Few people know this, but that’s actually strawberry jelly

Discussion Topic of the Week: What’s the best Atari ST-exclusive game you can think of?

“This is it, boys. Over the anthill.”

Discussion Topic of the Week: How many insect-themed computer or video games can you name off the top of your head?

A scene from “Zork: Brick Collector”

This is it, folks: an early ad (maybe the first) for the original commercial release of Zork, the famous Infocom text adventure, published by Personal Software ca. 1980 for the TRS-80 Model I and III home computers.

(This site has some wonderful background history on this release.)

I love the artwork featured in this ad. It is excised from the full cover art for the Personal Software version, which captures a great deal of the majesty and wonder of the seminal adventure title — plus a hefty dose of out-of-place machismo.

The mere mention of Zork takes me back to the mid-1980s when my older brother delved into the Great Underground Empire with the aid of photocopied maps and worn out InvisiClues on our family’s Atari 800. Warm, fuzzy memories. Of course, by then, Infocom published the title directly.

Discussion Topic of the Week: What’s your favorite text adventure game of all time? (Modern ones count.)

The Ultimate Helicopter Eclipse Simulator

Discussion Topic of the Week: Other than Civilization, what is the best MicroProse title of the 1980s and 1990s?

Every once and a while, I receive emails from people looking for a certain game, electronic toy, or computer from their distant past. I then pass it on to intrepid VC&G readers to crack the case.

The Clues

Marko writes:

I need help identifying adventure game for Amstrad CPC. I remember playing the game in the late 80’s (possibly ’88 – ’89, but the game itself could be older). I didn’t play it much though, possibly due to difficulty, but I do remember that I liked “mystery” feeling about the game.

Now for what I remember (and hopefully all this is correct). It is a text based (possibly had list of options / actions to select) and the story revolves around a group of people (possibly family?) being shipwrecked / having an accident at sea due to a storm. The game begins with telling the story about the incident. Now this is the part that I could be wrong about, but I think the player is tasked with either finding the people that were on the ship or finding about their history. Again, it is possible that that group of people is a family and possibly player’s ancestors.

In terms of graphics, game had black background, and I remember a lot of red colour / shades of red being used for drawings. At the beginning of the game, when the story is being told, I remember a picture of the ship which was drawn in red pen / outline.

This is all I can remember, I know its not much, and hopefully most of the facts above are correct – my memory of this game is very very hazy.

If your readers could possibly help with identifying the game in question, I would be really grateful – would love to try it again in an emulator.

Kind regards,
Marko

The Search Begins

It’s up to you to find the object of Marko’s fuzzy memory. Post any thoughts or suggestions in the comments section below. Marko will be monitoring the comments, so if you need to clarify something with him, ask away. Good luck!

—

Have a memory of a computer, video game, computer software, or electronic toy you need help identifying? Send me an email describing your memories in detail. Hopefully, the collective genius of the VC&G readership can help solve your mystery.

HI-RES ADVENTURE #4

Discussion Topic of the Week: What’s your favorite static-screen graphical adventure game of all time?

CD-ROM ON YOUR MOTHER LOVIN’ TV!!

Back in 2009, I made a list of the worst video game systems of all time for PC World, and the Tandy Memorex Video Information System (1992) was #2 on the list.

Six years later, I am not fond of dishing out bad vibes toward any game console. But the VIS was indeed an underwhelming commercial product.

And honestly, calling the VIS a video game console is a stretch. As more of a multimedia appliance than a straight up “video game system,” its lineage lay half-way between game machine and general purpose PC. Its designers intended it to run educational software as frequently as games.

For fans of odd an interesting systems, the VIS definitely stands out. Under the hood, it sported a modified PC architecture based on an Intel 286 CPU and a custom embedded version of Windows called “Modular Windows.” In addition, the VIS allowed storing data on removable memory cards that plugged into the front of the console (a feature that, in game consoles, arrived second only to the Neo Geo, I believe).

Of course, ever since I saw this section of a 1995 Tiger Software catalog (Tiger had apparently bought up a clearance stock of the machines — see also this scan of the Jaguar CD in a Tiger catalog), I wanted a VIS regardless of its faults. While I have used them before — including some in-store demos at Radio Shack — I still do not have one in my collection.

Discussion Topic of the Week: Did you own any CD-based game consoles from the multimedia console era? (i.e. CD-i, VIS, 3DO, CDTV, Jaguar CD)

My brother Jeremy playing Slime on the Atari 800 in his room, Jan 14 1983

Discussion Topic of the Week: When you were a kid, did your parents let you have a computer in your bedroom?

Santa Claus enjoys some hot CoCo on Christmas Eve

Discussion Topic of the Week: If you could go back in time and give yourself one Christmas present, any year, what would it be?

“Whoa…what’s in these brownies, Grandma?”

Thanksgiving is almost upon us again, so it’s time to gather around your home PC for a game of…Quizagon?

Yes, Quizagon. A game I’ve never played, nor will I for the foreseeable future. It looks like a hexagon-themed family trivia game, which is not my bag, man. But what a great photo.

Instead, I’m going to host a The Seven Cities of Gold marathon on an Atari 800XL with my brother. We plan on exploring a completely new continent while interacting vigorously with the natives. Meanwhile, my brothers- and sisters-in-law will be playing Sonic & All-Stars Racing Transformed on my dedicated gaming PC that is hooked to the flat-screen living room TV. It’s a great kart game to play on Steam with four Xbox 360 controllers that’s easy to set up and jump into. Fun times shall be had by all.

By the way, I first used this amusing scan in a 2009 Thanksgiving-related slideshow I did for Technologizer (hoping I’m not repeating it on VC&G). If you’re in the mood, here’s some other Thanksgiving-related material from the VC&G archives.

Discussion Topic of the Week: Do you have any family video gaming planned for this Thanksgiving? If so, what are you going to play?