The 30 Best Commodore 64 Games Ever Made!

So this was where it all started for my channel. This was not only the first of the mega popular 30 best games lists but it was also the video which had the most views on my old channel and also the most popular Commodore 64 video on KZbin with well over a million views.
It broke my heart when i had to take this down but revisiting it recently i realise that my gaming knowledge certainly wasn't what it is now as some of the choices are dubious to say the least... but hey they are still all great games.

[@sakismitsoulas7574]

Bruce Lee,Barbarian 1,2,Microprose Soccer,Great Gianna Sisters,Katakis, Bubble Bobble,Summer Games, Beach Head,Who Dare Wins 2,Combat School,Delta,Ghost n Goblins,Wizball and many more.

[@DCHurlford1]

Sid Meier's "Pirates!" and Sensible Software's brilliant, quirky "Wizball" were two classic titles i used to love playing.

[@mikemurray3962]

Pirates was awesome!

[@mrmoofle]

I about died when I found Pirates for PC.

[@thomasbrigsted]

You can't have this list without Bubble Bobble. It's a game I still play today more than 30 years later and an all time favourite. Other games that I think should be on the list: Defender of the Crown, Pirates, Maniac Mansion, Zak MacKracken, Pool of Radiance, Champions of Krynn, Heroes of Might and Magic II and maybe at least one textbased advensture game like Gremlins, Zork or Spiderman.

[@CakePrincessCelestia]

This ^^ Heroes of Might and Magic II wasn't available for C64, it was released around the time when Windows 95 became a thing. Guess you meant the original Might and Magic II: Gates to Another World.

[@thomasbrigsted]

@@CakePrincessCelestiaThanks. You are right 😁👍

[@stephenthomas1492]

My favorite C-64 game had to be Airborne Ranger by Micropose. I played that game A LOT!

[@ianh452]

C64 games were brutal. Made us tough.

[@zuckrdj037]

Don’t know how many times I yelled, “The computer’s cheating!!!”

[@jozwoz]

Yes

[@matchbox7811]

R-Type still hard to beat

[@flaming-sword007]

Ghost n goblins,Winter Games,Summer Games,The Great Giana Sisters,Apocalypse Now were also worthwile.

[@Ilsimeone]

Great list. I would include Maniac Mansion, Zak McKraken and Defender of the Crown.

[@n00blamer]

Pirates!, Seven Cities of Gold, Skate or Die, Wasteland, Ultima V, Pool of Radiance, Silent Service II, Red Storm Rising, .. I might be biased towards my own tastes, but I think every game in my list here is better than any of these in the video, which are mostly great games as well. I just like RPGs and simulations.. each to their own I guess..

[@PlanetBerlin1991]

I also liked Ghost n Goblins a lot. Pirates and Elite were just outstanding for the time when they got released.

[@Loxley81]

Good list! IMO the following are missing: Defender of the Crown Street Rod Pirates!

[@stephenthomas1492]

There was a game that was like Defender of the Crown that I can't remember the title to. You could even be ex-communicated from the church if you didn't help them at times. Man, it's been so long ago, but it was great.

[@mikemurray3962]

​@@n00blamerin junior high I played Pool of Radience for hours a day after school. Man I was hooked on that game. Me and my buddy used to copy our high level characters and trade em with each other. But the random encounters were very annoying. 46 goblins attack lol. You'd just click auto attack and check in in about a half hour😀

[@rudyjelen1534]

Pirates!, Tower of Terror, F-14 Tomcat, Last Ninja 2, Giana Sisters, Gunsip!, Defender of the Crown, Wings of Fury, Test Drive - those are truly the best games, I loved playing those!

[@celestialode]

Plenty of games should be on the list. Barbarian I, Barbarian II, Maniac Mansion, Zak McKraken, Project Firestart, Mrs Pacman, Microprose Soccer, Impossible Mission 2, Salamander, Super Mario Bros, Great Gianna Sisters, Fist II, Last Ninja 2 & 3, Creatures, Bubble Bobble, Boulder Dash, and of course new titles such as Prince of Persia, Sonic the Hedgehog (that weren't I believe around when this video was released)

[@aaronutley]

No Jumpman? No Space Taxi? Gotta have an appreciation for the classics!

[@Whalewraith]

I loved Rambo. The fact it was somewhat random with weapon drops gave it a lot of replay value. I hadn't seen that before

[@PeteFIN]

There's so many...this list had many familliar ones but also many i never saw before. I liked best Defender of The Crown, The Great Giana Sisters, Skate Rock, Paperboy, Airborne Ranger, California Games, Pitstop 2, Toy Bizarre, Montezuma's revenge, Ghosts & Goblins and many more. Good times 😊

[@jkeelsnc]

Little did we know that Raid over Moscow would feature the F-35B.

