Re: [SWCollect] Lure of the Temptress
This is good old fashioned gaming info. gets
my approval.
Karl Kuras
http://www.drunkduck.com/Drawnsword/?=12
- Original Message -
From:
Feldhamer, Stuart
To: '[EMAIL PROTECTED]'
Sent: Wednesday, April 02, 2003 8:14
AM
Subject: [SWCollect] Lure of the
Temptress
Another item that
may be of interest: Revolution, creator of the Broken Sword series, has
rereleased their classic first adventure game "Lure of the Temptress" as a
free download. It's available here:
http://www.revgames.com/_display.php?id=10
Stuart
Survey: Is this
type of info appropriate to this list?
a) Sure it is, keep it coming!
b) I get enough spam already so quit it!
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Re: [SWCollect] Software collecting videos
I agree with Edward here. Those materials are copyrighted and when EA bought Origin that purchase included all of Origin's intellectual properties. You can't compile, and redistribute any of it without their express permission and probably a royalty fee. This brings up the whole issue of abandonware. It's a wonderful concept that old unused intellectual properties, that are no longer supported by their owners become public domain for historical preservation purposes, but it doesn't actually work. Their protection isn't limited in the slightest. If you want to make a backup of the old tapes for your own personal use (aka you are the lawful owner of them and are backing them up for your own preservation purposes) then you are ok, but as soon as you give one of those copies to a friend it's just another form of piracy, and if you charge for it then you are making yourself a huge target for action. Karl Kuras - Original Message - From: Edward Franks [EMAIL PROTECTED] To: [EMAIL PROTECTED] Sent: Wednesday, February 05, 2003 5:32 AM Subject: Re: [SWCollect] Software collecting videos On Tuesday, February 4, 2003, at 02:51 PM, Jim Leonard wrote: [Snip] I wasn't planning to charge for the DVD so I didn't think there would be legal issues. It doesn't matter if you charge for it or not. EA might not be able to get punitive damages, but their lawyers could kill your pocketbook. :-/ There's always the option of a bootleg where I don't charge for it and don't put any names on it... In any case I'll certainly ask. I also have another Origin promotional tape, that was distributed to software stores circa 1989. They are cheaply made advertisements for old Origin games like Windwalker, Knights of Legend, 2400 AD, and another (no Ultima tho.) They were obviously made 'in-house', and they are not the best-produced commercials that I've ever seen, but they are an interesting look at the birth of computer game advertising. Again, if you get the permissions, I'd be glad to contribute! :) Who would I talk to about that? EA or someone else? EA hadn't purchased Origin by that time. If the tapes were Origin property -- I don't see why they wouldn't be -- I imagine they all became EA's property when EA bought Origin. Other than Akalabeth and Lord British I can't think of anything that was negotiated as a separate property. -- Edward Franks -- This message was sent to you because you are currently subscribed to the swcollect mailing list. To unsubscribe, send mail to [EMAIL PROTECTED] with a subject of 'unsubscribe swcollect' Archives are available at: http://www.mail-archive.com/swcollect@oldskool.org/ -- This message was sent to you because you are currently subscribed to the swcollect mailing list. To unsubscribe, send mail to [EMAIL PROTECTED] with a subject of 'unsubscribe swcollect' Archives are available at: http://www.mail-archive.com/swcollect@oldskool.org/
Re: [SWCollect] New topic--Collectors UNITE!
Seriously, we all are rather young. I always thought this hobby would attract more people who were around when Zork was played on mainframes and who now approach 50. You know that brings up a good question. It would be interesting to see what systems each of us mainly collect for. I'm guessing it'll reflect our age. I'm mainly (virtually only) C64 and Amiga stuff. How about the rest of you? Karl Kuras -- This message was sent to you because you are currently subscribed to the swcollect mailing list. To unsubscribe, send mail to [EMAIL PROTECTED] with a subject of 'unsubscribe swcollect' Archives are available at: http://www.mail-archive.com/swcollect@oldskool.org/
Re: [SWCollect] New topic--Collectors UNITE!
I remember buying Garbage Pail Kids...they sure were garbage, weren't they? Oh that brings back memories... heck I even bought those when I lived in Argentina (called Basuritas there). What ever happened to collectable trading cards that weren't sports or CCGs? Karl Kuras -- This message was sent to you because you are currently subscribed to the swcollect mailing list. To unsubscribe, send mail to [EMAIL PROTECTED] with a subject of 'unsubscribe swcollect' Archives are available at: http://www.mail-archive.com/swcollect@oldskool.org/
Re: [SWCollect] King's Quest 1
Yes, but since those games are just Sierra-style games with verbs and nouns you can pick from a list, it's still a derivative from IF (except this time the parser forces a limited subset of words you can choose from, in a very specific two-word combo). The pick words from a list-style adventure system was no better than Sierra's. What made Lucasarts games worth playing, thankfully, were the clever and engaging storylines and puzzles, which were good enough to force people through the awful interface. But by that logic, you could say that a game like Jack the Nipper, or Garfield: Big Fat Hair Deal were derivatives of IF as well, since you went through the game, and with the correct selection of moves (to pick up, and drop items, talk to characters, etc.) you went through a story. The interface had just changed from words typed in or chosen from a list to words chosen by specific joystick and fire button combos. It seems that any game that tells a story and has the character influence that story in any way beyond just jumping and running would be an IF. That just completely ignores the actual play mechanics which are what a Genre is supposed to be defining. Karl Kuras -- This message was sent to you because you are currently subscribed to the swcollect mailing list. To unsubscribe, send mail to [EMAIL PROTECTED] with a subject of 'unsubscribe swcollect' Archives are available at: http://www.mail-archive.com/swcollect@oldskool.org/
Re: [SWCollect] King's Quest 1
At its most basic, Adventure + Action, subgenres Cyberpunk, Dark Sci-Fi. Come on... simply calling it Action Adventure ignores the Character development aspects of the game and simply labeling a game where shooting occurs as Action would lump Space Invaders, Doom and Tomb Raider into the same category and let's face it, that is like saying that The French Connection, Rambo and Hard Boiled are all action movies, but they really have little to nothing in common and probably wouldn't even appeal to the same group of people. Karl Kuras -- This message was sent to you because you are currently subscribed to the swcollect mailing list. To unsubscribe, send mail to [EMAIL PROTECTED] with a subject of 'unsubscribe swcollect' Archives are available at: http://www.mail-archive.com/swcollect@oldskool.org/
Re: [SWCollect] King's Quest 1
To remain in the Interaction Fiction with Graphics subgenre, verb-noun input using text labels must be maintained. If the verbs (actions) and nouns (items) are replaced by icons or pictures, or accepts verb-only or noun-only input, it no longer qualfies as Interactive Fiction. This definition unfortunately shouldn't include early Sierra and Lucasarts games for the simple fact that movement (one of the most time consuming aspects of a text adventure) is no longer controlled by verb + noun text inputs or selections, but is now relegated to a joystick, mouse or arrow key function. I would almost go as far as saying that IF is an improper name for the genre, but it should be Interactive Novel (for the classic Infocom games), Interactive Picture Book (for the text adventures with still images, like The Hobbitt and Gremlins) and Interactive Movie (for the Sierra and Lucas games which include animated sprites representing the characters). Karl Kuras -- This message was sent to you because you are currently subscribed to the swcollect mailing list. To unsubscribe, send mail to [EMAIL PROTECTED] with a subject of 'unsubscribe swcollect' Archives are available at: http://www.mail-archive.com/swcollect@oldskool.org/
Re: [SWCollect] King's Quest 1
Sadly, most PC-to-Amiga conversions (I've never used an ST, sadly) were slower than the original. PC programmers were contracted to port to Amiga instead of hiring Amiga people to do the conversions. Or, if Amiga people were contracted, they had a hard time porting 8086 assembler over to 68000 assembler, or did it 1-to-1 where they didn't try to optimize any code (use additional registers, etc.) Or the people porting to Amiga simply didn't understand Amiga graphics hardware. This is so true... too many games were horrid on the Amiga for this very reason... probably a big contributor to the system's virtual non-existence in the US. Lucasarts was the big exception to this. their ports of MI2 and Indy 4 (despite the huge disk swapping issues for the harddriveless like me) were wonderful demonstrations of just how good a game could look in 32 colors. King's Quest 4 was the first SCI system using 320x200 16-color graphics. They built the SCI system at the same time they were writing/scripting KQ4, so they had two developlment tracks for it: AGI and SCI. Both versions were released, but the AGI version is fairly rare. Screenshots of both versions are here: http://www.mobygames.com/game/shots/gameId,129/ I didn't know that the SCI version was rare... the Amiga and ST ports both used that graphic set... most likely due to the porting happening later. Karl Kuras -- This message was sent to you because you are currently subscribed to the swcollect mailing list. To unsubscribe, send mail to [EMAIL PROTECTED] with a subject of 'unsubscribe swcollect' Archives are available at: http://www.mail-archive.com/swcollect@oldskool.org/
Re: [SWCollect] King's Quest 1
Jim Leonard schrieb: At MobyGames we go over this every so often; people keep wanting to somehow *define* the words adventure game to mean Sierra games (the Quest games, etc.) I always called that type of game a Graphic Adventure, mainly because it's what Lucasarts put as a label on Indiana Jones and the last crusade (they had two versions, the Action game and the Graphic Adventure). Guess that makes more sense then any other label, because it's an adventure that is played out in a graphic enviornment... text adventures with graphics are just that, text adventures with graphics, they could really exist without the images. Karl Kuras -- This message was sent to you because you are currently subscribed to the swcollect mailing list. To unsubscribe, send mail to [EMAIL PROTECTED] with a subject of 'unsubscribe swcollect' Archives are available at: http://www.mail-archive.com/swcollect@oldskool.org/
Re: [SWCollect] King's Quest 1
Honestly, what is the appeal of Sierra's Quest games? Anyone who likes them, please shed some light on the subject. Ok, I guess I have to throw my hat into this ring... As a huge fan of both the old text/still graphic adventures AND the Sierra/Lucasart style games, they both have their own appeal. But the Sierra games did change some key aspects of the old text games and for the better. Now your main gripe seems to be with the fact that you can't just be in a room and say I want to do X. This was at first mainly a technical problem of doing pathfinding routines (notice that later Sierra and Lucasarts games all take care of this for you automatically through mouse controls. KQ1 was meant to be played with a joystick or keyboard, so you didn't have a mouse to point at stuff and intereact with it through icons (granted the Amiga and I believe Mac versions both had mouse support but they were just ports made at a later time. When Maniac Mansion is released these problems are dealt with). Also, the old descriptions in text adventures were replaced by graphics. This changed the nature of the puzzle solving from the old ok, what items are listed in the descrption and let's play with those to what items are drawn with any kind of detail and let's play with those. Part of the appeal, especially in those early games was to try to find the items of interest, like watching an old detective movie and spotting which character was missing from the scene, because he was off murdering someone. Text adventures just had to tell you what happened and give it away or not tell you making it unfair. The visual nature of the games (which many people including Ken Williams admit were one of the big reasons people bought Adventure games, aka show off your hardware) was a major issue on its own and was therefore very important. The whole idea that you could move a sprite behind stuff was pretty far out back then for a home computer and made the game more accessible to younger audiences that were quickly bored by pages and pages of text. I can't recall how many times I was ticked off at text adventures that would show stuff in the images (especially on later games for 16 bit machines, which had much more detailed pictures) and since they weren't mentioned in the descriptions I couldn't interact with them. Despite the fact that this post is coming out a bit disjointed, another great addition of the Sierra style game was that you could finally have something besides straight choose your own adventure style gameplay. Action sequences were added to the games (Conquest of Camelot being probably the best example of this), which began to bridge gaps between genres and giving much more realistic feeling experiences, especially since you could now actually see scenes played out that would otherwise just be described. I guess a good comparison would be between the text adventure The Hobbit and Sierra's The Black Cauldron (which yes, was a point and click affair, but still). I use both of these because they were both cartoons and books I grew up on and so they spanned all three of my favorite mediums. There are moments in The Hobbit that just don't come to life, not only because of the relatively limited parser (not the greatest game engine in the text adventure arena), but because you just lack the animation. At the end of the Black Cauldron when the little furry guy runs right into the pot, that's a moment that will stick with me forever... much more so then a paragraph describing it. Karl Kuras aka Trantor http://drawnsword.trantornator.com Yeah, go visit my webcomic! -- This message was sent to you because you are currently subscribed to the swcollect mailing list. To unsubscribe, send mail to [EMAIL PROTECTED] with a subject of 'unsubscribe swcollect' Archives are available at: http://www.mail-archive.com/swcollect@oldskool.org/
Re: [SWCollect] Live actors
Well, it wasn't FMV, but digitized actors in games started with games like Pitfighter, some weird WWF game (don't ask me for the title, can't remember) and Free DC. So, did they want to know about actual film footage or just digitized sprites? Karl - Original Message - From: Hugh Falk [EMAIL PROTECTED] To: [EMAIL PROTECTED] Sent: Wednesday, July 17, 2002 10:05 PM Subject: [SWCollect] Live actors Hi all, Somebody wrote me with an interesting question that I don't know the answer to. What is the first game you remember that has live actors in it (FMV). I'm sure it wasn't 7th Guest, although that stands out in my mind as the first one to do a decent job. I have a game called Dracula Unleashed from 1993. Anyone? Hugh -- This message was sent to you because you are currently subscribed to the swcollect mailing list. To unsubscribe, send mail to [EMAIL PROTECTED] with a subject of 'unsubscribe swcollect' Archives are available at: http://www.mail-archive.com/swcollect@oldskool.org/ -- This message was sent to you because you are currently subscribed to the swcollect mailing list. To unsubscribe, send mail to [EMAIL PROTECTED] with a subject of 'unsubscribe swcollect' Archives are available at: http://www.mail-archive.com/swcollect@oldskool.org/
Re: [SWCollect] Underdogs Gone?
