antiquated game player - product 11

AntiquatedGame PlayerA magazine for the old school, vol II.

Table of ContentsBattlecruiser 3000AD ......................................................... 4

Games For Nerds ..............................................................10

The Role of... The Role of Computers ............................. 15

Antiquated Opinion .......................................................... 18

Senescent Tech: The Apple IIGS ......................................29

The Role of Computers Index .......................................... 34

W elcome to Volume II of Antiquated Game Player, a magazine designed to

offend only one third of humanity. Allow me to explain.There are three types

of people in this world. There are those who think everything new is better than what

came before it. There are those who consider the past in all ways superior to the present.

And there are those with common sense. My hope is that this publication will appeal to

two of the three! The other group, whether it actually comprises one third the world's

population or nine tenths, is simply not my audience. This magazine is for old fogies and

inquisitive young folk.

Since Volume I had a fantasy theme, I decided to focus on science fiction for my

sophomore effort. I have always loved both, but in my youth I definitely leaned more

toward fantasy in my media consumption. As I've gotten older that preference has waned,

especially when it comes to fiction. Let's face it, most fantasy fiction is mediocre, and

many of the best fantasy writers probably wrote more science fiction than fantasy,

including some of my personal favorites like Jack Vance, Fritz Leiber, and Poul

Anderson.

But this magazine is supposed to be about games, not fiction. For this issue I finally

played Wasteland and I finally finished Mechwarrior, a sci fi game I did actually play

back in the day. I also played Battlecruiser 3000AD for the first time, and apparently I

lived to tell the tale! In my research I also spent quite a bit of time reading old computer

magazines, which inspired me to write about a formative influence of mine, "The Role of

Computers" column in Dragon Magazine. In fact, the column is still one of my most

used resources, and I decided to create an index of its reviews and hints, which you can

find at the end of this issue. Finally, all that time spent reading those old magazines

prompted me to write about how computer games have changed since the early days of

computing in "Games For Nerds".

I hope you enjoy the issue, it was a long time coming. I already have some exciting plans

for Volume III, coming sometime in 2017!

Jonathan Simpson @MagisterLudi11

Battlecruiser 3000AD:

A Retrospective

6

When thinking about science

fiction games to play for this

issue, I knew I wanted to play at least

one game in the space simulation

genre. There were a wealth of choices,

from actionoriented flight simulators

like Wing Commander to the more

openended trading sims like Elite. I

have played a number of these over

the years, but there was one game I

had not played which had always

intrigued me. A game that is best

known as a high profile failure, but

which nevertheless spawned

numerous sequels. A game which is

responsible for perhaps more internet

flame wars than any before or since.

That game is Battlecruiser 3000AD.

Battlecruiser 3000AD is known

primarily for two things: the hype

generated for it by its creator, Derek

Smart, and its failure to live up to that

hype on its initial release. In fact,

version 1.0 of the game is widely

regarded as unplayable. If you were

reading computer game magazines in

the early 90s, you probably remember

the hype. But like me before I began

my research for this article, what you

probably have not done is actually

play one of the later releases of the

game. So, what I am going to do is tell

you if you should. Almost twenty

years later, is Battlecruiser 3000AD

worth your time?

If nothing else, the scope and ambition

of the game is something to behold.

Whereas most games of this type

place you in command of a relatively

small ship, Battlecruiser 3000AD

7

gives you something closer to the

U.S.S. Enterprise than an XWing.

With an initial crew of over one

hundred members, the logistics of

managing the ship are overwhelming

at first. The manual that was

eventually included in later releases is

wellwritten by Derek Smart but

nearly 200 pages long, not including

the numerous appendices, and the

threeletter acronyms are legion.

You'll need to know that PTA stands

for Passive Target Acquisition and that

CTL means Continuous Tracking

Logic. And of course you must know

the difference between the NID and

the CVD and what each is used for!

This is the ultimate game for

nerds[see Games for Nerds in this

issue!].

Learning the game is as uphill battle,

but the level of control afforded to

you is unprecedented. You can issue

orders to each of your crew members.

You can clone them. You can launch

and issue orders to interceptors and

shuttles. You can pilot those craft

yourself if you so desire. You can steer

the battlecruiser and fire its numerous

weapons systems. You can traverse the

galaxy manually or use the Navitron

to set a path for the autopilot system.

You can fill your cargo holds with

trade goods. You can tow disabled

craft with your tractor beam. You can

align your battlecruiser such that its

solar panels operate at maximum

efficiency(you may need to do this if

you run out of Radine to power the

ship's nuclear reactor). You can launch

probes and mining drones. If your

battlecruiser is boarded by hostile

aliens, you'll need to send your

marines to search out and destroy

them. And you can watch in realtime

as your marine search parties move

about the ship. According to Tim

Howgego's FAQ[1], you should also

disable power to launch control to

prevent the intruders from escaping in

a shuttle!

The Many Versions Of BattlecruiserTake 2 released the first version of Battlecruiser in 1996 against the wishes of

Derek Smart. Since that initial imposed release, Derek Smart has continued to

develop the game. There were numerous patches and upgrades, and different

versions were released via other publishers over the next few years.

Commercially, four games bearing the Battlecruiser name were released

between 1996 and 2003: Battlecruiser 3000AD, Battlecruiser 3000AD v2.0,

Battlecruiser Millennium, and Battlecruiser Millennium: Gold Edition. When

patches and demos are considered, there are almost too many variations of

Battlecruiser to count. None of these games are sequels, exactly. They are more

like refinements of the original game, delivering on promised features and

fixing bugs. They are snapshots of an evolving codebase, the life's work of

Derek Smart. (continued)

8

Considering the complexity of the

game, the numerous interacting

systems, the dynamic universe, etc., it

is easy to see what went wrong in

Battlecruiser 3000AD's development.

If anyone else seriously attempted a

game of similar ambition in the 90s, it

was never publicly released. As a

software developer, I understand how

difficult it must have been just to get

the game in a relatively bugfree state.

The task of actually making a fun

game out of all of those systems must

have been an order of magnitude more

challenging. Furthermore, if the

credits listed in the manual are

complete, the main 3000AD

development team consisted of only

four people. The fact that the game

even exists at all is kind of amazing.

I spent a dozen hours or so tinkering

around with Battlecruiser 3000AD. I

say tinkering because that is the best

way to describe my interactions with

the game. Perhaps at some point, you

'play' Battlecruiser, but I have not

gotten that far along with it. I cannot

say much about the quality of the

game that lies underneath all those

systems, but I did have some fun

tinkering. It is at least interesting to

the right kind of person. It is also full

of ideas, many that I have not seen in

other games of the genre. If I can ever

get v2.0 or Millennium working

properly[see The Many Versions of

Battlecruiser box out], perhaps on real

hardware running Windows 98, I will

most likely delve into the game

further.

If you are a nerd or are developing a

space simulation—which probably

means you are a nerd—then I think

Battlecruiser 3000AD is still worth

(continued from previous)

And that codebase lives on beyond Battlecruiser. Smart's next series, Universal

Combat, is a clear continuation of Battlecruiser. Approximately six more

"Battlecruiser" games were released under the Universal Combat moniker. And

although I have not played them, I expect that even Smart's other, more

differentiated games are still branches in the evolutionary tree of Battlecruiser,

inheriting a great deal of DNA from their ancestors.

