A Bee Cs

Company : Commodore
Year    : 1983
Author  : Unknown
Rating  : 5
Rarity  : Uncommon
Comments: The cartridge will not work without being attached to the Magic Voice speech module, so not many people probably bought due to this extra cost. The program itself is designed to teach little kids the alphabet and how to recognise each letter. Fly the bee around the screen as it asks for each letter is quite simply how it works.

Avenger

Company : Commodore
Year    : 1983
Author  : Unknown
Rating  : 5
Rarity  : Common
Comments: A pretty standard copy of Space Invaders by any accounts. Nothing really to write home about here. Graphics and sound are functional and it will keep you amused for 15 minites or so.

Blueprint

Company : Commodore
Year    : 1983
Author  : Bill Hindorff
Rating  : 6
Rarity  : Common
Comments: Many of Commodore's early cartridges were conversions of Bally Midway arcade machines. This was one of the more obscure games, and also one of worse conversions. Murky graphics, slightly grating sound and run-of-the-mill gameplay do not a classic make.

C64GS cartridge

Company : Commodore
Year    : 1990
Author  : n/a
Rating  : 8
Rarity  : Common
Comments: The cartridge packaged with the ill-fated 64GS console contained International Soccer, Flimbo's Quest, Klax and Fiendish Freddy. The latter certainly benefits from the immediate access format, and overall a good compilation. Certainly you will find more of these around than the actual console itself.

Clowns

Company : Commodore
Year    : 1983
Author  : Unknown
Rating  : 4
Rarity  : Abundant
Comments: One of the few games that required paddles for use, but you shouldn't buy them just for this. A pretty banal conversion attempt, another early Commodore cartridge. Nothing good to even mention about it except it's a different form of Breakout.

Comal 80

Company : Commodore
Year    : 1985
Author  : Unicomal
Rating  : 7
Rarity  : Scarce
Comments: Useful programming language cartridge which is 32k, at the time quite unusual. Comes with a good program packed demo disc and detailed instructions.

Der Rechenlowe Fit in Mathematik 1 schuljahr

Company : Commodore
Year    : 1984
Author  : Westermann
Rating  : 5
Rarity  : Uncommon
Comments: Basic learning cartridge for teaching grade 1 students the initial steps of mathematics. All guided by the counting lion sprite...

Der Rechenlowe Addition/Subtraction 2/3 schuljahr

Company : Commodore
Year    : 1984
Author  : Westermann
Rating  : 5
Rarity  : Uncommon
Comments: Basic learning cartridge for teaching grade 2 and 3 students the steps of addition and subtraction. All guided by the counting lion sprite...

Der Rechenlowe Multiplikation/Division 2/3 schuljahr

Company : Commodore
Year    : 1984
Author  : Westermann
Rating  : 5
Rarity  : Uncommon
Comments: Basic learning cartridge for teaching grade 2 and 3 students the steps of multiplication and division. All guided by the counting lion sprite...

Der Rechenlowe Addition/Subtraction 3/4 schuljahr

Company : Commodore
Year    : 1983
Author  : Westermann
Rating  : 5
Rarity  : Uncommon
Comments: Basic learning cartridge for teaching grade 3 and 4 students the steps of addition and subtraction. Once again the ubiquitous counting lion sprite is present to guide children through all the bits.

Der Rechenlowe Multiplikation/Division 3/4 schuljahr

Company : Commodore
Year    : 1983
Author  : Westermann
Rating  : 5
Rarity  : Uncommon
Comments: Basic learning cartridge for teaching grade 3 and 4 students the steps of multiplication and division. Once again the ubiquitous counting lion sprite is present to guide children through all the bits.

Der Rechenlowe Fit in Geometrie 3/4 schuljahr

Company : Commodore
Year    : 1983
Author  : Westermann
Rating  : 5
Rarity  : Uncommon
Comments: Basic learning cartridge for teaching grade 3 and 4 students the steps of geometry. All guided by the counting lion sprite...

