Cyberworld (1983 C64 adventure by Progressive Peripherals)
Posted: Mon Feb 01, 2016 4:31 am
Cyberworld is an ancient memory from childhood that I just found a playable emulated version of. It's a fairly obscure old title, and aside from a few archived magazine advertisements, I found almost no mention of it online. There's a later release with the same title (from around 1990, I believe) that's also for the Commodore 64, but they're not at all related. The Cyberworld I'm referring to had a very rudimentary -but still quite ambitious for the time- 3D graphical world in which the player moves about during the adventure. It was (and is) quite buggy, probably suffering from a bit too much of the aforementioned ambition. As a result, I never got past the beginning as a kid, nor have I done any better so far as an adult. You start out as a prisoner on an alien ship, which you're supposed to escape. There were supposed to be several other diverse elements to the game afterward (like flying the ship you escape in), but again I've never seen more than the frustrating, yet intriguing first part. The main issue, then and now, is that you don't really know what exactly to do, nor how to interact with the environment. There's text input, but only "inventory" (of course) and "talk" yield any result. The former lists only a "transmitter" and the latter urges you to "be more specific," although nothing I've tried works... In addition to its two(!) floppy disks, the game came with a manual that seemed to exist mainly as an excuse for its large and colorful cover art. I have distinct memories of re-reading that manual (which was only a few pages long) over and over, hoping I'd somehow previously missed the part where they tell you how to accomplish anything! Unfortunately, both the manual and disks have been lost to the ages. While I doubt either would be of any practical use, the cover art really was kinda cool.
In any case, I apologize for writing so much without getting to the point. My main reasons for posting are:
A) To ask if anybody else remembers this game, and if so what their thoughts/memories of it are;
B) To inquire whether anybody else has played it recently enough to provide advice re. basic game mechanics, how to get past that first part, and whether it's even realistically playable given its limitations; and
C) To explore the very unlikely possibility that someone might have the aforementioned manual &/or be able to take/find a picture of the cover art, so I could see it again.
I realize that my brother and I may be the only ones in the world with any nostalgia for this game. Still, when I found this forum, it seemed like a place for those who care about such things, so I thought we might get lucky. If not, I'm still glad I discovered it, because these old adventure games were and are a huge part of me. It's very nice to see that so many others feel that way as well.
Thank you for taking the time to read my very long post. If anyone is curious to try Cyberworld, I've attached a zip with the two .d64 files now that I finally have them. I used C64 Forever to emulate and they worked just fine with it, so I'm sure the emulator of your choice would be able to as well. Cheers!
In any case, I apologize for writing so much without getting to the point. My main reasons for posting are:
A) To ask if anybody else remembers this game, and if so what their thoughts/memories of it are;
B) To inquire whether anybody else has played it recently enough to provide advice re. basic game mechanics, how to get past that first part, and whether it's even realistically playable given its limitations; and
C) To explore the very unlikely possibility that someone might have the aforementioned manual &/or be able to take/find a picture of the cover art, so I could see it again.
I realize that my brother and I may be the only ones in the world with any nostalgia for this game. Still, when I found this forum, it seemed like a place for those who care about such things, so I thought we might get lucky. If not, I'm still glad I discovered it, because these old adventure games were and are a huge part of me. It's very nice to see that so many others feel that way as well.
Thank you for taking the time to read my very long post. If anyone is curious to try Cyberworld, I've attached a zip with the two .d64 files now that I finally have them. I used C64 Forever to emulate and they worked just fine with it, so I'm sure the emulator of your choice would be able to as well. Cheers!