I don’t quite remember how it all came about in all honesty, February this year seems so long gone now, I do however remember a phone call to or from my mother, that’s how things like this usually start!
I’m pretty sure she was emptying out her loft as she is planning on getting it converted; additionally the loft has to be emptied as she is getting insulation and cavity walls done.
How talk of the C64 came about I just don’t know, probably mentioned that I use an emulator to still play the Commodore 64 games to this day, my mum is quite clued up considering she is hitting 60 next year (damn, I am feeling old) and understood what I was saying about old games running on a dedicated piece of software on new machines.
My mum did inform me she still had my childhood Commodore 64 and a few boxes of the games, with no thought it was a case of bring it over, I want it back, my wife cast me the evil eye when I told her but she said it was ok as long as I don’t make a mess!
A few days later my mum visited, bringing along the old, now-stained box that was available for Christmas around 1984, bundled in it the Music Maker keyboard and Secret Diary of Adrian Mole. Alongside this were two huge boxes full of games, all mixed up and not packaged particularly well.
I feverishly unpacked the C64 to make sure it was all there, Joystick (Konix Speedking)…check, Mills tape deck…check, disk drive…check, all leads…check. Looking good so far and finally my Action Replay Mark IV (things were always numbered with Roman numerals back in the ‘80s). Within minutes I had everything hooked up to my 51in Plasma, thankfully the TV was bought before the analogue turn off so I managed to power-up and tune the TV in. The familiar blue screen with flashing cursor filled the big screen. I dug out my backed-up-to-disk copy of Rick Dangerous by Firebird, I took a grab of the game after the tape had loaded with it being a single load using my Action Replay around 25 years prior!
Time to fire up the disk drive, damn…nothing, it’s dead. OK, what would I do if it was a modern PC, don’t panic yet! Check all leads are plugged into ports correctly, yep, no problems there. Hang on a second, maybe it’s the fuse in the plug, as is always the case I know I have fuses in the house somewhere, but when I need them they go hide! Right, what to do, I’m losing my will to live, ah…it’s a standard kettle lead so why didn’t I check that first. The old plug is Bakelite so it’s best to change it regardless, now I know I have a spare in one of my spare-bits drawers. So after the mad dig through the drawers I find said lead, plug it into back of the old Vic 1541 and flick the switch, in a sheer Frankenstein moment I cried out “It’s Alive” which gave the kids, my wife and mum a chuckle!
LOAD”$”,8
LIST
LOAD”R*”,8,1
RUN
A few seconds later it all came flooding back like a tidal wave, the familiar SID tune and the title screen. Time to play, I now have an audience, kids watching in fascination, wife horrified by all the wires and my mum smiling quietly, possibly seeing me as a 14-year-old boy again.
After a few goes I decide to relinquish the joystick to my son (12) and then daughter (14), they got about as far as I did, these games were tough. I don’t know how I ever managed to get through them back in the day.
So while the kids were playing on my old breadbin I had to go digging, as long as one particular game is there I am happy. So the coffee table in the hallway became a shrine, taking out the small tape games first and laying them out so I can see the spine and the title. Now it’s time to start unpacking the large cardboard box games…I hope it’s there.
By this time my wife and mum had retreated to the kitchen downstairs!
It has to be there, the holy grail of my collection, my all-time favourite game ever, the game I played through hundreds of times start to finish without using any POKES or cheats, the kids are now also heading downstairs to regale the other adults on how cool the old machine is.
Found it, I am alone in the front room, holding the box as if it could dissolve if I breathed on it!
Put the tape in
SHIFT/RUN Stop
PRESS PLAY ON TAPE
Who am I to argue with what I am being told to do?!
I turn up the TV volume, turn on the home cinema and select optical input and turn that up and head to the kitchen. I said to my mum “I found it, it’s there”, she almost knew without saying anything else what I was talking about.
My wife and the kids asked what have you found…
At this point the music started and my mum recognised it immediately and said “Last Ninja 2”
You could hear it clear as day as I had the volume up pretty loud, it was time for a trip round Central Park.


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No tank-pong for Jim....
