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Dr. Quarex: Apr 18, 2003; I'M A BIG DORK WHO POSTS TOO MUCH ABOUT CONVENTIONS LOOK AT THIS

TOVA TOVA TOVA

After reading the entire thread I am going to break up my post into two posts because, seriously, too many words.

First, my responses specifically to Captain Rufus, as I know he has no choice but to read everything written about retro computer gaming:

One of my author friends recently sent me the .jpg you have of those copies of Enchanted Realms you posted on the first page and asked if I knew anything about it because he is going crazy not being able to find anything out about it. He was just going on a hunch that I might be into that kind of thing, and of course he was totally right, and I was like THEY ARE A COMPUTER GAME ENIGMA BRO. Is it possible they started numbering their issues with 8 to try to seem more legit?

What is EllisCon? I see it is a gaming thing held at a high school, but you speak of it as though it is relevant to this thread, certainly.

I am relieved to learn about Vogons. I remember trying to get some advice on the DOSGames forums about the best way to get an MS-DOS laptop going, and everyone was like "lol use DOSBox" and I was like "... no, thanks?" Seriously, I understand DOSBox exists, it is a wonderful program, but I grew up with MS-DOS and have a 1995 Packard Bell Pentium/133 that I still use to play MS-DOS games and I kind of thought it would be awesome if I had a portable era-appropriate system.

Captain Rufus posted:

As a big RPG fan it is really annoying when the best versions of a game are either nigh impossible to find/play, or are only in Japanese. (Ultima has a LOT of this. Hell, Japan has their own SEQUELS to Phantasie and Dungeon Master we never got! And this is besides the definitive versions of Ultima Underworld, Wiz 1-3, 5, and 6!)

While I obviously totally understand this viewpoint, you have to admit it gives the whole thing an air of excitement and mystery to think of what as-yet-mostly-totally-unknown wonders might await the person intrepid enough to track down copies of such games outside of the normal context where they were known (speaking mostly of Japanese games of course, though anything on the Apple IIGS basically counts in this regard too apparently).

I own complete boxed copies of 4 out of the 5 games on your "computer games top 5" wishlist. Most from having actually bought them new (Twilight 2000 I did pick up at the Gen-Con Auction Store a few years back though). I skipped the Pool of Radiance remake out of reformatting-C-drive terror. Of your honorable mention I only (only) have boxed copies of Megatraveller 1 & 2, Buck Rogers: Matrix Cubed, and Dragonstrike. I am not sure if this makes me a hoarder or just means our tastes overlap. Relatedly again, I covet your Curse of Ra box, as I only ever found out about those games via Temple of Apshai Trilogy, and I was too young to understand what "trilogy" meant and thus it was another decade before I actually realized, you know, those games had once been separate.

My saddest memory of my retro computing days from before it was retro (I was an Atari 8-bro) was going to Target with My Mom(tm) for my birthday or something and being excited to pick out a new game ... and in a wall of games for various computer formats was only one Atari game, Super Huey II. I remember processing for the first time that maybe, just maybe, I was going to stop seeing Atari games in the store. And indeed that may have legitimately been the last time I saw one.

Fortunately I had just been granted access to my parents' 8088(!) and I bought Wasteland not too long after that, and, well. Look at me now!

Speaking of, I never in my life noticed there was a question mark on the Wasteland inventory screen. That is fascinating.

This thread has also reminded me that I could almost always tell what game was loading based on the sounds the Atari disk drive made. I am sure that was not a unique ability to me, though.

# ¿ Jan 30, 2014 01:59

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# ¿ Apr 27, 2024 09:20

Dr. Quarex: Apr 18, 2003; I'M A BIG DORK WHO POSTS TOO MUCH ABOUT CONVENTIONS LOOK AT THIS

TOVA TOVA TOVA

iastudent posted:

So for reasons I can't quite understand, I've spent the last couple days combing Ebay listings for 800XL's. I've never laid hands on one much less seen it in person, but there's just something about it I can't get out of my head.

Assuming my will does falter, what games should I be on the lookout for?

Seven Cities of Gold, Lucasfilm Games (Ballblazer & Rescue on Fractalus were my favorites), Return of Heracles, Panther ... these are games that come to mind immediately when I think of "great or best-possible versions of awesome games."

I also agree with Mail Order Monsters wholeheartedly. Racing Destruction Set was a favorite but my copy stopped working in like 1992 so I do not remember if it would be fun at all in the modern era.

As for system-warriorhood, I only ever had an Atari (800XL then XE) growing up, but I can totally understand why you would want a C64 or an Apple II. I just cannot understand why you would not want ALL THREE. I grant that Atari's versions of games were only the best on rare occasion, but man, Ballblazer. Ballblazer, man.

Also what are people's thoughts about the Gravis Ultrasound versus the Roland MT-32?

I am SO getting into swcollect.

# ¿ Feb 5, 2014 08:58

Dr. Quarex: Apr 18, 2003; I'M A BIG DORK WHO POSTS TOO MUCH ABOUT CONVENTIONS LOOK AT THIS

TOVA TOVA TOVA

Captain Rufus, did you not say you wanted a boxed copy of Tunnels & Trolls: Crusaders of Khazan? 25 Euro, buy it now!

http://www.ebay.ie/itm/Tunnels-Trolls-Crusaders-of-Khazan-/161217494890?pt=UK_PC_Video_Games_Video_Games_JS&hash=item25894fbf6a

# ¿ Feb 5, 2014 20:04

Dr. Quarex: Apr 18, 2003; I'M A BIG DORK WHO POSTS TOO MUCH ABOUT CONVENTIONS LOOK AT THIS

TOVA TOVA TOVA

Genpei Turtle posted:

What version is that? That was one of my all-time favorite game on my C64.

ed: No it's not, never mind. I'm thinking of Trolls and Tribulations.