The only version that I have played is v1.01D7C of Battlecruiser 3000AD. This

is the version that was released as freeware by Smart in February 1998. This

version runs in DOSBox and is the only version I have been able to get running

on my PC. I have a physical copy of v2.0, released by Interplay, but it requires

Windows 95/98 and is much harder to get running on a modern PC. I spent

maybe 46 hours trying to get it to work in Windows 7, Wine, and virtual

machines running Windows 98 and XP, all to no avail. I also tried all of the

above with the freeware release of Battlecruiser Millennium, with identical

results. Luikly, I found v1.01D7C to be relatively bugfree.

9

playing. For everyone else, it is

probably not worth the time

investment required to get acquainted

with the game. I do not consider that a

fault of the game however. Different

players want different things from

games and the size of a game's

potential audience should not be a

measure of its quality. Unforturnately,

Battlecruiser 3000AD was marketed

to the mainstream computer games

market, which by the mid1990s had

already begun to broaden beyond

computer nerds. Perhaps this was a

major contributing factor to the vitriol

the game received on release. It was

made to be the game Derek Smart had

always wanted to play, and I do not

think many concessions were made

for a mainstream audience. It was a

gigantic failure of marketting to

assume that the wider market at all

resembled Derek Smart. I believe that

is a statement that even his many

critics can agree with.

[1] If you do want to try the game, it is

well worth your time track down Tim

Howgego's FAQ and walkthrough. It

is practically essential.

Flying over Africa in an interceptor.

10

When I set out to create a

magazine covering old

computer games, I decided to use the

adjective antiquated to describe the

publication's intended subject matter.

However, age alone doesn't make a

thing antiquated. What is it about the

games I am interested in which makes

them not just old, but old fashioned

and outmoded? The hardware they

were programmed for is certainly

antiquated, but there is more to it than

that. Old computer games aren't just

technically inferior versions of the

games that are being made today.

They were designed differently, made

for a different audience of game

players. To be direct, the games of the

80s and 90s were made for nerds.

We all have a picture in our mind of

what a nerd is, but for my purposes

we need a more exact definition. For

instance, what is the difference

between a nerd and a geek? To shed

light on that and other questions, I

turn to an article written by Burr

Settles to define the terms[1]. Settles

describes the nerd as a practitioner of

a topic or field. This stands in contrast

to the geek, who is an enthusiast of a

topic or field, and not necessarily a

practitioner. Nerds are intellectuals

who are idea and achievement

oriented. Geeks are collectors who are

trivia and fact oriented. There is

certainly overlap in the areas of

interest between nerds and geeks, but

nerds tend more toward the scientific

while geeks lean towards the cultural.

But no matter the area of interest,

there are certain characteristics that all

nerds share, and likewise for the

varying types of geek. The two

categories are also not mutually

exclusive. An individual can be both a

nerd and a geek.

Over the last thirty years the computer

game industry has shifted from

primarily making games for nerds to

primarily making games for a broader

audience, including geeks. In the 80s

and early 90s, the computer game

market was naturally limited to the

relatively few people who owned

GAMESFOR NERDS

11

home computers, either hobbyists or

professionals who used their computer

for work. Professionals probably

account for the popularity of golf

simulations and the like, but the

primary market for noneducational

games were hobbyists. And at the

time, messing around with computers

was a much nerdier hobby than it was

a geeky one. Furthermore, this was a

time when the teams which made

computer games were comprised of a

mere handful of people at most. The

programmer—the one individual you

had to have to make a computer

game—wasn't just an engineer, he was

usually in effect a game desiger as

well. The biggest nerd on the team

played a major role in the design and

conception of the product.

So, the games of the 80s to early 90s

were largely games for nerds because

that is who both the consumers and

the producers were. To support the

consumer portion of this claim, let us

take a look at Computer Gaming

World, one of the first magazines

specifically devoted to computer

games. CGW surveyed its readers

monthly to gather their ratings of

current games. In the early days of the

survey, games were divided into two

categories: Strategy and

Adventure/Action, and the top 50

games in each category were printed

in each issue along with their average

rating out of ten(eventually, CGW

would unify the list into a single top

100).

Strategy Adventure/Action1. Dungeon Master

5. Pool of Radiance

1. Battlechess

2. Typhoon of Steel 2. Wasteland

3. Empire 3. Future Magic

4. Reach for the Stars (3rd) 4. Battlehawks 1942

5. Earl Weaver Baseball

Top Ten: CGW January 1989

Consider the Top Ten list for January

1989. All ten of these games can be

considered either role playing,

strategy, or simulation games. By

CGW 100 in 1992 the Top 100 is still

littered with the usual suspects but the

top 10 is starting to show a slight tilt

away from hardcore simulations(see

next page). It is still a fairly nerdy list

for sure, but perhaps slightly less so.

There are three graphical adventures

on this list and the two flight

simulators, Wing Commander II and

Red Baron, are more on the arcadey

end of the spectrum.

12

So, what is the tangible difference

between the nerdtargeted games of

yesteryear and the massmarket games

being made today? How are the games

different in a nerdfocused industry?

For one, nerds are more likely to

enjoy games for more than just their

entertainment value. Games for nerds

can appeal to their nature as hobbyists

and tinkerers. Complexity, obtuseness,

challenge, all the things that hamper

immediate enjoyment of a game,

aren't necessarily a negative for nerds

because nerds like puzzles and

problem solving. They like hobbies

they can really immerse themselves

in. The challenge is part of the

enjoyment. Thus nerds favor games

that require more effort from the

player, games that are more

demanding.

One common attribute that makes

these games more demanding is their

complexity. Computer games used to

come packaged with thick manuals

that were practically required reading

in order to enjoy the game. Flight

simulators were particularly notorious

for having detailed manuals that read

like a combination of an owner's

manual and a history lesson on the

relevant plane and/or military conflict.

Role playing games came with

manuals not at all dissimilar to

manuals for actual pen and paper

RPGs. I remember spending hours

studying Wizardry VII's 107 page

manual, planning my party's

composition from the 11 races and 14

professions available.

Bethesda's Elder Scrolls series serves

as a good example of a developer

decreasing complexity over time in

search of a larger market. Each game

in the main line series after

Daggerfall has less options for

character development and arguably

less complex game play than its

predecessor, while also selling

significantly more units[2].

Daggerfall features a large choice of

character classes and a complex

custom class creation option. The

game has 35 skills in total, with each

Unified List (All Genres)6. Indiana Jones: Fate of Atlantis

10. Perfect General

1. Civilization

2. Ultima Underworld 7. Monkey Island 2

3. Wing Commander II 8. Red Baron

4. Hardball III 9. The Dagger of Amon Ra

5. Solitaire's Journey

Top Ten: CGW November 1992

13

The main screen for Daggerfall's custom class creation. Isn't it glorious?

class dividing them into primary,

major, minor, and miscellaneus

categories. By the time the series gets

to Skyrim, there are only 18 skills and

no classes. Skyrim also eliminated the

eight basic character attributes of

Agility, Endurance, Intelligence,

Luck, Personality, Speed, Strength,

and Willpower that had been a part of

the series since its beginning.

But even when modern games are

more complex than their historical

antecedents, they still tend to be less

demanding. Character development in

third edition D&D is quite a bit more

complex than in first or second

edition. Third edition players have

much more choice in how they

develop their characters, with Feats,

Skills, and a very flexible system of

multiclassing. Whereas in first edition,

only spell casters have to make any

choices at all when they advance a

level. The difference carries over to

computer games based around the two

editions as well. Except for the fact

that party sizes are larger, SSI's "Gold

Box" games certainly have fewer

moving parts than the games in the

Neverwinter Nights series. But despite

this, the "Gold Box" series requires

more from the player. The combats

are more challenging, dungeon

exploration is in first person without

auto mapping, and there is very little

hand holding. It is telling that the

most demanding of the third edition

computer games is The Temple of

Elemental Evil, a game based on a

first edition module and intended as a

throwback to the classic AD&D games

of old.

