30 Years, 30 Games: Day 30! [Archive] - Page 2

o2william

05-12-2005, 11:16 AM

Day 16: UFO!

http://64.159.77.51/~helmet/o2william/ufo.gif

You had to know that any game list done by a guy with �O2� in his forum handle would contain an Odyssey2 game or two, right? UFO! makes my list not only because it�s one of the best O2 games around, but because it was the source of my very first beatdown.

Many Odyssey2 games keep track of the current high score and allow the top scorer to type in his name for all to see. It would be a cool feature if the data wasn�t erased every time you power off the machine. Even in the early �80s, I don�t think my friends and I bothered to type in our names very often. But there was one time when I got the idea that Ryan, Bryan and I should have a high score contest, entering our names to keep track of who was in the lead. We�d even have a tape recorder running in the background to keep a record of the proceedings.

The game I chose was UFO, because I was the best at it. It was pretty cheap of me actually� the O2 console belonged to me, so I had logged the most play time with the game and I figured I would run away with the victory. Bryan wasn�t that great at videogames in general, and even though Ryan was better, I was sure my UFO experience would carry the day.

You know what happens next. The contest started, my turn came up� and I choked. I died almost instantly, scoring something like 5 points. (As in most Odyssey2 games, UFO only gives you one life, so a single mistake can really cost you.) I don�t remember the exact rules of the contest, but I do know we each received two tries. And the second time through, I scored� 12. Twelve. On the cassette tape, you can hear Ryan gloating that at least I had beaten my old record. Frustration is evident in my voice as I retort, "Will you be quiet?!" Like I said, beatdown.

I don�t remember Byan�s score, but I know it was better than mine. Ryan scored 80, which was a really high UFO score for our collective skill level at the time. He won. My fiendish plot to be the winner had backfired. It was a powerful lesson in humiliation. Sometimes I�m tempted to think I�m hot stuff when it comes to videogames, but then I remember that experience and remember that there�s always somebody better.

Got your own tales of videogame humiliation? Share the pain!

The-Bavis

05-12-2005, 12:14 PM

My wife and are the only ones to have played much on my copy of Dr. Mario on the N64. So, our point tally saved on the cartridge is pretty much me vs. her. I think she has 55+ and I have about 4 wins. She is amazed that I am still willing to play against her.

squidblatt

05-12-2005, 06:14 PM

I get a lesson in humiliation every time I compete against someone in a video game.

Rogmeister

05-12-2005, 06:22 PM

I haven't been commenting but did want to let you know that I am still enjoying your video game tales...especially the ones on arcade games (and also some of the home games like Yar's Revenge). Dig Dug happens to be the arcade game I got my most points ever on...I was never a great gamer so I considered it a fair accomplishment that I scored nearly a half-million points on that one. Of course, I have a home version of it...I'll have to pull that one out again sometime soon...

ozyr

05-12-2005, 09:09 PM

You had to know that any game list done by a guy with �O2� in his forum handle would contain an Odyssey2 game or two, right? UFO! makes my list not only because it�s one of the best O2 games around, but because it was the source of my very first beatdown.

Got your own tales of videogame humiliation? Share the pain!

Kind of figured that some O2 games would sneak in there! ;) Imagine that...

As for humiliations, about the only thing I can thing of is the Odyssey2 game, P.T. Barnum's Acrobats. Back in the 80's, my sister used to play the Odssey2 also (not as much as I did, or course). She was not very good at it, but for some reason, she totally kicked butt at Acrobats! I kept track of the scores in a spreedsheet (which I still have), and her scores are 'so' much higher than mine. I find it embarassing because she is not a video game player, as a whole. But them, this follows my video game theory - in that every person is 'really good' at playing at least one video game. I've bumped into this 'good at one game' thing so often, it's engrained in my brain.

P.S. My sister kicked my butt at Pick Axe Pete too, but I beat her score a few years ago, and did even better in the last month! I even called her to let her know... :D

o2william

05-13-2005, 11:22 AM

Day 17: Section Z and Gauntlet

http://www.digitpress.com/dpsightz/nintendo/sectionz.png http://www.digitpress.com/dpsightz/nintendo/gauntlet_5.png

Why two games today you ask? And why these two? Other than the fact that both are NES ports of arcade games, they have little in common. However, I can�t think of one without the other because of one fateful weekend.

At the height of the 8-bit era (1989 or so), my friend Warren and I were NES freaks. We �played Nintendo� pretty much all day every day, when we could get away with it. We prided ourselves on beating every NES game we owned (legitimately if possible, but we weren�t averse to the use of an occasional cheat code if necessary). But Gauntlet and Section Z confounded us. We just couldn�t beat them. Section Z gave us a particularly hard time, so much so that we called Capcom�s hint line for help on how to beat one of the bosses (Capcom�s advice: �Keep shooting.� Gee, thanks). One day we made it very far into the game but just couldn�t find the correct route to reach the last level. After that defeat, the game was basically declared anathema and we decided to never bother with it again.

Gauntlet was different. It was still fun to play even though we couldn�t figure out how to get to all the �?� rooms (necessary to reach the last level), so we kept at it. One weekend, we decided to methodically go through the game from the beginning, mapping our progress, restarting when we took the wrong route, conserving bombs and keys whenever possible, and rigorously writing down passwords in a notebook. Eventually we reached the last world of the game, and the meticulousness continued. We learned the correct route to take. We mapped out all the exits. We figured out where to use bombs for maximum effect. We noticed that if you inch forward a pixel at a time, you can �freeze� enemies at the sides of the screen and shoot them with no danger. And eventually, we did the unthinkable -- we beat Gauntlet!

The story might end right there, but we got to thinking� we�d beaten one unbeatable game, why not go for two? So we dug out Warren�s Section Z cart, and rather quickly made it back to the point where we�d been stuck before. After the success we had with Gauntlet, I was careful to map out all of the Section Z levels. Eventually we realized that the path to the last level was actually hidden, so we carefully searched (using the maps again) until we found it. After that, it was just a matter of time before we beat L-Brain and, for the second time in one weekend, conquered the unconquerable.

