Okay, I’m just plain old cheating this time.
This game was never released for the PC. It was released for the Apple II, Commodore 64 and Atari 800.
But it’s a special game so I’m making an exception.
Warren, I am hereby unretiring you, because you’re probably the only person to have any chance to get this one 🙂
Can anyone tell me what game this is, who developed it, and why it’s special?
EDIT: Okay, nobody got it. I guess I’m not that surprised.
The game is Caverns of Callisto, developed by Chuck Beuche. It is significant because it is the first game Origin Systems ever published, beating out Ultima III by about a month.
It’s not Space Taxi by Muse, is it? It looks similar, but a bit rougher.
I fail. But I’m guessing it’s special because it’s one of those games you played as a kid? =)
GBGames: Nope, not Space Taxi, though that’s actually very close. Right time period and game type, but wrong company.
Sol: No, I never actually played this game 🙂
Is that a flying dinosaur??
Drat! Foiled Again!
(I dunno )
And yeah, what the heck *IS* that thing?! A bird?
A man with a rocket pack?
Yes, it’s a guy with a rocket pack. Flying through an underground cavern.
The only thing I found in my way too extensive research on mobygames.com is Thrust, but it is clearly not the same game. The graphics look similar except that Thrust uses a ship while this game is clearly a rocketeer of some kind…
Looks like Papa Smurf to me.
But where’d he get the rocket pack?
Hah, it isn’t even listed on MobyGames! Doh! I just spent all that time for nothing.
So who originally published Ultima I and II?
Should have guessed it has something to do with origin =)
bignobody: Ultima I was published by California Pacific. Ultima II was published by Sierra. The troubles Richard had with both publishers (including their reticence to include things like coins and cloth maps with the games) led to him creating Origin so he could publish Ultima III himself.
Sol: Yes, you should have! 🙂
Actually, it was funny that I found something from Origin during my search through the database at MobyGames. I dismissed it as obviously not the right game. I was right, but for some reason Origin stuck out to me. B-)
Exile? 🙂
Hah! No, it wasn’t Exile, though I can see the similarity. Caverns of Callisto was actually released a couple years before Exile, but it didn’t have Exile’s depth of play.