New Zealand Vintage Computer Forums

I played Commodore 64 Paradroid for the first time in 20 years or more just the other day. It's still a fantastic game. What games do you think have stood the test of time? Which ones haven't?

Good topic. I can't add much as I was only never really a "gamer" as such. Back into early 1980s I did come home from work sometimes and blast away at aliens or try to land spaceships on planets on my System 80. Although Meteor Mission II and Penetrator were favourites, my real gaming love at that time was text-based adventure games (Infocom, Scott Adams etc.).

You could argue these interactive stories/puzzels HAVEN'T stood the test of time in that I doubt younger people would be interested. They use the best graphic engine in the world...the brain but many nowadays people would look for real time action. Engaging though they were, they need patience and lots of time to get through. They still have a niche following on the Internet and go under the title "Interactive fiction".

I did get into DOOM in the mid 90s though and feel this one has stood the test of time. It's easy to use, uncomplicated and hugely satistfying. All you have to do is to blast anything that moves!

Put Star Raiders cart into a 800XL I was testing out three hours later I had forgotten I was testing the system and was still happy shooting alien raiders.

Loderunner! (Is still a great game imho).

Every system has a stand-out title that more than stands the test of time. In order of the systems as I remember them from my collection:

Flicky on the SC3000 was obscenely hard but still a bucket of laughs, and managed to survive a Mega Drive remake and remain true to its roots.

The Oregon Trail on Mac... yeah, I know the Apple II version came sooner, but the Mac version is the one that I personally remember playing as a kid. You can still buy The Oregon Trail today to play on your modern Windows box, but don't - I tried it out a few weeks back and it's bad. Real bad. Stick to the Mac version.

The Amiga had more game titles to its name than any one person should have, most of them also ended up on the ST and various consoles too mind you. A game that's stuck with me forever though is Alien Breed, which although a little dated graphically these days still holds up on its gameplay. It survived two direct sequels (Alien Breed Tower Assault was a CD32 title even), two FPSs derived therefrom (avoid these) and a modern Xbox Live Arcade game (it's borderline...).

The Commodore 64... god, where do you start! I was playing Skate Or Die the other day while testing one of my 64s, not sure I'd call it a classic or standing the test of time though, the controls are obnoxious!

I can't tell you what was my favourite title for my Amstrad CPC, because I've never had drive belts for its floppy drive. Or any 3" floppies with anything on them...

gavo wrote:Loderunner! (Is still a great game imho).

100%.. Loderunner is great.. I'd like to add "Aztec" and "Wolfenstein" to that.

But oddly enough the game I play most from the 80's is "Taipan!"... for a relatively simple, mostly text based trading game it's really engaging.

Gibsaw wrote:But oddly enough the game I play most from the 80's is "Taipan!"... for a relatively simple, mostly text based trading game it's really engaging.

I also loved that game in the day. Anticipating the prices of goods when you arrived in port. Always a challenge when pirates arrived on the horizon.

Actually regarding Taipan, do you know where I can lay my hands on a copy for the Apple II/IIe? Others might also be interested.

http://itunes.apple.com/us/app/taipan!- ... 45962?mt=8 for your I phone

try here
http://www.get-your-rom.com/apple-ii/taipan-rom/ for apple 2

WelshWizard wrote:http://www.get-your-rom.com/apple-ii/taipan-rom/ for apple 2

Cool. Got it. Tried it in the Apple II emulator. Yep, just like my System-80/TRS-80 version. Now to transfer it to a real Apple II disk via ADT-PRO and add it to the disk collection. It can keep Apple Panic, Castle Wolfenstein and Zork company.

Gibsaw wrote:But oddly enough the game I play most from the 80's is "Taipan!"... for a relatively simple, mostly text based trading game it's really engaging.

Yes! I had a version of Taipan on my PalmPilot Personal (one of the 2nd generation models - I still have it) and kept playing it all the way through the Palm V and Palm TX. I was still using the TX up until a couple of years ago, and I still played Taipan on it regularly.

tezza wrote:Cool. Got it. Tried it in the Apple II emulator. Yep, just like my System-80/TRS-80 version. Now to transfer it to a real Apple II disk via ADT-PRO and add it to the disk collection. It can keep Apple Panic, Castle Wolfenstein and Zork company.

I did this tonight. Fired up the Apple IIe platinum and made a Taipan disk with ADT-PRO (what a great piece of software that is). That's the first time I'd played Taipan on an Apple. Lost money, owed thousands then got sunk by pirates of course.

The game had a little more to it than the TRS-80 version. For example I don't remember having an option to repair a damaged ship. That's maybe the diffence between a 48k Apple II+ and a 16k TRS-80? There was a little more room for code. The Apple also had fancy script. This font looked pretty but it was actually harder to read than the TRS-80 character-based version (the latter also had graphic ships). Either way, it was fun. It will definitely be a disk I'll use to demo popular games for the Apple II.

lizardb0y wrote:

Gibsaw wrote:But oddly enough the game I play most from the 80's is "Taipan!"... for a relatively simple, mostly text based trading game it's really engaging.

Yes! I had a version of Taipan on my PalmPilot Personal (one of the 2nd generation models - I still have it) and kept playing it all the way through the Palm V and Palm TX. I was still using the TX up until a couple of years ago, and I still played Taipan on it regularly.

A bit late I know...but I too have clocked up many hours on Taipan over the years and just recently played it on one of the online emulators! Good see the fine company i keep

However the one that sticks out as withstanding the test of time for me would have to be Wolfenstein!

At this point I want to throw Ghosts n' Goblins on this list. A few of the lads came around to behold the awe and majesty of a restored C64, and it became the party favourite. Even if nobody was talented or sober enough to make it past the first area

Before I start, I might as well mention my gripe about how Microsoft Windows, and the Mac also have failed to fully address the problem, when they made black text against a white background - the standard, and never conceived of the need and necessity to use the reverse - that it is always far easier on your eyes, to type with white text, against a black background.
Of course a solution was to set Windows theme to my desired white against black - but the problem then is - that most websites do not cater to this - such that visible options become invisible to the eye - and so, I have reset my Windows theme to a 'standard' mode - only to have to put up with the blindingly white screen, while typing this reply.
I find this too often in the world - that the best/optimium mode is not used, but something less than that - that end up creating their own problems - like in this case - tired eyes, headaches and so on..

Anyway back to the topic - which is very much a personal taste, kind of thing.
It should be noted that - that doing well in a game, requires skill - and like riding a bike - that when you've been away doing other things, and when you come back to a game you've conquered or done well at, you should find, that you have not lost that skill? Thrust is a game that comes to mind, that illustrates this.

I'd like to mention one pivotal game, that stood out to me. And that is the coin-op "Defender". And the only way to play this game, is with the original buttons - with not a joystick in sight. I never spent enough time on the machine, to truly gain the skill required, to last long in this game. This is a mad, frantic game - but it illustrates the tenseness, excitement that playing such a game, was about.

With Mame being easily available these days - I see little point in playing the home computer versions of coin-op games. You're better off playing the coin-op original under emulation. Can anyone think of a home computer game, that is better than it's coin-op original?

I will guess that you always have to remind the public today - that home computers in their time - were trying to do the impossible. That a budget priced home computer was trying to equal an expensive arcade machine.

I do find it a pain, when trying to write here, when you are going over a full page - why should it be so buggy to do? I'll guess the programmer did not test it - when writing, and only tested it with short replies only. Truly sad...


Harvey