How the C64 started Point-and-Click adventures

"How the C64 started Point-and-Click adventures - A journey through the history of technical achievements on a guided tour".
Presented by Martin Wendt at the Commodore 64 Symposium Bonn:
rtro.de/c64
Precorded before the live talk at the venue which was about the 'Past, Present, and Future of a Home Computer'.
Correction: all the walk-box paths were connected by hand for MM & ZMK back in the day!

[@rsn8887]

Thank you for the awesome talk. It is informative and inspiring! I noticed that the game Exolon on CPC pauses for a split second when the player changes direction. Now I think it is probably because the player graphics are flipped in real-time to conserve memory, similar to what you mention about Zak McKracken.

[@japangamejunk]

This is super fascinating stuff! 👍

[@retro_noix]

This is a great video! Always was curious about the origins of point-and-click text adventures.

[@DbugII]

Very cool presentation, thanks :) I did not know about these negative masking of sprites, fancy!

[@cpu_UP]

Excellent video and techniques shown.

[@greensleevez]

Thank you so much for this! Give a warm hand, everyone, to the SCUMM of the earth!

[@MichaelHuth]

I really enjoyed your talk at the Commodore 64 Symposium.👍

[@modellbahnglueck]

Vielen Dank für diese tollen Ausführungen! Die Macher von MM und ZMK hatten tolle Tricks drauf. Und Caren von dir und Oliver war klasse.

[@PlasticCogLiquid]

Below the Root is one of my favorites, The books were good too. I find all this interesting, I always wonder how he did the sprite behind the scenery on the ramps in 720 Degrees.

[@enthusi]

Are you even ever behind any ramp in 720 degree? In my (vague) memory that isometric style and the level design was such, that you never passed behind anything.

[@PlasticCogLiquid]

@@enthusi Damn, you're right. My memory is mixing up the arcade and c64. I still wonder how they did the 3d position on the ramps in games like Glider Rider, Racing Destruction Set and whatnot when the player is on the backward facing ramps. It's probably something simple but I've always struggled with that part of isometric graphics.

[@BloodyCactus]

hard to argue that DejaVu 1985, point and click adventure wasnt PnC before MM.... it predates maniac mansion by 2 years.

[@enthusi]

It has no player on screen and hence you don't direct anyone anywhere. A different genre depending on how you define it. To me and obviously for this context it has to be a third-person view where you direct rather than steer your character(s).

[@BloodyCactus]

@@enthusi moving the goal posts much I guess? your splitting hairs. your title literally says the c64 invented point and click adventures, it did not. dejavu is 100% a point and click adventure released 2 years before maniac mansion. Its certainly not a different genre. both games have list of verbs, both games have your inventory on screen, both games make you click on a verb then on an item etc. 1st person vs 3rd person doesnt make one not a PnC adventure. Maybe you could change the video title to "How the C64 started Not 1st Person POV Point-and-Click adventures" because otherwise its just wrong.

[@vetodrom]

​@@BloodyCactus Point and click adventures, as they are defined today, always refer to games with at least a stage-like presentation and indirect control of the visibly displayed character. It is certainly true that the type of control with text adventures from Icom or Interplay was already used earlier, although they were classified as a different adventure subgenre solely because of the text and parser-based game system - and that has been the case for over 35 years. btw, if you like, a few titles in the genre mix area also used to have PNC control, such as Inheritance or Frankie Goes To Hollywood. Of course, one can argue about the extent to which the definition of genre is too narrow for a historical perspective. But the approach of the lecture is not fundamentally wrong, as you present it here. esp with a more technical focus on the topic

[@bierundkippen720]

@@BloodyCactus "dejavu is 100% a point and click adventure" No, it's not. And no one's splitting hairs here. Definition of Point & Click adventure: (a) 3rd person view (b) (mouse) cursor for pointing and clicking (c) character(s) walking in scenery Deja Vu only has (b) in common with PnC adventures. But the functionality of clicking is completely different. Deja Vu is thus far away from being a PnC adventure game.

[@bierundkippen720]

The video title is misleading. It's rather an advertisement for Caren.

[@enthusi]

The Symposium was about the 'Past, Present, and Future of a Home Computer', which is why recent (and our own) incarnations of the genre made sense :)

[@bierundkippen720]

@@enthusi Sure, the talk indeed fits perfectly to the title of the symposium. But its title doesn't fit to its content. However, I really appreciate your work for the C64 community a lot.

[@NNokia-jz6jb]

The hobbit is not 1982 for c64.

[@enthusi]

@@NNokia-jz6jb yes, the game is from 82, and the screenshot from C64 (83)

[@NNokia-jz6jb]

@@enthusi 1983 for th c64. 1982 the c64 did not cone out yet.

[@bierundkippen720]

@@NNokia-jz6jb Nope. The C64 was released in August 1982.

[@NNokia-jz6jb]

@@bierundkippen720 Well anyway.. The hobbit came in 83 to the C64.

[@bierundkippen720]

@@NNokia-jz6jb which enthusi said before you.