I do enjoy that this is basically the only thread on the Games forum where I learn new game titles like every other post.

Also I finished reading that writeup of the X68000 and wow, while I would never actually have time to do so, my interest in learning Japanese has gone from my lifelong 2% to about 10% just thinking about how much awesome oldschool-computer-gaming-with-great-music happiness seems to lay in store there.

This Luke Morse stuff is really interesting to me. Specifically I am watching his video where he talks about Japan and mentions (fairly defensively) how nice it is that in Japan you are not judged for your gaming/collection hobbies. I suppose all of us in this thread have some sense of mild persecution for our nerdy hobbies, but it really seems like a generational problem that will solve itself, given gaming's continuing cultural dominance. I mean, at some point I think collecting old computer systems/games will sound not much weirder than collecting stamps or old cars or something. Unless your house looks like it should be condemned, granted.

# ¿ Feb 6, 2014 01:08

Dr. Quarex: Apr 18, 2003; I'M A BIG DORK WHO POSTS TOO MUCH ABOUT CONVENTIONS LOOK AT THIS

TOVA TOVA TOVA

I FOUND THE STUFF I WAS GOING TO POST LAST WEEK

d0s posted:

This is what I wonder whenever I come across the guys who collect video games as if they were stamps or something, I never understood buying games you're not gonna play and probably wouldn't like if you did, and filling your house with that poo poo. If you honestly like games you've probably developed a specific taste and you should stick to that so you don't turn into a sad hoarder who lives an a flea market.

This really is a good thing to keep in mind. I mean, there ARE retro computer games and accessories that are legitimately valuable and might be worth collecting if you get an arbitrarily good price on them, but these are not usually the things people have trouble hoarding. I mean, I looked at the two enormous tubs of Nintendo and Sega Master System stuff I had in my parents' basement a couple of years ago and made the executive decision that since 98% of my retro gaming nostalgia was tied up in Atari 8-Bit and MS-DOS games that I would just sell them all, and I still feel good about that, haha. Now, as to the fact that I own things I will obviously never play just to have them in boxes, like the Ancient Art of War, well, yes. There is that.

Someday someone is going to make a USB 5.25" drive and I am going to go berserk trying to find out what is on these hundreds of floppies I have not been able to access since my friends broke my last working 5.25" drive in 1998 trying to turn my BBS computer into a Linux box.

d0s posted:

I just make sure to judge old games the same way I would judge brand new ones: "does this look like something good?". I don't want to buy something for irony or kitsch, or rarely even for nostalgia. I can laugh at Bebe's Kids or the diabetes game in an emulator, I don't need them on my shelf reminding me that I spent actual money on them. If I find myself thinking "well, this was probably cool for the time" I usually put it back, something truly good is kinda timeless, nobody sits around complaining about SMB or Castlevania's graphics because those games are still fun.

True, though part of why nobody complains about Super Mario Brothers' or Castlevania's graphics is because there is some kind of general cultural consensus that good Nintendo-era games are unassailable. I always wondered about this perspective, particularly when it meant people refusing to admit that Mario 64 looked kind of lovely even when it came out, albeit much less lovely than most 3D games of the time.

OH MY GOD LOOK AT THAT CROSSBOWS & CATAPULTS SET. I am glad there are still people in this world who do not know to give something a cursory Google search if it is in good shape and more than 20 years old, haha. Sorry, I do not even remember who it was that bought the Crossbows & Catapults set now that I am finally posting this response.

=-=-=-=

NEW: Captain Rufus' revisionist history has gone on long enough. It is time someone took a stand.

Civilization II was an abomination. There, I said it. (I am sure it was fine and dandy, but the one time I ever played it I legitimately would move my piece to the wrong square like 1 time in 3 due to the incredibly primitive isometric perspective, so I seem to recall throwing the disc back in the box and never touching it again)

I am now wondering just how much better-looking Civilization was on the Amiga, too. OK, I have investigated. I do not remember how the MS-DOS version looked well enough to figure out whether that is better or just the same with better resolution or something. I do miss top-down Civilizationing, though. CivNet was my favorite version of Civilization, sadly/weirdly enough.

Also, Captain Rufus, you mentioned some convention in an earlier post, and I imagine you are the guy who knows this sort of thing: are there retro computing events commonly in The New England? I am about to move from Seattle to Vermont so this sort of thing will be relevant to my interests soon.

# ¿ Feb 16, 2014 20:13

Dr. Quarex: Apr 18, 2003; I'M A BIG DORK WHO POSTS TOO MUCH ABOUT CONVENTIONS LOOK AT THIS

TOVA TOVA TOVA

As a former mildly prolific demoscener myself I feel obligated to post a link to Nectarine Demoscene Radio, as it is pretty much your one-stop shop for amazing computer-based nostalgia:

https://www.scenemusic.net/demovibes/

And this is even coming from a member of the USA/DOS demoscene which is pretty largely underrepresented due to Nectarine's Euro/Amigacentric focus (but fortunately that happens to still make it awesome).

# ¿ Feb 25, 2014 07:53

Dr. Quarex: Apr 18, 2003; I'M A BIG DORK WHO POSTS TOO MUCH ABOUT CONVENTIONS LOOK AT THIS

TOVA TOVA TOVA

Anyone who is not aware of The Shadows' Nose might find his seemingly endless time spent playing 1980s computer games on the original hardware, coupled with his actually being really bad at playing games seemingly, fairly compelling:

http://www.youtube.com/user/Theshadowsnose

Pierzak posted:

I'm not asking for files~. I can get many popular games cheaply enough and I have an actual local retro-gaming store (with reasonable, non-inflated prices! Last time I was there you could get best boxed versions of many games, complete/mint/originally sealed, for like $15-20 a pop), so I'm covered on this front.

