• Tag Archives retrogaming

  • The Pawn (Atari 8-bit)

    Posted on by Azrael Comment

    The Pawn was an adventure game originally released for the Sinclair QL in 1985 by a company called Magnetic Scrolls and then ported to a number of other systems. While the game had graphics on many of the platforms, this was really an interactive fiction or text adventure game. Interestingly, the game used a partial 68000 emulator on all versions of the game, even those that ran on less powerful computers.

    The images in this post are from the Atari 8-bit computer version of the game. This was one of the many versions that had graphics but they were basically just static images that depicted your location. The graphics are essentially optional and don’t really help to solve the puzzles in the game.

    The story basically involves you as a player attempting to escape the fairly land of Kerovnia. There are humorous elements to the game and both the story and the game parser generally received positive reviews. The Pawn was also a very successful game in terms of sales. For instance, The Pawn was distributed by Firebird for the Commodore 64 and it was their second best-selling game. The Pawn also won a number of awards.

    Interactive fiction has certainly become a more niche genre of games but there are still some being made. Up until very recently, there had not been any modern re-releases or remakes of this game. However, a company called Strandgames was recently founded by one of the co-founders and developers of Magnetic Scrolls. In 2017 they recovered the source code, remastered and re-released both The Pawn and The Guild of Thieves (Magnetic Scroll’s second interactive fiction game) and it looks like there is more to come. They are available for Windows, OS X, and Linux as well as Android and iOS.

    The Pawn / Atari 800 XL XE


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  • LJN Games for the NES

    Posted on by Azrael Comment

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    Source: Nintendo Fun Club News – Issue Number 5 – February/March 1988 

    In 1988, the Nintendo Entertainment System was at the height of its popularity. For all practical purposes, it really had no competition. The following year the Sega Genesis would be released but in 1988 the NES was king of the hill. It’s really amazing how many games were being released for the NES at this time. All despite Nintendo’s relatively restrictive licensing policy.

    This ad shows the games available for the NES by LJN around this time. I’ll be honest, I don’t recall playing any of these and they all look like mediocre licenses to me. First up is Gotcha!, a paintball game that you can play with the Zapper light gun. There weren’t too many Zapper games and most of them weren’t all that special. I don’t see how this one changes that. Apparently, it is loosely based on the movie of the same name. I sense a bad 1980s paintball themed movie I need to watch…

    Next up is Jaws: The Revenge. This games is based on the fourth and final movie in the Jaws series which was released in 1987. This was one of the first games for the NES announced by LJN and I’m not really sure why they chose it. The movie was bad and the game was worse.

    Next up is Major League Baseball. This game had the advantage of being licensed by the MLB so it used the actual team names. However, it didn’t have the Players Associate license so it did not feature real player names. As baseball games of the time went, this one really wasn’t too bad. It didn’t stand out from the competition but it was a decent enough game and there wasn’t much out there that was significantly better.

    T&C Surf Designs is the oddest license of the bunch. The game itself is somewhat of a ripoff of California games, particularly in regards to the surfing portion. This one wasn’t a terrible game either but it was pretty mediocre. In addition to the surf competition, it also offered skateboarding.

    Finally, there was The Karate Kid. The Karate Kid was an excellent movie (go watch it now if you haven’t seen it) but as games go, like most movie licenses, this one was mediocre at best. It was actually based loosely on the first two Karate Kid movies and features both fighting stages and platform stages as well as two player one-on-one fighting.

    The above ad is from the February/March 1988 issue of Nintendo Fun Club News, the predecessor to Nintendo Power.


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  • Zork II (Commodore 64)

    Posted on by Azrael Comment

    Another Commodore 8-bit floppy! And yet another Commodore floppy sleeve and envelop design! This is Zork II for the Commodore 64. I like how it’s got a blank-floppy label on it in addition to the product label – like they just grabbed a bunch of blanks from the office supply shelf and ran them over to the duplicator.

    Knowing Commodore, actually, it wouldn’t even surprise me if they had.

    http://darth-azrael.tumblr.com/post/170791509305/oldphemera-another-commodore-8-bit-floppy-and

    While text adventures are pretty niche now, back when computers were much more limited they were quite popular. No series was more popular than the Zork series by Infocom. Zork II, subtitled The Wizard of Frobozz was first released in 1982 and while it did not appear on as many platforms as the original, the list is still quite impressive and includes the Amiga, Amstrad CPC, Apple II, Macintosh, Atari 8-bit, Atari ST, Commodore 64, Commodore Plus/4, CP/M, DOS, MSX and TRS-80 among others.

    The photos in this post relate to the Commodore 64 version but there was no significant difference between the various versions. Most Infocom games ran on their own parser (almost like a virtual machine) and it was this that was converted to various machines. Commodore distributed the Commodore 64 version and you can see how cheap Commodore could be based on the disks they used. It appears they just took blank disks that were probably intended to be sold as such based on the labeling and put the game on them and added a second label. However, this doesn’t affect the quality of the game.

    Zork II picks up more or less where the first Zork left off. In Zork I the object was to collect as many treasures as possible. If you collected them all then you achieved a perfect score. Zork II has a bit more of a subtle plot. You still have to collect treasures but the treasures themselves are needed to finish the game. At least some of them as the game can be completed without collecting them all. You just have to figure out how to use them correctly.

    The plot revolves around an exiled and slightly senile enchanter. You must figure out how to avoid his tricks and control his magic. This is not an easy game or for the easily frustrated. It will take you much trial and error to solve the various puzzles. However, it offers long hours of entertainment for those who like solving difficult puzzles.

    I don’t know that Zork II has ever been re-released on modern systems but it was released by Activision as freeware at one point. You can play via emulation on the system of your choice or even play via your browser (search for Zork II in your favorite search engine and you’ll find it pretty quickly). The browser version is a good way to try it out but it isn’t a practical way to play the whole game because you can’t really save it. If you have never played a text adventure but are an RPG or point and click adventure fan then it is worth giving a try even if just to see where it all started. Some people love text adventure and some people hate them. I would start with Zork I and if you enjoy that one proceed to Zork II and the subsequent sequels. Then there are plenty more vintage text adventures from Infocom and others and even new ones still being created today if you find you enjoy the genre.





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