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showing 8 games

name	publisher(developer)	year	description
Star Wars	author	1979	This unauthorized interactive fiction was built on the code for Wumpus and also unusually includes sound effects. So, many students were caught playing this game in class (the Apple II speaker has no volume or mute control).
Apple Zap	Sierra On-Line	1982
Space Station Zulu	Avalon Hill (Microcomputer Games)	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]
The Death Star	author	1985	[The following text is copyrighted by Eamon Adventurer's Guild Online and presented here word-for-word thanks to their generous terms] #6 - The Death Star by Donald Brown Reviewed by Tom Zuchowski MAIN PGM Version: 4 Extra Commands: TAKE-OFF, EAT, DESTROY Deleted Commands: BLAST, HEAL, SPEED, POWER Special Features: Ray-gun sound effects Playing Time: 1-2 hr. Reviewer Rating: 6.0 Average Rating: 4.0/8 Description: "As you left the Main Hall, you suddenly felt a queer wrench in your stomach, as if you had been turned inside-out, then right again. When things became clear again, you found yourself at the helm of a spaceship! You realize that you have gone through a reality shift! "You are in a parallel universe. You must stay in this universe until you fulfill some quest. Although you have no access to your old gear, your body is the same. However, none of your old spells will work. "By searching new 'memories', you find out your situation, which isn't good! You are aboard the Millennium Falcon, which has just been dragged into the Empire's evil machine of destruction, the Death Star! To escape, you will have to find and destroy the equipment in either the tractor beam machinery section, or the power machinery room." Comment: Eight people have rated this Eamon, and the ratings are all over the map, ranging from (1) to (7)! It is possible that many of the low ratings came from people who played Brown's original version of the MAIN PGM, which was incredibly slow. The program speed was improved years ago, and it isn't so bad now. There are two other important downsides to the play: the lack of a HEAL command makes survival very difficult, and there are at least four no-warning death traps. Another downside for me personally was that nearly every room contains one to ten "soldiers" who must be killed. The soldiers are cardboard cutouts who are lousy fighters and die with a single blow, and I found it rather tedious to have to clean them out with every move to a new room. So why did I rate it this highly? Except for the endless procession of soldiers, it is a pretty decent simulation of the Death Star portion of Star Wars, and I made vigorous use of the cheating methods described in the December issue! I must state for the record that if I couldn't have cheated, I probably would have given it a rating of about (3). Though the intro mentions a quest, there isn't one other than simple escape. However, you can make your own quest by making it a point to rescue Leia, Chewie, and the 'droids. Han Solo, Luke, and Obie-Wan are missing from the cast, so don't bother looking for them. The difficulty can vary dramatically, but I think that a rating of (8) may be close to what most people will see during play.
EOS: Earth Orbit Station	Electronic Arts	1987	In this multilayered resource-management game, the player is tasked with building and running a space station, and balancing its necessary inputs (cash, energy, life-support, and new components for which launch windows have to be found) to get the maximum possible output (money for zero-G manufactures, scientific research, etc). [spoiler=plot spoiler;close spoiler]What makes this game incredibly entertaining is that about halfway through, just as you think you're mastering it, a whole new plotline opens: the search for life in the Solar System. You can fit your stations with engines and launch them to build colonies, build exploration vessels and new station components based on the technologies you discovered.[/spoiler]This game is absolutely brilliant: a forgotten classic. [Thirdsyphon]
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]
Bookworm 3-D	EAG	1994	[The following text is copyrighted by Eamon Adventurer's Guild Online and presented here word-for-word thanks to their generous terms] #226 - Bookworm 3-D - by Robert Parker Reviewed by Tom Zuchowski MAIN PGM Version: 7 Extra Commands: TROLLSFIRE, PASSWORD, SUICIDE Deleted Commands: None Special Features: Not finished (see below) Playing Time: 30 min. Reviewer Rating: 7.5 Description: 'Hokas sits in jail. An orc lies in a hospital bed. Luke loves Laura, but doesn't want to tell Beth, his wife, who secretly loves Daniel, Laura's son. ...wait... Scratch that last sentence. Where was I? Oh, yes. The Bookworm has once again disappeared!' Comment: Robert Parker no longer has an Apple II. Though he had been working on this Eamon for years, it was not finished before he lost his Apple. It can be cleanly divided into two parts: the first half was a collaboration with Nate Segerlind; it is a send-up of the "Beginners Cave" and is hilarious! The second half is set on a space station; it is much poorer in quality and is not finished in this release. The first half is so good that we simply couldn't let it go unreleased. Some special text and code has been added to permit the player to quit any time he wishes once the "Beginners Cave" segment is completed. NOTE that the above rating is for the "Beginners Cave" segment only! Players are welcome to explore the space station if they wish, but they will find it an unsatisfactory experience. I was so unimpressed with the space station segment that I didn't feel that it was worth any attempt at debugging and cleanup. I seriously considered deleting it completely from the database for this release. 'Nuff said. I give a difficulty rating of (3). This adventure is strictly for laughs, with absurd puzzles and super-lightweight foes. You'll see 38 rooms of great stuff. One caveat: this is not exactly a "G"-rated adventure. It touches on some, uh, mature themes and uses some language that give it something like a "PG-13" rating. [Zerothis]

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