[@babylemonade2868]

The sound when you stack it on kickstart 2 still makes me laugh

[@JustWasted3HoursHere]

"Seaside Special"? Never even heard of it. Over "Raid Over Moscow"? No way! As for Rambo, I'd put the game itself a little lower in the list, but the MUSIC is absolutely top notch. Martin Galway knocked it out of the park. When I first bought this game, me and a friend of mine loaded it up and just sat there listening to all of the music before we started the game (with our jaws hanging to the floor).

[@robertbell5785]

Racing destruction set, Football manager, green beret, summer & winter games, international football all in my top 30

[@firstclaw1]

Racing destruction set was cool. But the loading times on datasette were killing me. Later with 1541 and SpeedDOS good.

[@firstclaw1]

In my Top 10 would be: Elite Paradroid They stole a million Spy VS Spy: The Island caper. Bards Tale III Ghosts 'n Goblins Boulder Dash Winter Games Pirates! PSI-5 Trading Company And as honorable mention Wasteland

[@timewellspent9216]

Sorry this is going to be a long one... Firstly why didnt this video show in my feed, lucky I nipped over to the channel! Phewww! Omg California games, I forgot about that game, I played the shit out of that! Thank you for reminding me of Thrust too, that was amazing. IK+ I would have to have higher, and where was my favourite all time C64 game, Bruce Lee! OSG mate, lucky I love your channels or that would have been unforgivable lol. Great video as always tho 👍🏴󠁧󠁢󠁥󠁮󠁧󠁿

[@kamilkolanda5144]

Elite - countless hours. There was one more like that but cant remember the title - it was on plannet surface flying between bases/stations also with economy/trade focus fending off pirate space ships....also in same kind of 'graphics'. Good old times :)

[@janneheinonen5922]

Space Rogue?

[@kamilkolanda5144]

@@janneheinonen5922 Just checked...nope...it was in same graphic style as Elite...All comes to my mind is that among the goods to trade with you started usually with 'Plankton' among the goods to choose from :) :) And among your 'equipment' you could buy DECOYs that you could launch and enemies would follow it away from you if you were in trouble :) It was so long ago that I simply cant figure out the title. Another good game was Lords of Midnight - also tons of hours spent on it.

[@kamilkolanda5144]

@@janneheinonen5922 FOUND IT. Title was Moonfall - among top 10 best games I played on C64 :)

[@kamilkolanda5144]

@@janneheinonen5922 its one among mentioned by this guy on YT: kzbin.info/www/bejne/oqaVmpJ4asqNr7M

[@phillusted7364]

keep up the great work OSG - lots of fans here in Australia

[@osg-extrabits3152]

Ive always wanted to go to Australia... can i come stay in your house?

[@phillusted7364]

@@osg-extrabits3152 mate don't think government is letting anyone in atm.

[@meterpaffei5810]

It’s weird how I miss digital innocence. Wasting my time felt better these days

[@Sheeptimusprime]

When I saw one of my all time favourite C64 games was at 30, Raid Over Moscow, I thought this list won’t disappoint and it didn’t. Another great video. Thanks dude!

[@osg-extrabits3152]

Raid over Moscow is a brilliant game but kids hated it back then as we were too stupid to get out of the hangar lol. Thanks for watching mate :-)

[@duster15670]

One of my favourites and one of my first in computer gaming 😁👏

[@theguardian308]

What I love about games back then was you had to accomplish it yourself. Nowadays if you get stuck you look for it on the internet and it tells you what to do.

[@johnsapplications]

that's not entirely true. I remember zapped 64 magazine used to put in cheat notes.

[@osg-extrabits3152]

Not immediately though, was normally months after the game was released

[@CakePrincessCelestia]

The real difference is: Back then you often needed some help and it was hard to get Nowadays it's everywhere, but you often don't need it anyways...

[@ymanoss]

Great list! i would add 'Mail order monsters' and 'M.U.L.E'

[@davemay7797]

"he slimed me" really brought me back. enjoy your like

[@richgl31]

Extra points for Kickstart 2 (good ole Codemaster games at about £2.99?). But no Way of the Exploding Fist?.

[@KurtPedersen-tg7jc]

Kikstart are from Mastertronic, not Codemasters

[@marcusmalone]

Still waiting for the day I see Hobbit text adventure make one of these lists. It has this crazy intetesting early AI tech in it, whereby NPCs do random stuff, game world reacts in all these weird ways!