Der Rechtschreiblowe

Company : Commodore
Year    : 1983
Author  : Westermann
Rating  : 5
Rarity  : Uncommon
Comments: A typing game for German students. Like a couple of other packages at the time, the main program is on the cartridge and the lessons themselves are loaded from tape or disc, making a complete set hard to find.

Dragon's Den

Company : Commodore
Year    : 1983
Author  : Andy Finkel
Rating  : 8
Rarity  : Uncommon
Comments: Go play Lazarian and then this, and attempt to spot the difference. The two games are even written by the same person, which probably explains the similarity. Still, this is a hell of a lot better than the conversion of said arcade game. Decent graphics and sound, plus a good difficulty gradient makes this one of the better Commodore cartridges to find.

Financial Advisor

Company : Commodore
Year    : 1983
Author  : Joseph McEnerney
Rating  : 6
Rarity  : Abundant
Comments: A cartridge for doing your taxes, financial calculations and options into the stock market. Comprehensive and usable... as long as you have the instructions to go with it! Cartridge is very common to find (especially in Australia), but the packaging is incredible elusive and probably worth more.

Frog Master

Company : Commodore
Year    : 1983
Author  : Michael Crick
Rating  : 6
Rarity  : Common
Comments: One game for which the instructions definitely are needed. Control your tadpoles and frogs to score touchdowns in what is essentially an amphibian version of American Football. A strange concept to say the least, but mildly amusing and involving until something better comes along. Graphics and sound are adequate, but a challenge is definitely there.

Gorf

Company : Commodore
Year    : 1983
Author  : Eric Cotton
Rating  : 6
Rarity  : Common
Comments: See Galaxian. This suffers from exactly the same sort of problems, fitting a vertical arcade machine into a horizontal video display. The graphics aren't too bad, bit blocky and expanded sprites are common. And if the Atarisoft programmer could do Galaxians, then why couldn't the programmer here as that stage is completely missing from the proceedings.

International Football/Soccer

Company : Commodore
Year    : 1983
Author  : Andrew Spencer
Rating  : 6
Rarity  : Abundant
Comments: The original and, for quite a while afterwards, the best football game available on the C64. True, the sides only had 7 players each and this opened up the pitch a bit, but it was very difficult to score against the higher computer opponents and the goalkeepers were hard to fake out. Now probably third in the list after Emlyn and Microprose.

Jack Attack

Company : Commodore
Year    : 1984
Author  : Kevin Kieller
Rating  : 7
Rarity  : Common
Comments: Was this a dig at ex-Commodore boss Jack Tramiel? Certainly if the reports are to be believed, he did a lot of headsquashing as well. Guide Jack across 100 levels to wipe out the rotating heads, avoid being stepped on or drowning in the water. Not that easy to begin with and got harder, at least it had a progression system and even a high score save feature!

Jupiter Lander

Company : Commodore
Year    : 1982
Author  : HAL Laboratory
Rating  : 5
Rarity  : Abundant
Comments: The first ever Commodore 64 game, released with the console back in August 1982. Wasn't too bad admittedly, just gets boring very quickly. Based upon the arcade machine Lunar Lander, the landing sites never change and the game could be played ad infinitum if you are good enough to land the box down well each time. Things got better after this fortunately.

Kickman

Company : Commodore
Year    : 1982
Author  : Unknown
Rating  : 7
Rarity  : Common
Comments: The second ever Commodore 64 game, probably released at the same time as Jupiter Lander. And it is rather better than said game. A conversion of the Bally Midway arcade game, it combines aspects of Clowns and Pacman for an unusual game. Really just for fans I think, it can get rather hard rather quickly.

Lazarian

Company : Commodore
Year    : 1983
Author  : Andy Finkel
Rating  : 6
Rarity  : Common
Comments: See Dragon's Den. The conversion pretty much left me cold, partially because I have no recollection of the arcade to begin with, plus the face the game itself isn't an enjoyable experience to play. Graphically and sonically mediocre, this is one of those games you play just to see if you can actually like it.