Nope, still there... they just had some conflict over their domain name and now are found at http://www.the-underdogs.org (added a hyphen). Karl Kuras - Original Message - From: C.E. Forman [EMAIL PROTECTED] To: [EMAIL PROTECTED] Sent: Saturday, March 30, 2002 5:03 AM Subject: [SWCollect] Underdogs Gone? Hey gang, Just got back from Europe and am catching up on my sites, and theunderdogs.org now gives me what looks like just some generic web-search page. Did the IDSA finally knock the site down? Any word from Sarinee? -- This message was sent to you because you are currently subscribed to the swcollect mailing list. To unsubscribe, send mail to [EMAIL PROTECTED] with a subject of 'unsubscribe swcollect' Archives are available at: http://www.mail-archive.com/swcollect@oldskool.org/ -- This message was sent to you because you are currently subscribed to the swcollect mailing list. To unsubscribe, send mail to [EMAIL PROTECTED] with a subject of 'unsubscribe swcollect' Archives are available at: http://www.mail-archive.com/swcollect@oldskool.org/
Re: [SWCollect] What's the name of this game?
Can't say I know much about this game, although the reference to the camera sorta rings of the Spiderman adventure (Peter Parker being a photographer and all). As for the general idea of text adventures in the UK back in the early to mid 80's, yes they were VERY popular. Mainly because they were super cheap to produce and you could advertise them as having some level of an educational value (something that probably came to an end with the censured classic Dracula). Karl - Original Message - From: Pedro Quaresma [EMAIL PROTECTED] To: [EMAIL PROTECTED] Sent: Friday, March 01, 2002 1:49 AM Subject: [SWCollect] What's the name of this game? Hello. I hope you all can help me again remembering the name of this game. It was a text adventure for the Sinclair Spectrum. The screen was divided in upper (images) and lower (text/parser) halves. The graphics were monochromatic (either bw or light green and black) and several images were shown each time, as if it were a cartoon. Every time you did something, the images moved left. About the game itself, the hero was a journalist that looked a lot like Clark Kent with a camera. He had some power to transform in a super-hero (not Superman though). You had a camera around your neck. Other details I remember: You started in a Zoo. The camera had no film. Every time I tried to take a pic the hero'd say Rats! No film! There were other superheroes in the game. No famous ones though. Any ideas? Thanks, P. PS: This reminded me of something: I've recently been reading my old Your Sinclair mags and I've noticed it had a section dedicated to text adventures. Heaps of games mentioned there I had never heard before in my life (yeah, right, as if I were a reference or something! ;) ). Maybe the UK had a big production of small adventures back then? Novos Serviços Após-Venda Toyota http://www.toyota.pt -- This message was sent to you because you are currently subscribed to the swcollect mailing list. To unsubscribe, send mail to [EMAIL PROTECTED] with a subject of 'unsubscribe swcollect' Archives are available at: http://www.mail-archive.com/swcollect@oldskool.org/ -- This message was sent to you because you are currently subscribed to the swcollect mailing list. To unsubscribe, send mail to [EMAIL PROTECTED] with a subject of 'unsubscribe swcollect' Archives are available at: http://www.mail-archive.com/swcollect@oldskool.org/
Re: [SWCollect] More ramblings
Well, being an old school fan of IF, especially the Spanish ones from AD (games like Guerra de las Vajillas (Silverware Wars), Don Quijote and Jabato to name but a few) I have to agree, that those were some great games. But then again, I tried playing Jabato about 2 years ago again, and spent a frustrating 2 hours trying to guess which words the engine would and wouldn't accept. All I can say is that I'm really glad we developed graphic interfaces. And if you're looking for good story in modern day games, I recommend titles like Vampire The Masquerade, Deus Ex, No One Lives Forever and Soul Reaver 2. Story is alive again, and growing stronger, as the old shoot only games are losing market share... I think more discriminating tastes will prevail, but I think the true test will be the sales of Unreal 2 and Doom... hopefully Deus Ex 2 will live up to the challenge and prove me right. Karl Kuras - Original Message - From: Pedro Quaresma [EMAIL PROTECTED] To: [EMAIL PROTECTED] Sent: Friday, February 15, 2002 4:18 AM Subject: [SWCollect] More ramblings Hi everyone, Being ill for some days has its advantages. For starters, you can always read those books you never seem to have time to on regular occasions. Thanks to a strong flu, I was forced to trade my keyboard for some books myself, and one I picked was Origin's Quest for Clues, which I read from top to bottom. Suddenly it dawned on me more than ever: Those were THE days!. Back in the days starting with Colossal Cave to later adventures like Moonmist, Amnesia, Brimstone, Ballyhoo, etcetc, creators had to rely purely on their ability to make great stories and puzzles instead of relying on the Story is so-so, but the graphics and sound make up to it formula that we are forced to put up with nowadays. Even though some of those old I-F (I assume this expression can be used correctly here?) games had graphics, some of them on some platforms had just text, which as we all know merely gives wings to our fertile imagination. Knowing there is a good amount of I-F fans in this forum (and there's a new one right here), I wonder if anyone ever feels the craving to dig up an old machine and play those things as if we were back in the early 80s? Take care y'all, Pedro Pedro R. Quaresma [EMAIL PROTECTED] / [EMAIL PROTECTED] So long, and thanks for all the fish -- This message was sent to you because you are currently subscribed to the swcollect mailing list. To unsubscribe, send mail to [EMAIL PROTECTED] with a subject of 'unsubscribe swcollect' Archives are available at: http://www.mail-archive.com/swcollect@oldskool.org/ -- This message was sent to you because you are currently subscribed to the swcollect mailing list. To unsubscribe, send mail to [EMAIL PROTECTED] with a subject of 'unsubscribe swcollect' Archives are available at: http://www.mail-archive.com/swcollect@oldskool.org/
[SWCollect] Test
Just testing to see if my address change worked Karl Kuras
Re: [SWCollect] More ramblings
Definetly one not to forget... was trying to go for newer titles, but you're right, Fallout 1 and 2, Grim Fandango (probably the best adventure game since Monkey Island 2), Shogo, Discworld 1 and 2, Red Faction (which suffered from some poor gameplay elements unfortunately) and Max Payne (and yes, the voice acting and the pencil necked programmers posing as heavies in the cut scenes was kinda bad... but the story was still great... and bullet time rocks!) I guess since a lot of these games are really action titles, but have the story added to them as either cutscenes, mission objectives and in some few cases as alternate endings, people don't consider them as story driven as old text adventures, but they are just as interactive, and in many cases just add the action sequences we otherwise would have had in games like Zork had the technology allowed it. (granted Beuracracy would have been a lot easier, and less funny, if you could just storm the building with guns blazing). Karl Kuras - Original Message - From: Jim Leonard [EMAIL PROTECTED] To: [EMAIL PROTECTED] Sent: Friday, February 15, 2002 2:12 PM Subject: Re: [SWCollect] More ramblings Karl Kuras wrote: All I can say is that I'm really glad we developed graphic interfaces. And if you're looking for good story in modern day games, I recommend titles like Vampire The Masquerade, Deus Ex, No One Lives Forever and Soul Reaver 2. Story is alive again, and growing stronger, as the old shoot only games Don't forget Fallout. -- Jim Leonard ([EMAIL PROTECTED]) http://www.oldskool.org/ Want to help an ambitious PC games project? Drop by http://www.mobygames.com/ Or check out some trippy MindCandy at http://www.demodvd.org/ -- This message was sent to you because you are currently subscribed to the swcollect mailing list. To unsubscribe, send mail to [EMAIL PROTECTED] with a subject of 'unsubscribe swcollect' Archives are available at: http://www.mail-archive.com/swcollect@oldskool.org/ -- This message was sent to you because you are currently subscribed to the swcollect mailing list. To unsubscribe, send mail to [EMAIL PROTECTED] with a subject of 'unsubscribe swcollect' Archives are available at: http://www.mail-archive.com/swcollect@oldskool.org/
Re: [SWCollect] RtCW tin
Not me... the game is good and all, but it's just another shooter (albeit a beautiful one). If there's a collectors tin for No One Lives Forever 2 or Deus Ex 2 then we can start talking. Karl Kuras - Original Message - From: Lee K. Seitz [EMAIL PROTECTED] To: Software Collecting [EMAIL PROTECTED] Sent: Tuesday, January 08, 2002 7:47 AM Subject: [SWCollect] RtCW tin Got this in a recent newsletter from EBGames.com. I was just curious how many of you were going to buy it. Also, how many of these are they making? I was unable to access Activision's RtCW site via Lynx and find out myself. | Newsletter Special | | We double the savings with this week's newsletter special. Normally, | we'll toss you a $5 off deal. This week, take $10 off the price of | the Return to Castle Wolfenstein Limited Edition Collector's Tin. | Each individually numbered tin includes a Return to Castle Wolfenstein | patch, a poster featuring Wolfenstein's cast of characters and your | ticket to hours and hours of stunning first-person shooter mayhem in | the form of the game. Follow this link to activate your discount now. | | http://www.ebgames.com/ebx/ads/promos/newsletterspecial/?site=NLF0108 -- Lee K. Seitz * [EMAIL PROTECTED] * http://home.hiwaay.net/~lkseitz/ -- This message was sent to you because you are currently subscribed to the swcollect mailing list. To unsubscribe, send mail to [EMAIL PROTECTED] with a subject of 'unsubscribe swcollect' Archives are available at: http://www.mail-archive.com/swcollect@oldskool.org/ -- This message was sent to you because you are currently subscribed to the swcollect mailing list. To unsubscribe, send mail to [EMAIL PROTECTED] with a subject of 'unsubscribe swcollect' Archives are available at: http://www.mail-archive.com/swcollect@oldskool.org/
Re: [SWCollect] Plan 9 from Outer Space
I don't know about the US releases, but the European releases included the movie on tape. Only reason to buy the thing (really was an aweful game). Karl Kuras http://ourhouse.trantornator.com - Original Message - From: Jim Leonard [EMAIL PROTECTED] To: [EMAIL PROTECTED] Sent: Sunday, December 09, 2001 2:07 PM Subject: Re: [SWCollect] Plan 9 from Outer Space No videotape. My release is the Konami/Gremlin co-release. At no point on the box does it indicate a tape within. Why, is there supposed to be? C.E. Forman wrote: Okay, box is open, and contents are: Konami catalog Konami registration card Plan 9 manual (very small form factor, odd) 2 HD 3.5 disks No videotape? -- This message was sent to you because you are currently subscribed to the swcollect mailing list. To unsubscribe, send mail to [EMAIL PROTECTED] with a subject of 'unsubscribe swcollect' Archives are available at: http://www.mail-archive.com/swcollect@oldskool.org/ -- This message was sent to you because you are currently subscribed to the swcollect mailing list. To unsubscribe, send mail to [EMAIL PROTECTED] with a subject of 'unsubscribe swcollect' Archives are available at: http://www.mail-archive.com/swcollect@oldskool.org/ -- This message was sent to you because you are currently subscribed to the swcollect mailing list. To unsubscribe, send mail to [EMAIL PROTECTED] with a subject of 'unsubscribe swcollect' Archives are available at: http://www.mail-archive.com/swcollect@oldskool.org/
Re: OT Gates (was: [SWCollect] Rogue (was Killer Games (was Soccer Games(wasshock))))
