When I was a kid I remember watching my Dad and his friend play Wizardry together on an Apple II...they got to a point where their characters were killed, but just before the game could actually kill them off by writing to the disk, my Dad ripped open the disk drive and pulled the disk out. Apparently this was their standard method for avoiding death. :) I guess that unfortunately means he wouldn't have been immortalized in Wizardry 4. :)
Awesome interview Matt! I loved Wizardry 4, but it was SUPER hard. The inclusion of real party members from fans was amazing! I review it (and show one of the endings) here: ua-cam.com/video/GQz_i6chNgY/v-deo.html
It was a common thing to combine since American pulp fantasy writers like Jack Vance were combining the two genres decades previously. Ultima was definitely earlier, but they later abandoned the sf elements in Ultima 4 and later.
FYI, the photo that pops up of Andrew Greenberg about the 3 minute mark is actually Andrew Greenberg of the Georgia Game Developers Association. I worked with THAT Andrew back in my days with D.W. Bradley at Heuristic Park. The OTHER Andrew Greenberg, who worked on the early Wizardry series, probably wouldn't have been caught dead working with Heuristic Park on anything, although I personally love his Wizardry games. www.mobygames.com/developer/sheet/view/developerId,144255/
How come it seems like virtually every company started with the Apple 2 as their gaming platform, yet there isn't any Apple 2 community anymore like there is with Commodore 64 and others?
It is strange. Here in the UK Apple 2s are like gold dust (even the Atari 8 bits are more common), whilst the C64 always had a stronge European following. So I guess that's kinda why?
I think there is still a small, die hard Apple II community somewhere. I just haven't had much contact with them in a long time. Here's my opinion about it. Because in the mid 1990s the Apple II community became fragmented by market pressure and cultural differences. Apple had promised "Apple II Forever", but it seems they meant for everyone to upgrade to Mac and keep the Apple II in their hearts and closets. Technology was quickly advancing to a point where it made less and less sense to continue investing in 1970s designs, regardless of the technical merits of those designs at the time. Some Apple II users bought Macs, because they loved Apple. Some bought PCs ,because they loved computing. Only a tiny minority of the formerly vast Apple II user base kept the Apple II as their primary platform, and I'd guess no one does any more. The computing power of a cheap, efficient tablet or smart phone is thousands of times greater than any 6502 based machine of the 1980s, and emulators are free, so why bother? It is my opinion that by any objective standard the Amiga should have dominated the personal computing industry, if only because it was several years advanced compared to everything else then in existence. Amiga had a full color, multi-tasking gui operating system, multi-media functionality, and insanely powerful hardware at a time when Macs had black and white displays and most PCs ran MS-DOS. If only Commodore weren't so stupid ... All this comes from a guy who has dozens of Apple II and Commodore computers in his basement, and still loves those 1970s designs.
One other thing to remember about Apple, especially in the context of this channel. Some of the most accomplished and honored programmers in the history of video games learned their craft and experienced their earliest successes on the Apple II. Among these great coders are: - Nasir Gebelli, Sirius Software, Final Fantasy, Secret of Mana - Richard Garriott, Lord British, Ultima, Akalabeth - more ...
Great video Matt, i so much enjoyed playing Wizardry 1-7, good old times, still thinking of playing them all again. 👋
When I was a kid I remember watching my Dad and his friend play Wizardry together on an Apple II...they got to a point where their characters were killed, but just before the game could actually kill them off by writing to the disk, my Dad ripped open the disk drive and pulled the disk out. Apparently this was their standard method for avoiding death. :) I guess that unfortunately means he wouldn't have been immortalized in Wizardry 4. :)
Awesome interview Matt! I loved Wizardry 4, but it was SUPER hard. The inclusion of real party members from fans was amazing! I review it (and show one of the endings) here: ua-cam.com/video/GQz_i6chNgY/v-deo.html
Ultima 1 was probably the first to combine fantasy and sci-fi even though it was facetious. If not the first one of the first, I could be wrong.
Not only that. Might and Magic did it too.
It was a common thing to combine since American pulp fantasy writers like Jack Vance were combining the two genres decades previously. Ultima was definitely earlier, but they later abandoned the sf elements in Ultima 4 and later.
FYI, the photo that pops up of Andrew Greenberg about the 3 minute mark is actually Andrew Greenberg of the Georgia Game Developers Association. I worked with THAT Andrew back in my days with D.W. Bradley at Heuristic Park. The OTHER Andrew Greenberg, who worked on the early Wizardry series, probably wouldn't have been caught dead working with Heuristic Park on anything, although I personally love his Wizardry games. www.mobygames.com/developer/sheet/view/developerId,144255/
So, Matt, when you will start interviewing beer brewers on Matt Chat ?
MARRIED A GIRL IN JAPAN TRANSLATING ANIME HOLY HELL LMAO
How come it seems like virtually every company started with the Apple 2 as their gaming platform, yet there isn't any Apple 2 community anymore like there is with Commodore 64 and others?
It is strange. Here in the UK Apple 2s are like gold dust (even the Atari 8 bits are more common), whilst the C64 always had a stronge European following. So I guess that's kinda why?
I think there is still a small, die hard Apple II community somewhere. I just haven't had much contact with them in a long time. Here's my opinion about it.
Because in the mid 1990s the Apple II community became fragmented by market pressure and cultural differences. Apple had promised "Apple II Forever", but it seems they meant for everyone to upgrade to Mac and keep the Apple II in their hearts and closets. Technology was quickly advancing to a point where it made less and less sense to continue investing in 1970s designs, regardless of the technical merits of those designs at the time.
Some Apple II users bought Macs, because they loved Apple. Some bought PCs ,because they loved computing. Only a tiny minority of the formerly vast Apple II user base kept the Apple II as their primary platform, and I'd guess no one does any more. The computing power of a cheap, efficient tablet or smart phone is thousands of times greater than any 6502 based machine of the 1980s, and emulators are free, so why bother?
It is my opinion that by any objective standard the Amiga should have dominated the personal computing industry, if only because it was several years advanced compared to everything else then in existence. Amiga had a full color, multi-tasking gui operating system, multi-media functionality, and insanely powerful hardware at a time when Macs had black and white displays and most PCs ran MS-DOS. If only Commodore weren't so stupid ...
All this comes from a guy who has dozens of Apple II and Commodore computers in his basement, and still loves those 1970s designs.
One other thing to remember about Apple, especially in the context of this channel. Some of the most accomplished and honored programmers in the history of video games learned their craft and experienced their earliest successes on the Apple II. Among these great coders are:
- Nasir Gebelli, Sirius Software, Final Fantasy, Secret of Mana
- Richard Garriott, Lord British, Ultima, Akalabeth
- more ...