Please go to this store for me and buy me an in-box copy of every MS-DOS game they have, thanks

Does this store have an online storefront?!?!

TheRedEye posted:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Habitat_(video_game)

Habitat is considered the first online virtual world, and it was never actually launched, though there was a beta program with 500 participants. Technically those 500 participants got a beta kit in the mail, but I've never even seen a PICTURE of a disk, let alone one for sale. The manual is scanned online though, which is cool.

There is somebody on these forums who was an original Habitat tester; I corresponded with him via private message but I cannot find the exchange off-hand. This is not to say that he would actually still have his original materials or be willing to part with them, but it is at least something interesting to mention.

al-azad posted:

The biggest of the big boxes that I've seen is Star Saga One. It's basically a glorified gamebook but you input your actions into the computer which adjudicates the results. It's multiplayer, too.

I have Star Saga Two complete in the box, in what I have to say is the nicest shape I have ever seen a not-in-shrinkwrap game in, despite the fact that I just picked it up for so little at an auction that I have no idea why the previous owner kept it in such impeccable shape if (s)he did not care about it. Oh, and the point of saying that is that I imagine if the sequel is anything to go by, yes, Star Saga One has to be an obnoxiously huge and heavy box.

My original-in-box game collection is about 300-odd games large, though I imagine only a small number of those are of actual interest to any collectors. Like I remember someone trying to buy my copy of Knights of Legend off me for like $30, and that was in about 1997, so I can only imagine it is way higher now (or nobody cares anymore, either way). My Rendezvous at Rama box seems like it should be valuable, even though I never even owned a C64 and now I am not too sure I remember how I even ended up with the game. Maybe this industry will get big enough at some point for someone to actually start compiling prices!

# ¿ Feb 27, 2014 23:31

Dr. Quarex: Apr 18, 2003; I'M A BIG DORK WHO POSTS TOO MUCH ABOUT CONVENTIONS LOOK AT THIS

TOVA TOVA TOVA

Your enthusiasm led to me figuring "aw, I am sure I can find it if I look through every private message I have from someone whose name I do not recognize!" and I did that and I STILL FAILED TO FIND IT. I must have accidentally deleted it one of the times my mailbox filled up during the Wasteland 2 Kickstarter

But yes, such a person is out there in THESE VERY FORUMS and you would think someone else in this thread would remember it coming up in whatever context it came up last time that led to me asking about it in private messages in the first place. It was probably either a MMORPG or an "early online memories" thread actually.

# ¿ Feb 28, 2014 04:03

Dr. Quarex: Apr 18, 2003; I'M A BIG DORK WHO POSTS TOO MUCH ABOUT CONVENTIONS LOOK AT THIS

TOVA TOVA TOVA

d0s posted:

The stick is a microswitched Competition Pro and it's the way to play Amiga games. I got a nice set of two for cheap from a US eBay seller who had them labelled as Atari 2600 sticks (which they technically are), but didn't mention the brand name in the title.

I always thought of that as the best joystick ever, too, even though my lack of computer knowledge meant I assumed it was an Atari XE joystick, teehee. I was super-confused when I saw it on an Amiga nostalgia page a couple of years back, but I was still excited to finally know what it was called.

Now, the question is, can I get a USB-compatible one? Probably. Oh look, there is. That might actually be enough to get me to play action games with a joystick ... even though they would certainly need to be pretty simple action games.

# ¿ Mar 22, 2014 22:26

Dr. Quarex: Apr 18, 2003; I'M A BIG DORK WHO POSTS TOO MUCH ABOUT CONVENTIONS LOOK AT THIS

TOVA TOVA TOVA

d0s posted:

A while back I posted that I known nothing about the Amiga demoscene, I've been slowly educating myself, here's some of my favorites so far!

I know there's so much more out there and this is just scratching the surface but I'm really slow about this poo poo, I refuse to actually watch one until I've seen it running on the real hardware, so I don't get "Spoiled"

Just as long as you know that Future Crew's "2nd Reality" demo WAS the Demoscene for a couple of years, you are doing well.

As much as I generally thought he was supremely overrated, the opening minute of Purple Motion's tune from that demo (the bouncing geometric ball thing) probably did more to inspire Demoscene music for the next decade than any other piece of music.

As I mentioned before, I know all kinds of things about the Demoscene from the early to late 1990s ... on the PC/USA side of the equation, which is to say about the initial minority operating system, in the perpetual minority world region. Ha. It is always fun to look back at these once-legitimately-astounding technical marvels that now look like Baby's First 3D Graphics. The design and the music often still hold up though, at least.

# ¿ Mar 29, 2014 07:35

Dr. Quarex: Apr 18, 2003; I'M A BIG DORK WHO POSTS TOO MUCH ABOUT CONVENTIONS LOOK AT THIS

TOVA TOVA TOVA

Captain Rufus posted:

K-Razy Shoot Out was, along with K-Razy Antiks, why I thought K-Byte Software was the COOLEST COMPANY when I was like 5 or whatever. Of course then I eventually realized those games were just basically copies of more famous titles but you know what, they were still fun.

And what the hell is Adventure Creator?! TO THE INTERNET

Also hell yes Genpei Turtle with Wasteland on original hardware. I mean, I play Wasteland on my P/166 with MS-DOS, but somehow taking a machine that once ran Windows 95 and downgrading it is only 1/10th as cool as what you are doing.