That weekend is still my single greatest gaming achievement. Of course, I had Warren�s help, but beating games with a friend is more fun than doing it alone anyway. Did you ever have a day or weekend when you were �in the zone� like that? It�s a great feeling!

o2william

05-14-2005, 11:23 AM

Day 18: Scramble

http://64.159.77.51/~helmet/o2william/scramble.gif

I didn't go to the movies very often as a kid since the nearest movie theater was about an hour's drive away from my house. But whenever I did make it to the fantabulous Cinema 6, I always had a good time watching the big screen, eating popcorn, and playing this noisy shooting game that frustrated the hell out of me. The game was Scramble, and if memory serves, the cabinet at the Cinema 6 was a cocktail model. Man, I couldn't get enough of that game! Something about those Mystery Bases and Fuel Tanks really grabbed me. Maybe it was the bright colors, maybe it was the cool geometric shapes. Maybe I just liked blowing stuff up. Either way, I always made sure to play a few games of Scramble before whatever movie I was there to see began.

I had time to do this because I completely sucked at Scramble. It seems strange to me now, but I just couldn't get the game's timing down. Rockets would hit me when I thought they'd miss. My bombs would miss their targets when I was sure they'd hit. It was ridiculous. I never realized that the terrain eventually changed, because I never made it far. I wanted to love Scramble, but it answered my affection with nothing but hostility. I used to dream about being good at the game, about being able to zip around rockets and nail Mystery Bases with precision. But alas, the Scramble machine disappeared from the theater before I got the chance.

Games like Scramble make me extremely thankful for the incredible accessibility of today. Now, a quick Scramble session is as close as my Game Boy Advance or MAME on my PC. Thanks to them, I've been able to realize my dream of actually being sort of halfway decent at the game! As nostalgic as I sometimes get for the past, there's plenty to love about the present.

syd

05-14-2005, 03:50 PM

Gauntlet is an AMAZING two player game! My cousin and I played that thing for like 5 hours straight until around 5am one morning and we still couldn't beat it. It's great how you can play a game like that for so long and still not get bored of it. I still give it a try every now and then, but it's a pain that you've got to get to all of the ? rooms to finish the game.

Flack

05-14-2005, 06:13 PM

William, if you ever get bored some weekend, head on over. I've got a Scramble arcade cabinet in my garage. Oh yeah, it's next to my Gauntlet II.

Bring quarters.

o2william

05-15-2005, 01:46 PM

Day 19: Castlevania

http://www.digitpress.com/dpsightz/nintendo/castlevania_4.png

Few games are as dear to me as Castlevania. I know I�m not the only one who feels that way. It was one of those games that you just knew was going to be good even before you played it. My friend Warren first heard about it from some kid he went to school with. Based solely on Warren�s description of his schoolmate�s description of Castlevania, I decided I�d love the game. I even sent away for the Castlevania poster Konami offered, sight unseen. We waited impatiently for the promised day when Warren was able to borrow his friend�s copy.

The day arrived, and we weren�t disappointed, although the game turned out to be much harder than we expected. That was partly due to the fact that we didn�t have a manual, so we didn�t figure out how to use the special weapons for quite some time. We couldn�t even get past the Phantom Bat for several hours! Once we hit on the magical Up+B combination, however, we finally started to make headway. Nevertheless, the Mummy Men stopped us for a good while. We played late into the night. I remember falling asleep, then Warren waking me up to tell me he�d beaten the Mummies, then falling asleep again, then waking up again to see the end of Frankenstein�s monster�s level. Frankie and Igor impeded our progress for a long time, but eventually we muscled our way onward.

But then we faced Death, literally. The Grim Reaper killed us, repeatedly and rather unapologetically, I might add. He held us back for weeks. Warren�s friend let us keep his cart for a surprisingly long while, but we used most of that time just trying to beat Death. I have such vivid memories of playing through Death�s level over and over while eating Chef Boyardee Pepperoni Pizza. I still crave that pizza when I play that level! Warren was the one who finally beat Death (while I was away from the TV getting some M&Ms -- funny how I still remember that).

It was exciting almost beyond words to reach a new stage of Castlevania, which by that time had easily become our favorite game. We played until we reached Dracula himself, who welcomed us with several quick deaths. We were stymied again, so close to the end -- and what was worse, Warren�s friend moved away and we had to give the cart back! In an unfortunate twist of fate, this happened during the period before Castlevania II was released, when the first game was out of print. We couldn�t buy our own copies, and were forced to leave the battle unresolved, the Count victorious.

When Castlevania finally became available again, we each set out to buy it. Warren got his first, receiving it as a gift. I had to cash in a $50 savings bond I�d had since age 6, but it was worth it. Warren was the first to beat the Count; he�d been mentally planning his battle strategy for months and was able to defeat Drac almost right away. It took me slightly longer, but soon I tasted victory as well. I�ve been a Castlevania fan ever since.

Castlevania lovers of the world, unite!

syd

05-15-2005, 10:14 PM

I remember first playing Castlevania in a grocery store. It was one of those arcade machines where you put in a quarter and choose a game out of around 25 to play for like 3-5mins. I think it was called an NES-25 or something like that. Either way I always played Castlevania on that thing but never had much time to get too far in it! I forgot the name of it for many years until the wonders of emulation jogged my memory. I've been addicted to the Castlevania series ever since! :D

8-Bit Master

05-15-2005, 10:20 PM

Castlevania is probably the game series that is closest to my heart as well. I personally own most of the games in the series and have beaten all of the ones that I own. The original Castlevania is an incredibly tough game to beat. The final three bosses (Frankenstein, Death, Drac) are all extremely tough fights. Using the holy water makes the job a little easier, but it still doesn't make them cakewalks by a long shot. The original CV is probably one of the most frustrating games in the NES library that remains fun.

