I think I was playing the Commodore 64 port of Road Blasters when I first started toying with what you’re now reading… The one from 1988 that looks like it’s an Atari 2600 game from five years earlier, moves at a snail’s pace, and where you don’t need to steer because the road moves around the car for you! Anyway, it got me thinking that surely the C64 isn’t as bad at arcade conversions as its reputation suggests? You know, everything looking overly blocky in stuff like Wonder Boy or Tapper or Out Run, with big black lines removing any trace of character or detail. Which reminds me, we also know it can’t do racing games period – okay, I know everyone is down on the ZX Spectrum version of Out Run nowadays, even if they weren’t at the time, but have you seen the abominations that are Enduro Racer and Super Hang-on (pictured below)? A real sight to behold! Then there was Hard Drivin’ and WEC Le Mans, Chase H.Q. and Cisco Heat, and we can further extend this line of thought to 3D games in general, and the likes of G-LOC, Space Harrier and After Burner, where I guess you could say well done for trying but could equally say why bother! 

Then, of course, everything is brown – even The New Zealand Story is brown! And Rod-Land too! How is that even possible? And looks aside, everything is also floaty to control – Gauntlet, Ivan ‘Ironman’ Stewart’s Super Off Road and Green Beret, to name a few I’ve played of late, all feel like your character is skating around the TV screen rather than in the game world beneath it… Although there’s also the total opposite with Shao-Lin’s Road! Overall though, everything is just lacklustre – take Operation Wolf, for example, which is one of the most impressive conversions on the Spectrum but on the C64 it just exists as a vague facsimile. Same for the not dissimilar Cabal too. As well as for Karnov, ESWAT, Guerilla War, 1942, APB, Double Dragon, P-47, BreakThru, Rygar, Bomb Jack, Renegade, Strider, Super Sprint, and that American version of Ikari Warriors is just something else! I could go on but you get the point, although I should say, just to be clear, that those are simply the stereotypes that came to mind rather than any kind of personal opinion, and, Road Blasters and all the other games I’ve just mentioned aside, I’m sure they’re all totally unjustified!

Speaking of Road Blasters though, I reckon a top ten U.S. Gold arcade conversions feature along the same lines as this might be really interesting so watch this space! Okay, I’ve had my fun now, as my fellow Spectrum owners have been doing for the last forty years, and joking aside, I can’t deny there were plenty of times I looked over the fence, green with envy, at some of my best friend’s C64 games, which I should probably save for later rather than naming here! But as said, what I was thinking was that to a greater or lesser extent, the Commodore 64 does have a bit of a reputation – in my possibly biased mind at least – for crappy arcade conversions, and I wanted to set that straight and celebrate some of the best instead, which I wouldn’t want to play anywhere else! Right, with that, and before I land myself in any more hot water, the plan is I’m going to run down my top ten in reverse order, a paragraph on each, then I’ll cover a few honourable mentions that just missed out for various reasons that I don’t think are too many of those listed above, so let’s get started!  

10. Alien Syndrome

Being a big fan of the arcade original can be a double-edged sword when it comes to home conversions – obviously, getting it at home at all was a bit of a miracle at the time but you also had to manage a few expectations too, whether the subject matter was ripe for a conversion or not! Fortunately this top-down, explore and run and gun sci-fi classic from 1987 was, and a year later the C64 version from ACE totally nailed it! It plays a bit like a thinking-man’s Gauntlet, set on a spaceship where you’ve got to rescue all your comrades, shoot loads of aliens, then get the hell out. Definitely one that’s better with two players but, much like Gauntlet, don’t let that put you off it you’re flying solo… Just need to get a bit better! From the loading screen to the title music and then on into the game itself, this is authentic and polished, and couldn’t be more suited to the C64’s strengths, apart from the push-scrolling, which unfortunately isn’t quite up to the pace of the rest of the game. You soon learn to compensate for it though, and you forget it’s there, then just like the original, the rest is tough, tense, frantic, looking like a pixel-art Alien movie, with lots of character in the little sprites and colour in their futuristic surrounds, even if lacking the finesse of the arcade version’s, and while not as ominous or squelchy, it even has a decent blast at its wonderful sound effects! It might not be on the top table of Sega arcade games but it definitely is on the C64’s!

