In 1982, MicroProse advertised its first batch of games under the headline “Experience the MicroProse Challenge!!!” The three games, all written by Sid Meier for the Atari 8-bit family of home computers, included Hellcat Ace, Chopper Rescue, and Floyd of the Jungle. After nearly a year of detective work, a group of determined MicroProse employees successfully tracked […]| Retro365
Last week I wrote about G.I. Joe, one of three titles in Epyx’s “Computer Activity Toys” line. Barbie and Hot Wheels share the same origins and trajectory, and probably should have been part of that story… oh well. In the late 1970s, with the home computer industry still in its infancy, much of the software […]| Retro365
Welcome, dear reader. After more than a decade of writing this blog, it struck me that I’ve never stopped to tell a bit about myself. What follows is, in many ways, a tribute, not just to the games and computers I’ve spent a lifetime exploring, but to my parents, whose own journeys through technology shaped […]| Retro365
In the early 1980s, the home computer market was still finding its footing, the rules unwritten, the field wide open to anyone with curiosity, talent, and patience. With a machine like the Apple II…| Retro365
In the late 1970s, wargaming was little more than an idea waiting to be realized on home computers. The hobby was popularized by companies like Avalon Hill and SPI, whose boxed sets of maps, counters, and thick rulebooks recreated conflicts ranging from ancient battlefields to hypothetical nuclear wars. For many, the appeal lay in the […]| Retro365
In the late 1970s, with the home computer industry still in its infancy, much of the software being written was aimed at hobbyists and technically minded players. In 1978, Jon Freeman and Jim Connelly founded Automated Simulations, one of the earliest independent computer game publishers. The debut, Starfleet Orion, was essentially a computerized board game, […]| Retro365
In 1981, Atari launched the Atari Program Exchange, APX, an unusual experiment that invited hobbyists to submit original programs for possible publication. It was part catalog, part competition. At…| Retro365
In the early 1990s, the games industry found itself on the edge of a revolution. For more than a decade, developers had battled against the limited capacities of floppy disks. Graphics, audio, and every line of code had to be squeezed, trimmed, and compressed until barely fitting into a handful of megabytes. With the arrival […]| Retro365
Born in 1946, Jeffrey Stanton was a child of the post–World War II generation, growing up in an era when science and technology were shaping both industry and imagination. From an early age, he was drawn to how things worked, an interest that pointed him toward engineering. After graduating from James Madison High School in […]| Retro365
In the spring of 1980, Ken and Roberta Williams were unknowingly about to change gaming. Working out of their small home in Simi Valley, California, their first game, Mystery House, had just been c…| Retro365
