So as my constant mentioning of Middle Earth and my saving thereof might indicate, I've gotten back into computer gaming. I may never understand why the pressing of buttons and controlling an onscreen character is so enjoyable. But it is. Probably has to do with being able to exert absolute control over at least one part of my life. Someone once asked me why I always play as female characters in fighting games. I think I babbled something about how they're faster and more agile before I just admitted that I like having absolute control of a woman, even if she's virtual. So...that's creepy.
So I was thinking about my lifelong affair with video games. Even when I was very little, we had a computer. Now, it was basically a huge keyboard that you jammed a cartridge in the side and plugged into your TV, but you could play "Alphabet Zoo" and "Donald Duck Teaches Time." It also had an add-on unit where you put a cassette tape in a tape player and somehow that ran a computer program. Yeah, I don't understand it either. But I'm still trying to work out vinyl.
Eventually we got a sweet Tandy 1000 for Christmas and various units after that. Christmas was always a great time for games. Josh and I got to the point where we could identify a wrapped game by the sound made by the discs inside. We weren't allowed to get a Nintendo, so that meant we were Sierra devotees of the highest degree. They were the pioneers of the adventure game. You know, the "move your guy around, type stuff in and solve quests" kind of game. Like Peasant's Quest, to cite a modern example.
"King's Quest," "Police Quest," "Space Quest," "Quest for Glory," basically anything involving quests...we were into it. I was the typer and Josh was the idea man - we were a good team. The games got better as time went along - graphics and sound improved and eventually the typing parser was replaced with a point and click interface. (That was when they jumped the shark for Mom. No typing = no thinking in Mom's world. She obviously didn't know how hard King's Quest VI was.)
But the adventure game genre has long since gone the way of the dinosaur, replaced by so many Doom clones and MMORPGs. Sierra now makes games like Half-Life 2 and The Hobbit. Ah...they don't make 'em like they used to.
Anyway, this post was intended to let all you dorky gamers reminisce about the games of yesteryear, console or PC. The ones that make you think back and say what I just did, that being of course, "Ah...they don't make 'em like they used to." So let's take a trip down Cyber-lane in the comments.
Oh, school starts tomorrow. That's something.
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The transcribed wanderings of one man in a big world.
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- Timmy Tapeworm
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6 comments:
Ah, so this is what that reverie of yours was about. Good inspiration for a post. You're lucky I decided to comment on it at all after your Token "I have nothing to post so happy MLK JR day everyone" crapment on my site. Tisk tisk, unfortunately you've pushed one of the buttons I just can't ignore with this post and I have to delve into geeky goodness.
My first computer was a Xeos. I think it had a whopping 16k of RAM. To put that in perspective there are literally Lego play sets that now have twice that much (see anything in the Mindstorms line). I had this computer from the time I was born more or less. And around 2 years old I started playing around with it. There were lots of buttons and as a kid (...or now) that seemed fun to me. So my parents eventually got me some video games for it. Educational of course, but they seemed fun at the time.
Stuff like Ernie's Magic Shapes and other Computer aided Sesame Street learning. This quickly segued into more advanced games. And eventually into games like Battle Chess and some checkers games.
Then came the game that affects me to this day: Commander Keen. It was released in 1990 by id software. Amazing game, sweet gameplay and a new kid rolemodel. Suddenly I wanted to save the universe with a pogo stick. It was also my first bootleg software, Kevin Bland gave it to me, copied onto a 5 3/4" floppy. Schweet. Fondly I remember playing that game for hours with what I thought at the time was a primo joystick.
I also played such classics as Guerilla War, and Star Battles in the same era. Ah what good 8 bit gaming. There was also a game called Moses, and the Old Testament. Or something like that where you went around and shot God's word from your mouth and it would destroy things. Pretty cool game actually. There was also a Tom Sawyer game, a really rudimentary flight simulator and a few other games that didn't quite have the same impact on me.
