User avatar
intric8
Seattle, WA, USA

Posted Sun Jul 26, 2020 10:32 am

I've been collecting Electronic Arts "Flat Box" games for a long time now. I showed off a bit of my collection three years ago, and have been slowly adding to it since then (2, 3, and even more I've not captured for you here yet).

But I wanted to point out a few lesser known titles that I think are really worth mentioning.

Exhibit A:
Earth Orbit Stations (E.O.S.) by Karl Buiter. It was made for both Apple II and Commodore 64.
IMG_8558.jpg
IMG_8568.jpg
Sounds like Karl actually made this game while still in college in 1987. I wonder what became of Karl?

It's a space simulation game where you run your own space program - for the next 50 years (from 1987 onward). You raise money and construct space stations (chemical labs, construction plants, shuttle ports) and explore planets. It's apparently based on NASA's plans as they were known back in the 1980s and the technologies and economic models under development at the time.
IMG_8559.jpg
IMG_8559-1.jpg
Space shuttles? I'm in.


Sounds pretty cool and deep - the kind of game you can just pick up and play as many times as you want for as long as you want. I love games like that.
IMG_8569.jpg
Exhibit B:
Demon Stalkers, also from 1987 and developed by Micro Forté out of Canberra, Australia.
IMG_8570.jpg
IMG_8571.jpg
Four guys from "Down Under".


At first blush, Demon Stalkers is a blatant clone of Gauntlet. But supposedly it doesn't have the same level of enemies so it becomes more of a search game than a hand-cramping action game.
IMG_8574.jpg

It also only has 2 character choices: hero or heroine.

But what's super cool about this game is it comes with a Dungeon Construction Set so you can make your own levels!
IMG_8573.jpg
Apparently it was successful enough to warrant a sequel called Fire King, but I've yet to hunt that title down. Fire King apparently lets you choose one of six characters, and involves a lot more that just running around and shooting everything Robotron-style.
The game has been compared to Gauntlet, with its top-down view and endless enemies spawning from monster generators, but differs in that it contains more plot and puzzles than the typical hack and slash game.
Sounds pretty cool. Anyone here ever played these, or Fire King? They sound really bad ass to me.

User avatar
McTrinsic

Posted Sun Jul 26, 2020 12:03 pm

Hi,
what an interesting find. That space program program 😆 would have appealed to me - I have a hard time to see how I could have missed that back then.

Eagerly waiting for my C64 project to finish so I can try this out.

Emulation just doesn’t do it for me.

User avatar
BloodyCactus
Lexington VA

Posted Tue Jul 28, 2020 10:10 am

I nearly worked for the micro forte guys.. Fire King is one of their best games of that era.





Return to “Conquests”