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Akalabeth: World of Doom /əˈkæləbɛθ/ is a role-playing video game that had a limited release in 1979 and was then published by California Pacific Computer Company for the Apple II in 1980. Richard Garriott designed the game as a hobbyist project, which is now recognized as one of the earliest known examples of a role-playing video game and as a predecessor of the Ultima series of games that started Garriott's career. The game was made by then-teenaged Garriott in the BASIC programming...

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E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial (also referred to simply as E.T.) is a 1982 adventure video game developed and published by Atari, Inc. for the Atari 2600 video game console. It is based on the film of the same name, and was designed by Howard Scott Warshaw. The objective of the game is to guide the eponymous character through various screens to collect three pieces of an interplanetary telephone that will allow him to contact his home planet. Warshaw intended the game to be an innovative adaptation...

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Topics: Atari 2600, E.T., Howard Scott Warshaw, Atari



The Hobbit is an illustrated text adventure computer game released in 1982 and based on the book The Hobbit, by J. R. R. Tolkien. It was developed at Beam Software by Philip Mitchell and Veronika Megler and published by Melbourne House for most home computers available at the time, from more popular models such as the ZX Spectrum, the Commodore 64, Amstrad CPC 464, BBC Micro, MSX, Dragon 32 and Oric. By arrangement with the book publishers, a copy of the book was included with each game sold....



Historical Software Collection 955,462 955K Microsoft Adventure (Microsoft) (1981) by Microsoft software eye 955,462 favorite 46 comment 8

Colossal Cave Adventure (also known as ADVENT, Colossal Cave, or Adventure)gave its name to the computer adventure game genre. It was originally designed by Will Crowther, a programmer and caving enthusiast who based the layout on part of the Mammoth Cave system in Kentucky. The version that is best known today was the result of a collaboration with Don Woods, a graduate student who discovered the game on a computer at Stanford University and made significant expansions and improvements, with...

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Topics: DOS, Microsoft Adventure, Microsoft, Adventure



Historical Software Collection 951,641 952K Pitfall! (Activision) (1982) by Activision software eye 951,641 favorite 60 comment 4

Pitfall! is a video game released by Activision for the Atari 2600 in 1982. It is the second best-selling game made for the Atari 2600 (after Pac-Man), with over 4 million copies sold. The player must maneuver a character (Pitfall Harry) through a maze-like jungle in an attempt to recover 32 treasures in a 20-minute time period. Along the way, he must negotiate numerous hazards, including pits, quicksand, rolling logs, fire, rattlesnakes, scorpions, and crocodiles. Harry may jump over or...

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Topics: Activision, David Crane, Pitfall



Historical Software Collection 939,877 940K Karateka (1984) (Broderbund) software eye 939,877 favorite 36 comment 5

Karateka is a 1984 beat'em up video game by Jordan Mechner, and was his first game created while attending Yale University. It was originally programmed for the Apple II, and was later ported to several other home computers and early gaming consoles. The game was published in North America by Brøderbund, and in Europe by Ariolasoft. The player controls an unnamed protagonist who is attempting to rescue his love interest, the Princess Mariko, from Akuma's castle fortress. The game exhibits a...

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Historical Software Collection 934,575 935K Pac Man (1981) (Atari) by Atari software eye 934,575 favorite 39 comment 1

In 1982, Atari Inc. released a port of Namco's hit arcade game Pac-Man for its Atari 2600 video game console. Like the original arcade version, the player controls the titular character with a joystick. The object is to traverse a maze, consuming all the wafers within while avoiding four ghosts. The game was programmed by Tod Frye, who was given a limited time frame by Atari to complete the project. The technical differences between the Atari 2600 console and the original's arcade...

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Topics: Atari, Pac-Man, Tod Frye, Atari 2600



Munchkin is cartridge number 38 in the official Magnavox/Philips line of games for the Philips Videopac. In North America for the Odyssey² it was called K.C. Munchkin!, an inside reference to then president of Philips Consumer Electronics Kenneth C. Menkin. Designed and programmed by Ed Averett, Munchkin is very heavily based on Namco's 1980 arcade game Pac-Man, but not a direct clone. It was however, similar enough for Atari to sue Philips and force them to cease production of Munchkin. Atari...