[@robegatt]

I remember it !!! yeah

[@DCHurlford1]

The Boggit and Bored of The Rings were funny spoof games back then.

[@jaysmith2858]

Lock Thorin in chest.

[@bobs3302]

Nice list. A big subjective though. Mine would be full of Microprose and there would be no room for anything else lol. I'll definitely check out some of these.

[@walterwright8454]

Gunship and Silent Service!

[@justinhenryhaynes]

I think you chose these primarily on the basis of their music and sound. And I’m not complaining!

[@20thCenturyMan80]

Played several of these games. Forgot about Commando. Heard the music and went whoa!

[@Francois424]

I played a couple of them, mostly ports on Atari 8-8it... Thanks for making me smile =)

[@discohead735]

I miss this period, so much innovation. Modern games are far more polished but you rarely get anything new and exciting.

[@reagandow850]

Another amazing list my friend!!

[@najbjergpoulsen]

yea Ghostbusters was in the early years for the C64..Had to use a sys code to run my pirate copy^^

[@LAIRDO-]

Zaxxon was great on the C64. Also Boulder Dash and Jumpman. I loved Impossible Mission. Played the hell out of it.

[@fradd182]

As for dubious choices, i would start with seaside special.

[@jimmytsongaandtheshimmycon9421]

No Project Firestart? That and Last Ninja (1 & 2) are the holy grails of C64 gaming.

[@patsfan4life]

I don’t think any Top c64 list can be complete without Defender of the Crown, perhaps the systems most impressive audio/visual achievement

[@thedude8046]

Rambo was awesome, I'll never forget that sound!

[@Dougjrae]

Good list OSG. Opinions are like arseholes; everybody’s got one so here’s mine (opinion; not arsehole). I would substitute Rainbow islands with Bubble Bobble, I’d have The Sentinel in there somewhere and World Games over California Games.

[@snozzlehead92]

15:40 Was this actual 3D space geometry being used (i.e. like Doom)? Or just simulated somehow?

[@heikowurth2615]

Sure not the 30 best ones, but some real legendes.

[@MYFHmusic]

That golf game used to pissed me off! 😂

[@quinnd6]

I had a commodore 64 as a kid and my favorite game was Robocop 2 which was a cartridge and had no loading times and also was just a very fun game at the time. I don't think I finished any of the cassette games on the C64 because when I died the massive loading times just put me off, I got fed up waiting and gave up. I think I spent most of the time on the Commodore 64 waiting for it to load lol. Chuckie Egg was a good game too. Midnight Resistance, I would load up, die after a few seconds and face what seemed like a 10 minute loading time so I just gave up on it. That was out of the Night Moves collection I got with it. The loading times absolutely killed it for me though I tried to play it. I was very excited when I got the Commodore 64 as a kid and thought it was great. I had Ghostbusters and Last Ninja off this list but I could never make any progress in them because of the massive load times and instant deaths and sometimes my C64 itself used to just give up on trying to load. Eventually it just stopped loading altogether. Then all I could play was that Robocop 2 cartridge.

[@skeletorrobo]

When did you upload the original video?

[@seyyedhosseinahmadi]

I remember most of them i born in 1977 and in 1990 still play that games

[@shauntbarry]

Forbidden Forest!!!!

[@revelationnow]

Excellent list. Agree with just about everything there. Maniac Mansion, Druid 2, Eagles Nest, Eidolon, Mario Bros by Atari are all very good. Enigma Force, Impossible Mission and Frankie are my favourite games on the platform.

[@garyphisher7375]

Microprose Soccer was best soccer game of that time. Goonies 2 is the first game I ever completed. Turrican was a highlight.

[@matthewsturos1899]

Would have added Space Taxi, Jumpman, Jumpman Jr., Raid on Bugeling Bay, Green Beret, and Load Runner. Archon and Mission Impossible were awesome though. Spent many days on the C-64.

[@dongmong7215]

Adding a few titles to the list of games already mentioned in video and thread: Airborne Ranger, Oil Empire, The Manager, Ghost'n Goblins, Manic Miner, Crackers Revenge, Summer Games, Vinter Games. To name a few. ;)

[@rikk319]

I played the crap out of Microprose war games--Airborne Ranger, Gunship, Silent Service. I had a friend who somehow earned like 14 Congressional Medals of Honor on his pilot for Gunship...I still to this day think he hacked it to get that many.

[@spaceenemiesnovel]

I played Rambo game alot on C64.

