Is the Commodore 64 Coming to America's Virtual Console?

The Wii's retro gaming download service, the Virtual Console, may be seeing a new retro console go virtual in America soon -- the Commodore 64. Hints included in today's Wii-kly Update (a press release usually only dedicated to informing gamers what new titles have arrived for purchase in the Wii Shop) seem to suggest that could be the case. You can read the press release in its entirety by clicking here, but the paragraph of interest is this one:

"In other news, the Wii-kly Update has a fun surprise coming soon for all our fans. We can't tell you the secret just yet but maybe we'll offer you some hidden clues. From AZ to NC, if you're a fan, your applause could rattle your walls, windows, door. You might enjoy this news whether you live in a brick house or Vanderbilt dorm. Even people living along Route 286 in rural Pennsylvania ought to be excited. It'll feel like a bunch of birthday greetings and, really, who could ask for more? But that's about all we can say for now, so be sure to check future Wii-kly Updates."

That seems like a pretty random collection of clues, but intrepid forum-goers around the Internet have already proposed the connection between them. "Brick House" was a song performed by The Commodores. Vanderbilt University was founded by "Commodore" Cornelius Vanderbilt, and the school's sports teams are called the Commodores. And, if you actually happened to drive across Route 286 in Pennsylvania, you'd come across the great town of Commodore, PA. You can always count on the quick-thinking, Wikipedia-equipped Internet dwellers to crack any code.

Unlike the rest of the consoles that make up the Virtual Console, the Commodore 64 wasn't a video game system as traditionally defined -- it was a home computer. It was released and marketed as such in August of 1982, and only later gained notoriety as a gaming platform thanks to its widespread market penetration and the efforts of diligent programmers who managed to take full advantage of what the machine was capable of.

Commodore gaming got into full swing in the mid-'80s and continued for several years, making the platform a contemporary of Nintendo's NES for most of its life cycle. The system continued to enjoy success even into the early '90s, and, if you're like me, you even remember the elementary school you grew up attending having several of the machines equipped in classrooms. (We used them strictly for educational purposes, of course.)

Nintendo's press release gives no time table for when the Commodore 64 would be added to the VC lineup, an addition that would see the service growing to support a total of nine different systems here in the States. The tone would seem to suggest that we're going to continue to be teased with further clues for a while longer, perhaps setting up the system for a March Wii Shop debut -- which would be consistent with the service's most recent previous addition, the SEGA Master System, which joined the ranks in late March of last year.

But though software from the Commodore 64 would be new to Wii owners in the States, it's already been available elsewhere for quite a while -- Europe's Wii Shop saw the addition of the system on its digital shelves at the same time we were getting the Master System. Since last March, 18 total titles have made their VC debut there from the C64.

The selection has been mostly solid there so far -- their Day 1 line-up of scrolling shooter Uridium and fighting game International Karate may not have been explosively exciting, but since then some truly excellent C64 efforts like the platformer Mayhem in Monsterland, puzzle game Boulder Dash and isometric action Last Ninja trilogy has made the cut. It'll be interesting to see which, if any, of these same games Nintendo of America selects to offer to us in the U.S. But it's a safe bet that we'd see all of them eventually. (If the decision makers at Nintendo really want to have me reliving my childhood experience with the Commodore 64, though, then they'll need to find a way to hook us up with Where in the World is Carmen Sandiego?)

Remember, though, that all of this is still officially rumor for now. Stay tuned to IGN Wii for further updates on the possibility of the Commodore coming to the American Virtual Console, as we look for any more "clues" in future Wii-kly Update press releases. And, of course, you'll hear it here if and when it's all made official.

http://uk.wii.ign.com/articles/954/954425p1.html