[typing]
The year is 1997, and a friend of mine just got his first computer:
a Gateway 2000 PC running Windows 95.
He had games like Police Quest: SWAT and The Need For Speed SE to keep him occupied,
but his mom really enjoyed arcade games like Ms.Pac-Man and Centipede.
She asked me if I knew of any, and
after a quick search on AOL's Games channel,
I had my answer.
CHAMP Games,
programmed by John W. Champeau
and released as Shareware
under his CHAMProgramming company.
Or maybe it's "Shahmp" Programming.
I don't know. I always said it "CHAMP" since that's how it looks in the games,
Whatever.
Anyway, back to my story, which is that in the mid-'90s,
arcade games were making a comeback in the home computer market,
with packs like Microsoft's Arcade being quite popular.
But if you didn't want to pay for such a compilation,
since you just blew two grand on a shiny new Gateway,
independent developers were your best friends.
Now keep in mind that arcade emulation was in its infancy at this time,
and most people didn't have any idea that such a thing was possible anyway,
so you had all sorts of programmers recreating arcade games
for home computers and hoping to make a quick buck.
John Champeau was one such individual
and if you were into Shareware at the time,
chances are you recall at least one of his translations,
as they were arguably the best Shareware arcade games around.
He actually got started making games back in the '80s on the Atari 800 in BASIC,
and then in the '90s using C and Assembly on the PC.
And when you're learning a new language,
it's incredibly common to try and duplicate an existing game,
so John looked to Missile Command and Centipede for inspiration.
He ended up with two EGA versions of them,
and although he never released them,
they laid the foundation for what he made in 1993,
which was a game he called Pac-Maniac.
This was a simple clone of Pac-Man,
although it was more inspired by the Atari 800 version,
rather than the arcade original.
But it had VGA graphics and PC speaker sound effects,
and even had support for mouse controls,
which is both unique and disturbingly awful for a game of this type.
He quickly followed this up with two more games that year:
CHAMP Asteroids and CHAMP Centipede.
Again, these were pretty simple interpretations,
but they were less than 100KB to download and ran on just about anything,
so people asked for more,
and he continued working on other clones over the next few years.
But it wasn't until 1996 when CHAMProgramming really made a name for itself
and that was with CHAMP Kong.
Not only was this a clone of the always- popular Donkey Kong from Nintendo,
but it featured a whole slew of new features that set it apart from anything else.
With the help of some friends and relatives,
CHAMP Kong featured spot-on gameplay,
graphics and sound that very closely mimicked that of the arcade cabinet,
and even something called CHAMP Mode.
This was an entirely new set of levels,
power-ups, enemies, rules and gameplay for the game,
which made it feel less like a clone and more like a fresh interpretation.
Of course, you had to pay extra for all the best bits,
but even the Shareware version was far ahead of
just about everyone else, especially for DOS.
This combination of features proved so popular
that CHAMProgramming became a powerhouse of arcade game translations for DOS PCs,
with 20 games planned for release throughout the '90s.
They even sold an adapter that let you use an Atari joystick on your PC
through the serial port for that extra layer of retro authenticity.
However, the whole thing didn't last very long,
due to life getting in the way and all that kind of poignant, yet totally understandable stuff,
and CHAMProgramming shut down in 1998.
While two of their games were almost finished but never released,
CHAMP Burger Climb and Frog-Em,
eight games were completed and released before they closed up shop.
The aforementioned Kong, as well as Pac-Em,
Ms. Pac-Em,
Galaxia,
Centiped-em,
Asterocks,
Invaders,
and Galagon.
And yes, these silly names are presumably to avoid legal trouble,
since by then they were a legit business
working out of a bedroom,
and not just a hobbyist programmer working out of a bedroom.
Each of these games included literal interpretations
of their respective coin-op counterparts,
as well as the CHAMP Mode, which kept things exciting,
and also helped move the games out of the lazy clone territory.
There's not a whole more to say, since these are all excellent and
highly-playable PC versions of the arcade classics we know and love,
but I guess I'll think of some words anyway.
You know, I'm so glad I had AOL back then because, man,
I found an incredible number of choice Shareware picks that way.
Jet Pack, Crazy Gravity,
Combat Tanks, Pizza Worm,
CHAMP Kong, and on and on.
And come to think of it, these CHAMP games in particular
were my first exposure to several of these classics,
and really fueled my passion for arcade titles in the years to come.
You know, by that point, arcades in the US were all but dead,
and other than a Battletoads machine in my local skating rink,
there wasn't much chance for a kid like me to play them.
And sure wasn't gonna go out and PAY for Microsoft Arcade.
Frick, I'd just go over to Office Depot and
play it on the store computers there.
So, unless I came across a free version,
then those games may as well not have existed to me.
And while these were rarely 100% faithful
in terms of sound, graphics or...really anything,
they clearly spoke the language of timeless gameplay.
Not only that, but these CHAMP games were just so good
that they really inspired me to look further into the world of gaming,
beyond my computer screen.
I thought, hey,
what other arcade games are out there that I haven't played?
I bet there's dozens of them.
Then I got MAME several years later
and my face melted into my keyboard,
but that's another story for another day.
So, yeah, CHAMProgramming was a mark of utter quality circa 1997,
and the fact that you could just download all of them for free
and get amazing arcade-quality gameplay at home?
That was just way too cool for me,
even if I wasn't the one searching these out to begin with.
Of course, stuff like this is completely outdated and obsolete,
now that we have near chip-for-chip accuracy in emulation of arcade games and
there have been more HD remixed, ultra-mega collection
plus compilation treasury packs than you can count.
But to me, the CHAMP series of arcade games
for DOS are special and deserved to be remembered.
After all, without them,
maybe I wouldn't have as much of an interest in coin-op gaming as I do now,
And that's a life that I don't want to know.
[Pac-Man sounds]
[Pac-Man death sound]
And if you enjoyed this video on "Shahmp-Prograhmeeng,"
then you might enjoy some of my others.
I've covered quite a few arcade games,
as well as more Shareware stuff,
and a lot of things for DOS.
'Cause DOS is amazing.
So, if you would like to see more of them,
then just look on my channel. There's a lot.
You can also subscribe and that'll give you more whenever they come out.
And you can also do the social stuff, if you're social.
You know, Twitter and Facebook.
Even Google+, if you're a weirdo,
but I don't put a link there because that's a waste of everyone's time.
And I've also got Patreon,
which is a thing that lets you support LGR month-to-month,
which is just awesome, so go check that out if you really like what you see here.
And as always, thank you very much for watching.