Re: [SWCollect] The first? -- Thread was King's Quest 1

[Jim Leonard]

Year?

Edward Franks wrote:
> 
> Fire in the Valley by Freiberger and Swaine mentions a backgammon game
> (pg 63, Collector's Edition hardcover), but no details on if that game
> was ever sold.  A number of the early games were used to demonstrate
> the early hardware.
> 
> The first game I can see listed in the book as being sold is a chess
> program -- MicroChess -- by a guy name Peter Jennings (not related to
> the news anchor).  The book states the game sold for $10, including a
> fifteen page manual (with source code) for the KIM-1 micro.
> Ironically, that game lead to the creation a company called Personal
> Software.  The money from MicroChess paid for the marketing of
> VisiCalc...
> 
> This will teach me to go look in my reference books _first_.  ;-)
> 
> --
> 
> Edward Franks
> 
> --
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Re: [SWCollect] The first? -- Thread was King's Quest 1

[Pedro Quaresma]

Speaking of months: if I'm not mistaken, "Akalabeth" and "Temple of Apshai" were released in the same year, thus becoming the first two RPGs ever. But which one was released first?

Pedro

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Administração e Desenvolvimento Lotus Notes / 
Lotus Notes Admnistration and Development
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Assunto: Re: [SWCollect] The first? -- Thread was King's Quest 1


Edward Franks <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>     


11-02-2003 06:30


Solicita-se resposta a swcollect



On Monday, February 10, 2003, at 11:30  PM, Hugh Falk wrote:

> The earliest copyright I have for a Scott Adam's Adventureland is 1980
> Unless someone knows of an earlier one, that's definitely not the 
> first.
> I'm guessing there is an earlier version out there.

                 My December 1980 issue of Byte has Scott Adams stating that the 
copyright on Pirate Adventure is 1978.  Adventureland should be the 
same vintage.  Adams states he wrote the game on a TRS-80 Level II and 
that it took him six months to write it.  So that would place the game 
in 1978.

> Do you know what year Rocket Pilot was copyrighted?

                 July 1977 according to this link 
.

>
> TRS-80 was released in August 1977
> PET 2001 and Apple II were also released in 1977 (unsure of the months)

                 July 1977.

-- 

Edward Franks


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Re: [SWCollect] The first? -- Thread was King's Quest 1

[Edward Franks]

On Monday, February 10, 2003, at 11:56  PM, Jim Leonard wrote:


Weren't there any games you were obligated to pay for for the Altair?   
Because
that would pretty much take the crown.

	Here's photos of MicroChess and Peter Jennings.   


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RE: [SWCollect] The first? -- Thread was King's Quest 1

[Hugh Falk]

Great info.  Rocket Pilot was the first "Hi-Res" game according to the site,
but there were several from 77...hard to know which would be first.  Still
this is a good reference.  Thanks!

Hugh

-Original Message-
From: Edward Franks [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]]
Sent: Monday, February 10, 2003 10:30 PM
To: [EMAIL PROTECTED]
Subject: Re: [SWCollect] The first? -- Thread was King's Quest 1



On Monday, February 10, 2003, at 11:30  PM, Hugh Falk wrote:

> The earliest copyright I have for a Scott Adam's Adventureland is 1980.
> Unless someone knows of an earlier one, that's definitely not the
> first.
> I'm guessing there is an earlier version out there.

My December 1980 issue of Byte has Scott Adams stating that the
copyright on Pirate Adventure is 1978.  Adventureland should be the
same vintage.  Adams states he wrote the game on a TRS-80 Level II and
that it took him six months to write it.  So that would place the game
in 1978.

> Do you know what year Rocket Pilot was copyrighted?

July 1977 according to this link
<http://www.geocities.com/robertjamesbishop/softlist.html>.

>
> TRS-80 was released in August 1977
> PET 2001 and Apple II were also released in 1977 (unsure of the months)

July 1977.

--

Edward Franks


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RE: [SWCollect] The first? -- Thread was King's Quest 1

[Hugh Falk]

Beats me...but even if there were, we're not talking about "video" games on
the Altair...since there was no video output (at least not standard).  And
yes, you could argue that game of Altair Mastermind or Simon (just guessing)
was the first PC game, it's not quite what we're looking for.  I'd like to
stick to the big 3 from 1977 personally.

