Today I’ve got a game recommendation video for you. I’m talking about COLOR arcade games for early 68K Macs! Focusing on lesser-known arcade style games with low system requirements.
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0:00 Intro
0:26 Solarian II
2:11 Slime Invaders 2.0
3:30 PacMan
5:00 Blaze
5:55 Tristan Pinball
8:02 Outro
#VintageApple #RetroGaming #Macintosh #VintageMac #VintageComputing #retrogames #shareware
Anyone else play shareware / freeware games like these? Or do you stick to popular games like Prince of Persia or Sim City?
Nice selection. GOD, makes me wanna repair my Color Classic and its shoddy analog board edge connector even more.
The current official version of Pac-Man available for modern Macs in the Mac App Store also uses the original Japanese versions of the ghosts' names. Also, a fun bit of trivia nobody probably cares about: Pac-Man was one of the earliest games I remember being released to the Mac App Store. It features a little marquee with words that scroll by. Originally if you died, the marquee said Damn, but somebody must've complained because Namco updated it and now it says Oops!
Oh man, Tristan! My old friend Tristan! I've got to pick that up again. Little Wing were the best.
I wonder what languages these games were programmed in. I'm guessing C?
This video is actually quite timely with me reading a bit about programming for vintage Macintosh, with my own desire to mayyyybe someday write my own game on the platform, even if it'll be a while. There's a book I skimmed called Sex, Lies, and Videogames that talks about exactly that specific genre.
For 3.5 years (Mar 1987 to Oct 1990) you couldn't buy a color mac with lower than 640 x 480 resoluttion. When the Mac LC came out with it's 12 inch screen at 512 x 384, pretty much all color games had to be adjusted to fit. It was sort of controversial at the time, at least in my recollection. The 512 x 384 resolution proved quite popular, of course, as it was less expensive, so it eventually saw widespread support, but early on, I imagine it was an inconvenience to developers who would have to redraw ALL of the art to fit the smaller screen as well as adjust the software coding to compensate.
Little Wing did some excellent pinball games. Never tried Tristan (though that's going to change real soon now that I know they have an app, lol), but I sunk a lot of my childhood into Looney Labyrinth. I still judge every pinball table I play against what Little Wing did. Unfortunately their webstore has been under "maintenance" for a number of years now, so I'm afraid their stuff—which had been so lovingly kept playable as technology updated—is sliding into faded memory.
I feel you on the Solarian sfx. So many Mac shareware games have that same…what’s the sonic equivalent of an aesthetic, a soundscape?
Anyway, playing all those games has cemented in my mind the fact that the stock “cash register” sound effect you hear everywhere has a guy saying “yeah” at the end and I’ll never un-hear it.
Man, I got such a good time out of Solarian II and Slime Invaders, simple as they were. Those damn flying pentagons. I loved how early Mac games just picked sound effects seemingly at random, too.
I thought the LC was 640×400 in 256 colors. (256k)
Basic VGA cards have enough memory for that but they do 320×400 at most in 256colors.
I've played all but the 2 Pac-Man games you mentioned. They're all fun!
Thanks for the recommendations I’ve been looking for games that work with my Color classic can’t seem to find games that are compatible with its native resolution
Nice video. I never knew about the Pinball game. Will have to check that out. I always had fun with the early Pinball games on computers. Davids midnight magic and EA's Pinball Construction set were favorites on the Apple II and for me the Commodore 64. They were out in about 1983.
Some games to even show my LC some gaming love… oh yeah!
Another great video.
I really like Fu's Bar in the Slime Invaders 2.0 background. If you aren't familiar with the term FUBAR, look it up, haha.
The story of Tristan being kept alive by the original devs for decades is incredible
I loved Solarian back in the day! Also remember having Tristan as well. I distinctly remember the inclusion of the pinball, because my older brother tricked me into thinking it was necessary to have it to play it on the computer haha
Oh yeah. Ran Sollarian II on my IIci the day I bought it. Great times.
As for one of the first pinball games for computers, there were a few before. Apple II had Pinball Construction Set and David's Midnight Magic, both released in the early '80s. Atari also released one called Video Pinball, which wasn't that great. Admittedly, Tristan looks much better.
I seem to remember other games in color. It's been years and I might misremember, but what about Wavy Navy or Spare Change? I think I've seen those in color. I think there was one called Sticky Bear? It's been ages.
Solarian II looks pretty interesting! As for early pinball computer games … 1991 is a decade too late to be considered "early". GUI pioneering Pinball Construction Set and classics like Night Mission Pinball are from 1982.
There were also earlier pinball computer games, but I think these are a couple of the earliest ones that were more on the simulation side rather than being a videogame inspired by pinball.
Is it true that Tristan pinball can make use of a optional FPU for better physics?
"Tristan" is great. "Eight Ball Deluxe" should be in a future video of yours.
Does anyone remember an educational game with a little elf (reminiscent of Link)? He's inside some sort of castle. I played this on my PowerMac and cannot remember the name of it for the life of me.
Solarian II is where it's at. I've recorded a complete run of the game…Very difficult indeed, and as you progress it doesn't get any easier!
My color classic is sadly gonna be in storage until there is a way to connect the color CRT display to external sources
Why don't you cover the game Cyclone II It was the best way outside of a Vectrex or an arcade machine to play Star Castle, a 1980 arcade classic by Cinematronics. Cyclone II was published by a company calling themselves High Risk Ventures.
It includes a color version that is more or less a clone of the arcade classic in either original or enhanced graphics. It also included an updated version of the game that was also pretty good adding bonuses and power ups. I've been playing it for 30 years.
While there have been a few other clones of Star Castle, none were any good. Not on the Amiga, not on PC and not on Mac. They really did this game right. The only competition it ever had was the Vectrex which has a licensed port of Star Castle. But the system is pretty rare and the cartridge even more so (I have both).