| Through the Looking Glass | |
|---|---|
| Developer(s) | Steve Capps |
| Publisher(s) | Apple |
| Platform(s) | Apple Macintosh, iOS |
| Release | 1984 |
| Genre(s) | Strategy |
| Mode(s) | Single player |
- Through The Looking Glass Mac Os X
- Through The Looking Glass Mac Os Catalina
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Through the Looking Glass, also known as Alice, was a 1984 video game written for the Apple Lisa and Apple Macintosh computers. Written by a member of the Lisa and Mac teams, Steve Capps, it was one of the earliest video games on the Mac platform, part of the only games disk officially sold by Apple Computer during that era.
In the game, the player takes the role of Alice from Lewis Carroll's 1865 novel Alice in Wonderland, who is opposed by the computer playing a complete set of chess players. Alice moves about the board in realtime while attempting to capture the computer's pieces, while at the same time avoiding the computer's attempts to capturing her. To increase the skill level, Alice's moves are increasingly limited, while the computer increases the number of players it actively moves.
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The game was re-released for iOS on the 25th anniversary of the Mac's release.
History[edit]
In the fall of 1981 Steve Capps was a core member of the Lisa team working on printer support. In his spare time he wrote Alice on the Lisa and started demonstrating the game to members of the team. Bruce Daniels, manager of the Lisa software team, demoed the game to Andy Hertzfeld and other members of the Mac team. They were impressed, and Daniels suggested that a Mac port would be possible if the Mac team lent him a prototype to use for porting.[1]
Two days later, Capps returned with a working version. It soon became a favourite among the Mac team. Joanna Hoffman became particularly good at it, and complained that it was too easy. Capps changed several parts of the game to make it increasingly challenging. Steve Jobs saw the game and was duly impressed. He soon started agitating for Capps to join the Mac team, but as a key member of the Lisa team this was not possible. Jobs eventually arranged a deal that Capps could move after the Lisa was released, which occurred in January 1983.[1]
Capps became a key member of the Mac team, working on the Finder team and producing several pieces of early software, including the 'Guided Tour' diskette that shipped with early machines. He continued making improvements to the game throughout this period as well. Several variations of the basic game appeared, including one where squares of the board would randomly disappear.[1] This version was shown in the attract mode display for the game.
By the fall of 1983, Capps was looking for routes to release the game commercially. The recently formed Electronic Arts was explored, but Jobs convinced Capps that Apple would do a better job of it. The game was featured during the release of the Mac in the spring of 1984. However, while progressing to commercial release, they discovered that the name 'Alice' was being used by a database management program, so the name was changed to 'Through the Looking Glass'.[1]
Capps became a key member of the Mac team, working on the Finder team and producing several pieces of early software, including the 'Guided Tour' diskette that shipped with early machines. He continued making improvements to the game throughout this period as well. Several variations of the basic game appeared, including one where squares of the board would randomly disappear.[1] This version was shown in the attract mode display for the game.
