Top 10 Commodore 64 Clone Games 

I loved Burning Rubber as a kid. I was surprised to not see Who Dares Wins I and II on your list, awesome clones of Commando.

A great wild west era if you look back on it; great fun to revisit. I remember far too many of these, even enjoyed Galaxy! The interviews of the era are another great touch. Interesting about Interceptor rebranding as Players/Pandora, I didn't know that! Sad to hear of Archer MacLean's passing. Dropzone is indeed a very well deserved mention, a superior clone game.

This is the sort of content i absolutely love, your trailer for upcoming projects looks amazing too.

ohhh.. suicide express.. little Story about it... i got my c64 in 86.. my friend got his little earlier.. he said.: hey janer.. i bring my c64 to your home and we play our hearts out.. (i Was hooked like hell).. at last He came with the c64 ONLY with datasette.. and ONLY 1 game.. you guess what it was...hahahaha.. memories lovely

Really fantastic subject to upload. I'll bet there are tons of other clones out there. Really enjoyed that one, not very often this subject is given a good airing on RU-vid 👍

Yet another brilliant production 👍👍

Great video. I've played or have some of these games but my favourite would be Into the Eagle's Nest. I remember getting it on a compilation and thinking I was in my favourite war movie Where Eagles Dare.

One great C64 take on Breakout that I played a lot back in the day was TRAZ, especially for its killer soundtrack.

Hah! I still thought Eagle Empire was the genuine thing not a clone, learn something every day! Great video as always.

Another fine video, sir! I absolutely adore all of the Bagman games, especially the newer LC Games releases! They are top notch.

Great reviews thank bashb

Space Pilot is awesome. Loved Interceptor's Siren City as a kid, too.

I'm glad you picked up on the bizarre fact that Crowther released the same clone of Super Locomotive three times, with Loco, Black Thunder, and Suicide Express. Does anyone know the story behind this? Why were 3 different companies willing to publish essentially the same game? Did Crowther do it behind their backs to triple his pay?

Super Locomotive is such a bizarre game, and even more bizarre to clone. My favorite clone is Questron, a clone of Ultima. Richard Garriot sued, and they settled out of court. Legal problems behind them, they'd go on to make Questron II, Legacy of the Ancients, and The Legend of Blacksilver. Not bad for starting with a clone that got sued!

I think you missed about a thousand versions of Boulderdash :P Love the Sonic the Hedgehog insert at 5:43!

Burnin Rubber and Eagle's Nest are just so good - that bodgy 'e' tacked onto the end of jouste always pissed me off, even as a little kid (glad the official version finally saw the light of day recently) - another superb video as always........... I would love to see someone bring out a collection of the best 5 or 6 breakout knockoffs with paddle support one day !

It’s not really an Arkanoid clone, but I remember liking Crillion a lot. There’s no paddle, but ball physics and bounces are everything in that game.

Great video! I'm a little behind on my RU-vid watching, but I try to keep up on your channel. Falcon Patrol 2 has caught my eye... I need to check that one out. Drop Zone as well....

Man, this brought back memories. Especially Burning Rubber, Loco, Suicide Express, Falcon Patrol and Dropzone I played very often back then.

We bought the OG tape version of Bumping Buggys back then, but when we loaded it up, it was Burnin' Rubber instead. Weird manufacturing error. But I didn't care, since it was a good game, and in hindsight a better game than what we were supposed to get.

I played Burning Rubber many many times. I was so fun! Regarding Daley Thomson's games I personally liked Summer Games (Epyx) more. I also played Into The Eagles Nest, Bagitman, Jumpin Jack and Scramble. But my top ten favourite game was Krakout. The music was SO great! 😃 Galaxy Birds was the game I played regarding Galaxian, because it was one of my first ever games. ;) About Giana Sisters, boy did I play that to death. 😁

didn't know about Anco's story, excellent piece of trivia! sad to learn about the founders' departure

Batty on the Spectrum was originally a free original game as part of the compilation 6-Pak Vol 2, it was so well received that it was later released as a budget title.

