Ken Newquist 
Pyramid – aka Pyramid 2000 – is a clone of Colossal Cave Adventure that trades the original game’s fantasy tropes for an Egyptian-themed pyramid crawler. Radio Shack published the game in 1979 for the TRS-80. Quote I knew from my research that the cassette recorder functoned as the TRS-80’s “tape drive”. It stored data as analog sound on … Read more
Nuketown’s Summer Reading List for 2023 is off to a strong start. I started a week earlier than normal – my traditional kickoff is Memorial Day Weekend, but hey, I make the traditions. I finished three books on my reading list and kicked off two more. You can track my progress on Goodreads and The Story Graph. … Read more
Bedlam is a text adventure game released by Radio Shack for the TRS-80. Written by Robert Arnstein (Raaka-Tu, Pyramid 2000) and released in 1982, the game sets you up as a patient trying to escape an asylum. Quote I knew from my research that the cassette recorder functoned as the TRS-80’s “tape drive”. It stored … Read more
On this episode of Nuketown Radio Active, I emerge from my winter hibernation to talk about the video games and role-playing games I’m playing (or plan on playing). I talk about the ongoing Ready Player One Replay and my plans to attend GenCon in August 2023. Nuketown News Heading to GenCon in 2023! Haven’t been … Read more
After the move to online gaming during the pandemic, I found that our virtual battle maps shrank. At first glance, it’s confounding – after all, it was our real-world battle maps that were constrained by either the size of our gaming tables or the size of our Chessex battle maps. Online, though, the horizons are … Read more
The 16th edition of Nuketown’s Sci-Fi and Fantasy Summer Reading List for 2023 features 13 books (12 novels, one non-fiction book), two novellas, and one graphic novel. While dominated by science fiction titles, it has a few horror and fantasy books too. There’s a self-help book dedicated to dealing with stress. You can track my … Read more
After a year away from backpacking, I hit the trail again with a two-day hike in Wharton State Forest in the Pine Barrens of New Jersey. Wharton’s become the go-to destination for introductory backpacking hikes in NeutronLad’s troop – it’s flat and well-screened by the ubiquitous pines. Throw in some cedar ponds, a meandering brook, … Read more
Twenty years ago, the Temple of Elemental Evil rose, Oerth fell, and the Elemental Apocalypse began. Vortexes of power – unleashed by factions loyal to the four elemental princes – devastated the world with concurrent apocalypses; city-shattering earthquakes, nation-drowning tidal waves, forest-consuming infernos, and punishing hurricanes. Gods died, slain by the ascendent Elemental Princes who … Read more
Raaka-tu is a text adventure game (we call it interactive fiction today) released by Radio Shack in 1981 for its TRS-80 and TRS-80 Color Computer. The game was written by Robert Arnstein. Despite playing a ton of text adventure games as a kid (such as Colossal Cave, Zork, and The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy), I never … Read more
Released in December 1982, E.T.: The Extra-Terrestrial is a notoriously bad game. Based on the Steven Speilberg movie of the same name, popular gaming lore blames it for the collapse of the video game industry in 1983 and claims hundreds of thousands of E.T. game cartridges were buried in a landfill. There’s some truth to this … Read more