Bieeardo posted:

My first PC-compatible computer was an 8088 (not 86) with a Hercules graphics card that was longer than my forearm. Upgrading to VGA would have cost probably a grand (though Dad did do it after a while), so I made do with roguelikes and games that would play relatively nicely with this 'simCGA' TSR program. And by 'relatively' I mean crazy amounts of horizontal tearing on anything that was animated. But it worked, and I'm impressed by that to this day.

Oh dude, thank you for reminding me that I somehow convinced my parents to upgrade our 8088 to VGA. It was great having Ultima VI look like absolute dynamite while still running like crap and with PC speaker :haw:

# ¿ Apr 27, 2014 17:53

Dr. Quarex: Apr 18, 2003; I'M A BIG DORK WHO POSTS TOO MUCH ABOUT CONVENTIONS LOOK AT THIS

TOVA TOVA TOVA

d0s posted:

If you're in any way interested in the mid-late DOS era games or demoscene stuff it's indispensable. It's one of those things that you wonder how you ever got along without. Having one of these back in the day must have been mental! Please don't pay what people ask for them on eBay though, anything over $80-90 is way too much. Try to find some European people selling them on other boards and stuff, it was way more popular there.

I was the equivalent of a console warrior about soundcards back in the early-mid 1990s, and the Gravis Ultrasound was basically my mortal enemy.

Now, looking back, I can see I was obviously letting my bias run wild, as it was hard to even get me to acknowledge that the Ultrasound's MIDI output was superior, being all-in on the "bleep bloop cheesy MIDI sound is proper MIDI sound" camp that had basically no adherents at the time. But my Pro Audio Spectrum 16 actually did have fantastic .MOD playback, and it irritated me that people assumed if you did not have an Ultrasound you could not possibly be a TRUE DEMOSCENER because obviously I felt like my credentials in that regard should have spoken for themselves. I mean, let us not forget I am MENTIONED IN PASSING ON WIKIPEDIA :c00l:

But yeah. Ultrasounds were amazing, I acknowledge that, even if not necessarily INFINITELY BETTER FOR ALL THINGS.

Oh wait, as I see that you say that it is ONLY good for demoscene stuff when I would say its true calling is MIDI, huh. I remember hearing the Ultima VIII soundtrack on my buddy's Ultrasound and even my hyper-jaded-annoying-kid-self had to be like "OK, yeah, that sounds amazing"

# ¿ Apr 30, 2014 16:24

Dr. Quarex: Apr 18, 2003; I'M A BIG DORK WHO POSTS TOO MUCH ABOUT CONVENTIONS LOOK AT THIS

TOVA TOVA TOVA

Good point about some demoscene things being GUS-only; I had totally forgotten about that, likely again due to my purposeless soundcard favoritism. Yes, clearly that is one thing I should add to my own MS-DOS gaming setup (which I would post but I am in Texas for two months rather than with my precious goods). Though I suppose fixing the CMOS battery should take priority.

Also, in the Midwest, Macs served as "things you find in public schools but if any of your friends have one they are probably complaining about how there are no games for it" fodder just as on the East Coast, from my anecdotal experience, haha.

# ¿ Apr 30, 2014 18:26

Dr. Quarex: Apr 18, 2003; I'M A BIG DORK WHO POSTS TOO MUCH ABOUT CONVENTIONS LOOK AT THIS

TOVA TOVA TOVA

Genpei Turtle posted:

Also holy poo poo, the Ultima Dragons are still around?

Dude

DUDE

I know.

Seriously.

I felt like I set a personal record never to be equalled when I discovered they were still around last year and that they had changed things so little since the mid-1990s that my 17-year-old login and password on their main page still worked. I am absolutely sure I will never go 17 years between using the same login again.

HAY GUYZ VIKING DRAGON CHECKING IN

An Ultima 1-5-style game that is not made by Jeff Vogel? The Eschalon games are sort of early-Ultima-y. Plus I think the third one just came out, and I never even made it through 1, so they would last you a while. You could always play the U5 or U6 remakes in the Dungeon Siege engine but I doubt that is what you are looking for. Did you ever play Legacy of the Ancients? That is probably my favorite Ultima knockoff ever, with Questron II a reasonably close second. Phantasie III is amazing too but I am pretty sure you were talking about that earlier in the thread.

# ¿ May 8, 2014 22:19

Dr. Quarex: Apr 18, 2003; I'M A BIG DORK WHO POSTS TOO MUCH ABOUT CONVENTIONS LOOK AT THIS

TOVA TOVA TOVA

Knights of Legend was basically purpose-built, accidentally in most ways, to be a legend(!)arily hard game to actually ever get into, let alone beat. Yet of course for that very reason I always stare wistfully at my game box when I am looking at my Closet Full Of MS-DOS Games, and consider myself fortunate that I still have the willpower to resist re-installing it. For now.

I wish I had more pictures of my ... hey wait, maybe I do! This is the closest I can get to posting my retro gaming setup since currently it is in my car's trunk across the country:

Hey, speaking of, check out what is in the upper-left quadrant!

Might as well list the games in the pictures in case someone for some reason wants to Control-F to find this post:
Buck Rogers: Matrix Cubed maybe?, Megatraveller 2, Knights of Legend, Tangled Tales, I think that is Stunt Driver, not that it matters, Wizardry VI, Keys to Maramon, Keef the Thief, Sword of Aragon, still fun today, Don't Go Alone, Ultima VII: Forge of Virtue, Might & Magic II, uh lemme see Ultima VII, Warlords II?, North and South, Megaman ahaha, Tunnels & Trolls, Phantasie III, Questron II, Drakkhen, Trilogy, Rendezvous With Rama, King's Bounty, Lightspeed, Space 1889, Oh I see Hyperspeed there, and that is Escape From Hell under Trilogy.

Even when they came out, I knew those "just a cheap piece of cardboard with no real internal support" games were going to preserve horribly.

