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31-527: The C64GS was not Commodore's first gaming system based on the Commodore 64 hardware. However, unlike the 1982 MAX Machine (a game-oriented computer based on a very cut-down version of the same hardware family), the C64GS is internally very similar to the complete Commodore 64, with which it is compatible. Out of the approximately 20,000 consoles produced, only 2000 consoles were sold. The initiative to release

62-402: A console based on the Commodore 64 was claimed by Commodore UK and, in particular, Steve Franklin, reportedly requesting the development of a games machine to be sold more cheaply than the Commodore 64. Such a machine was to be launched at a £99 price point, at a time when the Commodore 64 itself sold for £159. It was envisaged that children wanting only to play games on a Commodore 64 would accept

93-418: A console version of the computer with more limited application at a lower price. Reminiscent of Commodore's strategy several years earlier, it was also envisaged that a low-cost console would "fracture the console sector" and "put a block on Sega and Nintendo's aspirations". Support from games companies was limited, as many were unconvinced that the C64GS would be a success in the console market. Ocean Software

124-569: A personal computer. Even the Commodore PET , released five years earlier in 1977, had a minimum of 4K RAM, and rapidly 8K became the minimum. Even the VIC-20, heavily criticized for its minimal RAM, shipped with 5K of RAM. Software is loaded from plug-in cartridges - turning on the MAX with no cartridge inserted yielded only a blank screen. Its ROM cartridge architecture was compatible with that of

155-491: A player's initial progress through the game may consist of trial and error. This was criticized by some reviewers. Your Sinclair awarded Rick Dangerous a 78% rating, while Computer and Video Games gave the Spectrum game an 87%, plus a "C+VG Hit" award, saying that it was "an excellent platform game ..." The C64 version received an 84% from CU Amiga-64 and a 73% from Zzap!64 . Zzap!64 pointed out that

186-448: A simple bootstrap OS, combined with the fact that all the software released for the platform are video games (besides a scaled down cartridge-based BASIC with no disk, modem, or printer support) positions the Max as a video game console rather than a home computer, despite sharing much of the Commodore 64's chipset. The MAX's 2KB of RAM also indicates it was intended as a games machine and not

217-518: Is a Video game console designed and sold by Commodore International in Japan , beginning in early 1982, a predecessor to the popular Commodore 64 , also sharing a lot of components with the C64. The Commodore 64 manual mentions the machine by name, suggesting that Commodore intended to sell the machine internationally; however, it is unclear whether the machine was ever actually sold outside Japan. When it

248-788: Is a platform game developed by Core Design for the Acorn Archimedes , Amiga , Atari ST , Amstrad CPC , ZX Spectrum , Commodore 64 , and MS-DOS . The game was released in 1989 and published by MicroProse on the Firebird Software label in the UK, and on the MicroPlay label in America. It was also published in Spain by Erbe Software. Later, it was released with two other games, Stunt Car Racer and MicroProse Soccer , on

279-450: The C-64 graphics for the MAX' static RAM . A tape drive could be connected for storage, but each cartridge had to implement its own cassette driver and protocol routines, so the tape could only be used by 2 of 24 released programs. The MAX also lacks the serial and user ports necessary to connect a disk drive , printer , or modem . The lack of any built-in operating system , not even

310-476: The C-64, so that MAX cartridges will work in the C-64. The MAX compatibility mode in C-64 was later frequently used for "freezer" cartridges (such as the Action Replay ), as a convenient way to take control of the currently running program. It was intended to sell for around US$ 200. Although the MAX had better graphics and sound capability, Commodore's own VIC-20 , which sold for around the same amount,

341-520: The C64GS are a subset of those of the regular C64; the main differences being the omission of the user port, serial interface, and cassette port. Since the system board is a regular C64C board these ports are actually present, but simply not exposed at the rear. MAX Machine MAX Machine (or simply MAX), also known as Ultimax in the United States and Canada and VC-10 in Germany ,

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372-428: The C64GS. Commodore never produced or published a single title for the C64GS beyond the bundled four-game cartridge. International Soccer was the only widely available game for the C64GS but had actually been written for the C64. The C64GS was plagued with problems from the outset. Firstly, despite the wealth of software already available on cartridge for C64, the lack of a keyboard means that most cannot be used with

403-443: The C64GS. Fun Play featured three Codemasters titles: Fast Food , Professional Skateboard Simulator and Professional Tennis Simulator . Power Play featured three MicroProse titles: Rick Dangerous , Stunt Car Racer and MicroProse Soccer , although Rick Dangerous was produced by Core Design , not MicroProse themselves. Stunt Car Racer and MicroProse Soccer needed to be heavily modified to enable them to run on

434-571: The Commodore 64 Powerplay 64 cartridge. The game was followed by a sequel, Rick Dangerous 2 , in 1990. Loosely based on the Indiana Jones film franchise, the game received mixed reviews from critics. The plot of Rick Dangerous is largely based on the Indiana Jones film Raiders of the Lost Ark . Set in 1945, British agent Rick Dangerous travels to the Amazon jungle to search for

465-609: The base of the joystick. The joystick standard is fundamentally compatible with the ZX Spectrum 's Kempston Interface and the Master System , but no other joystick on the market offered compatibility with the proprietary second-button function. Standard C64 joysticks and Master System controllers were fundamentally supported, but the lack of second-button support (the Master System's second button did not function in

496-436: The console, but this was a direct conversion of the cassette game, evidenced by the screens prompting the player to "press PLAY" that briefly appeared between levels. Some of the earliest Ocean cartridges had a manufacturing flaw, where the connector was placed too far back in the cartridge case. The result was that the cartridge could not be used with the standard C64 computer. Members of Ocean staff had to manually drill holes in

