Stay a while..Stay..forever..

Posted on July 4, 2013 by alexchapman

Does the Title sounds familiar to you?

No, it is not a movie quote, it is actually from the great game Impossible Mission which appeared on your screen in 1984 and originally first was released on the Commodore 64 and later for the most famous other Homecomputers of that time like Amstrad CPC, Sinclair ZX, Apple II and much more.

the story of the game, is that the evil Dr. Elvin Atombender hides somewhere in a Bunker of a Secret Base where our Hero (we play a secret Agent) needs access to.

to gain access we have collect punch cards which can be hidden everywhere (like between Desks, Printers, PCs, Lamps etc).

4 right Cards are “one” Letter of the Main Password. Using a Telephone in the Game lets you know if you have already a collection of cards right or not..to make the game more difficult there are robots which either follow you or just go their routine (depending on their programming).

One Hint: turn the punch cards sometimes, if you see they look together like a geometric pattern, you are on the right way :)

if you dont manage to solve the game within 6 Hours realtime, you dont make it.

Oh yes..the famous line “Stay a While..Stay forever” greets you at Starting the Game and was at this time one of the cleanest synthesized Voices on the Commodore 64 ever played, not to forget the animation of our Hero was for that time also very smooth and realistic.

this great retro remake of this game was done by the hungarian Coder Krisztián Tóth.

Play Impossible Mission in your Browser

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Your girlfriend is back..

Posted on January 3, 2013 by alexchapman

Remember games like Turrican and Shadow of the Beast?

These Games were milestones on one of the successful 16 Bit Computers of all time..

Amiga (span. girlfriend).

everyone used it..artists, filmmakers,the music Industry and even Andy Warhol.

last but not least..it gave us gamers many many hours of fun playing Games like the ones i mentioned.

In the End of 2012 the developer Rubert Hausperger made it possible to emulate games (and demos) for the Amiga Computer using html5 and javascript.

since his Emulator SAE (Scripted Amiga Emulation) uses a lot of cpu time and by the developer its recommended to end all unecessary tasks and keep focus on the active browser window, where the emulator is running.

the developer also suggest to run it in google chrome, where it works best.

due to license problems Rubert  could not use the original Kickstart Rom, but used a free alternative called AROS Kickstart which works quite well.

SAE is Open Source and the source code can be found on GridHub.

Turrican in Scripted Amiga Emulator

Click here to use the Scripted Amiga Emulator: http://scriptedamigaemulator.net/

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Jack the Superhero

Posted on November 22, 2012 by alexchapman

1984 he was born..JACK..the Superhero..

You might know him as well under his nickname Bomb Jack.

In that platform game made by Tekhan, our Hero glides and jumps around the Screen to collect 24 Bombs at famous locations like Castle Neuschwanstein, The Sphinx in Egypt and many more attractive locations around the globe.

while he collects the bombs he has to watch out for enemies who appear as birds, mummies, orbs and so on.

additional bonus items in form of letters can be grabbed as well, these are: (E) Extra Life, Score Multiplay x 5 (B) , Extra Game (S) and finally (P) for turning all monsters into coins.

I played in the late 80s the Commodore 64 Version, which really couldnt convince me and was low-rated in computer magazines, not cause of the low graphics compared to the arcade version but more cause of the lack of gameplay.

however, i found this really well done retro remake of Bomb Jack, which gives you fun for a short time for breaks between work or whatever you do important.

Bomb Jack

http://www.freakboard.de//bbs/games/games/bombjack.swf

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Wizard of Wor

Posted on May 18, 2012 by alexchapman

Wizard of Wor is originally an arcade game released 1981 by the company Bally Midway (Midway Home Entertainment).

The same year it was ported for the Commodore 64 and joined the line of one of the most addicting computer action games for two players.

Gameplay:

Each player has a Hero called Worrior who has the abililities to walk through a maze-styled dungeon and be able to shoot at monsters.

The game itself can be played alone or with a player who can be your opponent  or you decide to be on teamwork and fight against these evil looking creatures.

Doors who are placed at the right and left side of the dungeon, can be used to travel from one end to another.

The game has 13 dungeons and 5 different types of Monsters which are called Burwor, Garwor, Thorwor, Worluk and the Wizard of Wor.

Some Monsters can be only seen on the displayed Radar but not on the maze itself.

Bonuses (double points next round) apply for shooting a Worluk or the Wizard of Wor.

Should you manage to reach Level 8 your rank will be changed to “Worlord”..but beware..now its gonna be tough..

The game is remade by Tóth Krisztián, a hungarian coder who brought the commodore 64
version back to our screen with HTML5.

wizard of wor

http://wizardofwor.krissz.hu/

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Q*Bert

Posted on April 14, 2012 by alexchapman

Q*bert is an arcade video game developed and published by Gottlieb in 1982. It is a platform game that features two-dimensional (2D) graphics.

The object is to change the color of every cube in a pyramid by making the on-screen character jump on top of the cube while avoiding obstacles and enemies.

The game was conceived by Warren Davis and Jeff Lee. Lee designed the titular character based on childhood influences and gave Q*bert a large nose that shoots projectiles.

His original idea involved traversing a pyramid to shoot enemies, but Davis removed the shooting game mechanic to simplify gameplay. Q*bert was developed under the project name Cubes, but was briefly named Snots And Boogers and @!#?@! during development.

Q*bert became one of the most merchandised arcade games behind PacMan and Donkey Kong

QBert
http://aolsvc.aol.com/onlinegames/qbert/qbert.swf

Guest Author of this Post: Yar Telling

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Rockford..