From: Jim Leonard [EMAIL PROTECTED] Actually, it makes perfect sense to reinvent these things since one of the whole points of consoles is to keep costs down so that you can make money on the hardware. I'm not sure... you have to remember that reinventing stuff costs a lot of RD dollars. I'm willing to wager that the Xbox was relatively cheap to design, with specs changing up to the last minute, whereas with a regular console, everything has to be made specially for that machine and is fixed early in development, which creates obsolete technology issues.So if you save a ton on RD then you can take a bigger hit on the actual machine sale. You can add these things to any new console design. I started thinking about this yesterday... what more can you add to a console other then a few little graphic tweaks these days? I mean, in the days of 2D consoles, you could add something like a Mode 7 chip, which allowed pseudo-3D and the like, this was a huge innovation, but now that everythign is done in true 3D, you could add lighting hardware and the like, and improve the sound, but there really is nothing beyond just more power. It seems like we've reached that point with console development it's just like pc's in that you are wondering how many polys you can manipulate. That travesty of pricing is what happens when you combine licensing with the high cost of hardware (the carts use up to 32MB of ROM, which is very expensive in terms of manufacturing and materials). I laughed at my friends who paid exorbatant prices for SNES and N64 games that cost more then 50 bucks... I just can't see that kind of highway robbery. I'm curious: Why do you think consoles were getting bogged down by not having internal hard drives? Saved game data primarily (I hate save points that require you to redo stuff). But also from a gameplay standpoint, it's getting harder to make games that look good and fit into system memory. Load times are becoming truly a pain in the butt in many games (especially on PS2) and the problems were only going to get worse with the next generation of consoles. The harddrive, if used right, and I doubt the first generation of xbox titles will do that, is going to make these games easier to deal with and eliminate the loading times that console users used to make fun of (cause carts didn't have them). Regarding X-Box as being the most powerful: A very strong argument can be made for console hardware being less powerful on paper but more powerful when specifically used for gaming. I agree wholeheartedly, that's why you will see great looking games on xbox that will run much better than they would on a 753mhz pc. But that has largely to do with lack of OS overhead, lower resolutions (really a MAJOR factor when you think about it... how fast does Q3 run at 640X480 vs. 1024X768?) and simplified codesets. I'm not advocating making consoles that are little pcs, but that there are certain extras in a pc which console gaming could really use. The ability to network consoles is great (I remember playing networked WipeoutXL on the old PS1, it was blast) and the harddrive, when used right will add a whole new dimension to the games, that I don't think gamers will be willing to do without from now on. Karl Kuras Visit Our House the online comic strip! http://ourhouse.trantornator.com -- This message was sent to you because you are currently subscribed to the swcollect mailing list. To unsubscribe, send mail to [EMAIL PROTECTED] with a subject of 'unsubscribe swcollect' Archives are available at: http://www.mail-archive.com/swcollect@oldskool.org/
Re: OT Gates (was: [SWCollect] Rogue (was Killer Games (was Soccer Games(wasshock))))
Does any of the following ring a bell: Neverwinter Nights, Soldier of Fortune, Deux Ex, Jagged Alliance 2, Descent 3, Heavy Metal FAKK 2, Kohan, Rune, Railroad Tycoon 2, Sin, Shogo, Tribes 2, etcetc? How many of these are less then a year and a half plus old? Consoles never crash? What's this that I hear everywhere about the XBox on exposition on the different Toys'r'us around USA reading randomly from the CD drive, failing to output any sound, stopping abruptly with error messages, etc? It wasnt' the CD Drive failing. The demo cd's that they sent out were bad burns. I have a friend who manages an EB and he said that a whole batch of the CD's were bad, causing the problem to be huge. Not a software glitch (as far as coding). Karl Kuras Visit Our House the online comic strip! http://ourhouse.trantornator.com -- This message was sent to you because you are currently subscribed to the swcollect mailing list. To unsubscribe, send mail to [EMAIL PROTECTED] with a subject of 'unsubscribe swcollect' Archives are available at: http://www.mail-archive.com/swcollect@oldskool.org/
Re: OT Gates (was: [SWCollect] Rogue (was Killer Games (was Soccer Games(wasshock))))
From: Pedro Quaresma [EMAIL PROTECTED] It wasnt' the CD Drive failing. The demo cd's that they sent out were bad burns. I have a friend who manages an EB and he said that a whole batch of the CD's were bad, causing the problem to be huge. Not a software glitch (as far as coding). Wrong. Read the following: http://www.gaming-age.com/cgi-bin/news/news.pl?y=2001m=10nid=22-159.db Quoting some interesting parts: The Xbox unit had no disc inside and displayed a menu screen to access the hard drive and CD player. But customers who tried to navigate through menus could do little else but wait while the machine tried to load the next menu Well, hate to break it to you, but you chose the worse source in the world for this one. Gaming Age articles are mostly written by amateurs who get their rumors off newsgroups. I spoke to the manager of an EB who happens to be a computer science mager (aka Programmer) and he gave me the scoop on the faulty disks. What this is reporting is wild assumptions by people who just saw the units go down and spoke to high school stock boys with as much knowledge about hardware as my grandmother. Try to find a similar article on a respectable site like maybe gamespot or ign. Karl Kuras Visit Our House the online comic strip! http://ourhouse.trantornator.com -- This message was sent to you because you are currently subscribed to the swcollect mailing list. To unsubscribe, send mail to [EMAIL PROTECTED] with a subject of 'unsubscribe swcollect' Archives are available at: http://www.mail-archive.com/swcollect@oldskool.org/
Re: OT Gates (was: [SWCollect] Rogue (was Killer Games (was Soccer Games(wasshock))))
From: Jim Leonard [EMAIL PROTECTED] Agreed, but even then I have to stress again that the X-Box is the first console that doesn't fit the traditional mold of console (custom hardware, bus, and OS; built from the ground up to be a gaming console). True it doesn't, but I like to think of it as the reinventing of what the Amiga was originally intended as, a game console that broke the mold, mainly by using floppy disks to store the games instead of cartridges. As much as I'm loathe to grant MS any more power then it already has, I can only see the acceptance of the x-box style architecture as a good thing, as it simplifies everything (much like the transition to console based hardware that most of the arcade industry went to with games like Tekken and Marvel vs. Capcom 2). Also, lets face it, console games were starting to get really held down by the lack of things such as harddrives and network cards, and there is no reason (or financial sense) in reinventing the wheel when these things already exist. (p.s. notice that I make no mention of my terrible spelling error from the last post) :-) Karl Kuras Visit Our House the online comic strip! http://ourhouse.trantornator.com -- This message was sent to you because you are currently subscribed to the swcollect mailing list. To unsubscribe, send mail to [EMAIL PROTECTED] with a subject of 'unsubscribe swcollect' Archives are available at: http://www.mail-archive.com/swcollect@oldskool.org/
Re: OT Gates (was: [SWCollect] Rogue (was Killer Games (was Soccer Games (wasshock))))
From: Pedro Quaresma [EMAIL PROTECTED] Memmaker was not optimal. I could get better results by configuring config.sys autoexec.bat myself, usually involving, IIRC, shadowing/unshadowing memory and other interesting tricks. I remember I used to get more than 600k base memory even with sound card and CD-ROM drivers loaded. Later on, with RDosUmb, 610+ was possible even with smartdrive loaded. Well but that's the point of this string... you had to configure the crap yourself! I've never had to do any such thing under windows! Try playing Chaos Engine on a regular install of MSDOS, the game wants every possible bit of memory it can have... spent ages trying to get it to run. That makes windows more like the older systems, like Amiga and ST. Granted there will always be a level of complexity not existing in the old days due to the open hardware platform (especially when hardware manufacturers decide to make things slightly off standard... I have stories about my WinTV Go card that would make you cry). But to suggest as you did in a previous post that Linux makes plug and play easier, well yes, you will get your soundcard recognized, but will your programs (aka games) recognize it? That's another issue entirely, since there is no universally accepted api set. I have never had to reset any of my system configurations (with the exception of 16 bit or 32 bit color... hate when a game won't accept 32bit color... anyone know what the problem is with that from a coding stand point?) for a windows program... it just runs. On the issue of crashing... all I can say is that Dos machines didn't crash as much because they weren't doing as much! Spec your windows system down to the bare minimum and only run one program at a time, with no lan connections or anything running, and believe me it won't crash either. Karl Kuras Visit Our House the online comic strip! http://ourhouse.trantornator.com -- This message was sent to you because you are currently subscribed to the swcollect mailing list. To unsubscribe, send mail to [EMAIL PROTECTED] with a subject of 'unsubscribe swcollect' Archives are available at: http://www.mail-archive.com/swcollect@oldskool.org/
Re: OT Gates (was: [SWCollect] Rogue (was Killer Games (was Soccer Games (wasshock))))
From: Hugh Falk [EMAIL PROTECTED] Apple would be #1, DOS would be where Apple is today (Maybe with GEM or Geoworks as the shell), and Atari/Commodore (sadly) would be where they are today. I don't know if Commodore would be where it is now had it not been for Windows... granted they were falling behind the technology curve, but in 92-93 (what I see as the true end of the Amiga) the Mac was a falling system, which wouldn't recover until the iMac realease at the end of the decade. So, with no competition from MS the only gaming machine alternative would ahve been Amiga... granted Europe would have gone with it, and development would have been much slower (we'd probably just now be looking at games like Duke Nukem and Quake) but still, it would have become the standard. This is a good question as well... would consoles have developed as quickly without the PC pushing 3D? If you look at it, consoles didn't even think of 3D until the PC was doing it and then in only very limited ways, granted 3D is expensive, but it wasn't even part of the program had 3D gaming not been done on the PC, would anyone have demanded 3D on consoles? Sega obviously didn't expect it when designing the Saturn. Karl Kuras Visit Our House the online comic strip! http://ourhouse.trantornator.com -- This message was sent to you because you are currently subscribed to the swcollect mailing list. To unsubscribe, send mail to [EMAIL PROTECTED] with a subject of 'unsubscribe swcollect' Archives are available at: http://www.mail-archive.com/swcollect@oldskool.org/
Re: OT Gates (was: [SWCollect] Rogue (was Killer Games (was Soccer Games (was shock))))
From: Hugh Falk [EMAIL PROTECTED] By the late 80's hard drives were common on STs and Amigas (I had two). They may have been common here in the states, but over in Europe (where the bulk of Amiga users and games were) barely anyone had them. Most of the kids I went to high school with had Amigas and I can't recall a single one of them having an HD (heck only one of them had more then 1MB RAM in their system). The reason the machine was popular was it's cheapness and that meant things like HD's fell by the wayside. The most popular games on the Amiga tended to be small, like Cannon Fodder and Settlers which were only 3 disks each. Karl Kuras Visit Our House the online comic strip! http://ourhouse.trantornator.com -- This message was sent to you because you are currently subscribed to the swcollect mailing list. To unsubscribe, send mail to [EMAIL PROTECTED] with a subject of 'unsubscribe swcollect' Archives are available at: http://www.mail-archive.com/swcollect@oldskool.org/
Re: [SWCollect] Killer App revisited