Le Mans

Company : Commodore
Year    : 1982
Author  : HAL Laboratory
Rating  : 7
Rarity  : Common
Comments: Simple but very enjoyable fun this game. Just requires you to have a set of paddles to play it though. Reminds me of a very old arcade game whose names escapes me for now. Guide your car up the screen avoiding all the others and plowing through many different road conditions. Good to just slot in and have a bash at for 15 minutes at a time.

Magic Desk I

Company : Commodore
Year    : 1983
Author  : Unknown
Rating  : 5
Rarity  : Common
Comments: An introduction into the world of point and click menu systems, and also a basic word processor to get people to understand how to use their computer better. Needs a disc drive to save any work out though. And the planned sequels to introduce calculate, finance and so on never appeared.

Music Composer

Company : Commodore
Year    : 1982
Author  : Andy Finkel
Rating  : 6
Rarity  : Abundant
Comments: A good solid music composition program that is easy to understand and use (once the instructions have been assimilated) to get some simple tunes to play out. You can have all 3 voices going at once with different effects and instruments, and while it won't make you into Rob Hubbard, it will give good results.

Music Machine

Company : Commodore
Year    : 1982
Author  : Unknown
Rating  : 5
Rarity  : Abundant
Comments: Whereas Music Composer was a tune composition tool, this is more a real time playing keyboard program. You can change the number of voices playing at the same time, voice effects, instruments and octave. Yet again an entry level program, but one that gives some okay results if you are willing to persevere.

Number Nabber Shape Grabber

Company : Commodore
Year    : 1983
Author  : Unknown
Rating  : 4
Rarity  : Common
Comments: A simple game of grab the number or shape to make up the equation listed at the top of the screen. Game plays very much like Dig Dug, you burrow through the dirt to reach the numbers and shapes, grab them with your tongue and then assemble them into the correct formula. Pretty boring stuff to be honest.

Omega Race

Company : Commodore
Year    : 1982
Author  : Unknown
Rating  : 5
Rarity  : Common
Comments: Another of the early batch of Commodore cartridges, and sadly not all that good either. A conversion of the Bally Midway game, the graphics are decent vectors seemingly rendered in sprites though, and the sound is the usual sparse shooting effects. Gameplay isn't all that exciting either, roaming around trying to keep your ship under control (not easy) and shooting the bad guys. A bit like Asteroids in some ways.

Pinball Spectacular

Company : Commodore
Year    : 1983
Author  : HAL Laboratory
Rating  : 6
Rarity  : Common
Comments: Not really a proper pinball game, given the fact you control a set of bats rather than flippers in this electronic target game. At least they were wise enough to make it paddle controlled instead of joystick. Not that bad given it's an early attempt at the genre, but a proper pinball game is almost lacking on the C64.

Radar Rat Race

Company : Commodore
Year    : 1982
Author  : HAL Laboratory
Rating  : 7
Rarity  : Common
Comments: Well it's Rally-X by any other name. And for those who can't remember the game, the object was to guide your car around the maze avoiding the enemy vehicles and collecting flags. Now it is mice and cheese instead. Sprites don't seem to have been used in the graphics and the sound is rather bad but it is still a decent play.

Seawolf

Company : Commodore
Year    : 1982
Author  : Unknown
Rating  : 5
Rarity  : Abundant
Comments: A conversion of the Bally Midway submarine game. And another program that requires a set of paddles to play. Compete against the enemy sub to sink as much shipping as possible within the time limit. Simple gameplay, simple graphics, just enough to fit inside the 8K cartridge capacity at the time. Warrants a few plays but nothing else.

Simons Basic

Company : Commodore
Year    : 1983
Author  : David Simons
Rating  : 5
Rarity  : Common
Comments: Adds 114 new commands to the programming BASIC language of your C64. Many are useful, but sadly some are ill-programmed or otherwise pretty useless. Also there are a number of bugs in the code which can cause problems. A great idea but sadly the execution is way off.

Solar Fox

Company : Commodore
Year    : 1983
Author  : Judy Braddick
Rating  : 7
Rarity  : Common
Comments: One of those games you never got to see in the arcades the first time around. Rather bizarre in some ways, the idea is to collect all the glowing objects on the screen. Not difficult to begin with, it slowly makes life harder but takes a long time doing so. Depends if you can be bothered to play that long to get that far now.

