Every once and a while, I receive emails from people looking for a certain game, electronic toy, or computer from their distant past. I then pass it on to intrepid VC&G readers to crack the case.

The Clues

Pseudo3D writes:

Hello. While reading about the Sega Pico on another website, I suddenly had a flashback to a toy I used to have a long time ago. I’m going to describe it in the best detail I can…

It was a yellow toy made by Texas Instruments (96% sure), all yellow (logo was in blue). It was larger than a modern TI graphing calculator or an original Game Boy, and also had a handle. Anyway, it consisted of an LCD screen (like a calculator would have), the mascot (I guess) was a grinning triangle man. To run the “games”, you inserted a card into the front, which was a flimsy-looking touch-sensitive surface. The cards were made of paper and had a colored border on one side. The games were relatively simple. One was a simple calculator card, one had this Simon-like memory game…I’d say there were about 20 or so cards (I think they were two-sided). Unfortunately, when I google Texas Instruments toys, all I get is Speak & Spell (and its variants) and two more things that were definitely not it. Can you help?

The Search Begins

It’s up to you to find the object of Pseudo3D’s fuzzy memory. Post any thoughts or suggestions in the comments section below. Pseudo3D will be monitoring the comments, so if you need to clarify something with him, ask away. Good luck!

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Have a memory of a computer, video game, computer software, or electronic toy you need help identifying? Send me an email describing your memories in detail. Hopefully, the collective genius of the VC&G readership can help solve your mystery.

Every once and a while, I receive emails from people looking for a certain game, electronic toy, or computer from their distant past. I then pass it on to intrepid VC&G readers to crack the case.

The Clues

Jim writes:

Let me start by saying how wonderful your site is. Sure does bring back a lot of memories, thanks.

The game I’m looking for was played on my C64 (maybe the 128, but pretty sure it was the 64). The time period was the late 1980’s. I remember the game being called an “interactive comic book”. You played the game by being one of the 3 (I think this is the number) main characters in the book. Depending on what you did, the other characters would react to your actions. You could also “switch” to any of the other characters and play the game from their positions.

Kind of a vague description, but that’s about all I can remember about the game. I really hope that someone remembers what it is that I’m talking about.

Thanks
- Jim

The Search Begins

It’s up to you to find the object of Jim’s fuzzy memory. Post any thoughts or suggestions in the comments section below. Jim will be monitoring the comments, so if you need to clarify something with him, ask away. Good luck!

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Have a memory of a computer, video game, computer software, or electronic toy you need help identifying? Send me an email describing your memories in detail. Hopefully, the collective genius of the VC&G readership can help solve your mystery.

Every once and a while, I receive emails from people looking for a certain game, electronic toy, or computer from their distant past. I then pass it on to intrepid VC&G readers to crack the case.

Our latest Fuzzy Memory seems similar to our last one in some respects (a top-down D&D like game with RPG elements), but hails from an earlier time. Can you help Aaron figure out what it is?

[ Continue reading [ Fuzzy Memory ] Thy Character is Too Powerful » ]

Every once and a while, I receive emails from people looking for a certain game, electronic toy, or computer from their distant past. I then pass it on to intrepid VC&G readers to crack the case.

The Clues

Tammo writes:

Hi, i am looking for a game i played about 10 years ago and i cant remember the title of. It is an rpg/adventure game out of “250 Best Arcade Games” in 1998. It’s a top-down game where all monsters/npcs/items are represented by tile icons. It’s a d&d’esque game allowing the player to build a party of characters at the beginning and then level them up in their chosen class. Race is chosen also and one of the races is ‘nephilim’. It was a very expansive game world even in just the trial version. Sorry but i can’t remember any more details. I am looking for a place to download this game, if it exists anywhere.

Thanks you very much and i look forward to your response.

The Search Begins

It’s up to you to find the object of Tammo’s fuzzy memory. Post any thoughts or suggestions in the comments section below. Good luck!

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Have a memory of a computer, video game, computer software, or electronic toy you need help identifying? Send me an email describing your memories in detail. Hopefully, the collective genius of the VC&G readership can help solve your mystery.

Every once and a while, I receive emails from people looking for a certain game, electronic toy, or computer from their distant past. I then pass it on to intrepid VC&G readers to crack the case.

The Clues

Brandon writes:

I am wondering if anyone has info on this game I was playing on a TRS-80 back in middle school in 1985. We had this game where you had a submarine that you piloted around the ocean and in caves. It was a side-scroller that you had to miss mines and not run out of air. I remember having to program it on a disk but I am not 100% sure of that memory. Ideas? I know thats not much to go on.

Thanks
Brandon

The Search Begins

It’s up to you to find the object of Brandon’s fuzzy memory. Post any thoughts or suggestions in the comments section below. Good luck!

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Have a memory of a computer, video game, computer software, or electronic toy you need help identifying? Send me an email describing your memories in detail. Hopefully, the collective genius of the VC&G readership can help solve your mystery.

Every once and a while, I receive emails from people looking for a certain game, electronic toy, or computer from their distant past. I then pass it on to intrepid VC&G readers to crack the case.

The Clues

Corrado writes:

Hello there. I’d like to take advantage of VC&G’s collective genius to identify this game I used to play (or try to) a lot back when my bulky, monochromatic 286 laptop was the greatest computer I ever owned. This should place us in the mid-nineties.

Anyway, it was a dos game, a space fighter simulator with wire frame graphics. One of the toughest enemies looked for all the world like a ROTJ walker- yes, walking about in space. Your ship had a laser and three “boosters”-activating them would make a second hud slide in the game window and make you zoom around, to absolutely no use.

One pretty remarkable thing about this game, and my favorite feature really- you could fly into a wedge-shaped mothership, connect to its computer and get a slideshow of all the enemies. I remember getting pretty psyched when I found out that. Of all my old games this is the one that always eluded me, so I’d be grateful for your help.

Thanks,
Corrado

The Search Begins

It’s up to you now to find the object of Corrado’s fuzzy memory. Post any thoughts or suggestions in the comments section below. Good luck!

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Have a memory of a computer, video game, computer software, or electronic toy you need help identifying? Send me an email describing your memories in detail. Hopefully, the collective genius of the VC&G readership can help solve your mystery.

Every once and a while, I receive emails from people looking for a certain game, electronic toy, or computer from their distant past. This time, a friendly fellow named Daniel has sent me a puzzling inquiry regarding an action-adventure game from the early 1990s. As usual, I’m not an oracle of infinite knowledge, so I need your help to crack the case.

[ Continue reading [ Fuzzy Memory ] The Secret Illusion of Evermore Mana » ]

It’s not every day that I receive a Fuzzy Memory dating back to the early days of personal computing. Come to think of it, it’s no every day that I receive a Fuzzy Memory. But I digress — in this case, the computer in question isn’t even personal, but a mainframe PDP 11/34. The year? 1979.

Like always, I’m not an oracle of infinite knowledge and resources, so I need you (my adept readers) to help solve the mystery. And besides, I like making you do most of the work.

Advent, Trek, and Tripe

Robert wrote me a few days ago regarding a neolithic computer game from the disco era:

I have a new “fuzzy memory” search for you. When I first became addicted to computers in 1979, it was on a PDP 11/34 at my local college. That computer had 3 text-based games that endeared me to computers forever: Advent, Trek, and Tripe.

I have been able to find both Advent (which was the precursor to Zork) and Trek (a text-based Star Trek battle/strategy game). I have never tracked down a version of Tripe.

Tripe was a text-based parody of Star Trek. Key things that I recall about the game include:

• Away teams would raid a planet and “kill the women and rape the bad guys!”
• The ultimate weapon was the “dusn’t matter probe”. When fire, it would start playing one of Kirk’s famous speeches, at which point the enemy would commit suicide.

I don’t know if this game ever left the confines of the PDP, but it sure would be cool to track down a version of it.

