Computer Chronicles Episodes Highlight Classic Games

Posted by simoniker on Thursday January 8, 2004 @08:53AM from the zorkity-zork-zork dept.

Thanks to Waxy.org for its weblog entry highlighting some of the classic gaming-related episodes of the Computer Chronicles TV show, all freely downloadable courtesy of the Internet Archive. Waxy.org particularly highlights the Computer Games episode from January 1985, where "The authors of Sargon and Millionaire demo them on the original Mac, and talks to Pitfall creator David Crane about Ghostbusters and David Lebling discusses Zork and other text-based adventure games. The short piece on the fledgling Lucasarts (then named Lucasfilm) is great, which had just released its first two games a few months before, the groundbreaking Rescue on Fractalus and Ballblazer" Also noted is a Software Piracy episode from 1985 including "a spirited debate between an Activision exec against a developer of a cracking utility", and another gaming episode from 1984 including "Electronic Arts' Bill Budge showing off the classic Pinball Construction Set."

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Millionaire by Visigothe · 2004-01-08 09:29 · Score: 3, Informative

I found the "Millionaire" segment to be rather amusing. They took data from the [then current] stock markets. If you look closely, you can see where the Dow was around that time in 1985 [well below 1000].. contrast to what it is now.

Also, is that not the worst combo toupee/comb-over on the planet?

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Blocklevel: Practical Information Architecture
Pinball Construction Set by digitalgiblet · 2004-01-08 09:32 · Score: 3, Informative

Man, I loved that game. My brother and I played the crap out of it on the C-64.
Another game I loved was Wargame Construction Set. The great thing about it was that the graphics were so primitive any schmuck could make a "mod". You didn't need to have a friggin' clue about 3D modeling... You just picked a little sprite and adjusted properties.
You could probably replicate the game in a few weeks in Java, but I doubt anyone today would accept the graphics... :-(
Re:Ballblazer and Fractalus by Black+Hitler · 2004-01-08 11:30 · Score: 2, Informative

I think the sequel you refer to was Ballblazer Champions. Which sucked. BattleSport was a sort of spiritual sequel to Ballblazer and was a MUCH better game, but I'm not sure it ever came out on any system besides the 3DO.