97. Paradroid
Creator: Andrew Braybrook
Genre: "Arcade" / Puzzle
Year: 1985
Platforms: Commodore 64
Mobygames link
Available through: MisTER, MiniC64, My Abandonware
Through my research, Paradroid was most often mentioned as the best Commodore game. The Commodore 64 is still, I believe, the single-best selling single-model computer ever made. My memories is that it just had everything made for it and ported to it. Forbidden Forest was the other top contender for best C64 game, but I saw Paradroid best it in opinion polls at almost every place I checked.
Last year, my friend Flack was nice enough to write up what is so special about Paradroid. It is his favorite game and, because he has a podcast where he talks about C64 games and because he has probably played all of them, he has an understanding of Paradroid and its place in the world that is unmatched.
The goal of the battle mini game is to take over another droid by turning more cells (located in the middle of the screen) your color. The circuits on each side of the screen are randomly generated and one side often has an advantage over the other. You have just a few seconds to scan each side and decide which one you want.
Let's assume that you have chosen the left hand side are are "yellow" and the other droid (played by the computer) is on the right hand side, playing the purple side.
Each player is given a limited number of electric charges. The higher the droid number, the more charges you get. If you are still 001, do not attack a 700. You need to slowly work your way up.
When you apply a charge on the far left it will follow the circuit until it reaches the middle of the board. If the circuit is a straight line, it'll go right over and turn the cell yellow. The player's advantage comes in picking the better side. You'll want a side that has lines that split from one into two, so it'll give you two center cells instead of one. A bad pick is one that has a "two-to-one" circuit, for example. You'll also see some circuits that are dead ends. There are also little colored squares that will turn a circuit that color, so if you're yellow don't set a charge down one with a purple square or you'll be helping the enemy. The final thing you'll see are these little arrows which are permanent boosters. When you set a charge it'll turn the center cell your color, but it's like a light switch. If you have a booster it stays permanent, so it'll override the cell if the opponent tries to change it to their color.
If I remember right there are 12 cells in the middle of the screen. (The top one shows who is winning -- it'll either be yellow, purple, or black for a tie.) When the timer whoever controls more cells wins. If you win, you take over the other droid and the droid you were on before explodes. If you lose the battle, your droid explodes and you will be a very vulnerable and unsteady 001. You will need to transfer to another droid in a few seconds before you explode and it's game over. This is really hard to do if you're on an upper level and surrounded with a bunch of high-level droids because as a 001 you only get 3 charges in a battle and you'll need a board that's really slanted in your favor to win.
How on god's green earth we figured this out without the documentation as kids is beyond me.
I bought a "C64 Mini" a few years ago. It is a very silly device because the keys on the keyboard do not function, even the C64 specific ones, where it would be convenient and nice if they did work. You can add games to it, but the C64 Mini has essentially become my Paradroid machine.
Video with lots of gameplay footage and more discussion:
