Re: Under appreciated hardware/software for Apple II's

[Eric Jacobs <no@no.no>]

One Armed Bandit :) wrote:
> 
> Hi,
> 
>         Just something to stir up some activity on CSA2!  :)
> 
>         Well, over the years, some of the most well known software in the
> Applr II world had to be Appleworks, The Print Shop and we could all
> probably name a few others.  The hardware side was probably similiar as
> well, with some big name hardware vendors.
> 
>         But I don't really want that, since most if not all of us know
> about the "big" name stuff.  What I'm looking for is any software/hardware
> (present or past) that maybe got very little press coverage, perhaps not
> too well known wxcept for a few people, but still did the job for you.

If I could throw a game into here, how about Robot Odyssey from the Learning
Company, about 1984 I think. Show this game to any one person, and one of
two things will happen: either they'll love it, or they'll fail to see the
point in it at all. I think it's one of the greatest games ever written,
especially in the educational games department.

I remember learning from RO and Rocky's Boots, and actually having fun. Those
two are basically why I've gotten into electronics; even today, when I look at
a schematic, I can still imagine the wires turning red for on, white for off,
seeing how the gates interact.

And Robot Odyssey was able to teach this while still maintaining a very
captivating feeling of adventure. The game took you through five levels of
different puzzles, each of them very different. In each you needed to use
your robots a different way, so you'd hop inside your robot, get out your
soldering pen and play with different combinations of AND gates, OR gates,
and flipflops. Then you turn your robot on and see if it'd work. (If you
made a mistake, your robot could be lost in a maze or caught behind a
force field or something: then you'd be screwed.)

imho, Robot Odyssey was a game that combined the educational and "fun"
aspects, and made them work with each other. Learning was part of the fun;
the fun was part of the learning. It was a combination that I think has
never been surpassed in any other game. It was a very unique and inventive
game-- qualities that always seem to be "underappreciated".

And, btw, Robot Odyssey was never offered for the PC. It looked like it
would have been, but apparently, the project was canceled. Lack of interest,
I s'pose.

-ej