Yesterday afternoon, reminiscing at ACMI’s Hits of the 80s video game exhibit — free at Melbourne’s Federation Square until May. While most of the games were running on Spectrum or C64 emulators, this copy of Way Of The Exploding Fist was running on a genuine machine. And just as it was back then, one of the joysticks was quite frustrating to use.
We also had a go at The Hobbit. They had a cheat-sheet beside the computer, but it only took you as far as the trolls’ dungeon, and I couldn’t remember how to get out. Move the sand? Smash the trap door? It reminded me of why I sometimes found text adventure games just a tad annoying, unless one had a cheat-sheet.
They also a display of some of the Horace games (I was never a great fan) and a separate exhibit of more recent Astro Boy games. And just like in a more conventional gallery, an attendant would wander around explaining things to visitors — including how to progress in the level you were playing, if you looked stuck. (How does one get a gig like that?)
Well worth a look.
6 replies on “Are you keeping up with the Commodore?”
And to think I wasted the weekend (38 degrees, both days) taking the kids to the beach.
Even the desk looks like it’s from the eighties!
OMG and a TAPE DRIVE!!! Hope you didn’t have to wait for it to load…
That is so cool. Though it looks rather odd playing it with an LCD. With everything else being authentic, you’d think they could find an old television to play the games on.
At first glance, I thought you were sitting in your old house at the kitchen bench!
What! No “Aussie Games”? (it was an Australian version of California Games.)
I downloaded the humungous C64 SID collection and have been having fun with that, even though 29,000 of the 30,000 files are remixed of Axel F, probably.
How dare they connect a Commodore 64 to an LCD monitor! Sacrilege!
I remember those days. My first computer, mumble mumble good old days…