Aztec Challenge was a game that I picked up from a friend that was in an expansion pack for c64. It was so addictive that I ended up playing it more than the other 50 some odd games that were present in the special game pack. It was by far one of the best games (reminiscent of the old Olympic games/California games software that had come out about the same time with an Aztec twist). There were gauntlets to run and things to jump and from what I remember the worst part was the frustration of getting so lose to the end only to find that you'd have to start all the way from the beginning again when you failed to meet the expectation of a certain level.
From what I recall I must have spent hours and hours and hours playing this game downstairs in the basement. It was too cool for words.
I don't remember the soundtrack being all that stellar, (although we'll have to admit that anything on the c64 was better than the internal sound system of the old PCs). I remember the graphics were state of the art for the time- these days they seem so pixilated I'm surprised I can play it without wincing.
But it's games like these that are SO incredible fun and addictive that it didn't matter how junky the graphics were- they were just fun to play. And challenging, too. I don't know that I actually ever finished an entire game
since I began playing it so many years ago. Such was the fate of most commodore games- they were fun, but never ended. They either got faster and faster and faster until you couldn't really keep up with the pace, or they simply had no end and looped back to the beginning with different colors to make you think you were playing a different level. Either way, they were groundbreaking or a whole lot of my childhood was spend sitting there wishing for the end of the game- while secretly hoping that it would never end.
I'm not sure if there's too much more about Aztec Challenge that I can say in this space, but I will say a little shout out to Kevin Morris for letting me borrow it all those years ago. We were the only two kids in school with a PC he of course had the 128 while I had the 64- but no worries, I never held it against him since we both really loved the games!
