Old-skool PC games

[Mithrandir]

:sigh: Crystal Caves! I used to play that game ALLLLLLLL through my first computer class. My teacher got so mad he assigned me 'busywork' one friday to keep me from playing it. The busy work was a virtual scientific calculator. I was so excited I went home that night and spent the solid holiday weekend writing it. I brought it back and showed him on tuesday and he said I earned the right to play video games in his class.

[uc pseudonym]

I remember that! I actually played Crystal Caves somewhat recently, I'm sorry (?) to say.

[Link Antilles]

Cystal Caves! I can't believe I forget about it, then again, the last time I played it was when computers use those really freakin' big floppies! I also played like a Capture the Flag game.

[shooraijin]

If you mean 5.25" floppies, you haven't seen anything yet ... try 8". I have a few, mostly for an old DEC system which I don't have anymore.

[TheMelodyMaker]

8" floppies? I didn't know they were ever that big! :shock: Seriously, that's something I've got to see.

[Psycho Ann]

8"!?!??! ...... O___O;;;

Other than that--Jazz Jackrabbit! That was the name of that game! Thanks Melody for happening to play it ^^

[uc pseudonym]

Egad... I played Jazz Jackrabbit recently too... I feel old, which is really strange for me...

[shooraijin]

I have Jazz Jackrabbit on that games PC, though it's just the shareware version. "Yum!"

Since many people are surprised by the 8" disk bit, I'll just have to take a photo later today (when I get back to the apartment post-call).

[uc pseudonym]

Do take that photo. I knew about 8" disks, but I haven't actually seen one myself.

[Link Antilles]

8" disks? Wow! It's funny how much we have advanced. How much data did it carry?

[shooraijin]

Well, my box of DEC Rainbow software seems to have disappeared (it may have gone back to storage with some of my other things), so I can't take a picture of my DEC Zork disk, but 8" disks were quite common (for some time, the 5.25" floppies were called "micro floppy disks"). Their capacity was dependent on density and operating system restrictions, although a high-density 8" could approach one megabyte of storage (the highest density 5.25" floppies reach 1.2MB). This isn't my picture, but I found one that will give you an idea of relative sizes.

[TheMelodyMaker]

Hmm... other than its size, the 8" floppy doesn't look any different from a 5.25". For some reason I expected a different design altogether. (Sorry to keep getting this thread off topic. *slaps own hand* )

[shooraijin]

No, they aren't much different; the 5.25" just has a higher density, is all.

[LorentzForce]

i was SO annoyed with wasting so many of those disks because of my carelessness when i was in primary school (i was around 9 years old, give me a break). always putting them together in one big mumbo jumbo, often scrunching it... error!

i remember the first 'computer' game i played. if i can remember, it went by something like Prehistoric 2 or something. arcade side-scroller, beat-them up puzzle style.

[Mithrandir]

Whoa. I can't believe no one else has seen 8"... Wait a minute. Yes I can. No one else here is an "Old Computer Nerd" like shooby. I think we had some 8s somewhere, but I can't find any now.

[Psycho Ann]

Lol... and I thought 5.25'' was big.... O_o;; Hmm. the only game I remember playing from a 5.25 was Alley Cat (anyone played that? The one where you try to get the white cat in the end?) and this digger game and chinese chess I think....

[BishounenCookie]

My gosh i can't believe how many people mentioned Commander Keen. I always thought I was the only one who even played that game up til now. ^^; I have all of the full version episodes of CK on disk, and all of the shareware. Including the lost episode "Keen Dreams." My personal favourite was probably the original one. I had so much fun with that game. My next favourite is probably #4.

I also loved Hocus Pocus. That game rocked.

Wacky Wheels... 'nuff said.

Terminal Velocity was a blast.

Death Rally was awesome too.

Cosmo's Cosmic Adventure

Shareware? Pfft... I owned the retail versions of most of these games, and others i've heard mentioned. Although shareware was really good back in those days, you'd get like an entire 9 levels or so, if not an entire game as shareware. (a few of the Commander Keen episodes for instance)

i was going to edit this but.... SQL DATABASE ERR0RS!! ONOS!!!112

And then Bill Gates said, "Let there be Windows."

Thus, there was Windows.

SimTower and Chip's Challenge are the only two Windows classics I can think of at the moment that I enjoyed.

[shooraijin]

Ah, yes, Death Rally is a great one also.

[Saint]

I think i remember the 8 inch ones from looong ago. i think i played a game on them in either 4th or 6th grade. it was a math game about the Pioneers and such. it was fun. i could be wrong... maybe it was a 5 inch and it just looked big, hehe. it would have been either in '88 or '90.

[shooraijin]

> it was a math game about the Pioneers and such.
> would have been either in '88 or '90.

Almost certainly something like Oregon Trail, and by then it was almost certainly 5.25" (even though you can still special order 8" media; Imation offers it, at confiscatory rates).

[madphilb]

My original system didn't have a 3 1/2" drive (but I did have a 1.2M and a 360k 5 1/4" drive).

I have a copy of Alley Cat on this sytem, the author has released it as freeware (or something). It runs fine even on the newest systems (Your mileage may varry)

Someone has ported Digger to Windows, I have a link around here somewhere (or did) to the new version. It runs in a Window and at the correct speed.

Aren't you all glad you asked (oh, wait, you didn't... oh well )

PHIL

[Mithrandir]

> it was a math game about the Pioneers and such.
> would have been either in '88 or '90.

Almost certainly something like Oregon Trail, and by then it was almost certainly 5.25"

I'd have to agree with this one. OT was VERY big in the education market. In fact, I think I even own a copy of it... Somewhere... You probably ran it on Apple II(or IIe) machines, as Apple bundled that with "Number Cruncher" for their big sales in the mid 80s to education companies. My guess is the two games got jostled around in your brain, and you see them as one. Then again, it's entirely possible you played a game the shooby and I have never heard of, too.

[Psycho Ann]

Hocus Pocus! Lol, yeah, that one was fun.

Hey, anyone here actually finished Chip's Challenge? I think I never got it done--but was in the last 20 or something levels.

[Straylight]

Hocus Pocus.. what a sweet game that was! I used to spend hours on that!

[shooraijin]

> I have a copy of Alley Cat on this sytem, the author has released it as freeware (or something).

Cool! Got URL?

[IfIWereAnAsian]

*^_^~~ We had those old games well into the 90's!!! My family had to use very old computers for quite a while lol*~

*I loved Commander Keen 1, 2, 4, 5, Keen's Dream
*Traz
*Stunts
*Number Munchers (at school)
*Oregon Trail (at school)
**we had Nibbles and Gorilla throw (BASIC games)
My dad made a menu system that had tons of old games the likes of Atari~
*Chip's Challenge
yeah~ ^_^

[Straylight]

Gorrilas used to be a popular game at school because it came with the DOS 6 operating system by default.

[uc pseudonym]

Gorrilas was cool... though I never played it much. I might be a sucker for old games, but not quite like that.

Meanwhile, I liked Hocus Pocus too. I have a perfect score in that game, which probably says something about me (in my defense, I didn't waste that much time doing it).

[Mithrandir]

How is it possible that I've never heard of this game? Hocus Pocus?

RFMI

[shooraijin]

Hocus Pocus was another Apogee shareware game. It was cute although I didn't get into it much.