I just found this six-year-old video from a search... and as someone who received PCS for the Apple II back in the 80s, I got the nostalgia "fix" that I needed. I still own the game in the same type of packaging you show in the video. One of the great things about early EA was that they took pride in showcasing the programmers that worked on the games, showing them off not only in the game packaging but also featuring them prominently in their magazine advertisements. No other computer game company at the time did that. Thank you very much for posting this video... it meant a lot to see this running again.
Early EA wanted to treat their talent like rockstars, hence the folio packaging for their products to resemble music albums. By the mid-90s, all semblance of that had gone right out the window in the face of cold, hard cash. Some of EA's second-party producers like Bullfrog tried to keep some semblance of it going but ultimately failed. Nowadays, you only ever really hear about the great devs when they set out on their own tasks away from the corporations they were a part of, for better or worse.
Alexandria Thorne Fair enough. They might find their profit margins are a little better if they'd go easy on the elaborate sets at cons and multimillion dollar ad campaigns with celebrity endorsements.
Love EA's old "Set" series, and especially love the folio packaging these come in. And yeah, my version of Daniel Silva's Deluxe Paint for the Amiga comes in the same kinda sleeve :)
+Lazy Game Reviews Of course, my copy of DP1 is for DOS and I haven't been able to confirm the packaging for that, so I'm still unsure... I actually have both 5 1/4" and 3 1/2" disks for DP1, with the 3 1/2" disk actually containing more example graphics due to the greater space available. :B
From memory, after this, Budge started work on something he called a "Construction Set Construction Set' - a sort of meta game builder. But he got bored, and abandoned it (and the games industry) for a few years. Eventually, he worked on "Virtual Pinball" for the Genesis/Mega Drive which can kind of be considered the follow-up to this - though I can't really say how well it fares in comparison. If you've not already caught it - it's well worth watching his PCS post-mortem which was held at GDC a few years ago: ua-cam.com/video/Cc1EHDbun3U/v-deo.html - he covers a lot of pieces about the development and what happened afterwards there :)
Oh wow, I didn't know he was involved in Virtual Pinball! Although I'd almost argue PCS is still better despite being so much older... I thought Virtual Pinball was a bit disappointing.
I remember having Arctic Fox for the Amiga in that same LP-style sleeve. I don't recall if Marble Madness was in the same packaging or not. Didn't MicroIllusions also use it? I seem to recall Faery Tale Adventure and Firepower being in the same sort of sleeve.
Marble Madness indeed does use it (got the Amiga version here)! At least going by my collection - it was '88 or so when they stopped (as games like Wasteland were released in both the sleeve, as well as the box packaging). Along with Microillusions, Taito did (got a copy of Sky Shark in that packaging), then there's a few by Activision as well. But I would presume they were all following in EA's footsteps in releasing games in this manner…
Microsoft included one with Word 1.0, and there was also the Mouse Systems device, both in 1983. But they were very expensive and not at all considered standard equipment for a system. PCS does support one analog device: A joystick.
Have you covered Chip's Challenge on your channel? Because there was an MS-DOS version from 1989, before the Windows version which I myself and many others grew up with.
Well it does have a pretty good successor on PC, which is also rumoured for a console release. That and they've redid Chip's Challenge and the unreleased sequel on Steam that uses a combination of assets from both the DOS version and the Windows version. It also has a soundtrack of MIDI classical music, with partly PC speaker style sound effects.
+TheMoogleMaster I know what you're talking about but I don't recall the exact name of it and since there are programs with similar names it's hard to find it in order to do a date comparison. :|
...you might have your terms mixed up. In pinball, "Drain" means to "lose the ball off the bottom of the playfield". The drain is literally the hole at the very bottom of a real pinball machine which collects balls when they're no longer in play. :P
+1300l Doubtful. The game only came on 5 1/4" disks AFAIK, which means most systems from the mid-2000s onwards will not even have support for these drives in the BIOS, much less the physical connections for them, and I don't think you'd be able to boot from a USB adaptor designed to interface with them. That said, I've run booter software on a mid-2000s system directly using a 3 1/2" drive, so I think the drive itself would be the only major hurdle.