The expansion of the market for

computer games has also changed the

14

way games are made. Instead of

making games for themselves,

developers now focus test their games

extensively to ensure that the game

playing experience is as smooth as

possible. An effortless play experience

from moment to moment is a worthy

goal for certain types of games, but a

lot is lost in exchange. This isn't the

type of game that everyone wants to

play. It is especially frustrating for

nerds to see genres that traditionaly

thrived on complexity through

randomness, numerous interacting

variables, or just plain open ended

experimentation be streamlined down

to the point that they no longer

resemble their former selves.

How often have you heard someone

gripe about the lack of a good story in

an RPG? A good story certainly wasn't

the expectation in the early days of

RPGs. The genre has simply evolved

into something totally different.

Which brings us to the next point:

narrative is increasingly important in

games. Many games today are a bit

like movies: bitesized packages of

entertainment with predefined

beginnings, middles, and ends. As

entertainment products this makes

sense, but there is very little reason to

replay a game of this sort. It stretches

the traditional conception of a game as

nothing but a set of rules defining

interaction between the game and one

or more players. Every game of chess,

for instance, is a unique sequence of

interactions, making the game

immanently replayable.

Finally, less games are being made

that appeal to interests outside of

game playing. This isn't surprising

considering the industry's conception

of games as purely entertainment

products. The prominence of historical

war games, flight sims, and other such

simulations is in the past. The

educational market does still exist, and

there are a few noteworthy exceptions,

but most games exist solely to

entertain the player and don't assume

any nongaming related skills or

knowlegde aside from basic literacy.

The purpose of this article is not to

decry progress in game design, but to

point out that game design has

progressed primarily along just one of

several possible paths, not necessarily

a better or worse path than the others

available, just a different one. There

are players who, with good reason,

still prefer an older style of game

design. A style which unfortunately

hasn't seen as much development over

the years. Complex, sometimes

confusing games aren't necessarily

bad games. Perhaps they are just made

for a different kind of player, a ner...

ahem, an Antiquated Game Player.

[1] http://slackprop.wordpress.com/2013/06/03/ongeekversusnerd/

[2] http://www.vgchartz.com (useful for a rough estimate only)

15

The Role of...

If I had to point to the single

influence which was most

responsible for igniting my interest in

computer games, it would be Dragon

Magazine. It may seem strange that I

came to computer gaming through a

pen and paper role playing magazine

instead of one devoted to computers,

but I don't think my story is that

unusual for the time. Computers were

not yet ubiquitous in the early 90s.

You needed a reason to own one

before you committed to the purchase.

For me and many others, that reason

came in the form of a hobby outside

of computing itself. In my case that

hobby was pen and paper gaming.

I first subscribed to Dragon Magazine

the Summer prior to beginning 8th

grade, but I had picked up or perused

issues here and there before then. I

was interested in the magazine

because it was the official mouthpiece

of TSR, Inc., the developer and

publisher of Dungeons & Dragons.

But aside from covering D&D,

Dragon had regular columns on other

related topics: science fiction and

fantasy novels, original short fiction,

other games published by TSR, and of

course, computer games.

Dragon Magazine had a number of

computer gaming columns over the

years, but the one which was current

when I began reading the magazine

was "The Role of Computers". It was

also the longest running and, dare I

say, the best of them. "The Role of

Computers" quickly became the

column I looked forward to the most

each month, even before my family

owned a computer. The computer

games described there seemed to

come so much closer to replicating the

real RPG experience than the few

console RPGs I'd been exposed to.

16

Since I didn't know anyone else who

was interested in D&D at the time,

approximating the real thing in a

single player experience was

paramount. The existence of these

games fueled my interest in computer

games and even computers in general.

The column began with authors

Hartley and Patricia Lesser in Dragon

Magazine #110 in June 1986. Kirk

Lesser would join the team in issue

#128. Collectively known as The

Lessers, they published the column in

almost every issue of Dragon

Magazine until their final column in

issue #196. Running from 1986 to

1993, "The Role of Computers"

provides a stable perspective on the

industry during a time of rapid

change. In 1986, a diverse range of

home micro computers like the Apple

II and Commodore 64 competed in the

market, but by 1993 the PC/MSDOS

hegemony was at least nascent, if not

already established. Likewise, during

this time the personal computer

industry would transition from the

primarily 8 bit micros to full 32 bit

architectures. This hardware

revolution was matched by the pace of

software innovation and it was all

documented by The Lessers in their

wonderful colmun over its nearly 8

year span.

During this period of rapid change,

computer games were incredibly

diverse. Many of the genres and

conventions we are familiar with

today were not yet established in

1986. This is especially true with

regard to user interfaces. Many of the

games reviewed in "The Role of

Computers" were innovating, they

were doing things without precedent.

Thus, The Lessers not only had the

task of evaluating games for their

readers, they also had to describe them

well enough that the reader could

actually understand the moment by

moment experience of playing the

game. And their success in doing this,

I think, is the true legacy of "The Role

of Computers". As someone who

didn't even own a computer, through

"The Role of Computers" I could still

imagine the experience of playing Eye

of the Beholder or King's Quest V. It is

even more impressive considering that

The Lessers accomplished this using

relatively few screen shots.

"The Role of Computers" also served

an important function as the center for

a community of role playing and

adventure game players. In a time

before internet access was widespread,

The Lessers successfully built a

community by publishing reader

submitted letters, requests for game

help, and game hints and tips. In an

era before gamefaqs, the game player

didn't have a lot of options for game

help outside of official hint books or

phone help lines, so this must have

been a very useful resource. There was

also an annual survey to determine the

readers' game of the year. Judging by

the quantity of reader submitted

17

material, simply reading all the letters

they received must have been a

significant time commitment. It is

clear that The Lessers felt that

community involvement was

important. Plus, reading the hints for

unfamiliar games was actually quite

useful for learning about a game. I

bought Dragon Wars, one of my all

time favorite RPGs, solely because of

the hints I read in "The Role of

Computers".

"The Role of Computers" was not

only significant to me at the time I

first read it, I routinely use it as a

resource today. In fact, I refer to it so

often that I have taken the time to

compile an index of all the reviews

and hints published during its 8 year

run. In honor of "The Role of

Computers", I am printing the entirety

of that index in these pages. To some,

it will surely be seen as a waste of

page count to put it here, but I will

refer to this index frequently and will

personally find it convenient to have it

in a nicely printed form. Hopefully

I'm not the only one!

(The index starts on page 34)

18

AntiquatedOpinion

Wasteland

Released in 1988 for a variety of

personal computers, Wasteland

is mostly remembered these days for

its influence, its innovations, and for

the highly regarded series it inspired,

Fallout. Playing the game today, what

is most striking about it to me is the

degree to which it replicates a pen and

paper RPG scenario. Of course, most

if not all CRPGs up to this point had

similar aims in simulating that

experience, but few had attempted to

clone the experience as closely as

Wasteland did. In fact, many of

Wasteland's innovations: its character

development and skill system, its high

degree of environmental interaction,

and its openended approach to

problem solving stem from pen and

paper games.