From: Jim Leonard [EMAIL PROTECTED] a game so good as to justify the purchase of the hardware it runs on. This is a very interesting definition... but in that case I can't think of a single game that would actually constitute a killer app in all the history of gaming. I mean, no game has ever been worth $200, let alone $300 bucks to me. But I may just be cheap. :-) Karl Kuras Visit Our House the online comic strip! http://ourhouse.trantornator.com -- This message was sent to you because you are currently subscribed to the swcollect mailing list. To unsubscribe, send mail to [EMAIL PROTECTED] with a subject of 'unsubscribe swcollect' Archives are available at: http://www.mail-archive.com/swcollect@oldskool.org/
Re: [SWCollect] Soccer games (was:Shock)
In what way? Is the filter not implemented yet? Sound on the emulators is still somewhat buggy... usually not as crisp. The Amiga sound hardware was VERY complex and makes emulation extremely difficult. And just because your TV is bigger than your monitor doesn't mean you can't play VGA games on it ;-) You have to remember that the Amiga was meant for play on RGB monitors, which like TV's allow for a bluring of the pixels on screen. When played through an emulator on a conventional monitor, the images quite often seem pretty blocky, but when viewed on a good tv (or better yet an RGB monitor) the picture looks much better. Same thing goes for game consoles (I love hooking up PSX to my old Amiga monitors... looks great!) Karl Kuras Visit Our House the online comic strip! http://ourhouse.trantornator.com -- This message was sent to you because you are currently subscribed to the swcollect mailing list. To unsubscribe, send mail to [EMAIL PROTECTED] with a subject of 'unsubscribe swcollect' Archives are available at: http://www.mail-archive.com/swcollect@oldskool.org/
Re: [SWCollect] Soccer games (was:Shock)
From: Jim Leonard [EMAIL PROTECTED] The texture memory (4 MB, that's it?!) is indeed a joke. Geez, even the Dreamcast has 8mb. And while speaking of PS2 weaknesses, what's the deal with only 2 controller ports? Karl Kuras Visit Our House the online comic strip http://ourhouse.trantornator.com -- This message was sent to you because you are currently subscribed to the swcollect mailing list. To unsubscribe, send mail to [EMAIL PROTECTED] with a subject of 'unsubscribe swcollect' Archives are available at: http://www.mail-archive.com/swcollect@oldskool.org/
Re: [SWCollect] Soccer games (was:Shock)
But how many multitaps really sell? I have yet to meet (other then you) someone who bought one (but don't know a single N64 owner who didn't have at least 3 or 4 controllers... working ones!) It can't be more then maybe 3-5% of the console owning population. Karl Kuras Visit Our House the online comic strip! http://ourhouse.trantornator.com - Original Message - From: Hugh Falk [EMAIL PROTECTED] To: [EMAIL PROTECTED] Sent: Friday, November 09, 2001 10:34 PM Subject: RE: [SWCollect] Soccer games (was:Shock) Tens of millions of dollars (depending on how many of the platform sell): 1) Each unit would cost more to produce...not much more, but say $2 per unit...multiply this by 20 million units and it ads up. 2) It causes even more money loss because people then aren't buying multitaps. This is a way for hardware manufacturers to actually make some profit on hardware (instead of software only). Hugh -Original Message- From: Lee K. Seitz [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]] Sent: Friday, November 09, 2001 10:20 PM To: [EMAIL PROTECTED] Subject: Re: [SWCollect] Soccer games (was:Shock) Hugh Falk boldly stated: I agree with more esoteric peripherals...but not a multi-tap. If you have an 4-player game concept, you will support it without doubt. Multitap support is easy and multitaps are plentiful (relatively). Only if there is a standard multi-tap method. As I recall, the Sega Gensis ended up with two multi-tap standards. [Pause] Ah, here we go (http://www.alienbill.com/vgames/multiplayer.html). Okay, so it seems it's actually EA's fault for introducint their own multi-tap system before Sega themselves did. And really, I have to ask, just how much cost does two controller ports add to a console? -- Lee K. Seitz * [EMAIL PROTECTED] * http://home.hiwaay.net/~lkseitz/ Wanted: Vintage Pac-M*n necktie (The asterisk is to keep from mucking up people's Usenet search results. Replace it with an a, if you didn't know.) -- This message was sent to you because you are currently subscribed to the swcollect mailing list. To unsubscribe, send mail to [EMAIL PROTECTED] with a subject of 'unsubscribe swcollect' Archives are available at: http://www.mail-archive.com/swcollect@oldskool.org/ -- This message was sent to you because you are currently subscribed to the swcollect mailing list. To unsubscribe, send mail to [EMAIL PROTECTED] with a subject of 'unsubscribe swcollect' Archives are available at: http://www.mail-archive.com/swcollect@oldskool.org/ -- This message was sent to you because you are currently subscribed to the swcollect mailing list. To unsubscribe, send mail to [EMAIL PROTECTED] with a subject of 'unsubscribe swcollect' Archives are available at: http://www.mail-archive.com/swcollect@oldskool.org/
Re: [SWCollect] Soccer games (was:Shock)
From: Jim Leonard [EMAIL PROTECTED] Doom on the Sega Genesis (with 32X) and the Jaguar, however, were completely real. The most impressive version still has to be the SNES version though (although I'm sure there was a SuperFX chip in the cartridge). Duke Nukem 3D for the Genesis (actually a Wolfenstein style game with PC sprites) was a surprisingly good effort. Karl Kuras Visit Our House the online comic strip! http://ourhouse.trantornator.com -- This message was sent to you because you are currently subscribed to the swcollect mailing list. To unsubscribe, send mail to [EMAIL PROTECTED] with a subject of 'unsubscribe swcollect' Archives are available at: http://www.mail-archive.com/swcollect@oldskool.org/
Re: [SWCollect] Killer Games (was Soccer Games (was shock))
From: Jim Leonard [EMAIL PROTECTED] Populous was one of my all time favorites, but it was actually an ST/Amiga release first (and better on those platforms). Why? (Not picking a fight, just curious) Well for one, the sound on the PC was (if I remember properly) just regular pc speaker), and it wasn't as smooth, especially in the scrolling routines as the ST/Amiga versions (fun factoid, the game was developed on the Amiga by accident... Molyneaux didn't have any money for a new computer and Commodore accidently sent him an A1000 which was supposed to go to another developer and he just didn't return it). Karl Kuras Visit Our House the online comic strip! http://ourhouse.trantornator.com -- This message was sent to you because you are currently subscribed to the swcollect mailing list. To unsubscribe, send mail to [EMAIL PROTECTED] with a subject of 'unsubscribe swcollect' Archives are available at: http://www.mail-archive.com/swcollect@oldskool.org/
Re: [SWCollect] Killer Games (was Soccer Games (was shock))
From: Jim Leonard [EMAIL PROTECTED] That is 100% incorrect. You have obviously not programmed in assembly language for either platform to make a statement like this. The other 20% of the real reason is because the Amiga's copper graphics controller chip could do some really awesome things, like split-screen into two different resolutions and color depths on the fly, something VGA hardware could not do (you can split-screen on VGA but only the top half has full display-start-address manipulation for scrolling). That, coupled with the different screen modes they had to support, and the VERY big limitation of only 1 mouse per IBM, was why they didn't code it in. Well the graphics modes wasn't an issue because Lemmings was a VGA only title. Also at the time the 386 wasn't even a standard machine (at least in Europe where the game was made), so we were talking bout VERY limited hardware specs... 50 lemmings on a 285 in VGA is not an easy feet... And yes the Amiga had some awesome custom chips which is what allowed it to survive as long as it did with such weak central processors... now if the A1200 had just had a special 3D accelerator or some kind of texture rotation hardware And did the IBM have a 1 button limitation at that time? And did Lemmings even use the second button for anything? And to be fair to the IBM PC, I don't think the split-screen multiplayer was available on very many platforms at all; it's not on my Lynx version for obvious reasons, but there was nothing from stopping him (the guy who originally did Lemmings himself did the Lynx version) from doing a ComLynx 2-player version. I think that it was a feature nobody really used and so was left out of future ports. The lynx was taxed as it was with the game... I mean it was only included on the ST and Amiga versions as far as I know because they were the only systems that could handle it. By the time Lemmings 2 came out, the PC was the target market and the old 1 mouse limitation kicked in making it unviable. Argh, this bias against the IBM PC burns me. Would you like me to code up a quick demonstration of just how many lemmings can fit onto a screen without slowdown for IBM PCs? Kind of a Lemming benchmark, as it were? No doubt it could be done... but the hindsight factor is the big issue here. There is a wolfenstein clone for the C64 these days (Mood) and it would have been impossible in the systems hayday... but 10 years later, we can see how it was possible. I don't doubt the PC had a lot more power then was squeezed out of it at the time, but lets face it, the games we are discussing had that inexperience stone weighing them down and that is why the PC got such a bad rap in those days. First gen games almost always suck for the most part (with the big push game exceptions) and the PC had that phase as well when it went from workhorse to all purpose home computer. It's not something to be ashamed of, just a reality. Karl Kuras Visit Our House the online comic strip! http://ourhouse.trantornator.com -- This message was sent to you because you are currently subscribed to the swcollect mailing list. To unsubscribe, send mail to [EMAIL PROTECTED] with a subject of 'unsubscribe swcollect' Archives are available at: http://www.mail-archive.com/swcollect@oldskool.org/
Re: [SWCollect] My curiosity is getting to me... (an OT extra)
So, many 1st person RPG either a) had advertised multiplayer support but never implemented it (Descent to Undermountain) b) had net support but no lan support (Yserbius) c) have nice LAN support but the RPG elements were completely gone (Legends of Might Magic) I'd say there's something really important missing in the RPG world... :( It's a shame that the first person RPG hasn't found a better presence for those of us who just don't have the time or interest to live in a MMORPG. At least there are still the Bioware 3rd Person games, like Baldur's Gate and Icewind Dale which deliver a fairly competent multiplayer lan game... unfortunately they are all just big adventures and don't give you the ability to play small self contained stories which can be played in an afternoon (which was one of the initial promises of Legends of MM) Karl Kuras Visit Our House, the online comic strip! http://ourhouse.trantornator.com -- This message was sent to you because you are currently subscribed to the swcollect mailing list. To unsubscribe, send mail to [EMAIL PROTECTED] with a subject of 'unsubscribe swcollect' Archives are available at: http://www.mail-archive.com/swcollect@oldskool.org/
Re: [SWCollect] My curiosity is getting to me... (an OT extra)
I must admit I found the Lithtech 2.0 engine on Legends of MM very impressive, If you want to see an impressive use of Lithtech, check out No One Lives Forever... truly the best game of last year. Legends of Migh and Magic didn't take full advantage of the engine and was a terrible game on top of it (don't do what I did and spend good money on that dog aaahhh!) Karl Kuras Visit Our House, the online comic strip http://ourhouse.trantornator.com -- This message was sent to you because you are currently subscribed to the swcollect mailing list. To unsubscribe, send mail to [EMAIL PROTECTED] with a subject of 'unsubscribe swcollect' Archives are available at: http://www.mail-archive.com/swcollect@oldskool.org/
Re: [SWCollect] My curiosity is getting to me... (an OT extra)
