c64s.com is a retro-gaming website that contains an extensive archive of original emulated Commodore 64 games that are available for online play.
Ah, the Commodore 64, the bane of my existence throughout my teenage years (I had a Sinclair Spectrum until the Amiga showed up). Those “amazing” color graphics, the games, the games! If you feel nostalgic just thinking about this, head over to c64s.com where you can play a great many of the games of your childhood online (the owners of the site assume that these games are abandonware).
The games are classified into categories (action, adventure, arcade, etc). Most of these are 100% playable, except for the ’beta’ section which houses those games whose emulation is still being tweaked and that may have some problems running in the browser.
I played Commando, Ghosts and Goblins, and Match Day II. What’s strange is that the games aren’t as cool as I remembered them. Or maybe the C-64 was never as cool as the Spectrum anyway ;). There’s also a searchbox that you can use to immediately find that special game that you’re looking for. Note that the emulation offers Joystick emulation through the arrow keys.
This site is pretty cool, but in a world where even the arcade originals of most C64 games are now emulated themselves, it is not the games that are the draw but the nostalgia factor. What’s cool is that even the ’trainers’ and pre-game scrolling text demos of cracking groups are preserved in some of these, which in my opinion makes for even more of an, ahem, “authentic” retro gaming experience!