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Topics: K.C. Munchkin, Odyssey 2, Look and Feel, Pac-Man



Historical Software Collection 924,956 925K Atari Dealer Demo (1980) by Atari software eye 924,956 favorite 5 comment 1

Created as a demonstration program for the Atari 400 and 800, the "Dealer Demo" represents one of the forerunners of what would eventually become the "Demoscene", a decades-long culture to demonstrate programming skill and machine ability. This dealer demo is semi-autonomous, looping throughout demonstrations of sound and video capabilities of the Atari 8-Bit machines while touting their flexibility and use. It is possible to enter your name and interact with the machine,...

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Topics: Atari 800, Dealer Demo, Atari



VisiCalc was the first spreadsheet computer program, originally released for the Apple II. It is often considered the application that turned the microcomputer from a hobby for computer enthusiasts into a serious business tool. VisiCalc sold over 700,000 copies in six years. Conceived by Dan Bricklin, refined by Bob Frankston, developed by their company Software Arts, and distributed by Personal Software in 1979 (later named VisiCorp) for the Apple II computer, it propelled the Apple from being...

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Topics: Visicalc, Spreadsheet, Apple II, Dan Bricklin



Elite is a seminal space trading video game, originally published by Acornsoft in 1984 for the BBC Micro and Acorn Electron computers. The game's title derives from one of the player's goals of raising their combat rating to the exalted heights of "Elite". It was written and developed by David Braben and Ian Bell, who had met while they were both undergraduates at Jesus College, Cambridge. Non-Acorn versions of the game were published by Firebird, Imagineer and Hybrid Technology....

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Historical Software Collection 896,227 896K Lemonade Stand (1979) (Apple) by Apple Computer software eye 896,227 favorite 63 comment 6

Lemonade Stand is a basic economics game created in 1973 by Bob Jamison of the Minnesota Educational Computing Consortium. Charlie Kellner ported the game to the Apple II platform in February 1979. Throughout the 1980s Apple Computer included Lemonade Stand (along with other software) with the purchase of their systems. Like most games created for microcomputers in the 1970s, the gameplay is simple. It simulates a child's lemonade stand, where choices made by the player regarding prices,...

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Topics: Lemonade Stand, Apple II, Economics



A&F Software's Chuckie Egg is a home computer video game released in 1983, initially for the ZX Spectrum, the BBC Micro and the Dragon. Its subsequent popularity saw it released over the following years on a wide variety of computers, including the Commodore 64, Acorn Electron, MSX, Tatung Einstein, Amstrad CPC and Atari 8-bit family. It was later updated and released for the Commodore Amiga, Atari ST, and IBM PC compatibles. The original idea is generally attributed to the then 16 or 17...



Rocky's Boots is an educational logic puzzle game by Warren Robinett and Leslie Grimm, published by The Learning Company in 1982. It was released for the Apple II, the CoCo, the Commodore 64 and the IBM PC. It was followed by a more difficult sequel, Robot Odyssey. It won Software of the Year awards from Learning Magazine (1983), Parent's Choice magazine (1983), and Infoworld magazine (1982, runner-up), and received the Gold Award (for selling 100,000 copies) from the Software Publishers...

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Mystery House is an adventure game released in 1980 by Roberta and Ken Williams for the Apple II. The game is remembered as one of the first adventure games to feature computer graphics and the first game produced by On-Line Systems, the company which would evolve into Sierra On-Line. The game starts near an abandoned Victorian mansion. The player is soon locked inside the house with no other option than to explore. The mansion contains many interesting rooms and seven other people: Tom, a...

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The Sorcerer was one of the early home computer systems, released in 1978 by the videogame company, Exidy. It was comparatively advanced when released, especially when compared to the contemporary more commercially oriented Commodore PET and TRS-80, but due to a number of problems including a lack of marketing, the machine remained relatively unknown. Exidy eventually pulled it from the market in 1980, and today they are a coveted collector's item. The Sorcerer was first launched in April 1978...



Historical Software Collection 842,492 842K Choplifter (1982)( Broderbund) by Dan Gorlin software eye 842,492 favorite 14 comment 4

Choplifter is a 1982 Apple II game developed by Dan Gorlin and published by Brøderbund. It was ported to other home computers and, in 1985, Sega released a coin-operated arcade game remake, which in turn received several home ports of its own. While many arcade games have been ported to home computers and consumer consoles, Choplifter was one of the few games to take the reverse route: first appearing on a home system and being ported to the arcade. In Choplifter, the player assumes the role...