Hardball III, Skate or Die, King's Quest IV, SimCity, Wing Commander?, Bard's Tale II, Covert Action, and uhhh I can just barely make out the words BUCK ROGERS on that system requirements tag so that must be Countdown to Doomsday.

And a lot of these are not all that retro, but you know, any time I have an excuse to post a picture of Wasteland, I have to take it.

Oh and this was apparently when I re-stacked everything since I see duplicates. What are the highlights I can recognize here ... Prophecy I: The Fall of Trinadon, SimLife, Spy vs. Spy III, Elvira II: The Jaws of Cerberus, Worlds of Ultima: Savage Empire ... Ooh Ultima VI down at the bottom! Is that a Muppet Babies comic book on the side? Wow, I think I threw basically everything in this photo out other than the games when I did this cleaning, haha. Hey, the Sword of the Samurai game map in the bottom-left!

I am sure someone will be horrified at the fact that I ever stacked my games like that, but beyond the fact that I have never had any intention of selling any of them is the fact that I did try to go from bulkiest to fragilest!

# ¿ May 9, 2014 22:51

Dr. Quarex: Apr 18, 2003; I'M A BIG DORK WHO POSTS TOO MUCH ABOUT CONVENTIONS LOOK AT THIS

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Gonna get that 1980s Microsoft logo tattooed on my face.

Also the 5150 was not exactly the most obvious gaming computer, but speaking as someone who gamed exclusively on it for about 2 years, I can tell you that it does, in fact, work. Lots of games back then had Hercules support, too; things like Wasteland or Might & Magic II might honestly look a bit better on your new 5150 than they did on mine, haha.

# ¿ May 10, 2014 18:29

Dr. Quarex: Apr 18, 2003; I'M A BIG DORK WHO POSTS TOO MUCH ABOUT CONVENTIONS LOOK AT THIS

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I was part of a friend trifecta with one of each of us covering Atari 8-bit, Commodore 64, and Apple II. We certainly spent a fair amount of time telling each other that the other guy's system sucked, but yeah there was no overarching narrative we could point to to prove our point, it was just our individual opinions because none of us knew anyone else who had one of those three. Though both my Atari and my buddy's Apple fandom would occasionally acknowledge the Commodore 64's superior game library. Even if we would cling ferociously to the tiny handful of games that were better on our system and THEREFORE PROVED OUR SYSTEM WAS SUPERIOR

Look man, until you watch the Rescue On Fractalus intro on an Atari 8-bit computer, you have truly not experienced the overwhelming power of 1985 computer games

# ¿ May 27, 2014 04:34

Dr. Quarex: Apr 18, 2003; I'M A BIG DORK WHO POSTS TOO MUCH ABOUT CONVENTIONS LOOK AT THIS

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Captain Rufus posted:

My Atari 800 still needs a BASIC cartridge so I can properly use it and test out the disk drive and tape drive. I have just been kinda cheap.

I am confused. I thought the Atari 8-bit line had BASIC built in ... or was that because I only had an 800XL and then an XE? Or do I misunderstand what you are actually saying you are doing?

Also I love the idea of Day of the Tentacle as Police Automaton's tipping point/killer app moment. Though I suppose the only reason I first upgraded to a dedicated 3D card after years of denying its necessity was ... Ultima IX. Hmm.

# ¿ May 31, 2014 08:49

Dr. Quarex: Apr 18, 2003; I'M A BIG DORK WHO POSTS TOO MUCH ABOUT CONVENTIONS LOOK AT THIS

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The gently caress is Mind-Roll

Man I swear there were infinite games released in the 1980s. I love it.

I like that your copy of Super Boulderdash is molded in almost the same way my copy is, haha.

# ¿ Jun 2, 2014 06:46

Dr. Quarex: Apr 18, 2003; I'M A BIG DORK WHO POSTS TOO MUCH ABOUT CONVENTIONS LOOK AT THIS

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poo poo I am overloaded with classic gaming catalogs considering my huge assortment of complete-in-box games from ~1988-199X. That seems like a worthy project for the next time I assault my parents' house.

Captain Rufus posted:

A game with the best cover ever:

This is without a doubt the best electronic game cover EVER. It's so absurdly ridiculous and pandering to every 12 year old boy it isn't even funny. And that is why it rules. We have a dude with a shirtless vest on top of a truck holding on to it while standing with ONE HAND so the other can hold a crossbow while his BEST WOMAN who found the last remaining spandex bodysuit is holding on to him with one hand so she can have the other for her submachine gun. Oh... and he has on big 80s sunglasses because I don't know. He is just THAT COOL.

I want a poster of this for my living room. I will frame it.

That line of thinking was what led me to track down the guy who drew the Wasteland cover/interior art and offer to buy the originals off him. And look where that got me today! Might as well give it a shot, it could make your life amazing.

(Plus that really is great cover art, I agree)

And wow, never heard of Realms of Darkness before, despite being an SSI fanboy at one point. Um, wow, Adventure/RPG, too; that genre is so small that I am shocked this game has not received any attention. It must really suck!

And drat I legitimately got chills seeing that master list of SSI games. I cannot even tell you how much time I spent as a child, generally of course in the months leading up to my birthday or Christmas, carefully circling games in lists just like that one. And I often selected games based entirely on their title since I somehow did not know about the concept of gaming magazines, haha.

poo poo, I had Gemstone Warrior for my Atari, but I had no idea I could have gotten into Phantasie and Questron on my first computer, too. That would have really accelerated my shift towards being an RPG fiend I think.