9. Saint Dragon

For whatever reason, I’d totally ignored this horizontally-scrolling shoot ‘em up until it appeared on the Jaleco Arcade 1 collection for Evercade back in 2022, but I’d now count it among my top ten in the genre… Which, I did, in a previous countdown here! Anyway, if humanity is being attacked by a seemingly invincible cyborg army, it needs to build a big cyborg dragon to fight back with, and in this one, originally from 1989, the gameplay is almost as straightforward as the plot – shoot stuff and collect tokens to upgrade your weapons through five levels and their big bosses. But there’s a twist because you can also control the position of your own tail through the movement of your ship, and with a bit of practice you’ll not only be using it as a shield, but to dish out a bit of damage too. The C64 port came from Storm in 1990, and while it’s been well scaled-back, it’s also quite a feat in its own right! It’s also unmistakably Saint Dragon, and you soon almost forget you’re even playing a port, with everything there, accurately replicated and in the right place with only very occasional slowdown, and both the gameplay and the level of challenge is pretty much spot-on. Even the big robot cats and giant bosses have made it in, a few terrifying animations aside, and the only other real concession is having to decide between the exquisite music and the visceral sound effects, which is a real shame because I think you need to tactility of the latter. All the same, you couldn’t ask for a lot more of this.

8. Bubble Bobble

I think this one coming in at number eight really is the final word on just how good Commodore 64 arcade conversions could be because it’s a really special one! Taito’s Bubble Bobble began life in the arcades in 1986, with playable characters Bub and Bob, transformed into dinosaurs by an evil wizard who’s also kidnapped their girlfriends, and are currently a hundred fiendish single-screen platform-based levels away! And while you’re trying to get there, it turns out that blowing bubbles to catch his minions then burst them with your spine is all there is to near-enough arcade perfection! Its wonderfully unbearable cuteness, iconic soundtrack and general simplicity hides insane depth – if you want to go there – but you can also just go for the pure, undiluted fun version instead. And however you play, it’s one of the greats, and that also goes for pretty much wherever you play too, including the C64 version from the 1987, which is probably as close to that holy grail of arcade perfect as an 8-bit machine would ever get, especially with a player two. The SID chip was just built to sing that catchiest of gaming history’s theme tunes, and everything else, from the vibrantly coloured level layouts to the zany character animations is all there. As it seems, are almost all of those collectibles, power-ups, bonuses, hidden rooms and secrets – or at least the ones we know about so far! And that purest of arcade gameplay? Yeah, that as well!

7. Badlands

As much as I love a single-screen platformer, there’s other things I love more… Such as top-down racers, and while Atari’s Super Sprint might be the one I love above all the rest, as I’ve already noted, that’s sadly not the case on the Commodore 64. Its post-apocalyptic 1989 successor though… Badlands is Super Sprint with guns in a Mad Max setting, and was ported by Teque Software to the C64 then published by Domark a year later, where all that additional weight from the weapons and armour has translated into a far more precise and predictable (and therefore playable) game, and an excellent conversion to boot! Okay, it’s a little slower than both the original and the Atari ST version I bought at the time, but it’s fast enough and its not like you’re comparing them side-by-side while you’re fighting your way around three laps of each of eight nuclear wastelands anyway. And you’ll ideally be doing that against a friend and one computer opponent, or against two solo, which also offers a decent challenge from just a couple of tracks in. You can power-up your car for speed, destruction or protection between races to boost your chances as things hot up, which does make a noticeable difference (especially to the weedy default guns), but just knowing the tracks and keeping the car within your comfort zone is equally advantageous. The relatively simple presentation of the original for the time means it’s all pretty much here, and like that version, while some of the tracks are a bit sparse, a couple of them are really atmospheric too, with a great mish-mash of sunburnt, organic colours creating a real sense of place, along with a decent variety of layouts. Which all feel great to race on and will never get old to me!

6. Hyper Sports

I’m not great at many types of games but I’ve always been pretty good with the old rhythmic, button-mashing sports titles like Track & Field, Daley Thompson’s Decathlon, Combat School, all those wonderful Epyx Games games (most at home here on the C64), and, in particular, Hyper Sports, to the point I could literally get a perfect score on the skeet shooting event with my eyes closed and from the sound effects alone! Konami’s Track & Field sequel arrived in arcades in time to get an official 1984 Summer Olympics license in Japan (only) and featured seven events that mixed button-mashing and timing, meaning your poor fingers generally got a break between beatings! Plenty of variety too, with swimming, that skeet-shooting, long horse gymnastics, archery, triple jump, weight lifting and pole vault, which, like other 8-bit versions, was missing on the C64, as was multiplayer, which I realise is a bit of a showstopper for many but didn’t stop for some fantastic world-record chasing fun at the time that’s still among my most memorable multiplayer experiences, and I’ve been playing solo ever since, so no big deal for me. Like Badlands just now, the presentation of the original was very transferable to the C64, and while I love the Spectrum port too, it didn’t look or sound as real as this does – great detail, smooth scrolling, and loads of character and humour (mainly when things go wrong)! And every event is pretty much perfectly tuned, although heavy-wagglers like swimming and weight-lifting are a bit of a stretch on a modern controller! Risk destroying something with a stick on it, or just stick with keyboard, and you’re still in for a wonderful time though!