Speed/Bingo Math

Company : Commodore
Year    : 1982
Author  : Unknown
Rating  : 3
Rarity  : Common
Comments: The first thought I had was the fact this is supposed to be an arcade conversion. What person would play this in an arcade now?! Two very simplistic number games on offer here, one just gives you maths problems, the other combines this into a game of Bingo against the clock to make a straight line. No idea why this was even muted as an idea to begin with.

Star Post

Company : Commodore
Year    : 1983
Author  : Unknown
Rating  : 6
Rarity  : Common
Comments: The closest you could call this game is Tempest. Except you don't really move on the screen, only your firing cursor does. Enemies appears from the edges of the screen and you must line up the gun and shoot them before they reach your base. As the difficulty increases, so do their speed and frequency of appearance. Keep you occupied for a while at least.

Star Ranger

Company : Commodore
Year    : 1983
Author  : Unknown
Rating  : 6
Rarity  : Common
Comments: A fairly standard shoot 'em up except you have a great deal of maneveurability on screen and can face either backwards or forwards. This is about the only novelty of the game, the rest being standard fair with various enemies coming on screen to be blown to bits. As an introductory lesson to shooters, not a bad example to show.

Super Expander

Company : Commodore
Year    : 1983
Author  : Fred Bowen
Rating  : 6
Rarity  : Common
Comments: In essense a shrunk down version of the Simon's Basic cartridge, but they kept most of the good stuff and threw away what you didn't really need or use. You can some fancy graphics and sound commands, plus structured programming and debug tools. And it only takes around 8K of the memory from your programs.

Super Games

Company : Commodore
Year    : 1988
Author  : n/a
Rating  : 7
Rarity  : Uncommon
Comments: A compilation created in Germany for a specific C64 package released. The games used were International Soccer, Colussus Chess 2.0 and Silicon Syborgs (aka Silicon Warriors). A good choice in terms of variety, Soccer was still a good game then and the chess program was one of the best released. And fortunately the cartridge is not too hard to track down either.

Super Smash

Company : Commodore
Year    : 1983
Author  : Unknown
Rating  : 6
Rarity  : Uncommon
Comments: If you haven't guessed from the name, this is Breakout. But is does incorporate the ideas from both the original release and the later Super version. You get normal brick bashing, plus versions where the bricks scroll down. Graphics and sound are basic and didn't have much work put into them, and you will need paddles once more to play.

Tooth Invaders

Company : Commodore
Year    : 1982
Author  : Unknown
Rating  : 5
Rarity  : Abundant
Comments: Most likely a game designed for children to teach them the importance of brushing their teeth. Command the superhero to brush away plaque and floss between teeth whilst avoiding the attention of the baddie DK. Basic graphics and sound hide a somewhat tricky game to begin with, but as there is no real variation between levels, it gets boring rather quickly.

Viduzzles

Company : Commodore
Year    : 1983
Author  : Camelot
Rating  : 5
Rarity  : Uncommon
Comments: A computer jigsaw puzzle is the best way to describe this. You can select the number of pieces to break the picture into, as well as having a choice of 3 pictures. Additional images could be loaded from tape/disc, and it would be good to find them.

Visible Solar System

Company : Commodore
Year    : 1982
Author  : Unknown
Rating  : 5
Rarity  : Abundant
Comments: A basic introduction to the world of astronomy, done Commodore style. Move your satellite around the Milky Way, viewing the planets from any angle and position, and find out interesting facts and comparisons between their stats. Graphically the planets are reasonably realistic, but the stats are now woefully out of date.

Wizard of Wor

Company : Commodore
Year    : 1983
Author  : Jeff Bruette
Rating  : 9
Rarity  : Uncommon
Comments: The best cartridge that Commodore released in my opinion. Then again it wasn't that hard to duplicate the graphics and sound of the original, just had to get the gameplay right. Which they did, getting the balance on 2 player usage and a decent enough challenge when playing alone. One of the best co-operation games available for the C64, and just one of the best conversions for the machine full stop.