Re: Apple II version of Activision's H.E.R.O.

["N.N. Thayer" <nnthayer@hotmail.com>]

In further exploring the Asimov site, I found several multiple-game
disk images.  Some of these included those wonderful
independently-written startup menus, as well as a few hacks and other
handy unofficial documentation.  Not many, though.  One example is:

Autobahn_Burnout_Formula1Racer_InternationalGranPrix_NightDriver_SpyHunter.dsk


I don't recall which directory it was in, but I believe it was one of
the "unsorted" ones.  This disk boots to a menu titled "Beautiful Boot
by Mini Appler" which is actually rather nice - it has a vertically
scrolling background of colored dots/stars (a la Galaga) accompanied by
tiny beeps and blips.  Upon selecting your game from the menu, the
screen wipes to black, starting from the center and moving to the top
and bottom at the same time, with a neat sound effect.

There are other menus like this out there in the images, but not many.
Even rarer are the little hacks that I remember being included on my
original multiple-game disks - small but clever things that would give
you infinite lives, or let you choose your level before starting, or
activate a god-mode.  The H.E.R.O. hack I mentioned before is just one,
but it was the first that occurred to me because the "Rasselon" fellow
that wrote it gave it some endearing little quirks. The program itself
asked you just one question, how many lives you wanted.  The cursor
itself was a rapidly-rotating exclamation mark, the speaker would emit
small bleeps for every character entered, and when you hit Return to
submit the number and launch the game, there was the most delightful
sound effect.  My hunch is that most of these great programs are just
obscure enough to escape being immortalized in disk images.
Unfortunate, really. While Asimov is amazingly extensive, one hopes
that it isn't the end-all be-all - that more Apple II disks will be
uncovered and contributed.  Had I the equipment to get the content of
my own collection online, I'd do so instantly.