Moving on, we eventually got a new computer (other than the one I had owned since I was 2). And it had Window's 95! So naturally, we got Doom. Man, the fun I had scaring the hell out of myself with that game can scarcely be described. Reguardless of how many times I played a particular level I would always be surprised, nay startled, by opening a door and finding loads of hellions behind it.
This was also the time I got Oregon Trail on CD-ROM. Which seemed like quite a thing. It had this amazing trumpet music that sticks with me to this day. It's really still the theme I hear in my head any time someone mentions Oregon Trail.
I could go on and on, but I'll wrap it up with the mention of one more computer game. And it's one pretty much only I have played. You see I cracked a code in Disney Magazine (which my brother was receiving at the time) and got myself into an elite group of people who got the game for free before it was released publicly. Basically I beta tested it, but there wasn't a word for that back in the day. This was around 1995. What a good game. I'm a bit dissapointed that it didn't get big. But it was definately a quality adventure game. It had a bit of a Myst element of being 3rd person and the controls weren't like a shooter or anything. You went around the world and found out clues and such. By the time you finished the game it was almost like you had watched a movie. Great story, great game A++.
And that is a breif, abbreviated history of my fond early gaming memories. Ahh, I think I'm going to have to find an old Xeos and relive those days. Good times
- Scott
Jeeze, Scott, you sure love your retro computer gaming. I agree completely on most of what you said. What I don't agree on is what I skipped because I got bored and decided to comment now. (I'm sure I'd agree all the same).
Anyways, Tim! You didn't give props to Gold Rush! Not only was it educational, it was probably the Sierra game that I have never beaten. I never figured out how to get the hell out of whatever town I was in. :'( But I agree with your mother, the games just weren't the same when they became point and click. FIDELITY SUCKS!
Love, Jake
No Scott. No. You just need to stop. If you ever make a post that long on my site, I'm deleting it. Not for the offensiveness it will unquestionably contain, but just to save my fellow blogittes from feeling obligated to read it. As I felt obligated to read all of that.
My parents got my first computer, like, before I was born. I couldn't spell my own last name but I knew to type: LOAD "DIGDUG",8,1
Bonus points to whomever can tell what system I was using just by the command string.
We had a modem that you had to dial with the telephone and hang up real quick for it to connect. We used to connect to BBS (Bulletin Boards Systems) in like Dallas Texas via a 1.8kb modem and rack up a nice phone bill just so we could "download" a text file of some random nerds list of favorite books or movie reviews. The only reminiscing I could do would be with Josh and we did that like last week on my blog so I'll spare you all.
I was an "Ultima" kid from birth, and I will stand by saying that it was one of the best series ever released (even if it didn't finish real strong in the end.)
So it's not my fault I'm a nerd. My parents made me this way from birth. So they can't yell at me when I play too much Everquest II nowadays.
P.S. I do need to thank the Ryder boys for introducing me to the "Quest" line of gaming. We had fond memories of searching a nearly naked man's underwear for a switchblade in Police Quest. And I learned what a Dangling Participial is thanks to Hero's Quest.
P.S.S. I'm hoping that this post rivals Scotts in length, especially after I made fun of him for it at the beginning. Irony is the word of the day folks.
I'm slightly annoyed that you noticed that it rivaled my post in length. Because it takes some of the fun out of bashing you for it. Which I will now do: What a hypocrite. But I will say that Dig Dug was one of the games I played alongside Commander Keen and it too is beloved.
So to Rob and myself goes the award for "Comment longer than actual post" We'd like to thank the Blogcademy.
- Scott
P.S. I was on that version of the internet too. It took about 5 days to connect, and when you did you could browse the interweb at blazing 10-20 baud speeds! I remember the first time I saw a picture (after about 6 hours of waiting) online I just about flipped. And it wasn't even porn! Those were the days...
Good gravy Tim! Do you seriously not have ANYTHING better to do at your internship than post on your blog? I obviously have nothing better to do at my job than read it.
Oh, and I think you forgot Oregon Trail. You seem like the Oregon Trail type.
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