Which was your favourite 'Epyx' game for the Commodore 64? 😇🕹👌 =-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-= More from 1986: tinyurl.com/1986-C64-GAMES My Top Picks: tinyurl.com/CCGS-BEST-GAMES
Pick ONE favorite? Wow! That's a tough call. Epyx made some of my favorite C64 games. Pitstop 2, Impossible Mission, Jumpman, the "Games" games... just to name a few. I don't know if I could pick just one. I've been meaning to go back and play some of their games that I missed just because their name is associated with quality games.
I was about 15-16 when playing this in the 80’s, that theme music is nice to listen to & never got tired of hearing it. I used an Epyx 500XJ joystick, easier to hit the curves due to a short joystick and the 500XJ can fit in the palm of your hand.
Oh wow, yes, I remember this game! I especially remember the music! Great times. I remember my friends and I would see how much we could bump the other bikes before someone wiped out. The simplicity of the controls definitely let you focus on the game itself and I remember liking that.
EPYX AT THEIR MOST EPIC... AND ESPECIALLY ON THE COMMODORE 64 AND AMIGA 😺👍🕹️. SUPER CYCLE is definitely one of the best motorcycling games, i have ever played on my Commodore 64 😺👍🕹️! And as i remember correctly, i had this game in a compilation called THE WORLD'S GREATEST EPYX (boxed, disk) 😺👍. Even the graphics are absolutely as amazing as in PITSTOP I and II 😺👍. And the music + sound effects 🎶🎵... OH YEAH 😺👍🕹️! A big retrospective like 👍🕹️ from Vantaa, Finland 🇫🇮.
@@CheekyCommodoreGamer I was listening to a giorgio moroder mash up with another band the other day, can't remember who with but it was excellent. I'm a big tangerine dream fan myself, also klause schulze, Jean Michel jarre, Gary numan and loads more👍👍👍
Love all those you mention, I was a BIG fan of Numan back in his Tube way Army days... I do like his modern rock type tunes too. That guy went on some crazy musical transition over the years! 🎼🕹👌
Super Cycle, besides being of the first games I ever played on a home computer, was possibly the only game I managed to get my father and a few other adults to play. The game saves highscores to disk which at the time was a novelty feature so their names should still be on there even though most of the people are not. It's weird thinking about your father in abstracts as a name in a high score list saved on a obsolete physical medium but here we are. We all become names in a high score list in the end.
Very poignant comment... I'd do anything to have my father back with us, he'd enjoy watching me play 'Golden Axe' in he arcades whenever I went to Fleetwood. Superb memories... good times - heres to becoming a high score someday 😇🕹️👌
One of my favourites. Always been a graphics nut (I don't have an RTX 4090 and 65" OLED screen for nothing), and it blew me away with how fluid it was.
Nice screen! I play my modern console on a big TV but find it hard work for first person shooters which require quick reaction speeds. Great game this one, very fluid like you say 😇🕹️👌
One of the earliest additions to my collection. My disk picked up an error somewhere early on and I haven't been able to get past the setup screen for like 35 years. Was kicking around the idea of reformatting the disk and writing a new image, but it does still have our high scores from all those years ago.
Wow, thats a true relic of nostalgia if you kept your high scores from all those years back! Awesome... but it sucks that the disk picked up an error. Maybe get the emulated version and see if you've still 'got it' to beat your current high score! 😇🕹️👌
@@CheekyCommodoreGamer I got a real blast of nostalgia when I popped in the old Test Drive 2 disk and found some . . . colorful messages my older brother left for me in the high score list. 😂
I agree, Epyx games were very well programmed and always very tightly put together. They had that 'wow' factor without being too over complicated... unless you count the figure skating event on Winter Games!! Haha 😇🕹️👌
Very true - I remember showing this one off to my buddies back when I was a kid... I was always proud of the 'Epyx' games as they were all truly Epic at the time! 😇🕹️👌
It seems like a competent motorcycle racing game, but I'm so used to Epyx bringing their 'A' game on everything that I expected a bit more. I was going to say why did they create yet another motorcycle racing game, but perhaps at that time there weren't that many yet. Their "Pitstop II" is one of the best racing games ever made for the C64. "Jumpman" and "Jumpman Junior" are two of my favorite platformers on any system.
Yeah, it's 10 times better than the Hang-On port - I had good fun playing this one again, still find it tough in cornering as you will see in the video 😁🕹👌
This was one of the games that used Epyx's Vorpal loader for super-fast disk loading. If you had an original, or a copy of an original, the main menu loaded up in probably less than 10 seconds, and the loading time between tracks was only seconds as well.
