e, Part 3: Quest for 16 Colors

May 22, 2014 by Mike

The Apple //e might have been the most popular computer in the mid-’80s, but it certainly wasn’t the most technologically capable when it came to gaming. Armed with a standard array of 7 colors in high-resolution mode (jokingly referred to as the “Big Seven” in development circles), it was only slightly better than the paltry 4-color CGA spectrum on IBM computers.

Its built-in speaker didn’t exactly set ears ablaze either with its output, and while multi-voice sound was achievable, it paled in comparison to the audio heard through the Commodore 64’s legendary SID chip or the equally excellent, but perhaps lesser-known POKEY chip in Atari’s 8-bit computers.

Games on those competitor systems blew my mind back then, and it would be depressing playing games like M.U.L.E., Ghostbusters and Moon Patrol on my friends’ computers and then come home to the weaker looking and sounding versions on the Apple.

While we would never get a Mockingboard sound card either — and let’s face it, very few games actually supported it — we did get an Extended 80 Columns Card, which gave it 128K instead of the standard 64, and enabled support of 16-color high-resolution graphics, a holy grail of sorts for Apple games back then.

That doesn’t mean that the Apple didn’t have great games, though. Quite the contrary. It’s just that they didn’t look or sound as good as they did elsewhere, especially when it came to action and arcade games. I know the saying goes that graphics shouldn’t be the main focus, but I don’t think you can debate that they can only help if they’re done well.

The first game I ever played with the Apple’s enhanced graphics was Penguin Software’s 1984 adventure Transylvania, based on the original non-enhanced version from 1982. For some reason, this game — along with Oregon Trail and Carmen Sandiego — was commonly found in elementary school classrooms, despite its somewhat graphic nature and adult themes. It did “teach” map navigation, comprehension, and problem solving, but we all played it for the cool graphics. It was also fun to watch out for the menacing werewolf, who would always appear at the most inopportune times.

In hindsight, the enhanced 16-color version doesn’t really look that good, held back mainly because it was based on an older game, but it did have a very ominous, new title screen, complete with an animated splash of blood, so props to Penguin for that.

Around the same time, I got what would become one of the most famous games of all-time, Sierra’s King’s Quest (1984). This one was a life-changer for me, since at the time, playing it was the equivalent of being transported into an animated storybook or movie. It totally shifted my view of what a computer game could be. Your character Sir Graham was drawn and animated beautifully, the colors were rich, each scene had a wonderful sense of depth, and the simple act of moving Sir Graham around objects and behind buildings in each area was really advanced stuff back then.

One of my best memories about King’s Quest was how each scene was drawn. The Apple wasn’t a particularly fast computer, so each image looked like it was being drawn on the screen by hand, filled in with color, and additional details would be splashed on the end. Seeing each one come to life like that was a treat.

The text parser was also intelligent, and for the most part, understood plain English, compared to other more simplistic graphic adventure games that only accepted two word inputs. This also helped give King’s Quest a more natural and organic feel, and it made a strong impression on people who played it. I re-bought this series a few years ago on GoG.com, and while certain aspects of it don’t really hold up that well — like obscure puzzles and vague pathways — it’s still a wonderful game full of humor and adventure.

It wasn’t all gaming, though. Broderbund’s Dazzle Draw (1984), a computer art program that would later lead me to Deluxe Paint II Enhanced and beyond on the PC, was fantastic. I didn’t have a drawing tablet like a Koala Pad or anything, so I tried my best using a Kraft analog joystick. It was far from refined, but I thought it was just so cool to be able to have drawing tools like this on our computer. It also had a menu system that mimicked the feel of a Macintosh, so that made the entire package feel very premium and professional.

I still have my drawings on a 5.25″ floppy disk somewhere in storage. If I can find them, I’ll share them in a future post.

Like I’ve said once or twice before, Broderbund’s output on the Apple was impressive, not just in terms of quantity, but they set very high quality bars too. Dan Gorlin’s Airheart (1986) represents the pinnacle of Apple action games for me. I was already a big fan of Choplifter, but Airheart took things to a whole new level. Not only did it sport gorgeously immaculate 16-color graphics, but the animation quality was absolutely stunning. The first time I loaded it up, I couldn’t believe what I was seeing!

Not only was the art and animation fluid and cinematic, it was also really funny and full of great little details. From the way your character would slip on his backpack to the realistically flowing robes on your “guardians”, they showed just how much Dan Gorlin cared about the look of this game. It also conveyed an impressive sense of depth as you sped over and under the sparkling ocean, your character shaking water from his head after surfacing.

One of the most unique features was how each enemy would cause a different type of end for the player. You didn’t simply blow up, but if you got hit by a bubble, you would struggle inside it trying to escape until it eventually exploded, taking you with it. Or you’d get trapped by a vacuum-like enemy, which would ingest your ship, but eject you out, leaving you to endlessly swim to your demise. All of these touches made the game such a treat on the eyes, and is one of my all-time favorite Apple games.