By the fall of 1983, Capps was looking for routes to release the game commercially. The recently formed Electronic Arts was explored, but Jobs convinced Capps that Apple would do a better job of it. The game was featured during the release of the Mac in the spring of 1984. However, while progressing to commercial release, they discovered that the name 'Alice' was being used by a database management program, so the name was changed to 'Through the Looking Glass'.[1]
Although not the first Mac game—the first Macintosh shipped with Puzzle, a built-in Desk Accessory[2]—Through the Looking Glass remains the only game ever written and published directly by Apple, as opposed to the many games it resells. Apple was fighting the perception that the Mac was not a serious computer, and downplayed the game-playing aspects of the machine.[3]
Description[edit]
Alice takes place on a conventional chess board, shown in exaggerated 3D perspective. The computer's players are initially laid out in normal chess fashion, at the 'far end' of the board. During the new-game start up, one of each of the different pieces would travel down the board toward the player, lining up in front of them. Clicking on any one of the pieces started the game, with Alice being allowed to make the moves of the selected piece.[1]
The player moves Alice to any allowable position by clicking on the board. Alice initially moves like a queen, along the rank and file or diagonals. The game allows 'click ahead', so the player can click on new positions while the on-screen character is still moving in response to earlier instructions. The player attempts to 'capture' the computer's pieces by landing on them, just as in the case of a normal game of chess. The computer player initially moves a single player at a time, attempting to capture Alice, as well as aggressively promoting pawns for queening.[1]
The player scores points by capturing the computer's players, and loses points when the computer captures Alice. The game has several speed settings, which were described even by the author as 'impossible' on the fastest setting.[4] Selecting a different player at the start of the game, the pawn for instance, limits Alice's moves to provide an even greater difficulty.[1]
The game's settings and options were hidden, accessed by clicking on the score at the top of the screen. This caused an image of the Cheshire Cat to fade in over the board. Various settings were changed by clicking on different portions of the Cat.[1]
The game was packaged in a fabric covered box designed to look like a hardcover book. Opening the front cover revealed the instructions and diskette within, and the instructions printed on the inside cover. The disk also contained two other small programs written by Capps, an on-screen 'Dali' clock program-cum-screensaver that morphed digits as the time changed, and Amazing, a program that built complex mazes and let the user solve them by dragging the mouse.[5]
Re-release[edit]
For the 25th anniversary of the launch of the Mac, in 2009 Capps re-released the game as AliceX for iOS on the iTunes Store. The new version includes several different sets of pieces and other options.[3] A simplified version written in JavaScript is available on Capps' web site, onedoto.
References[edit]
Through The Looking Glass Mac Os X
Citations[edit]
Through The Looking Glass Mac Os Catalina
- ^ abcdefghHertzfeld 2004.
- ^Mace, Scott (1984-05-07). 'In Praise of Classics'. InfoWorld. p. 56. Retrieved 6 February 2015.
- ^ abCapps 2009.
- ^Steve Capps, 'Through the Looking Glass (aka Alice)', Macintosh Garden, 3 May 2009
- ^Rye 2013.
Bibliography[edit]
- Capps, Steve (2009). 'Alice'. onedoto.
- Hertzfeld, Andy (2004). 'Alice'. folklore.
- Rye, Kevin (24 April 2013). '1984 Through the Looking Glass'. Apple to the Core.
Through The Looking Glass Mac Os Download
External links[edit]
- Alice - Through the Looking Glass, YouTube video of the three programs found on the Alice diskette
Through The Looking Glass Mac Os 11
This auction started at $99.99. With seconds to spare, I put in a max bid of $120. I was thrilled when the auction closed at $103.50. I guess there were no other serious buyers on the lookout for it this time for it to end so low.
It's in amazing condition. I'm actually kind of glad it's not sealed because I'd feel terrible opening it!
It's very clean; not so much as a mark on it.
The corners, as well as the spin, are perfect. They are nice and sharp with no signs of wear. It's been very well taken care of over the past 30 years.
So what's the big deal? Why spend $100 for some old video game?
Well, this is no ordinary video game. It's dated 1984. This is the video game! This is the first game that Apple ever released for the Macintosh. Not to mention the packaging is so unique and unlike anything you've even seen before. Any other game just came in a cardboard box.
Since this is an Alice in Wonderland themed chess game (of sorts) the packaging is meant to look like Lewis Carroll's famous novel. It opens like a book to reveal the 400K floppy disk inside.
See the Apple logo on the floppy? This isn't just any old video game, this is an actual Apple product.
The bottom text on the inside cover reads, 'Thanks to Marge, Andy, Bill, Bruce, Burell, Larry, Patti, Steve, Jello, and L. Carroll'.
That's Andy Hertzfeld, Bill Atkinson, and Burell Smith of the original Macintosh design team. Along with Bruce Daniels, manager of the Lisa software team, and Steve Jobs.
