Text mode games: a trip down memory lane
First of all, I love the Underdogs and what they stand for.
I was so happy when I found some old favourite games.
They were REALLY old: I had played them in 1991-92, when I had rather less idea of how to play a game then than I do now.
My Uncle Chick would put games from his PC to mine. And even PC Tools.
My favourite games were perhaps the ML ones. I only remembered that there was Yahtzee, and they all came in an integrated package.
My first computer had been an IBM XT which I used to write manuscripts and books (yes, the Collegiate books from 1995-96 WERE written on just this computer through First Choice).
We were always looking for good games. It couldn't play high-powered games like SimCity (yes, the Classic SimCity, people), but it could play versions of Monopoly from 1985 and I enjoyed the Learning Company games. (Like Think Quick and Reader and Writer Rabbit and Challenge of the Ancient Empires).
I believe THESE games - the ML ones designed by John Lancaster - were the first in which I knew of Shareware and the concept. He tells a wonderful story of how and why he designed these games.
Here is the Underdogs listing for the game I enjoyed very much. I still find it hopeless to play, and even more so now it doesn't work with GoSlow!
And they are all called Strategy games.
All the MicroLink games that were ever made and released.
Bob Lancaster's story about the MicroLink games and how and why he designed them.
Right now I am enjoying Push Your Luck and it is a dice game. When you see the figures you can choose to push or stop. The computer beat me by quite a lot in the second game: 310 to 65 which is far too embarrassing!
MicroLink is still around. Have a look at their website.
I am still trying to find a free version of a commercial game I played about this time, Christmas 1991. It was a simulation about the Dark Ages, and cavemen.
I had much more fun and success playing many games on the Mac. Because of my foolishness, the PC was never really a games machine, for so many reasons.
But many years ago there was a great machine called the Atari. Lots of theory-related articles on computer gaming in the 1980s. Some people call this the Golden Age of Video Games.
I have played interactive type games on the Apple II as well.
Read this prediction of what computers could do in 1990. 1990 is now sixteen years ago. (See if it's accurate, and what was achieved later).
What do you remember about computers and especially games?
What computer magazines did you read, if any?
What do you think are classics in the genre that children of today should experience at least once? For me, Pacman and Solitaire. And Pool - some form of Pool! I especially love the 1984 version which is coloured red, green and yellow. When I rediscovered it in 2003 it was an awesome moment, along with some newer ClickPlay games.
Before there was KidPix: an exciting animation software!
Let's put this in perspective:
I didn't know what the Internet was until 1992.
I thought I would get on it through a disk of GEnie or some such package.
I knew about newsgroups and such things. And I knew about Delphi too.
I didn't have somebody's e-mail address until 1994. I also joined a user group at this point.
I don't remember playing many sport games on the IBM XT. I did play some on the Mac.
And I have never played a multiplayer game, not after all this time with computers. Except maybe Habbo Hotel.
I have enjoyed Spelunx very much. (look on Mr Spelunx's bookshelf).
My programming history is more like a comedy of errors. Both on Mac and PC I have TRIED! The greatest success I have had is following Gilbert Held's book. Do any people here remember him?
I intend to write lots more about my computer life.
This is the Gilbert Held book which I used. It was an indispensable reference to me in my early computer life.