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Topics: Broderbund, Choplifter, Apple II, Helicopter



Historical Software Collection 833,164 833K Pac-Man 4K (2007 Remake) by Dennis Debro software eye 833,164 favorite 20 comment 0

From the description by Dennis Debro: Pacman 4K started out as a challenge for me to see if I could get a no frills Pac-man written for the 2600 in 4K and stay faithful to the original arcade game. I made some sacrifices along the way. Most noticeable was the decision to flicker the objects at a rate of 20Hz instead of developing a variable flicker algorithm. I did some work in this direction but found that it took up too much ROM to include the other features. Ebivision did a 4K Pac-man back...

Topics: Atari 2600, Pac-Man, Dennis Debro, Homebrew, Remake



Microchess, by Peter R. Jennings, was originally a microcomputer chess program for the MOS Technology KIM-1 microcomputer, first released on December 18, 1976. Microchess, as small as it was in terms of program size, could still play passable chess on the KIM-1 with its 6502 microprocessor, 1 kilobyte of memory, simple hex keyboard, and seven-segment display. Selling it at a price of $10 US dollars, Jennings refused to sell the rights of the program to Chuck Peddle (president of MOS Technology)...

Topic: 07



Historical Software Collection 34,093 34K Castle Wolfenstein (1981) (Muse) by Silas Warner software eye 34,093 favorite 21 comment 8

Castle Wolfenstein is an early stealth-based action-adventure shooter video game developed by Muse Software for the Apple II. It was first released in 1981 and later ported to MS-DOS, the Atari 8-bit family, and the Commodore 64. Castle Wolfenstein is a stealth-based action-adventure shooter game set in World War II. The game's main objective is to traverse the levels of the castle to find the secret war plans and escape alive. Progressively higher military ranks are earned upon each successful...

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Topics: Apple II, Wolfenstein



Historical Software Collection 32,859 33K Word Munchers (MECC) by MECC software eye 32,859 favorite 26 comment 4

Munchers was a series of educational/edutainment computer games produced by the Minnesota Educational Computing Consortium (MECC) for several operating systems. They were popular among American schoolchildren in the 1980s and 1990s and were the recipients of several awards. The two original games in the series were Number Munchers and Word Munchers. Word Munchers is an educational game designed to teach basic grammar skills, it was popular among American schoolchildren in the 1980s and 1990s....

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Historical Software Collection 28,881 29K Spacewar! for the PDP-1 by The "Hingham Institute" software eye 28,881 favorite 18 comment 0

This is a rather unusual machine, and the commands to use it are non-intuitive. Press the LEFT CONTROL key AND the ENTER key at the same time to load the Spacewar! tape. The machine will blink many lights and the game will come up on the "screen" portion of the emulator in the upper left corner. There are two ships, the "wedge" and the needle. Two players are required to play. To control the "Wedge" ship, use the A and S keys to turn, the D key to thrust, and the F...

Topics: Spacewar, PDP, Video Games



Munchers was a series of educational/edutainment computer games produced by the Minnesota Educational Computing Consortium (MECC) for several operating systems. They were popular among American schoolchildren in the 1980s and 1990s and were the recipients of several awards. The two original games in the series were Number Munchers and Word Munchers. In all the Munchers games, the player controlled a green "Muncher" character across a grid of squares containing a short numerical or...

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Topics: Number Munchers, Apple II, MECC



Halo 2600 is an action-adventure video game developed for the Atari 2600 video game console, inspired by the Halo series of video games. The player uses the joystick to control the character of Master Chief as he makes his way through 64 screens, divided into four zones: outdoors, Covenant base, ice world, and a final boss area. Weapons and power-ups are available to combat the many enemies that appear. The player and enemies can each be killed by one hit unless a shield is collected. There are...

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A collection of World of Warcraft client ISOs and patches dating back from pre-release up to and including the Wrath of the Lich King expansion pack. Click here to browse the directory of ISOs and Patches. More information on the World of Warcraft online service: * Wikipedia * Official World of Warcraft site World of Warcraft (WoW) is a massively multiplayer online role-playing game (MMORPG) released in 2004 by Blizzard Entertainment. It is the fourth released game set in the Warcraft...

