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Game Pack I

Original title

Game Pack I

Developed by

Aackosoft

Year

1986

System

Rating

  (1 vote)  

 

 

Sound

PSG

Kind

Game

Max Players

1

Max Simultaneous

2

Input Devices Supported

Keyboard

Language

English

Genre

Variety
Arcade

Licence

Commercial

Note

Both sides of the tape contain 10 basic text games:

- Bal
- Baseball
- Eliza
- Hique
- Mastermind
- Roulette
- Solfeggietto
- Star Maps
- Stoneville Manor
- Trap


Bal seems to be an MSX adaptation of Tom Springall's Ball from 1982, preserved here in GW-BASIC form: https://hwiegman.home.xs4all.nl/gw-games/Ball.asc

Baseball appears to be from 1973. I found a copy inside https://github.com/dhansel/Altair8800/blob/master/prog_examples_basic_due.h#L384 and the comments at the top say:
100 REM BASEBALL SIMULATION PROGRAM
110 REM WRITTEN BY JOEL LIND & KEN BIRKMAN - NYU - JULY 1973
120 REM STOLEN AND ENHANCED DECEMBER 1973 BY R. D. KURLAND - NYU

Eliza appears to be based ultimately on the 1973 BASIC version by Jeff Shrager which was later adapted and published in Creative Computing in July/August 1977 - preserved here: https://vintagecomputer.net/cisc367/Creative%20Computing%20Jul-Aug%201977%20Eliza%20BASIC%20listing.pdf - and see https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/ELIZA for lots more history. This version seems quite close to the GW-BASIC version preserved here: https://hwiegman.home.xs4all.nl/gw-games/Eliza.asc.html

Hique is a computer adaptation of the Hi-Q physical peg puzzle solitaire game (no relation to the HiQue board game which is more like chess and checkers) and under other names can be traced back at least to the late 1600's - see https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Peg_solitaire - and appears to be quite similar to the BASICA version preserved here, even including the bits for light pen support: https://hwiegman.home.xs4all.nl/gw-games/HIQUE.BAS.html

Mastermind is a computer implementation of Mordecai Meirowitz's code-breaking board game https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mastermind_(board_game) which itself may be an evolution of a pencil-and-paper game https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bulls_and_Cows and this version seems to be distinct from the other ones I have found so far.

Roulette is a computer implementation of https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Roulette and I have yet to find a very similar BASIC version elsewhere.

Solfeggietto is an MSX PSG rendition of https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Solfeggietto by https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Carl_Philipp_Emanuel_Bach which I am sure many students of keyboard music know of and may have a complicated relationship with. A GW-BASIC version is closely related, and indicates it was based on a transcription by Stephanie George from 4 July 1983 which is preserved here: https://hwiegman.home.xs4all.nl/gwfiles/SOLFE.BAS.html

Star Maps is a graphical star/constellation viewer with ephemeris data for some years in the 1980's and appears very close to a GW-BASIC version converted by Allan and Andrew Lee preserved here: https://hwiegman.home.xs4all.nl/gwfiles/Starmap.asc.html - however the MSX one would appear to have support for all years from 1983-1988 and the PC one only 1982-1985.

Stoneville Manor was apparently an Applesoft BASIC type-in by Randy Jensen published in the August 1981 volume of Creative Computing, which was also later ported to the IBM PC, apparently by Allan and Andrew Lee, and is playable and downloadable here: https://archive.org/details/StonevilleManor_1020 (I believe this MSX version is based on the PC one.) Original AppleSoft type-in version:
https://archive.org/details/creativecomputing-1981-08/page/n159/mode/2up

Trap is a number-guessing game based on an old one published in People's Computer Company's 1974 PCC Games https://archive.org/details/1974-peoples-computer-company-games/page/2/mode/1up and first mentioned in 1973 https://archive.org/details/1973-02-peoples-computer-company/page/9/mode/1up and also later in Creative Computing which is preserved here: http://www.vintage-basic.net/bcg/trap.bas

Mentioned in

• Computer & Radio Amateur Magazine 64 on page 61 (ad)
• MSX Info 01-07 on page 80 (ad)

Added on

22-11-2004

Last updated on

22-10-2023