Sword of Sodan - Apple IIGS demo preview

Sword of Sodan for the Apple IIGS (1989).

This is Discovery Software's demo preview of the game for the Apple IIGS, programmed by Scott Patterson of Visual Concepts fame. Despite being nearly complete and advertised at the time in magazines, the game was unfortunately canceled and never released (apart from this 3 level demo).

This was recorded from an actual hardware-based Apple IIGS and shows how capable the machine was, despite having a 2.8 MHz CPU and no sprites or special graphic chips for animation.

(apologizes for the low quality, I used a SunPlus pocket video recorder for this. Hope to record a higher quality version in the near future if I can find a composite-video adapter for my Hauppage HVR-1600 card).

Category:

Gaming

Tags:

• Sword of Sodan
• Apple IIGS
• video game
• demo
• Discovery Software

[Atompwr82]

better than megadrive version

[desiv1]

Nice to see this. Was always an Amiga guy, but I respect what the IIgs can do. As more of a Woz fan, I wonder where Apple might be if there was no Mac line.

[madmax2069]

@BrutalDeluxeSoftware what they also don't realize its not finished code and can differ from the released versions (amiga).

[madmax2069]

@BrutalDeluxeSoftware There was a heated discussion on atariage (atariST vs Apple IIgs) and this video was posted on the forums and most people on there don't believe its real because the health bar drops fast and the sounds are at a higher pitch then the released versions (they think its playing too fast or something), so they think its not real or on a IIgs.

[madmax2069]

@MadCommodore The game was unfinished and only a non playable demo exists for the IIgs.

but i just ran it on a stock IIgs rom 3 and it plays the same as in this video.

I don't know what you are comparing it to, but it must be on another system in final form (playable game vs unfinished non playable demo code).

[BrutalDeluxeSoftware]

@MadCommodore: the speed is correct and matches the one with a 2.8 MHz Apple IIgs and the 3-level demo. Why do you think it is increased? Do you compare it with the Amiga version or with a IIgs version you have seen?

[richardmaudsley77]

cpu card might be screwing with it?

[MadCommodore]

Why is the playback speed increased? You can tell from the speed of energy loss and the sound that it is double speed!

[baloneysandwich]

I'm so psyched that you posted this. I remember seeing this in a computer store back now almost 20 years ago. The characters were so huge on screen! I never did hear what happened to it, so it's nice to see a little backstory. Cheers man!