A History of Gaming Platforms: The Apple II

Gamasutra continues to explore the history of various gaming platforms, this time bringing us an in-depth look at the Apple II.

Since the Apple II was a prime platform for over a decade, it’s hardly surprising that thousands of games were produced for it. Although a haven for strategy, role-playing, and adventure software, the Apple II’s massive game library was hardly limited to these categories. Genre-defining releases came from a full range of famous developers and publishers, including Broderbund, Electronic Arts, Infocom, Interplay, Origin, and SSI.

Mystery House (1980) by On-line Systems (later, Sierra) was the first commercial text adventure with graphics. The company’s later Time Zone (1982) was one of the first true epic games, spanning six double-sided disks and featuring 1500 screens to explore. Although Richard Garriott released his Akalabeth: World of Doom (1980) first, his second role-playing game, Ultima (1981), set the stage for one of the most storied franchises in gaming.

Sir-Tech’s Wizardry: Proving Grounds of the Mad Overlord (1981) set the standard for the role-playing dungeon crawl and still spawns sequels. Castle Wolfenstein (Muse, 1981) was an exciting strategy arcade adventure that featured crude, but effective speech. Broderbund’s Choplifter (1982) arcade game featured a unique two-axis control scheme for independent control of the helicopter’s direction and vertical movement.

Most of my fondest role-playing gaming memories (Ultimas, Wizardrys, The Bard’s Tales, Gold Box games, etc.) are thanks to an Apple IIe my parents picked up in the early 80s. Good times, good times.