What are your favourite and most used late 70s or early 80s games/applications for the Apple II (not e or c)

23 posts / 0 new
Last post
Offline
Last seen: 13 years 6 months ago
Joined: Feb 17 2008 - 12:45
Posts: 195
What are your favourite and most used late 70s or early 80s games/applications for the Apple II (not e or c)

I am thinking of putting together a collection of a few games and apps for home use:
I am only interested in games and non educational apps from the 70s and possibly very early 80s
Particularly interested in text based adventures.
Some popular ones I have on my list are:

ZORK I
SubLogic Flight Simulator II
Choplifter
Visicalc

Which ones are your favourites?
The sorts of apps you wouldn't mind firing up even today.

Arun

cwsmith's picture
Offline
Last seen: 6 months 1 week ago
Joined: Oct 13 2005 - 08:23
Posts: 698
Don't forget these:

LodeRunner
Transylvania
The Hitch-Hiker's Guide to the Galaxy
Seadragon

Offline
Last seen: 13 years 3 months ago
Joined: Dec 17 2007 - 17:51
Posts: 19
Aztec was a game that came ou

Aztec was a game that came out in the early 80s and was very advanced for its time. It featured a realistic looking "indiana jones" like character instead of the common stick men most games had in that early 8-bit era. On top of that it had a very complex commands that required the use of the whole keyboard that allowed for interesting stuff to be done by the character.

Offline
Last seen: 8 months 3 weeks ago
Joined: Dec 19 2003 - 18:53
Posts: 906
I hate to admit it, but the war arcade style ones were great. .

Stellar 7
Bolo

were engaging war games (tank battlers)

Conan and the Hall of Volta

was pretty fun

Early on there was this weird top-down view game of two battling, axe and shield wielding knights called The Bilestoad.

Good arcade to Apple ][ translations games include ;

Centipede
Ms. Pacman
Defender
Bezerk

Happy gaming!

Mutant_Pie

Offline
Last seen: 13 years 6 months ago
Joined: Feb 17 2008 - 12:45
Posts: 195
Transylavania runs only on 64

Transylavania runs only on 64K, so I am told
Won't work with an original Apple II

resman's picture
Offline
Last seen: 3 weeks 2 days ago
Joined: Feb 9 2006 - 12:41
Posts: 217
Still great

Four games stand out to me as still fun and perfect for emulation:

Karateka, Choplifter, Sammy Lightfoot and Lode Runner.

I run these four on my Treo using Appalm ][ (slight plug for myself) and provide perfect on-the-move entertainment. Simple and challenging with good controls. Much better than the retro game packages you see today re-released for the newer platforms.

I don't think they require 64K, but I may be mistaken.

Dave...

coius's picture
Offline
Last seen: 10 years 2 weeks ago
Joined: Aug 25 2004 - 13:56
Posts: 1975
How can you forget Robot Odyssey

Robot Odyssey
Fun logic/puzzle/adventure based game based on robots. If you can get a hold of the original discs and maybe an emulator

Offline
Last seen: 8 months 4 weeks ago
Joined: Jul 13 2007 - 07:06
Posts: 182
I like hardball and karateka,

I like hardball and karateka,karateka was released in 1985.I was studied in junior school.I spent four days to the end.it was famous game.I guess all apple games it must important and collecte.

Offline
Last seen: 4 months 1 week ago
Joined: May 7 2008 - 07:44
Posts: 9
Sherwood Forest and Captain Goodnight!

Captain goodnight and the islands of fear, and good ol Sherwood Forest. I loved them! Really neat graphics too. Both these games were major favorites. Im actually looking forward to firing them up again some day. I wonder if they are as good as I remember them....

Steve

A2forever's picture
Offline
Last seen: 6 years 9 months ago
Joined: Dec 20 2003 - 10:38
Posts: 226
Games & Appz Remembered.

The things that I remember the most back in the day , the games and the appz .....

Aztec
Transyvania
Sneakers
Bolo
Castle Wolfenstein
Rescue Raiders
and so on....

The appz....

Disk-Fer [awsome disk transfer program back in its day]
Daltons Disk Distintagrator
Cat Dialers [Cat's Meow , and all and any Apple Cat Modem Utility]
Ascii Express The Profressional
Copy ][ Plus [Parm. Version]
The Jerk's Favorite Copy Programs
Warcat Dialer
Wargames Dialer

Alot of these programs were awsome , and it's really kewl to see
them brought back to life again in with Applewin.

Offline
Last seen: 13 years 6 months ago
Joined: Feb 17 2008 - 12:45
Posts: 195
Can someone tell me what the

Can someone tell me what the keyboard controls for Choplifter are?
Thanks. Have the disk and dying to play it.
Is there a web link for keyboard controls for other Apple II games?

Offline
Last seen: 13 years 12 months ago
Joined: Jul 21 2008 - 14:11
Posts: 18
A few of my favorites

Flip Out

http://www.virtualapple.org/flipoutdisk.html

My sister and I spent many spiteful hours on this game of "screw your opponent." I think this could be adapted very well to Xbox Live, the iPhone, or the Web. The only flaw is that you can technically decide to just park your opponent's balls out of the way while doing nothing to rack up points from your own, thereby prolonging the game with no chance of resolution, but I'm sure there's a way to deal with that.

Paipec

http://www.virtualapple.org/paipecdisk.html

Straightforward and horribly addictive, this is something that PopCap Games might conceive of today. Catch the stuff that falls from the sky, using your four stacked platforms - but if you miss, you lose a platform and have less vertical surface area with which to catch something on the side. It's nerve-rattlingly jarring when this happens. Another great candidate for iPhone/XBL/Web adaptation.