Posted on April 4, 2012 by alexchapman

is a lil creature who started in the early 80s. to collect a certain amount of diamonds which were needed, to open an exit so he could pass on to the next level. On his way he had to avoid boulders destroying him while he digged under them for diamonds and many more encounters..

by now every reader who is into nostalgic gaming, knows of which classic i talk of..it´s…

Boulder Dash

originally coded by Peter Liepa and Chris Gray on an Atari 800, it was ported for many other homecomputers like the C64, Amiga and even later for PC.

many Sequels followed including a Construction Kit where players could design their own levels.

anyhow, i found a very good adaption of the first part of Boulder Dash by a great coder called Jake Gordon, who used HTML5 / Java Techniques to make it work in browser.

The Levels look very accurate to the original, the gameplay is the same, no fancy things..just straight like an 1:1 conversion and it has all 20 Levels of the first Part.

still not complete (e.g. sound is missing) but it shows you what can be done in HTML5.

so off you go Rockford..

boulder dash remake

http://codeincomplete.com/projects/boulderdash/

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An American Novel

Posted on October 3, 2011 by alexchapman

This time i want to introduce a game made after a novel written in 1925 by Francis Scott Fitzgerald.

The Novel pulls us to the Year 1920, where a young millioniare and businessman,
called Jay Gatsby regulary does dance parties at his House in Long Island
for the New Yorker Society.

All what Jay wants is though the Love of his Life back, called Daisy.

Though while Jay fought in First World War in France, Daisy married Tom Buchanan, another Millionaire and Ex – Football Player..

The Story is being told in the perspective of Nick Carraway (a Cousin of Daisy) who moves into the House of Gatsby..and so is the Gameplay of The Great Gatsby.

In our first Mission, Nick has to find Gatsby in the Garden behind the House, on our way we can collect coins and need to make sure not to bump into a waiter or being hit by a bottle of of one of the drunken party guests.

The Graphics are very neatly drawn and the Music fits well to the atmosphere of the game.

Originally the Game was developed for NES and was called “Doki Doki Toshokan: Gatsby no Monogatari” and the Cartdridge was bought at a Yard Sale for 50 Cent by one of the guys who did the remake.

They still search for more Info on this rare Game, so feel free not only to play it but
also send them infos about it.

Thanks again to Yar Telling, friend of mine and resident in Second Life
who poked me to do a post about it :)

great gatsby

http://greatgatsbygame.com/

 

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The Journey Of a Pumpkin

Posted on September 19, 2011 by alexchapman

in 1985 Palace Software came out with a game called Cauldron for homecomputers like the C64, Spectrum and CPC.

the main character was a witch on a broom who had to collect magical items and bring them home to brew a mighty potion together, to destroy an evil Pumpkin and finish the game by doing that.

But..he is back..and seeks for revenge.

one year later, Palace brought out the game: Cauldron 2 – The Pumpkin strikes back

the game starts at a random spot where we have to navigate our always bouncing Pumpkin,
collect items in a given order and in the end to destroy the witch in her own castle.

This very good flash adaption of that game convinced the gamer´s heart as it is really close to the original. not to forget, a good game for coming halloween :)

cauldron

http://www.cauldron-2.com/game/pumpkin1.swf

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Dana The Magician

Posted on September 10, 2011 by alexchapman

It´s puzzle time today, so i want to introduce a real classic game, which was released 1986 and later the years, converted to many homecomputers like the Commodore 64, Spectrum and many others, as well for game consoles like the NES.

Solomons´s Key can be called one of the hardest puzzle games of the times and still is.

so, here goes the story:

Dana our magician has to restore the world, which is taken over by demons by getting the Solomon’s Key.

through 64 Levels (50 Levels + Hidden Bonus Levels) our magican needs to find his way to the door, which leads to the next level.

like every magician he has skills..Dana can run, jump, shoot fireballs to destroy demons
and can create and destroy blocks to build his way to the door if there seems to be none..

yes, Solomon’s Key is one of the hardest puzzle games, you can´t save and if you lose all lives, no matter what level you are now , you have to start again from level 1.

but even cause of this aspect, the game gets very addictive once you start playing it and makes your brain cells go on high power, thinking how to build a good way to reach the next door and not to run into demons.

The Flash Conversion of this Game is not complete yet, but you can play the first few levels.

solomons key

http://goliathgame.com/bitshifter.net.nz/solomons/solomon.swf

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Asteroid Fields

Posted on September 7, 2011 by alexchapman

okay..i spoiled it with the Title, now you know what game i want to introduce today.

its Asteroids the great classic arcade game released 1979 by Atari using the same vector display like in their other arcade game called Lunar Lander which they were producing at the same time as store owners all over the US wanted to order Asteroids.

anyway, in the end Asteroids became Atari´s best selling arcade game ever.

in the game the player has to navigate a space ship through an asteroid field, shoot at the asteroids and always be careful not to collide with them.

as an additional feature the space ship can use hyperspace, which means the spaceship randomly appears at the screen after disappearing (but thats a bit dangerous, cause it could always appear in middle of the field and hit an asteroid and be destroyed).

to move our spaceship it can rotate left and right and using thrust to move forward.

each destroyed asteroid gives points..bonus points can be gained by shooting flying saucers, which randomly appear.

thats the gameplay to far..and since Atari had so much success with it, they decided to have an own Flash Version on their site you can play which is very very close to the original..

http://www.webworksllc.com/games/swf/asteroids_1.swf

 

 

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