Tex Murphy: Mean Streets on Commodore 64

Alright so the other day a package from the good ol' US of A showed up on my doorstep and inside was something I thought I would never see. The original Tex game, Mean Streets! I know I mentioned in another thread that I bought it off of eBay but I finally got it! I thought I would share my experience here:

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Here is the box that it arrived in, I think it was a little large considering the contents.

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I can honestly say I have never seen the packaging for the game in person before and to be honest I was a little shocked how small it was compared to older PC boxes.

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Taking a second look at the box I noticed that it was a little odd. The guy I bought it from had what seemed to be a sealed copy of the game. I knew that couldn't be possible considering the condition of the box (slightly crushed) so I didn't fear opening it.

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Here's a shot of what the back of the box looks like. I'll offer up a scan of the covers at a later time when I work the wrinkles out.

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Cautiously tearing off the plastic, I wanted to make sure that my initial assumption was correct and judging by how clean and new the plastic was, I knew that whoever had owned it had access to a shrink wrapper.

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Here is a shot of what the game looked like before I got it which also tipped me off

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I am really glad that the previous owner put in plastic bubble wrap to prevent the box from crushing further.

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Here's a look at all the contents in all their glory.

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A little bit closer view.

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Here's a shot of something I never even knew existed. Apparently the game was shipped with something called a detective information chart to place the clients and whatnot from the game on. I like swag like that in a game. It makes it more interactive. I can add this to the list of scans at a later date for all those interested in that kinda thing. There is also a book of other Access products in there too that I had never heard of.

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Alright so before the game came to the house, I thought I had bought a game for the game collection that I would never play. As I sat there thinking about it I had a weird looking keyboard amidst my other Commodore VIC20s and I began to wonder what it was.

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Turns out it's an actual Commodore 64! It didn't look anything like the C64's I knew of but it was a for real C64 nonetheless. Here's the weird part. I never owned a C64 back in the day, I also never bought one since that time. So it's sudden and random appearance in my collection is REALLY baffling me.

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Well seeing as I now had a C64 in my possession I started wondering if I could get the sucker up and running. About 4 years ago I had a basement flood in one of my old apartments and all the equipment was submerged so I wasn't holding my breath, but 4 years is a long time to dry. That brings us to this piece of equipment. I have always used this (so I remember that is) for my VIC20 and wondered if it would also work on a C64.

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A quick internet search revealed that it belonged to the C64 all along! So now things were really coming together, could I actually play this game on a Commodore? I had to admit being the retro buff that I am I started to get a little excited at the prospect of it.

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The only way I can get this thing hooked up to a modern TV is with an RF converter. Seeing as I didn't have any laying around I decided to use a POS Walmart VCR that no longer plays tapes. Considering it no longer functions for the one thing it was designed for, I figured that I could put it to good use.

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Here's the trio all wired together and electricity going to it. No smoke or flames so that has to be a good sign right?

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IT LIVES! Holy crap this has to be the most durable computer I have ever seen! Age, flooding, what else could this sucker endure? Anyway Now to load up Mean Streets. I was a little hesitant to put the disk in as they are so destructible. I decided to live life on the edge and put the disk into the drive. There's no way that both the disk and the disk drive work after all these years right?

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YEE GADS IT WORKS!! I couldn't believe it! (so much so I decided to make this big post and go on and on about it.)

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So after the loading screen I am presented with this on the screen [ON PAGE 13 OF THE MANUAL, UNDER THE PARAGRAPH TITLED "GETTING STARTED" TYPE THE 6TH WORD:] Now at this point I have a HUGE flashback as I remember that this was a way to stop all the piracy and game copying back in the day. It's a REALLY good thing that I actually had the book at this point.

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So flipping through the book (which I will also scan later) to page 13 and under GETTING STARTED I look at the 6th word.

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I type in HAVE and hit the button then wait.

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SWEET! It works! Now I can finally play this game.

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There's the main title of Mean Streets in all it's glory. Listen to that 4-bit sound! Awesomeness! Oh wait you can't hear anything, well lucky for you I have also added a YouTube video of the game in action! Take a gander and enjoy. If you've never played this version also check it out. I have never played the PC version so I have no idea if it's different than the C64 version. Well I hope you enjoyed this little pointless tale. Took WAY longer to make than I expected but I think it was worth it. Anyway here's the link to the YouTube vid:

Enjoy!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yJVrbiN87Zw
That is one big heap of pure awesome. Congratulations buddy!

-Fred
Pirates, vampires, zombies, ninjas, ghouls, aliens, goblins, monsters, robots, sorcerers, undead, werewolves, demons, mutated dinosaur-cyborgs and those pesky phone salesmen! The shotgun is a one-size-fits-all solution!
That's exciting. With the included photos, the suspense was killing me! Have fun playing it.
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I did the same exact thing my friend...except I didn't do all the fancy hooking stuff up to play it thing. I bought a copy of mean Streets off ebay and when it came I was surprised to see it was a commodore version....it wasn't even mentioned in the auction what version it was...at first I was pissed, but then i thought "well this is pretty cool I guess...a different version of Tex Memorabilia I don't have...sweet"
"Some men aren’t looking for anything logical. They can’t be bought, bullied, reasoned or negotiated with. Some men just want to watch the world burn.”
Great video Stu. Love that kickin soundtrack.

Too funny.
I've gone through that... Waiting for ever that you ordered something, then you forget about it after the seller doesn't return any emails then it finally shows up... Truly an Awesome Feeling...

Play It With Great Enthusiasm... :D
The Paved Straight Road, Won't Always Get You Farther Than The Winding Dirt Road...


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