Choplifter, not to be confused with Rescue Raiders[1,2], except in my memory, along with its cheat code: zippybobbypin (turns out it was actually zippy or bobbypin depending upon which cracked copy you had)[3].
Speaking of games which load fully into memory, there was a peripheral card called the Wildcard[4] which would snapshot memory to disk, making it trivial to make "backup" copies of such games. A handful of in-memory games would thus check periodically that the original disk was still present.
I'm sad that Rescue Raiders doesn't get the credit it deserves. I'm not going to argue that it's the original Real Time Strategy game because people are vehement that it's NOT an RTS. But I think it is and it's amazing that it came out in 1984.
I m a bit surprised by TFA: most C64 games, by very far, would also run entirely in memory. Some would load mid-game or even use several disks (like Ultima) but these were the exception.
I don't understand your surprise, because TFA says the same thing about C64 games:
"However the Apple II disk drive is very fast, so unlike the Commodore 64, single-load games went away quickly. C64 games did a lot of work to stay single-load since the C64 drive is so slow, but on the Apple II, running back to the disk to load your title screen, menu system, or new levels was no big deal."
That was out of necessity. The C=64 floppy drive was so painfully slow that using it for gameplay without causing stalls would be close to impossible. The few games that tried (there was an Elvira RPG for example) were plagued by long loading screens. The C=64 was also gifted with a higher than average amount of RAM for the era, making it practical to fit entire games in memory.
The article says "C64 games did a lot of work to stay single-load since the C64 drive is so slow" - what are you surprised by, since you seem to be in agreement?
Speaking of games which load fully into memory, there was a peripheral card called the Wildcard[4] which would snapshot memory to disk, making it trivial to make "backup" copies of such games. A handful of in-memory games would thus check periodically that the original disk was still present.
[1]: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rescue_Raiders
[2]: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=F8_XsRYTO-0
[3]: https://groups.google.com/g/comp.emulators.apple2/c/JwoKZKYQ...
[4]: http://retro.co.za/ccc/apple2/Wildcard/