Topics: Warcraft, World of Warcraft, Clients, Patches



Adventureland is an early, formative work of interactive fiction. It is a computer game written by Scott Adams, and was not only the first text adventure game to be commercially published and sold for the then-new home computers, but was the first commercially available adventure game of any kind for use on personal computers. Adventureland is a slightly scaled-down, machine-language game similar to the “original” Adventure program. The source code for Adventureland was published in Byte...



Historical Software Collection 8,321 8.3K Learning ZIL by Steven Eric Meretzky texts eye 8,321 favorite 18 comment 0

Learning ZIL: Everything You Always Wanted to Know About Writing Interactive Fiction But Couldn't Find Anyone Still Working Here to Ask, by Steven Eric Meretzky, Infocom, Inc. Written in 1989, later converted to Microsoft Word in August of 1995. Derived from a 2002 printout and converted to PDF. Table of Contents 1. The Basics 1.1 The Basic Ingredients 1.2 The Handler 1.3 The Parser's Role 1.4 The Basic Handling Sequence 2. Creating Rooms 2.1 What a Typical Room Definition Looks...

Topics: Interactive Fiction, Z-Machine, Zil, Infocom, Meretzky



Historical Software Collection 7,568 7.6K Donkey Kong (VCS Remake) by Joe Musashi software eye 7,568 favorite 10 comment 2

Donkey Kong VCS is a new conversion of the original arcade game for the Atari 2600 video computer system. Sporting 32K of ROM, this version for the first time features all four arcade stages as well as all cut-scenes. Additionally, the game includes multi-colored graphics plus arcade quality animations and sounds!

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Pac-Man (パックマン Pakkuman?) is an arcade game developed by Namco and first released in Japan on May 22, 1980. It was licensed for distribution in the United States by Midway and released in October 1980. Immensely popular from its original release to the present day, Pac-Man is considered one of the classics of the medium, virtually synonymous with video games, and an icon of 1980s popular culture. Upon its release, the game—and, subsequently, Pac-Man derivatives—became a social...

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Topics: Atari, Pac-Man, Atari 800



Historical Software Collection 5,481 5.5K Adventure (Atari Corporation) by Warren Robinett software eye 5,481 favorite 21 comment 3

Click here for the manual. Adventure is a 1979 maze video game for the Atari 2600 video game console and is considered the first action-adventure game. Its creator, Warren Robinett, introduced the first widely known Easter egg to the gaming world. Adventure was published by the console's developer, Atari, Inc. It was inspired by a computer text game, Colossal Cave Adventure, created by Will Crowther and later modified by Don Woods. Despite discouragement from his boss at Atari who said it could...

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Topics: Atari, Warren Robinett, Adventure, Easter Egg



The Print Shop is a basic desktop publishing software package developed in the early 1980s by Brøderbund. It was unique in that it provided libraries of clip-art and templates through a simple interface to build signs, posters and banners with household dot-matrix printers. Over the years the software has been updated to accommodate changing file formats and printer technologies. The original version was for the Apple II and created signs, cards, banners, and letterheads. Designed by David...

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Lode Runner is a 1983 puzzle video game, first published by Brøderbund. It is one of the first games to include a level editor, a feature that allows players to create their own levels for the game. This feature bolstered the game's popularity, as magazines such as Computer Gaming World held contests to see who could build the best level. The prototype of what later became Lode Runner was a game developed by Douglas E. Smith of Renton, Washington, who at the time was an architecture student at...



Jet Set Willy is a computer game originally written for the ZX Spectrum home computer. It was published in 1984 by Software Projects and ported to most home computers of the time. The game is a sequel to Manic Miner (1983), and is the second game in the Miner Willy Series. It was a significant development in the platform game genre on the home micro. Jet Set Willy is a flip-screen platform game in which the player moves the protagonist, Willy, from room to room in his mansion collecting...

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Historical Software Collection 3,721 3.7K Eastern Front 1941 (Atari) by Chris Crawford software eye 3,721 favorite 3 comment 3

Eastern Front (1941) is a computer game for the Atari 8-bit series created by Chris Crawford in 1981. Recreating the German invasion of Russia during World War II, Eastern Front covers the historical area of operations during the 1941–1942 period. The player commands German units at the corps level and must contend with the computer-controlled Russians, as well as terrain, weather, supplies and even unit morale and fatigue. Eastern Front was widely lauded in the press. It is considered to be...

