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Games Beaten In 2022 (classic computing edition)


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Feel free to post your accomplishments finishing games on classic computing platforms, in 2022!

I'll start:

 

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Ultima II: Revenge of the Enchantress (Apple II)

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I've already completed Ultima I, III, IV, and VII, so it always bothered me that I'd never completed this one.  I have made attempts over the years using various ports, but never got very far.  I decided, then, to sit down and finally get this one over with, and what better version to play than the original* Apple II version? (*People in the know will be able to tell from the screenshot that I played the "Ultima Trilogy I II III" release, which is sort of a "remaster" of the game).

 

I'm not gonna lie: I followed a walkthrough for this one.  I can't even imagine how many hours upon hours of grinding you'd need to do to save up enough gold to replenish your constantly dwindling HP and food as you explore these massive maps to slowly figure out what you need to do.  Even knowing exactly what to do, I had to grind like crazy to get the point where my character could survive and then finish the game.  The game took less than 10 hours to complete, but 9 hours of that was grinding gold.  It's too bad, because there is a good game somewhere under all this grind.  Although the quest seems completely bizarre and random, there are hints and clues all over the place, and it all fits together pretty well. I really enjoyed figuring out the time gates, for instance.

 

Anyway, I'm glad to have completed this one.  Next up is Ultima V, so I have something excellent to look forward to!

Edited by newtmonkey
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[mention=50625]bjonte[/mention]
Well done to you as well!  I hadn't heard of that game so I looked it up.  Recommended?

It’s hard but very short so if you want some arcade action that’s possible to complete within a couple of minutes, it’s a good pick.
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  • 3 months later...

Space Quest: Chapter I - The Sarien Encounter (MS-DOS)

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I decided to give this a shot today, as I have fond memories of (unsuccessfully) playing Space Quest IV  back in the day at a friend's house.  Three hours later, I had completed the game after many many deaths, having to go back to older saves, and even having to completely restart once.  I went into this mostly blind, but I did have to check for hints a couple of times:

Spoiler
  • First was because I didn't realize you could continue walking east past the initial screen east of your crashed spaceship.  I was focusing too much on trying to get the spider droid to follow me and kill the sandworms (which isn't possible).
  • Second was at the very end because I didn't realize you could check the Sarien suit for an ID card (though it makes sense in hindsight).

 

Otherwise, I thought the game was surprisingly fair.  I died a lot, but made sure to save every time I accomplished anything, and also made sure to use good descriptions when naming my save files.  I didn't mind the frequest deaths at all, as they mostly are there just to tell you that you need to go in another direction or somehow bypass whatever is killing you.


There are quite a few "dead end" situations here, but I thought they were mostly fair and obvious either right away or after a short time.  However, there are two REALLY unfair bits:

Spoiler
  • If you don't refuse the alien's first offer to buy your skimmer, you can't get the jetpack, which means you can't complete the game (and you won't figure this out for a while).  The problem here is that there is nothing suggesting that you would ever want to refuse the offer... so you would might think that this is unrelated, and that you missed the jetpack somewhere earlier in the game.  The only thing that sort of makes sense, is that you might think you still need the skimmer (the game makes a point of mentioning it still works), so you'd refuse the alien, then when he makes the next offer and mentions a jetpack, you might think "I could use that intead of the skimmer probably."
  • The shard of glass you need to get when your ship crashes.  You can't even see it, the game doesn't mention it, and you basically just have to know it's there in order to get it.  There is nothing fair about this!  Although I went in mostly blind, I did know about this somehow; it's possible I read it in a review or forum post long ago and it stuck in my mind.

 

As shown in the screen above, I wasn't able to get a perfect score.  I checked a walkthrough after to see what I missed, but instead was pleased to find that the game actually has multiple solutions for some puzzles:

 

Spoiler
  • The spider droid can be killed by dropping a rock on it from above, and the Orat monster can be killed by throwing the dehydrated water cylinder at it.  This is what I did.  Alternately, you can instead lead the spider droid into the Orat's cave, and they will kill each other.  I guess you get more points for the latter.
  • In the final area, you can hide in the trunk to get taken to the washing machine, where you get the Sarien uniform.  This is what I did.  Alternately, you can instead push the trunk to the wall and climb through the vent to the washing machine room.

 

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Anyway, I mostly had a great time with this one and it is one of the very few point-and-click adventure game I've ever completed (Legend of Kyrandia, Call of Cthulhu: Shadow of the Comet, Loom, The Secret of Monkey Island, and Quest for Glory [if that counts]).

Edited by newtmonkey
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@wierd_w

I've only fooled around briefly with MOOII, it's a genre I'd really like to get into, but get overwhelmed immediately.  I should probably start from MOO and give it a few hours to get into it.

 

I'm looking forward to playing Wiz VII probably next year. :) I completed Wiz1-3+5 over the past few years, and got maybe halfway through 6 before burning out and focusing instead of the Gold Box games.  I'll probably restart Wiz 6 sometime this year and hope to complete it by the end of the year.  Did you take your part from 6 to 7, or just start from 7?

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  • 2 weeks later...

Leisure Suit Larry in the Land of the Lounge Lizards (MS-DOS)

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I decided this would be the next adventure to play, and before I knew it I had completed the game (an hour or two).  I have made many attempts to finish this over the years and made some good progress before, so I already knew what to do for about the first half of the game.  The rest of the game was pretty straightforward, and getting through it was just a matter of exploring all the screens and picking up everything I could.

 

I needed one hint for this one:

Spoiler

The drunk wandering outside the store; he simply asks for money and I would never have guessed on my own to buy wine and give it to him.

 

Otherwise, the game was really quite fair.  As long as you pay attention to the descriptions, it's not hard to figure out what you need to do.  The room descriptions mostly list everything you'd need to inspect, and the graphics are good enough that you don't have to guess what you're looking at.  The item puzzles all made sense, and I don't think there were many "walking dead" situations... the only one I can think of is:

Spoiler

If you don't get the knife before getting tied up by Fawn

 

This is one of the first adventure games I ever played (Atari ST version), so it feels great to finally complete it.  I really liked it, and am looking forward to playing the sequel (though I know it has a pretty poor reputation)!

Edited by newtmonkey
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  • 2 weeks later...

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