My previous Commodore VIC 20 collection was relatively small. It consisted mostly of games and applications that I bought between the summer of 1983 until the summer of 1985 when I landed the Commodore 64. I only picked up a few loose games after that.
Here is the list of my previous Commodore VIC 20 games and other software from a printout of my inventory I had made in the 1990s:
I've reacquired fourteen of those so far. There were some games from then that I am not in any hurry to reacquire; but there are some absolute treasures that I have been searching for since I decided to get back into the Commodore VIC 20. Let’s look at three such masterpieces.
Protector (Synapse/HES)
Designed by Mike Potter, VIC 20 version programmed by Alick Dziabczenko
Protector had a history before being ported to the Commodore VIC 20, first at Crystalware then later that year with improvements at Synapse, one of the emerging Atari computer publishers. In fact Protector helped put them on the map.
“What if Defender had a tighter plot?” seems to be a question the designer asked when making this great side-scrolling shooter. Get this - the player starts on the left, has to carefully maneuver out of a twisty tunnel with a battery of laser guns at the entrance and sometimes an enemy seeker mine.
Next, they fly past some mountains and over a city where an indestructible mother ship is meticulously picking up people and then moseying their way towards the right, over to a volcano where they drop them to their death. I seem to remember back in the day I could catch them at the last second with my ship, but I sure couldn’t do it here in 2026. The instruction sheet said that I could at lower difficulty.
So the player races the mothership by picking up as many of the stick dudes as they can, flying past the mothership and volcano to a second city, and dropping them off on the rooftops there. Their peril is still not over, though.
After the first city is emptied the volcano erupts, sending a lava flow toward the second city, where the player just dropped off whoever they could save. They must now be picked up and carried again, this time past some ground lasers, through another tunnel, and finally into a safe place to drop them off for good.
A side note here, and a sort of hazy memory: Back in the eighties when I was playing I flew diagonally into the corner there and saw a room with text, possibly credits. I was never able to replicate it though.
This game is classic-level difficult with super-sensitive thrust controls, poor diagonal flight, and a frantic ticking clock consisting of the sound of tiny pixel dudes being incinerated in a volcano instead of ticking. The music and sound effects are VIC 20-era great, but man this game is hard.
It’s worth the frustration though, as the concept and execution of all of it are something to behold. Game designers back then were taking proven arcade hits and expanding on them in weird ways, and Protector was a prime example of that.
Serpentine (Broderbund/Creative)
Designed by David Snider, VIC 20 version programmed by Antirom)
Serpentine is a maze-chase masterpiece, inspired by the arcade game Jungler, that was another hit for Broderbund later brought to the VIC 20 by the prolific publisher Creative Software.
You roam the maze as a segmented caterpillar and your three foes are the same. These enemies are colored red when they have as many or more segments than the player, and green when they have less. The goal is to eat their segments, head, and any eggs before they eat yours.
Unlike Pac-Man, where the player has to gobble one of four power pellets on the screen to get a few seconds of turning tables on the enemy, Serpentine is a free-for-all where you and them are always vulnerable and always able to attack. It’s all about positioning and the back and forth of who’s got more segments.
When the enemy is red only their segments can be eaten, meaning the player can simply follow them and gobble them up from behind. Well, it’s not that simple when there are two other enemies to worry about. The player can, however, attack any segment and not just the last one, so twisting around the maze to catch a caterpillar from the side and cutting off the rest of the segments is a better strategy.
When the player has eaten enough segments to make it shorter than them, the now shorter enemy turns green and the head is vulnerable as well. On top of that, both the player and the enemies can gobble up frogs that appear randomly and hop about to gain a segment.
After the player takes down one of the three foes, one of the remaining ones will create and drop an egg. Since this egg will eventually spawn another one of the caterpillars it is best to eat the egg before it hatches, and in the process gain another segment.
The player also can drop an egg, which if not eaten when the level is cleared, hatches and becomes an extra life. That was pretty innovative at the time, to tie extra lives to a gameplay mechanic rather than a simple score total.
The VIC 20 version looks and sounds great but actually lags a little when a lot is going on, and in Serpentine there’s always a lot going on. Between caterpillars, frogs, and eggs, the game can go back-and-forth between the player just crushing it and then one wrong turn and it falls apart quick. Serpentine is an absolute blast to play for short, exiting arcade action and is a must-have game for the Commodore VIC 20.
Miner 2049er (Reston)
Designed by Bill Hogue, VIC 20 version programmed by Jerry Brecher
It's weird to think that most gamers around have never heard of Miner 2049er nor know of its explosive impact on the gaming world in 1983. Unveiled in late 1982 with the intention to license it to every other viable console and computer, it was really a departure from the previous model where if a game sold well on the console or computer it was created for, then it would be ported over to another system.
Multiple software companies, some that were not even in the videogame publishing world yet, signed on to port it to the announced systems, and the Commodore VIC 20 and 64 versions were done by Reston Software. Again, this kind of ambitious, pre-planned multiple platform licensing had not really been done yet. They coupled it with magazine ads, one of which was a two-page spread with the character of Bounty Bob looking over a train of mine carts, each with a console or computer system represented on its side along with the publisher.
Was it that they knew they had a hit on their hands once they saw the finished product on an Atari computer? Who knows, but the game really is peak single-screen platformer coming out after Space Panic, Donkey Kong, and Lode Runner establishing the subgenre as one of the most fun of that era. Inspired by those, many game developers expanded on their gameplay and having subsequent screens with different gameplay elements was a winning formula.
The pure version of Miner 2049er has a whopping ten screens, each with more challenging jumping for sure, but also things like elevators, radioactive pits, and other dangers only the most patient players will ever see. There is also a time limit that definitely comes into play in later levels. Repetition, and learning how to take on each level is key.
To clear a level, the player has to walk on every spot of platform in that level. Doing so changes the floor from a pattern to a solid color. Enemies that are deadly to touch patrol certain parts of the platform, but become vulnerable for a few seconds after the player picks up one of several power-ups floating over the platforms. They flash a little before turning deadly again, and if this is sounding a bit Pac-Man, it's because it is - designer Bill Hogue admitted to as much in an interview later, that he was inspired to implement that monster dynamic by the arcade smash.
It was an unforgiving time for gamers back then, and Miner 2049er requires precise jumping and memorizing each level so on repeat visits (no continues, no saves, start over) the player can breeze through them better. It's a blast though, and satisfying once one knows how to get through it. I have the full Atari computer or 5200 version on my Nintendo Switch via the Atari 50th Anniversary game from a few years back, and I still play it there sometimes. So why did I reacquire it for the Commodore VIC 20 when the VIC has a watered down, seven-instead-of-ten-level version with inferior graphics?
Well, even the VIC 20 version is still good, challenging fun. Also, I snagged it cheap on a sudden Ebay sale that popped up, after watching another sale where the game still sits at $300. Mostly, though, my purchase of Miner 2049er back in 1983 was probably the first time I participated in a major, cross-platform video game phenomenon of that scale. Walking into that Waldenbooks store at Richland Mall in Mansfield, Ohio, and seeing those Reston Software boxes hanging on a rack for both the VIC 20 and Commodore 64 versions all shiny and new, remains a good memory.
Miner 2049er for the Commodore VIC 20 was definitely not the best translation of the game, but it was better than the Atari 2600 version. And it was my version, the best I could have at the time, and I'm glad to have it back in the library.
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