The Castlevania that I have the most childhood memories of is Simon's Quest. I bought it off of my brother's friend whom I also got Excitebike, Chip 'n Dale, and Cobra Triangle from. It took me a good while to finish that one because of how nonsensical some of the written dialogue is. It really does make the game more difficult, however it is by far the easiest NES CV game.

Dr. Morbis

05-15-2005, 11:48 PM

I first played Castlevania on a Playchoice-10. I was so enthralled that I got the game a short while later (after a good deal of begging ;) ). It also holds a special place for me because my first and best gaming partner moved away when I was 13. On our last day together we decided to beat Dracula. This was seemingly an impossible task at the time, as neither of us had even beaten the Reaper.

Anyway, long story short, we beat Dracula after about 100 failed attempts, and he left on a bus for Victoria a short while later. I never saw or heard from him again. I always think of him when I play through this game.

Nature Boy

05-16-2005, 08:56 AM

You know, when I had Section Z on my NES back in the day I had no idea it was an arcade game. I don't think I *ever* saw it in arcades. Loved it to death though - it was one of the first games I re-acquired when I re-acquired the console :)

And Scramble. Well, it's another of those classic arcade machines that gets lots of play when I fire up MAME. Like you, I'm a *lot* better at it these days than I was back then. I just have to guess that 2 button gaming took time to get used to for those of us raised on just the one button :D

o2william

05-16-2005, 11:17 AM

Day 20: Journey Escape

http://www.digitpress.com/dpsightz/atari2600/journeyescape.gif

If you aren�t old enough to remember the early 1980s, then you don�t know about the awesome power once wielded by Journey. Steve Perry and the boys belted out one Top 40 hit after another and drove legions of fans into wild frenzies, despite (and I mean this with all due respect) being five of the doofiest-looking guys you�ve ever seen. Their digitized faces starred in a goofy arcade game, and they also inspired this rather uninspired Atari 2600 title from Data Age. And Journey Escape inspired my lifelong obsession with game music.

I played Journey Escape before I knew the musical group even existed. A friend of a friend had it, and via a circuitous route of temporary trades it eventually found its way to me. In those days I�d have happily played any new game for hours on end, but I actually liked Journey Escape. It was a decent enough twitch game, and it had a character in it that resembled Kool-Aid Man, which made it OK in my book. But the tinny, off-key, repeats-after-four-measures music is what really made the game for me.

Game music was pretty rudimentary back then, but Journey Escape at least made an attempt at musical complexity. The game�s two tunes had both a lead and a beat track. The theme that played between rounds, an off-key rendition of �Don�t Stop Believin�,� had tonal qualities that sounded vaguely like chords. It seems weak nowadays, but I�d never heard game music that rich before, not back then.

Laugh if you must, but I was captivated. Journey Escape actually helped spark my burgeoning musical interest. I learned to play keyboards, and went on to join a band where I did some live performances and studio work. I�ve even composed a few tunes for shareware games. (Honestly, I might well have done those things without Journey Escape�s influence� but who can say for sure?)

An amusing side note to this story is that I didn�t know the group Journey when I first played the game, and I didn�t even realize the game was supposed to be based on a band at all. Imagine my surprise when I turned on the radio one day and heard �Don�t Stop Believin�� (or as I knew it, �That music from that Journey game!�) coming out of the speaker. I�m not ashamed to say I�ve been a Journey fan ever since. Yeah, that's right... I like Journey -- you got a problem with that? :P

I imagine most of us on these boards have our favorite in-game tunes, but are there any games you enjoy primarily because of the music?

Sanriostar

05-16-2005, 01:53 PM

Embrace your inner Mullett! \^_^/
Journey is on the heavy rotation list when I just decide to have an ad-hoc '80s party for one': 80's music, retro arcade comps on the modern systems or MAME, and a cheap pizza and some beer from the local grocery.

To properly embrace your inner Mullett, the following must be played:

'Best of's from:
Journey
Pat Benatar
Rick Springfield
Motels
The Cars

Specific albums:
Def Leppard: Pyromainia
Berlin: Pleasure Victim
J Giles Band: Freeze Frame
Van Halen: 1984

While there are a few groups that mix into New Wave territory, all these can be considered good and proper Mullett rock. And don't play any arcade games past 1984; it ruins the ambiance.

Flack

05-16-2005, 04:14 PM

Pretty much all those albums (and tons more) are sitting on the MP3 Jukebox I have in my arcade. Tonight we're gonna party like it's 1989 ... ;)

It's amazing in MAME how simple that stupid Journey game seems, and yet how bad I am at it.

When I think of arcade music, Atari's games come to mind. Some of my favorite arcade tunes came from Super Sprint, 720, and Paperboy.

The-Bavis

05-16-2005, 05:27 PM

My only musical comment is that we used to always think that one of the NES Dr. Mario tunes sounded Like MC Hammer's "Pray". You know, "you've got to pray just to make it today; pray!"

It's kind of a stretch, but several of us had the same thought independently.

Khelavaster

05-16-2005, 11:01 PM

To properly embrace your inner Mullett, the following must be played:

[snippage]

Specific albums:
Berlin: Pleasure Victim

Dude. Berlin is so NOT mullet rock. Essential Eighties, sure, but not mullet rock.

<rerail>Never loved a game because of its soundtrack, but I can think of one I loathed for this reason. Commodore 64 Pooyan. Ugh.</rerail>

NintendoMan

05-17-2005, 12:14 AM

Day 19: Castlevania

Castlevania lovers of the world, unite!

Alright, this is the first game on your list so far that I also love, and have memories of playing.
I really can't remember too much of the early days of playing this game except for that is was really freaking hard for me! Most people when they are young that are really into video games have that one friend that was basically GREAT at almost everygame, somehow. Well, I had 2 of them, and can remember one of them pretty much easily beating it in only a couple of days, or something like that.

It was unbelievable for me, to see that. When to this day I have still never beaten the game. (Yeah, it's pathetic I know!) And I do currently own the game and do plan on beating it someday. I have never gotten into the current Castlevania's, well at least the GBA versions. I have always wondered why though? Maybe because Simon Belmont isn't the main character? I really can't figure out why I don't like the current Castlevania though, they just seem so different. I do kinda like the N64 versions though. I remember buying Castlevania 64 the DAY it was released at the local FuncoLand.

