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