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I discovered this by accident a couple of years ago. It's considerably easier than the Trail version - you don't die of diarrhea, have half your party drown in the river, etc. But it's also a relaxing change of pace when you don't want to always be stressing out about poor Billy and Clara.

Thought I'd start a thread for the greatest PC in the history of PC's I remember first seeing it in my college years...I walked into the local Radio Shack, saw the magical multimedia machine, and was spellbound. It was playing this buy-me-hug-me-take-me-home demo: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3PwQTvnq_UY It sure had me drooling, but it's hard to save up $2000 when you make $6 an hour sorting dishes in the dorm cafeteria. I sighed and went back to my pathetic 286, with Windows 3.0 and monochrome VGA. My college years came and went, and despite upgrading to the venerable AMD 386-40, I never really stopped thinking about the ol' Tandy Sensation. The specs are laughable now: - 486/25 with disabled co-processor and 4MB RAM - 107MB hard drive (2/3 pre-filled with junk) - 2400 baud modem with 4800 (!) send fax - the "16 million color" promise that turned out to be a sham. The video chip might have 16.7M capability in theory, but the actual palette is only 262,144, and you can only see 256 at a time. Ah, advertising. - 375ms CD-ROM and 12-bit (!!) sound card By the time I found a real paying job, the TS had long sailed off into the sunset, and I had to settle for a Packard Heck, with Megarace and the SI sports almanac (including a photo-less version of the fabulous swimsuit issue!) It just wasn't the same. Fast forward not a small amount of years, and zing, I'm finally able to score a couple of original Sensation CD's, fluff a few pillows in Dosbox, and test drive it at long last. It's sensational awesome! True, maybe it would have been more wow-inducing back in the day, but it really is enjoyable. There are tons of demos on the CD's, including the original store demo, and a nice little presentation on the world of multimedia. My old Packard had the edge on gaming (it came bundled with a few Microsoft entertainment pack titles, a nice touch) but the Tandy wins on pure charm and charisma. The text-to-speech program is fun to fool around with, and I've even used the unit converters to translate pounds into kilos, and Fahrenheits into Celsiususieses. I can see myself playing with all the goodies for years to come. Oh, and as for the colors...thanks to modern-day technology, it's finally a reality: What can I say? Sensation begins...where ordinary PC's stop!

Thanks! Cool, something new to be addicted to Officially got 34. I won't save the scores, but I'm going to keep retaking this until I can nail all 52 in one shot. Pretty soon I'll know them better than the 50 states Edit: got it on my third try! Thanks for putting this together.

For an example of how big Adventure can get, try looking up Indenture by Craig Pell. You'll probably need Dosbox to run it, but I believe it has hundreds of rooms and some additional items.

Yikes. Hit ALL of the boost pads on level 3, tried my darndest to hug the outside walls...and STILL didn't make it through. Like Pac-Man and Galaxian in the arcade...this just ain't my game.

0.971 is working nicely, thanks! On the experimental one, what's the difference between "handy" and "handybug"?

Can't remember, does Super Offroad also save high scores?

Yeah, that's me too, I'm not quite as proficient as that guy who won Cliff Hanger on Starcade (he apparently played through the game blindfolded, using his FEET) but I can get through Dragon's Lair by heart. Well, except on the very hard setting in Daphne...I know what to do on the very hard scenes but still die most of the time. What I was really wondering was, could someone with absolute top-notch reflexes and gaming skills get through DL2 on their first try, without ever having played before (let's assume we will tell them ahead of time where the treasures are, and which way to go on diagonal-looking flashes). Reflex didn't get me very far when I was 18, but my reflexes have never been that great. My gut instinct tells me that even the fastest folks will struggle starting around level 6, but that's just speculation. It depends on the minimum time given between the flash and "you lose." Also, having to choose one of 5 moves, with the visual cues appearing in various parts of the screen, is much more complex than looking for "stop" or "go" and hitting a single button, on a standard reflex test. I guess someone would have to do a Mythbusters-type experiment to find out.