The similarity to pen and paper RPGs

begins with character creation. As is

often the case in computer RPGs of

this era, you are required to utilize

virtual dice to create your party of

characters. In this case, you can create

a party of up to four characters with

the randomly generated characteristics

of Strength, Intelligence, Luck, Speed,

Agility, Dexterity, Charisma and

MAXCON(analogous to Hit Points in

D&D). Of these stats, Intelligence is

the most important because it

determines the number of points the

character has available to spend on

skill development. Some basic skills,

like Climb only cost one point to learn

while more complex skills can cost

more. Pumping more points into a

skill can increase its level, but this

isn't necessary because skill levels will

increase on their own through use.

Skill development is only possible at

character creation and at libraries that

can be found scattered about the

wasteland.

Level advancement in Wasteland is

also similar to D&D. Level, or Rank

in the game's parlance, can be

increased by earning experience

points. With every new promotion,

MAXCON is increased by 2 points

and 2 points can be allocated to

increase any of the other base stats,

including MAXCON. By increasing

Intelligence new skill points will be

gained for use in skill development.

This is the only means of acquiring

RELEASED: 1988

FORMAT: Apple II, C64, PC/DOS

PUBLISHER: Electronic Arts

DEVELOPER: Interplay Prod.

19

skill points in the game.

Unlike most pen and paper games and

many later computer RPGs,

experience points can only be earned

by defeating enemies in combat. This

was the norm in computer games of

the time, but is a notable divergence

from pen and paper games. For all the

ways that Wasteland broke from

computer game tradition to return to

its pen and paper roots, this was one

obvious omission. Despite including

numerous opportunities to avoid or

mitigate combat in the game,

character advancement is still tied

solely to combat. Which means that

alternate solutions carry with them an

experience point penalty.

Speaking of combat, the game

borrows the basics from The Bard's

Tale series, but with a couple of

additions. Like The Bard's Tale,

combat is turnbased with actions

chosen for all characters before the

round commences. The enemies

appear in one or more separate groups

at various distances from the party.

Unlike The Bard's Tale, the player

characters and enemy groups are

positioned on a 2D map. Any

movement, including attempts to flee

combat, is conducted on the map. The

party will need to create enough

distance or break line of sight with all

enemy groups to exit combat.

Distance is also important because

each weapon has an effective range.

Wasteland's combat is lacking some

depth compared to The Bard's Tale

due to the lack of magic, but the game

does at least provide a variety of

weapon types. There are melee

weapons, firearms, explosives, rocket

launchers, etc. Some of these are

powerful one use items with an area of

effect that can damage multiple

enemies. Firearms often have multiple

firing modes and have varying size

clips that require reloading once

depleted. One idea borrowed from pen

and paper games is that ranged

weapon attacks are all discharged

simultaneously prior to melee attacks.

Wasteland's

enemy

designs are

varied and

interesting.

20

Any combatant who fires a ranged

weapon always gets a shot off, even if

he is simultaneously ripped to shreds

by his opponents' gun fire.

The major weakness of the combat

system has more to do with the

mechanics for damage and healing

than with the actual combat system

itself. In essence, it is both really hard

to die and equally hard to recover

health in Wasteland. The stages of

dying in Wasteland are manifold.

First, when a character's CON falls

below one they fall UNCONSCIOUS.

With time, an unconscious character

will regain CON and will eventually

wake up once his CON has climbed

back above zero. But take too much

damage before that can happen and a

character will enter SERIOUS

condition. At this stage and below, a

character's condition will worsen over

time. Untreated, a character will pass

through the CRITICAL and MORTAL

stages before finally dying. If a

character reaches serious condition,

their only recourse is to see a doctor,

who could be another player character

with the Medic or Doctor skill.

Successful application(s) of the skill

will move them up the ladder towards

mere unconsciousness. At which point

it is only a matter of time until they

are back on their feet. Regaining

consciousness can even happen in

battle. Unfortunately, waking up in the

line of fire with one CON is not

conducive to remaining conscious. As

a result, characters will be popping in

and out of consciousness quite

frequently during combat. And since

there are no items or skills in the game

which restore CON, there isn't

anything that can be done to prevent

this.

Once the dust from battle clears, the

only option for CON recovery is to

execute the WAIT command to slowly

regain CON, ideally in a location that

is safe from random encounters. Were

it not for the ability to create macros

to execute a series of commands with

the stroke of a button, this alone

would be almost game breaking.

Fortunately, there are macros, and a

macro that WAITs ten times or more is

basically essential to your enjoyment

of the game.

But even worse, an entire party of

unconscious characters is not a failure

state. Game overs only occur once

every party member is in at least

serious condition. Enemies will wait

around until one party member regains

consciousness before attacking again.

Since this party member will only

have 1 CON, he will likely only get

off one shot before being put back to

sleep. This tedious—and

illogical—state of affairs could have

been avoided by making an

unconscious party a dead party and

balancing the combat around that.

Luckily for Wasteland, the rest of the

game more than makes up for the

deficiencies of its combat system. In

21

terms of interactivity and open

endedness, Wasteland set a very high

bar indeed. Borrowing once again

from pen and paper games, the top

down, graphical display of the game

world is complemented by text

descriptions for specific objects or

areas. These add greatly to the

atmosphere but also provide clues for

interactive possibilities. Player

characters' stats, skills, and items can

all be used to interact with

environmental objects. A squeaky

floorboard might be able to be pried

up with a crowbar or a computer

terminal could be hacked to reduce the

number of robot guards patrolling an

area. Locked doors could be bashed

down with Strength, picked by the

Lockpick skill, or demolished with

TNT. The sheer quantity of interaction

programmed into the game meant that

even a thorough player would miss the

majority of it in a single playthrough.

There are also consequences to your

actions. Consider the above example

of three ways to open a locked door.

Using the Lockpick skill will open the

door quietly, but using a louder means

of entrance might draw unwanted

attention and lead to a forced combat

encounter. Wasteland gives you many

choices and options but doesn't make

the mistake of making them all

equivalent. The decisions you make in

the game will matter.

Of course, achieving this level of

detail takes a great deal of time.

Wasteland took a reported 4 years to

develop[1], a staggering length of time

for a game of the 80s. Wasteland also

benefited from the contributions of the

The main exploration view is reminiscent of a map for a table top role

playing game.

22

professional writers and pen and paper

game designers on the project. If

anything, writers understand the hard

work that goes into refining a piece of

work and the importance of logical

consistency. Pen and paper designers,

on the other hand, are accomplished at

designing for a medium that is much

more open ended and freeform than

electronic games. By borrowing

liberally from pen and paper games

and by utilizing professional writers,

Wasteland's designers were able to

acheive a level of verisimilitude that is

rare even to this day. The game

presents a world that is not only

detailed, it is also logical.

So, if Wasteland is a product of pen

and paper game design philosophies,

how does it fare as a computer game?

Considering all the elements that

make up the game, the combat is

definitely the weakest. And it is

Wasteland's combat which hews

closest to computer RPG tradition,

being very close in its implementation

to The Bard's Tale. The combat

system itself is servicable, the main

weakness being the

frequency and

tedium of combat

and healing. The

tedium of healing is

a problem unique to

Wasteland, but the

frequency of

combat, particularly

of random

encounters, is an issue that would

plague computer RPGs for years to

come. Perhaps Wasteland's designers

felt they needed the combat to pad out

the length of the game. Or perhaps

they were afraid to break with the past

in too many ways at once. But

whatever the reason, the places where

Wasteland did innovate by reevaluting

the typical computer RPG design

decisions were staggeringly

successful. Wasteland is a fantastic

computer game and still one of the

best translations of pen and paper role

playing to personal computers.

