Re: Code Revealer

[shoppa@altair.krl.caltech.edu (Tim Shoppa)]

In article <45ree4$eqm@gap.cco.caltech.edu>,
Nathan Mates <nathan@cco.caltech.edu> wrote:
>
>   But, 95% of all commercial games for the //e (semi-famous
>exceptions are the original Ultima I, which was in Basic), assembly
>language was the only way to get some speed, so games were written in
>it.

Don't forget the Beagle Brothers games in Applesoft. with some
machine language routines for sound.  Absolutely fantastic
pieces of craftmanship, and wonderfully fun to play as well.
I still amaze colleagues with "Magic Pack" from Beagle Bag.
Especially "Plenty Questions" and "Card Scanner".

>   I've thought about cloning a few games from time to time, and my
>general strategy would be to write something from scratch that acted
>pretty much the same. There's no sense in making an exact clone in
>a year when you can get a 95% clone in a few months.

While on the subject, are there any 100% clones of that all-time classic,
Sabotage?  I've seen one or two imititations, but nothing that comes
close to the original, IMHO.  (Part of this is undoubtedly because
few modern computers have any standard provisions for connecting a
pair of paddles!  Thus they write the game to be played with a mouse,
which is not quite as good... especially when you're using steerable
shells...)

Tim. (shoppa@altair.krl.caltech.edu)