Saturday, April 24, 2010

Set the Wayback Machine for 1984

A while back, in my travels through the internet I came across two games that whisked me back to what was, for me, the heart of the golden age of computer gaming, 1984. The first is the Adventure Creation Kit, which is a free version of the old Electronic Arts Adventure Construction Set, which was to toolkit for crafting computer RPGs in the vein of Wizard's Crown and Ultima III. I have very fond memories of spending hours playing around with this in high school. My friends and I always hoped to use it to create adventures to share amongst ourselves. Sadly, that never panned out, but this might just offer a second chance. The Adventure Creation Kit is available for both Windows and Mac OSX. Additionally, a version is provided that is suitable for use under DOSBox for those of us who are Linux users.

The second game is Oolite, a clone of the old space trading game Elite. It's probably not the most apt description, but I think of Elite as sort of Star Raiders on steroids. Now Elite wasn't a game that I had ever played back in the day, but a friend of mine who grew up in the U.K. has regaled me with tales of the hours that he spent playing this on his Spectrum Plus. Oolite is available for Windows, Mac OSX and Linux.

Oh, and both of these games are free as in beer.

Quick Links:
Oolite
Adventure Creation Kit

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