Hugh

-Original Message-
From: Jim Leonard [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]]
Sent: Monday, February 10, 2003 9:56 PM
To: [EMAIL PROTECTED]
Subject: Re: [SWCollect] The first? -- Thread was King's Quest 1


Weren't there any games you were obligated to pay for for the Altair?
Because
that would pretty much take the crown.
--
Jim Leonard ([EMAIL PROTECTED])
http://www.oldskool.org/
Want to help an ambitious games project?
http://www.mobygames.com/
Or check out some trippy MindCandy at
http://www.mindcandydvd.com/

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Re: [SWCollect] The first? -- Thread was King's Quest 1

[Edward Franks]

On Monday, February 10, 2003, at 11:56  PM, Jim Leonard wrote:


Weren't there any games you were obligated to pay for for the Altair?  
Because
that would pretty much take the crown.

	Fire in the Valley by Freiberger and Swaine mentions a backgammon game 
(pg 63, Collector's Edition hardcover), but no details on if that game 
was ever sold.  A number of the early games were used to demonstrate 
the early hardware.

	The first game I can see listed in the book as being sold is a chess 
program -- MicroChess -- by a guy name Peter Jennings (not related to 
the news anchor).  The book states the game sold for $10, including a 
fifteen page manual (with source code) for the KIM-1 micro.  
Ironically, that game lead to the creation a company called Personal 
Software.  The money from MicroChess paid for the marketing of 
VisiCalc...

	This will teach me to go look in my reference books _first_.  ;-)

--

Edward Franks


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Re: [SWCollect] The first? -- Thread was King's Quest 1

[Edward Franks]

On Monday, February 10, 2003, at 11:30  PM, Hugh Falk wrote:


The earliest copyright I have for a Scott Adam's Adventureland is 1980.
Unless someone knows of an earlier one, that's definitely not the 
first.
I'm guessing there is an earlier version out there.

	My December 1980 issue of Byte has Scott Adams stating that the 
copyright on Pirate Adventure is 1978.  Adventureland should be the 
same vintage.  Adams states he wrote the game on a TRS-80 Level II and 
that it took him six months to write it.  So that would place the game 
in 1978.

Do you know what year Rocket Pilot was copyrighted?


	July 1977 according to this link 
.


TRS-80 was released in August 1977
PET 2001 and Apple II were also released in 1977 (unsure of the months)


	July 1977.

--

Edward Franks


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Re: [SWCollect] The first? -- Thread was King's Quest 1

[Jim Leonard]

Weren't there any games you were obligated to pay for for the Altair?  Because
that would pretty much take the crown.
-- 
Jim Leonard ([EMAIL PROTECTED])http://www.oldskool.org/
Want to help an ambitious games project? http://www.mobygames.com/
Or check out some trippy MindCandy at http://www.mindcandydvd.com/

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RE: [SWCollect] The first? -- Thread was King's Quest 1

[Hugh Falk]

The earliest copyright I have for a Scott Adam's Adventureland is 1980.
Unless someone knows of an earlier one, that's definitely not the first.
I'm guessing there is an earlier version out there.

Do you know what year Rocket Pilot was copyrighted?

TRS-80 was released in August 1977
PET 2001 and Apple II were also released in 1977 (unsure of the months)

Regardless, they were all released close enough to each other that the first
commercial game could have actually been released on any of the systems
(although my money is on Apple).

Hugh

-Original Message-
From: Edward Franks [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]]
Sent: Monday, February 10, 2003 6:32 PM
To: [EMAIL PROTECTED]
Subject: Re: [SWCollect] The first? -- Thread was King's Quest 1



On Tuesday, February 4, 2003, at 02:53  PM, Jim Leonard wrote:

> Hugh Falk wrote:
>>
>> I don't even know what the first commercial game would have been.
>
> The first game you had to pay for for a personal computer.