PLAY

EXPERIENCE

[1] RetroGamer 134

23

Mechwarrior

Released in 1989, Mechwarrior is

a 3D mech piloting simulation

(probably the first ever) with simple

adventure and trading elements. Based

on the pen and paper roleplaying

game of the same name, Mechwarrior

was the first in a series of electronic

mech simulations and the second

computer game set in the Battletech

universe.

You take the role of 18year old

Gideon Braver Vandenburg, sole

surviving heir of the Vandenburg clan

in the 31st century feudal society of

the Successor States. His family

murdered by a political rival, he has

until his 23rd birthday to prove it and

claim his rightful position as Duke of

Ander's Moon. Taking up life as a

mercenary on a random planet at the

start of the game, Gideon must search

for clues leading to the location of the

mercenaries hired to kill his family,

defeat them in battle, and reclaim the

ancient Chalice of Herne which was

stolen from his family. To do this

Gideon will also need to earn enough

money to build a small fighting force

of mechs powerful enough to defeat

the murderers.

Initially, the game should be

approached as an adventure game. On

each planet visited, you are given a

menu of important locations,

potentially including a bar, a mech

complex, a star port, and the

headquarters of the ruling House

where mercenaries can seek

employment. The bar is where you

can recruit mercenaries, meet people,

or check for the latest rumors. The

mech compelx is where mechs are

bought, sold and repaired. The star

port provides transport to any planet in

RELEASED: 1989

FORMAT: PC/DOS, PC98, Sharp

X68000

PUBLISHER: Activision

24

the Successor States as well as travel

information. You also have options to

manage your crew, visit NewsNet for

the latest happenings around the

galaxy, and save or restore your game.

The bars and NewsNet are essential to

completing the adventure portion of

the game. Without the clues they

provide you will not have any idea

how to advance the story, which

requires visiting the correct locations

on certain planets. The story that plays

out is a reasonably well written

"Choose Your Own Adventure" type

affair. You are given choices at

various points, with an incorrect

choice usually leading immediately to

a "game over". Once the villains'

location is uncovered—which won't

be the same planet in every

game—you should use the time

remaining to build up your unit in

preparation for the final assault.

Building a viable unit, or lance, of 4

mechs takes money. Gideon starts

with a Jenner and a small amount of

cash. The Jenner is a lightweight

mech without a lot of firepower. To

complete the game you're probably

going to want at least three

Battlemasters, the biggest and baddest

mechs there are. Outside of the

adventure section of the game, there

are two ways to make money:

completing mercenary contracts and

through trade. Trade is actually the

quickest way to make a buck. Buy

some mechs from an industrial planet

and sell them for a higher price on a

planet without much heavy industry.

However, you cannot rely on this

technique alone to build your lance.

You're also going to need 3 solid

mercenaries to fill out your crew. And

until you've built a name for yourself,

you'll only be able to hire novice

pilots. To build your rep, you're going

to have to complete missions. The

novice pilots you recuit early on will

gain experience, but it is much faster

to just replace them. And with only 5

years to complete your mission, speed

is of the essence.

Once you decide to actually look for

mecrenary work, you'll head over to

the planet's ruling house headquarters.

There you will be presented with a

randomized selection of missions. The

particulars vary, but there are three

basic types: destroy or capture a

target, defend a target, and destroy all

opposing mechs. Once terms are

negotiated—some employers will

negotiate more than others—you can

proceed with the mission.

Once in the cockpit, you are met with

a simple first person 3D polygonal

view of the battlefield along with

cockpit controls for your mech. The

game supports 2axis joystick

controls, but most functions are

keyboard only, making a joystick of

limited usefulness. You can rotate

your mech's waist independently from

25

its direction of movement and you can

adjust the aiming reticule up and

down as well. If available, jump jets

can be fired either straight down to

provide lift or backward and down to

provide lift and forward momentum.

The cockpit status displays are pretty

complete, providing weapon and

ammunition readouts, current throttle,

a topographic map, damage indicators

both for your mech and your current

target, and current heat level. You can

also call up a full screen tactical

overview where you can issue simple

commands to your lance mates if

desired.

Unfortunately, the missions

themselves are fairly simplistic,

without a lot of room for strategy or

tactics. I rarely needed to issue

commands to my squadmates as their

default orders were generally

sufficient. Tactics in the game amount

to simple flanking maneuvers and

precision targetting, the most fully

realized aspect of the simulation.

Damage is location specific and you

can aim at specific parts of a mech

such as the legs or head. From what I

understand, the various mechs are

accurate representations of their

tabletop incarnations in terms of

weapon placement and armor, which

means you can take out specific

weapons or aim for vulnerable

locations. One of the most effective

tactics is to use the superior speed of a

lightweight mech to circle behind and

attack heavy mechs where they are

less armored and hamstring them by

taking out a leg. This one tactic can

see you through most battles in the

game.

There are some good ideas in

Mechwarrior but the technology of

the time doesn't quite seem to be

sufficient to make a truly exciting 3D

mech simulation. The pace is just too

slow and the terrain too simplistic to

make for an exciting combat

simulator. Meanwhile, the adventure

and trading elements aren't interesting

enough on their own to hold anyone's

interest for long either. The result is a

game that is mostly interesting for its

historical significance. But I must

admit that I did feel the thrill of

victory when Gideon finally hefted the

Chalice of Herne at the end of the

game. There must be something of

substance there to give me that kind of

satisfaction.

PLAY

EXPERIENCE

26

Star Wars: DarkForces

Dark Forces is the confluence of

two powerful commercial

forces of the mid90s, Star Wars and

DOOM. Of course, Dark Forces is not

in any official sense related to

DOOM. It is simply the developer's

attempt to make a game similar to

DOOM but set in the Star Wars

universe. Today, we look upon any

attempt to make a Star Wars themed

derivation of a popular game with a

healthy measure of cynicism, but that

wasn't the case in 1995. After all, we'd

already seen Lucas Arts strike gold

with XWing and TIE Fighter by

copying Wing Commander. Why

couldn't they succeed again with Dark

Forces? And of course, as we now

know, our optimism was not

misplaced. In fact, Dark Forces is one

of the better DOOM clones and still

holds up today as an excellent first

person shooter.

You take the role of the mercenary

Kyle Katarn. Employed by the

rebellion, over the course of fourteen

missions you will uncover and attempt

to thwart the Empire's fabrication of

yet another super weapon. These

missions span a period which includes

the events of A New Hope but

precedes The Empire Strikes Back.

Fortunately, the movie tieins are for

the most part limited to a few

tangential characters such as Jabba the

Hut and Boba Fett(and best of all, no

Jedi!). The primary villain and the

RELEASED: 1995

FORMAT: PC/DOS, Macintosh,

Playstation

PUBLISHER: LucasArts

Fortunately, the interior levels aren't just bland hallways and rooms.

27

main thread of the plot are unique to

Dark Forces. Dark Forces stands on

its own as a Star Wars game and

wasn't made as a tiein for some other

media.

Released two years after DOOM, in

1995 for MSDOS and Macintosh, the

developers built a custom game

engine with a number of technical

advancements over DOOM, including

the ability to crouch, jump, and look

up and down. The new engine also

increased the three dimensionality of

the levels, allowing for more complex

level layouts. These technical

advancements appear to have been

driven by the game's design and are

more than just cosmetic

improvements. They aren't merely

bullet points on the back of the

box—you can jump and crouch

because you'll actually need to do

those things to navigate the game's

complex levels.

