Let me first tell you that this series of reviews was originally published in the Retrogaming Times, and then continued into the Retrogaming Times Monthly magazines. [Editor’s note: Retrogaming Times Monthly is a GREAT magazine, check out Alan’s Bio on the contents page for the web location]
These are the Many Faces of the Classic ―Joystick Era‖, those games and systems prior to the NES and the PC. Now on to the review.
“Oil‘s Well”, by Sierra, is my most beloved classic era game that most gamers have never heard of. From looking at the details of the votes/replies to the Retrogaming Times survey of 1983 classic video games, those who picked Oil‘s Well most often had several other home computer titles on their list as well. So I‘m guessing that many of our readers have not played it, but given a chance, they‘d find it to be quite an impressive and fun game.
I had a tough time wrapping up this review since I kept finding more information about a similar game, “Anteater”, a 1982 arcade game by Tago. Then, just as I was almost done, this already long review was extended further upon discovery of the missing link: Ardy the Aardvark‖, ‘83 by Datamost. From the Ardy manual, it‘s a 95% match to ―Anteater‖. So why would Datamost risk a lawsuit and copy “Anteater”? Even the title is only slightly different, as an Aardvark is a specific type of Anteater. Then I made the connection that the C64/AP2 author is none other than Chris Oberth, who also programmed the original arcade game Anteater. I‘d love to track down Chris Oberth today to get the full (no doubt interesting) story behind the tale of these three video games. 1982 and ‘83 marked breakout years for original games on home computers and I hope to salute several here in our reviews this year.
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