The Olden Days...

[neoelectronaut]

Anyone remember the old mouse practice "game" that came with old Macs in the early nineties that had you drag the little man through the cave and stuff? ...ahh, the memories.

Number Munchers, too, and the Oregon Trail. These two games and the 5.25 disks they were carried on made 3rd grade liveable. Long live the IIgs!

[blueflame]

shufflepuck?
my first mac memory

[MoparShaha]

I remember the nun at my school telling us off for shooting the buffalo in Oregon Trail. Ah, memories.

[virividox]

i remember i used to shoot more buffalo than we could use...i know it was a waste, but they were such big nice targets

[Doctor Q]

I saved and still have copies of Mouse Practice. It was a simple but excellent program. You directed a diver underwater. First, it taught you to move the cursor with the mouse, then to click, double-click, and click-and-drag. You uncovered sea creatures and finally recovered a treasure chest.

When I encountered elementary school students who were new to computers (which doesn't happen nearly as much as it used to), I assigned them this program, which takes about 5 minutes to run, as their first task. If they completed Mouse Practice, they got to go on to other activities. It was even suitable for adults who were learning to use a mouse. Everyone has to start sometime!

I think Mouse Practice shipped with Performas and with At Ease version 3.

Edit: Don't forget good ol' Word Munchers too!

[Balin64]

I rememer all those fondly.

Although I vaguely remember the mouse tutorial, I clearly recall Shufflepuck. My 7th grade Journalism teacher banned the game because we ruined a mouse playing it.

But you know what my most fond Mac memory is? The first time I tried laying out a Tabloid size page in ReadySetGo! back in 1991. Then I found.... Aldus PageMaker! I stole the program from the Yearbook class in a floppy (!), and used it to re-design our High School newspaper. I can't believe I used to layout a newspaper in a 9" diagonal screen. But, those were the days!

[kidA]

anyone else remember odell lake?

[mainstreetmark]

Well, my early memory was on an Apple //e, possibly on some typing game with a rabbit. If you weren't fast enough, the rabbit would look at you and tap his foot, his foot being only about 2 pixels that moved up and down. Way better than the "portable" Kaypro the //e replaced.

My first three games were Choplifter, Sneakers and Sabotage (Sabotage is that parachute game on the 3G iPod). Then came rescue raiders, and Ultima 3-5. Lode runner and Stellar 7.

the IIgs takes the cake as far as favorite computers go. Soundsmith and FTA demos and Brian Greenstone/Pangea games.

[dxp4acu]

I remember a mouse tutorial on the original Mac Plus we had. It was awesome! I was like 6 or 7 at the time (in 1986 or 1987 I think).

We had a lot of fun with it.

Anyone else?

[krimson]

i have it somewhere in the closet.. along with moon patrol, q bert, lode runner and some other games on 5.25" floppys..

[benixau]

ahhh the "olden days". I'm only 18 now but i can remember sitting on my dads lap in the study on his IIgs. Load in the 5.25" floppy on side A for choplifter and on side B for David's Pinball.

My first games were:
Choplifter
Davids Pinball
Silent Service

I also remember that if on the IIgs, I typed fast enough in MS Word (can't remember version) I could actually out-type the computer.

Man - those are some sweet memories.

ps. I also remember the yellow fake-floppies that went in to the dual external 3.5" floppy drives.

[phrancpharmD]

cool to see so many other "ex"-IIgs users! I definitely remember the mouse tutorial, I seem to remember opening the hood of a car? My favorite was Silent Service by Sid Meier (I think). Man was that game cool. I've looked for it online to see if I can find it and run it on my iBook, but no luck so far. Oh well, maybe someday. . .

[sonofslim]

i remember first learning to program, in BASIC on the IIc. (that's right! i said IIc!) there was a magazine for young coders, although i can't remember if it was BASIC specific... anyone remember what it was called?

[Kingsnapped]

I remember the diver tutorial. And word munchers. Ahh... word munchers. That game was great using the arrow keys and the spacebar, but when the mouse came out, it was a revolution. You could just click out the correct words and sit back and watch the action.

Anyone remember this game where you were in a school, and you had to take pictures of robots to idnentify them?
There were vending machienes full of film to reload your camera, then when you could figure out what the robot was by looking at your pictures. I believe this game was on an Apple][, but I'm not sure.

[idea_hamster]

I was a late-comer to the Mac, but I vividly recall my first real Mac experience. It was 1994 and while I had used DOS some, I was switching to a PowerBook 180c.

I was going through the tutorial that walked me through creating a folder on the desktop. I got to the end and there was my folder, "Untitled" or whatever it was by default. I wanted to rename it, so I started looking for the some menu item to use. Nothing. I read the whole quick-start guide that I had. Nothing. I looked everywhere -- there was, it seemed, no way to rename the folder once it was created! *sigh* I accepted that this must be one of the limitations of the Mac OS (see -- I told you I had used DOS!) and decided that I would just throw the folder out and create a new one.

I went to drag the icon, but missed and accidentally single clicked on the name. Clouds above broke apart to angel song and a ray of heavenly understanding shone down on the highlighted text!

Well, that's as good of a good-old-days story as I have.

Ciao.

[Doctor Q]

Originally posted by krimson
i have it somewhere in the closet.. along with moon patrol, q bert, lode runner and some other games on 5.25" floppys.. I forgot about Q-bert! He jumped up and down a triangular staircase. Maybe I should change my avatar!

[MoparShaha]

My favorite game was Lunar Lander, which I used to play on the old Mac SE in our classroom. I remember "borrowing" it onto a floppy to play at home on my Performa. I'd get a system bomb everytime I launched it. I figured it was because of the different resolutions. Good times.

