5. Space Action 64 and the OpenC64MegaDrivePadAdapter
From what I've played so far, cartridge games for the C64/128 almost all seem to fit a certain audience - kids with short attention spans, kids with no attention spans whatsoever, or possibly adults with short-or-no attention spans. They're easy to load (plug in the cart and turn the power on, no keyboard interaction needed at all), are more durable than other forms of media, are usually very simple (probably due to smaller storage size vs. disks), and are generally designed to be quickly picked up, played, and put down. I've seen a lot of Pac-Man clones, a lot of Space Invaders clones, and a lot of single-screen shooters.
Space Action 64 from Handic Software is the first Commdore 64 game developed in Sweden (from what I can find) and seems to fit the latter category pretty nicely. Boot up the game, quickly locate your ship on the screen, push the button to fire, shoot everything in sight, aim for the highest score possible.
The pacing of this game is very odd. Both your ship and enemy ships zip around the screen incredibly quickly compared to the relatively slow background scrolling speed, making for a difficult time targeting your shots or dodging oncoming baddies. I'm not sure if this was intentional, because it doesn't seem like something that would purposely be a part of your game design. It reminds me of playing an old PC game on far-overpowered hardware, and it's disappointing that this mechanic wasn't tuned a little before the game was released.
I also noticed a lot of weird pauses throughout play, both on my C128 and using C64 emulation in VICE. Again, this is very noticeable and shouldn't have made it past testing.
Given all of the above, I wouldn't say Space Action 64 was a quality Commodore cartridge gaming experience. This game would be fun for 15 minutes as part of a cardboard box full of cast-off Commodore carts, but won't retain players otherwise, and I wouldn't recommend going out of your way to find it.
And now a few words on the topic of joysticks..
I started using my C128D with a Quickshot that I had purchased for use with my VIC-20 a couple of years ago. Despite their popularity, I'd like to state that these joysticks objectively suck. The base is light, which is compensated for by rubber suction cups that fail to adhere to most surfaces with which I've used them. The stick has 2 buttons, both of which serve the same function. The trigger has a large amount of travel and a very unsatisfying lack of "click" or tactile feedback on presses, while the top button is more responsive but sits under your thumb and is more difficult to quickly and repeatedly press at the angle at which it's situated. In short, it's not an enjoyable experience.
To make matters worse, the C64/128 only offer support for one joystick fire button per port. The Commodore game library frequently makes up for this limitation by mapping "jump" to the Up direction. You need only picture "up to jump" in a game like Super Mario Bros. to understand why this is an abomination of controller design. The Nintendo Entertainment System and its two-button controller was already well-established by the time the C128 was released in 1987, and this approach felt antiqued even compared to early 80s gaming design, with arcade machines already making good use of multiple buttons.
If you're a Sega Genesis owner, using its controller with a Commodore computer seems like a logical experiment given its identical DE-9 connector. However, the two components are not 100% electrically compatible, and connecting the Genesis controller directly can actually cause damage to the computer.
A savvy gamer can avoid this pitfall by picking up a OpenC64MegaDrivePadAdapter by Sukko Pera (don't look at me, they brand it as a single word, and I'm not up to questioning them). The Genesis-to-Commodore 9-pin controller adapter features an open-source hardware design that accounts for the compatability issue described above (keeping your Commdore's CIA I/O chip safe) and additionally allows you to map "Up" to a secondary button on the Genesis controller.
Though my particular adapter (built and sold by Retro Rewind) was very solidly constructed and well-soldered, I would still recommend using a "port-saver" style extension cable to which you can quickly connect and disconnect the controller. The fit between the controller's connector shell and the port on the adapter is very tight, and I suspect that repeatedly disconnecting/re-connecting controllers would put a great deal of unnecessary stress on the adapter.
With this caveat aside, I ran into no other issues using this adapter and would strongly recommend adding it to your C64/128 toolbox.
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