I wish I had that back in the day, I spent a lot of time in my life staring at the screen waiting for my cassettes to load! I wish games loaded as fast as they do on Emulation back then!! Mind you, we'd have missed out on some superb loading screens 😇🕹️👌
The music jingle definitely has that certain 'nostalgic' charm - it used to give me goosebumps listening to it ramping up, as it reminded me of the 80s and my time playing this for the first time 😇🕹️👌
2:15 There is an interesting "cheat" of sorts in this game. The graphics for the curves are stored as characters, but there's not enough of them for both directions, so the game can only store one set at once. If the previous curve was to the left and the next curve coming up is to the right, the game will manually flip all the graphics during a straight section of track. If you look in the dead centre of the road just above the cyclist's helmet, you'll notice a pixel or two "swap" sides, so you can tell which way the next curve is going to be. Knowing this technical limitation at the time made the game a lot easier to complete! :)
Now thats just genius... I actually never noticed that before haha. I could have gotten a much better high score had I known this sorcery before making the video 😇🕹️👌
@@CheekyCommodoreGamer Once you know the trick, it's impossible to not use it! Your eyes will gravitate to that spot and you'll instinctively move the motorbike to the correct spot to get around the next corner.
Games like these make me wish someone thought to invent the C64 game-pad, with one joy port controlling the d-pad and left trigger and the other joy port controlling the four action buttons and right trigger. The triggers would have been perfect for shifting gears while two buttons could have been acceleration and brakes. Games such as Elite would have also benefited. Imagine the games we could have had. I need a time machine...
I've never played this, but I can tell this is an Epyx racing game. It looks top notch! I don't think it could top PitStop 2, which is probably my favorite C64 racing game. There are definitely some similarities between the two... so it's clear they are made by the same company.
Its got the same high qualities of Pitstop 2 in the form of a motorcycle game, definitely a banger from Epyx! Get it fired up, you'll like this one 😇🕹️👌
I had this on a compilation and liked it, although it does have an odd feel for a racer. There's no race standings, and no checkpoints so its hard to tell if you're doing well or not. And from one race to the next it feels a bit dislocated. Great tune though that I still hum. I think its that it invreases with pace, so it sets the tone for a racing game.
You're right, there was no indication of how close you were from the end... which made races a little tense, especially when you're down to your last 10 seconds on the timer! I suppose that just made me want to ride flat out all the time, hence the constant crashing into things haha 😇🕹️👌
What I know about this one from some other sources - it has great game engine and visuals, but needed more polish in gameplay department (getting those important sparks of ingenuity and passion). And nice looks had its price. If I'm not wrong, this one is a multiload fare, which makes it cumbersome for tape users. Well, at least in comparison to one of the greatest - Pitstop II. But also Powerdrift and Buggy Boy, and various others. Just keep my racers simple and functional, fast and smooth, and without loading hassle - and I'll be a very happy 8-bit dude. Sure I like nice looks of the thing, but hey - when I am into arcade / driving heat of passion, I have no time to wait minutes for a game to reload. Microprose brain-engaging simulations are something completely different, no problem to sit and wait half an hour to fill the juice into airplane / submarine / warship, and read the thick manual while fixing coffee and doing meticulous planning. But man, I wanted to drive in my arcade game fast and without interruptions! I was a teenage on the loose!
Racing games were superb back in the day, the feeling of actual speed in games was pretty thrilling back in the 80s! Especially in the comfort of our own homes... as we'd take in all the atmosphere from the arcades and was addicted to the adrenaline rush hehe. Super Cycle ticked many boxes for me back in the day 😇🕹️👌
I wish I had those skills as a kid to be able to bypass protection on games. I couldnt play Jet Set Willy after my brother lost the copyright protection sheet!! Haha - yeah it's a great game this one, but like you say... Pitstop II was preferred, especially in 2 player mode! Also on the channel 😇🕹️👌
I had this in the Gold Collection. Didn't really play it much. I played the Mastertronic Speed King game a LOT more than SuperCycle, but SS has a much better soundtrack.
I don't need to watch the video, I know this was an awesome game, I played it so so so so so so so much!!! I'll watch the video though, coz I luvs ya :D
While this is definitely a "poor man's" Hang On, two facts make this the best C64 motorcycle game: 1. Sega did port Super Hang On in 1987, it was a piece of shit. 2. ALL the other motorcycle games released on the C64 were just weak
With the exception of Kikstart II and Action Biker, you're absolutely right... all the other motorcycle 'Racer' type games were pretty poor. Well, apart from Speed King of course. Super Hang On was my first ever Sega Mega Drive/Genesis game (Came with the Mega Games I Compilation) and that was superb, yet Electric Dreams made a hash job of the Commodore 64 version! 😇🕹️👌
I'm curious... If you go "off track" on one of the levels where the road is surrounded by blue, do you still just "crash", or did they arrange an animation where you splash into the water?