I have seen NoLF, seemed like a regular 3d shooter, so I skipped it. You should give it a try. I'm not normally a 3D shooter fan, they all seem to be the same thing over and over again, but NOLF adds a bunch of nice features, including levels were your objective is sneaking around surveilance cameras without being caught, stealing items, etc. Tons of scripted events and a very solid story. Definetly worth a look. Since the demo is too limited, let me ask you: why didn't you like Legends? Is it a simple shooter? Are there no RPG elements in the game? Legends is basically a low quality version of Counterstrike in a fantasy setting. I bought it because of a preview that touted small story based missions with lots of interaction and a huge overall epic that it all fed into. Seems the developers noticed the success of Counterstrike and simply dumped all other plans for the game. You have rescue the princess missions and the like, but they are just like capturing the flag pretty much. In the end the RPG elements are dressing at best. Very dissapointing. Karl Kuras Visit Our House, the online comic strip http://ourhouse.trantornator.com -- This message was sent to you because you are currently subscribed to the swcollect mailing list. To unsubscribe, send mail to [EMAIL PROTECTED] with a subject of 'unsubscribe swcollect' Archives are available at: http://www.mail-archive.com/swcollect@oldskool.org/
Re: [SWCollect] Luis Royo
Karl Kuras wrote: exceptional version of Street Fighter II... nice graphics, but a specced Cool! I love pirate games written from scratch. I'll have to try to find this. Well this probably doesn't count as legit, but check out: http://smspower.speedhost.com/ They have the rom file of this game... very interesting. Karl Kuras Visit Our House the online comic strip! http://ourhouse.trantornator.com -- This message was sent to you because you are currently subscribed to the swcollect mailing list. To unsubscribe, send mail to [EMAIL PROTECTED] with a subject of 'unsubscribe swcollect' Archives are available at: http://www.mail-archive.com/swcollect@oldskool.org/
Re: [SWCollect] Luis Royo
Ok, here comes a wonderful history lesson on the MSX. MSX stood for MicroSoft eXtended. It was a computer standard that over 15 manufacturers (most notably Sony, ASCII and Phillips) participated on with almost 60 models of the machines coming out over 3 generations of hardware specs (MSX, MSX2 and MSX2+). It was largest in Japan (being the birth machine for Metal Gear... how I loved that game) and had a following in Europe (primarily France and Holland) and Brazil (really huge there due to local production... the Brazilian market is fascinating... can tell some great Sega stories from there). It was sold in the States briefly in the early 80's (knew a few people in Seattle that owned them) but was quickly abandoned, because it didn't hold up. Hardwarewise it was a Z80 machine, standard config was 64k, making it roughly as powerful as a C64. But because of the Z80 compatibility most non-Japanese games for the system were straight ports of Spectrum games which meant a far reduced color pallette and limited gameplay (Metal Gear looked wonderful on it... for the time of course). Most software stores in Argentina didn't bother keeping Spectrum machines setup in the shops for copying purposes but just used MSX's which could copy the software (the compatibility was really that great). Microsoft abandoned the standard after the MSX2 (which had an OS virtually identical to MSDOS3.3) and ASCII continued using it for a few more years, upgrading graphics, etc. The system finally died in the late 80's. Still has a cult following in Japan though. So, hope this was an informative trip down memory lane. :-) Karl Kuras Please visit Our House, the online comic strip! http://ourhouse.trantornator.com - Original Message - From: Pedro Quaresma [EMAIL PROTECTED] To: [EMAIL PROTECTED] Sent: Thursday, October 25, 2001 8:26 AM Subject: RE: [SWCollect] Luis Royo I don't think it was either. I'm not sure of the following facts, but as far as I know: MSX is from Philips. It didn't even have many fans in Europe, due to the rampant success of the Sinclair Spectrum. There was a MSX 2 (there are some Ultimas for this one, I think), but it was only sold in Japan. Pedro Pedro R. Quaresma [EMAIL PROTECTED] / [EMAIL PROTECTED] So long, and thanks for all the fish Hugh Falk [EMAIL PROTECTED] 25-10-2001 13:10 Solicita-se resposta a swcollect Para: [EMAIL PROTECTED] A/C: Ref: cc: Assunto: RE: [SWCollect] Luis Royo Was it even available (sold in) the U.S. market? I didn't think it was. Hugh -Original Message- From: Karl Kuras [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]] Sent: Thursday, October 25, 2001 12:24 AM To: [EMAIL PROTECTED] Subject: Re: [SWCollect] Luis Royo Hey Pedro... just contact Jose directly ( [EMAIL PROTECTED] ) and tell him Trantor sent you. He'll be glad to hear from a fellow fanatic of the old days. I know the ads your referring too... man those were the good old days. I remember seeing those ads in Argentina then running down to the stores to find out which ones were available (let's just say the software industry in Argentina wasn't 100% legit). Only problem was that most Spanish games never made it to the C64 which was my machine at the time. Remember spending a lot of time at a friends house, who had an MSX. That was an underappreciated machine if there ever was one (in Europe and the US at least). Karl Kuras Visit the Our House online comic strip! http://ourhouse.trantornator.com - Original Message - From: Pedro Quaresma [EMAIL PROTECTED] To: [EMAIL PROTECTED] Sent: Tuesday, October 23, 2001 3:29 AM Subject: Re: [SWCollect] Luis Royo Karl Kuras wrote: Nevertheless, it has brought back many memories of very interesting games I had only seen on old Micromanias. Is your friend spanish? Yes, the site is run from Spain. I met him back when I was running Ami-Crypt on a big scale and he was surprised by the fact that I had Navy Moves and NarcoPolice listed on my site. Any chance you could ask him something on my behalf? I've started an old-magazine-purchasing-spree and Micromania is on the top of my list, maybe he knows where I can get old issues from? (we can take this off the list if you prefer) We got to talking and we hit it off, since I knew a lot about the Spanish game market. Still wish the old concept of a 875 peseta game would return. When I pickup the few old Micromanias I still have, and take a peek at those CentroMail ads, with those heaps of (good) games at 1500- pesetas, it makes me want to scream! :) Pedro R. Quaresma [EMAIL PROTECTED] / [EMAIL PROTECTED] All your base are belong to us http://www.salvador
Re: [SWCollect] Luis Royo
I gotta do a follow up to my post about Sega in Brazil. After getting a little more curious I started searching the web and found the company website for Sega's Brazilian branch: http://www.tectoy.com.br Seems that they are still selling all 4 generations of Sega consoles (Master System, Megadrive, Saturn and Dreamcast) No sign of handhelds. And to show that they are still active they made a Megadrive game of the Brazilian version of Who Wants to be a millionaire! (for those that don't know, the show was apparently simultaneously launched all over the world, with local hosts, but same set designs and game rules, as it was in every country in Europe I knew of 2 summers ago already) They are selling the game as a bundle with the console... quite interesting, even if you don't understand a word that is being said... and there is a Virtua Fighter 2 game for Master System yes... that was a cold shiver running down your back. So thought you might all like checking that out. Karl Kuras Visit Our House the online comic strip! http://ourhouse.trantornator.com - Original Message - From: Karl Kuras [EMAIL PROTECTED] To: [EMAIL PROTECTED] Sent: Thursday, October 25, 2001 10:36 PM Subject: Re: [SWCollect] Luis Royo Oo! Spill! Well when there is THAT much enthusiasm about the topic In the 80's several latin American countries had tarriffs on imports which became great incentives for foreign firms to build products in those countries instead of bringing them in from places where labor was cheaper and they could produce larger quantities. This lead to the appliance manufacturer Drean to start building C64's in ARgentina (only difference was a Drean logo added to the C64 logo... and we didn't have any of those woosy looking light beige C64's... just the good old gray bread boxes!) and in Brazil they began making a bunch of different machines (I'm not really sure how many models of the MSX were made there and what the C64 status was unfortunately), but SEGA turned the country into their own little playground. They kept making the master system there for ages (still has a cult following and led to some great pirate games being produced, like an exceptional version of Street Fighter II... nice graphics, but a specced down character roster). There is a good site to check out the myriad of models Sega launched there: http://assembler.roarvgm.com/ This site is probably the greatest resource for machine trivia ever! They are very comprehensive with the Sega gadgets from Brazil (I only knew about a handful of these while living in south America... mainly things friends got when their relatives came to visit) But Brazil wa such an independent market (probably also because they were the only portugese speaking country in south America making imports from neighboring countries of anything cultural virtually impossible.) So they even had Transformers using a different logo, and different line ups (might have been a straight Japanese port... but it was weird). The most interesting gadgets Sega seems to have released there was a master system that connected with the tv via antennae... this would make for a cool portable console... But that's my spiel... enjoy! Karl Kuras Please visit Our House the online comic strip! http://ourhouse.trantornator.com -- This message was sent to you because you are currently subscribed to the swcollect mailing list. To unsubscribe, send mail to [EMAIL PROTECTED] with a subject of 'unsubscribe swcollect' Archives are available at: http://www.mail-archive.com/swcollect@oldskool.org/ -- This message was sent to you because you are currently subscribed to the swcollect mailing list. To unsubscribe, send mail to [EMAIL PROTECTED] with a subject of 'unsubscribe swcollect' Archives are available at: http://www.mail-archive.com/swcollect@oldskool.org/
Re: [SWCollect] Luis Royo
Hey Pedro... just contact Jose directly ( [EMAIL PROTECTED] ) and tell him Trantor sent you. He'll be glad to hear from a fellow fanatic of the old days. I know the ads your referring too... man those were the good old days. I remember seeing those ads in Argentina then running down to the stores to find out which ones were available (let's just say the software industry in Argentina wasn't 100% legit). Only problem was that most Spanish games never made it to the C64 which was my machine at the time. Remember spending a lot of time at a friends house, who had an MSX. That was an underappreciated machine if there ever was one (in Europe and the US at least). Karl Kuras Visit the Our House online comic strip! http://ourhouse.trantornator.com - Original Message - From: Pedro Quaresma [EMAIL PROTECTED] To: [EMAIL PROTECTED] Sent: Tuesday, October 23, 2001 3:29 AM Subject: Re: [SWCollect] Luis Royo Karl Kuras wrote: Nevertheless, it has brought back many memories of very interesting games I had only seen on old Micromanias. Is your friend spanish? Yes, the site is run from Spain. I met him back when I was running Ami-Crypt on a big scale and he was surprised by the fact that I had Navy Moves and NarcoPolice listed on my site. Any chance you could ask him something on my behalf? I've started an old-magazine-purchasing-spree and Micromania is on the top of my list, maybe he knows where I can get old issues from? (we can take this off the list if you prefer) We got to talking and we hit it off, since I knew a lot about the Spanish game market. Still wish the old concept of a 875 peseta game would return. When I pickup the few old Micromanias I still have, and take a peek at those CentroMail ads, with those heaps of (good) games at 1500- pesetas, it makes me want to scream! :) Pedro R. Quaresma [EMAIL PROTECTED] / [EMAIL PROTECTED] All your base are belong to us http://www.salvador-caetano.pt http://www.globalshop.pt -- This message was sent to you because you are currently subscribed to the swcollect mailing list. To unsubscribe, send mail to [EMAIL PROTECTED] with a subject of 'unsubscribe swcollect' Archives are available at: http://www.mail-archive.com/swcollect@oldskool.org/ -- This message was sent to you because you are currently subscribed to the swcollect mailing list. To unsubscribe, send mail to [EMAIL PROTECTED] with a subject of 'unsubscribe swcollect' Archives are available at: http://www.mail-archive.com/swcollect@oldskool.org/
[SWCollect] My curiosity is getting to me...
