The comp.sys.apple2 Usenet newsgroup Apple II FAQs originate from
the Ground Apple II archive, 1997-2004. Administrator: Steve Nelson
Csa2 FAQs-on-Ground ref: Csa2GAMES.txt rev074 May 2004
Games
001- Where can I get games for my Apple II?
002- Where can I find hints, docs, pics, and othe game information?
003- Where can I get game creation programs and information?
004- What are some games in double-hires?
005- Which IIgs games will not run on a ROM 3 IIgs?
006- Where can I find out about A2 Infocom & Infocom-style games?
007- What games, etc. are on the 'Asimov Want List'?
008- For disk space used, what is your favorite Apple II game?
009- Where did the Apple II Game Gods go?
010- Are there any games which play 'old Apple II' music during action?
011- Are there any new games for the Apple II/IIgs?
012- How do I get my Apple II game site listed in the FAQs?
013- How do I play the games?
From: Rubywand, Zeprfrew, Charles T. Turley, John Beatty,
Netrunner68, Marc Sira, Swigg, Steve Evans, Jm
001- Where can I get games for my Apple II?
There are many places you can get Apple II software, especially games:
o- Local Apple II Users Group (may be part of a Mac Group in your area)
o- Sellers of original and second-hand software (See ads on the comp.sys.apple2.marketplace newsgroup and sites, like KulaSoft, A2Central.com, and Shareware Solutions II.) Also check the Apple II FAQs Vendor listings:
o- Regular posters to this newsgroup will often send diskettes with some utilities and games for the cost of diskettes and mailing.
o- Apple II archives maintain large collections of software which you can download via PC and transfer to your Apple II. See the Apple II FAQs Game Site and Major Site listings:
You can find screen shot and game box pics-- great for making disk labels-- on some sites; but, no single archive or web page offers anything like a comprehensive selection.
Author, publisher, and historical information is relatively rare. One site, The Giant List, does a good job listing game authors along with their games, publishers, and dates.
If a game or series has its own web site, this will often be the best place to look for docs, support materials, pictures, and author/publisher info. Good examples are sites for Ultima, Bard's Tale, Infocom games, and the games published by Penguin/PolarWare.
For links see the Apple II FAQs Game Site listings:
003- Where can I get game creation programs and information?
There are a number of gaming systems which include Apple II software for creating games. Examples which continue to attract new authors are Eamon (Text adventures) and Explorer/gs (Ultima-style adventures).
For links see the Apple II FAQs Game Site listings:
From: Thry, Mitchell Spector, Rubywand, Kevin Loesch, John L. Graham,
Edhel Iaur, Shawn T. Beattie, Kelly Petriew
004- What are some games in double-hires?
Below is a listing of Apple II games which are entirely or mainly in double-hires.
Air Heart
Aliens
Arthur
Bad Dudes
Batman
Battle Chess
Black Cauldron
California Games
Card Sharks
Columns
Corruption (Text/Dhgr)
Crossbow
Death Sword
Destroyer
Dragon Wars
Empire
Global Commander
Gold Rush
Heavy Barrel
Hunt for Red October
Impossible Mission II
Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom
Ikari Warriors II
Into the Eagle's Nest
Journey
King's Bounty
King's Quest (I, II, III, IV)
Labyrinth
Last Ninja
Legend of Blacksilver
Leisure Suit Larry in the Land of the lounge Lizards
Los Angeles Crackdown
Manhunter
Maniac Mansion
Might & Magic II
Mixed-up Mother Goose
Neuromancer
Pipe Dream
Platoon
Police Quest
Press your Luck
Qix
Rad Warrior
Rampage
Robocop
Shogun
Space Quest
Space Quest II
Spiderbot
Spy vs Spy III
Star Trek: First Contact
Strategic Conquest
Street Sports Baseball
Street Sports Basketball
Street Sports Football
Street Sports Soccer
Temple of Apshai Trilogy (optional hires or double-hires)
Tetris (Hgr/Dhgr)
The Games : Summer & Winter Edition
Thexder
Transylvania (Dhgr version)
Victory Road
Universe II
World Games
Zork Zero
____________________________
From: Sevag, ...
005- Which IIgs games will not run on a ROM 3 IIgs?
Some older GS games have been converted to run on a ROM 3. These are games that I found to not work (I tried all versions):
Alien Mind (cracked version)
MJ Basketball
Shuffle Puck
Captain Blood
Skate Or Die
Star Wizard
and one demo:
Weaky Demo
-------------------------------------
Update
I found a version of Streets Sports Soccer that runs on ROM03--its the one without the crack screen on bootup. So that game is gone from the list now.
____________________________
From: Rubywand
006- Where can I find out about Infocom & Infocom-style games
I can play on my Apple II?