Hmmm interesting, I am not sure actually - might have to fire it up tonight and replicate a 'water' crash to see what happens unless anyone can give it a try and let us know 😇🕹️👌
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Which was your favourite 'Epyx' game for the Commodore 64? 😇🕹👌
=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=
More from 1986: tinyurl.com/1986-C64-GAMES
My Top Picks: tinyurl.com/CCGS-BEST-GAMES
Pick ONE favorite? Wow! That's a tough call. Epyx made some of my favorite C64 games. Pitstop 2, Impossible Mission, Jumpman, the "Games" games... just to name a few. I don't know if I could pick just one. I've been meaning to go back and play some of their games that I missed just because their name is associated with quality games.
I was about 15-16 when playing this in the 80’s, that theme music is nice to listen to & never got tired of hearing it.
I used an Epyx 500XJ joystick, easier to hit the curves due to a short joystick and the 500XJ can fit in the palm of your hand.
Wish I had one of those joysticks! I was finding the cornering a little slippy but just takes practice I suppose. Great game 🏍🏁👌
Oh wow, yes, I remember this game! I especially remember the music! Great times. I remember my friends and I would see how much we could bump the other bikes before someone wiped out. The simplicity of the controls definitely let you focus on the game itself and I remember liking that.
Great game isn't it! Nothing too complicated, just pure unadulterated fun 😇🕹️👌
EPYX AT THEIR MOST EPIC...
AND ESPECIALLY ON THE
COMMODORE 64 AND AMIGA 😺👍🕹️.
SUPER CYCLE is definitely one of the
best motorcycling games, i have ever
played on my Commodore 64 😺👍🕹️!
And as i remember correctly, i had this game in a compilation called
THE WORLD'S GREATEST EPYX
(boxed, disk) 😺👍.
Even the graphics are absolutely as amazing as in PITSTOP I and II 😺👍.
And the music + sound effects 🎶🎵...
OH YEAH 😺👍🕹️!
A big retrospective like 👍🕹️ from
Vantaa, Finland 🇫🇮.
Epyx truly had some absolutely classic C64 titles 😇🕹👌
To me one of the best, if not the best, racing games on the C64 and one of my alltime favorites!
There was a definite feeling of pure adrenaline and speed with this one, I mean... back in 1986 that is. Great game for it's time 😇🕹️👌
I played this a lot, loved the night stages with the lighting. Very playable, very polished.
Yeah the thunderstorm stage is very atmospheric. Great game 😇🕹️👌
@CheekyCommodoreGamer great with some 70s/80s synth music
Cant beat 70s & 80s Synth! Mind you, I also love euro disco and electronic dance from Georgio Moroder too! 😇🕹️👌
@@CheekyCommodoreGamer I was listening to a giorgio moroder mash up with another band the other day, can't remember who with but it was excellent. I'm a big tangerine dream fan myself, also klause schulze, Jean Michel jarre, Gary numan and loads more👍👍👍
Love all those you mention, I was a BIG fan of Numan back in his Tube way Army days... I do like his modern rock type tunes too. That guy went on some crazy musical transition over the years! 🎼🕹👌
Yesss what a tune! Stuck in my head for years.
Superb little track isn't it! I love that tune too 😇🕹️👌
Super Cycle, besides being of the first games I ever played on a home computer, was possibly the only game I managed to get my father and a few other adults to play. The game saves highscores to disk which at the time was a novelty feature so their names should still be on there even though most of the people are not. It's weird thinking about your father in abstracts as a name in a high score list saved on a obsolete physical medium but here we are. We all become names in a high score list in the end.
Very poignant comment... I'd do anything to have my father back with us, he'd enjoy watching me play 'Golden Axe' in he arcades whenever I went to Fleetwood. Superb memories... good times - heres to becoming a high score someday 😇🕹️👌
One of my favourites. Always been a graphics nut (I don't have an RTX 4090 and 65" OLED screen for nothing), and it blew me away with how fluid it was.
Nice screen! I play my modern console on a big TV but find it hard work for first person shooters which require quick reaction speeds. Great game this one, very fluid like you say 😇🕹️👌
I loved this as a kid, but whenever I see the Epyx logo I immediately think of Jumpman. I spent so much time on that game.
