Commodore 64: a visual compendium

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Commodore 64: a visual compendium celebrates one the most popular home computers of all time, taking you on a journey through the C64’s varied and colourful gaming library, starting in 1982, with early releases like Jupiter Lander and Beach Head, and travelling forward through the decades.

The 1980s saw an array of amazing C64 titles: think Dropzone, Impossible Mission, Elite, Mercenary, Uridium, The Last Ninja… These and others represented an incredible variety of genres, from shoot ’em ups to puzzlers, racing games to arcade adventures, plus games that still defy categorisation – The Sentinel, anyone? By the time the 1990s rolled around, talented coders were making the machine do things the original hardware designers didn’t think were possible; games like Turrican, Creatures and Lemmings showed that there was life left in the old CPU yet. Even when Commodore went bust, and the computer was no longer being manufactured, the games still kept coming.

So, this book pays homage not only to the seminal games of the C64’s official lifespan, but also to the developers that kept the system alive, featuring games that were completed and released a decade after the last boxed C64 left the high street.

Commodore 64: a visual compendium features well over a hundred titles, represented by beautiful in-game shots or loading screens, plus a gallery of artwork by legendary Zzap!64 artist Oliver Frey. Also included is a series of features, including profiles of key Britsoft developers, interviews with famous C64 artists, a look back at the demo scene, plus a showcase of unreleased titles and the new games being released more than 20 years after the last machine rolled off Commodore’s production line.

Presented in full colour throughout, printed on high quality paper and complete with a spot-varnished protective dust cover, this unique title is a treat for anyone who grew up playing games or learning their craft on this most ubiquitous of home computers.

Book specifications
500 pages. 170mm × 230mm. Edge-to-edge high quality lithographic print. Hardback. Sewn binding for enduring quality and the ability to lay flat for ideal double-page image viewing. Spot-varnished cover and dust jacket that highlight key elements against a matte background. Two coloured bookmark ribbons. Shrink-wrapped.

Reprint updates
In this latest reprint of Commodore 64: a visual compendium, we’ve added 24 pages of new material, including: an updated foreword from Stoo Cambridge; the inclusion of The Last V8, Revs, Vendetta, Operation Wolf and Green Beret; additional contributions from Martin Galway and Matt Gray; an updated Thalamus Games profile; additional text on certain games, as seen in other Bitmap Books visual compendium titles; the addition of several recent homebrew titles, plus written contributions from their authors; and a short section on PESCII art.

Includes contributions from:
Mat Allen, Pete Baron, Andrew Braybrook, Steve Brown, Stoo Cambridge, Gary Carr, David Crane, Stephen Crow, Andrew Davie, Ivan Davies, Karen Davies-Downey, Steven Day, Mevlut Dinc, Paul Docherty, Andy Dyer, Andreas Escher, Brian Fargo, Simon Forrester, Oliver Frey, Kevin Furry, Martin Galway, Ron Gilbert, Dave Golder, Matt Gray, Michael Haire, Jon Hare, Andrew Hewson, Robin Hogg, Paul Hughes, Andy Hutchinson, Robert Jaeger, Steve Jarratt, Mark Jones, Roger Kean, Mark W.J. Kelly, Kevin Kieller, Phil King, Paul Koller, John F. Kutcher, Ned Langman, James Leach, Robin Levy, Peter Liepa, Oliver Lindau, Richard Löwenstein, Steinar Lund, Archer MacLean, Sean Masterson, Jordan Mechner, Alan Miller, Jeff Minter, Andrew Morris, Paul Norman, Michal Okowicki, Philip Oliver, The Oliver Twins, Gary Penn, Jason Perkins, Simon Phipps, Julian ‘Jaz’ Rignall, Hugh Riley, Stephen Robertson, Andy Roberts, John Rowlands, Stephen Ruddy, Chris Shrigley, Jonathan Smyth Temples, Steve Snake, Mat Sneap, Chuck Sommerville, Audun Sorlie, Bob Stevenson, Trevor Storey, Stephen Ian Thomson, Mikael Tillander, Jacco Van’t Riet, Bob Wakelin, Martin Walker, Trenton Webb, Matt Wilsher, Gary Winnick and Stuart Wynne.