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Everyone complains about E.T., but no one does anything about it. 30 years after its release, with some time off for the new year, I took a shot at fixing some of the problems like accidentally falling into wells and the punishing difficulty. It turned out really well, and makes for a much better experience. If you actually step on a well, you'll fall in -- just not when you're clearly on solid ground, as in the image above. (1) Thanks to Nukey Shay's suggestions, sprites are no longer...



Historical Software Collection 3,622 3.6K Yars' Revenge (Atari Corporation) by Howard Scott Warshaw software eye 3,622 favorite 11 comment 2

Yars' Revenge is a video game released for the Atari 2600 in 1982. It was created by Howard Scott Warshaw, who also wrote the 2600 titles Raiders of the Lost Ark and the much-derided E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial. Yars' Revenge was Atari's best selling original title for the 2600. Yars' Revenge is a video game released for the Atari 2600 in 1982. It was created by Howard Scott Warshaw, who also wrote the 2600 titles Raiders of the Lost Ark and the much-derided E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial. Yars'...

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Topics: Atari 2600, Howard Scott Warshaw, Yars' Revenge



Historical Software Collection 2,641 2.6K Doom 1 BBS Copy by Dan Linton software eye 2,641 favorite 5 comment 0

This is a copy of the Doom shareware episode (version 1.2) designed to be uploaded and shared by SysOps on BBSes. It includes a special file with instructions for SysOps on the best way to split the files up for download by their users and how to name the files in an "id software" approved scheme.

Topics: id software, doom, shareware, sysops, bbs, episode



Knight Lore is a computer game developed and released by Ultimate Play The Game in 1984. The game is the third in the Sabreman series, following on from his adventures in Sabre Wulf and Underwurlde. Unlike the earlier games in the series it used Ultimate's filmation engine to achieve a 3D look using isometric projection. In the game Sabreman has to find the ingredients for a magic potion. The game was written by Tim and Chris Stamper. Knight Lore was regarded as a revolutionary title and was...

Topics: Spectrum, Knight Lore, Ultimate Play the Game, Tim and Chris Stamper



Berzerk is a multi-directional shooter video arcade game, released in 1980 by Stern Electronics of Chicago. The player controls a green stick man, representing a humanoid. Using a joystick (and a firing button to activate a laser-like weapon), the player navigates a simple maze filled with many robots, who fire lasers back at the player character. A player can be killed by being shot, by running into a robot or an exploding robot, coming into contact with the electrified walls of the maze...

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Smurf: Rescue in Gargamel's Castle is a video game for the ColecoVision and Atari 2600 in which the player must brave a series of obstacles to rescue Smurfette from Gargamel 's castle. Each side-scrolling screen presents various obstacles that the player must precisely jump over (e.g. fences, stalagmites ) or land upon (e.g. ledges). Failure to execute any jump results in instant death. Higher difficulty levels introduce flying bats and spiders that the player must...

Topics: Colecovision, Smurfs, Gargamel, Coleco, Video Game



Historical Software Collection 2,274 2.3K FlappIIe Bird for the Apple IIe by Dagen Brock software eye 2,274 favorite 1 comment 0

From Dagen Brock's Entry on this program: A while back, there was a post on a popular internet forum for retro computing about Flappy Bird. You know, that game that went viral and subsequently got pulled by the author. Anyway, it turns out that people had made versions for pretty much every old 8-bit computer under the sun... except one. There was no Flappy Bird for the Apple II! This upset me. The Apple II was and is extremely popular. We couldn't let ourselves be so underrepresented. I...

Topics: Apple IIe, Flappy Bird, Dagen Brock



Skool Daze is a computer game created by David Reidy (whose wife Helen was a school teacher at the time) in collaboration with graphics designer Keith Warrington for the ZX Spectrum and released by their company Microsphere in 1984. A Commodore 64 port was subsequently made. The game was critically acclaimed by several contemporary magazines for breaking many of the gaming moulds by pursuing a creative route of a childhood experience at school. The game featured the player as a schoolboy named...

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Topics: ZX Spectrum, Spectrum, Skool Daze



Historical Software Collection 2,225 2.2K Apple DOS v3.3 by Apple Computer software eye 2,225 favorite 2 comment 1

Apple DOS was the family of disk operating systems for the Apple II series of microcomputers from late 1978 through early 1983. Apple DOS had three major releases: DOS 3.1, DOS 3.2, and DOS 3.3; each one of these three releases was followed by a second, minor "bug-fix" release, but only in the case of Apple DOS 3.2 did that minor release receive its own version number, Apple DOS 3.2.1. The best-known and most-used version was Apple DOS 3.3 in the 1980 and 1983 releases. Prior to the...

