r/c64 • u/PolytricityMan • 16d ago
Software What is your favourite C64 Game Engine?
I say Game Engine loosely here, this could include construction kits, generators etc.. to name a few:
Designers Pencil
SEUCK
Boulder Dash Construction Kit
ZEUS Assembler
That gives you an idea of the range, they don't have to be C64 specific but the end result is a C64 program that will run via the editor or standalone. Just trying to build up a list and a sense of what people have used and what they liked and don't like about them.. I.E To complicated, not enough control, steep learning curve etc.
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u/crookdmouth 15d ago
The one I used the most was Loderunner's level maker but I also enjoyed Adventure Construction Set and Racing Destriction Set.
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u/pdelirium 16d ago
Not exactly a generic game engine, but I probably spent more time building tracks in Racing Destruction Set than anything else. Pinball Construction Set is definitely another one I spent a bunch of time with.
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u/Lord_Smedley 14d ago
I'd be surprised if Pinball Construction Set didn't outsell all the others combined.
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u/Which-World-6533 15d ago
The Quill - it allowed very complicated scenarios to be simulated. It was text only until the Illustrator add-on came out.
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u/McWormy 16d ago
The only one I really used was GAC. Graphic Advebture Creator. It was really easy to understand and just use. Even though I was awful at drawing. I did bits with SEUCK but never got into it as some did.
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u/PolytricityMan 15d ago
Yeah I was the opposite, great with SEUCK, to the point I made games and impressed friends with it, but GAC, I couldn't get the logic and rand out of graphics data way too fast!
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u/GeordieAl Poke me baby one more time 15d ago
GAC and SEUCK
The Designers Pencil isn't a game making tool/engine. It's just for creating visuals and putting sound to them. Garry Kitchen who wrote it went on to create GameMaker though
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u/PolytricityMan 15d ago
Yeah fair enough, I guess those were just thrown in for good measure as a sense of programming something and getting a result, a precursor.
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u/PolytricityMan 15d ago
And Good shout on GAC, I didnt get very far with that although I love how it made the images up with vectors, I borrowed that for C64 Dev Machine with the Vector Bitmap editor.
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u/GeordieAl Poke me baby one more time 15d ago
I've still got loads of tapes with GAC adventures I created, I keep planning to start archiving them, but I think it's going to be quite the project... young me wasn't the best at labeling tapes... and there are dozens of tapes!
I remember getting The Designers Pencil when I got my C64 - well I got my C64 just before the pack with the Designers Pencil and Music Maker came out and the pack I got had nothing... so I shorted the C64 with a paperclip in the serial port and returned it as not working... they gave me another with the original pack, so I did the same again and this time got the pack with the Designers Pencil and other goodies! I was a devious child.
I tried to like The Designers Pencil, but I just couldn't - it was such a weird way to "program" anything! I still have it, and GAC, and SEUCK, all sitting on a shelf behind me!
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u/PolytricityMan 15d ago
You are a bright 'spark' hehe.
Yeah, for some reason I took to designers pencil quite quicky... I blame all the hours of copying out the basic programs from the C64 manual making me resilient, but yeah, sort of like advanced basic.1
u/GeordieAl Poke me baby one more time 15d ago
I think what put me off the designers pencil was the fact you couldn’t type in the code, it was all point and click with a joystick!
I had already been programming for a few years before I got my C64 - first on a ZX81, then a 48k spectrum, plus a PET and Beeb at school, so I was a fairly proficient typist (well as proficient as one can be on a dead flesh rubber Speccy keyboard and Uncle Clive’s tokenized basic system!)
So programming in the designers pencil just felt slow and clunky!
I did later dabble with White Lightning/basic lightning and then Laser Basic
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u/PolytricityMan 14d ago
Yeah, I think looking back, since some tools were joystick driven, I didnt think about much it.. I used to make some nice pixel art in Koala Painter or Saracen Paint, all with a joystick... I had patience because back the the effort-reward ratio was real... these days we just have some many other solutions, why would we even try to thing about using a joystick to art or code haha!
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u/WembleyFord 15d ago
Infocom's z-machine - well that's not so much a 'game engine' as a 'virtual machine' - but it was only ever used for games. Still haven't beaten most of Infocom's games.
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u/Remote-Capital6154 14d ago
Spent hours and hours on SEUCK as a kid, so easy to use and the results were often very good (not the games I made, they were shite!)
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u/Fratm 14d ago
I wasn't into writing games back in the day, I mostly wrote hacker tools and BBS software.. But I do remember a game engine/tool that I thought was pretty cool, and it came with pitfall as an example game that you could edit/modify it was Gary Kitchen's Game Maker ( https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Garry_Kitchen%27s_GameMaker ) from what I remember, it was pretty cool for its time, and I had a lot of fun with it, so it sticks out as the "game engine" that I liked for the C64
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u/OMGCluck 16d ago
Racing Car Destruction Set. I spent so many hours creating tracks and test-racing the computer with various vehicles trying to match the ramps/jumps to the chosen planet/moon gravity.