Video Game Search

showing 18 games

name	publisher(developer)	year	description
Galactic Battle	Programma International	1978
Stimulating Simulations	Personal	1978
Black Hole	Dynacomp	1980	BLACK HOLE is a visual simulation of the problems associated with closely observing a small black hole. The object of the simulation is to enter a defined close orbit about a black hole, maintain it for a given length of time, and then exit. Of course, if you use too much fuel in achieving the orbit, you may not be able to later break free. The black hole acts as a point source of gravity. Your probe is outfitted with a main thruster and may be rotated to direct the force. The path taken by the probe is displayed so that you may better understand the interplay between the thrust and its direction, and the subsequent change in trajectory. BLACK HOLE is not only entertaining and challenging, but is also educational. Notice how the probe speed slows towards the apogee. Is angular momentum conserved under free fall? See Kepler's and Newton's laws in action!***This simulation has the goal of the player piloting a spacecraft into orbit of a black hole and escaping again. As the manual says, "See Kepler's and Newton's laws in action!" Notably, they don't mention Einstein. But it does simulate orbital mechanics and requires the player to manage fuel for the trip into orbit and the trip out. The meat of the game is trying to set the lowest possible orbit that can still be escaped from. The black hole is a very special black hole that does not cause time dilation, has a Michell even horizon, only gravitationally effects matter and does not effect radiation, has no accretion disk, does not emit hawking radiation, does not cause friction in its surroundings, the list goes on, Someone should write a paper... But it does simulate orbital mechanics and requires the player to manage fuel for the trip into orbit and the trip out. That's kinda impressive on an Apple][ in 1980. Of further note, at the time of this game's publishing, Dynacomp was producing over 24 games that were cross platform to all 6 different platforms they supported. Black Hole was an unusual exception. It was Apple][ only.
Sands of Mars	Crystalware	1981	This is not the same game as [game=#174036]The Sands of Mars[/game] [url=/groups/info/eamonengine]Eamon[/url] game. The game comes on a 13-sector disk which can be an issue with operating systems and BIOSum of later Apple II systems. A disk drive that is 13-sector compatible is also required, [Zerothis]
Space Adventure	Sierra Software	1981	Sierra Software is not Sierra On-line. This is a 1st person space flight sim, not an adventure game.
Starship Commander	Voyager Software	1981
Saturn Navigator	subLOGIC	1981
Rendez-Vous	Edu-Ware;Ciel bleu;Peachtree (Ciel Bleu;Interactive Fantasies;Titan Computer Products)	1982
The Final Frontier	Softsmith (The Software Guild)	1982
Ultima II: Revenge of the Enchantress	Sierra On-Line	1982	As the story goes, the stranger managed to successfully go back in time and execute Mondain for crimes he had not yet committed. Well this was upsetting for his young female apprentice who had access to time portals, Minax. Oops, loose ends. At first she escaped with her life but years past, she became a greater wizard than her mentor. She used time portals to arrange wars in the past and nearly destroy mankind in the universe, the stranger's universe, including Earth. She succeeded in dominating the universe and causing a nuclear war that destroyed Earth. Oh well. But, she herself left loose ends in her plans. She left one chance for the stranger to go back in time and defeat her before she was powerful. [spoiler=show different versions controversies;hide controversies]Due to mostly to intellectual property egest, There are [b][i]at least[/i][/b] 3 different versions of this game. Richard Garriott had searched for a publisher who would include a cloth map with the game. Only Sierra On-Line agreed. But there were problems with the business arrangement almost immediately. Sierra wanted more control and to pay less royalties than what Garriott was willing to put up with. To further complicate matters, Garriott had a full set of courses at college to attend to while Ultima II was being written completely in assembly (his first such product). Although the game would end up being more complex than Ultima I as far as end-users could see, under the hood, the assembly language, was greatly simplified from what was originally planned. Meanwhile Sierra did things unbeknownst to the very distracted Lord British. They ported games to whatever system they pleased, naming their own price in royalties in the process, and made cheaper maps and boxes. They made changes to the code. They also used the Ultima trademark and "Ultima of Lord British" on an unrelated product they were publishing that they re-branded "Ultima: Escape from Mount Drash". The relatively short business relationship left Sierra hold important art, properties, and code of Ultima II and of the Ultima franchise that would remain unavailable to this day. The "moongate" cover for Ultima II still belongs to Sierra. Origin would reuse its 3rd Akalabeth cover, "Wrong Way", for subsequent releases of Ultima II. Other things behind the scenes, such as ported versions were also lost. Origin eventually bought all code of Ultima II back from Sierra and began a remake version of Ultima II (like their Ultima I release). Every version of Ultima II dated 1989 or later is this remake version. But there's a catch. Some of the files were corrupted and the game is unbeatable. Origin for a time provided patches on the website [b]for a fee[/b], to fix the problem. These days one needs to find the patches on fan sites.