Category: Apple II

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...on computers 1985 2 quarters (2 stars) Apple II Home Computer System Mindscape R Text Adventure

RACTER

RACTERThe Game: The player engages in conversation with RACTER (short for raconteur) in normal English sentences via the keyboard. RACTER responds with phrases that may (or may not) be relevant and may (or may not) make sense as part of a cohesive conversation. (Mindscape, 1985)

Memories: RACTER had a build-up of hype like no other non-sequel, non-movie-based program in its day – as well as a set of consumer expecatations that it probably had absolutely no chance whatsoever of meeting. After all, could a program running on a floppy disk on a home computer equipped with 64K of RAM really boast true artificial intelligence? [read more]

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...on computers 1 Button 1 quarter (1 star) 1985 Apple II computer games only Isometric View Joystick S Sega Shooting At Enemies Side-Scrolling

Super Zaxxon

Super ZaxxonThe Game: As the pilot of a lone fighter infiltrating a spaceborne fortress, your mission is simple – survive long enough to vanquish the evil Super Zaxxon robot hidden deep within the fortress, and take out as much of the defenses as you can in the meantime. (Sega, 1985)

Memories: Just as Super Zaxxon in the arcades was merely a rewrite of the code for the original Zaxxon, it’s somehow fitting that the same is true for Super Zaxxon on the Apple II. But while it may have saved Sega some development time to reuse the code from Datamost’s version of Zaxxon for the Apple, it didn’t exactly result in a satisfying gaming experience. [read more]

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...on computers 1985 5 quarters (5 stars) Action Strategy Apple II Controller Educational History Home Computer System Keyboard Math MECC O Publisher / Manufacturer Rating Style Title Begins With Year

The Oregon Trail (1985 version)

The Oregon TrailThe Game: Hitch up your wagons and head west! It’s 1848 and you and your family are provisioning a covered wagon to leave Independence, Missouri to reach Oregon by the end of the year (and before the weather turns against you). You decide your character’s skills/background, how much of your limited funds to spend on supplies ranging from food to to clothes to wagon spares to ammunition, and you set out westward. There are many stops along the way, and many hazards to face – and plenty of ways to die on the journey that don’t even involve dysentery. (Minnesota Educational Computer Corporation, 1985)

Memories: Let’s just jump straight to the end of the review and point out something that’s already very well known – The Oregon Trail is one of the best constructed educational software titles in the history of educational software titles. It’s not just informative, but fun and suspenseful and immersive as well.

Now back to the beginning of the review: how in the world does one create an educational game – one of the genres most dreaded by young players throughout the history of computer software – and make it a really good game for the ages? Surely that takes years and years of development, right? [read more]

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...on computers 1986 5 quarters (5 stars) Apple II Keyboard Origin Role Playing Game U

Ultima IV: Quest Of The Avatar

Ultima IV: Quest Of The AvatarThe Game: Darkness has fallen anew upon Britannia, and Lord British calls for your service again. You start out alone, accumulating traveling (and fighting) companions along your journey, striving to live by the Eight Virtues that govern conduct in the kingdom. Along the way, numerous creatures, both evil and simply pesky, challenge you. As you go forth on the quest, you must also collect the mantras of each Virtue, travel to the corresponding Shrines, and meditate there until you reach enlightenment. With enlightenment and experience come the strength to rid Britannia of evil – but, to quote a little pointy-eared green guy, beware the dark side… (Origin Systems, 1986)

Memories: Richard Garriott’s fourth classic role-playing installment was one of the most addictive games I ever played on the Apple II computer. I kid you not, I spent hours playing Ultima IV. Then, and I’m sure you know this story, I moved a few times, lost track of my original floppies, and missed the game terribly the next time it crossed my mind to play it. I shall now spend hours waxing rhapsodic about why this is still my favorite computer RPG of all time. [read more]

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...on computers 1986 2 Buttons 4 quarters (4 stars) Apple II Cockpit Educational First-Person H Home Computer System Joystick Keyboard Mindscape Science

The Halley Project

The Halley ProjectThe Game: Your sleek spacecraft is launched from a base installation on Halley’s Comet (!). Your mission is to scout various bodies in the solar system – both planets and moons – which meet strictly defined criteria as dispensed by the computer. In some cases you must land, in others you must simply achieve orbit. You must learn to navigate the solar system using the constellations of the Zodiac, and learn to judge distance so you won’t overshoot your target (and therefore exceed your allotted mission time) with brief bursts of your faster-than- light drive. You climb in the ranks as you complete more missions. (Interscope, 1986)

Memories: As a life-long space buff, I adored this game. I was always a big fan of such interplanetary missions as the Vikings, Voyagers, Pioneers and Mariners launched by NASA (and, for the most part, overseen by JPL, though to give credit where it’s due, the Pioneers were an Ames project). This game put me into the role of a surrogate space probe, navigating planets and their moons and generally exploring the solar system. [read more]

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...on computers 1987 3 quarters (3 stars) Apple II Home Computer System Keyboard O Penguin Software Polarware Retro Remakes Text Adventure

Oo-Topos (Apple II)

Oo-ToposThe Game: A prisoner awakens in a cell aboard an alien spaceship, parked on an unknown world. with nothing more than the meal that’s been provided and his wits, the prisoner has to escape his cell, overcome guards and automatic defense system , collect items that could help him escape his captors. The guards always seem to be just around the corner, always helpfully prepared to escort you back to your cell to start again… after a little bit of needless brutality, of course. (Polarware, 1987)

Memories: A former Infocom designer and programmer (Infidel, Suspended) who stuck around just long enough after Infocom’s acquisition by Activision to design Tass Times In Tonetown, Michael Berlyn became a freelancer after the slow-motion debacle that was the Activision/Infocom merger. One of his final Apple II games took him to Polarware (which had started out the 1980s as Penguin Software, makers of a nearly-ubiquitous Apple graphics toolkit called Graphics Magician), where he proceeded to remake one of his earliest pre-Infocom games. [read more]

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...on computers 1988 5 quarters (5 stars) Apple II Keyboard Origin Role Playing Game U

Ultima V: Warriors Of Destiny

Ultima V: Warriors Of DestinyThe Game: Darkness has fallen upon the land of Britannia. Lord Blackthorn, with the help and manipulation of the evil Shadowlords, has taken over, banishing Lord British from his own kingdom and ruling over the world with an iron first. Having settled into a little house in the woods after your ascension to Avatar, you are called upon once more to set things right. An underground resistance movement is quietly biding its time, waiting for Lord British to return, and hailing you and your friends as its heroes. But there are also many who have fallen in line behind Blackthorn and his dark masters – and would be happy to dispose of the Avatar for him. (Origin Systems, 1988)

Memories: A true sequel to Ultima IV, Ultima V is deeper, more realistic, and more challenging by far. Possibly the biggest change between the two games is literally the difference between day and night. [read more]

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...on computers 1989 Apple II Controller Educational H Home Computer System Keyboard NASA No Rating Publisher / Manufacturer Rating Science Style Title Begins With Year

Hubble Space Telescope

Hubble Space TelescopeThe Game: Well, it’s not really a game. A NASA-published electronic press kit walks you through the basics of the then-upcoming Hubble Space Telescope, from its impending launch aboard the Space Shuttle to how it collects and transmits images. Thanks to a problem with its optics, it would be a few years before the Hubble Telescope, launched in 1990, would begin to fulfill the hype surrounding it. (NASA, 1989)

Memories: Created and published in 1989, months before the Shuttle mission that lifted Hubble into orbit, this interactive guide to the next big thing in astronomy made the rounds. [read more]