# ¿ Jun 4, 2014 02:22

Dr. Quarex: Apr 18, 2003; I'M A BIG DORK WHO POSTS TOO MUCH ABOUT CONVENTIONS LOOK AT THIS

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Captain Rufus posted:

Quarex: I am pretty sure Joe Chiodo wouldn't be willing to sell, and I wouldn't be capable of affording it. Now a poster or a 10-20 dollar print? That I could manage.

Oh, good on you knowing the artist's name already! And yeah, man, I tried talking to the guy who did the Sword of Aragon artwork and found he had sold the original a couple of years before I got to him, and when he offered to sell me some of his rough sketches and stuff and I was like "have you ever thought about doing prints?" he never responded. Well, now, to be fair, I bet the market for Sword of Aragon prints would be pretty small, but there would definitely be a market for this stuff. How do those rights work? Surely the original artist could sell prints of the original art as long as the game name was not on it? Well, maybe not so "surely."

# ¿ Jun 4, 2014 05:30

Dr. Quarex: Apr 18, 2003; I'M A BIG DORK WHO POSTS TOO MUCH ABOUT CONVENTIONS LOOK AT THIS

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Captain Rufus posted:

What do folks think about also collecting cluebooks/strategy guides for their games?

At some point it occurred to me that the ephemera from these classic games in a lot of ways is a more powerful nostalgia talisman than the games themselves--having the original box is always awesome, but having the map from Ultima III framed or the robot miniatures from 2400 A.D. hanging around the gaming table is even more awesome.

Also, whoa, Might & Magic III on Turbografx 16. There are so many game series that showed up on platforms I never would have expected and provided a fascinating alternate history, haha. I still hear about how nightmarish Ultima VI on the Super Nintendo was.

# ¿ Jun 5, 2014 00:31

Dr. Quarex: Apr 18, 2003; I'M A BIG DORK WHO POSTS TOO MUCH ABOUT CONVENTIONS LOOK AT THIS

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Holy poo poo I feel like I just experienced a religious conversion watching that Shadow of the Beast-on-every-system video. That game ... it is ... on its best systems, it is like a work of art, and one of the few retro platformers that seems to stand up stylistically with today's best platformers.

Genpei Turtle posted:

Do you mean Ultima VII? Because that was really bad. Ultima VI wasn't as bad a port--

I think I did mean to type VII. Well, I should say, normally I knew it was VII but earlier today I may have gotten confused. I do not even think the earlier games got console ports though other than Exodus ... did they?

# ¿ Jun 5, 2014 05:40

Dr. Quarex: Apr 18, 2003; I'M A BIG DORK WHO POSTS TOO MUCH ABOUT CONVENTIONS LOOK AT THIS

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I have definitely read about Mad TV (yes, I know it has no relation to the show) and Biing! but only as curiosities in the "hey everyone, look what weird-rear end games came out of Germany!" sense.

But, well. A lot of times I feel like European sensibilities more broadly seem a lot more reasonable in terms of gaming. I mean, so many of the best CRPGs started coming out of Europe in the last decade. And in the 1980s there was some amazing creativity there too. 1990s, well ... no clue.

# ¿ Jun 13, 2014 17:42

Dr. Quarex: Apr 18, 2003; I'M A BIG DORK WHO POSTS TOO MUCH ABOUT CONVENTIONS LOOK AT THIS

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d0s posted:

Oh, totally missed he was talking about modern stuff. I actually know next to nothing about what's going on today, it's good to hear there are still good games

Haha. There are. There will always be good games! AS LONG AS BRIAN FARGO IS STILL MAKING Gyeah Wasteland 2 is something you simply must know about even if you know about nothing else.

1980s European retro games are also kind of awesome to me though because they are so much more likely to be surrealistic and super-experimental. I mean, not understanding the languages they are in may help, but that is definitely not all of it.

tuluk posted:

besides that, I was ebay bidding on a copy of Fountain of Dreams. It went for $53, about $22 over my budget. There's another copy on ebay going for $149.
Retrogaming is getting expensive for niche broken titles.

It ... it is finally happening

I knew people would understand my lunacy someday!!!

Now, to sell my copy of The Ancient Art Of War At Sea for $5,000.

Dr. Quarex fucked around with this message at 02:25 on Jun 14, 2014

# ¿ Jun 14, 2014 02:22

Dr. Quarex: Apr 18, 2003; I'M A BIG DORK WHO POSTS TOO MUCH ABOUT CONVENTIONS LOOK AT THIS

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tuluk posted:

That failure got me playing Wasteland 1 again (on my openpandora).

I am getting more and more intrigued by this adorable device.

# ¿ Jun 15, 2014 02:59

Dr. Quarex: Apr 18, 2003; I'M A BIG DORK WHO POSTS TOO MUCH ABOUT CONVENTIONS LOOK AT THIS

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space chandeliers posted:

Whoa. This is the kind of impressive Internet detectivery I can get behind.

# ¿ Jun 15, 2014 21:07

Dr. Quarex: Apr 18, 2003; I'M A BIG DORK WHO POSTS TOO MUCH ABOUT CONVENTIONS LOOK AT THIS

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Police Automaton posted:

My Keyboard is an IBM Model M from 1989. Never had such a good keyboard, and I tried many.