NintendoMan

05-17-2005, 12:18 AM

Anyway, long story short, we beat Dracula after about 100 failed attempts, and he left on a bus for Victoria a short while later. I never saw or heard from him again. I always think of him when I play through this game.

I too have about 4 friends, that I ALWAYS played games with that I haven't seen in about 10-15 years. A couple of them were REALLY good friends too. Those videogame memories stick in my head the most out of my childhood for sure. Like alot of other people on here!

o2william

05-17-2005, 10:33 AM

Day 21: DND (version 1.12)

http://64.159.77.51/~helmet/o2william/dispellundead.gif

I now know that DND was one of the early "Rogue-like" adventure games that used textual characters to simulate graphics, but when I first saw it I didn't know what to make of it. I was in seventh or eighth grade, which would have made it 1987 or '88. In any event, I walked into our school's pitiful computer lab and saw an upperclassman named Brian playing some complicated looking game on one of our aging IBM machines. The screen was filled with text. There were lots of numbers and abbreviations everywhere, and a lot of letter I's making up what I assumed to be a map. Brian tried to explain the game to me, but I don't think I followed him. As it happened though, I had a 3.5" diskette on hand, so I made a copy to play with later (hey, it was shareware!).

When later came, I still couldn't figure it out. I had a hard time visualizing the map; it just looked like a bunch of random letters to me. Guess you might say I couldn't see the forest for the trees. Unimpressed, I put the disk away. Some time later I came across it again and decided to give the game another try, and this time it clicked. I was primed for what turned out to be my first true RPG experience.

At the time, I knew there existed a game called "Dungeons & Dragons" where you created characters and went on medieval adventures, but I didn't really know how you played it. Hit Points, Magic Points, character attributes, player levels and all that were unknown to me. DND introduced me to these concepts. I "rolled" my character, figured out why Constitution and Dexterity were important, and was off to the textual dungeons in search of the magical ORB. I fought # after # (# was the symbol for an enemy creature). I discovered Elven Boots +3. I explored ALT's (altars) and FNT's (fountains), fell into PITs, and picked up a king's ransom in $ (the symbol for treasure). I was transported. Amazing that such a visually unspectacular game could do all that, but I suppose it really forced me to use my imagination.

DND also had one of the coolest features of any PC game I've ever played: printable maps. With enough Gold Pieces, you were allowed to purchase a map of any given level. Purchasing a map generated a text file on your disk that could be printed out through any standard line printer. Viola -- instant hardcopy map! Maybe it was my initial inability to navigate the game, but I became obsessed with printing out all the maps and going through every level, marking all landmarks and staircases. This quest continued well beyond my actual completion of the game. I devoted a good many weeks to this cause, and I still have my old marked up maps to prove it. I still plan to finish someday.

DND just goes to show you that you don't need graphics to achieve greatness. How do the rest of you feel about the old text adventures and Rogue-like games? Do you ever still play them?

Sanriostar

05-17-2005, 10:39 AM

To properly embrace your inner Mullett, the following must be played:

[snippage]

Specific albums:
Berlin: Pleasure Victim

Dude. Berlin is so NOT mullet rock. Essential Eighties, sure, but not mullet rock.

It sure as hell was in my hometown in '82. And this is a place that STILL has the Camaros run free. Musta been a regional thing.

Nature Boy

05-17-2005, 04:22 PM

How do the rest of you feel about the old text adventures and Rogue-like games? Do you ever still play them?

What I want to know first is if you still have a copy of this. I'd love to try it out.

Which answers your second question I suppose. :) I enjoy taking the occasional stab at a text adventure through emulation (Atari 8-bit stuff). Although I have to admit I sometimes find that not knowing the proper words can be a bit frustrating.

o2william

05-17-2005, 08:58 PM

What I want to know first is if you still have a copy of this. I'd love to try it out.
Ask, and you shall receive...

A download approaches. What will you do? (http://64.159.77.51/~helmet/o2william/DND.zip)

This copy of DND is descended from the original copy I made of the game in junior high, about 18(!) years ago. Go to a DOS prompt and type "DND" to run it. The docs are actually worth reading. Some of my old characters are still in the player.dat file, if you can figure out their secret names (secret names are like passwords).

This version has what I believe is called the "Trove glitch." If you come across a TRV (like a slot machine, but easy to win), you can get very rich very quickly -- the payoff is way too high. It kind of takes the challenge out of the game since you can then buy super weapons and armor, but it comes in handy if you just want to go exploring. You can always avoid TRV's if you want to play fair.

o2william

05-18-2005, 11:21 AM

Day 22: Pick Axe Pete!

http://64.159.77.51/~helmet/o2william/pickaxepete.gif

The best Odyssey2 game of all? Lots of my friends and family thought so. If I had to select my favorite O2 game, Pick Axe Pete would probably be my choice. It�s kind of like Donkey Kong would be if it was less concerned with climbing to the top and more focused on smashing things with the hammer. I love it now, and I loved it then.

I have lots of memories of Pick Axe Pete that jumble together in my mind and form a pleasant potpourri. There was the time that my father, my older cousin Brian, and I stayed awake all night playing it. I remember that we each had our own spot on the screen where we�d camp out while waiting for keys to appear. I think we eventually decided that the upper left corner was the best (now I usually �camp� in the middle of the second-to-bottom girder).

Then there was the time I was playing the game and my dear, departed cat Henry jumped on top of the TV and stuck his face in front of the screen, batting at the moving game sprites. That memory always brings a smile to my face. And then, there was the time in second grade when I talked to a classmate, Sarah, on the phone for a good hour or so about video games, most notably Pick Axe Pete. I was a shy kid in school (still am really), so at that young age, it was really cool to have a friend like that. She even nicknamed me �Pick Axe Pete� for a while. :)

Most of all, Pick Axe Pete makes me remember simply having fun. It was a fantastic game back then, and what may be more impressive -- it�s still one now. Take away the nostalgia angle and many old games will lose some of their luster. Not Pick Axe Pete. I�d love it with or without the memories. They just make it even better.

