Apple II games that're BETTER than their arcade counterpart.

[Keatah]

16 hours ago, doug0909 said:

Could that have impacted the feel of gaming, particularly gaming with a keyboard, in a very positive way? Or would the results of such a study about the time it takes for a character to appear on screen after pressing a key be of little relevance to gaming? (Has anyone looked at latency issues in early arcade games?) 

I would expect early arcade games to be similarly quick because they typically had dedicated hardware. No frills to get in the way. No complex Hypervisors or operating systems to get in the way. They just had to read maybe 6-10 switches as user input and then adjust some DACs for audio/video output. Nothing else.

 

I can tell you the lightning fast text response of the II was desirable over anything the Amiga was doing. The Amiga like the C64 seemed all mushy and sluggish. While the II was crisp and sharp. So I kept my II in service till the mid-1990's when I transitioned to PC. It had that typewriter feel to it. The CRT video terminal of the 70's feel to it.

 

I don't know how much that contributed to gaming. I never heard anyone talk about it. I myself did appreciate the uniqueness of some games and applications. Lots of stuff you'd never see on cartridge based systems. And I believe that's what was important.

[potatohead]

Re:  Apple artifact colors

 

Personally, I always just turned the saturation down some.  It's much better that way.  

[Keatah]

I always oversaturated my TV settings. Always going for a colorful VCS look.

[+FujiSkunk]

Dig Dug on the Apple II is more than decent, in my humble opinion, and one of AtariSoft's best efforts for the system.  The one they botched, I think, is the C-64 version.  Sure it looks and sounds better, but the game mechanics are wonky and prone to slowdowns, and there are actually fewer musical cues than the Apple II port.

 

I agree Donkey Kong on the Apple II is weak, but I have to say Dig Dug is much better.

[Tempest]

Never knew there was so much Apple II Dig Dug love. 

 

OK I replayed it a few times and I guess it is better than I remember it being.  It's not nearly as good as the 5200 version, but for the Apple II it's not bad.  If only someone could either fix the music or add an option to turn it off.  The music is just so grating...

[DeathAdderSF]

On 6/17/2022 at 11:38 AM, Tempest said:

If only someone could either fix the music or add an option to turn it off.  The music is just so grating...

 

I was about to reply with a snarky, "Well you could always just turn down the volume," before remembering that many of the Apple II models don't actually provide this function without modification. ?

 

See, I was spoiled as I grew up with a IIc at home. So I never understood why the IIe machines at my grade school couldn't have their volume adjusted. It could get pretty distracting when one kid was playing a game in his free time, whilst others were trying to endure a typing lesson.

 

[+OLD CS1]

1 hour ago, DeathAdderSF said:

See, I was spoiled as I grew up with a IIc at home.

Oh, you were one of those kids...

[DeathAdderSF]

1 hour ago, OLD CS1 said:

Oh, you were one of those kids...

 

Indeed: Apple IIc, AppleColor IIc Composite Monitor, Imagewriter II. Only one floppy disk drive though, making games like King's Quest IV a real chore to play. (FOUR disk swaps just to see Rosella die? Well, OK, still kinda worth it.)

Edited June 21, 2022 by DeathAdderSF

[Tempest]

On 6/20/2022 at 11:03 PM, DeathAdderSF said:

 

Indeed: Apple IIc, AppleColor IIc Composite Monitor, Imagewriter II. Only one floppy disk drive though, making games like King's Quest IV a real chore to play. (FOUR disk swaps just to see Rosella die? Well, OK, still kinda worth it.)

I didn't know you could play any of the Sierra games with only one disk drive.  I thought they required two.  I know many of the later IIe games did and some could use two if you pressed 2 when you were asked to insert a disk.

[DeathAdderSF]

8 hours ago, Tempest said:

I didn't know you could play any of the Sierra games with only one disk drive.

 

You do now. ?

 

I didn't think too much of it back then, as those were the "good old days" when I wasn't even aware, for example, that hard drives existed. So while disk swapping wasn't ideal, I didn't really feel put out by it.

 

On top of a few Sierra games, I also enjoyed the multi-disk Where in America's Past is Carmen Sandiego?, in which I solved 32 cases before moving on to the IBM-PC. Good times.

Edited June 24, 2022 by DeathAdderSF