From: jerry@cs.mcgill.ca (Gerald (Jerry) KUCH)
Newsgroups: comp.sys.amiga.advocacy
Subject: Re: Games and the C64...
Date: 6 Nov 92 19:08:59 GMT
Organization: SOCS - McGill University, Montreal, Canada

In article <1992Nov6.174012.16802@cs.mcgill.ca> storm@cs.mcgill.ca (Marc WANDSCHNEIDER) writes:
>In article <1992Nov4.181755.2859@spartan.ac.BrockU.CA> tmc@spartan.ac.BrockU.CA (Tim Ciceran) writes:
>>In article <Bx6DBq.ByC@cs.dal.ca> dinn@ug.cs.dal.ca (Michael 'Moose' Dinn)
>>writes:
>>
>>>I hauled out my C128 after a 4 year no-play-with.
>>>I love it.
>>>Games that are PLAYABLE (and typically under 170K :).
>>
>>And all things considered, I'd say that entertainment software on the 8-bit
>>platforms remains far more innovative in comparison to today's offerings.
>>Of course, it may be entirely the result of the more lucrative console
>>market.
>>
>>Remember Raid on Bungling Bay and Lode Runner? Classics.
>
>	Truly some of the better games back then.
>
>	My all time favorite game though, still has to be Archon.  I used
>to play this thing quite a few times a day, and after a while, started
>trying to master if every which way possible (Ie, destroying the entire
>enemy team with only a knight or a goblin...etc)

EA did a totally kick butt conversion of Archon to the Amiga when the machine
came out in the Fall of 1985... very nice work.  Clean graphics, very nice
sound.  Unfortunately I think it broke under 1.3 of the OS and they never
bothered to go back and fix such an old title... probably don't even ship
copies of it anymore.  I know there was a patch to get it running under 1.3
floating around the nets somewhere (I seem to remember Roger Uzun referring
to it in the summer of 1990)...  I don't know if said patch will fix it with
2.0.  If anybody has a copy of Archon they're willing to sell and a patch that
will get it up under 2.0 they've got a buyer and can EMail me.

>	Shamus was also a pretty snarfy game (From Synapse as far as I
>recall...)

Other great Synapse classics:

		Shamus:  Case II (much more frantic than the first one)
		Fort Apocalypse (good scrolling shoot out/exploration game)
		Necromancer (great music... neat idea)
		Alley Cat (Atari 8-bit only...don't think C64 version came out)
		Survivor (four simultaneous players... pilot, engineer and
			  two gunners made this great on the Atari 400/800...
			  not quite as much fun on the 64 and other Ataris
			  that had the 3rd and 4th joystick ports stripped off
			  but still a blast)
		Blue Max (Zaxxon esque 3/4 perspective scrolling plane game...
			  hey why hasn't anyone made a game based on this
			  metaphor lately?)
		Dimension X (Very cool 1984 release for the Atari 8-bits)

And one of my favorites...

		SynAssembler (the killer zilla Atari 8-bit macro assembler
			      that Synapse put out)

I want to find an old Atari 800 and an old 64 someday and buy as many of these
old titles (with original packaging if possible... Synapse had great box art).

So sad that Broderbund swallowed Synapse alive and fucked them up royally.
How many generations of "Where the Fuck is Carmen Sandiego?" are we going to
see....  

BTW, Bill Williams of Alley Cat and Necromancer fame has done two Amiga games.
Mind Walker (weird old classic... apparently still works under new versions of
the OS... unfortunately wound up being sold by Commodore) and Pioneer Plague,
the scrolling HAM action game that came out in late 1988.  I have no idea 
where William Mataga (of Shamus) and Steve Hales (of Fort Apocalypse) are 
today.... anybody got any ideas?  And what about Steve Coleman's Pharaoh's
Curse...?  Man, I sure miss Synapse....

>  storm@cs.mcgill.ca           McGill University         "-- Attack ships on
>  Marc Wandschneider           Montreal, CANADA             fire "
>	Any opinions expressed are not mine, but those of the Demon Lord
>      Yeegeheeegenogohugu who possessed me whilst I munched on Raisin Bran.


-- 
 Jerry Kuch (jerry@cs.mcgill.ca)  |  Author of "Death By Boredom" Vols I - IX
 "I was wrong to play God.  Life is precious, not a thing to be toyed with.
  Now take out that brain and flush it down the toilet."
                  --- M. Burns  "Treehouse of Horror II"