5. Pac-Land

I adored Namco’s 1984 arcade machine as a kid, partly because I also adored Pac-Man: The Animated Series that it literally brought to life, and partly because it played great and like nothing I’d played before, doing the whole powered-up, side-scrolling running and jumping thing a full year before Mario! And while I was more than happy with the flip-screen and weirdly part-monochrome Spectrum version at the time, it was the Atari ST version a bit later on where I thought I’d really brought the original experience home. I didn’t get to Qucksilva’s 1988 Commodore 64 port until a bit later again, when I became a bit obsessive about getting through every Pac-Land port, and although I’d probably say the PC-Engine one is my favourite, this one is the king of the (proper ) 8-bits! You couldn’t want more from this, with a characteristically chunky but bold and smooth-scrolling interpretation of the original that’s also captured all the music and sound effects just right! The gameplay isn’t terribly frantic but sees you as side-on Pac-Man leaving his family and travelling across various obstacle- and ghost-ridden stages in each level to return a fairy to Fairyland, then get all the way back again for the next level. You’ve got the town, with the ghosts in cars and busses trying to knock you down, and there’s falling log bridges over ravines and forests and watery areas and a bit of stick waggling too, so plenty of variety but always simple, cartoon fun that really shines on the C64. Nice loading screen too – check out my Top Ten Favourite Commodore 64 Loading Screens feature for more on that!

4. Buggy Boy

I might have been a bit mean at the expense of the racing genre on the Commodore 64 earlier on but it could be time to take it all back because Elite’s 1987 take on Buggy Boy is probably all you need! Arguably more fun than the Taito arcade original too, and certainly the version I’d rather be playing! It’s an arcade race against the clock over five increasingly rough courses, taking in all kinds of terrain, and as well as other vehicles, you’ll also be contending with boulders, trees, fences, brick walls and even giant footballs, as well as some very narrow tunnels and bridges. Speaking of which, hit a tree stump right and you’ll go up on two wheels, ideal for those situations! The arcade machine is a little style over substance, albeit something I also enjoy, but this version doesn’t have triple screens and the like to worry about, or even the ZX Spectrum’s impressive but strangely oversized graphics, and focusses instead on the undiluted joy of wild racing and chasing high scores through various bonus mechanics. It still retains the cartoon stylings of the arcade game too, with some great animations and those familiar sound effects, as well somehow maintaining the pace everything flies by at, and they’ve even captured the little bounce when you land a jump! Despite everything, there are a few racers I really enjoy on the C64, but this is in a league of its own!

3. Spy Hunter

This wasn’t quite the first game I ever played on a Commodore 64 but it wasn’t far off, and it’s one of a select few from that period (including the likes of Impossible Mission and Winter Games) that have stuck with me ever since! That said, it dates from way before my time with the C64, right back to 1983 in North America, just after the Bally Midway’s arcade release, although it took a couple of years for U.S. Gold to get it out here in Europe. Who’d have believed U.S. Gold at number three?!?! Like Buggy Boy just now, this might also be another case of the conversion being more enjoyable than the original too – from how it looks to the all-important car physics, it does a great job of replicating this very James Bond-inspired, top-down, score-chasing combat racer, complete with machine guns, oil slicks, missiles and smoke screens, although nothing beats the side-on bashing of enemy cars! All those impressive little flourishes from the arcade game are here too, like the power-up truck that drops its ramps in front of you so you can manoeuvre inside, or the side roads leading to the river where your sports car will enter a boathouse on one side and you’ll come out in a boat on the other, so you can continue the chase on the water! The graphics are a little less detailed and vibrant but not far off at all, and same for the bursts of the Peter Gunn theme, and, coming back to that point about being more enjoyable, about all it’s missing from the arcade game is the gear-shift, which was little more than busywork in the first place, so you can concentrate on the proper action instead… And you can even connect a second joystick for the rear-mounted guns! The Spectrum version I owned was great for what it was but once again, the C64 totally leaves it for dead!

2. Ghosts ‘n Goblins

Remember I said about some C64 games making me green with envy earlier? Here’s the first of them, and who’d have believed that this specialist in chunky sprites and colouring everything brown could combine the two to pull off a graveyard so elegantly? The 1986 Elite port of Capcom’s Ghosts ‘n Goblins from a year earlier sees your knight Arthur crossing a supernatural world to rescue his kidnapped princess from the demon king Astaroth. And on the C64 he does this by platforming his way through a more limited but equally brutal selection of stages, filled with hordes of undead to shoot or avoid. Like the arcade game, it’s crazy hard but crazy good, and gets both the pinpoint precise gameplay and the spooky atmosphere absolutely right, in no small part thanks to the graphics, which in the main are something else! They’re totally C64 but also totally Ghosts ‘n Goblins all at once, and those zombies… Little blobs of pixels that are somehow impossibly transformed into exactly what you remember shambling about in Michael Jackson’s Thriller video from a few years previous! Okay, things do get a little sparse in places later on but realistically none of us humans are going to get that far anyway! The bosses deserve a mention too – big, detailed and terrifying! So many little flourishes as things erupt into action or burn or explode into a gooey mess, with some lovely animation and real attention to detail in some of the textures behind it all. And that music is pure b-movie and totally sublime… Stupid, sexy Commodore 64!

