Go Retro! 83-92
Commodore. Atari. Sinclair. Acorn. Four names that changed the lives of many a teenager in the heady years of pre-PC home computing. Not to mention the fact that they spawned a whole set of games which have been lauded as excellent examples of the art, and still hold water today.
The story that we began last issue continues, this time through the eyes of the author, who lived during the middle decade of game development as the technology matured, and with it experimentation abounded.
Time for a reality check.
Never forget that these machines have about 64KB of memory, 320x240 pixel screens, usually in 16 colors, with no support for any kind of hardware graphics acceleration or sprites. Everything had to be built from the ground up, in assembly code. You needed a sprite engine, or 3D rotation routines, you wrote them. Or disassembled them from other programmers' code, and integrated them into your own product.
My first interaction with home gaming devices began with the BBC Model B microcomputer, from Acorn. It had a whopping 32KB of memory, as I recall, and a tape drive. The tape drives were soon replaced by 5.25" inch floppy drives, however, as the need to reduce loading time became evident. And the MTV-impatient-generation was born. Just kidding.
Wasted Youth List #1
Starship Command Black and white sprites racing around in 8-way scrolling heaven. Shoot the invaders as they pinwheel accross the sky. Top-down furious action.
Yie ar Kung-Fu Immensely addictive one-on-one arcade fighting action. Bewildering array of moves for such a compact game.
Repton + sequels The principal is easy enough - collect crystals, whilst avoiding being trapped underneath rocks perched on top of each other. Not as easy as it sounds. Especially when the later levels include hatching eggs. No prizes for guessing what they hatch into.
Ravenskull Never played, but often enviously watched over the shoulders of fellow gamers. Top-down robe-flowing adventure-cum-exploration game. Looked real fun.
Castlequest Side on ladders and levels with a twist. Needs a good brain - mine wasn't good enough, and besides, I never had the patience to finish it.
Revs Tricky through-the-windshield racing game. Realistic simulation. Irritatingly so.
Labyrinth Little fellow pushing a rock around in pseudo-isometric top-down maze and monster bashing game. Completed this one.
Ghouls Little yellow man running around eating pills and trying not to get eaten by ghosts. Borrowed on the PacMan theme, but put it into a side-on jump and run level based game. Highly addictive.
Twin Kingdom Valley Text/graphic adventure game, where you could talk with the non player characters, and get meaningful information from them.
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