Khelavaster

05-18-2005, 05:30 PM

How do the rest of you feel about the old text adventures and Rogue-like games? Do you ever still play them?

Oh my word, yes. In fact, my board identity is a reference to <u>one of the better ones</u> (http://www.adom.de). I play ADOM religiously, and NetHack sporadically. I played Angband and descendants for over a year until I realized they're the evil opposite of fun. Hadn't heard of DND until a few days ago when a reference to it popped up in a Google search for <u>a Windows remake of Avalon Hill's classic Telengard</u> (http://buildingworlds.com/telengard/). I'll give DND a try.

Nz17

05-19-2005, 02:59 AM

Day 17: Section Z and Gauntlet

That was a great story. It really brought back some childhood memories. Conquering the unconquerable seemed to be the mantra of games back in the day (pre-1995).

Nz17

05-19-2005, 03:53 AM

Day 21: DND (version 1.12)

You, my friend, need to play the current incarnation of Rogue: Nethack. It has evolved from Hack, and Hack evolved from Rogue. It is the oldest computer game still in development.

http://www.nethack.org/

o2william

05-19-2005, 11:13 AM

You, my friend, need to play the current incarnation of Rogue: Nethack.
Believe me, I've been tempted to on many occasions, but I have a feelilng it would sap the little free time I have remaining. :) Surely I'll get around to trying Nethack one of these days though.

o2william

05-19-2005, 11:17 AM

Day 23: Star Trek: Strategic Operations Simulator

http://www.digitpress.com/dpsightz/atari2600/startrek.gif

Ahh, Star Trek. I�m a Trekker (Trekkie if you must), and I�ve been one since the time before Voyager and Enterprise and when the only generation was the one that gave rise to Kirk, Spock and Dr. McCoy. Ryan, Bryan and I watched the same four episodes over and over again on RCA videodiscs (didn�t have cable TV back then), and we must have seen The Wrath of Khan at least a few hundred times. Seems like our time and interest was pretty evenly divided between Star Trek and the Atari 2600 back then, so when a game came along that melded our two favorite things, not even a fleet of Klingon warships could have kept us away.

But we faced a more sinister enemy: living in the boondocks of Scioto County, OH. Even up through the NES era, it was hard to find many merchants that carried video games where we lived, and we had no way of buying Star Trek. In fact, we wouldn�t have even known about the game had not one of my neighbors (also named Ryan) happened to get it. Seeing as how we had no other Star Trek supply, a plot was hatched: neighbor Ryan�s cart would be ours. We�d make a trade!

But what could we offer? Neighbor Ryan had a lot of games, including practically all of ours. I seem to recall him turning down at least one proposed trade -- we may have offered him E.T., in which case he make the right decision! However, my friend Ryan owned one cart that my neighbor Ryan wanted: Pac-Man. Yeah, today 2600 Pac-Man is the whipping boy of the classic era, but back then, it was Pac-Man! The phenomenon, the game everybody had to have -- and the only home version available, since K.C. Munchkin had been rendered illegal. Trek vs. Pac -- it was a tough decision.

Somehow, Ryan (the friend) decided to give up Pac-Man in favor of Star Trek, and we never regretted the decision. Sega�s Atari 2600 port of Star Trek is really good, with multiple screens, good graphics, and lots of action. We played it nonstop, and our infatuation with it never really waned like it usually did with other new games. Best of all, it wasn�t long before we got Ms. Pac-Man, which was about a billion times better than Pac-Man had been.

Good trades are great, especially when both parties get what they want. What were some of your best trades?

Nature Boy

05-19-2005, 04:02 PM

I'm gonna go back to DND quickly here, as I just finished playing it (finally) for the first quick go.

Fantastic.

I lasted about two minutes. Before I died that is. Hit a transporter which put me ... well somewhere. Fought an ogre (which I won). With 3 hit points left I thought I'd Pray. Apparantly my God didn't like me, as after 3 attempts (the text happens so fast I redid it to read it properly) he just zapped me. :)

Can't wait to play it again (like, say, now :) ).

o2william

05-20-2005, 12:11 PM

Day 24: ShadowGate

http://www.digitpress.com/dpsightz/nintendo/shadowgate.png

I think it's only natural when you're as obsessed with video games (as I am) and you know a thing or two about computer programming (as I do), that you might be tempted to try making your own game. For me, this happened sometime in the late 1980s. I knew just enough BASIC to code a simple game, so I gave it a whirl. I didn't know much about graphics programming, so I used extended ASCII characters to simulate graphics (not an uncommon technique back then). At the time, I was a huge fan of Sierra On-Line's adventure games. I knew that Sierra�s first game had been a simple adventure set in a haunted house -- I think it was called "Haunted Mansion." So, I decided to create a similar game called "Magic Mansion."

I didn't get far with Magic Mansion before I realized two things: 1) the ASCII graphics just weren't going to cut it, and B) I wasn't familiar enough with the adventure genre to come with an entire game of my own. While I began learning about some BASIC graphics routines, I also began looking for some inspiration. I found it in ShadowGate.

I first saw ShadowGate in the pages of Nintendo Power, and right away thought it looked like exactly the kind of game I could create -- a graphic adventure built around logic and puzzles rather than action. It didn�t require much animation, which was important to me since I couldn�t have programmed it. And it was set in a magical castle, which was the same kind of setting I wanted for my game. I rented ShadowGate, played through it, and came away with about a million ideas for my game, along with a fair number of things I wanted to avoid (like your character dying every five seconds).

My vision for Magic Mansion had grown beyond my ability to implement, so I sought help from the best programmer I knew -- my mother. She handled the programming, while I did most of the game design, writing and music. The title was soon changed to �SerpentHead,� which is a pretty obvious homage to �ShadowGate� (it�s also a very oblique Star Trek reference -- betcha can�t figure out why).

