through it…

[@TamasKalman]

this game was incredible beautiful, but also incredible hard, close to impossible to get through even on the first 30 seconds without trainers :)

[@Andros2709]

It all depends on how good you are at memorizing the enemy waves. On my first attempt I was annihilated, but after a couple of weeks I managed to complete it. Since then IO has become my favourite shoot'em up for the C64, it's just too damn good.

[@TheDavo10001]

Such a challenging game. That final boss is rather underwhelming though

[@JFK1180]

One of the best games i have ever played. Yes it was a hard game but got through it in the end

[@RetroDemoScene]

While as you say It's no "Armalyte" or Salamander, Katakis or one of my favorites X-Out, It doesn't seem to bad. Having never seen it before i must check it out. Cheers.

[@florisvogel3652]

Incredibly hard this one. Was addicted to it, but couldn't finish it so I made trainers for it including being invincible and a level skipper. Even that was hard, took me weeks!

[@arekkosiarski5431]

Great and difficult game:)

[@willrobinson7599]

Cracking game on the c64.up there with armalyte for me

[@maxhemenway]

7:57

[@Z-Mat]

IO ist einfach so geil !!!

[@Szederp]

Did they license the Delta "engine" ...this game looks and feels like Delta. Or did Delta came out after this?

[@TMR6502]

Delta came out first, but does things VERY differently (sprite-generated backgrounds, no sort routine for the sprite multiplexing) so no, they don't have much in common as far as code goes.

[@paulnick826]

Very nice graphics. The difficulty level is very high. The extra weapons system could be better. I must confess that I am then never come across the second level addition.

[@fernandomenendezsalvador3972]

Vaya juegazo no?..muy bueno 👍, esta a la altura de los buenos juegos de naves en Msx,me ha sorprendido la verdad.

[@commodore64club44]

Más qusiera el Space Mambow llegarle a la suela del zapato a cualquier shoot'em up de C64... kzbin.info/www/bejne/p3rGf52IgN2dY8U

[@commodore64club44]

Y no digas MSX cuando quieres decir MSX 2, hombre.

[@fernandomenendezsalvador3972]

@@commodore64club44 El Nemesis 2 se merienda a todos los juegos de commodore,menos humos..y ese si es de Msx1

[@fernandomenendezsalvador3972]

@@commodore64club44 por cierto la resolución de commodore es como la de Atari 2600 y la paleta de colores es más triste que un pastel de corcho,msx tiene mejor resolución,una paleta de colores explendudad y cuatro chip de sonido,psg,scc,fmpack y opl 4 ya quisiera commodore,por no hablar de la tarjeta gráfica vg 9990..venga hasta luego jaja

[@fernandomenendezsalvador3972]

Explendida

[@movie.monster]

Whoever played this must be crazy! This performance is awesome!

[@GameplayandTalk]

Damn, no music! Looks really fun otherwise.

[@ZannaBianca2012]

Good game but difficult level was very very hard! I have never destroyed third level boss!

[@giuseppecalabrese396]

👍👍👍!

[@sumrukumru4203]

Hardest game i have ever played on c64

[@99buckrogers]

I like the video. There should be a PC-Remake of this game, especially with better sound.

[@darthsynthious244]

Better sound than sid? :/

[@manganoid7426]

Well, this game was actually a ripoff of RType, but a darn great one XD

[@BitcoinmeetupsOrg123]

Western C64 devs almost always made the games too difficult. Unlike Japanese game devs that understood that the player is playing to have fun and want a decent chance to complete the game.

[@robbiew73]

hard? he's just finished it in about 10 minutes..

[@TamasKalman]

true! you should try though :)

[@robbiew73]

@@TamasKalman I did over 30 years ago when I bought it.. and finished it myself!

[@DCPier]

Lol, another WTF moment on the C64 Mini... can't even survive the first 10 seconds of this absurdly stupid game, I remember I could at least survive the first 30 seconds when I bought it back in the in the 80ies but not much longer. A paragon of bad game design, most of the c64 games to be honest.

[@mattiasarvidsson8522]

i played it alot on c64 .lol .. now i see the game for what it is .. a crappy r-type knockoff

[@Nick-GR]

What R-type by M. Trenz couldn't do, IO did it.

[@auritone]

Well, holy damn. That's well done. Never made it past level 3.

[@ioet2007]

Yeah,i could never figure out how to kill the end of level 3 boss either.

[@manganoid7426]

This is one of the first games i passed entirely without cheats. Took me 3 years XD

[@mikeromney4712]

I never made it past the first boss.....^^