Thanks,
Robert

The Search Begins

In this case, we’re fortunate: Robert knows the name of the game he’s looking for, and he knows the platform. But one key absence still prevents him from reliving his fondest gaming memories: the game itself. If anyone out there knows more about Tripe or how to obtain a copy of it, please let us know in the comments section. Perhaps there’s a more recent port of the game for another platform, or maybe someone has a disk image of the game that Robert could run on a PDP/11 emulator.

While you’re at it, feel free to leave your own mainframe memories in the comments below. Good luck!

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Have a memory of a computer, video game, computer software, or electronic toy you need help identifying? Send me an email describing your memories in detail. Hopefully, the collective genius of the VC&G readership can help solve your mystery.

It’s been a while since we’ve had a Fuzzy Memory mysery to solve, but I recently received another request from someone seeking resolution of their distant gaming recollections. I’m not an oracle of infinite knowledge, so like always, I need the adept VC&G readership to help solve the mystery.

Adventures 7, 8, and 9?

Ryan wrote me a few days ago regarding a computer game from his past:

Many years ago my dad brought home a 5¼” floppy with the mysterious label “Adventures 7, 8, & 9″ for our Apple IIGS. One side of the disk contained three text-based games. One took place in a carnival setting, one in the “old west,” and the other in an Egyptian pyramid.

My memories are very fuzzy, but I remember the gist of each adventure. For the carnival setting, one of the tasks that you had to do was chew some old gum, stick it on the end of a branch, and retrieve a key that was in a grate. In the old west setting, there were materials available to make gunpowder. There was also a horse called “Old Paint” that always bucked you off. The strangest thing about that one was that it got “dark” after several turns of play, and if you moved around in the dark at all, you had a very good chance of breaking your neck and the game would end.

Finally, all I remember about the pyramid setting was that there was some kind of strange portal you had to open - kind of an alien/pyramid weird combo theme thing. In any case, all three of these games were the classic “Go West,” “Get Key,” “Open Door” format and were very difficult for me at the time (of course, I was about 8 at the time, so I’d love to try my hand at them again if I just knew what they were).

The only other detail I can remember is that the reverse side of the disk had a “Planetoids” non-playable demo on it. I’m pretty certain the text-based game was developed for something before the Apple IIGS, but I’m just not sure. Any help would be greatly appreciated so I can solve this lifelong mystery!

Thanks very much in advance,
Ryan

His memories are quite detailed, which should be helpful. Also, the “Planetoids” clue is key — if that was a more high-profile Apple II game, then it should be easy to find its publisher. And the publisher of Planetoids was likely the publisher of the adventure games. I’ll let you guys do the rest.

The Search Begins

So what do you guys think? We need your help in identifying the game described above. If you have any ideas, please leave a comment on this post. The game is afoot!

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Have a memory of a computer, video game, computer software, or electronic toy you need help identifying? Send me an email describing your memories in detail. Hopefully, the collective genius of the VC&G readership can help solve your mystery.

It’s been a while since we’ve had a Fuzzy Memory mysery to solve, but I recently received another request from someone seeking resolution of their distant gaming recollections. I’m not an oracle of infinite knowledge, so like always, I need the adept VC&G readership to help solve the mystery.

Puzzles in the Asylum

Erin wrote me a few days ago regarding a computer game from her past:

I am searching for the title of an old computer game I used to play. I do not remember much, only that it involved walking around, finding “clues” and puzzles and solving them to move forward in the game. There was an alchemists’ lab with the elements and runes and an asylum… I can’t remember much more than that. It was in the mid-late 90’s that I was playing this. Any thought would be greatly appreciated as I am going crazy trying to remember!

Thanks a million,
Erin

Sounds like the description of a Myst-esque point-and-click adventure game to me. I’ve asked Erin to clarify what platform she played this on (given the time frame, likely either a PC or Mac), but I’ve yet to receive a response. If I get any more information from her, I’ll post it.

[ Update - 08/21/2008: Erin says that it was a PC game, not Mac. ]

[ Continue reading [ Fuzzy Memory ] The Alchemist’s Lab » ]