Wings of Fury (1987) was another Broderbund game that required 128K to run. While it had the 16-color title screen pictured above (which really isn’t very good), the game itself ran in standard 7-color high-resolution mode, which for me was pretty disappointing. The game was lauded for its realistic physics and gameplay, but I was never able to truly get the hang of it, and only played it a handful of times before moving on to something else.

It reminded me of Star Blazer, Choplifter, and other side-scrolling Apple shooting games, but its focus on realism and slower pace made it less fun for me when I was younger. I’d be curious to try it out again now to see if my opinion has changed. It did have some novel ideas like a view that would go super-wide as you gained altitude, a pseudo-3D terrain map HUD, and a flight model that made your plane feel nice and weighty.

Next up: New World Computing’s Might and Magic II: Gates to Another World (1988). New World had already shown players that it could produce a beautiful-looking RPG with the first Might and Magic, but this one took the series’ graphics to new heights on the Apple. The title screen alone made my jaw drop, and the huge in-game animated graphics were a revelation. Compared to most other RPGs at the time, this was the undisputed visual king.

I played it a lot, but I don’t remember ever finishing it. That was pretty common for me back then, as I would often get frustrated with traditional computer RPGs and either quit or start using things like hex and characters editors to cheat. Anyone remember The Bard’s Tale Workshop?

Finally, Interplay’s Dragon Wars (1989) took the successful formula and look of The Bard’s Tale series and gave it a fresh coat of paint. I admittedly did not put a lot of time into this game, even though I do remember it being very good. 1989 was a pivotal year for me, since it would see the release of the Sega Genesis, me getting my driver’s license, and our family’s first IBM-compatible PC: a 386/33 with VGA graphics and a SoundBlaster.

My eyes and ears would be ill-prepared for what I would play next.

The Apple //e, Part 2: More Influential Games

May 7, 2014 by Mike

I had a great time last week reminiscing about some of the Apple //e games that influenced me at a young age, so what the heck — here are several more that I loved from my gaming formative years.

The game that I constantly heard about back in the early ’80s was this one, Dan Gorlin’s Choplifter from Broderbund. The Apple wasn’t a fast computer, so to finally see and play an arcade-style game that was as smooth and responsive as this was really special. Like many Broderbund games back then, it was all about the details. I thought the design of the helicopter was great. It displayed convincing flight dynamics, and the way it would subtly “bounce” when you touched down created a nice visual marriage that added to the game’s realism.

Controls were easy to learn, and understanding how yaw affected your weaponry was key to success. More nice touches included the perspective/parallax effect on your home base’s barrier and the way rescued hostages would wave in thanks as you dropped them off to safety. A lesser game wouldn’t even bother with such details, but Choplifter was no ordinary game.

Several years later, I would play Choplifter again on the fledgling Sega Master System. It was a good arcade-to-home port in its own right, but I’ve always preferred the Apple original. There’s a purity to its straightforward, distilled design and fun, tight controls, and it still plays brilliantly today, 32 years after its release.

Speaking of helicopters, another game that my friends and I just loved was Sabotage. Its concept was simple: defend your single turret from bombs and falling paratroopers with a stream of artillery. What made this game memorable — for better or for worse — was the violence. Even though the paratroopers were only constructed of a handful of pixels, they would meet their doom in any number of ways, accompanied by “watery” sound effects that were strangely satisfying. My favorite was hitting a parachute with a well-placed bullet, sending the paratrooper falling to and splattering on the ground. If you were lucky, they would fall on someone who already landed, eliminating both of them.

For a game with such simple controls, it was surprisingly deep. You could also select steerable shells, giving you the power to sweep the screen with a spray of bullets. It did nothing to help your score since bullets ate away at your point total, but boy was it fun!

Games like this and the more well-known title The Bilestoad were some of the earliest examples of games where violence was a big part of their gameplay. The Bilestoad in particular was extremely violent for its time, where pools of blood and body parts would be strewn across the game’s arena, accompanied by nasty sound effects and an ominous soundtrack. Sabotage was tame by comparison. It wouldn’t be until Midway’s Mortal Kombat in the early ’90s that videogame violence would become such a controversial issue.

One of my favorite genres is the run & jump platformer, like Super Mario Bros., Sonic the Hedgehog, Super Meat Boy, and Rayman. While I credit early arcade games like the perennial classic Donkey Kong for sparking my love for them, I spent way more time at home with Datasoft’s Conan and Bruce Lee. Both games consisted of challenging screens to conquer, with good controls, nice graphics, and swift gameplay. Bruce Lee was particularly fast, which made it a thrill to play. Having a ninja and sumo wrestler constantly chasing you around added to the tension and pacing, and remains one of my all-time favorite games. It was also unique for boasting a nice 16-color title screen in double high-resolution, a rarity back in 1984. Two-voice music also helped set it apart from the single, linear sounds so common at the time.