Fortunately, those complex levels are

one of the game's strong points. After

crawling though countless ventilation

shafts and access tunnels, you'll soon

have a better understanding of the

Empire's infrastructure than the

construction engineers who built the

spaceships, military complexes, and

space stations you traverse. It is a

testament to the fantastic level design

that the requisite key and switch hunts

which play out within the labrythine

levels are for the most part compelling

puzzles instead of tedious obstacles.

Even more amazing is the fact that the

levels still manage to feel like real,

functional places and not simply game

levels.

The levels are also quite diverse. The

game has a mission based structure

that sends you all across the Star Wars

galaxy. You'll still explore your fair

share of similar looking military

interiors, but you'll also visit moons,

planets, the neon city of Nar Shaddaa,

and the Imperial capital Coruscant.

Most importantly, all of these

locations feel like they fit the Star

Wars universe. The textures are

excellent despite their low resolution

and the interactive MIDI music that

Lucas Arts is known for is amazing as

always. The sound effects are also

fantastic and really add to the mood.

The sound of the whistling wind when

perched on some high point is very

evocative of a certain scene in The

Empire Strikes Back.

One common weakness of PC FPSs is

in the implementation of their

save/restore systems, of which there

are two basic types. The most

common implementation in the mid

90s was a save/restore anywhere

mechanic. In games that use this

system, which includes DOOM and

most of its immediate clones, you can

save your progress at any point to a

number of different save slots.

Likewise, you can reload from one of

28

these saves at any time. If you die, it

is game over, but there is no

restriction on when or how many

times you can save or reload your

game. This makes it possible to break

the game into segments as small as

you like, replaying each segment until

you've passed it to your satisfaction.

Failure can never send you back

further than the last segment you

completed.

Many modern FPSes use the second

type of system, where game progress

is saved automatically when you pass

certain check points. You could think

of this as the game being broken down

into fixed segments. Once you

complete one of the predetermined

segments, you never have to replay it.

Many games which use this system

have auto regenerating health because

it reduces the likelihood of getting

stuck if you reach a check point in bad

condition. Whereas games with the

the save anywhere system often rely

heavily on item pickups. In these

games, resource management usually

plays a larger role.

Both of these systems have their

drawbacks. Dark Forces cleverly

forges a middle ground between the

two, using elements of the check point

system in a way that works well with

a game relying on item pickups. In

Dark Forces you can't save at all

during a mission. Instead, you are

given a limited number of lives to

complete the mission. Lose a life and

you'll respawn at a nearby checkpoint

with restored health and shields. Lose

all your lives and the mission is a

failure and you're forced to replay the

mission from the beginning. This

really works in the game's favor

because it provides lots of incentive to

explore and uncover the many secrets

hidden throughout the levels. The

game is challenging enough that you'll

need every health, shield, and ammo

pickup. You can even find extra lives

if you look hard enough. This focus on

exploration is something that has been

lost in modern FPSes. Limiting

restarts as Dark Forces does is a great

way to make item pickups really

matter and motivate the player to

explore.

While perhaps not the best Star Wars

game—that honor probably belongs to

TIE Fighter—Dark Forces is at least

worthy of consideration. It succeeds in

creating a highly immersive and

playable experience. It is also one of

the best entries in the now apocryphal

Expanded Universe.

PLAY

EXPERIENCE

29

Tech SpecsReleased: September 1986

CPU: WDC 65C816 @ 2.8 MHz

RAM: 256KB or 1.125MB, expandable to 8MB

Graphics: 640x200 2bpp, 320x200 4bpp (4096 color palette)

Sound: Ensoniq 5503 Digital Oscillator Chip with 64K RAM

OS: Apple ProDOS or Apple GS/OS

Senescent Tech:The Apple IIGS

The Apple IIGS was the

culmination of the Apple II line

of computers and a fine machine that

was sadly overshadowed by the

release of the Macintosh two years

earlier. With the IIGS, Apple

Computer managed to release a 16bit

update to the Apple II that had

multimedia capabilities that rivaled

the Atari ST and Commodore Amiga,

while still maintaining backwards

compatbility with 8bit Apple II

software. The IIGS even featured an

operating system, GS/OS, which had a

very Macintoshlike graphical user

interface, complete with Finder. With

GS/OS, the IIGS actually had a full

color GUI before the Macintosh did.

I could go on for ages about the

computer itself, but AGP is a game

magazine, not a computer magazine. It

is high time to start talking about the

game software available for the IIGS.

Thanks to the work of Rebecca "Burger" Heineman, the IIGS features the best

version of several of Interplay's classic RPGs, including The Bard's Tale I and II

and my personal favorite Dragon Wars. The Bard's Tale games are especially

The Bard's Tale Dragon Wars

30

A number of famous developers either cut their teeth on the IIGS or created

some of their most well known titles for the platform. Naughty Dog began life

as an Apple II software house and developed the graphical adventure Dream

Zone and the RPG Keef the Thief for the IIGS. Will Harvey, a vaunted creator of

the time, produced both Zany Golf and The Immortal for the IIGS first.

Dream Zone Zany Golf

Rastan Shadowgate

Of course the IIGS received many ports as well. The Japanese company Taito

ported several of its arcade games to the IIGS, inculding Arkanoid and Arkanoid

II, Qix, and Rastan. ICOM Simulations released a number of point and click

adventures for the IIGS, including Deja Vu, Deja Vu 2, Uninvited, and

Shadowgate. Each of these originated as black and white Macintosh games but

received full color ports to the IIGS.

nice ports, featuring the ability to save anywhere and automapping. In addition,

they utilize the IIGS's ability to select a different color palette for each scanline

from a pool of 16 palettes. Bard's Tale I and II utilize this mode to give each

monster a unique color palette. Also, the bard's songs are played using

instrument samples from the bard's equipped instrument!

These are just a few of the titles available for the IIGS. Your best source for

more information about the IIGS and its software library is a web site called

"What Is The Apple IIGS?"[1]. I don't think I've ever seen a more

comprehensive site for a single platform. It even has working disk images and

31

descriptions for every commerically released game for the system. If you are

interested in the IIGS, browse on over there posthaste!

Emulation

Unfortunately, Apple IIGS hardware is fairly expensive these days. Luckily,

there are some good emulators for the system. I initially explored emulation as a

precursor to actually buying a system, but I found the emulation experience

satisfying enough that I held off on buying a IIGS, at least for now.

It is worth providing a brief tutorial on IIGS emulation since most emulators

aren't as straightforward and well supported as DOSBox. And aside from the

emulator, the system itself is foreign to most of us anyway.

The emulator I use is ActiveGS[2]. ActiveGS was designed as a browser plugin,

but can also be run locally as a standalone application. It is a Windows

application, but I have been running it successfully in Linux with Wine. Once

you've installed the program, you can run disk images either by modifying the

default.activegsxml file or by simply passing the filename of the disk image as a

command line parameter. In Linux, I usually invoke ActiveGS with the

following command:

Disk images can be in .2mg, .po, .dsk, or .zip format. ActiveGS will launch with

the disk image mounted in the proper manner depending on its type. In the

example above, the zip file contains a hard drive image and ActiveGS will

mount it and boot into GS/OS. From there I can mount the disk image(s) for any

game or application I want to run.

