Re: crude games???

["Donald C. Lee" <coach41@pacbell.net>]

Hi all,

    I had my IIe during 1983 and so probably played some games under the
Dos 3.3 days (3.2?  Geez, too young! :)  

    Phoenyx has a very good point about older games in general
though.  Making games for the Apple II (esp. II+, IIe, IIc) was not easy
due to the limited graphics and sound capabilities of the systems.
 
    The work programmers put in for some games were incredible.  The
graphics of Might and Magic II (incredible double hi-res), or the voice
synthesis in Castle Wolfenstein/Beyond Castle Wolfenstein were pretty good
for the time.  C64 users may have been used to good graphics and sounds,
but that wasn't always the case for A2 users.

    But it's not that.  I find most older games much more fun that the
next games.  Phoenyx mentioned a few of his favorites but I loved:

Rescue Raiders
Aztec
Computer Baseball
Castle Wolfenstein/Beyond Castle Wolfenstein
Skyfox
Karteka, among others...

    These were simple games you could jump into immediately and
enjoy.  And these games could be finished without the need to shell out
for hint books galore.  

    I have played a few PC games (not as many as the A2) and really not
had as much fun as I did with the A2 games.  Strangely enough the games I
have had most fun are the games with "simple" graphics:

    Command and Conquer and StarCraft - These games weren't possible for
the A2 so they are quite fun.

    But I have had fun playing emulated Galaga, Robotron and Sinistar (off
of Williams Greatest Hits CD) as well.  If newer games with advanced
graphics could capture the fun of the older games, that would be great.

    I haven't seen it too often.  But maybe programmers will figure it out
one day. :)

Don

Donald C. Lee
DESC Engineer II - Dedicated and Enhanced Service Center
http://www.geocities.com/tokyo/bay/6073
Songs of the Week: "Look at Us" by Sabrina Paris, "Waiting for the Sun" by
Ruff Driverz  

On Mon, 30 Oct 2000, Phoenyx wrote:

> > And having said that, I wonder if you have ever actually played any
> > Apple II games from the DOS 3.2/3.3 era. They are so dramatically
> > cruder than anything that has been done in the past ten years that I
> > can't imagine anyone thinking that a modern game with the same title is
> > in any way linked to the old title. Apart from the title itself, of
> > course.
> 
> While I will allow that the graphics are cruder, many old games offer
> something that the current crop lacks. Well, maybe I should say RPG or
> adventure games, which I prefer. These games have substance and style
> which to make up for the limitations in graphics and sound.
> 
> I have a few favorites such as Might and Magic II which I have played to
> completion a few times and still haven't done everything in them. The
> MM2
> help manual, sold as an enhancement, is excellent also. It offers help
> in
> various degrees, some of which you have to work for. The MM games on the
> pc are more graphics oriented and less content oriented. I find this to
> be especially true in the 3d slaughter market where many games are just
> a variation on the theme. Don't get me wrong, I think that sort of
> programming is awesome, but I don't think that every game should use it.
> 
> Another favorite is a series of two games, three if you count the GS
> version as a different one. The Questron series runs an overhead view
> with 3d style dungeons. The original dos version had crude graphics and
> line drawn 3d dungeons but the game itself had great substance and was
> very playable.
> 
> The sequel, Questron II, which also has the GS version, has much better
> graphics. In fact the 8 bit version has one of the best overhead views
> of
> any Apple II game I can remember. The developers put a lot of effort in
> here. Even the curves at the water's edges looks great. The simplistic
> interface was also used in at least one other great game, Legacy of the
> Ancients.
> 
> A couple of rpg games which were published for several systems also come
> to mind. The ones I remember were The Magic Candle and Wasteland. While
> I have played the PC versions, I still prefer playing on my 2c. Both
> work almost identically on either system and the PC versions may have
> better graphics, but there is something to be said for the efforts of
> some great programmers. Many programmers of the II series actually
> enjoyed programming for them.
> 
> There is also something to be said for any game which fits on a few
> disks
> and can run on a 64/128k system and entertain someone for years. It's
> not
> just the quality of the games but also the loving care the programmers
> put into them. It is quite easy to tell which programmers enjoyed making
> their games and which did so just for money.
> 
> -- 
> 
> Thank you for your time and interest. I hope it was helpful
> or at least interesting.
> 
> Phoenyx,
> 
> Apple2 user since March 1984
> 
> Links to Phoenyx's pages:
> preferred..... http://zip.to/Phoenyx_A2
> alternate..... http://www.tinyangeldesigns.com/Apple2
>