Ms Pacman for Commodore 64

Ms Pac-Man and Donkey Kong arcade machines

I spent a lot of time playing Ms Pacman.  The store closest to my house was a 7-11 that usually had two videogames.  Videogames were later rotated in and out, but for the longest there was a Donkey Kong game and a Ms Pacman game.  I spent equal time on both.

My parents would occasionally send me to the store for a newspaper or maybe a pack of cigarettes.  They knew the deal.  I'd be more than happy to run to the store for them, so long as they gave me at least 2 quarters for my trouble.

I'm WAY out of practice now, but this Commodore 64 version seems a lot harder than I remember the arcade version being.  This is my first time playing the Commodore 64 version.  The only home console version of Pacman I ever remember playing was the crappy Atari 2600 port of Pacman.  What a dud.

Ms Pacman was originally released as an arcade game by Midway in 1982.  Ms Pacman ended up being the most successful American made arcade game of all time, selling 115,000 arcade cabinets.  (per Wikipedia).  Ms Pacman was also ported to ever 8 bit console game machine and home computer you can think of.

There's a lot of cool trivia on the Wikipedia link below.  I thought it was interesting that there are 256 levels, which is 2^8.  Both Pacman and Ms Pacman have the same bug which prevents the last level from being completed.

Ms Pacman at Wikipedia
Download Ms Pacman for Commodore 64 for free at c64.com

Rescue on Fractalus - Commodore 64 gameplay video

Rescue on Fractalus!, by Lucasfilm games, was released in 1984.  The game was originally written for the Atari 8-bit computers and the Atari 5200 game console.  It was soon ported to the other popular 8 bit computers - Tandy, Commodore, Apple, Sinclair.

In Rescue on Fractalus, we are at war with the 'Jaggis'.  The developers on Rescue on Fractalus were obviously given free reign - there are several nerdy references to the graphics.  Fractalus is from the Fractal graphics that were used to render the 3d landscape.  Jaggies are a reference to the rough pixelated graphics.  Even then, we knew our graphics had a lot of improving to do.

You fly around until you see a pilot on your radar.  When the radar blip starts beeping and flashing, you are in range and must hit 'L' to land.  To land, you must be low enough - if too high the game will tell you.

Once landed, you deenergize your shields so the pilot can approach by hitting 'S'.  You will hear footsteps approaching.  If the pilot knocks, hit 'A' to open the airlock.  In a twist that George Lucas himself had added to the game, sometimes the aliens are posing as pilots.  If an alien jump on to your windshield, hit the 'S' button to turn your Systems back on and the alien will be fried.

This is the first game to ever scare me.  I didn't know about the alien thing, and it scared the shit out of me from there on out.  I was so scared I couldn't even hit the 'S' button to fry him, he ended up beating his way into my ship!  Also, if you open the airlock without waiting for the knock, there is always the chance an alien could get inside the ship.  In that case you will be killed.  Always wait for the knock.

Other than rescuing pilots, you will also be gunning down or avoiding laser turrets and UFO's.  Once you have rescue your allotment of pilots (use the 'P' meter on the right), you can hit 'B' to boost back to the mothership to drop them off and level up.

LINKS:
Rescue on Fractalus at Wikipedia
Fractalus - a modern day remake of Rescue on Fractalus
Download the Rescue on Fractalus ROM for free at C64.com

Jumpman Jr for Commodore 64 by EPYX

I play all 12 levels of Jumpman Jr for Commodore 64.  Jumpman Jr was released in 1983 by EPYX.  Jumpman Jr was a 'lite' version of the original Jumpman.  The lite version was made to fit on a game cartridge - the original Jumpman only fit on floppy disk.  I actually played the Colecovision version of Jumpman Jr first, then played the Commodore version a few years later.

Read more about Jumpman Jr.:

Wikipedia article about Jumpman and Jumpman Jr

Download the Jumpman Jr ROM for free here