(Continued from page 11) "Pac-Tac", etc.) and more. Original games "Castle of Tharoggad" to disk games like
were plentiful, offering up some great text "Rupert Rythym: The Music Box Caper",
white case with the shape following the adventures ("Pyramid 2000", "Raaka-Tu") "Iron Forest" (which used an adapter to
familiar style of the old machine and a key- along with graphic/text outings ("To Pre- hook up a Sega Master System Phaser
board that was just like a modern electronic serve Quandic", "Hall of the King") to the gun) and "Kyum-Gai: To Be Ninja".
typewriter's. Shortly afterwards, using arcade-like titles ("Shamus", "Shock
money I had obtained from some forgotten Trooper", "Donut Dilemma") and even some In 1991 Tandy announced that it was dis-
holiday, I purchased the game early FPS style games like "Fembots Re- continuing its Color Computer. I had al-
"Downland". It was a platformer of sorts venge" or possibly one the earliest of the ready seen the signs of this coming even
where you had to control your character genre "Phantom Slayer". With the help of before I bought my CoCo 3. The games
through a cavern by jumping on rocks, selection at Radio Shack was getting
climbing ropes, dodging acid drops and smaller and smaller with more titles and
collecting the treasure strewn about while accessories being clearanced out on a
going for keys to unlock the next level. regular basis (which is how I got a 300 baud
modem for $30 so I could rack up a huge
On the topic of cartridges, if you look about phone and Delphi bill, but that's another
the Web and read about what‘s available for story). "Hot CoCo" magazine was no
this system, you're not going to find a whole longer and "The Rainbow" magazine's size
lot of love. Even some CoCo enthusiasts had dwindled considerably as the last issue
don't give high praise to some of the car- we bought was in January of 1990 with a
tridges available for this system. Thanks to whopping 96 pages. The issue I have be-
the severely limited number of colors the fore that, December of 1988 had double
system has at higher resolutions, there that. In March of 1992 the magazine re-
were a number of titles that used lots of verted somewhat back to its newspaper-like
bright greens and yellows. A good example roots and by May of 1993 the magazine
of this can be seen in the earliest of CoCo the operating system called OS-9 (not to be sent its final issue. By the mid 90's Radio
cartridges simply called "Backgammon", confused with Apple's operating system Shack no longer carried anything CoCo
whose color choices could make one's eyes several years later, this OS was made by based except what was left in their cata-
bleed. Microware) you could get graphic GUI log. Similar fates befell the competing
based adventures like "The Interbank Inci- computers during this time as well as I and
dent". many others moved onto IBM PC Compati-Thankfully this was not the case with every
bles as prices for those systems started cartridge. Universally hailed as one of the
Time marched on and so did my desire to dropping considerably compared to the high best games for the CoCo was "Dungeons of
have my own Color Computer. One day prices of the 80's. Daggorath"-a first person 3D adventure title
using cash I had saved I bought the latest that had you going through wire-frame
and last of the Color Computer line, you For years CoCos and its cartridges could be dungeons fighting monsters (which all had
guessed, the CoCo 3. The machine came found practically everywhere second-their own unique sound, so you knew what
standard with 128 KB of RAM that was hand. There wasn't a time I wouldn't spot was coming as the sound grew louder)
expandable to 512 KB. It had more graphi- an old CoCo 2 or a 3 hanging out at a ga-using a text based interface (standard
cal power thanks to the "Graphics Interrupt rage sale or at the local Goodwill. I myself N,S,E,W along with ATTACK LEFT if your
Memory Enhancement" or GIME chip which jumped back into the scene with my own weapon was in the left hand, or A L if you
it allowed the machine to display sixteen machines, only to sell them off due to lack wanted to use the game's short
colors out of a palette of sixty-four with a of use and storage at the time. Cartridges hand). "Mega-Bug" was another popular
higher resolution and had RGB monitor like "Dungeons of Daggorath" were routine game that took the Pac-style maze game
support. It also could display in lower case, as were the productivity crud like "Color and put its own spin on it. The maze itself
something that required hardware modifica- Scripsit". By the turn of the century sud-was huge and complex so the developer
tions purchased from third party companies denly CoCos disappeared. Even eBay, a was nice enough to show you the whole
for the older CoCos. Thanks to this new place where one could find the hardware thing on the screen. However in order to
enhancement the CoCo 3 was "mostly" readily seemed to dry to a trickle of auctions SEE where you are going (and to heighten
compatible with software from the previous most of the time. I'd like to think, with the the chase) a magnifying square was placed
machines-programs that used the "semi recent surge of people interested in the over your location. As you chomped dots
graphics" mode didn't work well or not at all CoCo at sites like The Tandy Color Com-you left a trail for the maze's monsters to try
on a CoCo 3. On the game side of things puter Super Site (www.coco3.com) and the and find. And there were no power pills or
this opened up new avenues of fun with recent games that have been released (for weapons so you were always on the
cartridge ports of "Silpheed" (which had example "Jeweled", a "Bejeweled" clone, an run. "Dragonfire", one of the few licensed
code for CoCo 1 & 2's and enhanced graph- amazing "port" of the actual "Donkey Kong" games on cartridge for the CoCo, was a
ics for CoCo 3's), "Shanghai", "Robocop" arcade code and a "Doom-like" game called technological feat because it could display
and "Super Pitfall". More ports for the disk- "Gate Crashers"), that people are hanging all eight colors on the screen at the resolu-
ette arena yielded great hits like Epyx's onto this little piece of history and passing tion that could typically only allow four
"Sub Battle Simulator" and "Rogue", Sierra on the experience to a younger genera-thanks to some pretty snazzy timing tech-
On-Line's "Leisure Suit Larry" (which re- tion. One doesn't really appreciate their niques.
quired a RAM upgrade to play) to Lucas- dual or quad core processors with lightning
film's "Rescue on Fractalus". Original titles fast SATA hard drives and millions of colors While Video Game Trader is focused on
using the beefed up power of the latest until they fired up a CoCo, be greeted by its cartridge-based games and systems, to
CoCo included cartridge games like "A two color bright green and black screen and neglect the games available on other for-
Mazing World of Malcom Mortar" and then loaded a word processor off of an mats for the CoCo or any computer of the
audio cassette. It was a part of a genera-80's would be an injustice. Any gamer
tion that had to really learn how to use a would tell you that, dollar for dollar and bit
computer in a time where those machines for bit, some of the best games that came
were seen as little boxes of magic. In the out for any 80's computer arrived on either
right hands even the coolest, radical dude tape or diskette. The CoCo library is no
in school would go slack jaw in amazement exception with a plethora of great games
when the class geek could make the class from your arcade knock-offs like "Lancer" or
computer do things that seemed possible "Buzzard Bait" ("Joust"),
only in one's imagination. "Zaksund" ("Zaxxon"), the many "Donkey
Kong" clones ("Dunkey Munkey" or
I didn't think of it back in 1981/82 when you "Monkey Kong" to name a couple), the
brought the computer home, but thanks "Pac" games ("Pac-Dude", "Ghost Gobbler",
Dad for showing me that magic.
12 | Video Game Trader Magazine | July 2008 | www.VideoGameTrader.com
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