Melinda, Aaron, Michael, and Tom talk about their favorite classic PC games, spanning from 1983 to 1992! Also, Michael and Melinda reveal a project they worked on BEFORE the days of RetroBlasting... here's a hint: it's related to classic Star Trek!
To start off, we all talk about our first exposures to PC games.
Castle Wolfenstein for Apple II
(07:42) Aaron was a big PC gamer growing up. His grandfather had a Next Step PC. He played games like Big Rig Driver and a Flight simulator game.
(09:56) Tom provides his history with PC games. His experience began with Atari 2600 and then moved to Colecovision. He also recalls getting to Math Lab/Computer lab early to play Castle Wolfenstein on the Apple IIe, as well as the pay for play games available at his local library.
Oregon Trail - so many of us played it at school.
(12:45) Michael’s first home gaming system was the Vectrex, followed by a computer (Epson desktop computer which was EGA Graphics capable). It had three games built in: Digger, Blackjack, and Chess. The same Chess game as in the movie The Thing. He later begged his parents for Champions of Crynn, and remembers playing Oregon Trail and Karateka at school.
(17:08) Aaron got banished from the PC for crashing theirs, including his dad’s MBA thesis which was due the next day… leaving him with Nintendo.
(18:58) Tom shares a poignant story about his mother and a video game he acted a little bratty about.
Example of a code wheel - 20th century copyright protection
(25:35) – Aaron tells us about his favorite PC Game – Sim City. This is a city building game published in 1989 by Maxis (now EA).
(33:03) Tom talks about Lode Runner, a platform video game by Brøderbund in 1983.
(37:30) Melinda discusses “Where in the World is Carmen Sandiego?” released by Brøderbund in 1985.
(44:17) Michael recalls Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade: The Graphic Adventure, a point and click game by Lucasfilm Games in 1989, as well as a few other great Lucasfilm Titles, before announcing his pick for the evening… Star Trek: 25th Anniversary, a 1992 adventure game by Interplay Productions.
(51:12) During the discussion, we recall a big project that we started before RetroBlasting was conceived: Star Trek the Lost 5th Season!
(58:07) Aaron tells us how he survived by NOT flooding his basement as a kid.
References:
The Use of Small Computers in ARL Libraries - an interesting book detailing classic computers used in libraries, as mentioned by Tom.
Open Source Micropolis, based on the original SimCity Classic from Maxis, by Will Wright.
Play EA SimCity Classic Online
Lode Runner Classic– play on your phone!
Where in the World is Carmen Sandiego, 1985 – Emulator