Apple II: The mother of invention.They say hindsight is 20/20. (Actually, I think it's more like 10/40, but what can you do?) So, if you found yourself suddenly zapped back to the dawn of the videogame era, what choices would you make? Which systems would you rather have had? And what impact do you think these changes would make on your personality today?

Of course, most of us back then could only afford to support one, maybe two systems (assuming one was older). It would have been nice to have enough money and time to have all of them.

Now that I'm older and hopefully wiser, I've put together a list of the systems I wish I had had, and roughly when. I'd very much like to hear your thoughts and see your lists.

1977-1982: Apple II. There's really no doubt about the importance of this system during this period (and beyond), but it saw the birth of countless genres and franchises. Ideally, I would have been able to expand and keep this system after getting a new computer, since it was still seeing important exclusives well into the 80s, especially the Ultima games and Sierra On-Line adventures.

My second choice for this period would be the Atari 2600, a very capable games console with a respectable lineup and of course immense popularity.

Here's a venerable classic from the archives: Betrayal at Krondor! I was inspired to review this game after stumbling across Feist's novelization at the used books section of a local thrift shop. I played this one back in the day, but only because I received it free with the purchase of the sequel, Betrayal in Antara. I think both games are worth playing today, but decided to go with the earlier one since I'm also a fan of Feist. Enjoy! If you do decide to buy the game from GOG, please use my link so I'll get a kickback (no extra cost to you!). It's only $6 for both games with full manuals and no DRM, so there's really no excuse not to pick them up.

Download the MP4.

Hi all,

After a few distractions (including a bout of flu), I managed to get back to seeing to what extent I can transform this minimal hardware into a real PC...

I have to thank Al Lowe for passing on this great video showing the upgrade process for every version of Windows. It's a brilliant trip down memory lane for those of us who have been computing since the 90s. How many of these upgrades did you do?

[ FEB . 27 . 2011 ]
 

Greetings folks! Welcome to the February 27th, 2011 edition of Three for the Road. This week, I take a look at an eleven year old DOS based BBS door-game which has only recently been released to the public.. albeit, reworked as a single-player or local multi-player ANSImation RPG. We take a look at a minimalistic platforming game with destructible environments which turns out to be much more fun than it first appears. Finally, we take a look at a classic point-and-click style adventure game with a high attention to detail. If you're a fan of classic Sierra or LucasArts adventures then this may be just what you're looking for.

Hi All,

Well, a few things have happened since my Flea86 project introduction from the previous month. This month's latest update will cover the following :

1) Completion of Flea86 case design transfer to CAD.

2) Inclusion of EGA (planar) video support for Flea86.

This episode features Westwood Studios' real-time strategy game Dune II, the game that launched the genre. It also marks my first attempt at using a green screen! Enjoy, and, as always, please let me know what you think of the game and the video.

I had planned to discuss software a bit with Part 3, however I've decided to focus on the hardware changes I have made to this system since Part 2. Some of these improvements have taken old hardware and replaced it with old hardware of higher quality. Other improvements have replaced old hardware with new hardware made in recent years. Nevertheless, the system remains retro. Taking old hardware and modifying it with the intention to slightly modernize it always creates the fear in me that my purist membership card will be revoked. While I have great appreciation for emulation and the programming behind it (I am a programmer, myself), I prefer the real hardware over emulation any day of the week.

Let's continue the Retro Gaming PC Adventure(TM), shall we? Since my first post, the machine has gone through a few minor revisions. I went with the Pentium build, and the system is coming along nicely. I'll detail some of the specs here.