Hi everyone... I'm just getting out of a funk in which I didn't play any games for about 6 months (with the exception of a few MAME titles), and now that I'm back in I started wondering what the rest of you all are playing. Trying to figure out if there is some sort of common denominator that us old schoolers look for in modern games, and which old games still attract us to the computer. So if everyone could send out a list of the games they currently play (and I mean really put hours in, or play more then once a week... not just boot up once a year... like I do with Skate or Die) Here I go: Modern: Max Payne (up until a few weeks ago when I beat it) Crimson Skies Monopoly Tycoon Old: North and South (Amiga - Emulated) Nuclear War (Amiga -emulated) GIJoe (MAME) Super Pang (MAME) Looking forward to seeing the taste variations here! Karl Kuras Visit Our House the online comicstip! http://ourhouse.trantornator.com -- This message was sent to you because you are currently subscribed to the swcollect mailing list. To unsubscribe, send mail to [EMAIL PROTECTED] with a subject of 'unsubscribe swcollect' Archives are available at: http://www.mail-archive.com/swcollect@oldskool.org/
Re: [SWCollect] Shrinkwrap again
Congratulations Hugh! Karl Kuras - Original Message - From: Hugh Falk [EMAIL PROTECTED] To: [EMAIL PROTECTED] Sent: Friday, August 31, 2001 12:05 PM Subject: RE: [SWCollect] Shrinkwrap again That's great stuff...thanks, Jim. I haven't been responding the last couple of days because my wife and I just gave birth to our first child (on the 30th). He's a big boy (9 lbs 9 oz.), but he still hasn't gotten the hang of touch typing yet. Oh well, hopefully by tomorrow. :-) Hugh -Original Message- From: Jim Leonard [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]] Sent: Wednesday, August 29, 2001 9:13 PM To: [EMAIL PROTECTED] Subject: Re: [SWCollect] Shrinkwrap again Chris Newman wrote: Congrats! I recently played Time Pilots with my 2-yr-old (he plays better than my wife!) and my 4.5-yr-old enjoys playing Pac-Man, Pac-Mania, Marble Madness, and Crystal Castles, so old games definitely come in handy. :) Corrupt them when they're young, that's what I say! When did you start weaning your first on a computer? I don't think neural implants are yet a viable technology so the pedestrian route it is. Ever since Sam (my firstborn) was 16 months I had been amusing him on the computer by starting up DeluxePaint and making a big brush (usually a circle) and just moving it around the screen in a funny way -- it made him laugh. When he turned two, I remembered I had an old pirated copy of Putt-Putt Joins the Parade (first game from Humongous Entertainment, founded by Ron Gilbert, uses SCUMM in fact) that I had kept because I was struck at the time (1992) by how good the music was. 7 years later I dusted the disks off and started it up one day to amuse Sam (then 2 yrs old) and played with the cursor again. But then I clicked on some object and made it do its thing, and he immediately stopped laughing and wanted to see more -- he was fascinated. So that's how it began. The first month (maybe doing this for 15 minutes a day) I moved the pointer. The second month, he tried to make it move but he had trouble with the mouse, which was exactly the excuse I needed to buy a Kingston $99 trakball (I prefer trakballs infinitely over mice), which he loved. It was immediately obvious to me how much more appropriate it was for a kid -- it has a big ball and can be lifted out for easy cleaning (of the ball). The third month, he was moving to something, then clicking on it. The fourth, he figured out dragging (with my help). So, at 2.5 yrs old, my son was playing Putt-Putt Joins The Parade by himself. I was elated -- I was hoping I could always teach him to read at age 2.5 like my Dad had done for me, but this was just as good -- both are viable skills needed for the future ;-) For those thinking of introducing their kids to educational games, I am more than happy to give advice -- hell, I should probably write an essay on it. For those interested: Sam has his own gaming rig now, an old Pentium Pro 200 that I'm not using. The Kingston Trakball is mine, but I got him a $29 Logitech optical trakball that is a much better choice for him. The ball is smaller, but the advantages outweigh that fact: - It's cheaper - The unit is optical, so the only moving part you have to clean is the ball itself, which lifts right out - Being optical, there's no slipping due to, oh, say, peanut butter and jelly gunk on it ;-) - Being USB (high sample rate) and optical, you can get an exact 1:1 movement ratio if you disable pointer acceleration, which is the most natural method of using a trakball and he just flys with it (I have since moved to an optical+USB+no pointer acceleration setup myself and love it) He also starts his own games. This magic was created by installing Win 98, turning ON the single-click-to-launch-an-icon option, and buying CD Copier (Daemon tools does the same thing and is free, but limited) and using it to dump all of his educational games to CD images on the 4GB disk I stuck in there. I then mounted all of the CD images (which act as real CDs) to about 15 drive letters and stuck the installed games' icons on the desktop. He sits down, clicks on an icon once, and the game starts. I have about 200 or so other games I haven't yet listed for that reason. I suppose I could list them w/o a proper ad but I'm too compulsive to do that. Ah, more fuel for my fire of all software collectors have a neurological disorder. :-D I agree with you about the disorder too. At least it's a happy one, not so much a crack addiction but closer to a Ned Flanders belief in an optimistic world. Now that's a quote. -- http://www.MobyGames.com/ The world's most comprehensive gaming database project. -- This message was sent to you because you are currently subscribed to the swcollect mailing list. To unsubscribe, send mail to [EMAIL PROTECTED
Re: [SWCollect] Early Controversial Games
Well I've actually played KZ Manager... heard of Auschwitz, but since there were several public domain games with that theme (including a hacked version of Kaiser, an excellent resource management game from the C64 days) it's possible the game existed. - Original Message - From: C.E. Forman [EMAIL PROTECTED] To: [EMAIL PROTECTED] Sent: Saturday, August 25, 2001 7:32 PM Subject: Re: [SWCollect] Early Controversial Games Thanks Karl. Dracula, IIRC, was the first computer game to get an adult rating in England. CRL did a version of Frankenstein with similar content. KZ Manager sounds a little like a game called Auchwitz, same concept. Can anyone tell me if that one was sold commercially, or if it even exists? I've heard it identified as an urban legend. - Original Message - From: Karl Kuras [EMAIL PROTECTED] To: [EMAIL PROTECTED] Sent: Saturday, August 25, 2001 6:22 PM Subject: Re: [SWCollect] Early Controversial Games I remember Dracula. it was a text adventure for the C64 (and probably Amstrad and Speccy). It was text only, but still got banned in England for being too graphic. Very atmospheric and enjoyable adventure... And who could forget Barbarian by Palace. Maria Whittaker on the cover was a stroke of brilliance for a great game. And here are two far less well known games, which weren't commercial, but caused a lot of rancor in Germany: Commando Libia and KZ Manager. The first was a stupid little shooter where you had to execute prisoners who were tied to posts and the second was a resource management game that put you in charge of a Nazi concentration camp. Both were available for the the Amiga. I know there are surely a few more controversial games (like Leisure Suit Larry 1, which Radio Shack refused to carry and led to very poor sales initially, until word of mouth made it a hit). But I'm missing the really big ones right now. Karl Kuras - Original Message - From: C.E. Forman [EMAIL PROTECTED] To: [EMAIL PROTECTED] Sent: Saturday, August 25, 2001 6:46 PM Subject: [SWCollect] Early Controversial Games Hey gang, I'm in the process of a new YOIS column and this time around am taking a look at early controversial games: Titles that, for one reason or another, got a large group of people or a particular special-interests group pissed off. Here's a quick list off the top of my head (I haven't gone through my archives yet), but I wanted to get some of your favorites as well. Don't worry, you'll get credit for your contribs. I'd define early as pre-1984, so nothing like Postal, and I do computers only, so no Custer's Revenge for the 2600. Here's my list so far: Softporn by On-Line Systems The first computer adventure to generate hate-mail due to its (rather bland) all-text depictions of sex. A lot of religious types bombarded Ken Williams for this one. On-Line / Sierra was pretty wild, back in the day -- lots of hot tub parties at Ken's, the most famous of which involved a photoshoot that splashed naked Roberta Williams on the cover of this very game. The Bilestoad (I forget the company) Criticized for its violence, some magazines even banned it from reviews. Gameplay consists of two opponents hacking each others' limbs off with axes. Quite realistic graphics for its time, especially for the Apple II. (This was 10 years before Mortal Kombat and Time Killers.) Firebug by Muse The game's tagline in ads (Make an ash of yourself!) made some people upset, because ash sounds like ass, and saying words that sound like ass is apparently as bad as saying ass itself. Ass, ass, ass, ass, ass. Lucifer's Realm by Med Systems You start out in a hospital bed, but soon die and go to hell, where you interact with the likes of Stalin and Hitler. Many sources credit it as the first game to be banned in the U.S., though I've never been able to positively confirm this. One of the late Jyym Pearson's close friends assures me that Jymm himself was delighted upon hearing the news. -- This message was sent to you because you are currently subscribed to the swcollect mailing list. To unsubscribe, send mail to [EMAIL PROTECTED] with a subject of 'unsubscribe swcollect' Archives are available at: http://www.mail-archive.com/swcollect@oldskool.org/ -- This message was sent to you because you are currently subscribed to the swcollect mailing list. To unsubscribe, send mail to [EMAIL PROTECTED] with a subject of 'unsubscribe swcollect' Archives are available at: http://www.mail-archive.com/swcollect@oldskool.org/ -- This message was sent
Re: [SWCollect] Luis Royo
Do you know if it has the same box drawing? I'm willing to collect all Luis Royo boxes. No, the original drawing for Lorna was done by Alfonso Aspiri (he did covers for the early Dinamic games, such as Camelot Warriors, Westbank and Abu Simbel Profanation. He also did titles for Topo such as Metropolis (man did that game bite... and I was looking forward to it so much), Desperado and Silent Shadow). Aspiri had a very angular style to him, very recognizable. I'm not sure what he's done outside of game covers, I'm sure on the peninsula you'll find a lot of stuff. Cozumel was a text adventure with static graphics, wasn't it? I remember reading that it was really good. Yes, Cozumel and it's sequels (I think there were two) were great text adventures with graphics. If you can, play the Amiga versions, since they had some wonderful images. Remembering the box of Jabato, I'd say you're right again, but I don't remember the boxes for the others. I would dig my old Micro Mania mags, but I threw most of them away... I used to read MicroMania as well, when I lived in Argentina great mag. You can go to Computer Emuzone (http://emuzone.metropoli2000.net/) they have all the Spanish games listed (guy who runs it is a friend of mine). How big was the Spanish market in Portugal back then? I'm curious, because I never could figure out how widespread those games were in Europe (I knew that they were basically unknown in the States). The spanish market in the 80s was absolutely fantastic. Just a pity they didn't make any RPGs. But the slightly graphical version of the Original Adventure, and Cozumel, and some of the arcade games that you mentioned were really good. The old text games they used to make were very impressive and humorous at the time (with Don Quijote and Guerra de las Vajillas (Silverware Wars, a Star Wars parody) being two of the biggest). I did read an article back in the late 80's very early 90's that Micro Mania did about Ultima games and RPG's in general, and how they were never being translated into Spanish. It seems from the article (I kept many of the old articles and reviews from those days, but didn't think to put on them what month they were released in... doh!) that DD was never even translated, so if you wanted to get into roleplaying you had to be able to read the english manuals and that can be a problem even for native speakers (who hasn't had hour long fights over what a rule means?) :) So, this explains why they never had rpg's unfortunately and also never reviewed them in the mag first game I remember them reviewing, even though it wasn't really an rpg was Heroes of the Lance. Karl Kuras http://www.trantornator.com -- This message was sent to you because you are currently subscribed to the swcollect mailing list. To unsubscribe, send mail to [EMAIL PROTECTED] with a subject of 'unsubscribe swcollect' Archives are available at: http://www.mail-archive.com/swcollect@oldskool.org/
Re: [SWCollect] Luis Royo