To access the menus to do things like mount drives, modify emulation settings,

etc. all you have to do is right click. The IIGS mouse only has a single button,

so rightclicking to bring up the emulator menus doesn't interfere with the

operation of IIGS software. One of the first settings you may want to change is

under the Runtime Info tab. From there you can set the emulation Speed Mode

to emulate the presence of an expensive Zip accelerator card, boosting the CPU

clock to 8MHz. You can also set it to Slow for better IIe compatibility or to

Unlimited, which may cause issues with some software but is nice for CPU

intensive games.

The important thing to know about mounting disk images is that ActiveGS

wine .wine/drive_c/ActiveGS/ActiveGS.exe harddrive_image.zip

32

emulates a IIGS with two 3.5" drives in Slot 5 and two 5.25" drives in Slot 6.

Slot 7 can support hard drive images up to 32MB.

Also make sure you have enabled Persistent Storage on the Options tab if you

want ActiveGS to save any changes you make to disk images. This creates an

overlay in the directory you specify and won't actually modify the original disk

images.

There are a couple of problems you may run into when trying to run disk

images. Some older games won't run properly in GS/OS. These disks will

usually come with ProDOS included, so you can simply boot from the game

disk to run the game(just run ActiveGS with the disk image as a command line

parameter). Conversely, some newer games don't include an OS on the disk. To

run these games you'll have to boot from an OS disk or a hard drive first. Then

mount the disk image and run the application.

Hopefully this brief tutorial will encourage you to check out an overlooked, but

very capable machine. I find the hardware and software diversity of the 1980s

absolutely fascinating and the Apple IIGS certainly occupies one of the more

interesting corners of computer history.

GS/OS will look quite familiar to Macintosh users.

[1] http://www.whatisthe2gs.apple2.org.za

[2] Available at http://activegs.freetoolsassociation.com.

34

The Role ofComputers Index

A Boy and His Blob(nes)A10 Tank Killer 1.5ATrainAAARGH!Abrams Battle TankAces of the PacificAirborne RangerAlien SyndromeAlisa DragoonAlternate Reality: The CityAlternate Reality: The DungeonAmazon: Guardians of EdenArchipelagosArcus OdysseyArkanoidArmor AlleyAtari LynxAxe of RageBack to the Future IIIBarbarian(ibm)Bard's Tale Construction SetBard's Tale IIIBasketball ChallengeBattle Chess Enhanced CD ROMBattlechess(amiga)BattlehawksBattletech: Crescent Hawks' Rev.BattleToadsBeyond the Black HoleBeyond ZorkBlack MagicBlazing Lasers

157176187141147188135141190131,135135193169178144166155150180150183138136192144142167187152132124169

Reviews

Block Out(lynx)Bloody WolfBomberBrainBlastersBreach 2Buck Rogers: Countdown to...Buck Rogers: Matrix CubedBudokanCalifornia GamesCarriers at WarCastle of Dr. BrainCastlesCastles II: Siege and ConquestCastles: The Northern CampaignCenturion: Defender of RomeChallenge of the Five RealmsChampions of KrynnChampionship BaseballChuck Yeager's Advanced Flight...CitadelCivilizationCobra MissionConquered KingdomsConquest of the Longbow: The...Conquests of Camelot: The...ContraCurse of the Azure BondsCybergenic Ranger: Secret of...Danger Zone(Top Gun)DarklandsDarkseedDarkspyre

181164158165158171182161129193180175193180163196156132140155183192194179160142149174181190188172

Game Title Issue No. Game Title Issue No.

35

David Wolf: Secret AgentDay of the ViperDeath Knights of KrynnDecisive Battles of the American...Delta PatrolDiscovery: In the Steps of...Dive BomberDr. Plummet's House of FluxDraconian: DrakkhenDragon CrystalDragon WarsDragon's LairDragonfire II: The...DragonStrikeDream ZoneDungeon ExplorerDungeon MasterDungeon Master: Chaos Strikes...Dungeon Master(ibm)Earl Weaver BaseballEarl Weaver Baseball IIEbonstarElviraElvira II: The Jaws of CerberusEmpireEmpire DeluxeEmpire(ibm)Eric the UnreadyEye of HorusEye of the BeholderEye of the Beholder II: The...F/A18 InterceptorF29 RetaliatorFacesFalcon 3.0Falcon AT(ibm)Falcon(ibm)Fantasy ZoneFinal AssaultFire KingFloodGateway to the Savage FrontierGauntlet(mac)GBA Championship BasketballGlobal CommanderGlobal Conquest

154157173135128191141157160175152133116161134163136171195132127137169180131195142193169171179140174168188142132136142158164177150129140189

GoblinsGodsGold Rush!GunboatGunboat(amiga)Gunship 2000Halls of Montezuma: A...Hard NovaHardballHarpoonHarpoon(amiga)Harpoon(mac)Harrier Combat SimulatorHeadOn BaseballHeadOn FootballHeart of ChinaHidden AgendaHillsfarHostageHyperspeedIf It Moves, Shoot ItIkari WarriorsImperiumIn to the Eagle's NestIndiana Jones...Fate of AtlantisIndiana Jones and the Last CrusadeIndoor SportsIntelliTypeIron LordIshido: The Way of StonesIshido(lynx)J.B. Harold Murder ClubJ.R.R Tolkien's War in Middle...KarnovKeef the ThiefKing's BountyKing's Bounty(genesis)King's Bounty(mac)King's Quest VKing's Quest VIKingdoms of England II: ...Knight ForceKnights of Legend(apple II)Knights of Legend(ibm)Laser SquadLegacy of the Ancients

190189145159174178132167132156174168131141141176150147146180166142165128193152133137159165181176147142157166175187170192192157155157158131

36

Legend of KyrandiaLegends of ValourLemmingsLemmings(mac)LoomLure of the TemptressM1 Tank PlatoonM4Manhunter 2: San FranciscoMarble MadnessMartian MemorandumMechwarriorMega Man IIIMEGA PackMegaTraveller 1: The Zhodani...Microsoft Flight Simulator 2.0Might and MagicMight and Magic IIMight and Magic IIIMight and Magic IVMight and Magic(genesis)Might and Magic(ibm)Might and Magic(mac)Miner 2049erMines of TitanMiniPuttMinotaurMission: ThunderboltMoebius: The Orb of...Monte CarloNeverwinter NightsNight TrapNova 9Nuclear WarOidsOnCourt TennisOrb Quest: The Search...Out of This World(ibm)Out RunPacific IslandsPaladin IIPax ImperiaPenguin LandPhantasie IIIPhantasy Star 2Phantasy Star III

191196171193159194154193156131177161168158164142122146177191175132140192154131188189141133179195180159137132118184137189193196140130160176

Pharaoh's RevengePinball WizardPiratesPlan Nine From Outer SpacePlanet's EdgePlay Action VCR California...Play Action VCR FootballPlay Action VCR GolfPolice Quest IIIPool of RadiancePool of Radiance Clue BookPools of DarknessPopulousPopulous: The Promised LandsPower at SeaPower!PowerMongerPrince of PersiaProphecyProphecy of the ShadowPT109PT109(ibm)QuarterstaffQuest For Glory II: Trial by FireQuest For Glory III: Wages of WarQuestron IIRailroad TycoonRailroad Tycoon(mac)RealmsRealms of DarknessRealms of DarknessRed BaronRex Nebular and the Cosmic...Rise of the DragonRisk: The World Conquest GameRoad AvengerRoad RunnerRoadwar 2000RoadwarsRoboSportRockfordRogueRush'n AttackS.C.OUTS.D.I.Sanxion

