More C= Memories
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By: Paul Panks (dunric@yahoo.com)

I have more C= memories than the ones I posted about almost a week ago. I recall receiving the Commodore 128 as a Christmas present in 1985. I was upset because I wanted a Commodore 64, but my parents said that the 128 had more power than the 64 and (as a bonus) was also 64 compatible.

The first programs we loaded up on the system were BC's Quest for Tires and MULE. We also had the Test/Demo disk and the C-128 Tutorial. It was neat to see what the new computer could do, as the Tutorial displayed graphics, sprites and music.

The game -- BC's Quest for Tires -- was a cartoonish adventure set in the Neanderthal days of the cave man. The premise was to hop over rocks, dodge trees and avoid falling rocks. The main character eventually reached a cave which was guarded by a dinosaur. Then he rescued his sweetheart and the game began again, but at a higher level of difficulty.

After a few months, we received game programs from both my cousin and uncle (he had purchased a C64 in 1983 and amassed a sizeable library of games and utilities). These games included One-on-One, Apple Cider Spider and Epyx Karate.

The 1571 disk drive went out of alignment and we had to get it repaired. It took almost a full week, but afterwards it worked like a charm (I tested it by loading in several small programs of mine). When they loaded without issue, it was clear that the re-alignment worked.

We also bought a dot-matrix printer, which I believe was a Panasonic 1070i with a Super Grafix Jr. interface. I recall often printing out program listings and disk directories with the Panasonic.

One of the most cherished games that we played was Castle Adventure by David Malmberg. This was a 75 block text adventure similar to the Scott Adams adventure games of the late-1970s. The player moved around by typing in noun-verb combinations: GO NORTH, GO SOUTH, GET KNAPSACK, CLIMB TREE, etc.

Although we were never able to fully solve Castle Adventure -- possibly due to a bug in the program -- we played it constantly.

Another game that we played a lot was MULE. MULE was set on a fictional planet named Irata (Atari spelled backwards). Up to 4 players could battle it out, trying to win the coveted "First Founder" label. Players (and also the CPU) competed with one another for land, money and goods in a mad race to colonize Irata. At the end of every turn, there were colony wide auctions for resources such as Smithore and Crystite. The game would often have random events occur before the auctions. These events ranged from a meteor landing on a plot, making it super rich in Crystite, to bugs eating a player's crop of food.

The player won the game by finishing with the most money, land and goods; thus, they won the prize of "First Founder". Depending on how the colony did overall, the game would display a scrolling message saying how successful it was.   

We also played the game Super Huey, which was a well-designed helicopter simulation. The graphics were sharp and the gameplay very addicting.

Around 1987 or so, we purchased the adventure game The Pawn by Magnetic Scrolls. This game was the jewel of our humble C64/128 collection, as it displayed excellent graphics of castles, drawbridges, forests and other locations within the game. The text descriptions were were very rich and the story extremely immersing. We had fun trying different verb-noun combinations like we had with Castle Adventure. 

With The Pawn there were often several unexpected and often delightful responses. For example, the player could climb a tree and talk to a guru of sorts who insisted on laughing hysterically at your wristband (which you couldn't remove). The guru confused us because we didn't know what to say to him to get a meaningful response. He just sat there laughing at us, while eating a bowl of rice. He also resembled an alien of sorts, but I just called him Troll Guru.

Another game which we played often was Jumpman. Jumpman was a climbing and jumping game somewhat unique to the genre. The player collected "gems" while avoiding various obstacles, including flying dots, vampire bats, UFOs and odd-looking robots. My brother eventually solved the game but I could never get past the third or fourth level. 

Epyx Karate was also fun, pitting two players (or a player versus the CPU) against one another. The graphics were quite good for the time and the music was absorbing. We learned new moves like the Roundhouse and Flying kicks in order to easily defeat the CPU. There were also "leg sweep" kicks that knocked the opponent off his feet.

In between the fighting there were "bonus" rounds where the player could breaks a stack of bricks with his head, as well as dodging items that were thrown at him. My brother eventually got up to Brown Belt but we never progressed beyond that.

We also played Seven Cities of Gold. This game was a simulation of Christopher Columbus and his voyage to the New World. The player would start out in Europe, purchasing equipment, men, provisions (e.g. Food) and other needed goods. An audience with the king and queen were also necessary in order to return to the New World after each successful trip. 

The New World was richly detailed, too. The player could explore the entire continent and either trade -- or fight -- with local tribes. This was the most interesting part of the game, as the player could have any number of actions to choose from. For example, if the player encountered a tribe and bartered for trinkets, his actions would be relayed to nearby tribes. As word spread, neighoring tribes would either do business with the player, avoid him entirely or even engage him in battle.

How the player treated the tribes was of utmost importance. There was a balance between trading fairly and being hostile. If the player was too aggressive, the tribe would fight the player and his men, which was always a bad thing. Losing men in Seven Cities of Gold was the worst part of the adventure. The player needed men in order to complete his trip.

Food was also important. The player could lose men rapidly if he didn't have enough food for the voyage. I always made sure to have enough food and men, but sometimes lack of gold didn't allow such a perfect balance.

My brother at some point lost interest in the Commodore and got a Nintendo (the NES). But I still enjoyed playing games. The ones I liked the most included Castlevania, Elite, Marble Madness, Neuromancer and Speedball. 

This concludes my post on C= memories. I hope you have enjoyed it.

Paul