I've just seen the Game Over 2 box, it's definitely a Royo. But it was stated that it was originally to be known as Phantis... so this game had 3 names? Sorry, my goof on this one... it was called Phantis originally. Lorna was a game by Topo based on a comic book. Really great graphics (gameplay was a little lacking). They must not be easy to find. If you know of any spanish software house that sells old titles, please let me know. Nah, unfortunately I'm out on that one. That's not quite true. I have the board version of Hero Quest and it's fully in spanish, bought in the early 90s. I got it in Spain and they had heaps of translated DD books available too But this didn't happen till the early 90's and by then the spanish software market was on the way out, with Opera closing down, as well as Made In Spain. Dinamic almost completely stopped making games after Arctic Moves and I haven't heard what happened to Topo after they released Voyage to the Center of the Earth (great game). Not quite true either, AFAIK :). Micromania was a bit Spectrum oriented, and the Spectrum rarely had a RPG. But when the Amiga/ST/PC started to take the market (early 80s?), most RPGs released were reviewed by Fernando Ferhergon Herrera, who had a special column, usually one or two pages wide, called Maniacos del Calabozo (Maniacs of the Dungeon). Although I threw away all the mags, I kept all the MdC columns. I remember that column, it gave me my intro to rpgs (we didn't have them in Argentina). Spain was to my knowledge a little behind the rest of Europe in upgrading out of the 8-bit generation. MicroMania didn't start reviewing Amiga games till about 90 or 91 did they? Karl Kuras http://www.trantornator.com -- This message was sent to you because you are currently subscribed to the swcollect mailing list. To unsubscribe, send mail to [EMAIL PROTECTED] with a subject of 'unsubscribe swcollect' Archives are available at: http://www.mail-archive.com/swcollect@oldskool.org/
Re: [SWCollect] Luis Royo
Well, as far as I know, he only did covers for Dinamic games. Other games he did covers for include: AMC Capitan Trueno (one of my all time favorite Spanish games) Game Over 2 (which was just the English release of Lorna) Hundra Narco Police Cozumel (not sure about the sequel games) Now I'm almost certain he also did the covers for the following games, but since I don't have copies of them or haven't seen the artwork on other sites I can't confirm these 100%: Comando Tracer La Aventura Original La Guerra de las Vajillas Jabato Rescate Atlantida What's also interesting to note is how most of Dinamic's early covers were done by Aspiri and then later he went over to Topo and was replaced by Royo. And for those uninitiated in the 80's Spanish software market (one of the coolest and most innovative markets of the time) Dinamic is not Dynamix. :) Karl Kuras http://www.trantornator.com - Original Message - From: Pedro Quaresma [EMAIL PROTECTED] To: [EMAIL PROTECTED] Sent: Monday, July 30, 2001 8:38 AM Subject: [SWCollect] Luis Royo I'm assuming this is a nearly impossible question, but I'll have a go at it anyway: I'm a great fan of Luis Royo's (and Boris Vallejo's, but I don't hink BV ever had anything to do with computer games) art. I know Luis has made drawings to several computer games boxes, but I've only knowledge of the following six: The Summoning Turbo Girl Game Over Satan Navy Moves After the War Does anyone know any other? Maybe Army Moves and Game Over 2 too? Pedro R. Quaresma [EMAIL PROTECTED] / [EMAIL PROTECTED] All your base are belong to us http://www.salvador-caetano.pt http://www.globalshop.pt -- This message was sent to you because you are currently subscribed to the swcollect mailing list. To unsubscribe, send mail to [EMAIL PROTECTED] with a subject of 'unsubscribe swcollect' Archives are available at: http://www.mail-archive.com/swcollect@oldskool.org/ -- This message was sent to you because you are currently subscribed to the swcollect mailing list. To unsubscribe, send mail to [EMAIL PROTECTED] with a subject of 'unsubscribe swcollect' Archives are available at: http://www.mail-archive.com/swcollect@oldskool.org/
Re: [SWCollect] Ludicrous prices
What the heck is a terror game? What I think he means are survival horror and similar games, designed to spook you. Granted, there havent' been too many successes here, especially in the the olden days (can really only think of two games that really scared me, Project Firestart and Aliens). But it has to be looked at as a genre in and of itself, since trying to evoke an emotion like fear in someone is a laudible goal in the effort to make games a true art form. Trantor http://www.trantornator.com -- This message was sent to you because you are currently subscribed to the swcollect mailing list. To unsubscribe, send mail to [EMAIL PROTECTED] with a subject of 'unsubscribe swcollect' Archives are available at: http://www.mail-archive.com/swcollect@oldskool.org/
Re: [SWCollect] Infocom games' boxes
I have to add a small bit of trivia here... Lord British, as well as Iolo and many other names in the Ultima games were all characters that Garriott and his friends played in their DD campaign. I learned this not from a book, but back in my freshman year of college, I worked at the computer lab of North Seattle Community College and one of my coworkers, a lady from Texas (want to say her name was Jennifer, but may be wrong), told me that an old friend of hers used to make games (this was while I was showing her my Ami-Crypt site, as part of teaching her HTML) and that she couldn't remember the name of the games, something like Ultimate... and when I asked (incredulously) whether she meant Ultima, she said Yeah, that's it!. She was one of Garriots old DD pals... this was about 2 months before PC Gamer had Garriot on it's cover (I believe for the preview of Ultima Online and talk of Ultima 9) and when I showed her, she flipped out. Sorry, really not of consequence, but a fun little event, that I thought you all might find interesting. :) Trantor http://www.trantornator.com I'm writing here to make a correction. If I remember my Ultima history correctly (I didn't look it up to verify) Richard Garriott was given the name Lord British by his schoolmates. It was a sarcastic jibe at the way he spoke (very proper English). Hugh -- This message was sent to you because you are currently subscribed to the swcollect mailing list. To unsubscribe, send mail to [EMAIL PROTECTED] with a subject of 'unsubscribe swcollect' Archives are available at: http://www.mail-archive.com/swcollect@oldskool.org/
Re: [SWCollect] LGoP2 mention
Which reminds me of another interesting topic... why so many computer games players these days prefer graphics to everything else? We weren't like that in the old days, were we? And I barely had any text adventure. I know it's almost going to sound like sacrilige, but back in the day I remember being VERY graphics conscious. When games like Defender of the Crown, Dragon's Lair, Project Firestart, etc. came out everyone I knew was getting their panties in a wad because of the graphics (mostly on the C64, and later on the Amiga). I was working in a software store at the time and remember selling several copies of this really aweful wrestling game for the C64 that had little digitalized movie (more like slide shows) sequences of the wrestlers in it. Also a lot of people just wouldn't play certain games if the graphics looked horrible (Back to the Future II and Jumpman (which was many wouldn't play by the late 80's because of the graphics)). I guess nowadays the graphical distinctions are just a lot more noticeable and there are a lot more novices amongst the game buying public, so people are more likely to admit to buying something or rejecting something just because of the graphics. Karl Kuras http://www.trantornator.com -- This message was sent to you because you are currently subscribed to the swcollect mailing list. To unsubscribe, send mail to [EMAIL PROTECTED] with a subject of 'unsubscribe swcollect' Archives are available at: http://www.mail-archive.com/swcollect@oldskool.org/
Re: [SWCollect] trademark for collectors
So I suppose you don't want me to point out that your website is incorrectly spelled as sight -- unless that was intentional... :-) Ok... there is a story behind the misspelling of site The page was supposed to be C64 Site, but I goofed up on my second logo (the one which was a mockup of the old Probe game Trantor The Last Stormtrooper (for any old guys who are keeping count). I got within a week about 30 mails about the misspelling and half of them thought it was so cool that I had misspelled it ON PURPOSE that I just left it... so you could say that today the misspelling is on purpose... -- This message was sent to you because you are currently subscribed to the swcollect mailing list. To unsubscribe, send mail to [EMAIL PROTECTED] with a subject of 'unsubscribe swcollect' Archives are available at: http://www.mail-archive.com/swcollect@oldskool.org/
Re: [SWCollect] trademark for collectors
Hugh Falk wrote: Oh yeah! :-) Well PC != IBM. PC stands for Personal Computer. Apple, TI, Atari, C64, etc. are all PCs. So if we're talking semantics, you should refer to them like I do on my site -- Intel-compatibles or Intels for short. Of course, back in the 80's, they were called IBM-compatibles, but in hindsight, Intel-compatibles is a more appropriate term. This is, of course, what I meant. (I should know better when opening my mouth in this forum :-) When I talk about PC games, I am referring to IBM PC (and compatibles) games. I know that PC means Personal Computer, but after 20 years of slang usage, I think it's safe to say that a PC game means an IBM PC game. This may suck to some people, but I gave up the usage fight a long time ago when the Oxford Dictionary starting putting stuff like Doh and thru into the dictionary (I am not making that up, BTW). So I won't apologize for abbreviating IBM PC as PC, and I don't have any immediate plans to change my habits. If you REALLY want to talk semantics, I don't ever remember Intel-compatibles being part of common vernacular... OK... the gauntlet has been tossed Let the SEMANTIC WARS BEGIN!!! (sarcasm added at no extra cost) :) Karl Kuras http://www.trantornator.com -- This message was sent to you because you are currently subscribed to the swcollect mailing list. To unsubscribe, send mail to [EMAIL PROTECTED] with a subject of 'unsubscribe swcollect' Archives are available at: http://www.mail-archive.com/swcollect@oldskool.org/
Re: [SWCollect] CyberMania '94
Yeah... window was slightly smaller (black bars on the side) but otherwise ran beautfully... actually had 50 lemmings on screen once with no slow down. There's a screen shot up on my C64 page http://c64sight.trantornator.com Karl Kuras http://www.trantornator.com - Original Message - From: Jim Leonard [EMAIL PROTECTED] To: [EMAIL PROTECTED] Sent: Thursday, June 28, 2001 1:15 PM Subject: Re: [SWCollect] CyberMania '94 Karl Kuras wrote: I'm not. CyberMania '94 has that honor. B-) LGoP2 is my personal low, though, considering the time and enjoyment I got out of it for the price I paid. (To me, bad budget titles don't hit as hard as bad $44.95 games.) So, okay, so give me some examples of worse ones then. Worse game ever? Dick Tracy on the C64. This was a simple walk forward and kill baddies. unfortunately it came out at a time when the C64 was having some really great games made (Project Firestart, Lemmings and the like). Lemmings came out for C64? -- http://www.MobyGames.com/ The world's most comprehensive gaming database project. -- This message was sent to you because you are currently subscribed to the swcollect mailing list. To unsubscribe, send mail to [EMAIL PROTECTED] with a subject of 'unsubscribe swcollect' Archives are available at: http://www.mail-archive.com/swcollect@oldskool.org/ -- This message was sent to you because you are currently subscribed to the swcollect mailing list. To unsubscribe, send mail to [EMAIL PROTECTED] with a subject of 'unsubscribe swcollect' Archives are available at: http://www.mail-archive.com/swcollect@oldskool.org/
Re: [SWCollect] CyberMania '94
Yes, in fact with the exception of a few 8 bit computers (spectrum, Amstrad, MSX and Apple II) I can't think of a platform that DIDN'T have a version. Gameboy had one, and even Master System... Wait! No NES version. - Original Message - From: Lee K. Seitz [EMAIL PROTECTED] To: [EMAIL PROTECTED] Sent: Thursday, June 28, 2001 11:58 AM Subject: Re: [SWCollect] CyberMania '94 Jim Leonard boldly stated: Lemmings came out for C64? Didn't Lemmings come out for almost every platform available at the time? -- Lee K. Seitz * [EMAIL PROTECTED] * http://home.hiwaay.net/~lkseitz/ Wanted: | Visit the Classic Video Games Nexus Vintage Pac-M*n necktie| for all your classic link news needs! |http://start.at/cvgnexus -- This message was sent to you because you are currently subscribed to the swcollect mailing list. To unsubscribe, send mail to [EMAIL PROTECTED] with a subject of 'unsubscribe swcollect' Archives are available at: http://www.mail-archive.com/swcollect@oldskool.org/ -- This message was sent to you because you are currently subscribed to the swcollect mailing list. To unsubscribe, send mail to [EMAIL PROTECTED] with a subject of 'unsubscribe swcollect' Archives are available at: http://www.mail-archive.com/swcollect@oldskool.org/
Re: [SWCollect] CyberMania '94
No can do, but if anyone does have it I'd be more than happy to convert it to VideoCD for viewing on a DVD player. The following is only slightly off-topic, but I'll bring it around to software collecting in a bit: Following up on the whole discussion of converting video to digital, have you tried converting the digital to Divx format? I've found it to be exceptional when it comes to quality (if done right) and can save you the $10 media of DVD burning, (not even to discuss the equipment). -- This message was sent to you because you are currently subscribed to the swcollect mailing list. To unsubscribe, send mail to [EMAIL PROTECTED] with a subject of 'unsubscribe swcollect' Archives are available at: http://www.mail-archive.com/swcollect@oldskool.org/
Re: [SWCollect] hypothetical question