[@markmanning2921]

playing elite on my C64 I would fly out of the station and go max range from it and fly full speed rotating in the opposite direction and fly right into the station without crashing. this is all based on timing when in the docking stations rotation you start your inbound flight.

[@tB3o3tR9o9]

Silk Worm, North and South, P.O.W, Maniac Mansion, Lost Patrol, Turrican II, Giana Sisters, Hostages, Cannon Fodder, Indiana Jones......

[@serkanaydogdu275]

Zack Mc Kracken, Maniac Mansion, Detective, Bubble Bobble, Spiky Harold, Golden Talisman, Green Beret, Summer Games, Bruce Lee, Choplifter, Ghost n Goblins, Barbarian, Microprose Soccer.......

[@perfectblue8443]

The R type port looks amazing!

[@jonnysegway7866]

Uridium? It was also a great game on the Speccy!

[@StreetComp]

Have some good ones here but any list should include Winter/Summer Games and Raid Over Bungeling Bay to name a few

[@alexk9295]

And Microprose Soccer. Had so much fun with that and Summer/Winter games with 4 player tournaments.

[@mikemurray3962]

Raid over Bungling Bay was awesome

[@StreetComp]

@@mikemurray3962 another fan! Gotta love a game from the 80s that had that a parade with fireworks when you won 😎

[@mikemurray3962]

@@StreetComp totally forgot about that!👍

[@brozy5720]

Some weird choices that I would have exchanged with Defenders of the Crown, G.I. Joe, Bruce Lee, Aliens, The Last V8 and Test Drive

[@clownnookie]

Ahhhhhhhhhhhhh... the magic of SPRITES!

[@geoffreyjohnstone5465]

Ballblazer? Bomb Jack annoyeed me too death as your chacter was just too big. Cant argue with the others though. I would have Wizball, Bubble Bobble and Buggy Boy in as they were great games. I might even try to sneak the Sentinel in as that was a cracking game. Honourable mentions go to Koronis Rift and Rescue on Fractulus. The best thing is about the C64 is that someone else could have 30 totally different games in their top 30 and you could fing reasons to agree. I wish PC Game creators could extract as much from current hardware as was somehow pulled out of the 8 bits.

[@MrYazbo]

Agreed Bomb Jack was an awful conversion.

[@20thcenturygamingc64]

Top man

[@deqew1]

Elite was a brutal strategy game...

[@christianstuven8975]

Pirates?

[@saganandroid4175]

I loved Rad Over Moscow. Then i saw a critique of it by, I think, the guy who did Parallaxian. He's right, it is kinda crap once he spells it all out.

[@Fahrenheit451.]

Never understood the fuss over the last ninja. Wasn't very playable, had terrible controls and basically two moves.

[@alexk9295]

It was for the graphic whores among us. And maybe also because ninja's were very popular back then

[@phoenixthrust888]

Defender of the crown

[@MUFSpoiler]

GUNSHIP ist not there. Forget this list

[@walterwright8454]

What a PITA to get your ship out of the hangar bay in Raid Over Moscow

[@steveleadbeater8662]

urgh, Gauntlet and Elite are not good games on the C64. Pyjamarama and Seaside Special are interesting choices. Ultima 4, Bards Tale, Pools of Radiance, Bomboozal, Armalyte, Antcipital, World Class Leaderboard, Entombed, Turrican 2, Summer Games 2, Sentinel, Ghouls N Ghosts, Ghosts and Goblins (the new one) Hessian, sams journey, mayhem in monsterland, spindizzy etc etc etc. Or, in other words, the C64 had an astonishingly good library of games.

[@JamesShow]

Would have liked to see Racing Destruction Set which nobody remembers.

[@mikes.7900]

Hardball, Racing Destruction Set..... too many others as well

[@tai9817]

you got to have Rus'n'attack, boulder dash, blackhawk, predator...etc.

[@MCXM111]

Commodore graphics seems to be better than Spectrum ZX. Its more like Famicom .

[@osg-extrabits3152]

Yeah i think the c64 reigned supreme over the other 8bit computers

[@markoratar5488]

Oh yeah, Rambo, Commando, Raid over Moscow...played them when i was 8. Now, at 46, i play BF and Warzone. Same stuff...😀 I would ad FROGGER, BLUE MAX and BEACH HEAD on this list

[@hxrtv]

Childhood well spent

[@4inchFury]

I would also add all of the Zorks, Choplifter, Karateka (iirc), and didn't they also have a text adventure version of Hitchhiker's Guide To The Galaxy?