You don't -- you copy the 5.25" image to a 3.5" DSDD (720K) disk and boot from that. There are no USB 5.25" drives with BIOS/Windows support that I know of.
+SonataFanatica It is, actually. We don't normally keep each other in the know about what we're making and since about early July I've had the rest of my ADG episodes for the year planned out. ;)
Fun Fact: The last game I ever bought from EA was the original Mass Effect, a few years after it was released, and even though it's been sitting in my Steam account since that time I haven't actually played it yet, let alone even installed it. ;D
I just found this six-year-old video from a search... and as someone who received PCS for the Apple II back in the 80s, I got the nostalgia "fix" that I needed. I still own the game in the same type of packaging you show in the video. One of the great things about early EA was that they took pride in showcasing the programmers that worked on the games, showing them off not only in the game packaging but also featuring them prominently in their magazine advertisements. No other computer game company at the time did that. Thank you very much for posting this video... it meant a lot to see this running again.
Early EA wanted to treat their talent like rockstars, hence the folio packaging for their products to resemble music albums. By the mid-90s, all semblance of that had gone right out the window in the face of cold, hard cash. Some of EA's second-party producers like Bullfrog tried to keep some semblance of it going but ultimately failed. Nowadays, you only ever really hear about the great devs when they set out on their own tasks away from the corporations they were a part of, for better or worse.
The vinyl style sleeves were really cool and made it obvious Electronic Arts put effort into the presentation of their games.
Quite the contrast from nowadays.
They still put effort into the presentation. It's just that they kinda suck at delivering the content.
Alexandria Thorne
Fair enough. They might find their profit margins are a little better if they'd go easy on the elaborate sets at cons and multimillion dollar ad campaigns with celebrity endorsements.
Love EA's old "Set" series, and especially love the folio packaging these come in. And yeah, my version of Daniel Silva's Deluxe Paint for the Amiga comes in the same kinda sleeve :)
+Lazy Game Reviews Of course, my copy of DP1 is for DOS and I haven't been able to confirm the packaging for that, so I'm still unsure... I actually have both 5 1/4" and 3 1/2" disks for DP1, with the 3 1/2" disk actually containing more example graphics due to the greater space available. :B
From memory, after this, Budge started work on something he called a "Construction Set Construction Set' - a sort of meta game builder. But he got bored, and abandoned it (and the games industry) for a few years.
Eventually, he worked on "Virtual Pinball" for the Genesis/Mega Drive which can kind of be considered the follow-up to this - though I can't really say how well it fares in comparison.
If you've not already caught it - it's well worth watching his PCS post-mortem which was held at GDC a few years ago: ua-cam.com/video/Cc1EHDbun3U/v-deo.html - he covers a lot of pieces about the development and what happened afterwards there :)
Oh wow, I didn't know he was involved in Virtual Pinball! Although I'd almost argue PCS is still better despite being so much older... I thought Virtual Pinball was a bit disappointing.
Loved this game as a kid! Thank you for the memory reboot!
I remember having Arctic Fox for the Amiga in that same LP-style sleeve. I don't recall if Marble Madness was in the same packaging or not. Didn't MicroIllusions also use it? I seem to recall Faery Tale Adventure and Firepower being in the same sort of sleeve.
Marble Madness indeed does use it (got the Amiga version here)! At least going by my collection - it was '88 or so when they stopped (as games like Wasteland were released in both the sleeve, as well as the box packaging).
Along with Microillusions, Taito did (got a copy of Sky Shark in that packaging), then there's a few by Activision as well. But I would presume they were all following in EA's footsteps in releasing games in this manner…
Also this is reminder that EA used to be a really awesome game developer
I can't even begin to estimate how much time I spent playing this game as a kid.