A good start is a series of fantasy game articles published, mainly, in the August through November 1999 issues of GS WorldView and since added to from time to. These are now interlinked for easy perusal.
The articles cover 1990's through early 2000's interactive fantasy competition releases, Infocom's Lost Treasures I and II, a 'missing Lost Treasure', plus some more recent Zork series releases. Coverage includes brief descriptions plus download links. A convenient way to get into the articles is to go to GSWV's Archive at ...
http://apple2.org.za/gswv/a2zine/Sel/index.html
and click on "Infocom & Infocom-type Adventures".
---------------------------
007- What games, etc. are on the 'Asimov Want List'?
Games and related wares which users have requested be uploaded to Asimov (at ftp://ftp.apple.asimov.net/pub/apple_II/incoming/ ):
Disks
Arcade Volume I from Keypunch Software- It had several nice action
games by "Rod" or "Hot Rod" including Sea Hunt and Galactic Glider.
Arkenstone- A game using the same engine as Kaves of Karkhan, but the
lines in the maze view were green instead of white.
Berzerker Raids
Car Builder
Conflict in Vietnam
Cross Country Canada
Dragon Fire (not the arcade game)- The title screen had inversed text,
centered, and it said DRAGON FIRE; definitely low-res; the maze is
a rip off of Super Dungeon and Dragonmaze. I think the character was
four squares big, and was red. ...
Empire II: Interstellar Sharks (1982)
Empire III: Armageddon (1984)
Gertrude's Puzzles (The Learning Company)
Gertrude's Secrets (The Learning Company)
Gwendolyn
Hot Rod and Hot Rod 2
Ice Demons- You use the paddles to control 1 or 2 characters that shoot
arrows at demons that emerge from platforms of ice. One of them was a
happy face; one of them was a happy face with sunglasses.
John Madden Football
Karateka II: The Wrath of Dude- This demo using Karateka sprites had two
parts. Looking for the conclusion of the "movie".
Kaves of Karkhan (LEVEL-10)
Match Boxes (Broderbund)
Music Construction Set (mouse-capable version)
Pride and Predjudice
Rogue Trooper
Sign of the Wolf
Silent Service (8-bit version)
Star Crystal: Episode I - Mertactor: The Volentine Gambit
Star Warrior
Starflight 1 and 2 (PC only?)
Think Quick
Thunder Cloud
Toy Shop (Broderbund)
Transportation Transformation
Wings of the Shadow
Wizard War
Worms
Docs
Genetic Drift (instructions and hints)
Three Mile Island
Other
Apple Intercourse
Recently Found!
Odell Lake
Super Dungeon (Programma)
____________________________
From: Mookie Harrington, A2MG, Paul Guertin, Tony Turner,Matt Jenkins,
Donald C. Lee, Dennis Doms, John L, Roy Miller, Jay Edwards,
Joe Kohn, John Minkov, Michael Crimlisk, Mary Sauer, Dave Althoff,
Rubywand, A2BOBR, GSMANIAC, Erik Struiksma
008- For the space used on disk, what is your favorite
Apple II game?
Here are the results from postings to Csa2, Cea2, and Apple II forums on Delphi:
Airheart
Ali Baba
Alice in Wonderland
Alien Mind
Archon
Aztec
Balance of Power
Bard's Tale
Bard's Tale II
Boulder Dash
Bounce It
Brickout
Castle Wolfenstein
Caverns of Freitag
Choplifter
Computer Baseball
Conan
Dark Forest
Dark Heart of Uukrul
David's Midnight Magic
Death Sword
Drol
Eamon games
Elite
Epoch
Flight Sim II
Hadron
Infocom text adventures
John Madden Football
Journey
Karateka
Kings Quest I, II, and III
Lady Tut
Legacy of the Ancients
LemminGS
Lode Runner
Marble Madness
Masquerade
Mean 18
Montezuma's Revenge
Moon Patrol
Ms. Pacman
Olympic Decathlon
Panzer Battles
Pick 'N' Pile
Pitfall II
Prince of Persia
RasterBlaster
Reach for the Stars
Rescue Raiders
Robot War
Robotron 2084
Rocky's Boots
Scott Adams' Adventure games
Serpentine
Shanghai
Sherwood Forest
Silent Service
Skyfox
Sneakers
Space Quest: The Sarien Encounter
Spare Change
Stellar 7
Struggle for Guadalcanal
Super Bunny
Swashbuckler
Sword of Kadash
Tetris
The Lurking Horror
Thexder
Ultima
Ultima IV
Up 'n Down
Wasteland
Wavy Navy
Wayout
Where in the World is Carmen Sandiego?
