# Videogames you think you're the only one who played **URL:** \ **Category:** The Game Room\ **Created:** [March 3, 2019, 6:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/videogames-you-think-youre-the-only-one-who-played/830493 "2019-03-03T18:31:49Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 8
**Author:** ![Quimby](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/q/22d042/32.png) [@Quimby](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Quimby)\ **Post date:** [March 13, 2019, 6:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/videogames-you-think-youre-the-only-one-who-played/830493/142 "2019-03-13T18:43:59Z")
> [@Go\_Arachnid\_Laser](#): > > Oh, come on. That meme’s gone for long enough. GK3 wasn’t that bad and Jane Jensen didn’t kill adventure games. The internet did. Something I once read that I have to say sounds pretty convincing is the reason adventure games of that puzzle type peaked and went away so early is that the type of people to early adopt PCs that could play them are he type of people that would enjoy those kind of games but as PCs and computer games became more mainstream game tastes became more mainstream and the market share for Adventure games shrank. Essentially the genre was a big fish in a small pond but then the pond and the fish around it grew and it didn’t. ---
**Author:** ![DPRK](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/4491bb/32.png) [@DPRK](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DPRK)\ **Post date:** [March 13, 2019, 7:02pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/videogames-you-think-youre-the-only-one-who-played/830493/143 "2019-03-13T19:02:45Z")
> [@pulykamell](#): > > If it’s the same game I’m thinking of, that one was simply called [Chernobyl:Nuclear Power Plan Simulation](https://www.myabandonware.com/game/chernobyl-nuclear-power-plant-simulation-6i3) by Cosmi. I remember playing that game often with my cousin trying to blow the damned thing up and spectacularly failing every time, as all sorts of safety systems were in place. Yes, that is the one. I was annoyed by the blatant lying attempt to capitalize on the disaster by calling the game “Chernobyl”, as it simulates a standard pressurized-water reactor and not the RBMK graphite-moderated reactor that was used at Pripyat. If you work at it a bit, you can create a bit of a disaster with the reactor tripped and radioactive water flooding all your buildings, but the game does not simulate any spectacular meltdowns or explosions, and it keeps running no matter what you do. > [@](#): > > We had a bunch of Cosmi games. Do you remember _The President is Missing_? That seems to be an obscure one. It even came with a cassette tape that had all sorts of clues on it, and you had to transcribe Morse code that was recorded on it, etc. I don’t remember getting very far in the game, but it was an interesting idea for an investigative/detective genre game. No, I did not have that one. Among investigative games I had _The Fourth Protocol_ video game, though, “Sherlock” (1984 version), _Deadline_, Spycraft: The Great Game, some others. ---
**Author:** ![pulykamell](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/pulykamell/32/3166_2.png) [@pulykamell](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/pulykamell)\ **Post date:** [March 13, 2019, 9:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/videogames-you-think-youre-the-only-one-who-played/830493/144 "2019-03-13T21:16:51Z")
Huh. Looking online, it seems that with [The President is Missing](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_President_Is_Missing_(video_game)), there was no end to the game, but you were supposed to write Cosmi a letter summarizing the evidence and they would reply back to you. How odd! I wonder what the reply was. Looks like on Youtube they even have the audio cassette files uploaded from the game. ETA: Wow, [reading a thread about this game](https://www.lemon64.com/forum/viewtopic.php?t=37784) I forgot about a couple of points. When you sent agents on an investigative mission, it took one actual hour (as in computer time) to get a reply. To rescue hostages, it apparently took four real-world hours. I don’t remember that at all. I guess I never got far enough into the game. Crazy. ---
**Author:** ![Kobal2](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kobal2/32/20_2.png) [@Kobal2](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kobal2)\ **Post date:** [March 14, 2019, 3:40am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/videogames-you-think-youre-the-only-one-who-played/830493/145 "2019-03-14T03:40:00Z")
> [@Hoopy\_Frood](#): > > I played that one in college. My roommate at the time owned it. > > I thought of another. Robot Odyssey. Oh BTW **Hoopy** , if you like that kind of game, you should check out Shenzen I/O which seems quite close to Robot Odyssey in a “it’s basically programming” kind of way. Shenzen has the player design increasingly complex microchips by daisy-chaining simple components (as well as code simple instructions in something close to Assembly) to perform increasingly complex tasks. It’s not my cup of tea - I dropped out of comp sci for a reason 🙂 - but my code monkey friends really like it. ---
