Computer games have been with us since, well, computers. It may be hard for some of you young ‘uns to believe after seeing today’s virtual reality 3D game environments, but there was a time when we had nothing but alpha-numeric characters on a console screen for gaming - and we loved it!
So, a round-up of where to find the classics. Luckily, text-mode games are a no-brainer to port to any modern platform. Any first-year programming student could write one from scratch. So here’s some classics, for those seeking, for those who have forgotten, and those who have yet to discover their riches:
RPG (role-playing games)
Rogue:
A Java version online.
A Javascript version online.
Rogue for many platforms.
Moria:
Ports of Moria for PC, Mac, and Amiga.
A Linux version.
Angband:
THE Angband site - only one you need. Angband is ported to everything but a digital watch.
Nethack:
Oh, ho! Now we’re talking the top of the text-mode RPG food chain.
The official Nethack sit
Computer games have been with us since, well, computers. It may be hard for some of you young ‘uns to believe after seeing today’s virtual reality 3D game environments, but there was a time when we had nothing but alpha-numeric characters on a console screen for gaming - and we loved it!
So, a round-up of where to find the classics. Luckily, text-mode games are a no-brainer to port to any modern platform. Any first-year programming student could write one from scratch. So here’s some classics, for those seeking, for those who have forgotten, and those who have yet to discover their riches:
RPG (role-playing games)
Rogue:
A Java version online.
A Javascript version online.
Rogue for many platforms.
Moria:
Ports of Moria for PC, Mac, and Amiga.
A Linux version.
Angband:
THE Angband site - only one you need. Angband is ported to everything but a digital watch.
Nethack:
Oh, ho! Now we’re talking the top of the text-mode RPG food chain.
The official Nethack sit
If you spent much time in video game arcades throughout the golden age of the 1980’s, you have no doubt missed your favorite games from that time. Even decades later, you’ll catch yourself absently humming the theme from Super Mario Bros. or even trying to track down a Tron cabinet on eBay. Today, the cultural significance of the video game arcade generation goes largely unrecognized. Arcades you find today are a pale shadow of the golden age, with maybe a vintage multi-game machine tucked in a corner with PacMan, Burgertime, and Galaga crammed on it. Many of you might feel robbed of your childhood memories, which were won at the cost of so many dear quarters.
Well, check the screen shot from my desktop taken on 2/16/07:
1943, Ghosts ‘n’ Goblins, Mr Do!, QBert, Frogger, Shinobi…
And that’s just the beginning! The program that made this possible is MAME, the “Multiple Arcade Machine Emulator”. It is free and GPL licensed. It is cro
If you spent much time in video game arcades throughout the golden age of the 1980’s, you have no doubt missed your favorite games from that time. Even decades later, you’ll catch yourself absently humming the theme from Super Mario Bros. or even trying to track down a Tron cabinet on eBay. Today, the cultural significance of the video game arcade generation goes largely unrecognized. Arcades you find today are a pale shadow of the golden age, with maybe a vintage multi-game machine tucked in a corner with PacMan, Burgertime, and Galaga crammed on it. Many of you might feel robbed of your childhood memories, which were won at the cost of so many dear quarters.
Well, check the screen shot from my desktop taken on 2/16/07:
1943, Ghosts ‘n’ Goblins, Mr Do!, QBert, Frogger, Shinobi…
And that’s just the beginning! The program that made this possible is MAME, the “Multiple Arcade Machine Emulator”. It is free and GPL licensed. It is cro
Our next stop on the vintage gaming tour is ScummVM, the portable virtual machine with the unappetizing name. The AGI interpreters do great for Sierra, and Sierra was certainly at the top of the games market (at a time when they didn’t even know it themselves!), but many other adventure gaming companies deserve their due as well.
Here’s a factor you’ll see over and over in computing: the smaller the company, the friendlier it is to hobbyists and open source users. Check out IBM and Sun Microsystems, once considered bullies of the computing world; now that Microsoft rules their universe they have changed their strategy in the 21st century so they now embrace open source software - they’re almost mushy over it. That’s just an example. The point is, Sierra, still a major player on the market, might prosecute you if they caught you pirating their games. But smaller game proprietors are so flattered, they’ll even give them to you for free! Or lacking tha
Our next stop on the vintage gaming tour is ScummVM, the portable virtual machine with the unappetizing name. The AGI interpreters do great for Sierra, and Sierra was certainly at the top of the games market (at a time when they didn’t even know it themselves!), but many other adventure gaming companies deserve their due as well.
Here’s a factor you’ll see over and over in computing: the smaller the company, the friendlier it is to hobbyists and open source users. Check out IBM and Sun Microsystems, once considered bullies of the computing world; now that Microsoft rules their universe they have changed their strategy in the 21st century so they now embrace open source software - they’re almost mushy over it. That’s just an example. The point is, Sierra, still a major player on the market, might prosecute you if they caught you pirating their games. But smaller game proprietors are so flattered, they’ll even give them to you for free! Or lacking tha
The number one most in-demand category of vintage games is the legendary games of Sierra online. Sometimes I think Sierra Entertainment suffers a misguided notion; they continue today as a division of Vivendi, and they’re still putting out game titles today - even for present-day consoles. Yet the fans are screaming for the classic PC titles from the ’80’s, to which Sierra turns a deaf ear. As much demand as there is, you’d think they’d be willing to open up the vault and make a buck or two.
The flip side of this problem is, since Sierra is still very much in business, don’t get your hopes up about finding classic titles for free download. Your best bet is to own an original copy of a game, which you’d better horde like gold and keep secret. If you have an original game copy, you’re in the pink: all you have to do is head over to DOSbox and snag the DOSbox emulator. It is free and open source. It runs on Windows, Mac OS X, Linux, BSD, an
This five-part series will explore the world of vintage game revivals. These are the largely fan-driven efforts to port classic games of the 80’s and 90’s to modern-day platforms. The process is slow, difficult, and riddled with legal hang-ups, but if you play detective and dig into some instructions, the reward for re-living a glorious title from decades ago is well worth it.
Before we start, there are some factors in vintage gaming that you just have to get used to:
Most of the original companies behind these games aren’t very interested in seeing their classics ported. Either they’re out-of-business, bought out or merged, or they’d rather sell new titles. It takes time and perseverance to talk some of them into releasing the license rights to the game to the open source and hobbyist community, even if it’s obvious that they’d never make a dime off of that title again. Some notable exceptions to this rule (hooray for ID software!) even rel
