In my previous blog entry, I mentioned how much I enjoy playing those quaint basement/bedroom games that were developed by the “average Joe” computer hobbyists. Back in the day, most of those games were only available to me via the magazines that were published at the time. Yes, I did have a floppy disk “trading” buddy at school, but that resource was still pretty limited until I went off to college. And until I landed my first real job after college, my spending money was pretty limited. I couldn't really afford to spend much on retail boxed games. I did, however, have a few spare dollars every so often to spring for a copy of Compute! or Run magazine. This is where my enjoyment (and appreciation) for magazine type-in games began.

To be able to simply type in a few (sometimes hundreds) lines of code printed in a magazine onto my C64 and get a game I could actually play was amazing to me. Sure, the games are probably not what many would consider to be masterpieces, but they did provide some entertainment. Sometimes it took me a few evenings to finish typing in the game code, depending on how complicated/elaborate the game was. So, I was motivated to spend more time playing it, than if it was just another game on floppy disk I “traded”. These magazine published games were a great way to build a video game collection when you were short on cash. I think they deserved a lot more love, than what they typically got.

In the next few blog entries, I'd like to share some of my favorite typed-in games from those days, which I still find myself playing and enjoying every so often.

First up, one of the earliest ones I typed in for myself: Space Dodger, by Kevin Mykytyn. This game was published in Compute! Magazine, issue #60, May 1985. Link to Article...

Compute! printed versions of the game for the C64, VIC-29, TI, Apple II, and Atari home computers. In this game, you simply have to avoid the obstacles by flying your ship up or down for as long as you can. It's colourful and quite addictive. I really liked the sound effects, as you flew your ship between lanes. Sometimes I would load up this game and let it run, just to have the “spacey” droning sound running as background/white noise.

The program listing was about 150 program lines, mostly DATA statements; but wasn't too bad, as magazine type-in games went. Compute! had a “spellcheck” program that you could run to help you ensure you typed in the lines of code correctly, which helped a lot.

Space Dodger.d64

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