Hi, does anyone have the 0.971 version (or whatever the latest one is) of Handy? I tried the download link here http://atariage.com/forums/topic/186720-fixing-known-bugs-in-handy-emulator/page-4 but it is broken. Right now I have 0.95 and it works but with the known sound issues. Thanx

I can remember when Dragon's Lair II came out in the arcades, I was 18 years old and pretty much at my prime when it came to gaming reflexes. But I remember having trouble catching the flashes in time starting around level 3 or 4, and by level 6 I could not keep up at all. I would just have to "learn the hard way," memorize, and keep the quarters coming. There would be times when I would even know the correct move coming up, and STILL be too late in moving. (I can't remember if the machine allowed spamming the controls or not.) Does anyone know what the shortest reaction times were programmed to be, and could someone with world-class reflexes theoretically make it all the way through the game (ignoring treasures and nasty tricks like ambiguous diagonal flashes)? I remember some darn quick flashes in Space Ace too...the roller skating scene is just brutal. In my old age I much prefer the new Steam versions with the move guides, over the frustration (and quarterlessness) I experienced back in the day. They give you a much fairer amount of time to react.

HOLY COW at 34:00 on the 2015 video. I've never seen anyone get off to such a fast start on Discs of Tron. Nice job. Hearing "this game sucks" from the youngster though... C'mon kids, help bring the arcade back to life!

Starcade is gone? Lame. I wonder if they lost out to all the kids waiting in line, playing on their phones. Not sure about back in the REAL day, but around 1994 they definitely had Tron. I know that because I got about 200k on it, my all-time high. Man, was I stoked to see my initials at the top of the high score list that day.

This thread sure puts a smile on my face! I first encountered the Lynx in 1991, when a friend in the dorms had it. Ugggh did I want one badly, but...no money! It wasn't until about 1998 that I finally got the bright idea to surf around on my little dialup connection (33.6k?) and lo & behold, I found a handful of retro stores that still carried the Lynx, with such winning names as Toad Games and 2radd.net. A few had already gone out of business. I eventually decided on Video Game Liquidators, which had most titles for $10, and I went to town. When that package arrived at the office, work be derned, I ripped it open and started playing. I distinctly remember plugging in Electrocop first, just hear the awesome music again...boy, did that do my heart some good! Most of the other games I got were from my dorm days - CA Games, Stun Runner, Cyberball, Xybots, and the game I had played the most, Bill & Ted. I also got Qix because it was an arcade favorite of mine. Ah, the nostalgia! I still only have about 10 games, but I am seriously tempted to take out the ol' Christmas bonus from under the mattress, and stroll down the Lynx aisles of Ebay. What better way to get through mid-life crisis?

Oh goodness, some of these almost bring tears to my eyes. So many happy memories of spending hours in Reno arcades (cuz ya know, can't gamble when you're under 21) and making instant friends with the other kids. There really is something about the marquee that adds to the experience. My all time favorite has got to be Galaxian, especially when it's lit up and the arcade is fairly dark. It really epitomizes the word "arcade" to me. The irony of it is, I am terrible at that game! All right Johnny, let 'em roll... 10. Revenge of D'OH: Even a few years before the Simpsons, I remember this one giving me a chuckle. 9. Cliff Hanger: Probably the most clashy color scheme ever. Somehow it appeals to me. 8. Venture: Very D&D-ish. I think they had this at Golden Nugget in Sparks. 7. Space Odyssey: I remember seeing this at an arcade inside a restaurant (yes, some restaurants actually had arcades). The simplistic, elegant marquee prompted me to insert a token. I lasted about 30 seconds. 6. Pac-Man: Like Galaxian, this one is synonymous with "arcade" to me. Also like Galaxian, I am terrible at it. 5. Nappy: It's huge. And bigger is better. 4. Wizard of Wor: The regal lettering always reminded me of King Norman's toy store. This was also one of the few co-op games back then. 3. Gypsy Juggler: Thought this game was way too hard, but the font is pure funk. 2. Dragon's Lair: I would love this one even if it weren't my favorite game of all time. The "Dragonslayer" font, the cartoons, the fancy 3-panel layout. Outstanding. 1. Galaxian: Just beautiful. If only I could figure out how to play this one...