I loved Eagle Empire too, played that loads. But the version I played was really weird in that the mothership / final boss always just shot at the player in the same spot, like the X position was stuck somehow. Made it a lot easier! I didn't realize that was a bug when I was a kid. I've been meaning to dig into this more. Did anyone else see this?

Up'n Down was another good game underrated.

Although I appreciate its inclusion in this video (as I never would have heard of it otherwise!) _Insects in Space_ looks like one of *the most original and innovative* games on the C64, rather than being merely a clone: just look at that box art!

Thanks!

Speaking of clones, although this one is from 2015, I really liked the version of Scramble by Thomas Kite. Far better than the slow paced one from Anirog.

I honestly thought that Galaxy was trying to be a Galaga clone back in the day.

Burnin' Rubber was brilliant - I preferred it over the arcade! Batty.. wow, I hadn't played that one, it's a classic! I cant find the Zzap review of it though.. perhaps wasn't reviewed? But great video, a classic in itself :)

A fine choice for #1 position

For me, Guardian is probably my favorite Defender game on the C64 (apart from Drop Zone) but I'm referring to a straight-up clone, rather than a variant. The issue is a lot of these companies that produced the arcade games back in the day didn't give a damn if someone cloned their game, because they would have still made money in the arcades from the originals anyway...well, unless you count Nintendo As far as Interceptor is concerned, yeah, they did make a lot of clones, but sadly a good portion of them were subpar, ESPECIALLY that god awful DK clone. Defender 64 was pretty dire, although in all fairness, so was the official Atarisoft port of Defender. The frame rates on that port was abysmal.

Bastich I love your videos. Your content is highly entertaining, your subject matter is right up my alley with a very well executed mix of old and new. If I could please ask a favor, can you please change that modem “we interrupt this program” sound, or at least lower the volume? I hope you take this for the compliment it’s intended as, I really love rewatching your videos to fall asleep, the timber of your voice hits my eat drum just right, smooth and relaxing, talking about stuff I like… I must have rewatched your Top 200 C64 video at least 50 times! but as I drift off to sleep, that modem tone is so jarring it always jerks me awake. Otherwise, love your videos!

Great list. I always thought Katakis drew a lot of inspiration from R-Type, but I guess it’s just different enough to not be considered a clone

Nice - might have to look up some of these to try out. Weird to see Spindizzy as a "Marble Madness" clone though - it's such a completely different game other than the isometric view. Marble Madness is a skill based race to the bottom of a few maps, Spindizzy is an explorathon : Map the area in all directions, collect the sprites. Is it just the Isometric view that lumps them together?

Fox just got fined 500,000 Dollars for using the emergency broadcast tone for 3 seconds.

I wouldn't call Into the Eagles' Nest a clone. Sure, it's influenced by Gauntlet, but a clone? It's a much deeper game. The same applies to Spindizzy. Although it looks similar to Marble Madness, it's a lot more puzzle-orientated, making it more of an adventure (with a huge map to boot) that feels closer to games like Head Over Heels.

What is that version of Pengo playing on the bottom left monitor during your intro (starting around the 25 second mark)? It looks gorgeous

I played Burnin Rubber for hours and hours and .... it's a very good simple game

That old movie effect you used on the background to talk about Interceptor Software made me somewhat dizzy even though and I'm not really sensitive to flashing screens. Please avoid it. By the way, great video, as always

Jumpin Jack 🤩 like that game.

Speaking of Manfred Trenz - I thought Katakis would be at the top of your list. I'm surprised it didn't garner a mention

Really interesting compilation. I've been trying my hardest to identify your accent, and I have to say I've failed miserably.

I wonder if you should link the videos you put in your ads.

Another clone game that is worth mentioning is Stix. A really good, albeit primitive clone of Qix. Also Extermintor, despite it's simplistic graphics, was a pretty decent Centipede variant for the time it came out

🤟

👍👍👍👍👍👍

I want ading the Centipede Clone 👉Maggotmania

Guardian?

Loco piqued my interest

Oh, and Toy Bizarre (another favorite of mine as a kid) was pretty much a clone of the original Mario Brothers.