**Author:** ![Der\_Trihs](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/der_trihs/32/233_2.png) [@Der\_Trihs](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Der_Trihs)\ **Post date:** [March 14, 2019, 4:40am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/videogames-you-think-youre-the-only-one-who-played/830493/146 "2019-03-14T04:40:24Z")
That reminds me of [Carnage Heart](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Carnage_Heart), a game where you built and programmed walking & flying warbots to perform combat missions without directly controlling them. Fun, if difficult. Looking at the Wiki page it appears almost all the sequels were published in Japan only, which explains why I never heard about them. ---
**Author:** ![DPRK](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/4491bb/32.png) [@DPRK](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DPRK)\ **Post date:** [March 14, 2019, 4:52am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/videogames-you-think-youre-the-only-one-who-played/830493/147 "2019-03-14T04:52:36Z")
CROBOTS also featured programmable combat robots; there was also an earlier Core Wars where the combatants had no physical form. ---
**Author:** ![clairobscur](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/839c29/32.png) [@clairobscur](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/clairobscur)\ **Post date:** [March 14, 2019, 12:07pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/videogames-you-think-youre-the-only-one-who-played/830493/148 "2019-03-14T12:07:43Z")
I found the wargame I was mentioning earlier. Simply called “Austerlitz” and “Waterloo” and dating back from 1989. Here’s a gameplay vido of Waterloo : [Waterloo gameplay (PC Game, 1989) - YouTube](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=o7OkAx2pQ7s&t=386s) And wikipedia article for the same game : [Waterloo (video game) - Wikipedia](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Waterloo_(video_game)) Picked Waterloo rather than Austerlitz that I played because one could see more in the video. Also, I don’t see in the video the generals and intelligence report that I remember from the game, but I saw in the wikipedia article that they indeed existed. ---
**Author:** ![clairobscur](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/839c29/32.png) [@clairobscur](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/clairobscur)\ **Post date:** [March 14, 2019, 12:15pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/videogames-you-think-youre-the-only-one-who-played/830493/149 "2019-03-14T12:15:07Z")
Correct link to the wikipedia article about the wargame Waterloo : [Waterloo (video game) - Wikipedia](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Waterloo_(video_game))) ---
**Author:** ![divemaster](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/divemaster/32/78_2.png) [@divemaster](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/divemaster)\ **Post date:** [March 14, 2019, 12:35pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/videogames-you-think-youre-the-only-one-who-played/830493/150 "2019-03-14T12:35:32Z")
I never played any computer games, so most of this thread is like Greek to me. However, I spent hours and hours in arcades as a kid, and with my Atari 2600 and ColecoVision. From Pong through whatever wrapped up the '80s. Some of my favorite games were very common, and ubiquitous in every arcade I ever went into. Others were hit and miss. But there were two that I only saw once, in all my hundreds of arcades visited over the years. The bowling alley at the Jacksonville (FL) Naval Air Station had a game called **Space Zap**. Quite simple, in that you had a central base from which to fire upon approaching spaceships. The key to racking up the high scores is to have one person aim the blaster in the correct direction, while another person continually hits the fire button as fast as possible. Who knew a sister could come in handy to beat an arcade game? The other was called \*\*Clowns \*\*or **Clowns and Balloons** or something like that. You had a see-saw from which clowns would bounce off and hit balloons at the top of the screen, popping them for points based on balloon color. Very similar concept to Atari’s **Breakout**. This Clown game was at one of our local movie theaters. ---
**Author:** ![Hoopy\_Frood](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/hoopy_frood/32/8452_2.png) [@Hoopy\_Frood](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Hoopy_Frood)\ **Post date:** [March 14, 2019, 9:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/videogames-you-think-youre-the-only-one-who-played/830493/151 "2019-03-14T21:16:07Z")
> [@Kobal2](#): > > Oh BTW **Hoopy** , if you like that kind of game, you should check out Shenzen I/O which seems quite close to Robot Odyssey in a “it’s basically programming” kind of way. Shenzen has the player design increasingly complex microchips by daisy-chaining simple components (as well as code simple instructions in something close to Assembly) to perform increasingly complex tasks. > It’s not my cup of tea - I dropped out of comp sci for a reason 🙂 - but my code monkey friends really like it. I might check it out. I’m a code monkey in higher-level languages by trade (e.g. C#, C++), but I did Computer Engineering as an undergrad so I’m pretty familiar with the combining various low level components into higher level components thing. > [@divemaster](#): > > The other was called \*\*Clowns \*\*or **Clowns and Balloons** or something like that. You had a see-saw from which clowns would bounce off and hit balloons at the top of the screen, popping them for points based on balloon color. Very similar concept to Atari’s **Breakout**. This Clown game was at one of our local movie theaters. For some reason that game rings a bell. I know I’ve never played it, but I think I might have seen it at some point in my youth. ---
