Games on a fictional retro computer in “Last Call BBS”

Not everything was better in the past, but many things were different. This is also the case with computers, which differ from today’s devices in many ways. We can now easily jump into a 30-year-old system and play games on it, when in reality this device never existed.

By Robert Glashuttner

Let’s go find the old parent’s or grandparent’s computer in the attic and see if it still works. Of course, we want to play games on the device, games of yesteryear, but hopefully still fun.

The truth is that they are fun mainly because they are not really old, but new and only pretend to be retro games. Even the old computer system doesn’t exist at all, but is just a fiction of a fun new collection of games from the enterprising and talented game developer Zach Barth aka Zachtronics. the game is called “Last Call BBS” and provides some meta levels.

The collection of fictional retro computer games.

It really is a jewel, our Sawayama Z5 Powerlance. The latest technology from 1991 in the best shades of red, black and gray is condensed here into an intuitive computing experience, even with a graphical user interface! A simple solitaire game comes with the calculator, but of course we want to try more interesting games. We’ll just download it, although wait a minute, it’s… 1991? never mind Even back then, you could already download content online, just a little differently than what is common on the Internet or the WWW today.

We use our fake retro computer with its virtual modem to call an imaginary BBS or mailbox server a – as if it was made in the 80s and 90s. Arriving at the server, we are greeted with a friendly information text and a list of eight different games that we can download. Hardly said, done, and it only takes a few minutes! This loading time is, despite the actual timer, of course, only part of the retro experience and is not based on any real need. Also, in the past something like this would have taken at least half an hour.

There is a colorful bouquet of games, such as a Sudoku-style logic game, an automation game, and a robot model building kit. When one of these games is downloaded, our download quota runs out for a while and we have to wait 25 minutes before we can “dial” again and “download” something. That may be absurd, but of course it fits in well with the old-school computing illusion that’s constantly played out here. “Last Call BBS” also offers a mysterious backstory with messages from characters such as the system administrator or the bartender. Also, as time goes on, we learn more and more facts about the legendary (fictional) computer company Sawayama Corporation.

Last Call BBS is a hilarious and charming collection of meta-retrogames presented in an extremely believable context.

Zachtronics

Retro gaming cam show with Pixel Prophecy as a guest

This week, on Thursday, August 11, “Last Call BBS” will be played on the FM4 Spielekammerl show (with host Robert Glashüttner) from 5:00 p.m., as well as the video game planning game “Arcade Paradise”, which has just been released. it is.

Gast is the busy non-commercial game developer, game jamming expert, video designer, and graphic designer. phil ray alias pixel prophecy.