Pedro Quaresma wrote: Also, Leather Goddesses of Phobos 2 had a photo of two pretty girls on a gas station on the box... which reminds me of another question: I once saw in Spain a special (??) version of LGoP2 that included a serial port sound system of some sort. Was it really a special edition? Or did all of them include that thing? LGoP2 had the little plug thing included in all the games, I believe it was a copy protection/sound accessory. I have an old two page add for the game, has this hottie in a black teddy on it, and the tag line If this is who is trying to take over earth... Is the planet REALLY worth saving? Too bad the game wasn't as good as the ad campaign Karl Kuras http://www.trantornator.com -- This message was sent to you because you are currently subscribed to the swcollect mailing list. To unsubscribe, send mail to [EMAIL PROTECTED] with a subject of 'unsubscribe swcollect' Archives are available at: http://www.mail-archive.com/swcollect@oldskool.org/
Re: [SWCollect] hypothetical question
Well, this is a long shot, but I got my copy about 2 years ago in a small mom and pop computer shop in Panama City, Florida. I was on spring break, it was raining and I just started walking around (our car had died as well... and yes, we had a good time). They still have another copy sitting on the shelf in case anyone wants to go get it... don't ask me where the place is again though, i have no clue. Hugh Falk wrote: Unfortunately, I can't find my original box (only the disks) for Barb II. The poster came for a magazine I got while in the UK. Dang...I'll have to look for an original on eBay now :-( Hugh -Original Message- From: Karl Kuras [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]] Sent: Wednesday, June 20, 2001 4:53 PM To: [EMAIL PROTECTED] Subject: Re: [SWCollect] hypothetical question Weird... your copy didn't come with a regular poster. Mine has not other markings, but the ones from Palace. Hugh Falk wrote: The poster I have is from a UK magazine -- CV+G. It's folded into four panels, each is 8 x 11.5 -Original Message- From: Pedro Quaresma [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]] Sent: Wednesday, June 20, 2001 9:07 AM To: [EMAIL PROTECTED] Subject: Re: [SWCollect] hypothetical question Well, I have Barbarian II in a small quasi-5.25 box (slightly larger). It has the famous cover pic in front, a brief background story on the back (in I believe English, German and French), the contents include a poster of the cover (MAria Whittaker... ah), the game on 5.25 and a small manual. It's for the PC (got it to run once on an old 286, but even there timing seemed to be off. I'm guessing the poster must be the hard-to-get item here. I still haven't found any Barbarian with it anywhere I'd like t know which versions were released here in the states, wouldn't mind hunting that one down. The Death Sword and Axe of Rage boxes are completely different and completely uninteresting (read, no Maria Whittaker on them ;) Also, I remember Vixen, was the same, or very similar game engine to Thundercats. Hottie on the cover Corinne Russell, other (relatively) famous british page-3 girl. they just don't put hot chicks on enough covers anymore. Many people consider Lara Croft hot. God knows why. Does anyone else remember games like Turbo Girl, Game Over, Phantis and Megacorp? Now THAT was cover art. either that or being a young teenager at the time really engrained those in my head. I remember Game Over, as the drawing was made by Luis Royo, a great Spanish artist. Can you direct me to a scan of the others? With the same...errr... box topic, I remember an arcade game called Entity. Also, CE Forman has added on his page some information about Sex Vixens from Space. Karl Kuras Pedro R. Quaresma [EMAIL PROTECTED] / [EMAIL PROTECTED] All your base are belong to us http://www.salvador-caetano.pt http://www.globalshop.pt -- This message was sent to you because you are currently subscribed to the swcollect mailing list. To unsubscribe, send mail to [EMAIL PROTECTED] with a subject of 'unsubscribe swcollect' Archives are available at: http://www.mail-archive.com/swcollect@oldskool.org/ -- This message was sent to you because you are currently subscribed to the swcollect mailing list. To unsubscribe, send mail to [EMAIL PROTECTED] with a subject of 'unsubscribe swcollect' Archives are available at: http://www.mail-archive.com/swcollect@oldskool.org/ -- This message was sent to you because you are currently subscribed to the swcollect mailing list. To unsubscribe, send mail to [EMAIL PROTECTED] with a subject of 'unsubscribe swcollect' Archives are available at: http://www.mail-archive.com/swcollect@oldskool.org/ -- This message was sent to you because you are currently subscribed to the swcollect mailing list. To unsubscribe, send mail to [EMAIL PROTECTED] with a subject of 'unsubscribe swcollect' Archives are available at: http://www.mail-archive.com/swcollect@oldskool.org/ -- This message was sent to you because you are currently subscribed to the swcollect mailing list. To unsubscribe, send mail to [EMAIL PROTECTED] with a subject of 'unsubscribe swcollect' Archives are available at: http://www.mail-archive.com/swcollect@oldskool.org/
Re: [SWCollect] hypothetical question
Weird... your copy didn't come with a regular poster. Mine has not other markings, but the ones from Palace. Hugh Falk wrote: The poster I have is from a UK magazine -- CV+G. It's folded into four panels, each is 8 x 11.5 -Original Message- From: Pedro Quaresma [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]] Sent: Wednesday, June 20, 2001 9:07 AM To: [EMAIL PROTECTED] Subject: Re: [SWCollect] hypothetical question Well, I have Barbarian II in a small quasi-5.25 box (slightly larger). It has the famous cover pic in front, a brief background story on the back (in I believe English, German and French), the contents include a poster of the cover (MAria Whittaker... ah), the game on 5.25 and a small manual. It's for the PC (got it to run once on an old 286, but even there timing seemed to be off. I'm guessing the poster must be the hard-to-get item here. I still haven't found any Barbarian with it anywhere I'd like t know which versions were released here in the states, wouldn't mind hunting that one down. The Death Sword and Axe of Rage boxes are completely different and completely uninteresting (read, no Maria Whittaker on them ;) Also, I remember Vixen, was the same, or very similar game engine to Thundercats. Hottie on the cover Corinne Russell, other (relatively) famous british page-3 girl. they just don't put hot chicks on enough covers anymore. Many people consider Lara Croft hot. God knows why. Does anyone else remember games like Turbo Girl, Game Over, Phantis and Megacorp? Now THAT was cover art. either that or being a young teenager at the time really engrained those in my head. I remember Game Over, as the drawing was made by Luis Royo, a great Spanish artist. Can you direct me to a scan of the others? With the same...errr... box topic, I remember an arcade game called Entity. Also, CE Forman has added on his page some information about Sex Vixens from Space. Karl Kuras Pedro R. Quaresma [EMAIL PROTECTED] / [EMAIL PROTECTED] All your base are belong to us http://www.salvador-caetano.pt http://www.globalshop.pt -- This message was sent to you because you are currently subscribed to the swcollect mailing list. To unsubscribe, send mail to [EMAIL PROTECTED] with a subject of 'unsubscribe swcollect' Archives are available at: http://www.mail-archive.com/swcollect@oldskool.org/ -- This message was sent to you because you are currently subscribed to the swcollect mailing list. To unsubscribe, send mail to [EMAIL PROTECTED] with a subject of 'unsubscribe swcollect' Archives are available at: http://www.mail-archive.com/swcollect@oldskool.org/ -- This message was sent to you because you are currently subscribed to the swcollect mailing list. To unsubscribe, send mail to [EMAIL PROTECTED] with a subject of 'unsubscribe swcollect' Archives are available at: http://www.mail-archive.com/swcollect@oldskool.org/
Re: [SWCollect] hypothetical question
Hey, since Barbarian has been mentioned, I have a UK copy of Barbarian II: Dungeons of Drax (the actual Palace sequel, not the Psygnosis game), does anyone know if that game was ever published here in the states and if so under what name? Hugh Falk wrote: Package variations are the spice of life...go for both if you can! I like to have games like Barbarian (UK) and its USA counterpart (Death Sword) to show the differences. Hugh -Original Message- From: Karl Kuras [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]] Sent: Tuesday, June 19, 2001 10:44 AM To: [EMAIL PROTECTED] Subject: Re: [SWCollect] hypothetical question Well, I'm guessing it's one of the Amber games or the Schwarzeauge games (can't remember what they called it here in the states, maybe realms of Arkania). Now considering that I'm German, I'm a wee bit biased and woudl buy the German version if I don't have too pay too much for it. From a collection stand point, if both packages are of equal quality (quite a few foreign games get a budget treatment over here... look at the original Pizza Tycoon (originally Pizza Connection)). I'm a purist, go with the original packaging! Pedro Quaresma wrote: I have this hypothetical question I'd like to present to all of you: Imagine game X, made by company Y. Company Y is from Germany, so X is released in german. X is then released in the USA in english, by company Z. Same box, same contents, only translated, and different company logo on the box. Now you don't want to play game X, you just want it for your collection. What would you do? a) Buy X both in german and english (in case you choose this one please choose also one of the other two) b) Buy the original german version of X c) Buy the US version, in english, of X Thanks in advance for your opinions, Pedro PS: Extra lump of sugar if you can guess which X I'm referring to. Hint: it's a RPG. Pedro R. Quaresma [EMAIL PROTECTED] / [EMAIL PROTECTED] All your base are belong to us -- This message was sent to you because you are currently subscribed to the swcollect mailing list. To unsubscribe, send mail to [EMAIL PROTECTED] with a subject of 'unsubscribe swcollect' Archives are available at: http://www.mail-archive.com/swcollect@oldskool.org/ -- This message was sent to you because you are currently subscribed to the swcollect mailing list. To unsubscribe, send mail to [EMAIL PROTECTED] with a subject of 'unsubscribe swcollect' Archives are available at: http://www.mail-archive.com/swcollect@oldskool.org/ -- This message was sent to you because you are currently subscribed to the swcollect mailing list. To unsubscribe, send mail to [EMAIL PROTECTED] with a subject of 'unsubscribe swcollect' Archives are available at: http://www.mail-archive.com/swcollect@oldskool.org/ -- This message was sent to you because you are currently subscribed to the swcollect mailing list. To unsubscribe, send mail to [EMAIL PROTECTED] with a subject of 'unsubscribe swcollect' Archives are available at: http://www.mail-archive.com/swcollect@oldskool.org/
Re: [SWCollect] Game request: Ace of Aces EGA version
Another thing to remember about the shelflife of games at the time was that
the PC didn't have a whole lot of them. IF you landed a game that was good
it could survive for ages. This is still true today in many respects with
games like Quake still going for $30 in some places.
While video games are marketed by the console maker, computer games aren't,
so no matter how much time has passed, a computer game maker will continue
to push a title as long as it sells, no matter if it takes shelfspace from
newer titles.
This is probably the right post to start this line of questioning in, but
should we be making a distinction in value for the format (ie computer
system) the game came on? I mean we mostly agree its about the materials,
but should a C64 version of AoA be worth the same as the PC version? And
what about games were there were drastic differences in quality between
versions. One example would be Outrun on the Amiga (which was quite good,
dispite simplistic graphics) and Outrun on the C64 (which was slightly
better than abismal) Mind you this doesn't necessarily have to do with one
system being better than the other (there are cases of games playing better
on the C64 than on the Amiga or PC, e.g. Powerdrift)
Chris Newman wrote:
Oh sure, there are separate files for each version. I have an original EGA Test Drive
for
example, an Accolade title from this era. There is only 1 disk, with files for both
versions. The games were usually small enough to fit on a 360 with room to spare.
AoA was ' 85 if I recall so the base was mostly CGA (and Hercules). I guess I'm
surprised that Accolade would have the game on the shelves long enough to
be released in two separate versions. I didn't think shelflife would last more than
18
months, but on the other hand, an EGA upgrade can breathe new life into a CGA
game during that time.
Chris
Jim Leonard wrote:
Chris Newman wrote:
Yes, there was an EGA version of this game released for the PC. Many Accolade
games of the mid to late 80s were released in two separate versions -- CGA and
EGA. I don't know if it was a ploy to get gamers to pay for an "upgrade" or if
Accolade was merely following the consumer installation base (CGA systems far
outweighing EGA rigs). My guess is the former because it costs nothing to ship
the
EGA version and perform a video card test on bootup and run the correct version.
Well, many CGA+EGA games used seperate graphics files for different graphics
modes, so it would've saved them an additional diskette. What's more likely is
that they probably didn't do an EGA version until EGA was common in the home
(EGA was 1985, wasn't AoAs 1986?)
--
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The world's most comprehensive historical PC gaming database project.
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