Boot Screen Madness

One of my goals for this Retrochallenge was to do some boot screens for Apple ][ software.

Since some of my fellow Retrochallengers were working on Apple ][ projects I thought I would volunteer to make boot screens for them.

Dogcow was very happy with his - I'm sorry we won't see the game yet. He posted the color version - I'll show the monochrome versions I created.

Dogcow's NetSnake (I love how it looks like data is flowing between the Apples and the snake):



One Elk Runs did a Mastermind in LISP - and unfortunately the LISP environment and HGR must conflict - no matter how much variable / memory / screen clearing I did - showing this screen and then running his program would result in jibberish on the screen - which is why I never sent this to him. Anyone care to figure out why it doesn't work? I like how I got the Retrochallenge logo in here - plus the older, distinguished gentleman and his Asian girlfriend from the board game version:


Schadenfreude/1 bit fotographie did a fireworks program, and so I decided to make a screen reminiscent of the Softdisk "Magazette", Magazine on a Disk. He really loves tacos so I thought - not soft tacos but...TACOSOFT!



And finally, a rather poor bootscreen for the Prisoner adventure game - in memory of the late Patrick McGoohan:



To create these I used Photoshop for the photographs, then saved the graphic as a .gif, moved those .gifs to a blank floppy using Ciderpress, then converted from .gif to Apple ][ HGR using IIgif, and then used Fontrix for most of the lettering. So while Luddite was going from Apple II to the web, I was going the opposite way.

I guess I should make a .dsk available with the graphics - and if anybody else wants a retro-style Apple ][ boot screen - let me know what you would like (elements + wording) and I'll whip it up.

hot chicks and old computers #20

A lovely Greek model for the Athena 1. I'm not sure how long this company lasted - searches for info just turned up the Athena missile guidance computer by Univac.


Imagine writing software for this beast.

hot chicks and old computers #19

A fabulous four pack of lovelies today.

Ad of the Day #19

Remember when the big choice for printing was letter quality (daisy wheel) vs. dot matrix?

Here is a daisy wheel printer ad that struck me because Gutenberg is making gang symbols.

The Guten-Gangsta. Yo.

Ad of the Day #18

Although a number of ground breaking and classic games debuted on the Apple ][ and then were ported, one of my all time favorites debuted on the Atari in 1981 and was then ported to Apple and Commodore 64.

Ali-Baba and the 40 Thieves by Stuart Smith is just so spectacular for a number of reasons.

This role playing game had decent graphics and excellent sound (complete with middle eastern themes). Wonderful multi-player ability. Hilarious descriptions of combat and death.


You could venture out just as Ali-Baba or have a whole crew of people (up to 17!) to whoop ass on monsters and find treasure and the Princess.

I also love the random encounters with people and monsters - with names like Roy G. Biv (in case you've forgotten the acronym for rainbow colors) and an owl, aptly named as Dr. Who.

Wrapping Tolkien characters and monsters and modern pop culture into a role playing game in the milieu of the Arabian Nights? I'm sooo there.



Don't just take my word for it - take a look here:

http://www.atarimania.com/detail_soft.php?MENU=8&VERSION_ID=173

My sons, and their best friend, grew up together playing this game as a team. I always wanted Haroud el Large. I don't know why it's so much fun because the graphics suck, it takes forevvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvverf to make each move, and did I say, "The graphics suck!" Yet, the guys always wanted to get together for a round of Ali. - Jim Kuchera

This was probably my favorite computer game of all time because it was best enjoyed in a large group. You didn't need to know anything about computers. You just needed to know how to have fun with other people. We always played with 6 or more people and the fact that you could attack other players made it all the more enjoyable. - Dragos

hot chicks and old computers #18

Well it isn't a torrent of the first film, but it is a Tron babe.

hot chicks and old computers #17

Oooh - I want to get a GEnie account - it can do 300 or 1200 baud and all the women that use it dress up like owls.