527-469: The console. This means that much of the cartridge-based C64 software, while fundamentally compatible with the C64GS, was unplayable. To partially compensate for the lack of a keyboard, the basic control system for the C64GS was a joystick supplied by Cheetah called the Annihilator. This joystick, while using the standard Atari 9-pin plug, offers two independent buttons, with the second button located on

558-444: The era, reported that Commodore had promised "up to 100 titles before December", even though December was two months from the time of its writing. In reality 28 games were produced for the console during its shelf life - most of which were compilations of older titles, and a majority of which were from Ocean. Of those 28 titles, only 9 were cartridge-exclusive titles, the remainder being ports of older cassette-based games. While most of

589-518: The game that can kill Rick can also kill his enemies, which can be to the player's advantage. The dynamite sticks that Rick carries are generally used for solving puzzles, such as through exploding certain blocks (some of them fly towards the explosion, potentially killing Rick in the backfire). Rick is also armed with a pogo stick that allows him to paralyze enemies. Many of the traps in Rick Dangerous have no visible warning, which means that

620-451: The game was a playable and fun platform-style game but not much more than that. The Amstrad version also received the same response getting a 76% from The Games Machine , although the game fared slightly better with Amstrad Action who rated it 83% and awarded it with an "AA Rave" accolade. ACE gave the Amiga version an 890 rating, and Amiga Format gave an 89%. Amiga Power

651-516: The lost Goolu tribe. His plane crashes in the jungle, and Rick must escape from the enraged Goolu. When the game starts Rick finds himself in a cave running from a rolling boulder, a famous scene from the Indiana Jones film. Armed with a pistol and dynamite, Rick must fight hostiles and evade traps in three more levels. The second level of the game is set inside a pyramid located in Egypt . In

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682-518: The new console. International Soccer was previously released in 1983 on cartridge for the original C64 computer. Ocean produced a number of games for the C64GS, among them a remake of Double Dragon (which was only sold at trade shows), Navy SEALS , RoboCop 2 , RoboCop 3 , Chase HQ 2: Special Criminal Investigation , Pang , Battle Command , Toki , Shadow of the Beast and Lemmings . They also produced Batman The Movie for

713-528: The same way) meant that the Cheetah Annihilator was essential for playing certain titles such as Last Ninja Remix and Chase HQ 2 . However, it was poorly built, had a short life, and was not widely available, making replacements difficult to come by. Prior to the console's release, Commodore had generated a great deal of marketing hype to drum up interest in an already crowded market. Zzap!64 and Your Commodore , Commodore 64 magazines of

744-488: The same year. There were other reasons attributed to the failure of the C64GS, the major ones being the following: Commodore eventually shipped the four-game cartridge and Cheetah Annihilator joysticks in a "Playful Intelligence" bundle with the standard Commodore 64C computer. Several years later, Commodore's next attempt at a games console, the Amiga CD32 , encountered many of the same problems. The specifications of

775-468: The side of the cartridges to make them fit. System 3 released Last Ninja Remix and Myth: History in the Making , although both were also available on cassette. Domark also offered two titles, Badlands and Cyberball , which were available on cartridge only. Through publisher The Disc Company , a number of Codemasters and MicroProse titles were also reworked and released as compilations for

806-571: The third level, Rick must venture to the Nazi stronghold of Schwarzendumpf castle to rescue captured Allied soldiers. The rescued soldiers tell him that the Nazis are planning a missile attack on London . Therefore, in the last level, Rick must infiltrate their secret missile base. Rick can jump and climb, as well as carry a limited amount of dynamite and ammunition for his gun. This gun is Rick's primary means of disposing of enemies. Most traps throughout

837-454: The titles that Ocean announced did appear for the GS (with the notable exception of Operation Thunderbolt ), a number of promises from other publishers failed to materialize. Although Thalamus , The Sales Curve , Mirrorsoft and Hewson had expressed an interest, nothing ever materialized from these firms. Similar problems plagued rival company Amstrad when they released their GX4000 console

868-446: Was much more expandable, had a much larger software library, and had a better keyboard—all of which made it more attractive to consumers. The MAX never sold well and was quickly discontinued. MAX Machine software list was limited, with a few game ports of popular arcade games. This microcomputer - or microprocessor -related article is a stub . You can help Misplaced Pages by expanding it . Rick Dangerous Rick Dangerous

899-516: Was officially presented, in Tokyo , for the first time, it was named Commodore VICKEY. The unit has a membrane keyboard and 2 KB of RAM internally and 0.5 KB of color RAM (1024 × 4 bits). It uses a television set for a display. It uses the same chipset and 6510 CPU as the Commodore 64, the same SID sound chip, and a MOS Technology 6566 graphics chip, a version of the VIC-II that powers

930-424: Was released in 1985. The software bundled with the C64GS, a four-game cartridge containing Fiendish Freddy's Big Top O'Fun , International Soccer , Flimbo's Quest and Klax , were likely the most well known on the system. These games, with the exception of International Soccer , were previously ordinary tape-based games, but their structure and control systems (no keyboard needed) made them well-suited to

961-443: Was the most supportive, offering a wide range of titles, some C64GS cartridge-based only, offering features in games that would have been impossible on cassette-based games, others straight ports of games for the original C64. Domark and System 3 also released a number of titles for the system, and conversions of some Codemasters and MicroProse games also appeared. Denton Designs also released some games, among them Bounces , which

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