| The year was 1985. PC games were almost non | | | | if you can call them graphics, occur whenever |
| existent. The personal computer itself was | | | | the aftershocks hit. The screen shakes a |
| in its infant stages. The amount of memory | | | | bit.The game, in spite of it being pretty |
| you had in a PC was about 64K. PC games? | | | | bare bones, was very hard. The number of |
| Certainly there weren't any PC games back | | | | puzzles you had to solve and items you had to |
| then even worth playing, not with that kind | | | | get were numerous to say the least. Many |
| of memory. Well, actually there was. If you | | | | times you would have to backtrack to a place |
| had yourself a Radio Shack TRS 80, there was | | | | you had been to before to pick up an item |
| a game so popular that people who owned these | | | | that only appears after you got another item |
| computers couldn't stop playing it. The game | | | | or another aftershock hits.For example. |
| was called "San Francisco Earthquake - | | | | There is one part of the game where you reach |
| 1906".The game was to take place around the | | | | a pile of rubble. You search through it but |
| time of the great San Francisco earthquake of | | | | don't find anything. So you move on. Later |
| 1906. But the game itself was not really | | | | on during the game, another aftershock hits. |
| about the earthquake. Oh yes, it happens | | | | If you think enough to go back to the pile of |
| during the game, which only makes things that | | | | rubble, you will see that it had been |
| more difficult, but the main objective is to | | | | disturbed and if you look closely enough you |
| find your wife who has been kidnapped.Played | | | | will now find an item that you didn't see |
| entirely in text mode, no graphics, you awake | | | | before.You had to really think outside the |
| to find a note by your bedside that your wife | | | | box to play this game. There was no |
| has been kidnapped. You then receive a phone | | | | instruction manual and no clue book. For |
| call with a ransom demand. Suddenly there is | | | | those of you who are programmers, you can |
| a terrible shaking and it hits. You're now | | | | figure out where everything is. The game was |
| in the middle of the worst earthquake in San | | | | written in a combination of BASIC and |
| Francisco history and your wife has been | | | | Assembler Language. By printing out the |
| kidnapped. What a way to start the day.The | | | | source and object files, if you can read this |
| game is played by issuing commands to the | | | | stuff, you can figure out exactly the order |
| computer such as look, get, north, south, | | | | for every item you need to find and where |
| east, west (to move around) open, close, | | | | they are found.The game was a real challenge. |
| inventory and a number of other commands. | | | | And while it didn't have all the bells and |
| There is a very limited help function that | | | | whistles of the modern day PC games, it was |
| basically gives you the list of commands that | | | | far from boring. |
| you can use. The only graphics in the game, | | | | |