While I do still have an IBM Model M in good service on my own DOS machine, I have a new Model M from http://www.pckeyboard.com/ and could not possibly be happier with it, either. They (supposedly) own the rights to produce new keyboards in the same style ... certainly I cannot tell a difference between the keyboard I am using now and an IBM Model M except this keyboard is USB, says UNICOMP, and is black with all black keycaps except Q U A R E X in lilac :c00l:

Also haha drat, post your AUTOEXEC.BAT/CONFIG.SYS. I am so in love with this idea. I need to unpack my computer already. I am pretty sure that my CONFIG.SYS' most endearing qualities would be that I still name all of my directories incomprehensible things. And still spitefully call my games directory WINDOWS to continue a tradition I started in 1995 and do not understand at all in hindsight. Something about Windows 95 destroying my games and me uninstalling it? Not sure.

d0s posted:

Now some actual game talk: As the photo I took of this computer suggests, one of the big reasons I wanted a slower DOS system was for some of the Game Arts stuff. I just discovered Zeliard and am loving it, along with Thexder, Silpheed, etc. Were any other Japanese PC games ported over to western PCs like this? I don't really mean western developed versions of Japanese games (like the Amiga is full of) but more in the sense of just a translation and some work done to make it run on our PC standard rather than the PC88 or whatever. There seems to be verly little info about this sort of thing out there, or I'm looking in the wrong places.

Sorcerian is probably the biggest-name one you did not mention, but Tunnels & Trolls has gotten an increasing amount of attention from the retro CRPG community lately (honestly probably thanks to people like CrookedB, are you in this thread? I forgot) and it actually is a pretty good game if you can make it past the "AHHH JAPANESE PC GAMES BURN YOUR EYES" thing.

And drat Moogulus Caesar, that is a beautiful collection. Also from my year studying abroad in England, I love picturing Boots carrying retro computer software. Not that it was retro when you bought it.

Though your dislike for Tintin On The Moon is shameful considering this song:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Hz6KO0gnrS8
Incidentally I talked to Jeroen about this song on Facebook recently and he says he composed it in an hour between high school and dinner. Welp. Makes my own high school musical compositions seem a bit unambitious.

# ¿ Jun 26, 2014 23:52

Dr. Quarex: Apr 18, 2003; I'M A BIG DORK WHO POSTS TOO MUCH ABOUT CONVENTIONS LOOK AT THIS

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flyboi posted:

Ok, you've got my interest. How can you make qix sexier?

Qixxx

# ¿ Jun 29, 2014 02:23

Dr. Quarex: Apr 18, 2003; I'M A BIG DORK WHO POSTS TOO MUCH ABOUT CONVENTIONS LOOK AT THIS

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d0s posted:

Like I totally get not liking the dude or his music (I'm not into most of it myself) but the reactions were just borderline racist and hosed up and made the entire community look like out of touch people from the 50's or something.

And if there is one thing we know about online discussion anywhere other than on actual white supremacist forums, it is that these reactions are usually people self-censoring to some degree. So I imagine all that "borderline racist" was actually "holy poo poo racist" but slightly edited for Internet posterity.

Then again, people say a lot of things that no sane person would likely say.

Now I have to find this thing though, because I am fascinated that Kanye West said anything that could possibly interest me! Oh, there it is. Wow, he literally just mentioned it in passing. Of course that was infuriating. Of course.

# ¿ Jun 30, 2014 03:07

Dr. Quarex: Apr 18, 2003; I'M A BIG DORK WHO POSTS TOO MUCH ABOUT CONVENTIONS LOOK AT THIS

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Mmmm ... absurd Unicomp keyboard

It really is great. Super-sturdy. I have shipped it in terrible conditions multiple times and it has never emerged any worse for wear.

# ¿ Jul 1, 2014 01:35

Dr. Quarex: Apr 18, 2003; I'M A BIG DORK WHO POSTS TOO MUCH ABOUT CONVENTIONS LOOK AT THIS

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d0s posted:

Isn't Frogger on the Atari 8-bit systems supposed to be like the best home version ever? I seriously have no idea but I read about it's development in some computer history book or another and the developer was a super dedicated perfectionist or something and the game was apparently amazing on that machine.

Well it was certainly good.

The end.

Though there were multiple versions for the one system, which makes this even more interesting. Did someone decide that HE MUST MAKE A BETTER FROGGER?

# ¿ Jul 1, 2014 22:49

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Skeletron posted:

Are there any really good titles from this era of DOS games?

Have you been reading the thread?!?!

Haha. For real though, yes. The benefit of nostalgia/high tolerance for primitive graphics and interfaces could give you literally "hundreds" of good titles pre-early-90s, but even people who need at least VGA to not want to throw up can probably find dozens.

I would not even know how to begin explaining how to figure out how to bound such a set though. Look at the fondly-remembered/big-name companies of the day for a start--I instantly think of Br�derbund, Origin, Mindcraft, Electronic Arts, Sir-Tech, Psygnosis, New World Computing, SSI, Interplay ... there have to be plenty more.

I am a Wasteland fanboy so that is of course Game One I would suggest for such a system, but Ultima VI/VII would be a much better era-specific game to impress if you were into RPGs. Wait, what ARE you into?

# ¿ Jul 3, 2014 23:37

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Prenton posted:

There's a bunch of tracker programs (Scream Tracker, Fast Tracker, Impulse Tracker, etc) but I think they were more used for demos rather than games. Deus Ex and Unreal were Impulse Tracker though.

There were a few PC shareware companies, admittedly mostly associated with the Demoscene itself, that made games with .MOD soundtracks.

What always confused me was how they were generally, like, not even that good. Star Control ]['s soundtrack is held up as the gold standard for tracker-based game soundtracks but ... I mean, the music worked with the aliens and all, but man, you could get so much higher-quality actual music out of a tracker, even in 1992.

Dana Crysalis posted:

There were a bunch of tracker songs I really wish I could find again, some of those were amazing.

No matter what the tracker song is, I can probably tell you where to find it.

Unless it was, like, some stuff your brother wrote. Then, not so much. Even I have lost a handful of those songs.