142129132190182141141141178143142178150156138135168188148189140142133174192138165174194122124188194170156195140118141172141112142196128130

37

SavageSecret of the Silver BladesShadow DancerShadow of the BeastShadow of the Beast IIShadowgateShadowlandsShanghaiShanghai(lynx)Sherlock Holmes Consulting...Shining in the DarknessShinobiShufflepuck CafeSiegeSign of the WolfSilpheedSimAntSimCity Terrain EditorSkate or DieSkyfox II: The Cygnus ConflictSokoban(ibm)Solitaire RoyaleSonic the HedgehogSpace Harrier 3DSpace LegionsSpace Quest I(ibm)Space Quest IIISpace Quest III(mac)Space Quest IVSpace Quest IVSpace RogueSpace: 1889Spaceward Ho! V3.0SpectreSpellCraft: Aspects of ValorSpiderManSpirit of ExcaliburStar CommandStar Control IIStar Fleet II: Krellan CommanderStar Saga One: Beyond the...Star WarsStarflight 2: Trade Routes of the...Stellar 7Street Sports BasketballStrider(nes)

155163172169169128192138181175178190142189141151178147132133132141174144193177149176173179153170196184190177171138195154142145165167131151

StrikeFleet, the Naval Task...Super Space InvadersSuperstar SoccerSwamp Gas Visits the USASword of AragonTangled Tales: The Misadvent...Task Force 1942TaskMakerTest DriveTetris(ibm)Tetris(mac)The Ancient Art of War at SeaThe Ancient Art of War in the AirThe Bard's TaleThe Bard's Tale II (discussion)The Computer Ed. of SCRABBLEThe Dagger of Amon RaThe Eternal DaggerThe Faery Tale AdventureThe Faery Tale Adventure(genesis)The Four Crystals of TrazereThe Immortal(ibm)The Incredible MachineThe Journeyman ProjectThe Keys to MaramonThe KristalThe Last NinjaThe Legend of BlacksiverThe Lord of the Rings, Volume 1The Magic CandleThe PawnThe Revenge of ShinobiThe Secret of Monkey IslandThe Sierra NetworkThe Simpsons: Bart's House...The Simpsons' Arcade GameThe SummoningTheir Finest Hour: The Battle...Thexder(mac)Thud RidgeTiger RoadTime BanditTNK IIITower of MyraglenTreasures of the Savage FrontierTrust and Betrayal: The Legacy...

134187132178153166193155132135141129190116120131189129132175187178193196163152132144169148134163168184179180194153176151156158135129184150

38

Tunnels & TrollsUltima Underworld: The Stygian...Ultima VUltima VIUltima VII: The Black Gate...Universal Military SimulatorV for Victory: Battleset 1...Vapor TrailWar of the LanceWarbirds(lynx)WarlordsWarrior of Rome IIWaxworksWelltrisWho Killed Sam RupertWing CommanderWing Comm. Secret Missions ExpWing Commander IIWings of Fury

167187137162191137180178158181172189192159195166169177132

Winter GamesWizard's CrownWizardry (mac)Wizardry IVWizardry IV(ibm)Wizardry VWizardry VI: Bane...Wizardry VI: Bane...(mac)Wolfenstein 3DWonder Boy in Monster LandWooden Ships and Iron MenWorld BuilderWorld GamesWorld Tour GolfY's Books I and IIZak McKracken...MindbendersZany GolfZarlor MercenaryZombie Nation

132114110130142145168174192144138118132132172142144173172

Hints

Game Title Issue No.

ActraiserAlternate Reality: The CityAutoduelBattletech: Crescent...InceptionBeyond ZorkBubble BobbleBuck Rogers: Countdown...CadashChampions of KrynnCitadelConquest of the LongbowConquests of CamelotCurse of the Azure Bonds

Dark CastleDark Heart of UukrulDark Queen of KrynnDeath Knights of KrynnDefender of the CrownDeja VuDeja Vu IIDraconian: Drakkhen

181133,141138,159147,149,151,153,159,174,182,187,172,181136,182,187157170,171,174,177,179181157,161,163,175,194173180164,183151,152,153,157,158,160,161,162,164,165,166,167,168,170,173,174,175,181,184,190,194130168194173,177,181,195178144157,164162,171,174

39

Dragon WarsDragonStrikeDungeon MasterDungeon Master: Chaos Strikes...Elvira IIEric the UnreadyEye of the BeholderEye of the Beholder IIFaery Tale AdventureFrederik Pohl's GatewayGateway to the Savage FrontierGemstone WarriorGold of the AztecsHero's Quest IHeroes of the LanceHillsfarIndiana Jones and the Last CrusadeKing's Quest VKing's Quest VIKungFu MasterLeather Goddesses of PhobosLegacy of the AncientsLegend of BlacksilverManiac MansionMean StreetsMechwarriorMegaTraveller 1Might and Magic

Might and Magic IIMight and Magic IIIMight and Magic IVMoebiusNeuromancerOperation WolfPhantasiePhantasie IIPhantasie IIIPirates of RealmspacePlanet's EdgePool of RadiancePool of Radiance (mislabeled)Pools of DarknessProphecy of the ShadowQuest for Glory IIQuest for Glory III

161,165,170,172,173,178,178,181,183,188,190163,181,181,190157,173,178,188,193175181193173,181,187,193,194187,188,196138187181,190129173157,177149149,152,172179192192173190,191150143,149133178157,159,161164127,129,131,135,136,137,138,140,141,142,144,146,151,167,170,181145,154,157,176,181,184,195177,181,187,188,196191144146,158,172157127,150,154131,150133,150194182143,145,146,147,148,153,157,158,159,167,172,178170177,179,181,182188179192

40

149149189172189164,165,167,168,171,172,173,175,175,177,178,188,191147130,147127146164184172178,188,190172150,154177144164130,135,138,143,144,157,167,120,124,172,173,174,179127,128,129,130,131,133,135,136,137,140,141,142,157,159,177,190,192,168141,142,144,146,147,151,152,157189164,169130,133,135,137,150147178127144,153196136136,142,154,147,155,177187140,142,143,144,146,148,156,164,176,189,190164,165,167,168,173,174,175,175,177,180,183187,190,195,196173192149,167,174,175,179,181,184,187,193143138167,170170,174145,151,152,156,158174,176,178,179,190192

QuestronQuestron IIRise of the DragonSearch for the KingSecret of Monkey Island IISecret of the Silver BladesSentinel Words 1ShadowgateShard of SpringSim CitySpace RougeSpectreSpellbreakerSpellcasting 101Spirit of ExcaliburStar CommandStellar SevenSub Battle SimulatorSword of AragonThe Bard's TaleThe Bard's Tale II

The Bard's Tale IIIThe Dagger of Amon RaThe Dark Heart of UuKrulThe Eternal DaggerThe Last NinjaThe Magic CandleThe PawnTimes of LoreTreasures...Savage FrontierUltima IIIUltima IVUltima UnderworldUltima VUltima VIUltima VIIWar in MiddleearthWarlordsWastelandWishbringerWizard's CrownWizardryWizardry IIWizardry VWizardry VIWizardry VII

For digital copies and more information, go to

http://jjsimpso.magcloud.com.Prepared by MagCloud for Jonathan Simpson. Get more at jjsimpso.magcloud.com.

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