**Author:** ![Chronos](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/chronos/32/134_2.png) [@Chronos](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chronos)\ **Post date:** [March 14, 2019, 9:35pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/videogames-you-think-youre-the-only-one-who-played/830493/152 "2019-03-14T21:35:03Z")
Core Wars, meanwhile, is basically assembly-language programming. It’s a competitive game where you basically put two programs in a section of memory with periodic boundary conditions, with each program’s goal being to overwrite the other. The simplest core warrior is the single command COPY 0 1, which copies the command in relative position 0 (where the execution pointer is right now) to the next position, and then the execution pointer moves to the next position, which now conveniently contains that same command, so it’ll eventually overwrite all stationary programs. And so of course other programs will be designed to have various sorts of defenses against that, and other means of attacking, and so on. ---
**Author:** ![pulykamell](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/pulykamell/32/3166_2.png) [@pulykamell](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/pulykamell)\ **Post date:** [March 14, 2019, 10:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/videogames-you-think-youre-the-only-one-who-played/830493/153 "2019-03-14T22:34:33Z")
> [@Chronos](#): > > Core Wars, meanwhile, is basically assembly-language programming. It’s a competitive game where you basically put two programs in a section of memory with periodic boundary conditions, with each program’s goal being to overwrite the other. The simplest core warrior is the single command COPY 0 1, which copies the command in relative position 0 (where the execution pointer is right now) to the next position, and then the execution pointer moves to the next position, which now conveniently contains that same command, so it’ll eventually overwrite all stationary programs. And so of course other programs will be designed to have various sorts of defenses against that, and other means of attacking, and so on. There’s a number of these programming-type games out there. The one I’ve enjoyed is [TIS-100](https://store.steampowered.com/app/370360/TIS100/), which is a assembly language-style puzzle solving game. It looks like it’s by the same people who did the aforementioned Shenzen I/O (which appears to be their follow-up to TIS-100). There’s also [Human Resource Machine](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=428R_oEjGGI), which is a more “fun” take on the genre of programming games. [Rouge Bit](https://store.steampowered.com/app/949790/Rogue_Bit/) is another cute one that I’ve played a few levels of, but haven’t gotten back to. (Not because I didn’t like, but I got distracted by life.) ---
**Author:** ![Kobal2](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kobal2/32/20_2.png) [@Kobal2](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kobal2)\ **Post date:** [March 14, 2019, 10:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/videogames-you-think-youre-the-only-one-who-played/830493/154 "2019-03-14T22:46:38Z")
> [@pulykamell](#): > > There’s a number of these programming-type games out there. The one I’ve enjoyed is [TIS-100](https://store.steampowered.com/app/370360/TIS100/), which is a assembly language-style puzzle solving game. It looks like it’s by the same people who did the aforementioned Shenzen I/O (which appears to be their follow-up to TIS-100). Yeah, that guy - Zach Bart - has made enough of these types of games that apparently they’re now retroactively dubbed “Zachlikes”. They all eventually boil down to “oh, ok, I get it, it’s just about coming up with elegant algorithms”, under various trappings. But Shenzen I/O is AFAIK the only one that doesn’t shy away from that in the least - it’s point blank about efficient algos and microchips. The one other game of his I know, SpaceChem, is also ultimately about electronics and algos but is ostensibly a lot more about 2D space management and base 2 computing and… it’s a bit hard to explain, honestly. And I suck at it. But it’s still a good way to marvel at other peoples’ ingenuity. The guy clearly has a contagious hard on for finding the simplest, most elegant way to perform any given task with the least amount of components, instructions and/or cycles. ---
**Author:** ![dzeiger](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/46a35a/32.png) [@dzeiger](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/dzeiger)\ **Post date:** [March 15, 2019, 12:51am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/videogames-you-think-youre-the-only-one-who-played/830493/155 "2019-03-15T00:51:49Z")
> [@divemaster](#): > > The other was called \*\*Clowns \*\*or **Clowns and Balloons** or something like that. You had a see-saw from which clowns would bounce off and hit balloons at the top of the screen, popping them for points based on balloon color. Very similar concept to Atari’s **Breakout**. This Clown game was at one of our local movie theaters. **Circus Atari**. At least, that’s what I’ve seen it named for the 2600. A couple I remember–one was called **Conflict** from 1990, you were in charge of Israel and had to choose the right path of military/diplomatic moves with all the hostile neighbors. The other was **Modem Wars** in 1988, which was one of the first online multiplayer RTS games, but no servers or anything, you had to know someone who had the game, both people had a modem, and you had to call directly. ---
