I absolutely loved Below the Root when I was a kid. I definitely shared the author's sense of wonder when playing. The game world felt expansive and mysterious. It was probably the closest to an "open world game" I ever played on an Apple II.
I'm excited to try out the Commodore 64 version now that I know it was the original.
I have an .iso that boots into a unikernel to launch the C64 emulator and play a hacked version so you don't have to swap disks. Email me if you'd like a link!
I'm excited to try out the Commodore 64 version now that I know it was the original.