Topic: Virtual Console to House Commodore 64 Games in Europe

[Yoshidious]

Among the first games are International Karate and Uridium.
 http://www.nintendoworldreport.com/newsArt.cfm?artid=15378

 Nintendo has announced that the Commodore 64 will be added to the European Virtual Console's expanding roster of formats. Games for the classic home computer system will be available on the Wii Shop Channel for 500 Wii points (£3.50) each, equaling the price of NES games.    

International Karate, a one-on-one fighting game, and Uridium, a horizontal scrolling shoot-'em-up, are expected to be among the initial line-up of C64 games released on the Virtual Console. For the moment, there has been no statement regarding the availability of C64 software on the Virtual Console in other regions.    

Commodore 64 support marks the first occasion that a format created by a non-Japanese company has been represented on the Virtual Console, and is also the first non-console system to have its software made available for download. The C64 is the single best selling personal computer unit of all time and possesses a vast back catalogue of game cassettes released for the system.    

The full press release can be found below.    

  Virtual Console On Wii Expands Into A Commodore 64 Gaming Universe    

Commodore Gaming teams up with Nintendo of Europe to bring classic C64 games to the Wii!    

Already a firm favourite with Wii owners, Virtual Console is once again expanding its catalogue, this time with the addition of a whole new games format. Later this year, Wii owners will be able to enjoy classic titles from the best selling personal computer of all time, the Commodore 64. These titles join classic gems from the likes of Nintendo, SEGA, Turbografx and NEOGEO already available via the Wii Shop Channel.    

The release of the Commodore 64 in 1982 was an historic moment for the computer and video games industry. According to the Guinness Book of World Records it remains the best selling single computer model of all time, with an estimated 22 million units sold. Its immense popularity saw an unrivalled collection of over 4,000 rich games titles released through its production lifetime (1982-1994), helping to establish the C64 as a ‘gamers favourite’. Now, some of the greatest Commodore 64 titles will be made available for Wii owners to download and play via the Virtual Console service.    

Bala Keilman, CEO of Commodore Gaming, commented, “The massive impact the Commodore 64 had on video-gaming is still evident today with many gamers remembering the computer and its games with great fondness. By working with Nintendo of Europe, we are ensuring that future generations of gamers can play some of the best and most popular titles that kick-started the computer games revolution and so keep the C64 legacy in gamers hearts.”    

Laurent Fischer, Managing Director of European Marketing & PR of Nintendo Europe adds, “We are extremely pleased to be working with Commodore Gaming to provide even more retro hits for Wii owners to choose from on Virtual Console. With over 184 classic titles now available to enjoy, Virtual Console on Wii is a great way for users to access a breadth of classic retro games. We hope that this great choice of games will bring nostalgia to our gaming fans, while an entirely new generation of video game players can experience a host of classic games for the very first time.”    

Among the first titles from Commodore 64 which will be made available on Virtual Console are International Karate and Uridium. These great titles will be bolstered by regular updates to the line-up from the Commodore 64 back catalogue.    

Virtual Console games from Commodore 64 will be available from the Wii Shop Channel soon and can be downloaded for 500 Wii Points each. Currently these titles will only be available on the European Wii Shop Channel.

[Ian Sane]

So is this going to show up in North America at some point?

[Jonnyboy117]

Mild interest here, since I never owned a C64, but the price seems a bit high considering the system is closer to Atari 2600 than to NES.

[that Baby guy]

Aren't games priced differently in Europe, anyways?  Maybe my memory is a little wacky, though.

This is certainly a surprise for me.  I didn't know Nintendo would go this far back.  I honestly thought we'd only see things from the beginning of the NES in each respective region.

[KDR_11k]

Didn't the C64 flop in the US because of that videogame crash?

I'm one of the people who grew up with a C64. I think it was the most common videogame system among my peers (except for the Gameboy maybe), consoles were pretty rare. Hooray for unwieldy and fragile joysticks! Double hooray for playing Track & Field with them!

[NWR_insanolord]

The crash only affected video games, then defined as games played on a TV. Computer games, which the C64 was considered a part of, weren't a part of the crash and in fact became more popular as a result of the crash.

[that Baby guy]

Insanolord beat me to it.  To avoid the "stigma" of video games, computer consoles were created and became a successful alternative.  There's actually several successful computer consoles released from that time, including the C64, Tandy, Apple IIe, and others.

Edit:  Let me add in that they weren't only used for games, of course.  They were primarily used for business.

[Crimm]

You know, I joked once that we were days away from Intelivision.

I might have been right...

[NWR_insanolord]

Tennis for Two coming to WiiWare this November.

[Nick DiMola]

Very cool. The more systems on the VC the merrier. I think if Nintendo really builds up a nice base of titles during the Wii's lifetime they can carry the VC service and all of it's titles to all of their subsequent systems. It'll be nice to have a huge chunk of the history of gaming all in one place.

[Ceric]

When I start Seeing Apple 2, CD-I, Vectrex, and Pippen games we have really hit the obscure.

[shammack]

Atari 2600 my ass!  I spit on the Atari 2600.

[Infernal Monkey]

£3.50? It'd be funny if the VC saw C64 releases from Mastertronic, who pumped out (horrific) games for like £1.99 in stores.

So is this going to show up in North America at some point?

I hope so, and for the same reason I'm excited the SMS is hitting the VC, you American's missed out on arse loads of awesome games because of your NES obsession at the time. >=(( Although the 500 point entry fee certainly isn't going to help.

[Kairon]

This is so cool, even though the C64 was way before my time. I sure do hope it comes stateside!

[KDR_11k]

I wonder if they'll release The Great Giana Sisters since Nintendo is getting some of the money now (TGGS was killed by a lawsuit from Nintendo for being a pretty blatant ripoff of Super Mario Bros).

[planetidiot]

The price is about $2 to high, but this is good news.  There's reason not to release in other territories and the laughable file sizes will help Nintendo's silly idea that we'll never need more internal memory.

[KDR_11k]

Why 2$ too high? The C64 wasn't that much behind the NES.

[planetidiot]

Why 2$ too high? The C64 wasn't that much behind the NES.

Don't get me wrong, I love the 8 bit computer game era, but seriously, the majority of those games are extremely simplistic and don't touch the level of Zelda or Mario on NES. 

[KDR_11k]

To be fair the same goes for most NES games.