One of the earliest additions to my collection. My disk picked up an error somewhere early on and I haven't been able to get past the setup screen for like 35 years. Was kicking around the idea of reformatting the disk and writing a new image, but it does still have our high scores from all those years ago.
Wow, thats a true relic of nostalgia if you kept your high scores from all those years back! Awesome... but it sucks that the disk picked up an error. Maybe get the emulated version and see if you've still 'got it' to beat your current high score! 😇🕹️👌
@@CheekyCommodoreGamer I got a real blast of nostalgia when I popped in the old Test Drive 2 disk and found some . . . colorful messages my older brother left for me in the high score list. 😂
Haha a time capsule of smut, I hope 😁🕹👌
I loved this game along with Pitstop 2. Epyx normally meant a good game. Thanks CCG.
I agree, Epyx games were very well programmed and always very tightly put together. They had that 'wow' factor without being too over complicated... unless you count the figure skating event on Winter Games!! Haha 😇🕹️👌
This was great and had a superb feeling of speed. Great days sitting down with a can of tizer and playing this,
mmmmmmm Tizer! Not had that stuff in years. That and American Cream Soda 😇🕹️👌
Super Cycle and Speed King are imho the best motorbike games on the C64. 👍😉
Two great games indeed - Speed King will certainly feature on the channel one day in the not so distant future 😇🕹️👌
@CheekyCommodoreGamer Great! Looking forward to that one. 😉👍
it felt as close to having super hang on at home as you could get, to me back then.
Agreed 100%!
Very true - I remember showing this one off to my buddies back when I was a kid... I was always proud of the 'Epyx' games as they were all truly Epic at the time! 😇🕹️👌
It seems like a competent motorcycle racing game, but I'm so used to Epyx bringing their 'A' game on everything that I expected a bit more. I was going to say why did they create yet another motorcycle racing game, but perhaps at that time there weren't that many yet. Their "Pitstop II" is one of the best racing games ever made for the C64. "Jumpman" and "Jumpman Junior" are two of my favorite platformers on any system.
Epyx did have some of the most iconic games for the Commodore huh - not forgetting the awesome 'Sword Of Fargoal! 😇🕹️👌
Such a great racing game. Glad I bought this instead of Super Hang On (had a cracked copy of that turd)!😅
Yeah, it's 10 times better than the Hang-On port - I had good fun playing this one again, still find it tough in cornering as you will see in the video 😁🕹👌
This was one of the games that used Epyx's Vorpal loader for super-fast disk loading. If you had an original, or a copy of an original, the main menu loaded up in probably less than 10 seconds, and the loading time between tracks was only seconds as well.
I wish I had that back in the day, I spent a lot of time in my life staring at the screen waiting for my cassettes to load! I wish games loaded as fast as they do on Emulation back then!! Mind you, we'd have missed out on some superb loading screens 😇🕹️👌
Yet another great music track, I used to leave the menu on just enjoy it. As to my best motorcycle game it would be Speed King
The music jingle definitely has that certain 'nostalgic' charm - it used to give me goosebumps listening to it ramping up, as it reminded me of the 80s and my time playing this for the first time 😇🕹️👌
2:15 There is an interesting "cheat" of sorts in this game. The graphics for the curves are stored as characters, but there's not enough of them for both directions, so the game can only store one set at once. If the previous curve was to the left and the next curve coming up is to the right, the game will manually flip all the graphics during a straight section of track. If you look in the dead centre of the road just above the cyclist's helmet, you'll notice a pixel or two "swap" sides, so you can tell which way the next curve is going to be. Knowing this technical limitation at the time made the game a lot easier to complete! :)
Now thats just genius... I actually never noticed that before haha. I could have gotten a much better high score had I known this sorcery before making the video 😇🕹️👌
@@CheekyCommodoreGamer Once you know the trick, it's impossible to not use it! Your eyes will gravitate to that spot and you'll instinctively move the motorbike to the correct spot to get around the next corner.
Games like these make me wish someone thought to invent the C64 game-pad, with one joy port controlling the d-pad and left trigger and the other joy port controlling the four action buttons and right trigger.
The triggers would have been perfect for shifting gears while two buttons could have been acceleration and brakes. Games such as Elite would have also benefited. Imagine the games we could have had. I need a time machine...
Something like the NES joypad for the C64 would have been a gamechanger, literally - I agree 😇🕹️👌
@@CheekyCommodoreGamer Exactly like that and yes, would have been a 'game' changer. ;)
I remember this. Nice frame rate.