Edit: Rather than waiting for you to ask I will start you with some suggestions

Nectarine Demoscene radio is a fine place to just go visit all the time: https://www.scenemusic.net/demovibes/

But Stone Oakvalley has an archive of .MP3s of every single .MOD he can find on the Internet: http://www.paula8364.com/

# ¿ Jul 6, 2014 23:25

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Dana Crysalis posted:

Stone Oakvalley's collection seemed to be down. The songset I was thinking of were a couple just named after elements. Earth, Air, Water, I think there might have been a Fire, too. And I think Earth said something about a dwarf village, but that might have been just me. And I remember Water had a bug in it, it had an entire channel that didn't play until I gave it an instrument.

There are only 88 results with "Earth" in the title, go get them all! http://se2a1.iiiii.info:8080/soamc/index.php?av=0&sb=SOAMC&ss=Earth&sf=&sy=&sil=N%2FA&sc=&srd=&sd=&sip=N%2FA&sr=&sx=&sl=&sis=N%2FA

His collection goes down once in a while but he is crazy enough to get it back up relatively quickly every time.

I literally do not understand his feelings about torrents though.

And I do not understand any of your feelings about .MODs being dated :colbert:

No, that is not true, obviously plenty of them are absolutely terrible. But it helps that I have listened to so many over so much of my life that I have integrated hundreds of them into my life no differently than you might any other regular artist. Not that I do not sometimes think MIDI can sound just as good ... the Ultima VI soundtrack comes to mind. As does EverQuest's Erud's Crossing/Kerra Isle music on whatever soundcard I had in 1999 not this crap people upload to YouTube that sounds awful :argh:

# ¿ Jul 9, 2014 04:04

Dr. Quarex: Apr 18, 2003; I'M A BIG DORK WHO POSTS TOO MUCH ABOUT CONVENTIONS LOOK AT THIS

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Captain Rufus posted:

(Or pretty much most of the books here: http://www.atarimania.com/documents-atari-400-800-xl-xe-books_1_8.html )

Haha. I actually own a really nice-quality copy of "Atari in Wonderland" and every time I see it, I think to myself "I am the only person in the entire world who owns this. Unfortunately also probably the only person who wants it."

Now I know there may be another who wants it instead!

Starhawk64 posted:

Yeah, I wanted to put together a Win9X era gaming PC but I realized tracking down the right parts would be a huge pain in the rear end. I'm glad Gog and Dosbox are around to make playing old games a breeze.

It would probably not be too hard to find a 1990s-era system in somebody's attic if you were looking for authenticity. Now, Police Automaton is obviously right that emulators are amazing nowadays, since we are no longer in the days when you would download MAME and a dozen arcade ROMs and find that most of them would just refuse to run (oh, those were the bad times). But I do feel there is something to be said specifically for retro PC gaming on "original" hardware--like, I do not understand why anyone would want to put together a 386/16 to re-experience not really being able to play Ultima VI very well, whereas my DOS Machine is a Pentium 166 with like 256 megs of RAM, which, like, functionally means it is a machine from humanity's distant future as far as the games I play on it are concerned. And my expertise with MS-DOS means it is actually easier for me to troubleshoot games in the native OS than it has been in DOSBox, like when I could not figure out why Wasteland was artifacting all over the place constantly and then realized "hey, why am I not just playing this on the same machine I played it on in 1997?"

# ¿ Jul 13, 2014 04:55

Dr. Quarex: Apr 18, 2003; I'M A BIG DORK WHO POSTS TOO MUCH ABOUT CONVENTIONS LOOK AT THIS

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What the hell is SimIsle

Seeing that he owned a software store makes this "runs the whole gamut of genres" thing make more sense.

At first I thought I did not really want anything, but then I looked at the second link. drat.

Also good lord I get nostalgic hearing ANYTHING about 1980s/early 1990s computer connectivity, despite having only been part of such a relatively small part of it. At least I will always have my memories of being banned from WWIVLink for allowing my users to use obscenities. :allears:

# ¿ Jul 15, 2014 01:50

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Police Automaton posted:

It was kind of magical. The internet seemed a lot bigger back then, with you not knowing what's around the next corner. Todays internet feels more "tamed" and smaller, even though it really is not. I always wanted to set-up a second A2000 and run a BBS system on it people can telnet into via the internet, but ehhh. I don't think I could find people using it.

So true. Having absolutely no clue what was on The World Wide Web(tm) made any discovery you made feel, well, quite a bit like finding an easter egg in a CRPG or something, honestly. Particularly when you would stumble onto something with a typo or other similar completely unexpected entry.

# ¿ Jul 18, 2014 00:46

Dr. Quarex: Apr 18, 2003; I'M A BIG DORK WHO POSTS TOO MUCH ABOUT CONVENTIONS LOOK AT THIS

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drat, that Sinclair QL does look pretty dope.

Also I for one love "version comparisons" of any stripe since they often introduce me to some corner of the computer gaming world I never even knew about.

I suppose we could argue that anyone deciding that console versions of CRPGs were superior was some sort of heretic, but I am also fascinated to learn how many of the games I loved had foreign console remakes/sequels I never heard a single peep about in my entire life.

# ¿ Jul 26, 2014 05:26

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# ¿ Apr 27, 2024 09:20

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Shlomo Palestein posted:

I'm actually kind of impressed by this. Not that I want to play it, mind you, but compressing a game down to whatever resolution that is (60x40?) and having it somewhat kind of resemble the actual game is an accomplishment in itself.

Agreed, that version is pretty impressive. Particularly how colorful it is considering the terrible resolution. But if there is one thing this thread has taught me about Japanese computers of the 1980s, it is that they literally had limitless absurd variation in quality of video and audio capabilities, so that seems right.

Also I wish I could help about the Atari 800XL/XE issue as I have had both (and still have my XE), but I pretty much never noticed any differences at all. Though I certainly feel like I have a good ear for minor differences so that might still be a partial answer.

# ¿ Jul 27, 2014 04:09

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