Commodore Format’s 20 Best Budget games
Roger Frames buys budget games…and these are the ones he loved the most. The 20 top rated budget games on Commodore 64 between 1990 and 1995, reviewed in Commodore Format.
We all love to remember stuff like First Samurai and Smash TV. But as former CF editor Simon Forrester told us, the magazine’s writers wrote every issue bearing in mind a truth: that most readers only got two premium priced games a year. One for christmas, and one for their birthday. The rest of the year, it was pocket-money for budget software.
It’s no wonder, then, that whenever we mention stuff like CJ’s Elephant Antics or Arnie on social media we get some of the most positive and misty-eyed responses. The games might only last for half-an-hour start to finish (if that), but the simplicity and fun was hard to beat. The fact that these games were so easy to pick up is one of the reasons people still do it now. Got a spare hour? Blast through CJ In The USA! No 50 page manual to remember, no problems getting onto servers, no bother.
Over the summer of 2015, we counted down the very best original budget releases from CF’s run. All your faves from Codemasters, Zeppelin and Alternative Software are here – we expanded from a top ten to make sure of it! Hope you enjoy.
- All of these games are original budget priced titles given full reviews during CF’s run, which was September 1990 to September 1995. There are twenty games in total, with games getting the same score noted with =. The CJ’s Elephant Antics games are in one entry. You can also read our Top Rated Games (full pricers) feature here, and our Worst Rated here.
CF’S 20 BEST OF BUDGET
8. BIG NOSE’S AMERICAN ADVENTURE
4. CJ’S ELEPHANT ANTICS / CJ IN THE USA
=2. SUPER SEYMOUR SAVES THE PLANET
….and at number one…. TILT !
Commodore Format Archive 
Not sure I agree with Arnie 2, but that’s a pretty good list.
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I’m with you at 5 with Dj Puff, what a game that is, an absolute must!!
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