Classic homecomputer games

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In the early               X                          days of home  
computing                   X                          much of the  
capabilities                X                       of the devices  
had to be                   X                harnessed by the user  
by programming             X                 the  machine it self.  
usually all you            X                  got was the system ,  
a manual , some            X                     leaflets and some  
media for the              X                machine to store work.  
If you were               X               smart you'd get yourself  
a book about     $         X            programming, usually basic  
on most Z80               X          machines, and started writing  
small pieces               X          of code. There where several  
hobbyist books             X                                on the  
market with                X                        various pieces  
of code that                X                      you then should  
have typed in                X                   yourself in order  
to run it. These             X                      programs often  
ranged from just             X                       several lines  
of code to , for       @       X                   example, simple 
questionnaires that           X       $           stored data to a  
cassette tape.Whilst           X   $$              most literature  
at the time, late 70's          X               early 80's, tended  
to focus mainly on the           X            serious applications  
of the machines, say             X          accounting, business ,  
communications there did          X                 evolve a small  
group of people who used the      X    machines for entertainment.  
Mostly these peoples where young  X         electronic enthusiasts  
who enjoyed mucking around with   X             personal computers  
to see what they could get       X               out of them. lost  
of these youngster ended up     X                   either running  
multimiliondollar              X                software companies  
or in the                     X             gutter mumbling random  
snippets        $             X                 of basic of pascal  
code                        X              and how they would have  
been                       X                A "contender". But out  
of                        X            these nerd filled basements  
and               $        X             attics came a new form of  
computer                  X                      art, if you will.  
instead putting      $      X                       these machines  
to use crunching Dow       X                           Jones index  
numbers or figuring out    X                                how to  
use it                      X                   to analyse medical  
information                  X          @                     this  
generation                   X                     of technophiles  
build                         X           surprisingly complicated  
looking software just for     X                     entertainment.  
Some of these people made     X                             static  
demonstration programs       X                       ( or demo's ) 
to show off skill and        X                         demonstrate  
the maximum performance     X                                  one 
could get out              X                    of such a machine.  
Others made                X                    interactive games,  
Due                  $      X                to limitations, often  
introduced     @            X                      to cut price on  
hardware, the             X                            interaction  
between dynamic          X                            applications  
and a user was terribly  X               $               difficult  
to figure out. To       X                               get smooth  
results lots of         X                        clever hacks were  
needed to give         X              a program it's flowing feel.  
Electronic games       X              where not new, they had been  
around for              X       several years, Pong being the most  
revered.        @       XBut also Simon says, early Atari consoles  
and lots of             Xhandheld games that used circuit logic to  
interact between         X      human and game where around at the  
time. But all these       XX     systems were dedicated and didn't  
offer Any creative control  XX                      for the users.  
The home computer changed thisX    dramatically. With games coming  
out at even increasing rates   X     and code sheets being swapped  
all of the world the home       X         computer gaming industry  
finally took shape. The         X             basis for almost all  
the large game studios          X                    that nowadays  
are responsible for all         X         @                the big  
multimillion dollar             X               $      development  
costing                 games  X      like                      EA  
or                        ID   X       find                  there  
origins      $             or X          at      $           least  
lost of                 there X       coders                    to  
have there                   X        roots    $   $            at  
that point                  X             .                   Some  
of these                   X                               systems  
used to create             X                                 these  
early pioneering           X                 pieces             of  
software where MSX,         XX                Acorn           BBC,  
P2000T, Atari, Sharp          XX           MZ series           and  
ofcourse Spectrum Sinclair      XX            and       commodore.  
The Z80 systems where very popularX                       and with  
the use of byte-code lots of      X           $      interoperable  
programs where made. But byte-codeX                         lacked  
speed and whilst interoperabilityX         $              aimed at  
a use user base, at this        X                 time performance  
started to be the bigger       X              factor in the choice  
of computer. This            XX       was especially true for game 
coders who, having    $     XX        reached the peak performance 
capabilities of there    XX            systems over and over again 
started writing more   XX      $          elaborate hacks. Writing 
purely in machine    XX              code wasn't such a rare thing 
those days.        XX          The small group of people, from who 
almost          XXX       everybody nowadays has committed suicide 
or             Xare locked up in mental institutions, who mastered  
this skill      X              could help take new software to new  
levels on older  XX              machine, but eventually even this  
wasn't enough.     XX                     There was a cry from the  
community for the    XXX                       hardware developers  
to take into account    XXXX                      the needs of the  
users and developers in     XXXX      @           certain field of  
computing, floating point wasn'tXXX                       the main  
focus for lots coders who wanted   XXXX       $             faster  
easier graphics , polyphonic sound,    X                    color, 
sprites supported by hardware. Finally  X    $                 the 
new breed of systems that came out did X $                     not 
only focus on the paradigm           XX           of a CPU running 
a program in order                 XX        to run floating point  
algorithms but also              XX           did complex graphics  
and media. The Amiga and the   XX                    Macintosh can 
arguably be put on the sharedXX                    number one spot 
as the user centric        XX             business machine and the  
user centric               X             home machine. early games 
Beginning      $      $    X          the revolution of electronic  
game                       X  entertainment we can't deny PONG and 
simple concept that,        X                with a healthy amount 
of imagination and several   XX    @          hours of psychedelic 
game-play , could resemble     X        $       a tennis court and  
two tennis players. This pioneerX                      meant hours 
of fun and brain tumor inducing  XX            $     CRT radiation 
for us youngsters back then. It    XXX              isn't all that 
surprising that the early home        XX        $        brew game 
coders started out imitating these earlyXX                   gems. 
This effect resulted in a revival of      X                the old 
and nearly forgotten hype in the           X        early 70's and 
this shook awake the companies that,       X          at the time,  
pushed this market. After all the           X  golden oldies where 
imitated ad nausea on every                X     platform possible 
people started to implement         new    X          and original 
ideas into games Tekst     $       based    X  $  adventures being 
the most famous. But also    $      the    X      early simulators 
started to appear and even             $  X    small endeavours in 
multiplaying networked games       $     X    saw the first light. 
at this times most games still         X     were sold on cassette 
and in code form in books. One  @     XX   more famous concept was 
called SKI also known as            X pitfall ( not to be confused 
with the arcade pitfall game ).    X The objectives in these games 
based on this concept varied but  X    that main deal was a symbol 
for a figure, be it a skydiver,    X  skier of cavedweller, had to 
be controlled through a course of    X    rock, clouds or skiramp. 
During the evading process of the sidesX       of the playing field 
( and lose objects ) there could be     X  several point or health 
gaining activities going on. In the       X cave explorer type the 
player could collect money or gold and     X    health points. The 
skier had to catch slaloms in order to gain  XXX    #      points. 
Most of these games had a notion of levels that XXX###     where 
implemented by speeding up the falling process    XXXand narrowing 
the playingfield. An increase in obstacles and     ###more diffuse  
distribution of bonus items where used to make it   #      harder. 
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