Category Archives: Apple II

Apple II games.

Starglider, Apple II

The Apple II version of Argonaut Software‘s classic cockpit shooter, Starglider, was ported by Solid Image, the same developer who made the flawed C64 version. And – unsurprisingly – it retains all the flaws of the C64 version, and brings a few problems of its own to the party, just for good measure…

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H.E.R.O., Apple II

The Apple II version of John Van Ryzin‘s classic H.E.R.O. of course lacks the colour of other ports, but it still plays well enough. The game was converted by Charlie Heath (of Microsmiths) and published by Activision in 1984.

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Marble Madness, Apple II

The Apple II port of Atari Games‘ classic Marble Madness was first published by Electronic Arts in 1986. It was converted by Will Harvey of Sandcastle Productions, who also made the Commodore 64 version, of which this is basically a copy. Lack of colour aside, this conversion does have some playability issues that make it frustrating to play.

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Commando, Apple II

The 1987 Apple II conversion of Capcom‘s Commando was developed by Quicksilver Software, Inc. and published by Data East in North America only, and it is a reasonable port although the play window is probably the smallest out of the all the versions of Commando I’ve played so far.

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The Oregon Trail, Apple II

The Oregon Trail is a classic Apple II strategy/adventure game where you play as settlers travelling in a covered wagon on The Oregon Trail in 1848. As you might imagine, the trail is hostile and survival on it is brutal, so you have to prepare for your trip in advance by buying food, clothes, ammunition, spare parts, and oxen to pull your wagon.

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Ultima Special

Richard Garriott‘s famous Role-Playing Game series began officially in 1981 with “Ultima” for the Apple II. It was a pioneering mixture of single-player adventuring, combat and levelling, with humble beginnings, starting out on early 8-bit systems and working its way up to modern PCs in the 1990s. The Ultima series was always evolving; always innovating, and constantly proving to be a considerable influence on story-based, single-player RPGs, and the fantasy adventure game market in general.

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Ultima V: Warriors of Destiny, Apple II

Ultima V: Warriors of Destiny was first released in 1988 for the Apple II through Origin Systems. It was the last Ultima game to be developed for the Apple II and it comes on eight floppy disks. It is the second game in the “Age of Enlightenment” trilogy and is similar in style to the previous game, with character creation done by answering a series of virtue-based questions. You can also import a character from Ultima IV if you have one, which is an interesting new feature in the series.

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Ultima IV: Quest of the Avatar, Apple II

Ultima IV: Quest of the Avatar is the fourth game in the Ultima series and was designed by Richard Garriott and first published by Origin Systems in 1985. It is the first game in the “Age of Enlightenment” trilogy, which moves towards a more ethically-led, story-driven approach. Rather than requiring the player to overcome a tangible evil the story instead focuses on the player’s moral self-improvement.

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Ultima III: Exodus, Apple II

Ultima III: Exodus is the third game in the Ultima series and the final instalment in the “Age of Darkness” trilogy. It was the first Ultima game that was published by Origin Systems and first came out for the Apple II in 1983. Ultima III was also the first game in the Ultima series where you controlled a party of characters, rather than a single hero, and the first Ultima game to use a line of sight/fog-of-war mechanic, meaning that anything that wasn’t directly within viewing distance was hidden from the player.

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