[@steveleadbeater8662]

Oh the Babel Fish puzzle is seared into my brain. Loved the Infocom games, 11 year old me spent hours puzzling, and predominantly failing in those games. Gives you a real appreciation of language.

[@Swiftness0427]

What about Rush N Attack, Bards tale III, Maniac mansion, Airborne Ranger, and Hot Wheels?

[@mullewap6670]

Jaaa, das waren auch meine Lieblings Spiele.

[@stockpilethomas7900]

I wish l could have played these back in the day . Just remember my cousin playing his c64. It seem alot of the graphics . Where way better then the NES.

[@kevinbarger5877]

Fun list but the last ninja is inside the top 23 videos games all time ….. not just the Commodore 64 list

[@klaus_vans]

I found this list rather random tbf. Several great games are completely missing (eg. Hawkeye, Armalyte, Zak McKraken, Bruce Lee, Last Ninja 2, Project Firestart, Grand Prix Circuit just to mention a few) and many put in an awkward order 🤔

[@franksound6922]

Shout out to all the parents that had to listen to those 64 game sounds all day 😂 It didn‘t annoy me at all as a kid. Nice memories. I did not know some of the ganes from the list and they look to me like that was on purpose. You are really bad at California Games BMX , sorry 😂😂 Defender of the crown, Wolfenstein, Football Manager. Summer & Winter Games, Paperboy !!! … a lot of good stuff missing imo, but thanks for bringing a lot of good memories back

[@rikk319]

Let's see if anyone recognizes these great games out of the hundreds my friends and I copied off each other: Below the Root, Dragonriders of Pern, Forbidden Forest, Dragonhawk, Phantasie, Autoduel, Cliff Hanger, Castles of Dr. Creep, Questron/Legacy of the Ancients, Realms of Impossibility, Adventure Construction Set.

[@johndmcgonagle]

I used to always get blown up on the same section of Uridium. I could never figure out what I was doing wrong. From memory it was about level 3 and a chain of hexagons comes from behind can anyone explain? I wonder if it's something like the infamous barrel in Sonic 3 on the mega drive that trapped lots of players because they didn't know they had to push up then down then up etc to make the barrel move horizontally... I used to always fail in magic land dizzy when I went into the chess room with massive piece attacking dizzy. There must have been some step or hack I kept missing. Any clues appreciated, these moments haunted my childhood 😅

[@sumrukumru4203]

R type still playable and best conversion from arcade

[@dale3852]

Elite was amazing

[@makeitsonumberone1358]

Had a few of these games

[@erikny3137]

Last Ninja is No1. No discussion

[@Danielgeorgegaunt]

CREATURES and CREATURES 2 are probably the best 2 C64 games, followed by Karatéka

[@sergi4421]

Mate I really miss BeachHead2 on this list, I used to play it with a friend back in t'he day

[@garethharrison5797]

'MEDICCCC!!!!!!'

[@halvardlund4782]

Every single game on the c64 gave more joy than a iPhone game. Every game on iphone is based on addiction and hardly 5 games on the whole iphone, can measure up to the c64.

[@damionnefelsch6546]

Stealth fighter. Well before the stealth fighter was shown to the world.

[@laengan]

Green Beret and Blue Max, we played those for hours.

[@mrmoofle]

Blue Max with the angry message from the programmer.

[@JoshuaGanoTyraxLightning]

I wonder if IK+ is disappointed at failing to 1st Place & feels like 'it could do better'? :P

[@osg-extrabits3152]

Lol

[@ryandonaghey7189]

Wonderboy,spyhunter and chase hq should be on this list

[@chuckruckus3648]

1 of 30 maybe. Ghostbusters

[@carterjohnson25]

how did you forget jumpman?

[@heeeeeresrossy]

Where's Paperboy? I loved that game. But I also loved Ghostbusters. Great list.

[@AlteredEgg1]

I dunno, Paperboy was insanely hard on C64 compared to the arcade.

[@MariaEngstrom]

What the... 🤔 Stunt Car racer, the colours, they look very Amstrad-ish... I don't remember C64 version looking like that at all, I remember the road being orange/light brown rather than grey. 🤔

[@osg-extrabits3152]

Rgb settings mate, if you turn them right up you get much better colour

[@wsgrover8646]

Lords of Midnight, doomdarks revenge , mercenary....the hobbit, twin kingdom valley....other text adventures ie red moon...surpr ised also jet set willy and manic minor .werent there also with kevin toms football manager

[@spaltersar]

missing wizball and M.U.L.E