Games that remind me of my childhood Number 28 : Ghost Town (Commodore Plus 4)

There are a few games that we had on our Commodore Plus 4 computer back in the 1980's that will always stand out, and in that memorable list, it features all games created by legendary C16 and Plus 4 programmer Udo Gertz.

Ghost Town is one of them and is a wonderfully simple adventure game released in 1986 by Kingsoft and published by Anirog in the UK.

Looking back at the game now, it's quite a simple affair with only a small handful of rooms to explore, but I remember spending hours playing this game and trying to complete it - something I never managed to do until only recently.  It's crazy that I can now finish it in under 10 minutes, but that is one of the reasons why I love playing old computer games - for their simplicity, and the ability to complete them in such a short space of time - ideal for killing a few minutes to spare.

The story goes that some wizard called Belegro has cast a spell on a once prosperous town, turning it in to.....  Yep, you've guessed it - a Ghost Town.  Having arrived in town, you must explore the 19 rooms featuring as stated on the game box "High Resolution Graphics" (yeah, 156x192 was hi-res back then!), utilising various objects which can be found scattered about to complete the game.  Once you've solved the simple puzzles and kill Belegro, you can free the town from the spell once and for all, and collect the treasure awaiting you.

The title screen.

Your mission, should you choose to accept it.

There's a glove in the tree, but how can I reach it?

Oooh, a hidden key.  Does touch the bush, but I need the cutters.

Ahh, the ladder will be useful to reach the glove in the tree, but I need a key.  Find a key in the potion AFTER you've killed Belegro

Simple enough....

Which door should I enter?  Perhaps the "?" on the previous screen might help?

Another simple room, but some breathing apparatus is hidden somewhere here.  Just need a spade.

Erm, which door should I use?

Avoid the Sacred Column at all costs, but look for something useful so you don't get electrocuted later on.

That spade will be useful, but how can I breathe under water?  And I need to smash the jar to get the boots.

Boris the spider makes a guest appearance from Tom Thumb.  Don't touch him

Don't touch the laser beam.  Also, be careful not to get electrocuted

The little axe will be useful for smashing something.

A lightbulb can be found here.  It's needed to illuminate a room.

Ouch...  I think I need some boots to stand on the nails

These traps can only be seen with some additional light.

Easy enough to avoid

Don't be tricked...  Just head for the top item.  The secret code is 06138

Kill Belegro and avoid the rock

Get the treasure (but you'll need the key from an earlier screen)

This is how you're rewarded for all that hard work, and wasting 10 minutes of your life on this game!

Commodore User didn't rate this game much in its May 1986 (Issue 32) magazine, and only gave it a measly 2 stars out of 5 overall, but I don't care.... I love this game.  It's simple, has memorable graphics and sound, and will always remind me of fun days when I was younger trying to complete this.  Hey, I was only 8 years old at the time!

Commodore User's Review - Issue 32 (May 1986) - Click to enlarge

 

The box art - Click to enlarge

The tape - Click to enlarge



AND finally, for those of you still interested, here's me playing (and completing) Ghost Town on the Commodore Plus 4...

Techie Tip : Powershell script for deleting emails by keyword for Exchange 2013

Another post meant for me because I am so forgetful, but it may be useful for others if they come across this.

OK, not one I need to use very often, but here is a quick script for when you need to delete an email with a specific keyword in the subject from multiple mailboxes




cls
Write-Host ""
Write-Host "The following script deletes emails from a named user/mailbox"
Write-Host "containing a specified string in the Subject of the email"
Write-Host ""
Write-Host "Please enter a name (* wildcards ARE ALLOWED)"
$name = Read-Host '>>'
$name
Write-Host ""
Write-Host "Please enter a SUBJECT' keyword (* wildcards ARE ALLOWED)"
$keyword = Read-Host '>>'
$keyword
Search-Mailbox -identity $name -SearchQuery "Subject:'$keyword'" -deletecontent
exit

Castle Master 2 The Crypt - A Walkthrough

Well, yesterday I took you on a tour of Castle Eternity as seen in Incentive Software's brilliant Castle Master from 1990.  Playing the game rekindled my love for it, and its equally brilliant sequel - The Crypt.

So now, one day later I bring you - Castle Master 2 - The Crypt.  A playthrough/walkthrough of the Commodore 64 version.

As with all Freescape games on the Commodore 64 (and most other 8 bit conversions), the solid vector graphics run incredibly slow, which is why I have had to speed the video up.  The slowness never bothered me, and I always thought it made the game more atmospheric when playing, but for a viewer it would probably bore the socks of you, so enjoy my 54 minute and 47 second walkthrough, compressed to just 10 minutes.

