Alternate Reality: The City

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Alternate Reality: The City
Alternate Reality - The City Coverart.png
Commodore 64 cover art
Developer(s) Paradise Programming
Publisher(s) Datasoft
Designer(s) Philip Price
Composer(s) Gary Gilbertson
Platform(s) Atari 8-bit, Commodore 64, Apple II, Mac OS, Atari ST, Amiga, DOS, iOS (Spectrum Collection), TRS-80 Color Computer
Release1985
Genre(s) Role-playing
Mode(s) Single-player

Alternate Reality: The City is a video game published by Datasoft, the first game in the Alternate Reality series. It was created by Philip Price, and was released in 1985 for a variety of systems. [1] [2] Gary Gilbertson created the music.

Contents

Technology

The game requires a blank, formatted disk to use as a “Character Disk” in order to save the game. [3]

Reception

Scorpia gave Alternate Reality: The City a mixed review in Computer Gaming World . The graphics were praised for its attention to detail, as was the expansive city to explore. She criticized the game, however, for having no goal; once the city is painfully mapped out, the only thing left to do is monotonously battle enemies in preparation for The Dungeon. The 8-bit versions omitted certain features such as joining guilds, and Scorpia criticized the Apple version's poor graphics. [4] In 1993 Scorpia called The City "a fascinating premise that turned out rather poorly ... a game for those with great persistence and patience". [5]

Alternate Reality: The City received a mini-review in 1988 in Dragon #131 by Hartley, Patricia, and Kirk Lesser in "The Role of Computers" column. The reviewers gave the Macintosh version of the game 3 out of 5 stars, and the Atari ST version 3 stars. [6] Alternate Reality: The City and Alternate Reality: The Dungeon were both the subject of the feature review Dragon #135. The reviewers gave Alternate Reality: The City 3 stars, and Alternate Reality: The Dungeon2+1⁄2 stars. [7]

Reviews

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References

  1. ↑ "Alternate Reality: The City" . Retrieved 12 March 2024.
  2. ↑ Barton, Matt (23 February 2007). "The History of Computer Role-Playing Games Part 2: The Golden Age (1985-1993)". Gamasutra . Retrieved 3 January 2017.
  3. ↑ "The Original Alternate Reality Homepage". www.eobet.com. Retrieved 2024-03-19.
  4. ↑ Scorpia (November 1986), "Alternate Reality: The City", Computer Gaming World , pp. 22–23
  5. ↑ Scorpia (October 1993). "Scorpia's Magic Scroll Of Games". Computer Gaming World. pp. 34–50. Retrieved 25 March 2016.
  6. ↑ Lesser, Hartley; Lesser, Patricia; Lesser, Kirk (March 1988). "The Role of Computers". Dragon (131): 78–86.
  7. ↑ Lesser, Hartley; Lesser, Patricia; Lesser, Kirk (July 1988). "The Role of Computers". Dragon (135): 82–89.
  8. ↑ "Ludotique | Article | RPGGeek".
  9. ↑ "GAMES Magazine #70". December 1985.
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