[neoelectronaut]

Originally posted by benixau


ps. I also remember the yellow fake-floppies that went in to the dual external 3.5" floppy drives.

Yep, I remember them. Wasn't there a 5.25 fake floppy too? I assume the giant square of plastic was just to protect the drive, right?

Anywho, most of my early Mac experiences are tied to games released by Mecc.

[tpjunkie]

I think you could also use them the clean the drive heads, as well...I learned BASIC and LOGO on my old apple IIc, which was running fine until i left for college last year and my mother threw out...I'm still pissed about that. My favorite Apple II game by far was "Space Quarks" one of Broderbund's first title, it was hard as hell, but insanely addictive, and since it was programmed in assembly, it ran fast even on the IIc.

[Doctor Q]

I've written a few LOGO programs, and taught a class using it. Calling that triangle a turtle was a clever way to make the language seem friendlier to kids!

This thread probably belongs in the Mac Gaming forum. Number Munchers was edutainment before they had that word.

[latergator116]

Originally posted by MoparShaha
I remember the nun at my school telling us off for shooting the buffalo in Oregon Trail. Ah, memories.

That game was great! I always sank the wagon when we crossed the river.

Does anyone remember the game Out of This World? That was the best game ever.

[Counterfit]

My favorite games on our IIgs: the tutorial, with the guy in the cave and stuff, Tunnels of Armageddon, and Senseless Violence (frogger with a baby and more blood :D)

[TEG]

Well my memories go back to my ][+. I wrote several BASIC programs, learned how to save to disk. I even had some of the early tape games. I borrowed my boombox to load Star Trek (On an Apple Tape) into my ][+, it was awesome.

I also had a joystick for my ][+, and loved playing choplifter, sabotage, etc. I also had a cool D&D style game, I believe it was called Dragon Warrior (I think), also I had a cool game called "Queen of Phobos", however, I never got past the warp sequence, because I was always sucked into a sun, and had to restart.

BTW I had my ][+ 1993-1998

I also had a 386sx for family use. I ended getting it, and my ][+ was forced out on the street. I miss my ][+.

TEG

[rdowns]

Originally posted by neoelectronaut
Anyone remember the old mouse practice "game" that came with old Macs in the early nineties that had you drag the little man through the cave and stuff? ...ahh, the memories.

Number Munchers, too, and the Oregon Trail. These two games and the 5.25 disks they were carried on made 3rd grade liveable. Long live the IIgs!

Ah memories. Walking back and forth to school, 5 miles and uphill both ways carrying my original MacPortable.

[MoparShaha]

Here's the link for the mouse practice game (http://download.info.apple.com/Apple_Support_Area/Apple_Software_Updates/English-North_American/Macintosh/Utilities/Mouse_Basics_4.5.sea.bin)

I was searching through Apple's old software because I'm restoring my old Power Mac 7100. There's a lot of cool old stuff just waiting to be downloaded! :p

[Doctor Q]

Are you sure? Isn't Mouse Basics a different program than Mouse Practice?

[neoelectronaut]

Man, I wish it wouldn't give me a "not enough memory" error. I really wanted to try/play it.

[applemacdude]

Ahh..The memories....My first mac memory was when I played prince of persia on am LC. I learned how to use a mouse with mouse practice...back in the 2nd grade...ah..memories...

[MoparShaha]

Originally posted by Doctor Q
Are you sure? Isn't Mouse Basics a different program than Mouse Practice? Right on Doctor Q. I hadn't run the program when I posted. Now that I have, I see it's quite different.

[jeremy.king]

Originally posted by kidA
anyone else remember odell lake?

I know I do. I wish someone would rewrite it for OS X. It seems there aren't many who played this though given the reaction I get from fellow geeks I talk to. I used to play in mid 80's on a Commodore PET (http://www.old-computers.com/museum/computer.asp?c=191) computer off the TAPE DRIVE!!!

[NatronB]

I'm glad someone brought up "Out of this World." Revolutionary game, way ahead of it's time. I think I cried when I beat it.

We all remember choplifter, does anyone else remember the choplifter clone that game out years later... christ, I can't think of the name. Real simple resource management, to win you had to plow an a van past the enemy base. I believe the game was networkable... I know it was addictive.

The old Casady and Greene games were phenomenal, none was better than Crystal Quest. The orgasmic sigh when you beat the levels cracks me up to this day.

Best IIgs game ever: Wings of Fury.

-N

[latergator116]

I'm glad someone brought up "Out of this World." Revolutionary game, way ahead of it's time. I think I cried when I beat it.


I also cried when I beat it. I took me so long. I played it on and off for about four years. I remember I would sit in front of my LC III for hours trying to get past one part. I remember getting so frustrated at parts.

Do you remember who that game was by?

Edit: newvermind, I found it, it is by Delphine software.

[cpjakes]

I had a knockoff Laser 128EX (pretty much an Apple II underneath it all...) and used it for RoboCop and Bad Dudes. Those were sweet games on 5.25" disk(ette)s. :-)

Then the one day, my mom says that no one uses it and it goes out to auction. Mere days later, we get a new TV that can hook up to the Laser's composite out. Damn those auctions!

And I must have given away the games because I recently got a IIe emulator card for the PDS slot on my LCIII with dual 5.25" drives AND the paddles, but cannot find my 5.25" disks anywhere. I found and downloaded ridiculous quantities of ROM images (250MB now that I check...) and am trying to get them to run off of the LCIII hard drive but haven't had time to really dive into it. Lots of weirdness.

The first time I booted into the emulator I got the "]" prompt and had no idea what to do with it. It had been too long...

cpjakes