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Historical Software Collection 2,081 2.1K Karateka II: The Wrath of Dude by Erric Newmen software eye 2,081 favorite 4 comment 0

Karateka II is a demonstration movie by Erric Newmen, created using sprites and backgrounds from Karateka. It upends the Karateka story and game action, adding a variety of humor and violence.



Historical Software Collection 1,984 2.0K Flappo Bird (2600 Game) by TACS Games software eye 1,984 favorite 2 comment 0

Flappo Bird is a completely original action game for the Atari 2600. Guide a little yellow bird through the maze of green objects. Get one point for each screen of objects you manage to pass. Features: 1 Player Yellow Bird Green Objects Score Title Screen Flapping Instructions: Press the Joystick Fire button to start the game and then avoid as many obstacles as you can by pressing Fire to flap the little bird's wings. Flappo Bird is the work of TACS Games. The binary file is...

Topics: Atari 2600, Flappo, Bird



Historical Software Collection 1,605 1.6K Galaxians (Exidy) by Martin Sevior software eye 1,605 favorite 1 comment 0

Parents are complaining that they can't use their Sorcerer since the children found the thrills and excitement of the Galaxians. You can force the children into bed, but will you be able to force the Galaxians into defeat as they dive at you with ever increasing fury. Your Sorcerer's unique high resolution graphics add to the excitement that this game generates. This has proved to be our most popular game. Galaxians now comes with Sound Effects and Joy Stick control. Retail price: $22.95....



Dung Beetles is an Apple II computer game by Bob Bishop, released in 1982 by Datasoft. The game was ported to the TRS-80 Color Computer, where it was distributed by Tandy. On the Color Computer, it was renamed Mega-Bug; however, some copies were sold as Dung Beetles. Later versions for both the Apple II and Atari were named Tumble Bugs. In Australia, the game was re-branded Bug Attack. The game concept and gameplay are based on Pac-Man, but features a much larger maze and a moving...

( 1 reviews )



Historical Software Collection 1,438 1.4K Silicon Salad (Beagle Brothers) by Beagle Brothers software eye 1,438 favorite 1 comment 0

Beagle Bros was an American software company that specialized in creating personal computing products that were both useful and whimsical. Their primary focus was on the Apple II family of computers. Beagle Bros (the lack of a period at the end is intentional; according to the company, "there wasn't room") was founded in 1980 by Bert Kersey and expanded over the years to include a wide variety of staff members, programmers, and designers. Whereas most software companies focused on...

Topics: Apple II, Silicon Salad, Beagle Brothers



Historical Software Collection 1,434 1.4K Taipan! (1982) (Avalanche) by Art Canfil software eye 1,434 favorite 4 comment 0

Taipan! is a turn-based strategy computer game for the Apple II and TRS-80 which was created in 1982. It was created by Art Canfil and the company Mega Micro Computers, and published by Avalanche Productions. The game Taipan! was inspired by the novel Tai-Pan by James Clavell. The player is in the role of a trader in the Far East. They own a ship, and may decide if they wish to start without any cash but five guns, or with some cash and a debt. The goal is to accumulate wealth through trade and...



President Elect is a turn-based, political simulation game, first released by Strategic Simulations, Inc. in 1981. It would appear to be the first commercially published computer game of its political sub-genre. President Elect gives the player the ability to play as various real historical, potential historical, or completely fictional Presidential candidates during the Presidential campaigns from 1960 to 1984 (most versions also included the 1988 campaign). Players were given the option of...



Historical Software Collection 1,184 1.2K Preppie! (Adventure International) by Russ Wetmore software eye 1,184 favorite 2 comment 0

"RUSS WETMORE: Prepped for Success" by Colin Covert (Appeared in the September 1983 issue of "Electronic Games" Magazine) Is Russ Wetmore a preppie? That's one of those logical-sounding questions that's actually just a bit dimwitted. After all, no one expects David (Serpentine) Snider to look like a snake, or for Michael (Cyborg) Berlyn to be a "Six Million Dollar Man." Nonetheless, it is a tad surprising to meet the 26-year old author of Preppie! and Preppie II!...

