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Old Games that are Still Alive and Kickin'?
Lord Grey asks: "Recently I was killing time while debugging a long-running program and decided to fire up a copy of Shanghai II -- a Mahjongg game for the Macintosh. I've had this game for years, faithfully moving it from computer to computer while keeping pace (more or less) with the newer hardware. I started wondering if there were other people out there that just hold on to those old games and, if so, just how old are they? It would be interesting to see what the oldest game that still runs on current hardware is (my Shanghai II dates from 1991). Or am I the only one that's clinging to the past?"
I also have ColorizedGunShy 1.2.1 creation dated Dec 20, 1998, Daleks 2.0 dated May 18, 1990 (can you see a pattern? I must have done a recovery of some kind on May 18, 1990). I have a dungeons of doom dated May, 1986, but it doesn't seem to run anymore.
WAIT - I think I just found my oldest one that still runs - StuntCopter1.2 creation dated November 7, 1986!
So, no, you are not alone, I am a packrat too!
SNIPES! and from the days of IPX, NSNIPES.
Yes, I install IPX on every PC I use so I can still play Nsnipes.
(snipes is an MDA compatible game - circa IBMDOS and/or IBMDOS 2.0)
lh_ - who cannot remeber his login id and pass.
I played this one last year for old times sake when I downloaded a Z-machine interpreter for Windoze... but I actually have a copy in the original packaging ("Official Documents File") for CP/M on an 8" disk. Dates back to 1983. Nice to have all the original junk from the package. I had the C-64 version when I was in high school and actually signed the Stellar Patrol Special Assignment Task Force card and carried it in my wallet. Geez, I was a loser!
I guess I keep it because someday it may be valuable! (Or maybe my dad might someday piece together one of his old systems for his "computer museum" and we could see if the disk is still readable.)
I about wet myself when walking through a Meijers just the other day. I walked through the video games, and found a cartridge from Namco that absolutely had to walk out of the store with me.
Namco has released NamcoMuseum, a game cartridge for Gameboy Advance that has four of my all-time favorite legacy video games... Pole Position, Dig Dug, Ms. Pac Man, and Galaga (Galaxian too, but who cares). Combined, these four games probably took the majority of my childhood quarters. This cartridge is fantastic, because even though I used to own the consoles to run these games, as of recently I can't find anything older than my SNES. This more than makes up for my loss.
I had purchased my GBA to play all of the Gameboy games I hadn't played in years (due to a fried gameboy), so I had legacy titles in mind from the start. I only own two GBA titles... F-Zero, and the NamcoMuseum pack... and I can honestly say I haven't touched F-Zero in weeks. Merely turning on NamcoMuseum and hearing all of those familiar sound effects and songs from years ago gave me chills. I can't put this game pack down.
New games come and go... but those legacy titles never die. Hopefully in a few years I'll have enough dough to start collecting the actual arcade units... but multi-game packs like these will more than keep my attention for the time being.
My first game was Adventure back in the 70s. Almost 30 years of gaming latter, and I still play it! Had to set it up as a green screen game.... my old age I guess.
Man give me:
Apple ][: Wizardry, Choplifter, Sabotage, Pirate Adventure
Amiga: TURBO (if you don't know, don't even bother asking)
Telnet: Genocide (geno.org:2222)
3D FPS are for pussies with no imagination like you.
I've kept around my Master of Orion game. I still love it. (And MOO3 is to be released soon!)
;)
I think, however, the "oldest game" list is best satisfied by retrocomputing. Mind you, I have some Atari home computers in my closet, with cartridges and software on disk/tape.
I've also played them, now and then, on my Atari home computer emulator. I've also used the serial port on my PC to emulate an Atari disk drive (!) and played some favorites on a hybrid Atari/PC combo.
And even in another form, classic arcade games sort of fit the bill. But my oldest ones are all from 1981: Gorf, Pac-Man, Wizard of Wor, Zaxxon. Still running on original hardware and still quite playable.
Yeah. Those classics are staying around for as long as they generations who played them are still on the earth. And probably just a little bit longer.
I'm just happy that I don't collect rotary phones. Heck, kids today probably don't even have any idea how to use them!
Still occasionally play the old classics on the Commodore 64...PacMan, Donkey Kong, QBert, etc. Sometimes, the simple games are still the best. The clunky joystick reminds me of how far we've come with peripherals. We had Wheel of Fortune too on disk, but it was broken such that you could never get to the final round, it just hung. Always wondered if the programmers just hadn't finished it.
The oldest PC game I've got floating around is probably Where in the World is Carmen Sandiego (DOS), my parents still have it for my brother. Runs too fast even on a slow pentium tho so you can't see the animations (it used to be on an old IBM 286).
"This message is composed of 100% recycled electrons."
Check out Windmill Software's Digger (http://www.digger.org). It didn't work on modern PCs, but I reverse-engineered and recompiled it so now it does. Source is available, as are *nix versions.
Still run it. Still build new, harder, better tracks with the track editor. The most 'deadly' track so far I have only managed to actually finish (>8minutes) twice. And the computer player crashes in the first jump...it's wicked.
Papa's got a brand GNU bag. -- Advertisement: year 30 ALC (After Linux Commercialization)