For Commodore 64 fans, there is another emulator to try out called CCS64 – make sure to download the no installer version for your USB flash drive!

Pogo Joe was a Commodore 64 game similar in concept to Q*Bert. There’s a new take on Pogo Joe with a little bit of PacMan mixed in – called GoJoe Pogo. With swirling psychedelic backgrounds, evil clowns and a candy eating Pogo Joe who says, “Yummy!” every time he gobbles candy on each square.

Definitely original!

Freedroid is a Windows and Linux remake of a Commodore 64 game called Paradroid. In this game, you play a droid (the Influence Device) that has to seek and destroy robots on multiple decks by either shooting them or taking control over them by winning a subgame (hold down the space bar while close to one of the robots to enter the subgame). To move to another deck, you have to move onto the an elevator shaft and press the “e” key. The elevators look like this:

If you’re playing under Windows, make sure you download the SDL libraries and place them in the same directory as the Freedroid executable. The classic version, along with the SDL libraries, are just over 7 MB.

There is also another 3D RPG version of the game from the same site if you can’t get enough Paradroid - it’s over 100 MB though! You can find some screenshots of this version from the “Visuals” menu on the Freedroid site.

If you’re looking for the best place to download a ton of Commodore 64 games to play on your portable VICE emulator, visit http://c64g.com/.

Here are a few games I’ve downloaded so far:

Max Headroom
I was really happy to have found this game! Now, if only I can figure out how to play it, I’ll be all set!

Mountie Mick’s Death Ride
Ever dream of being a member of the Royal Canadian Mounted Police? Okay, maybe you haven’t but Mountie-based games are very rare indeed – too bad! This is a fun side scrolling game where you play a train-hopping Mountie chasing and shooting the bad guys. It even lets you play with unlimited lives!

Pole Position
One of the best car games ever! I played most of the Need for Speed games but this one is still my favorite.

Emulators (programs that imitate other computer platforms) open up a whole new world of portable gaming for your flash drive. Games that I once thought I’d never be able to play again (like Aztec Challenge for the Commodore 64 which I tried to find for months on a PC platform) are all available and most are all small single files that are easy to carry around with you wherever your go! The emulators required to run them also usually require no installation.

I’ll be checking out several emulators for different platforms over the next few months with links to games for each of them. This week, we’ll start with my true love: The Commodore 64!!

I’ve tried a few C64 emulators but my favorite to date has to be VICE. One of my favorite features is that it allows you to define your keys for joystick control for both game ports 1 & 2 – very helpful when playing on a laptop in which the numeric keypad is impossible to play a game with! All you need to do is unzip the files and it’s ready to go.

Now for C64 games for your emulator: one of my favorite sites is: http://c64g.com/. This site has tons of games for various platforms as well as several emulators (including VICE). Everything is free!

Here are a few C64 games that I’ve really enjoyed in the past, to get you started (you can find them all and many more at http://c64g.com/.):

• Aztec Challenge
• GhostBusters!
• JumpMan
• Missile Command
• PacMan
• QBert
• 1942
• SpyHunter
• Mario Brothers
• Donkey Kong

Update August 23: Here’s another great source of Commodore 64 games for you: http://www.c64.com.