Die Hard, based on the Bruce Willis movie of the same name, was developed by Activision and released for the Commodore 64 in 1990. While a pretty mediocre game overall, by movie license standards it was spectacular but that isn’t saying much. This late in the life of the Commodore 64 they were going for a budget approach. For instance, except for the title music, there was no soundtrack.
Die Hard is a fairly standard side-scroller. You must collect various items needed to win the game while fighting your way through endless hordes of terrorists. You might as well stand and fight because they are just going to chase you until you do. Game play is ok if nothing special and the graphics are pretty bland. Sound effects are acceptable but repetetive and then there is the aforementioned lack of music.
1990 was the last year Activision released games for the Commodore 64 but there were ten more in addition to Die Hard. Versions of Die Hard were also released for DOS, the NES and TurboGrafx-16 (though oddly only in Japan). None were outstanding games but what do you expect from a movie license? Despite at least 3 out of 4 of these being developed by Activision, they are all different games. The NES version is played from a top down perspective while the DOS version has a first person point of view. If you want to play this particular variation, a real Commodore 64 or an emulated version of one is the only way to do it.
Screen shots above are from the Commodore 64 version of the game.
