I was thinking back to the computer of my childhood (not our first home computer mind you, that would be the mainframe in the basement) and some of the really cool games that we had for it.
I think my favorite must have been a game called Autoduel. It was set in sort of a post-apocalyptic East Coast world. The idea was that you would build a car with weapons and then earn money by doing transports between cities or dueling other cars in the arenas. Once you earned enough money you could build a better car or get better weapons. It seems to me that you could also go to a casino in Atlantic City. If you were doing transports between cities, you ran the risk of having to combat highway brigands. For the early 1980’s this was a very cool game. Does anyone know if this game out there in a modern format?
My friends and I also used to have a ball playing Wizardry. It seems there were countless Friday nights making characters and exploring the 9 level dungeon trying to destroy the elusive WERDNA. You didn’t have a chance unless you had the Blade Cuisinart.
I also used to like playing the old style adventure games where you haad to actually type in two-word commands. There was one based on the movie the Dark Crystal. And another called the Island and the Princess (or something like that).
Its kind of funny but that Apple IIe was the computer that got me through high school. I knew how to program on it, I wrote all of my reports on it (APPLE WORKS). It was a very versatile machine back in the day.
I started out with a TS-1000 – it was the first computer under $100. I think it had 8k of memory, programs loaded via a tape player and display on an old black and white tv. A year or more later we upgraded to an IBM PCjr, which was sort of an Edsel of it’s time. It had 256k (later updated to 640k) of RAM, a 5.25" floppy, and a CGA monitor. I have many fond memories of programming in BASIC, etc, and absolutely loved adventure games. ZORK was probably my favorite. I also played a lot of chess (Sargon?), etc. I splurged and purchased a Hayes 1200 baud modem in 1987 and got online with a local chat BBS. I ended up doing IT work so I guess I can say I have 20+ years of experience!
There was a chess type game that we used to play a lot called Archon. It was a little like the game that was on Star Wars where the characters used to have battle each other when they entered the same space. As I think about it, that was a really cool game as well. It had a time feature in it so that the White side had the advantage during the day and the Black side had the advantage at night.
There was also a cool game called Crush, Crumble and Chomp where you would invent a movie monster and invade your choice of cities. You cold be a blob, a robot, a dinosaur and several other choices. Then you could pick your special fighting abilities. Oh what fun.
I don’t remember ever playing Zork, although I do remember the game.
That is funny about the Hayes 1200 modem. My Dad bought one also around the same time. I just remember that it came with a HUGE orange binder (I think called The Source). I don’t remember having too much success with that though.
Our Apple IIe had 2 external 5.25 floppy drives. This was cool because you could easily copy programs. We also had the monocolor green monitor. In the winter after you spent the whole night playing games you could go outside and all of the snow would appear pink. Weird!
Remember how we could make double-sided 5.25" disks simply by punching a hole on the side? I miss those days (but not that sloooow disk drive)
I had an Apple IIGS, but don’t remember much about it. My dad gave it away a while back but I think we still have a ton of disks lying around somewhere.
Since we’re talking about 1200 baud modems, TradeWars baby. Now THAT was the game to play on BBSes. I knew the SysOp and he was always building these new ships and even a death star hahaha. I wonder whatever happened to all my BBS nerd friends.
I think I had Archon – seems like the characters were really medieval, and the black/white thing rings a bell.
I had problems copying programs with only one disk. Eventually I figured out how to use the dos RAMDISK command to create a “disk” out of memory and copy that way. It was much easier than flipping the floppy in and out constantly.
What was the one where you were a medieval king and had a village or some such…I remember that serfs were very important…you controlled taxes, producton,etc, kinda like SIM city but it was an Apple II or IIe game. That game was fun.
My one brush with greatness was that, in 8th grade, I was in class with this kid who remade the arcade game Vanguard on the Apple IIe. Don’t have any idea how he did it but it was really impressive.
My mother at a IIE in her classroom and would bring it home during summer break. I’d set it up in my closet and I would literally spend most of my summer playing (and flipping the 5 1/2 disk over and over again). I’m actually surprised I never really turning into a gaming freak. Probably because once school started, the computer went back to her classroom and the fun was over.
I played some of the Ultima games. The one that I got pretty far in I advanced far enough that I blasted off into space. Once I got out there you couldn’t do anything. As I recall, I had saved the game at a point where I was blasting off, and I couldn’t back track in the game. So my character was essentially locked in the space ship for eternity. It was a cool game though.
Still, as I think back to it, Autoduel was probably the best game I played. I can’t believe that someone hasn’t tried to remake it for the modern systems. I’m thinking there really isn’t anything out there that even comes close.
Anyone remember a track & field game on the Apple II? I was racing against the actual Olympic races on TV in the summer of 1984. For the 100m dash, you had to strike two keys one after the other over and over. The faster you stroked the keys the faster your dude ran. I think I blew Carl Lewis out of the water, leading me to thinking that the real T&F guys were chumps back then.
For the 1500m run, your dude was basically a car, and all you had to do was steer him around the track. Those were the smoothest 1500m runs I had ever done in my life.
Oh thanks for that memory. We had three of those olympic games. In the Summer Olympics versions I remember a cool rowing race, and platform diving. We used to crack up because we would go sick on the keyboard and make the guy do all kinds of weird things and as long as you hit the space bar at the end he would stick the dive.
In the Winter Olympics version there was speed skating that was like the rowing, and biathlon.
Didn’t you have to pick your country and when you won a gold they would play that national anthem?
Who would have know the Aplle IIe was the great equalizer in T&F?
That game was the one my youngest sister and brother used to play. Two other games we used to play all the time were FLight Simulator where you would try to land your plane at O’Hare. There was also a game called F-15 Strike Eagle that was a pretty good flight game.
Wizardry was the $h!t. Forgot all about the Blade Cuisinart.
Had Lode Runner, Pitfall, and a few others like that, too.
The one I had a lot of fun with on the Apple ][e was a space-themed game called “Goodknight” or something like that . . . It was like a James Bond type of thing, but set in space. Wish I could remember more, but had a blast playing it.
Oh . . . and Tradewars was the best. I miss the old days of BBSing.