Wings of Fury
Wizardry I - Proving Grounds of the Mad Overlord
Wizardy V
Wolfenstein 3D
Wraith
Zany Golf
Zork
Zork Zero
____________________________
From: John Romero
009- Where did the Apple II Game Gods go?
Interesting bit of info: about a year and 1/2 ago, i was touring Sculptured Software in Salt Lake City, UT. I had just finished talking to the Mortal Kombat team and was rounding a corner, passing some offices and i noticed a name on the door, "Peter Ward". I instantly thought, "NO WAY!". There was a guy in the office and i said, "Are you Peter Ward???!!"
The guy said, "No, Peter is at home, sick right now."
Me: "Is that the same Peter Ward that created Black Magic for the Apple //?"
Him: <slight pause> "Wow. You are the ONLY person i've ever met that knew that. That was a LONG time ago!"
Me: "Oh man, i am a BIG fan of Peter's work. I even have some of his earlier stuff -- South Pacific Quest, remember that one?"
Him: "Nope. I gotta tell Peter about this!"
I've never heard from Peter though.
Another interesting tidbit: remember Threshold? It was THE COOLEST Space Invaders clone ever to grace an Apple // screen (actually it was more of an Astro-Blaster clone). It was created by Warren Schwader (he also did that Cribbage game that had a bad bug in it.) Well, back in March 1992, we of id Software travelled to Sierra (Online) to show them a pre-alpha version of Wolfenstein 3D. Sierra was interested in buying id Software back then (for a very, very CHEAP price!) and we wanted to show them our n
ew 3D technology to get them all juicy. Well, i was asking Ken Williams if he knew where any old Apple // guys were and he said he had ONE still working at Sierra. He brought us into a room with an older guy and said, "This is Warren Schwader." Instantly, i was saying, "We're not worthy! We're not worthy! Threshold was a KICK ASS game! You created a legend!"
Sierra balked at our asking for a $100K advance payment on the buyout, so the deal died and we released Wolfenstein 3D.
That summer of 1992, just after Wolf3D was released, John Carmack and i drove to Kansas City for one of the last A2-Central conferences. We brought a laptop and a copy of Wolf3d with us because, lo and behold, Tom Weishaar got ahold of Silas Warner (creator of the original Castle Wolfenstein) and had Silas give a seminar. What a night. Carmack and i sat out in the hallway for hours talking to Silas and Bill Heineman about all kinds of old A2 stuff. We have an original Wolf3D manual with Silas' signatur
e on it. It's framed. :)
Am i on a roll or what? I have even more info....
As soon as The Secret of Mana was released, i bought it because i absolutely LOVE Squaresoft's games. I worship at the altar of Squaresoft. :) As soon as i plugged the SNES cart in, I just sat to watch the demo. (BTW: always, ALWAYS sit and watch game demos. Lots of work goes into them and sometimes there's very useful stuff there.) I was reveling in the beautiful music and unfolding Mana Tree graphic when the first line of the credits scrolled up. "PROGRAMMED BY NASIR."
OH MY GOD! THE ULTIMATE DEITY OF THE APPLE // GAME IS STILL PRODUCING SOME OF THE BEST GAME SOFTWARE AVAILABLE! (sorry 'bout the caps.)
I was blown away. If you want to experience the epitome of 65816 game programming after 15 years of practice (5 of that being 6502), get The Secret of Mana for SNES and luxuriate in the masterful codesmithing of Nasir once again. Nasir is one of the Old Ones, alongside Bill Budge, Bob Bishop, Olaf Lubeck, Don Fudge, etc, etc. I could go on and on. I remember every game and every name.
And here's another one... :)
In 1995, i went to the Computer Game Developer's Conference in Santa Clara. It was fun seeing and talking to other game designers. Well, at the CGDC there was a Job Fair, which is where people go to get information on various companies so they can try to get a job there. There were many companies represented at the Job Fair. This is so funny: Dan Gorlin was at the Job Fair and he walked over to the Broderbund booth and talked to them. He even had a name tag on, but the Broderbund people HAD NO IDEA WHO
HE WAS!!! The creator of one of Broderbund's biggest titles (okay, a while ago. :) was TREATED LIKE A WANNABE GAME PROGRAMMER!!! I mean, we're talking about the guy that created Choplifter and Airheart! Amazing! I mean, how many other games of Broderbund's have been ported to a stand-up coin-op? NONE!
Well, I haven't heard about what Dan's been up to nowadays, but.....another one of Broderbund's previous blockbuster programmers HAS been busting his hump for a while on the NUMBER 2 RPG game of 1995 (voted by GamePro magazine)! The name is Doug Smith and the game is The Secret of Evermore (SNES). What did Doug do for Broderbund??? Well, he ONLY CREATED LODE RUNNER!!!! Sierra just brought Lode Runner back into the light recently, since they had it updated for the PC.