Topics: Preppie, Adventure International, Frogger



Historical Software Collection 933 933 Munching Squares for the PDP-1 by Daniel Smith software eye 933 favorite 0 comment 0

From Daniel Smith: The time is 1964, the place is room 26-200 at MIT... This program is impressionistic. It is an imitation, not a simulation. I wanted to capture something of the feel of running a display hack on the PDP-1, watching those mysterious, glowing, fading patterns. There is no PDP-1 emulator in this program. Nor does this program perform quantitative simulation of the phosphor decay. I just hacked around until it felt right. Oh, there's no processor-speed correction, either; it...



Historical Software Collection 858 858 Castle Smurfenstein (Dead Smurf Software) software eye 858 favorite 3 comment 1

From the Official Castle Smurfenstein page: Castle Smurfenstein was a parody of Silas Warner's original Castle Wolfenstein game written for the Apple ][ and the Commodore 64 and several other computers in the early 80s. Castle Wolfenstein was a terribly fun and addicting game but something was missing. Nazis just didn't seem that threatening to a suburban high-school kid in the early 80s. Smurfs. That was the real threat now. So we changed the game. The nazi guards became Smurfs, the mostly...

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Historical Software Collection 799 799 Germs software eye 799 favorite 0 comment 0

germs



Historical Software Collection 743 743 Happily Ever After (Unreleased) software eye 743 favorite 2 comment 0

"Happily Ever After", an unreleased game for the Nintendo Entertainment System. Meant as a videogame tie-in from the ultimately poor-performing movie Happily Ever After (previous name: Snow White and the Seven Dwarfelles), this unreleased game was advertised and previewed in multiple locations before being discovered in Texas. From the excellent article by NintendoPlayer.com : In the September 1990 issue of Nintendo Power, the magazine repeated “gossip” it heard at the Consumer...



Historical Software Collection 727 727 Bolo (Synergistic Software) software eye 727 favorite 4 comment 0

Bolo is a 1982 video game written for the Apple II series of computers, published by Synergistic Software. It was inspired by Keith Laumer's 1976 science fiction novel Bolo: Annals of the Dinochrome Brigade, which featured self-aware tanks. It is unrelated to the 1987 tank game (also titled Bolo) written by Stuart Cheshire for the BBC Micro; the manual for the Cheshire game describes the identical naming as an "unfortunate coincidence". Upon startup Bolo requests a level number...



Historical Software Collection 703 703 Drol (Broderbund) software eye 703 favorite 3 comment 0

Drol is a 1983 computer game published by Brøderbund. It was originally released for the Apple II, but was later ported to the Commodore 64, Atari 8-bit, and Sega SG-1000. The original list price was US$34.95. The player controls a robot flying through a four story maze, attempting to rescue people and animals while avoiding traps and enemies such as alien creatures, snakes, eagles, magnets and axes. There are only three levels, but the game repeatedly starts over in a more difficult version...



Historical Software Collection 678 678 Sea Dragon (Adventure International) software eye 678 favorite 3 comment 0

Sea Dragon is a side-scrolling game for the TRS-80 computer, written by Wayne Westmoreland and Terry Gilman, and released in 1982 by Adventure International. It was one of the most popular games for the TRS-80. Its success on the TRS-80 led to it being ported to the Apple II, Atari 400/800, and the TRS-80 Color Computer. The game concept and gameplay are similar to the Scramble, although the ending is more reminiscent of the game Phoenix. The player controls a submarine that can shoot torpedoes...



Historical Software Collection 604 604 Dropzone (U.S. Gold) software eye 604 favorite 1 comment 0

Excerpts from an interview with Archer Maclean by James Hague: JH: 'What's the story of your first published game, Dropzone?' AM: 'After getting my degree with the minimum amount of work - too much game programming, aided by copious liquid inspiration - I eventually decided to try and produce a game which at least equaled the quality, speed and gameplay of the arcade games of the time. So I took inspiration from Scramble, Defender, Stargate, Galaxian and many others and went for it. It took me...



Cat-Fur is telecommunications software, allowing the features of the Apple-Cat Modem to be used for increased speed and better transfers. It was one of the primary tools used for file and disk transfer for Apple II pirates.