Yeah its super smooth and has some great music! 😇🕹️👌
I hope that you will someday make a review of the game named Mercenary. I am really looking forward to that. 😊
Absolutely, its an epic trip down memory lane... no game will be left unearthed by the end of it... not sure how many years that may take me!! 😇🕹️👌
I've never played this, but I can tell this is an Epyx racing game. It looks top notch! I don't think it could top PitStop 2, which is probably my favorite C64 racing game. There are definitely some similarities between the two... so it's clear they are made by the same company.
Its got the same high qualities of Pitstop 2 in the form of a motorcycle game, definitely a banger from Epyx! Get it fired up, you'll like this one 😇🕹️👌
Super Cycle is definitely one of the better racers on the C64. I would say one of the best. But what do I know?
You could be right on the money with that one.... between this and Pitstop II for me. Both from Epyx too! 😇🕹️👌
I had this on a compilation and liked it, although it does have an odd feel for a racer. There's no race standings, and no checkpoints so its hard to tell if you're doing well or not. And from one race to the next it feels a bit dislocated.
Great tune though that I still hum. I think its that it invreases with pace, so it sets the tone for a racing game.
You're right, there was no indication of how close you were from the end... which made races a little tense, especially when you're down to your last 10 seconds on the timer! I suppose that just made me want to ride flat out all the time, hence the constant crashing into things haha 😇🕹️👌
What I know about this one from some other sources - it has great game engine and visuals, but needed more polish in gameplay department (getting those important sparks of ingenuity and passion). And nice looks had its price. If I'm not wrong, this one is a multiload fare, which makes it cumbersome for tape users. Well, at least in comparison to one of the greatest - Pitstop II. But also Powerdrift and Buggy Boy, and various others. Just keep my racers simple and functional, fast and smooth, and without loading hassle - and I'll be a very happy 8-bit dude.
Sure I like nice looks of the thing, but hey - when I am into arcade / driving heat of passion, I have no time to wait minutes for a game to reload. Microprose brain-engaging simulations are something completely different, no problem to sit and wait half an hour to fill the juice into airplane / submarine / warship, and read the thick manual while fixing coffee and doing meticulous planning.
But man, I wanted to drive in my arcade game fast and without interruptions! I was a teenage on the loose!
Racing games were superb back in the day, the feeling of actual speed in games was pretty thrilling back in the 80s! Especially in the comfort of our own homes... as we'd take in all the atmosphere from the arcades and was addicted to the adrenaline rush hehe. Super Cycle ticked many boxes for me back in the day 😇🕹️👌
I remember removing the protection from this game using an expert cartridge, didn't take long at all. Great game but I preferred Pitstop 2
I wish I had those skills as a kid to be able to bypass protection on games. I couldnt play Jet Set Willy after my brother lost the copyright protection sheet!! Haha - yeah it's a great game this one, but like you say... Pitstop II was preferred, especially in 2 player mode! Also on the channel 😇🕹️👌
I had this in the Gold Collection. Didn't really play it much. I played the Mastertronic Speed King game a LOT more than SuperCycle, but SS has a much better soundtrack.
Many people say its a toss up between this and Speed King - I'll have to get Speed King fired up soon for a future video 😇🕹️👌
I don't need to watch the video, I know this was an awesome game, I played it so so so so so so so much!!!
I'll watch the video though, coz I luvs ya :D
I luvs ya too 😇🕹️👌
Most bikers complain if a bike has only 5 gears and not 6.
True! Some bikers want so many gears, they’d be happier riding a 10-speed bicycle! 😇🕹️👌
great visuals , not tried this
Very slick game indeed, lovely music too 😇🕹️👌
While this is definitely a "poor man's" Hang On, two facts make this the best C64 motorcycle game: 1. Sega did port Super Hang On in 1987, it was a piece of shit. 2. ALL the other motorcycle games released on the C64 were just weak
With the exception of Kikstart II and Action Biker, you're absolutely right... all the other motorcycle 'Racer' type games were pretty poor. Well, apart from Speed King of course. Super Hang On was my first ever Sega Mega Drive/Genesis game (Came with the Mega Games I Compilation) and that was superb, yet Electric Dreams made a hash job of the Commodore 64 version! 😇🕹️👌
I'm curious... If you go "off track" on one of the levels where the road is surrounded by blue, do you still just "crash", or did they arrange an animation where you splash into the water?
Hmmm interesting, I am not sure actually - might have to fire it up tonight and replicate a 'water' crash to see what happens unless anyone can give it a try and let us know 😇🕹️👌
Good Game but way too easy
Not for me! Not on those slippery corners anyway haha 😇🕹️👌