Your Best 3-D 8-bit Apple II games--Summary

[obsbedia2@aol.com (Obsbedia2)]

If you can think of any others that haven't been mentioned or gone into detail
(such as The EIDOLON), then please make a posting.
	Jay Edwards

				Your best 3-D 8-bit Apple II game list?

AIRHEART:  fighting self-regenerating robots on a waterworld while on a quest
for artifacts that will prove yourself worthy of saving the princeling.

BALLBLAZERS:  one-on-one robotic soccer with multiple playing levels for
robotic opponents or playing against a human opponent.  I especially remember
being surprised at the smoothness and speed of Ballblazer. 

The EIDOLON is another good 3-D action game.  Details????

     Then, you have adventures which present something like 3-D views.
ALTERNATE REALITY:  THE DUNGEON does a very nice job in plain hires,
especially since you can see monsters approaching in real time. So do several
of the SSI AD&D adventures and DARK HEART OF UUKRUL. BARD'S TALE'S 3-D is
pretty good, too.

In double-hires, MIGHT AND MAGIC II, WINDWALKER, and DRAGON WARS have
good 3-D displays.

STELLAR 7.  Stellar 7 did offer very good speed and realistic perspective. On
the other hand, the open 'wire frame' modeling made for kind of a raw look.

ARCTIC FOX.   Another wire-framed battle tank game played on the Siberian
plain.

SPACE ROGUE.  Space Rogue was chiefly a picture-text adventure (a very good
one); but,yes, it did have some memorable 3-D sequences. (Seem to recall that
trips between systems involved piloting through realistic looking worm-holes.
There was also a pretty stiff arcade-style challenge involving a monster on a
space station.)  Actually, some of Space Rogue's 3-D technique shows up a few
years later in an early Tex Murphy adventure for PC.

How about SPACE VIKINGS, FLIGHT SIM II and CHUCK YEAGER'S ADVANCE FLIGHT
TRAINER?

TEST DRIVE.	Joyriding in a variety of roadsters.  Winding roads, cliffs, on
coming
traffic, debris and a black and white unit chasing you down.

NIGHT DRIVER.  It's not Test Drive, but it's the only Apple II 3-D game on my
hard drive that kicks!    Yes, it translates beautifully to ProDOS and runs off
of the hard drive.  It's just dots on each side, dashed lines down the middle
of the road,
attitude, and vanishing point meets crack-the-whip.  No other cars, no
billboards, no scenery.  Just you, the road and the SOUND of your engine (yep,
that's right, sound).  The speed in which the game runs on a stock Apple IIe is
incredible.  You have a choice of five levels of difficulties and four speeds (
"I can do this," "This is a little tougher," "Hey--I'm almost this good," and
"WAIT FOR ME!")

SKYFOX.  A high-speed jump jet, it had radar, autopilot to the combat zone,
both land and air battlefields and the smoothest 3-D perspective graphics
around.  I believe that it also works with that popular 8-bit sound card. 
Actually, Skyfox's little, attacking tanks remind me a lot of the graphics in
the Macintosh game "Nanosaur."  They both have characters that basically home
in on your location and graphics that become more and more detailed as they get
closer to you.  
				Nanosaur for the //e, now that would be nice.

I may be out of date, but the first game that made me feel like 3D was a 2D
game !  In 4D if you entered its spirit..... thanks to the voice.....it was
CASTLE  WOLFENSTEIN....but so many years ago.....

ELITE.  My chief criticism of Elite's 3-D space combat is that good battle
tactics requires firing the moment you pick up an enemy blip. Letting enemy
ships get close enough to see any real detail means taking too many hits.
Still, I've logged way too many hours on Elite to not like the game (even
though it may not actually be winable).

	When it comes to winning, yes; it is possible to figure out your 'character'
parms and change them
to strengthen your character, increase rank, soup-up your ship, or get past
some barrier. And/or you can crack the copy protection so that you have
access to the game code and can modify the game to get around some glitch.
(Or, you can find out enough about the game from the code to solve a game
problem without making changes.)

     For example, it is not too difficult to create a better ship, give
yourself $$$, or to force an "Elite" ranking.

     The problem in Elite is that you want to get around what appears to be a
gap in the adventure so that the game can progress normally.

     Specifically, you finally get to the big showdown battle with the Evil
space ship (the one mentioned in the scenario novella).  It's not an easy
battle; but, by then you are rated "Deadly" with lots of combat, thousands of
kills, and a ship you've armed to the teeth. You win and obtain some goodie
(think it's a Naval Power Pack).  Then, as far as I can tell, nothing!

     It looks like you should get a promotion to "Elite" and that either the
game should declare that you've won and end OR the game should point you to
some biggee mission against the Thargoids (bug-type invaders).

     Possibly, the game does have a special sequence after your victory over
the Evil ship; but, it may get circumvented if you happen to press some key
before the message is displayed. Or, the game may assume that you will dock
at the station orbiting the planet where the battle occurred and obtain
special information.

     There may be a message saying to go somewhere to meet with the Dark
Wheel or it may outline a new mission. But, once you've been flagged as
having gotten the message (which you missed due to a keypress before the
message was displayed), you never get a chance to see it again.

     So, yes; it is _possible_ to fix the problem, contine play, and win.
However, because you wish to avoid a meat axe approach which spoils play,
this sort of fix is among the more difficult to pull off.