Pretty sure mice existed on IBM PC before PCS. Microsoft included one with MS Word, which I believe was in 83.
Microsoft included one with Word 1.0, and there was also the Mouse Systems device, both in 1983. But they were very expensive and not at all considered standard equipment for a system. PCS does support one analog device: A joystick.
so cool! I was looking up info on this game thanks
Have you covered Chip's Challenge on your channel? Because there was an MS-DOS version from 1989, before the Windows version which I myself and many others grew up with.
+Cyberbrickmaster1986 Not yet and also likely not soon as no one's requested it... yet... ;)
Well it does have a pretty good successor on PC, which is also rumoured for a console release. That and they've redid Chip's Challenge and the unreleased sequel on Steam that uses a combination of assets from both the DOS version and the Windows version. It also has a soundtrack of MIDI classical music, with partly PC speaker style sound effects.
It's like a vinyl record!
What was the first PC software that allowed you to make your own games? Was in that Adventure Construction Kit or what ever it was called.
+TheMoogleMaster I know what you're talking about but I don't recall the exact name of it and since there are programs with similar names it's hard to find it in order to do a date comparison. :|
Adventure Game Toolkit let you make text adventures; Adventure Construction Set let you make Ultima-like RPGs.
Oh man, the memories....
They stopped publishing in sleeves when they lost their respect for devs.. which they're just now re-learning.
Curious, how do you make the ball drain? I've messed around with this before (as I own the Apple version), and I can never get the ball to drain.
...you might have your terms mixed up. In pinball, "Drain" means to "lose the ball off the bottom of the playfield". The drain is literally the hole at the very bottom of a real pinball machine which collects balls when they're no longer in play. :P
I had a copy of Bop N Wrestle that came in a case like this
EA's success brought a few copycats; Mindscape (your Bop'n'wrestle) and Arcadia did the same thing for a time.
Gifted by Trixter? Is that old boy still at it?
I think the idea of user created tables would work amazingly using Unity and the Steam Workshop!
+Nelson's TAS and Game
Archive Undoubtedly! ;)
I wonder if anyone that still have a flopydisk on a modern PC can boot in to this game with no problem
+1300l Doubtful. The game only came on 5 1/4" disks AFAIK, which means most systems from the mid-2000s onwards will not even have support for these drives in the BIOS, much less the physical connections for them, and I don't think you'd be able to boot from a USB adaptor designed to interface with them. That said, I've run booter software on a mid-2000s system directly using a 3 1/2" drive, so I think the drive itself would be the only major hurdle.
It boots and runs on modern systems, but is unplayable due to moderns systems being much faster and the game does not perform any speed throttling.
+Jim Leonard yep I've tested it
Jim Leonard Out of curiosity, what kind of hardware configuration would be necessary to boot from a 5 1/4" disk on a modern machine?
You don't -- you copy the 5.25" image to a 3.5" DSDD (720K) disk and boot from that. There are no USB 5.25" drives with BIOS/Windows support that I know of.
ADG brings an episode on "Pinball Construction Set", LGR brings one on "Full Tilt Pinball".
Coincidence? I THINK NOT!!
+SonataFanatica It is, actually. We don't normally keep each other in the know about what we're making and since about early July I've had the rest of my ADG episodes for the year planned out. ;)
Ah okay! :D And there I was, already waiting for Roses to do a pinball review too. ;)
god the breathing and smacking and mucus in the throat in the beginning drove me crazy.
EA has been revolutionising gaming since the 80s.
Back then: Pinball Construction Set.
Nowadays: New ways to suck all the banknotes from your wallet.
Fun Fact: The last game I ever bought from EA was the original Mass Effect, a few years after it was released, and even though it's been sitting in my Steam account since that time I haven't actually played it yet, let alone even installed it. ;D