Commodore 64 games, C64 reviews, downloads, SID tunes ect.

HELP » Site History

So, how did it all start?
Lemon64 is a hobby project founded by Kim Lemon in 1998. Most Commodore 64 sites were poor back then, and it was difficult finding good gaming sites. I didn't like the chaos, so I decided to gather all the games in one place. Since 1998 a lot of things have changed. Lemon isn't only a game archive anymore, but also one of the worlds' most popular C64 communities.

The History
Here are some remarks of what has been going on through the years.

Early 1998
Lemon is a small section of my personal website, developed using an Amiga 1200, and hosted at Geocities (there were no popup-ads back then, so it wasn't that bad).

July 1998
Lemon moves to hem.passagen.se and is now a website of it's own. The layout changes completly.

Christmas 1998
Zoop, the founder of emucamp.com, offers me free hosting without any webspace limits. Did I say no? No. :)

Christmas 1999
Lemon moves to a subdomain - c64.emucamp.com. The layout changes once again.

May 24, 2000
Lemon gets it's own domain. At the time of writing Lemon gets an average of 2000 unique visitors per day.

February 2, 2001
At the time the site gets an average of 2500 visitors daily.

December, 2001
After months of hard work, the new Lemon site is launched. This is probably the largest update since the start in 1998. The site is completly rewritten from scratch using PHP and a MySQL database.

March, 2002
Lemon starts to contact software publishers and individuals in order to get permission for free distribution of their games.

June, 2002
Lemon changes its marketing strategy from banner based to banner-free hosting. A C64 clothes store opens, and Lemon now allows anyone to donate money to help keeping the site alive and kicking.

Media Exposures
Magazines

Allt om PC (Swedish, 05/2005)

gamesTM (English, 02/2005)

RetroGamer (English, 02/2005)

PC Magazine (German, 07/2003)

EDGE (English, 05/2003)

Micro Mart (English, 03/04/2003)

Åxå (Swedish, 10/2002)

Super Play (Swedish, 08/2002)

Zzap64! (English, 2002)

Cap & Design (Swedish, 12/2000)

PC Gamer (English)

Internet World (Swedish)

TV Shows

NBC GIGA (German)

Major Websites

Yahoo! (English, 2003)

CNET / News.com (English, 2003)

Words from visitors
You gave birth to this project and now it has its own life, reanimated every day by the people who get used to visit Lemon64 some times a day. And you can see, there are a lot of 8-bit fans out there -- and Lemon64 is their worldwide melting pot.
- Sokratekk

I met a lot of sceners, thanks to Lemon64. A lot of people who think like me. Unfortunately, you can't find this kinda guys on the street.
- Laze Ristoski

I'm a newcomer to the site, but not to the C64 scene. The Commodore was my first and favourite computer, and still sits in its rightful place, in my bedroom at home. Finding Lemon64 was a great thing to happen to me.
- ocean ranger

You've done a fantastic job on the site Kim (and I personally thank you for it) and the people who come here have helped make it one of the most friendly places to visit on the net, not to mention the occasional visit from various c64 celebrities that makes it even more fun! Congratulations Kim, and congratulations to everyone else who has made Lemon the brilliant place to visit it is today!
- Unkle K

Lemon64.com is a self-living identity, ever growning and expanding, feed by nostalgia and good feelings. The fact that there's a continuum stream of Commodirians always coming and coming even after the "Phantom Menace" that some games companies made to Kim it's a proof that this site lives far away from the "leech-world", in a more high tower...
- Dany

Lemon64 has the most important place in my c64 emulation history.
- cole

The right people were attracted to the project, at the right time. They helped create a friendly, convivial atmosphere which, in turn, attracted others. And still others...
- snoproblem

I live on an isolated island in the middle of bunghole nowhere, and apparantly, no one else is interested in the C64, making me pretty sad 'cos I couldn't share my interest with anyone here. But it all changed after I stumbled upon this site via a Google search and found the forum. Kim has created a great site that's attracted a great group of people, and it means alot to me.
- gorkur

Kim has created something amazing, the ultimate Commodore 64 site, and it has been great that the people in the forums are so friendly and nice. I can share thoughts with people from around the world, and it feels great, because we all have at least one same interest. And you guys are just the greatest, all of you I feel like you all are my friends, and this place feels so nice, just like home. So thank you million times, Kim. You have made something unforgettable!
- Sanitarium 83

This site is very unique. Reason being is everybody here is equal. A c64 is a c64. We all have fun and everyone is cool here. After being involved in a car club and forum for 2 yrs , I left it. I was sick to death of the bad organisation and the people being jealous of each other or each others car saying my car is better than yours or this and that when really it was just them thinking they have a large e-penis haha. Here there are no egos or attitudes and we all love c64 machines or emulators, its all good and well. Kim, your a legend for getting this site all together and i will be mentioning c64 and you in future whenever i get married to my future children. Your name will always be up their in commodore history.
- sooki boy

Lemon reminds me of my youth...when life was without problems. I like the fact that we are keeping this C64 alive. Further more...if I have a question about something...you can post it without being flamed and people do there best for you as I would do my best for them. Lemon has become larger than life. I feel at home here and I hope we grow even bigger and bigger. Then we build our army and take over the world buhahahahaha
- jeroen

Browsers and Platforms
Lemon has been developed using Macromedia HomeSite, Adobe Photoshop, PHP and MySQL. The site has been developed for the Microsoft Windows platform and it's optimized for Internet Explorer 4.01, Opera 6.01, Mozilla 1.0 and Netscape 6 or higher.

No testing has been done under Linux or Mac, but it's been reported that Lemon looks fine under these platforms. In order to browse the site your screen should display atleast 800x600 pixels.

Lemon will not work on any obsolete browsers which don't support StyleSheets/HTML 4.0. The site works on Netscape 4, but you will miss some features and the layout isn't all correct.

Statistics
Statistics based on logs from more than 2.000.000 visitors.
Most visited day was July 15, 2003 (5691 unique visitors).
Most visited month was January 2001 (77772 unique visitors).
Most crowded day is wednesday.
Most visitors come from Germany (6.3%), United Kingdom (4.0%), Sweden (3.0%), Australia (2.7%) and Finland (2.5%).

A sister site to Lemon Amiga. Made in Sweden by Kim Lemon 1998-2008.
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LAYOUT HISTORY

Early 1998 - Watch it here!

Late 1998

1999 - 2001