**Author:** ![control-z](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/eada6e/32.png) [@control-z](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/control-z)\ **Post date:** [March 15, 2019, 3:35pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/videogames-you-think-youre-the-only-one-who-played/830493/156 "2019-03-15T15:35:44Z")
> [@wolfman](#): > > I loved utopia, the first of many city building games I loved. I still remember the horror of that big low-res hurricane destroying all my work. I too loved that game, I played it extensively. I remember buying rebels to take over random squares of the opponent’s island. I think I got it for like $2 from Kay-Bee toys. ---
**Author:** ![control-z](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/eada6e/32.png) [@control-z](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/control-z)\ **Post date:** [March 15, 2019, 3:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/videogames-you-think-youre-the-only-one-who-played/830493/157 "2019-03-15T15:37:47Z")
How about **Mail Order Monsters**? I played it on the C64. You selected and customized monsters and then fought them against your opponent. I seem to remember you could get like a Tyrannosaurus and put a grenade launcher on him. This was in the days when EA wasn’t evil. ---
**Author:** ![Hoopy\_Frood](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/hoopy_frood/32/8452_2.png) [@Hoopy\_Frood](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Hoopy_Frood)\ **Post date:** [March 15, 2019, 8:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/videogames-you-think-youre-the-only-one-who-played/830493/158 "2019-03-15T20:24:17Z")
I grew up in Wisconsin. We had some friends in Michigan growing up. They had an Atari 5200. There was a game released only for that platform called Countermeasure. [http://www.atariprotos.com/5200/software/countermeasure/countermeasure.htm](http://www.atariprotos.com/5200/software/countermeasure/countermeasure.htm) [Atari 5200 Countermeasure Endgame Sequence - YouTube](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2FHJyVZE49A) (A video of what happens when the world ends in the game.) ---
**Author:** ![dasmili](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/df788c/32.png) [@dasmili](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/dasmili)\ **Post date:** [March 15, 2019, 8:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/videogames-you-think-youre-the-only-one-who-played/830493/159 "2019-03-15T20:55:22Z")
[Liberty or Death](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Liberty_or_Death_(video_game)) I saw it in in an issue of Nintendo Power and begged my parents for it. I don’t know where they found it. I guess others have played it as it has a wiki page… ---
**Author:** ![nightshadea](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/7ba0ec/32.png) [@nightshadea](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/nightshadea)\ **Post date:** [March 15, 2019, 9:42pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/videogames-you-think-youre-the-only-one-who-played/830493/160 "2019-03-15T21:42:40Z")
that was one of Koei’s historical simulation series… ill top your lod with l’emperur (no im not spelling it right ) it started in the French revolution and you ended up being napoleon … there slowly going back to their original game style now that dynasty warriors one millionth and one isn’t selling as much as it used to mine is pirates! and pirates! gold for the consoles yeah people played it by the hundreds of thousands on the pc but i’m the only one I know of that owned them on the NES and Sega Genesis … in fact for the sega I found it by accident for 5.99 …toys r us had 30 copies for 3 months and didn’t sell one so they were dumping them … I was overjoyed … as it fixed a ton of problems (mainly a on screen map…and a better town acreen ) ---
**Author:** ![Jet\_Jaguar](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/jet_jaguar/32/3562_2.png) [@Jet\_Jaguar](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Jet_Jaguar)\ **Post date:** [March 15, 2019, 11:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/videogames-you-think-youre-the-only-one-who-played/830493/161 "2019-03-15T23:19:45Z")
> [@control-z](#): > > How about **Mail Order Monsters**? I played it on the C64. You selected and customized monsters and then fought them against your opponent. I seem to remember you could get like a Tyrannosaurus and put a grenade launcher on him. > > This was in the days when EA wasn’t evil. I remember that game, a friend of mine had it on the C64. I wanted it badly, but I had an Apple IIe and AFAIK it was never released on Apple. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/videogames-you-think-youre-the-only-one-who-played/830493.md?page=7) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/videogames-you-think-youre-the-only-one-who-played/830493.md?page=9)