You can lift the red ribbon to remove the floppy from the inlay. The underside is lined with red velvet. Very nice.
If you look at the floppy, you'll see that the disk is labeled 'by Steve Capps'.
Back in the day, things like this were works of art, and the creator often signed their name to it like a painter would sign a painting. It wasn't unheard of for a game or a piece of software to be completely written by one person. In fact, more often than not, that was the case. Thirty years ago when the Macintosh was new, Apple didn't have a building full of software developers like they do now for iOS. Often, it was just one guy. Think MacPaint. The MacPaint splash screen simply states: 'MacPaint by Bill Atkinson'. MacPaint was written by one guy!
During the prototype phase of the Macintosh, Bruce Daniels (who was the manager of the Lisa software team) stopped by the Macintosh group to show Andy Hertzfeld (who was one the Macintosh design team) a cool new game that Steve Capps was working on. Steve Capps was on the Lisa project and worked on the printing software. Apparently, 'Alice' (as it was originally called) was something that Steve Capps threw together in his spare time for the Lisa.
Andy thought that the game was awesome. He was instantly addicted. He told Bruce that he should give Steve a prototype Macintosh and have him port the game over. He agreed. Andy and Bruce gave Steve a Macintosh. Two days later, Steve presented them with a working Macintosh port. It actually even ran better on the Macintosh due to the better hardware. Pretty soon, everybody on the Macintosh team was addicted to it.
After 30 years, the disk still works. I inserted the floppy into my Mac Plus and it booted up into System 0.1 (System 1.1 / Finder 1.1g).
The game splash screen is the same as the woodcut featured on the front cover.
The intro screen mirrors that of what's printed inside the cover of the game.
Finally...the game:
The object of the game is to help Alice take out all of the chess pieces while avoiding being captured. The game is won when all of the chess pieces have been taken.
If you click on the score at the top of the screen, a hidden Cheshire Cat menu appears. From there you can adjust the game speed, start a new game, or quit.
Here's a fun little tidbit: the woodcut on the front cover features an Easter Egg. Hidden within the design is a Dead Kennedy's logo; a tribute to one of Steve Capp's favorite bands. Below that are Steve Capp's initials. It's too bad Steve Jobs disavowed the use of Easter Eggs in 1997. They're always fun to find.
Since the game didn't take up the whole disk, Capps included a few other goodies with it.
There's a clock screensaver.
As well as the classic, 'Amazing' that was also written by Steve Capps. Many hours of my youth were spent navigating those mazes.
The source file for the bitmaps is even out in the open so you can edit the game characters if you wanted to.
For the final release, the game's name was changed from 'Alice' to 'Through the Looking Glass' due to legal reasons. The name 'Alice' was already in use for a database program.
In 1984, these graphics must have blown people away! I guess the whole idea behind this game was to show people the power of the Macintosh's graphics capabilities. However, Apple was battling the misconception that the Macintosh wasn't a serious computer for an office setting. They feared if they pushed the Macintosh's gaming capabilities as a feature, people would have thought of the Macintosh as a novelty, or a toy for kids to tinker with and not as something that could rival IBMs offerings in the workplace.
Remember, this was 1984 and people hadn't quite grown accustomed to the idea of a graphical user interface yet or how amazingly useful it could be. People heard 'graphics' and thought 'games'.
So Apple never promoted the game like they should have. In addition, everyone on the Macintosh team had mastered the game by playing it for countless hours well before it was ever released. Joanna Hoffman, the Macintosh's first marketing person, spent a lot of time mastering the game and eventually complained to Steve Capps that the game was 'too easy'. Prior to the game's release, Capps made the game a little more challenging. However, it made the game a little too hard for the rest of us mere mortals. In the end, I guess a game that wasn't marketed and was hard to beat made it not as popular as it could have been. I guess that's why it's so rare. It's not like they sold millions of them.
I'm going to have to pick up a plastic case or something to protect it. I want to keep it in mint condition. Who knows what it will be worth another 30 years from now?