SerpentHead turned into a years-long project. The code base moved from BASIC to QuickBasic to C++ to Visual C++. It went through several iterations, surviving one disastrous hard-disk crash, but eventually hit the shareware market and earned a few positive reviews. Producing it was a big part of my teenage years. It had an even bigger impact on my mother, because it prompted her to start up her own software company, which is still in business. SerpentHead and its prequel are still for sale at Pharos Games (http://www.pharosgames.com).

By rights, SerpentHead should be the #1 game in this little list I�m making, but I thought I�d better stick with games people had actually heard of. :) Still, I couldn�t resist mentioning it somewhere. Without ShadowGate, SerpentHead probably wouldn�t exist, and my and my mother�s lives would probably be quite different. It�s amazing how just one NES game can have such an impact.

Chainsaw_Charlie

05-21-2005, 06:59 AM

Shadowgate oh how i love thee

I mean it's such a great game and luckily there are many nes games like it

o2william

05-21-2005, 11:32 AM

Day 25: Pinball Construction Set

http://64.159.77.51/~helmet/o2william/pcs.gif

Wow, we�re really in the home stretch of this list. Good thing too, since I�m sure everybody�s getting pretty tired of my ramblings by now. :)

Being able to make your own pinball table -- what could be better than that? Pinball Construction Set was the only one of the �Construction Set� games I had, but I got plenty of use out of it. I built table after table based on any subject I could think of: food, cars, games, whatever. I had an entire series of tables based on asteroids (inspired by the �Astro Blast� table which came with the game, pictured above). I can�t begin to guess how many hours I spent making tables, but it had to be about 10 times as many as I spent actually playing them. It was the creativity involved in table design that hooked me. Playing them was purely secondary.

The aspect of PCS that I liked best was the pixel-by-pixel graphics editor. At the time I didn�t own a paint program that allowed that kind of detailed editing, so the only outlet I had for my inner digital artist was the virtual pinball table. Of course, my love of video games eventually spilled onto the canvas. I spent a lot of time painstakingly recreating NES game graphics using Pinball Construction Set, a copy of The Official Nintendo Player�s Guide on hand to show me the exact pixel configuration I was copying. PCS had a very restrictive palette, so there was limit to which sprites I could tackle, but I did the best I could. It amazes me now that I had the patience for that at age 13, but that shows you how committed I was to the NES, I guess.

When I got Deluxe Paint, its superior editing capability allowed it to quickly surpass Pinball Construction Set as my favorite graphics program. I copied NES sprites in minute detail, sometimes recreating entire screens (take this one (http://64.159.77.51/~helmet/o2william/dpaintcv.gif) for example -- it�s a picture I drew using Deluxe Paint, not a screenshot). But it was Pinball Construction Set that got me started, eventaully allowing me to develop a little computer graphics skill. I�m no serious artist, but my skills have helped me personally and professionally at times. I owe a lot to Pinball Construction Set and those long hours slaving over hot pixels.

PCS wasn�t really designed to be a graphics editor, but that didn�t stop me. Did you ever have a game that you used as a creative outlet? I can�t be the only one.

Flack

05-22-2005, 11:33 AM

That was a genre that came and went, didn't it? Man I used to love all those construction-set games. Adventure Construction Set, Shoot-Em-Up Constructon Set ... plus there were a bunch of games that had level editors and stuff I used to play with all the time. Kickstart had one, Gyroscope had one, Lode Runner had one ... I'm pretty sure I remember an Arkanoid one too. Racing Destruction Set was one of the most fun games I owned, but the loading times killed it. In later years, I picked up the Bard's Tale Construction Set, but unfortunately it used a proprietary graphic editor that I never could find. Without putting yor own pictures in, it wasn't much fun.

Probably the worst one of the genre was Fireworks Construction Set. Yes, choosing from a set of about 20 different fireworks (and coordinating colors), you could set up your own Independence Day show. Somehow the transition from the outdoors to the computer monitor didn't quite make it.

maxmouse2008

05-22-2005, 12:13 PM

NEVERWINTER NIGHTS w00t!

o2william

05-22-2005, 01:35 PM

Day 26: King�s Quest IV: The Perils of Rosella

http://64.159.77.51/~helmet/o2william/rosella.jpg
Screenshot lifted from Adventure Collective (http://www.adventurecollective.com)

There was a time when I was captivated by Sierra graphic adventures, and King�s Quest IV was the best of them all as far as I was concerned. In many respects, it�s a �pinnacle� game -- meaning that it�s tops for its genre. It featured fantastic graphics and animation for its era. Also, it was an amazingly deep adventure, even if half the puzzles were hackneyed rips of fairy tales. And the music -- well, I played it using a Tandy 1000, which had only an internal speaker (capable of dual-channel audio), but I still thought it was great. I recorded the soundtrack on cassette tape and listened to it over and over. Pretty good for tinny PC speaker audio!

What I remember most about KQIV, however, was the darn Sierra Hint Line. You know, the phone number you could dial to get answers to the game�s confusing (and not always logical) puzzles. Of course, there was a fee for this service. The answers were my crack-cocaine, and the Hint Line was my pusher. I don�t know if I was just stupid or if Sierra intentionally made the solutions obscure or what, but I�m sure the company made more money from my Hint Line calls than from my actual purchase of the game. Of course, my parents were playing the game too; since Hint Line calls were made only after all three of us were stumped, I guess those puzzles really were tough!

Nevertheless, I have fond memories of KQIV -- and the other King�s Quest games, along with Space Quest, Police Quest and Hero�s Quest (aka Quest for Glory). They were excellent games, and writing about them has got me jonesing to play a graphic adventure again. Sadly, they don�t make �em like they used to.

Sierra. Of course they�re still around these days, but they�ll always be the �Quest� people to me. What are your thoughts on the old adventure games?

Flack

05-22-2005, 06:32 PM

King's Quest (the original) was one of the first games I ever played on our PC Jr. The graphics and sounds were so much better on the Jr than our XT at the time.