[/spoiler] [spoiler=show spoiler/location controversy;hide spoiler/location controversy]Ultima II is set on Earth and the Sol system. Later Ultimas tell the story as happening in Sosaria. Its noted that Minax and the stranger were both messing around with space-time. Regardless of the explanation, the official condition is this: it happened on Sosaria.[/spoiler] Ultima II for Apple ][ comes in one of three different packages. 1. An 8.5"x11" box, 19 page instruction book, and 22"x17" cloth map. 2, An 6"x9" box, Ultima II book, 17"x22 cloth map, and reference card. Or an 6"x9" box, Ultima II book, 16"x12 cloth map, and a reference card. All three contain two 5.25" disks. [Zerothis]
Free Trader	Avalon Hill (Microcomputer Games)	1984
Lunar Explorer: A Space Flight Simulator	Electric Transit	1986
Dr. Maxwell's Molecule Magic	Scholastic	1987	The player is tasked with collecting and compressing air by altering density, temperature, and volume with various lab equipment. If the player can store enough Delta-V energy in compressed air, it can be used to thrust a rocket to a trip to the Moon. For the nitpickers out there, yes it is realistic to hit the Moon with a craft propelled by compressed air. However, carrying a payload (scientific interments or person), landing safely, or returning to earth, is not so realistic.
Ultima II: Revenge of the Enchantress	Origin;Lord British (Origin)	1989	Requires 64k. Optional Mockingboard for music during Exodus portion. This collection and the Apple II platform is notable for having an enhanced version of Ultima II not available in other publishings. It is further notable because it was sold for less than 2 months before being discontinued; making the enhance version of Ultima II a very rare and exclusive Apple II product. Enhanced Ultima II is readily distinguishable by having a blue boarder around the picture. There are many improvments as well. Additionally, the version of Ultima III was enhanced, but this version was also available in other packages. Finally, Ultima I that was ported from BASIC source code to pure assembly code is available in this package (but this Ultima I was released on it own in 1985). This package is the only way to get the Apple version of the Ultima II remake. Origin briefly had a publishing arrangement with Sierra On-Line. It went badly. Ultimately it was Ultima II royalties (as in, not being paid at all for non-Apple version sales) that pushed Ultima's creator into exiting the agreement and founding Origin Systems. However, royalties were far from the only issue. Numerous disagreements over Ultima II's publishing where especially memorable to Lord British. Sierra fought efforts by Origin to republish Ultima games. In the case of Ultima II, they succeed in blocking Origin from using certain art that Sierra actually couldn't legally use themselves (but they didn't let that stop them from using the art anyway). Moving ahead; By 1989, management at Origin was no longer interested in investing effort or money into the Apple II platform because it would not make a worthwhile return. No one at Origin was forbidden from making Apple II games; some personal projects were completed for it. Ultima VI was started for Apple II, then changed to Apple IIGS, then abandoned in favor of the IBM-PC version. Many of the features that were possible on the IBM-PC could have been done on the Apple II (witness that the Commodore 64 received two ports of Ultima VI), but the dwindling Apple II market did not justify the effort. However, Lord British just had to do something about Ultima II for Apple II. It received a makeover much as the original Ultima for Apple II had. It was packed with the Ultima I remake and Ultima III with enhancements, presumably to make it more valuable with very minimal additional investment in the Apple II market. The Ultima Trilogy package would be offered in this form to other platforms as well. However, The FM Towns version of the trilogy contained 3 re-remakes. [Zerothis]
Space Rogue	Origin Systems	1989
Centauri Alliance	Brøderbund	1990	Characters from the following games can be imported as characters for Centauri Alliance:[list][][game=#167609]Bard's Tale[/game] [][game=#167611]Bard's Tale II[/game] [][game=#167613]Bard's Tale III[/game] [][game=#38661]Wizardry[/game] [][game=#153362]Wizardry II[/game] [][game=#153363]Wizardry III[/game] [][game=#38012]Ultima[/game] [][game=#40877]Ultima II[/game] [][game=#38014]Ultima III[/game] [][game=#173653]Might and Magic[/game][/list] All stats, abilities, items, spells, etc are translated into scifi equivalents. [Zerothis]
Rocket Factory	MECC	1992
The Orion Trail	Crow Cousins	2021	You have died of dysentery, [b]in space[/b].

permalink