Ankh

http://www.virtualapple.org/ankhdisk.html

I wish we had more games like this. You're an abstract geometric entity navigating through an abstract geometric world, avoiding abstract geometric enemies and solving logic puzzles. I never finished this game, but the environment is unforgettable.

Frenzy (not yet on Virtual Apple)

ftp://ftp.apple.asimov.net/pub/apple_II/images/games/file_based/frenzy_grapple_wavynavy.dsk.gz

A simple game of enemy evasion, but the terrifying voice samples and gameplay forever wedged it in my mind. "FRENZY! PREPARE TO DIE."

Offline
Last seen: 13 years 6 months ago
Joined: Feb 17 2008 - 12:45
Posts: 195
Can somebody tell me what the

Can somebody tell me what the difference is between "Loderunner" and "Championship Loderunner". If I am a Loderunner newbie will Championship be unplayable?

Offline
Last seen: 13 years 6 months ago
Joined: Feb 17 2008 - 12:45
Posts: 195
OK we've talked games, what a

OK we've talked games, what about serious stuff. I am looking for software I can "use" around the house on an Apple ][.

Was PFS any good?
What about the legendary Visicalc?

magnusfalkirk's picture
Offline
Last seen: 6 hours 14 min ago
Joined: Feb 18 2007 - 11:46
Posts: 325
I'll answer both questions here

As far as I know the only difference between Loderunner and Championship Loderunner is the number of levels and the layout of the levels. You can play any of the Loderunner games without having played any of the previous ones.

I believe all the PFS products were pretty good stuff for the Apple II back in the day. So if you want to use them by all means do. Visicalc was the program that launched the Apple II into the business world, so if you have something you need to do with it go for it.

Dean

Offline
Last seen: 13 years 6 months ago
Joined: Feb 17 2008 - 12:45
Posts: 195
Thanks Dean - a trustworthy s

Thanks Dean - a trustworthy seller is offering to sell me PFS for the Apple II
This software is boxed with the core disk+user manuals. However, the seller says it is missing the "data diskette". What is the data diskette and is this easily replaceable? Sounds like a simple formatted diskette to store your own PFS generated files on - not sure though.

magnusfalkirk's picture
Offline
Last seen: 6 hours 14 min ago
Joined: Feb 18 2007 - 11:46
Posts: 325
Re: Thanks Dean

Thanks Dean - However, the seller says it is missing the "data diskette". What is the data diskette and is this easily replaceable? Sounds like a simple formatted diskette to store your own PFS generated files on - not sure though.

I would tend to agree with you that the data disk is just a regular blank 5.25 disk that has been formatted by PFS to save files on. So I'd say as long as you have blank 5.25 disks it really shouldn't matter that much that the data disk is missing.

Dean

gsmcten's picture
Offline
Last seen: 5 years 8 months ago
Joined: Oct 4 2005 - 18:52
Posts: 2629
A few Additions...

So far I've seen Text Games, Graphics Games, and a few Utilities, but not one person has mentioned the Basic Three Combination; Wordprocessor, Database, Spreadsheet. In other words Appleworks. With or without the additions from Beagle Brothers or Pinpoint.

I know they may have came a bit later, but they are just as good today as they were then. I still use the word processor on occasion.

Best Regards to all,

"Apple II...It's ALIVE!!!"

Offline
Last seen: 1 month 2 days ago
Joined: Jun 5 2008 - 07:26
Posts: 475
invaders, dragon maze, microc

invaders, dragon maze, microchess, breakout, star trek and star wars - spent countless hours playing these babies back in the late 70's. Now that I've caught the retro-computing bug, I will occasionally crank them up, using the excuse that I need to test a system out or something like that. All except for the classic star trek, which takes far too much time, to play.

My kids, who spend countless hours playing X-box and the like, don't like too play them, because they are too hard!

Regards,
Mike Willegal

magnusfalkirk's picture
Offline
Last seen: 6 hours 14 min ago
Joined: Feb 18 2007 - 11:46
Posts: 325
Re: invaders, dragon maze, microc

invaders, dragon maze, microchess, breakout, star trek and star wars - spent countless hours playing these babies back in the late 70's. Now that I've caught the retro-computing bug, I will occasionally crank them up, using the excuse that I need to test a system out or something like that. All except for the classic star trek, which takes far too much time, to play.

My kids, who spend countless hours playing X-box and the like, don't like too play them, because they are too hard!
Mike Willegal

Mike,

I'm sure they are too hard for the kids because it requires more than thumb twitches to control the games. Just out of curiosity is the Star Wars game you play the illusive Broderbund version of the arcade game or is it the Interger Basic version?

Dean
Regards,

Offline
Last seen: 1 month 2 days ago
Joined: Jun 5 2008 - 07:26
Posts: 475
The Star Wars version I know

The Star Wars version I know is the "integer basic" versions, though I think that it is largely assembly embedded within a small integer basic program

Offline
Last seen: 13 years 6 months ago
Joined: Feb 17 2008 - 12:45
Posts: 195
After playing (for the first

After playing (for the first time) games like Karateka, Zaxxon, Captain Goodnight, Aztec and some of the others mentioned, on my Apple ][ non-plus, it boggles the mind how they managed to get all those graphics on such a small amount of memory & CPU resource.

Goes to show how both the software and hardware of the Apple ][ was (and is) a remarkable achievement of engineering and ingenuity.

Offline
Last seen: 13 years 6 months ago
Joined: Feb 17 2008 - 12:45
Posts: 195
Can someone tell me how I can

Can someone tell me how I can save my hi-scores, so that when I boot the disk the next time it saves the hi-score rather than zero-ing it out? I really want to save that 10,000 on Galaxian.

Log in or register to post comments