NIAD Posted January 15, 2011 Share Posted January 15, 2011 (edited) Diablo by Image MicroCorp (1984) (no extra hardware requirements) For the fourth installment of the now called "Game of the Week", I give you Diablo by Image MicroCorp. Diablo was one of the first 3rd Party programs released for the ADAM and considering when it was developed and released (when tech. info. wasn't available on the ADAM), an incredible accomplishment on the part of the unknown programmer... so much so that it was ported to other computers of the time. It is also one of my personal favorites. The premise of Diablo is to continually create an ever connecting path for a ball to travel on by sliding squares sections of different track pieces around a 13x9 (116 square sections with 1 open section) game board one at a time with the goal being that the ball travels across every section of track to remove it from play. If I recall correctly, there are 232 sections of track that the ball must travel over as some squares actually contain two sections of track that the ball must travel over. Don't let the track become interrupted or let the ball run into the red border as this will cause the ball to fall out of play. Once you clear 60 track sections, the red border, which can't be touched, turns to green and allows for the ball to pass thru to the other side. Also, if you have a good amount of tracks connected properly, you may speedup the ball by pressing the fire-button. This game may already be familiar to a lot of people as it's been available in the TOSEC ADAM Archive for a long time and I recall a similar game being available many years later on the Gameboy... if you have never seen it before have fun with it. Diablo is one of those games that really gets your heart pumping once you get close to clearing the game board of track. Diablo is playable using all available ADAM Emulators. Diablo (1984) (Image MicroCorp).zip Edited January 15, 2011 by NIAD 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
newcoleco Posted January 15, 2011 Share Posted January 15, 2011 Another one already? I'm still stuck in ADAMBomb 2, I want to record the ending (if any). I've already played Diablo a few years ago, so I know what it is. My question to the author of this game is : Why it's titled Diablo? The first time I've played Diablo, I was thinking : "This is a very small game that should fit into a ColecoVision cartridge, maybe we can convert it." After only a few hours, I've abandoned the idea because I've realized that even if the game size is ok, the amount of RAM needed to run was much more larger than 1KB (limit on the console) which is a problem. So, I've played the game a few times instead of porting it to the ColecoVision game system. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
+retroclouds Posted January 15, 2011 Share Posted January 15, 2011 Did you know that Diablo also exists for the TI-99/4A Home Computer? Could be the original version, because its title screen says "©1983 Extended Software". Check the TI Gameshelf here Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
NIAD Posted January 15, 2011 Author Share Posted January 15, 2011 (edited) Did you know that Diablo also exists for the TI-99/4A Home Computer? Could be the original version, because its title screen says "©1983 Extended Software". Check the TI Gameshelf here That's the system that it was ported too or vice versa... thanks for the memory refresh. It's logical that it made it's way to or from the TI since there are a number of hardware similarities between the two computers. The ADAM titles screen also lists a copyright of 1983 by Extended Software Co. and then a 1984 copyright by Image MicroCorp. Does anyone remember the name of the Gameboy version? Was it Mario Plumber, or something like that? BTW, thanks for the link to the TI site. It looks like there's a lot of great stuff on there that will consume hours of my time! Edited January 15, 2011 by NIAD Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
NIAD Posted January 16, 2011 Author Share Posted January 16, 2011 Another one already? I'm still stuck in ADAMBomb 2, I want to record the ending (if any). I've already played Diablo a few years ago, so I know what it is. My question to the author of this game is : Why it's titled Diablo? The first time I've played Diablo, I was thinking : "This is a very small game that should fit into a ColecoVision cartridge, maybe we can convert it." After only a few hours, I've abandoned the idea because I've realized that even if the game size is ok, the amount of RAM needed to run was much more larger than 1KB (limit on the console) which is a problem. So, I've played the game a few times instead of porting it to the ColecoVision game system. Love keeping you busy Daniel! The author's name of the TI version is Manuel Constantinidis, so it be interesting to see if he can be found and an answer to your question given. The ADAM version was done by Image MicroCorp, but I don't know any of the names behind that company. They did release a number of other ADAM programs including: The Stock Market Game, Black Gold, Disassembler, etc. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Manuel Posted April 11, 2011 Share Posted April 11, 2011 (edited) I am the original Author of Diablo. I developed it on or around 1982 on the Texas Instraments TI 99/4A Home Computer. There was a Software Competition in Sydney Australia in which I won first prize for the game. I later went on to license it on many platforms, although many more appeared that I had no involvement in. Broderbund Japan licensed it for the gameboy and called it "Blodia" for trademark issues due to Diablo Printers back then. They merely flipped the first 3 letters for the last 3. My inspiration for it and also for its name was from the attached image of the french version of the "15 puzzle" game called "Diablotin", which had been around for over a hundered years. Happy to answer an more questions., Cheers Manuel Edited April 11, 2011 by Manuel Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
NIAD Posted April 11, 2011 Author Share Posted April 11, 2011 Thanks for posting the answer to Daniel's question re. the name and thanks again for creating such a fun game to play... even after all these years I'll load it up every so often and have a go of it! BTW, did you ever receive anything for the ADAM version from Extended Software Co./Image MicroCorp? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
newcoleco Posted April 11, 2011 Share Posted April 11, 2011 (edited) I am the original Author of Diablo. ... Manuel What a nice surprise! Nice to meet you Manuel! Thank you for telling us the story behind Diablo(tin) and answering my question. May I ask if there is a chance to see you at the ADAMCON conventions? maybe this year? Edited April 11, 2011 by newcoleco Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Manuel Posted April 14, 2011 Share Posted April 14, 2011 Thanks for posting the answer to Daniel's question re. the name and thanks again for creating such a fun game to play... even after all these years I'll load it up every so often and have a go of it! BTW, did you ever receive anything for the ADAM version from Extended Software Co./Image MicroCorp? Its great to hear good comments about Diablo after all these years, ..thank you! I have to say that I really don't remember receiving anything for the ADAM. and Royalties from Extended Software were really next to nothing. Actually, I only heard of Image Microcorp when I read this article last week,,lol. But I have seen other versions around too that I wasn't involved in. You will notice that my name is not mentioned on the credits for the ADAM, as it is on most other platforms. There was even a macintosh version, however it didn't make it to the market. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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