Finally, for this installment, one more from Broderbund: Aik Beng’s Drol. Like many kids, I loved cartoons, so games that had cartoon-like graphics really appealed to me. Drol was one of those, possessing superb visuals and nice animation. When we would later get a composite color monitor around 1986, it was one of the first games I played on it, just to see what it looked like in something other than green. Another game had a similar style — Tony & Benny Ngo’s Bandits (Sirius Software) — and looking back, these two games had a notable influence on my art style over the next few years, especially when it came to fonts. They both still look super-clean to me, fueling my belief that good art, no matter what the medium, never gets old.

That’s it for now. Thanks for putting up with the green screenshots, by the way. Although I would soon go on to play all of these games in color, my fondest memories of them are from that old, 12″ monochrome monitor.

The Apple //e, Part 1: Monochrome Memories

May 2, 2014 by Mike

I touched on the Apple //e’s influence on me a bit in last week’s Industry Memoirs post, but when I thought about it afterwards, I realized just how big of an impact it had on me. More so than our Atari 2600, Apple’s popular home computer — and more specifically its games — would chart a course that led me to my first job in the videogame industry. This installment focuses on the very first year the //e entered our home.

My father purchased the computer when we were living in Spring, Texas in 1984. I remember going with him to ComputerCraft to pick it up, and all told, it cost him about $1,400, including a new desk. The store itself was very big and had a couple different floors. I still distinctly remember the smell of electronics and the glow of the monitors, something I still gravitate towards when I go to department stores today.

Even back then, Apple knew that presentation and brand loyalty was important. The boxes were attractive and sturdy. Everything came with high-quality spiral-bound manuals. Their 5.25″ floppy disks were adorned with full-color labels and sleeves. Even their included software, like the classic Apple Presents… Apple, possessed a level of polish and fun that anyone in the family could enjoy and learn from. I “played” it endlessly, learning about the computer, its capabilities, but most importantly getting to the open apple/closed apple sorting minigame!

The hardware itself was also slick, with an attractively molded case that felt premium to the touch, with easy access to the internal expansion slots. The keyboard was comfortable and fully integrated. The Disk ][ drive’s door had a satisfying tactile feel and sound when you opened and closed it. The green monochrome monitor had “show-off” features like a tilting screen and a design that made it sit beautifully flush atop the computer.

It didn’t look like a boring business machine at all, and instead felt like something that accentuated the room it was in. Even though it wasn’t something I bought (I was only 10), I treated it with care, keeping the screen clean and the entire system covered when not in use.

Those early years with the //e were pretty magical. One of the first games I ever played was the classic Karateka. Released that same year, it was the game that first made me realize that videogames could be cinematic. Characters had personalities, emotion, and possessed great detail in their design and animation. The short, effective musical pieces exemplified early leitmotif that sounded terrific through the computer’s internal speaker. The small touches, like how you can respectfully bow to certain opponents or the various ways that the player can die, added to its uniqueness. A great intro, multiple endings, and its attention to the smallest detail totally blew me away.

Another lesser-known game that I played to death early on was Microwave, similar in style to many maze games of that era. I loved this one, though, because it was the first computer game I’d ever heard with background music during gameplay. Not just any soundtrack either, as I distinctly remember one of the tunes being a direct lift of the well-known Creature Cantina song from Star Wars. Game soundtracks would become a very important focus for me during the 8-bit console era and beyond, much to the credit of this little gem.

Pulling off a good 3D game on the //e was pretty tough, but that didn’t stop companies from trying. One of my favorites was the Battlezone-inspired Stellar 7. The warp/launch sequence that would play after successfully completing a level was so good, pushed over the edge by the great sound effects. I also really liked the wireframe models and being able to move around them in 3D space. Very impressive, and even though the objects were simple, they were highly stylized with very memorable designs.

Dynamix remade Stellar 7 years later in 1990, which I bought without hesitation. It’s a great 256-color VGA game that is an excellent remake of the original, with clean graphics and sound card support.

Ahh, Lode Runner, one of the all-time best build-it-yourself games. Broderbund was a company that could do no wrong in the //e era, and were also responsible for the aforementioned Karateka, as well as other essentials like Choplifter and the wildly popular Print Shop.

Lode Runner is a fun game in its own right, but where I spent most of my time was in its level editor. Not only was it intuitive, but it breathed endless life into an already great title. I credit this game for getting me interested in game design. It taught me a lot about good level flow, level-breaking item and enemy placement, and being disciplined about balancing function with form. It’s a beautiful game that plays as good today as it did in the ’80s.

Another realization I had while writing this was that there are so many other games I want to talk about. For every one I brought up, there were ten others that came to mind! As I said, it was a magical time, and one that I’ll be revisiting again soon in a future GHG entry.

Have a great weekend!

Gray-Haired Gamer

Gaming in my forties

Tag Archives: Apple //e

The Apple //e, Part 3: Quest for 16 Colors

The Apple //e, Part 2: More Influential Games

The Apple //e, Part 1: Monochrome Memories