The Secret of Monkey Island, Commodore 64

In The Secret of Monkey Island, you play the role of Guybrush Threepwood, a young man who has just hit the shores of Mélée Island (somewhere in the Caribbean). Our naive hero’s travels have led him to Mélée Island in a quest to fulfill his life’s ambition...to become a fierce, swashbuckling, bloodthirsty Pirate. Unbeknown to Guybrush, however, there have been some strange happenings in the area surrounding Mélée Island and the more mysterious Monkey Island. As he walks into this maelstrom of mystery, Guybrush will soon be very aware that things are not what they appear to be, that even bloodthirsty pirates can be scared, and that there’s more to being a pirate than swinging a sword and drinking grog!

Although you may have played other Lucasfilm games, there are a few differences in the C64 Version of The Secret of Monkey Island that you should be aware of. The interface of this game is not a SCUMM interface. So there are no animations in the game and the verb and objects are used slightly different than you might know from SCUMM games. Nevertheless, you do not need to “double-click” on objects to use or activate them. A single click of the controller button should be used consistently throughout the game.

Download: The Secret of Monkey Island.zip
Source: CSDb

Soul Crystal +TFDS, Full English Translation by Onslaught Released!

C64 group Onslaught have released an English translation of the 1992 Commodore 64 game Soul Crystal. As well as the English translation, they’ve also released an EasyFlash version and also the German version. Check out the links below to grab the download.

Your name is Dave, and these are your first holidays you’re spending alone, without your parents. You’re resting in a hotel near a mysterious loch in Scotland. You go swimming in the lake and dive through a waterfall – on the other side of it, you’re finding yourself in a strange fantasy-like world.

The game is a mixture of a graphical and text-adventure. All actions can be performed by typing or by clicking on the icons. The story takes some wild and unexpected turns and encourages you to keep playing. A relatively hassle-free user interface makes it easy to get started. The graphics are quite good for the 64 and the background music is also quite audible. And the text, which comes in large quantities and is not always completely logical, is easier to read than the Amiga version. Friends of (now rare) text adventures will still enjoy Soul Crystal.

Download: Soul_Crystal+TFDS_ONSLAUGHT.zip
Download: Soul_Crystal+TFDS_EasyFlash_ONSLAUGHT.zip
Download: Soul_Crystal_German.zip

Isometric Adventures in Sherwood - The Adventures of Robin Hood, Commodore Amiga

You may have seen the name in big lists of Amiga games. The Adventures of Robin Hood. It'll be some sort of Codemasters-alike platformer, you might think to yourself as you pass on by, thinking back to the likes of Super Robin Hood or Leander. But no, this is absolutely not a game in the classic Amiga library that you should be passing up on - and it's surprisingly revolutionary. 

Not strictly an Amiga game, The Adventures of Robin Hood was published by Millennium in 1991. It casts you as the eponymous heroic outlaw of legend, who has been kicked out of his castle by the villainous Sheriff of Nottingham and begins his new adventures having a bit of a mope by the castle walls. 

One thing you might have noticed about the Robin on the cover is that he seems to be a slightly odd fusion of Errol Flynn's Robin Hood in appearance and posed like Kevin Costner in the then-recently released Robin Hood: Prince of Thieves movie. 

Alan Rickman was so good in that, wasn't he?

A Pioneering Survival Horror Game in 8 Bits — Project Firestart, Commodore 64

Project Firestart is a game that deserves so much more recognition than it generally gets for being a pioneer of survival horror - and a damn good one at that.

Published by Electronic Arts and developed by Dynamix (who you may know from their Sierra-published flight sims), Project Firestart made its home on disk-only Commodore 64s in North America in 1989. No loading tunes here, I'm afraid! But what you are treated to instead is a stunning and atmosphere-building cinematic intro that knocked my socks right off the first time I saw it early in 2022. It feels way ahead of its time and even manages to pull off an FMV sequence feel with the use of a digitized pixel head.

Once you're through the intro and its creepy tuneage, the premise is clear: You're taking on the role of Jon Hawking, a seasoned agent working for the United System States. A research vessel orbiting Saturn has suddenly gone radio silent and it's up to you to board the ship, find out what has happened, and recover valuable research data. All within a time limit before the powers-that-be trigger the vessel's self-destruct mechanism. Not super original stuff, but it gets the job done.