by Beat Suter
So far, CH-Ludens has only been able to identify and archive just four listing games that were created in Switzerland. All four oft hem were printed as winners in computer magazines and therefore available as printed source code in archives that preserve computer magazines.
These are the games Jagdszene Chicago (1985) by Christoph Cronimund, Cave Flight (1985) by René Straub, Top Tennis (1985) by Bernhard Dalle and Muri (1987) by Markus Wild and Marius Wey.
Of course, in the early 1980s, there were many more “listed games” in Switzerland than just these four. Unfortunately, they were not published anywhere. In response to their monthly calls for submissions, the computer magazines received many listing games from young programmers. But only the best ones were published. Today, a large number of these listing games are considered irrevocably lost. However, it is possible that young programmers of the time still have old floppy disks with their game prototypes from the listing era at home. The CH-Ludens research group would be very interested in these games. We are researching the entire history of Swiss game design up to the year 2000 and would be happy if you could search your old disks and notes for lost “Listing games”. Or maybe you know of a game or two that has been published somewhere that we haven’t found. Please send your information to gamelab.zurich at zhdk.ch.
The first published Swiss listing (according to current research) was by Ralph Cronimund. He wrote his game Jagdszene (1985) for the Texas TI 99 computer. It was published six months after its creation by the magazine Computronic in May/June 1985 on pages 57-62.
There was also a Swiss listing for the British home computer Sinclair ZX81. The game Cave Flight (1985) was a shoot’em’up that was published in the June/July 1985 issue of Homecomputer magazine on pages 55 and 56. The short description was followed by a code listing that was only 1.5 pages long. The theme was a bit unusual. You had to fly an airplane through a cave. The author René Straub had already written his “Cave Flight” in January/February 1985.
The sports game Top Tennis (1985) for Atari was designed by Bernd Dalle from Kreuzlingen, Switzerland. Dalle was born in Kreuzlingen, grew up in Rabat (Morocco) and went to school in Lausanne. His game was published in the magazine Computronic (1986/03-04, p.52-60). The article about his listing for Atari 8bit on pages 52-60 consisted of half a page of description and seven pages of code.
Markus Wild and Marius Wey had programmed their game Muri (1987) for the Armstrad CPC 464 computer. The listing of the game is described in German and printed in the magazine Happy Computer 12/87 on pages 64-66, 68, 69 and 72 (fig.1.) (fig.2). It was the listing of the month for December 1987, and the editors of Happy Computer praised the game: “Our listing of the month is a real treat for Schneider fans”.


These were the four known “Listing games” from Switzerland. We are sure that more such “delicacies” were created back then. Please send us your tips and insights to gamelab.zurich at zhdk.ch.
Information about the CH-Ludens research project can be found at chludens.ch
OpenEdition suggests that you cite this post as follows:
Beat Suter (June 26, 2025). Swiss Listing Games? More listing games from Switzerland wanted! Confoederatio Ludens. Retrieved November 14, 2025 from https://doi.org/10.58079/147r4