1. Commando

If ever a game demanded a rainbow of muted colours (especially brown) and chunky details then it’s Elite’s 1985 conversion of Capcom’s classic top-down military run and gunner from just a few months earlier! No game says C64 to me more than Commando. I first played it on my friend’s machine when I still thought it was about the ultra-cool Arnie movie I wasn’t allowed to watch from the same year; I’d also been well hyped by the big double-page adverts in Computer & Video Games magazine, complete with what I think are some of those hand-painted screenshots that occasionally snuck in back then! Anyway, despite no Arnie, it didn’t disappoint. And then some! Obviously, I soon had my own copy on the Spectrum and I loved it but once again, it wasn’t the same – and I’m not only talking about the weird colours! Actually, for pure gameplay the Spectrum was better because you had to hit space on the keyboard to throw grenades on the Commodore 64 port, but a flick of the joystick would do it on the there, and that made a big difference. Just not as big a difference as that Rob Hubbard soundtrack did…

Genuinely my favourite piece of video game music ever – militaristic space rave that’s totally out of place but couldn’t be a better fit! Like we’ve seen elsewhere, big chunks of the original were sacrificed for nailing the experience we did get but it wasn’t the longest game in the first place, and here we’ve got three expansive and increasingly danger-filled military compounds for our one man army to kill his way through on the way to taking down the final fortress, armed with a machine gun and a limited supply of those space bar grenades. It’s a non-stop (literally, if you want to get very far!) thrill-ride all the way, with a relentless onslaught of infantry, snipers, tanks, trucks, motorbikes and mortar fire, followed by some chaotic end of stage set-pieces – I love the one at the end of stage one especially, as those huge steel doors burst open then out pours the enemy, everywhere! Graphically it does everything it needs to without ever been massively spectacular, but there’s plenty of cool enemy gear to admire, as well as leafy and rocky environmental details that vertically-scroll by very smoothly, and often with loads going on all at once, with just enough colour, detail and animation in the player and enemy sprites to give them personality. A perfect foundation then, for what I reckon is a close to perfect conversion of an all-time favourite arcade machine! And the best music ever!

Okay, enough gushing about Commando and onto a handful of honourable mentions I need to cover before we finish here! We’ve gone very long already so I’m not going to go into detail but I have been playing a fair bit of all of them in preparation for this so I’ll try and give them a run out in some of my upcoming Weekly Spotlight features instead. In the meantime, and in the order they’d have come if this were a top fifteen instead, those games are as follows… Yet another arcade racer first, would you believe, Continental Circus. Next is single-screen (and unnecessarily brown!) cutesy platformer Rod-Land. Then I’ve got even cutesier vertically-scrolling platform follow-up to a game we’ve already covered, Rainbow Islands (also featuring my favourite C64 loading screen). Maybe an underrated but nonetheless intense top-down racer Indy Heat next, which might well make the cut if I ever do an Amiga version of this countdown! And then there’s up and down and round and around 3D racer Power Drift – another fantastic one too!

And if I’m also allowed just a few more, there are a some other real favourites I wanted to mention here for various reasons of their own, apart from just me liking them… The aforementioned Hyper Sports predecessor and legendary hand-mangler Track & Field, and also pseudo-3D space shooter Gyruss, both for simply getting everything about their conversions right. On the subject of old shoot ‘em ups, Centipede is the best version of Atari’s seminal single-screen shooter on any 8-bit system. I must be feeling guilty because yet another racer now, and given the form of its predecessor on C64, Turbo Out Run is way better than it has any right to be. Then there’s one of those other 3D games I said could maybe be considered part of the shouldn’t have bothered pile, and that’s After Burner, which, despite everything is as good as it could have been, and actually isn’t that bad (if you pick the right version)! Finally, shoutout to Paperboy because I used to love it even it is a bit rough to play nowadays! And with that I think, we’re done here, with what I think has turned into a very impressive list of twenty-plus Commodore 64 arcade conversions in total that deserve a place in any countdown, and whether you agree with the order or what’s included here or not, there’s no denying that the C64 had a load of decent arcade conversions after all!

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