Castle Master - A Walkthrough

I love castles...  Wandering through ruins and taking in the history.  Well, today I've been revisiting one of my favourite castles from my childhood.  It was a place I loved to visit after a long day at school...  No tourists....   No entry fee....  And no pushy English Heritage representative trying to get you to sign up for a subscription.  Just spirits to destroy, and a twin sister to rescue.  Welcome to Castle Eternity, a virtual castle stored within 64kb of RAM as seen in the classic Commodore 64 computer game, Castle Master.

Now, I'm not going to talk about this game here - I've already done that in a previous post which you can view if you click here.  Instead, sit back and enjoy me playing through this wonderful game. 

 

 

Since it's the first time in awhile since I last played Castle Master, it took me a respectable 1 hour and 10 minutes to complete.  However, due to the slowness of Freescape on the Commodore 64 I have sped it up to a much faster frame rate.  Also, I completely forgot where the key to the Spirits Abode room was, hence why it took me a little longer than planned.  I remembered in the end though!

 

Still a great game.  I think I'm going to replay Castle Master 2 - The Crypt next.

Games that remind me of my childhood Number 27 : Mission Mars (Commodore Plus 4)

One of the (many) good things about spending a few days back home in Laindon is the opportunity to rummage through the family game collection and to reminisce on old Commodore Plus 4 classics.

So for this visit, I bring you Mission Mars, from 1985

Mission Mars...  The type of game where the box art makes the game look reasonably good (complete with a tagline saying that the game is 100% machine code!), but upon getting home and loading the game, you realise that you've just blown a good sum of money on a rather naff game.

That said, I do have fond memories playing this game which is why I have included it here.  The game is very simple and has you control a small space ship through vertical tunnels, avoiding various obstacles that get in the way.

That's it! 

Ok, the game description is as follows.

You have been sent on a mission to raid the caverns on Mars.  However, these caverns are known to be filled with booby traps.  Your task is to reach the centre of the caverns and land your ship.  Each cavern has 5 stages to survice and you will need a lot of skill to do so.

 

Hmmmm.  Basically the game has 5 stages which repeat over and over again once you reach the end of stage 5.

Stage 1 - Fly down the cavern, shooting enemy installations.

 

Stage 2 - Fly down the cavern, shooting randomly generated spaceships

Stage 3 - Fly down the cavern, avoiding randomly generated bouncing balls!

 

Stage 4 - Fly down the cavern, avoiding what I assume are comets.

 

Stage 5 - Fly down the very narrow cavern, avoiding the walls.

 

Sounds exciting eh?

 

Once you reach the end of Stage 5, you don't even need any skill to land the ship - just let it hit the wall at the end and then you're greeted with the following message...

 

!! MISSION COMPLETE !!
WELL DONE YOU HAVE
RAIDED THIS CAVERN

 

Once you press the fire button, you get to do it all over again!  No change in the game difficulty, no change in stage order.  You can literally finish this game in 5 minutes.

 

End of the game?

Oh yeah....  That was worth it!

 

Now, for the reason why I have included the game here....  I remember playing this game once on a little black and white portable television in the corner of our living room at my parents house, amassing a huge score just from playing the game from start to end, and restarting again with each completion on stage 5.  I wish I took a note of my final score

 

The box cover

The tape

 

Techie tip : Revocation Check Failed when adding a certificate to a Microsoft Exchange 2013 installation

One for me to refer back to in the future in case it ever happens again.  We had a new Microsoft Exchange 2013 server installed during the school summer holiday and due to the school changing its name to "The De Montfort School", I had to purchase a new wildcard certificate for the domain tdms.worcs.sch.uk.

Anyway, after applying for the certificate, and eventually installing it, I got the message "Revocation Check Failed"

To cut a long story short, when running the following from a command prompt, I received this.....

C:\>netsh winhttp show proxy
Current WinHTTP proxy settings:
Direct access (no proxy server).

Essentially, Exchange wasn't using my servers proxy settings, so therefore could not contact the Revocation servers at Comodo (the supplier of our certificate).

Running the following command imports the proxy settings from Internet Explorer.  Once done, the server could perform the Revocation checks, and all of my certificates are now showing as valid and working....

C:\>netsh winhttp import proxy ie
Current WinHTTP proxy settings:
Proxy Server(s) :  10.0.0.27:3128
Bypass List     :  (none)

Easy when you know how!!!!!!