The Year 1997: A Time of Computing Nostalgia

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 arcade games that we could play together at home. After a quick search on AOL's Games channel, I had my answer. CHAMP Games was the solution I found.

CHAMP Games was programmed by John W. Champeau and released as Shareware under his CHAM Programming company.

"WEBVTTKind: captionsLanguage: enThe year is 1997, and a friend ofmine just got his first computer:a Gateway 2000 PC running Windows 95.He had games like Police Quest: SWAT andThe Need For Speed SE to keep him occupied,but his mom really enjoyed arcade gameslike Ms.Pac-Man and Centipede.She asked me if I knew of any, andafter a quick search on AOL's Games channel,I had my answer.CHAMP Games,programmed by John W. Champeauand released as Sharewareunder 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 comebackin 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 emulationwas in its infancy at this time,and most people didn't have any ideathat such a thing was possible anyway,so you had all sorts of programmersrecreating arcade gamesfor home computers and hoping to make a quick buck.John Champeau was one such individualand if you were into Shareware at the time,chances are you recall at least one of his translations,as they were arguably the bestShareware arcade games around.He actually got started making gamesback 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 tryand duplicate an existing game,so John looked to Missile Commandand 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 disturbinglyawful for a game of this type.He quickly followed this upwith two more games that year:CHAMP Asteroids and CHAMP Centipede.Again, these were pretty simple interpretations,but they were less than 100KB todownload and ran on just about anything,so people asked for more,and he continued working on otherclones over the next few years.But it wasn't until 1996 when CHAMProgrammingreally made a name for itselfand 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 featuresthat 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 closelymimicked 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 cloneand 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 ofjust about everyone else, especially for DOS.This combination of features proved so popularthat CHAMProgramming became a powerhouseof arcade game translations for DOS PCs,with 20 games planned for release throughout the '90s.They even sold an adapter that let youuse an Atari joystick on your PCthrough the serial port for thatextra layer of retro authenticity.However, the whole thing didn't last very long,due to life getting in the way and all that kind ofpoignant, 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 andreleased 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 arepresumably to avoid legal trouble,since by then they were a legit businessworking out of a bedroom,and not just a hobbyist programmerworking out of a bedroom.Each of these games included literal interpretationsof their respective coin-op counterparts,as well as the CHAMP Mode,which kept things exciting,and also helped move the gamesout of the lazy clone territory.There's not a whole more to say,since these are all excellent andhighly-playable PC versions of thearcade classics we know and love,but I guess I'll think of some words anyway.You know, I'm so glad I hadAOL back then because, man,I found an incredible number ofchoice 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 particularwere my first exposure to several of these classics,and really fueled my passion forarcade titles in the years to come.You know, by that point,arcades in the US were all but dead,and other than a Battletoadsmachine in my local skating rink,there wasn't much chance for a kid like me to play them.And sure wasn't gonna go outand PAY for Microsoft Arcade.Frick, I'd just go over to Office Depot andplay 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% faithfulin terms of sound, graphics or...really anything,they clearly spoke the language of timeless gameplay.Not only that, but theseCHAMP games were just so goodthat they really inspired me to lookfurther into the world of gaming,beyond my computer screen.I thought, hey,what other arcade games areout there that I haven't played?I bet there's dozens of them.Then I got MAME several years laterand my face melted into my keyboard,but that's another story for another day.So, yeah, CHAMProgramming wasa mark of utter quality circa 1997,and the fact that you couldjust download all of them for freeand get amazing arcade-quality gameplay at home?That was just way too cool for me,even if I wasn't the onesearching these out to begin with.Of course, stuff like this iscompletely outdated and obsolete,now that we have near chip-for-chipaccuracy in emulation of arcade games andthere have been more HDremixed, ultra-mega collectionplus compilation treasurypacks than you can count.But to me, the CHAMP series of arcade gamesfor DOS are special and deserved to be remembered.After all, without them,maybe I wouldn't have as much of aninterest in coin-op gaming as I do now,And that's a life that I don't want to know.And if you enjoyed this videoon \"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'llgive 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 becausethat's a waste of everyone's time.And I've also got Patreon,which is a thing that lets yousupport LGR month-to-month,which is just awesome, so go checkthat out if you really like what you see here.And as always, thank you very much for watching.\n"