Whew. That tired me out. But i have more. If anyone here is an old Apple II game fanatic, i'd love to trade email with ya. Especially if you have any juicy info on Where Are They Now?
+-------------------------------+
| John Romero |
| johnr@idsoftware.com |
| id Software, inc. |
| Release date: When it's done. |
+-------------------------------+
---------
Nov 2003 Update
I have an incredible amount of information to share regarding the whereabouts of several Apple II legendsà..and also write about the amazing Apple II Reunion that I had back in 1998 in Dallas at my company Ion Storm. I have 6 hours of videotaped interviews with Nasir, Bill Budge, Warren Robinnett, etc. I also have an audio cassette with interviews of Dan Gorlin, Joel Berez and others. I need to get this stuff in MPG and MP3 formà. Hopefully in the next few months IÆll be doing that.
John Romero
Project Lead, Design Lead
Midway Home Entertainment
____________________________
From: ANO_NYMOUS and Erik Struiksma
010- Are there any Apple II games which play music using
'Old Apple II' sound while action is happening?
Try Microwave by Jim Nitchals and Jay Zimmerman. Jim worked on sound drivers with Steve Hales (primarily for the Mac) under the company name Halestorm. The company and its technology was later sold to Thomas Dolby's Headspace.
Another game that plays music through the speaker while your character moves is Dig Dug.
In both games the sound is a bit on the choppy side.
____________________________
From: Rubywand
011- Are there any new games for the Apple II/IIgs?
Yes. Games introduced since the late 1990's include ...
Eamon #242: The Dungeon of Traps (on GS WorldView's Archive; see
Games folder)
GShisen 2000 (on A2Central.com)
Santa Paravia and Fiumaccio: The Tournament Edition (on GS WorldView's
Archive; see Games folder)
Shipwrecked (on GS WorldView's Archive; see Games folder)
Silvern.Castle (on Ground; see Collections folder for Jeff Fink;
also check A2Central.com)
Sparks (on GS WorldView's Archive; see Games folder)
SuperMarioBros/gs (on IIGS Haufbrauhaus)
SuperQuest v5.51 (on GS WorldView's Archive; see Games folder)
To add a new game to the FAQs, email rubywand@swbell.net .
---------------------------
012- How do I get my Apple II game site listed in the FAQs?
Send an email describing your site to the Apple II FAQs maintainer at rubywand@swbell.net .
---------------------------
013- How do I play the games?
You have several options:
1- Download disk images (e.g. .dsk, .nib, .2mg files) and use these as virtual disks to play the games on a PC or Mac via Apple II or Apple IIgs emulator software. Popular Apple II emulators include AppleWin and Apple Oasis.
Normally disk images will be in .zip or .gz compressed form when downloaded. Use WinZip or a similar utility to uncompress these files.
For more emulator references and download info, see Q&A 003 in Csa2APPLICS or (html) http://home.swbell.net/rubywand/Csa2APPLICS.html#emu .
For info about disk images, see related Q&A in Csa2FLUTILS or (html)http://home.swbell.net/rubywand/Csa2FLUTILS.html .
2- Download and uncompress the disk images of games you want to play. Then, transfer the images to your Apple II (or IIgs)-- e.g. using a NULL modem connection and either a dedicated .dsk transfer utility like ADT or a general telecom utility such as ProTerm, Modem MGR, or Spectrum. On your Apple II or IIgs the images can be converted to diskettes.
Many Apple II and IIgs games are also in compressed ShrinkIt form. These may be whole-disk (.sdk) files or file archives (.shk files). Sometimes ShrinkIt files are maintained in .zip form; which means you will need to use WinZip or a similar PC/Mac utility to uncompress them to .sdk or .shk form after downloading. After transferring to your Apple II or IIgs, use 8-bit ShrinkIt or GS-ShrinkIt to uncompress the ShrinkIt file.
ShrinkIt disk archives usually yield a DOS 3.3 or ProDOS disk which you boot to play a game. ShrinkIt file archives for a game usually yield one or more files and a program intended for running under ProDOS. Some file archives yield files intended for execution under a shell (such as ORCA/M) or via an interpreter (such as Frotz or one of the 'Lost Treasures' Infocom interpreters).
For more about transferring files, see Csa2T1TCOM or (html) http://home.swbell.net/rubywand/Csa2T1TCOM.html .
3- Go to a website which lets you play Apple II games on-line.
Besides the above, other routes may involve using Apple II software which can directly access some images (i.e. without conversion to diskette) or using an Apple II board in your PC or Mac.
