Today, I actually witnessed a performance issue between my C64 breadbin and my C64C. This the first time I've ever seen a program function differently between the two models of C64.

The game was Popeye, published in 1983 by Parker Brothers. It's a game that I've played many, many times on my Commodore, but it must have been always on the breadbin (or my C128 in C64 mode). Today, I was playing it on the C64C, and low-and-behold, the game crashed on me. First time I've ever seen this game crash. It was the same version, which I've had on floppy disk since getting it, back in the early 80's. The crash happened when my character, Popeye, was grabbed by Bluto from the level below. Usually, when this happens, Popeye spins around and I lose a life. This time, the game completely froze up.

I rebooted and loaded the game again. All was going well, until Bluto attacked from the level above this time. The same thing happened, the game completely froze and the sprites of Bluto and Popeye went “funny”.

Okay, this was really weird. I powered down and got out my breadbin. I hooked it all up and loaded the game for a third time. From beginning to end, everything ran as perfectly as ever; no issues with the game at all. So, it actually appears that the game, Popeye, has an issue with my C64C.

I tried it out on an emulator, in both C64 and C64C settings, but the problem never appeared. Could it be something unique to my C64C?