I've been waiting to see what you'd say about Venture, since I'd heard of it as a classic of its time. I'll probably try it, though I might not have the patience for all 9 levels. I want to play Battle Through Time, too. I like that it's got levels and an ending with Moon Patrol's gameplay. Moonrider looks like too much of a straight clone, though.
Post by bonesnapdeez on Jan 25, 2019 20:25:10 GMT -5
The hero's sprite in Venture is utterly hilarious. I've said it before, but it bears repeating, all of Exidy's second gen games are really cool. Play 'em.
After setting up an emulator, I then spent a half hour tonight reading the manual and making a reference note to print. That is to say Sword of Fargoal on C64 is my next attempt for this theme. This one's a roguelike!
Where are you playing it? It came out on several platforms; not sure which one is considered the best. I would assume C64. It's also been ported to a "modern" engine for PC, much like Star Control 2 or the Exult engine for Ultima VII. I think this is the version I downloaded some time ago and tried:
That being said, it's the C64 game that I "grew up" with, and by that, I mean I got to play it over at my aunt's house, and eventually when I had a C64, I had it as well, for the relatively short time I owned the machine. (I couldn't get her to part with her copy of Ultima IV, though...)
Nope. I played a good amount of it, but usually died around level 7 or 8. Like a lot of rogue-likes, it didn't mess around!
It also didn't help that I had an NES at this point, with a good number of RPGs. I was pretty content to log more time into Dragon Warrior and Final Fantasy, among others.
usually died around level 7 or 8. Like a lot of rogue-likes, it didn't mess around!
Well I made it to level 3 late last night and save-stated there. The manual says the sword is always somewhere between level 15-20. After you get the namesake sword, you get thirty three real time minutes to escape with it. From what I've read getting the sword is not too difficult, but getting out alivewith it is near impossible. I found two really informative write ups on this game:
If I can just reach the sword, I'll feel accomplished enough. I'm not going to spend hours of my limited life span trying to get out alive with it. After all I still have Space Dungeon on 5200 waiting for me. I think beating Space Dungeon will be a less demanding task to accomplish. (Hopefully.)
All this research on truly ancient WRPGs has been enlightening though. I'm considering putting together a collection of the best ones from say 1975-1985. That'll take some doing, but I think it'd be worth the effort. There's also quite a few interactive text adventures from that era - although the sheer amount of them is even more daunting to parse.
Anyway FELLOWS OF THE FORUM there's still like six days left of this month (including today). Anybody else gonna throw the 2nd gen some love? There's so much stuff out there to play!
Post by bonesnapdeez on Jan 26, 2019 13:10:14 GMT -5
Nice work. Epyx made some epic RPGs back in the day.
I've toyed with the idea of getting a physical version of Fargoal for the VIC-20, but I'd also have to buy a RAM expansion cart and a datasette. No thanks. I'm wholly unfamiliar with the C64 version, it looks pretty rad.
Oh and I really like Space Dungeon. One of those oddball games that was ported to the 5200 and nowhere else.
I don't like Battle Through Time. The hit detection is dodgy, and the level design is really boring comparing to Moon Patrol; there are very few jumps, so it's basically just avoiding bombs and crashing planes. I made it to the 3rd level, Korea, where the bombs become weird, but the first two are a drag and I don't feel like replaying them a bunch of times.
I did make it a little further into the Championship Run in Moon Patrol arcade. I have a few issues with the controls, particularly when it comes to controlling the speed, but it's still a cool game, and there's a lot of variety in the threats and obstacles, in such a concentrated form.
Venture is definitely 100% a maze game, like Ex said. As a maze game, it's pretty cool, but it's definitely not for me.