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Posted By

MMS
on 2013-12-30
14:26:56
 Historical (8bit) game arcive - runnable in Javascript

Hello Guys,

Just read about a collection of Java runnable 8-bit historical games at:
https://archive.org/details/historicalsoftware

There are few familiar title too, like Karateka (I think our version is better..), and Choplifter.
There are ZX Spectrum The Hobbit, Elite and a lot of other nice stuffs.

There are not only he raw games, that you may try. There are a lot of background info about the creators and afterlife of the games.
An example: Surprisingly, Akabaleth, that was the first game of Lord British, was made in BASIC, and made this teenager to gain 150.000 USD after the copies sold. Nice story and a good motivation to start the Ultima series happy

Maybe somehow our site may be linked with this activity, with our Java emulator and Tom Thumb, and some other classics, like Trailblazer?

Posted By

George
on 2013-12-29
16:25:07
 Re: Historical (8bit) game arcive - runnable in Java

Great found, MMS!

Posted By

Litwr
on 2013-12-30
02:05:10
 Re: Historical (8bit) game arcive - runnable in Java

Wow! happy It is not Java but Javascript and MESS! So the modern browsers are also the net OS... Mess has plus/4 support but it is about the same as Vice -- not too good.
IMHO if Tom Thumb is supported by MESS then it is possible to upload it.
[Ultima] IMHO It is the best RPG forever. happy I had "Ultima years" at 1991-2003: U6, U5, U4, U7, U7p2, UUW, UUW2, U3, U2, U1, U8, U6SI, U6MD, U9.

Posted By

MMS
on 2013-12-30
14:26:31
 Re: Historical (8bit) game arcive - runnable in Java

OFF: for me the only Ultima software I spent some time was Ultima Underworld. I really enjoyed that game, though never finished it. It is a really fantastic game with good and complex story, and was a technical breakthrough.
Funny fact, that is had a proper 3D world before Doom ("The game was also the first indoor, real-time, 3D first-person game to allow the player to look up and down, and to jump").
It took whopping 11pcs 5.25 HD disks to move from the University lab to home, and some of the discs became corrupted during this transfer. Arrgh! (an other funny fact: 80% of my C64 and Plus/4 discs were still readiblye after 15 years)
I bough later a budget Ultima VIII, but was too slow and hard to control for my taste (at the same period I played Betrayal at Krondor, that was a much better experience). I have somewhere the original disk, if you want, I can send it.
Ultima IX also bough few years later (online from GOG), but the 3D was really badly performing on my Radeon 8500 (told, that works much better on 3DFX cards, but at that time I already sold my loved Voodoo 3500TV for a collector).

Posted By

Litwr
on 2013-12-30
13:58:33
 Re: Historical (8bit) game arcive - runnable in Java

to MMS: Thank you for this Xmas topic. happy Ultima 7 is very good - it has even its special emulator (exult) for modern OS. I finished it several times. The story is astonishing. The graphics and sound are good. The control may be a bit better but it requires only several minutes to learn. Ultima 9 is a complete fail. The 3d video is heavy for eyes and the story is contradictory. It looks like a point to some kind of global conspiracy. IMHO the mystery of U9 maybe solved only after many years. I have the original disk, cloth map and cards for U9. Do you have U7 cloth map? wink

Posted By

MMS
on 2013-12-30
14:34:00
 Re: Historical (8bit) game arcive - runnable in Javascript

I made some corrections happy
eg. not 0%, but 80% of the 15 years old C= discs were readible, that is a real difference happy

Yeah, I have never met with U7 (told to be the best of the series), but I tested U8 (it also has a nice graph, but the inventory method was a disaster for me)

Posted By

Lavina
on 2013-12-30
15:23:39
 Re: Historical (8bit) game arcive - runnable in Javascript

off... yeah, Betrayal at Krondor is one of my all time favorites and one of the rare occasions I play with RPG (not counting Rotor Propelled Grenades, of course).

Others that I can mention is Menzoberranzan , some MUD worlds and Twin Kingdom Valley on Plus4 (well sort of an RPG.. ok text adventure with NPCs living in the Valley but still some elements of RPG like HP, weapons, spells, fights,etc.).

Unfortunately Crown's version of TKV lacks the direction displaying when a NPC leaves the room and it makes the game unplayable for me (I cannot follow them when they retreat so it's harder to kill them) so I was stuck with the text only version... Which I finished and I guess I was one among very few players with that achievement. happy

Posted By

Litwr
on 2014-01-01
09:56:29
 Re: Historical (8bit) game arcive - runnable in Javascript

off topic again. I had only text version of Twin Kingdom Valley at 80s. I found 7 a4 pages with notes and maps for this game from this time. I dare to publish two of them. happy



It is sad that the map is still not published. C64 and C16 text versions have a bit different maps (190 vs 176 locations).

[RPG] IMHO The most classical RPG is Eys of the beholder and its sequels. They require (like TKW) to draw maps. Ultima 8 was the first "wrong" Ultima but it is not so bad as U9. ;-)

Posted By

MIK
on 2014-01-02
12:09:27
 Re: Historical (8bit) game arcive - runnable in Javascript

I prefer Dungeon Master, the DADDY of the dungeon crawlers.

I could not get in to Eye of the Beholder 1 & 2 as much as I would of liked... Luckly there was another game released on the Amiga called Crystal Dragon which was the last one of it's kind for the machine. It also borrows all the best and great idea's from everything else that came before it. Crystal Dragon is better than Dungeon Master 2! happy

Crystal Dragon: http://www.lemonamiga.com/games/details.php?id=1559

Posted By

MMS
on 2014-01-02
14:03:00
 Re: Historical (8bit) game arcive - runnable in Javascript

I play a lot EOB 1 and 2. I tried 3, but did not like it so much.
That Crystal Dragon looks ok, though it is hard to believe to be better that DM2, that has an epic part with a small dwarf stealing your stuff, crying out "MIIIINEE!" happy

If you like the EOB, DM stly, I believe the best stuff is Times Of Lore. Great GFX, Music and story, not exactly 90°turning, but some transient (nice), although not as open as Betrayal or the Menzoberranzan (that that one I also played, but the story was a little mixed up, and had a lot of bugs, and the underground was just too dark an pale colored). So my toplist happy
1) Betrayal at Krondor
2) Lands of Lore
3) Ultima Underworld
4) Eye of the Beholder 2
5) Bard's Tale III Plussy happy
6) Maybe something I forgot, but you will remind me. I played a tons of them happy



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