Sierra was the first king of the point-and-click adventures, mostly due to the game series you pointed out. Later the crown would be challenged by LucasArts (Maniac Mansion, Monkey Island, Indiana Jones, The Dig, Zak McKracken, Day of the Tentacle, etc).

Some of my favorites in the genre include: The Black Cauldron, Conquests of Camelot, Conquests of the Longbow, Darkseed, Day of the Tentacle, Flight of the Amazon Queen, Freddy Pharkas, Heart of China, Laura Bow 1/2, Legend of Kyrandia 1/2/3/4, and of course Willy Beamish.

All of the above games, along with most of the King's Quest, Space Quest, Hero's Quest, Police Quest and Leisure Suit Larry games can be found here:

http://www.abandonia.com/genre.php?genre=adventure&page=0

syd

05-23-2005, 07:18 AM

Hey finally another game I know! :)

I remember playing Kings Quest IV on my old Tandy 1000 SL back in the day. I played the first Kings quest before that but didn't get all that far cause that was a hard game! Well mostly it was just pretty cheap. I remember having to push the witch into the oven at the exact milisecond or she'd get ya! LOL

I was a HUGE Sierra fan back in the day though. I've finished all of the Quest for Glory's too many times, as well as the first couple of Police Quest's and the Space Quests. Actually I think King's Quest was the one that I played the least. Seems like in all of those games if you miss something at the start then you were screwed the rest of the game. Then again thats the same as Space Quest 2 cause if you forgot the Rubix cube at the start then the tazmanian devil thing would get ya!

I could talk about these games all day so I'd better stop now... LOL

The-Bavis

05-23-2005, 10:00 AM

squidblatt

05-23-2005, 10:13 AM

KQIV is noteworthy too, because it was the last in the series that wasn't point and click but more type-and-guess. I always thought the newer type was too easy. I gave up on Sierra games not too long after the change.

So did I. Sierra and Infocom were the companies that turned me into a gamer. I remember the guy at the store (anyone remember Egghead Software?) thought he was doing me a favor by not selling it to me because it would require too much disk swapping on the computer I had. I went back and got it anyway since swapping didn't really bother me. That was one of those games that really tested the hardware.

Flack, thanks for the link.

SKVermin

05-23-2005, 10:26 AM

It was the old Sierra adventure games that made me want to get into the business of making games myself. Playing King's Quest on a PCjr, I told my father I was going to go to California and work for Sierra when I grew up. I didn't get out to California, or work for Sierra, but I did get into the games biz.

I think I probably played all the games they put out. Not just the Police Quest (which I think were my favourite), Space Quest, and King's Quest series, but also some of the lesser known titles. Like Heart of China and Codename: Iceman. I still have them all in a big box in my basement. Those kind of games you just never want to let go. It's a shame what's become of the Leisure Suit Larry series. Without Al Lowe, it's just not the same.

One easter egg in the original King's Quest that I really got a kick out of was "draw mode" or something like that. Pressing the right key sequence (I could never quite remember what it was, so I ended up pounding on the keyboard until I got it -- I think Alt and Ins were involved somehow) would slow down the screen draw, so you could watch the individual elements of the background get drawn in and then paint-filled. It ended up taking about 3-4 minutes for each screen to load, but man, it looked cool. :)

o2william

05-23-2005, 11:30 AM

Day 27: Alien Invaders � Plus!

http://64.159.77.51/~helmet/o2william/alieninvaders.gif

The Odyssey2 was known for its questionable "ports" of popular arcade games. Magnavox didn't have the rights to the real games, so they created their own, subtly different versions. Some of these, like UFO and K.C. Munchkin, are really good. Others, like this one, aren't. Alien Invaders � Plus is a rather anemic version of Space Invaders, where the aliens don't so much "invade" as "bounce rhythmically from side to side." But ironically, this sad little game played a positive role during a very sad moment of my life.

I have a hard time placing this memory in time, but I was probably about age 7. It happened during a time of the year when I was out of school, likely during the holidays. Anyway, what I do remember is that I had just temporarily acquired Alien Invaders � Plus from some now-forgotten acquaintance. Despite all I said above about how it's not a very good game, back then I didn't care -- it was a "new to me" game and I loved it! I played it until it was fairly late at night (my mother worked the night shift so my entire family tended to be night owls when school/work permitted).

I don't remember how we became aware of this now, but eventually we realized that my dog, a German shepherd/hound mix named King, had landed himself in some major trouble. He'd gotten loose and run off on his favorite activity: chasing cars. Unfortunately, one of the cars must have caught him, because he was in terrible shape. Again, I don't remember his exact condition but it was grave. He was in a lot of pain, and even though I was too young to fully understand such things, I could tell from my parents' reactions that he wasn't going to get better. My parents decided that the humane thing would be to put him down. I think they asked me for my permission (he was my dog, after all), and even though I loved King, I knew it was the right thing to do. Since it was the middle of the night and we lived in the boondocks far away from any animal-care facilities, my father tended to the duty himself, and put an end to King's suffering as quickly as possible. He buried King in our backyard while I played more Alien Invaders - Plus.

Now, you might wonder how I could play a stupid video game while something like that was happening. My mother asked me the same thing. My answer then was the same as my answer now: it kept my mind off of it. Losing your beloved pet is a tough thing to deal with at any age; at seven years old it's nothing short of traumatic. Of course I didn't want to think about it! Alien Invaders - Plus was my grief counselor that night; it helped me survive the initial shock of losing King and made the loss easier to accept overall. Of course I was deeply saddened by King's loss, but I managed to avoid what you might call a "real" trauma by distracting myself with the game. It enabled me to deal with King's death in my own time, as I was ready for it. Alien Invaders - Plus may not be a great or even a good game, but that night it was exactly what I needed.

I hope that story didn't bum you out too badly. I promise it's the only sad tale in this list. ;)

maxmouse2008

05-23-2005, 12:27 PM

Hey happy B-day in 3 days w00t! lol :D

kainemaxwell

05-23-2005, 02:10 PM

Only KQ game i played really was V on the NES and kind aliked it, though trying to control it with the gamepad was a pain.

