Black & White Games

[MacMan]

Ok..new here but here it goes... I ran across an old computer at the thrift store the other day and it got me thiking of some o fthe older games I used to play in the late 80's / early 90's. I cannot recall the names very well other than Gorilla haha.

First - description is of a cannon fodder style game but it was in black and white and literally basic lines and there were two cannons 1 vs computer or 1p vs 2p. I remember there being black trees that were cookie cutter style looking and either an outhouse or just plain shed type building. The other things I can recall are after you shot - if you missed it would make a hole in the ground and the terrain was supposed to look like a mountain.

Another - game was black and white as well ( something tells me these were all played on old macs or apple systems) and you were in space and there was something to do with gravity and you had t get a ball to the center of the screen andthere was a hole there I believe.

Lastly - I recall this game being in black and white as well and it was pitfall/lode runner style but purely black and white in the same game era. I also recall most of these games being used for math class for the angle , velocity , adjustments , etc..More or less educational style it would seem but very fun at the same time.

Please if anyone can help me that would be wonderful =)

 

[hmbrew]

The first one sounds a bit like "Scorched Earth". Same sort of game at the very least. But that one was in color... There might have been earlier versions. I played it in MS-DOS.

Second game sounds like some kind of labyrinth marble maze type of thing.

Does that spark anything?

Edit: I looked it up, scorched earth was just a 90's dos thing.

Might have found it: "Artillery"

 

[docred]

I remember playing a Scorched Earth predecessor on the Apple II family machines, I believe it was called Artillery Duel or something simliar, as Hmbrew mentioned. Quite sure it was black and white (we played most of our Apple games on Monochrome monitors, I think there was only 1 or 2 colour monitors in school at one point). I'll check my images. Not sure about the other two.

 

[MacMan]

I found one of them . - http://www.retrocpu.com/apple-ii/games/a/archon_the_light_and_the_dark it was Archon but god its been so many years haha.

As for the Artillery game I think that one isn't the one I was thiking about but the same concept. All I can recall is it was in math class back in the 90's on those old monochrome monitors. That along with the ladder one and the space one as well. I believe the schools figured it was ok since you had to figure degree of angle and velocity thus being 'educational'

As I search for the game I find more and more Cannon Fodder style games which is exactly what it was but not color and like 1 GFX. Black lines on a white screen

 

[docred]

Archon!! I loved that game...actually, I played it on one of my IIes a few months ago, lol. Sorry I didn't recognize it by the description you gave, Archon and Archon II were a lot of fun. I remember poring over full page ads for it back in the 80s in Compute magazine Couldn't afford to get it for my C64 at the time, but my buddy had it for his IIe. Later I did buy it for my system.

 

[Raven]

The second one in your list sounds kinda like "Lunar Lander" which I had on DOS when I was a kid. Although it's an Apollo Lunar module, and not a ball - otherwise same concept!

(Various versions of this game exist and all look a bit different, but this one is a good average)

 

[barythrin]

Were these all Apple/Mac games? For your shooting tank game there was one I had for our Zenith which I'm pretty sure was written in basic (I recall breaking out of it a few times as a kid) and although I'm not finding a link to it I'm pretty sure it was called "Pillbox".

The terrain was random as far as I know it would draw the lines of the terrain first, then a house or some thing/mountain in the center (this may have been an option to turn on/off), I kind of remember birds or a blimp you could hit that would also drop a bomb if you hit it. Then it drew you and your opponent which were just two colored squares. From there it was pick your angle and velocity.

Anyway not sure if that's it but at that rate it could be any number of basic games also.

 

[Raven]

There are ports of any decently popular game to every platform in the late 80s and early 90s, because the games were simple and (relatively speaking) easy to recreate. If you can find a game for C64, PC, or Apple that seems fun to you, there's a good chance it's on the others as well.

 

[MacMan]

the cannon game looked more or less like this : http://i5.photobucket.com/albums/y187/ohjiro/game1.jpg?t=1260701157

and for the space one I think it had something to do with zero gravity :/...plus you had to control a little monochrome guy.

PS: Laptop not the best thing to paint with =(

 

[Raven]

the cannon game looked more or less like this : http://i5.photobucket.com/albums/y187/ohjiro/game1.jpg?t=1260701157

and for the space one I think it had something to do with zero gravity :/...plus you had to control a little monochrome guy.

PS: Laptop not the best thing to paint with =(

Definitely a variation on "Scorched Earth". I've played many of them named many things, so it will be hard for you to locate the exact one you had - it is definitely a clone of that game though.

Pocket Tanks is my choice for running the game on modern Windows versions and doing network play, etc.: