Fort Apocalypse on the Commodore 64

After all these years... Fort Apocalypse. Let me say that again, Fort Apocalypse. I realized now why I couldn't find this classic game was because I kept thinking that it was Fourth Apocalypse. I guess for a second grader the word "fort" was not yet in my vocabulary.



My friend showed this to me on their Commodore 64 during the weekends that I hang out in their house. The whole brood was there (except for their parents) playing games on the computer. I was smitten with Fort Apocalypse because it was a helicopter game and the thought of having to fight other helicopters and wander through tunnels to rescue people was definitely thrilling. Loading the game took quite longer than the Apple ][e that we had in the house. That's because my friend's Commodore 64 used a cassette deck to load its programs instead of a disk drive. To give you an idea how long it took, you could go to the shower and take a bath and that thing would still be loading.

In the game you had to rescue people and fight off enemy helicopters and anti-air vehicles. There also was the element of fuel that you had to keep in mind, because if you ran out, it was game over. But along the way there were depots that you could refuel from. There was also the obstacle of moving laser fields and blocks that you had to contend with that kept the game exciting.

Since I didn't have Fort Apocalypse, what we played on the Apple ][e was Choplifter. Man that game was also fun. And it was similar to Fort Apocalypse because you had to rescue people and bring them back to your base.



Oh well, memories. I have no time to play games anymore but I still like to reminisce about classic games in order to get my nostalgia fix. Good thing there is Youtube with their archive of classic games that users have posted to keep the spirit of the game alive. Maybe one reason too why I love the movie Wreck-it Ralph so much is because I can relate to it. Having played those games before as a kid. Seeing a story made out of the classic games that you loved added to a mix of modern games just gives that feel good atmosphere of remembering the good times of your youth.