Commodore 64 coming to European Virtual Console in 2008

by Ross Miller on Feb 21st 2008 2:30PM

Another classic game console has joined Nintendo's Virtual Console lineup. A press release on the Nintendo Finland site announced that Commodore 64 titles will appear in the European Wii Shop Channel. That C64 is coming to Virtual Console isn't surprised (we've known since 2006), but we now know a timeframe (sometime this year) and a price of 500 points (€5 / £3.75) per game.

The first two games for the shop will be Uridium and International Karate. Are these games really worth the price of an NES title? Other recent Virtual Console platform additions include the Sega Master System. No word on when C64 will find its way into non-European Wii units.

[Via VGB, NWF]

Source

Tags: c64, commodore-64, international-karate, uridium, virtual-console, Wii

Reader Comments (43)

We'll probably never see it on VC, but "Below The Root" is a timeless classic for the c64.

yes....that game and "Wizard" by EA...AWESOME platformer...unfortunately if I remember the wikipedia remarks the licensing is likely unobtainable...

Even better - Fort Apocalypse.

OMG there were consoles before the playstation??!!!!

$5 for a Commodore64 game? ouch...

Yeah, it seems pretty steep, but most Virtual Console games are overpriced as is. Anyways, I bet our European friends wish they could pay in dollars right now.

$5 = 3.40 Euros = 2.57 British pounds

Or maybe one can?

Yeah. I don't mind $10 for a N64 game or even 800 for a SNES game, but there are only a couple of NES games I'd pay 500 points for, and there's no way I'd spend 500 points for a C64 game. Except maybe Space Taxi.

Can't you just say this year now?

blah, I typed that response faster than I had checked the pricing...

5.00 EUR = 7.40777 USD

...still pretty harsh pricing for games older than a lot of peeps on Joystiq here. :\

For £3.75 a british person will buy anything. Fact.

500 points for a C64 game? The "are you fucking kidding me!?!?" response is trying to push through...but I think I can control it.

Well screw it I can't. Thats outrageous! 500 pts? Screw that, call me if they ever go to something more reasonable like 250-300. Nostalgia for some NES games and wanting a legit copy of some of your favorites is one thing, but 500 points to download a game whose size gets put to shame by a single digital camera picture? No thanks.

Yeah, that's just obscene.

500 points is rediculous, especially considering the quality.

I used to program in my own C64 games back in the day, which was the equivalent of installing them. My father was subscribed to a computer magazine that had a few games in the back of each issue, which you had to input line by line as either machine language or basic.

This will finally give middle-aged dads everywhere the chance to show off their old-skool gaming skills on their kids' Wii.

If WiiWare games are £10, I'd take 1 WiiWare over 3 C64.

These shouldn't be any more than 250 points. That is just a really stupid pricing system.

The real question is is whether or not it will have that authentic cassette tape quality we all know and love.

I miss my Commodore ;-;

Give me Impossible Mission, Jumpman, Skyfox, and Montezuma's Revenge and I will be one happy camper.

Give me Castle's of Dr Creep!
Co-op game play
Tons of levels

Seriously a great game.

Great idea, mad price point. Most of C64 games ended up in the £1.99 rerelease pile and many gems started off as £1.99 budget titles. To charge nearly double that (£3.75) for a digital distribution 20 years later is daylight robbery.

heres an idea: download an c64 emulator and the entire library of c64 software for your PC for absolutely nothing.

At least then, it's not a legal issue on most of them(if not all).

i broke out my commodore about a year ago. Was really quite amazing fun...until the whole thing died and i was left with a useless tape deck and funky keyboard.

...and you can't forget G.I. Joe, Skate or Die, Winter Games and Beach-Head (with its 14-minute load time)!

What? 500 points? For commodore 64 games?
I call shinanagens! Shinanagens I say! this is outrageous! Let the blogosphere shake with my indignation!

yeeaahh... as much as I like the Virtual Console concept, this just doesn't make sense to me. But, then again, I started my gaming on the NES.

Wizard of Wor!

Huh? What's with all the complaining about the 500 points when NES games cost the same? The specs of both systems are about the same (they basically use the same CPU), and both have lots of classics in their library. IK and Uridium being two of those classics, obviously.

The more the merrier right? But C64 at the same price as NES seems a bit off to me.
I wonder if SMS will be the same price as NES since they're a lot more comparable.

In that case, what about bringing over the Commodore AMIGA? I need to get my Shadow of the Beast, Blood Money and other classic Psygnosis games.
Oh, wait. Psygnosis was bought out by Sony way back.
Oh, well....

Psygnosis became Sony Liverpool. They were responsible for the Wipeout games among others.

Microsoft will be releasing some Amiga games.

Just accept it, folks. There is no such thing as a download for less than $5.

That's probably the long and short of it, Nintendo never planned on having VC titles be less than $5, so either they aren't able too (possible, if $5 is hard-coded as a minimum), or figured they may as well stick with it and swim in profit (more likely)

However, more VC games area always better

The GameCentral Inbox Magic strikes again! URIDIUM on the Wii, baby!! Now let's get Uridium Plus, Wizball and MicroProse Soccer on there an'all...

The good old C64. I remember playing a pretty cool game called Destroyer and another much simpler game called Radar Rat Race.

Bearing in mind the C64 is an 8-bit machine, I have no problem with paying 500 points for one game, the same as a NES game. There are far more C64 games I want to play again than NES ones: Wizball, Que•Dex, Sanxion, Delta, Armalyte, Microprose Soccer, Hunter's Moon, Iridis Alpha, Batalyx... and the music is of a much higher quality too. Two words: Rob Hubbard.

Shame we won't see Great Giana Sisters though ;-P

I had the pc version of uridium like 20 years ago thought it was kinda dull but I really liked wizball maybe they'll bring that one to the US too.. but please PLEASE make them reasonably priced I think 250-300 wii points should be about right

Reasons to put C64 games on the Wii, Part 1: Jeff Minter did original games instead of endless Tempest rehashes.

500 points = ¼ of a 2000pts card = £15/4 = £3.75. Perfectly reasonable when pre-owned 3-year-old Gamecube games still go on store shelves for a full THIRTY QUID (nearly sixty bucks for the slow of maths).

that said I think the nes stuff should be 300 points
I'm ok with the other console's prices except genesis.

All right, I find it a bit steap to pay 500 points for NES games, but 500 points for a C64 game? No way jose.

Will you get to play reproduction version of Super Mario?

Do you realize that the C64 has half os many keys that todays computer have?

after replaying Speedball II I have to agree these old great favorites don't age THAT well to be changing that much for it..

didn't Ultima come out on C64 too? but i will say two sleepers on the Amiga that WOULD be worth it was Syndicate and Hired Guns

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Commodore 64 coming to European Virtual Console in 2008

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