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Historical Software Collection 568 568 Diversi-DOS Version 2.c (DSR) software eye 568 favorite 1 comment 0

From Creative Computing Magazine: Many of us have been painfully aware of the inefficiencies in Apple's DOS 3.3 for some time. Many very useful programs from Apple Writer to VisiCalc have seen us sitting idle (through no fault of their own) while we waited for information to be written to or read from disk. We have watched with some anticipation, the development of various attempts to speed up DOS. These attempts have so far consisted primarily of partial fixes which speed up some DOS...



ASCII Express is a telecommunications program, written for the Apple II series of computers. At a time when the use of the bulletin board system (BBS), or even telecommunications in general wasn't a common use of the Apple II, ASCII Express (from hereon as its more common name "AE") was the choice among telecommunication users throughout much of the 1980s. he original version of AE, called ASCII Express II, was written by Bill Blue in 1980, and distributed by Southwestern Data...



Historical Software Collection 561 561 Pirate's Signature Version 1.0 (1984) by Johnney Appleseed software eye 561 favorite 0 comment 0

Pirate's Signature is a utility for creating graphics/cracks screens for cracked software. This early piece of pirate utility is missing multiple features but has extensive documentation.



Historical Software Collection 527 527 Number Squares Version 1.1 (1989) (Balloons Software) by Phil Shapiro and Dave Lyons software eye 527 favorite 0 comment 1

Number Squares 1.1, designed by Phil Shapiro and Dave Lyons. Published by Balloons Software. Copyright 1989 by Phil Shapiro. Instructions: "1. Use the Arrow Keys. 2. Think." Many of you will be familiar already with the hand-held, plastic version of the number squares game. The hand-held version is widely available at toy stores, and has been a favorite puzzle for years. This computer program builds upon the original number squares game, adding a number of features to increase the fun...

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Topics: Number Squares, Apple II



Historical Software Collection 519 519 Preppie! II (Adventure International) by Russ Wetmore software eye 519 favorite 2 comment 1

Preppie! II Adventure International Longwood, FL 16K Cassette 32K Diskette $34.95 Review by Steve Harding Up and coming prepster Wadsworth Overcash had the world by the tail until a failed Freshman initiation banished him to the tender mercies of the cruel Groundskeeper. Forced to recover wayward golf balls on a course of hellish design, Wadsworth barely escaped with his Lacoste intact. Now, the saga of Wadsworth Overcash continues as he faces his greatest challenge yet in -- Preppie! II"...

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Topics: Preppie, Adventure International



Historical Software Collection 502 502 Swashbuckler (Datamost) by Paul Stephenson software eye 502 favorite 2 comment 1

Swashbuckler is a 1982 computer game for the Apple II family of computers, created by Paul Stephenson and published by Datamost. This combat game puts the player in control of a sword-wielding swashbuckler who must fight and dispatch various attackers. Combat occurs in a wooden-beamed chamber littered with skeletons and cobwebs, which the player views from the side. The fighter's actions are controlled with the keyboard, and include moving left or right (A and D), turning (S) and swinging the...

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Historical Software Collection 363 363 WUMPUS 3 by Gregory Yob and Howie Franklin software eye 363 favorite 1 comment 0

This is Wumpus 3, aka Super Wumpus. The original Wumpus source from Gregory Yob (later named Hara Ra, and still later named Gregory H. Coresun) was modified by (likely) Howie Franklin. It has never been available since the 1970s. This was typed from the special "Games" issue of People's Computer Company newsletter, 1974. There were two lines in the original Wumpus source not in the Wumpus 3 source that seemed to be the source of bugs (like how shooting an arrow caused the player to...

Topics: wumpus, hunt-the-wumpus, peoples-computer-company, PCC, BASIC, mainframe, wumpus, wumpus-3



HyperCard Stacks 117 117 William H. Dickey, HyperPoems (Volume 1) by William H. Dickey software eye 117 favorite 0 comment 0

Some brief notes on reading and navigation: William Dickey's HyperPoems are divided into two parts with two separate pages at the Internet Archive: Volume 1 contains the majority of the poetry from his earliest, more simplistic creations through to his later, more complex work. Volume 2 consists of the most complex creations from his late period: three erotic poems. (Note: They are explicit.) The Editor's Introduction available on the title page of Volume 1 offers Larsen's original reflection...

Topics: poetry, literature, electronic poetry, electronic literature, elit, William Dickey, San Francisco,...



HyperCard Stacks 65 65 William H. Dickey, HyperPoems (Volume 2) by William H. Dickey software eye 65 favorite 0 comment 0