For the Apple ][ [A] it looks like Rocket Pilot by Bob Bishop (of
Apple-Vision fame ;-)) was possibly the first commercial game.  The
question is if Softape was asking money for the game.  Scott Adams's
Adventureland would also be a decent candidate for the first successful
commercial game (that is, it sold enough to keep him in business for a
number of years).


[A] I believe the Apple ][ actually shipped before the Commodore PET,
and both of these were announced before the TRS-80.

--

Edward Franks


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Re: [SWCollect] The first? -- Thread was King's Quest 1

[Edward Franks]

On Tuesday, February 4, 2003, at 02:53  PM, Jim Leonard wrote:


Hugh Falk wrote:


I don't even know what the first commercial game would have been.


The first game you had to pay for for a personal computer.


	For the Apple ][ [A] it looks like Rocket Pilot by Bob Bishop (of 
Apple-Vision fame ;-)) was possibly the first commercial game.  The 
question is if Softape was asking money for the game.  Scott Adams's 
Adventureland would also be a decent candidate for the first successful 
commercial game (that is, it sold enough to keep him in business for a 
number of years).


[A] I believe the Apple ][ actually shipped before the Commodore PET, 
and both of these were announced before the TRS-80.

--

Edward Franks


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Re: [SWCollect] The first? -- Thread was King's Quest 1

[Jim Leonard]

Hugh Falk wrote:
> 
> I don't even know what the first commercial game would have been.  

The first game you had to pay for for a personal computer.

> depends on your definition of "Personal Computer."  You could go back to the
> Altair or others that didn't have video screens.  Games on those systems

If you had to pay for the game, then yes, it qualifies.  So out of curiousity,
what is the earliest commercial personal computer game people remember?
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RE: [SWCollect] The first? -- Thread was King's Quest 1

[Hugh Falk]

I don't even know what the first commercial game would have been.  It all
depends on your definition of "Personal Computer."  You could go back to the
Altair or others that didn't have video screens.  Games on those systems
would have been personal computer games, but not "video" games.  It would be
great to know what the first commercial video game was on one of the big
three from 1977 -- Commodore PET, Apple II, TRS-80.  Anybody have an idea
what the first commercial game was on each platform?  Any idea which would
have been first across all platforms?

The oldest commercial games I own have copyright dates from 1978:

Air Traffic Controller -- 1978 for Tandy from Creative Computing
Space Trek II -- 1978, 1979 for Tandy from Instant Software

Of course, Empire has an initial copyright of 1978 because of its roots, but
it wasn't comemercially available on a PC until much later (87 by
Interstel).

I have quite a few from 1979, but none before 78.  Of course, in 79 Atari
entered the market and PC gaming became big business.  I've always
considered 1979 the first great year for PC gaming.


Hugh

-Original Message-
From: Edward Franks [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]]
Sent: Monday, February 03, 2003 2:02 PM
To: [EMAIL PROTECTED]
Subject: Re: [SWCollect] King's Quest 1



On Wednesday, January 29, 2003, at 06:14  PM, Jim Leonard wrote:

> Edward Franks wrote:
>>
>>> 1. Adventure was the first computer game, yes?
>>
>> Nope.  :)  Space War was (circa 1960).  MIT students meet the
>> PDP-1
>> and the cathode-ray tube.
>
> I meant PERSONAL computer.  Adventure was playable on CPM machines if
> memory
> serves; it was certainly the first game I ever played (on an Osborne)
> in 1979.

There was also a CP/M game called Ladder (platform jumping).  If you
include any BASIC games (Star Trek, Wumpus, etc.), then it would be
difficult determining just what the first game was.  The first
commercial game would probably easier to figure out.

> BTW, it is 90% certain RPG will join the main list of genres at
> MobyGames, so
> I thank all of you for taking time to illustrate your viewpoints.

Cool.  :-D

> (But I am not budging on King's Quest being primarily IF+G, because
> honestly
> that is what it is.  The input is all text (moving your character can
> be done
> with joystick but that is all a joystick can do in that game) and the
> output
> is text and graphics, so that pretty much clinches it.)

I'm not fussed either way when it comes to King's Quest.

--

Edward Franks


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