Fuyukaze

05-24-2005, 02:20 AM

After spending the last 30 minutes reading this entire thread, I must say, it brings back memories. I, another DP member facing the big 30 this year cant help but feel a conection to many of the clasics you have named. When I was bored, they were there. When I was doing laundry, they were there as well. On road trips, there too. Being reminded of times past playing all these clasics remind me of all the fun, all the sadness, and all the broken controlers. Its a bit late, but there are games I have retired from either my colection, or just plain playing in general. The 2 that come to mind would be Pitfall and Meglomenia on the Atari 2600. The reasons for such are simple. In Pitfall, I had done what I believed to be finishing the game. I had gone the distance, colected as much treasure as I could find, and had simply run out of time. I never knew if there was an ending, yet somehow it felt complete as I looked at the screen and saw that I had finished the game without dieing. Meglomenia was a great shooter I still enjoy playing, but never can bring myself to play for longer then 10 minutes. Back when I had a 2600, I had this cart. I would play it for hours on end and even when I would get so mad as to throw my joystick, I would always come back to it and try again. Hours, days, weeks, and even months were consumed by it. Finaly, at the end of one summer (I think I was 9) I noticed the score. I had reached a score that I had never reached before. While playing, I yelled and yelled for my family to come and look. While they watched, my score continued to rise and rise. Untill it stoped. The score did not simply stop increasing, the entire game stoped. I sat in awe as I looked on the screan and realized I had finaly beaten the game. I looked on and asked if I could take a picture of the TV and was given the poloroid to do so with. I dont have the picture anymore, but I will never forget sitting there with all my family looking at a TV were nothing moved, no sound was brought forth, watching a game with a score we had never seen. To this day, I always wonder why I never can finish most of the games I own. I buy, and buy, and buy more but even when I love the game I am playing, I never truely finish them. Be it a RPG, shooter, racing, or such. In hindsight, I cant help but wonder if those 2 games alone showed me something. That something being that once a game is beaten, once it is truely finished, the game then becomes little more then an empty shell. This is honestly the first post in some time I have truely enjoyed. I know you not, but thank you O2.

o2william

05-24-2005, 03:00 AM

I know you not, but thank you O2.
You're welcome. Awesome Megamania story, BTW. Kind of like my experience with Yars' Revenge -- conquering a game is cool, but it's sort of a letdown too, since the drive to beat it is gone. Luckily there are always more games out there. :)

o2william

05-24-2005, 11:19 AM

Day 28: Kaos

http://64.159.77.51/~helmet/o2william/kaos.gif

Kaos. To me, this game is the poster child of the �lost� games of the classic era. Those of you who have been following this thread may be interested to know that Kaos is the arcade game that was muscled out of my favorite eatery by Pac-Man. That eatery, an out-of-the-way diner called Patsy�s, was the first of only two locations where I�ve ever seen a Kaos machine (if you don�t count the one I saw on eBay recently). It�s an obscure platformer laid out Donkey Kong-style, where you�re a man who runs around chasing coins. If a coin gets away from you, it falls off the bottom of the screen and becomes a dragon. Dragons, in turn, chase you, and you can only defeat them by tagging a triangle at the top of the screen called an �erg,� Ergs are pyramids with eyeballs, like the one on the back of a $1 bill. Touch one and you turn into a king, armed with a sword to slay the dragons. Logical? No, but definitely fun.

Initially, Kaos confused me. The cabinet contained nothing but the most rudimentary instructions, and it wasn�t immediately clear what you were supposed to do. Grabbing the coins was obvious, but what was the overall goal? At first, I thought you were supposed to reach the top of the screen like in Donkey Kong. I wasn�t sure what the ergs did either. Eventually, though, I figured it out through trial and error. It seems simple enough now, but I was young then, and didn�t have a lot of coin-op experience. Strangely, I think it was my initial confusion that so attracted me to the game, and I grew to love it.

I mean really love it. Going to that diner became the highlight of my week. I insisted that my mother tell me bedtime stories set in the Kaos universe. I doodled kings and coins on my school notebooks. I longed for a home port, but I think even then I suspected it wouldn�t come. Nobody else seemed to know the game; it was like I was the only one who cared about it. I guess that made it all the more special.

After Pac-Man replaced Kaos at the diner, I wasn�t able to play it again (except for one lucky trip to Aladdin�s Castle in Cincinnati -- the only other place I saw it on location). Soon it was nothing but a memory, and eventually time began to blur even that. I always remembered coins and dragons, and ergs of course, but I forgot the details of the cabinet and the gameplay. For the longest time, I thought the game was made by Taito, because I thought I remembered seeing a Taito logo on the cabinet. With nothing but memories that were over ten years old, I�d almost completely lost Kaos -- and I wanted it back.

By the mid-1990s, I�d begun to feel this way about all the games of my youth -- the Atari games, the Odyssey2 games, the PC, handheld and arcade games. It seemed like they were gone forever� until I luckily stumbled on �The 2600 Connection� newsletter and our own Rolenta�s �Phoenix: The Fall and Rise of Home Video Games.� Those publications showed me that others were still interested in the old games, and steered me toward sources for reacquiring them. When I discovered the Internet, I found web sites like this one and communities of gamers who felt like I did. MAME even resurrected Kaos for me, a game I thought was dead forever.

Whenever I�m bummed because finds have dried up or there are no new games I�m interested in, I remember those dark days when the classics were inaccessible, and I cheer right up. I�ve got them back, and this time, they�re not going anywhere!

Cirrus

05-25-2005, 12:05 AM

This one looks interesting. I liked hearing about your obsession with it. So, was there ever a home console port of it?

I hope that you can put all of your 30 games into one article and make it a column after it's all done.

Dr. Morbis

05-25-2005, 12:09 AM

once a game is beaten, once it is truely finished, the game then becomes little more then an empty shell.
Nice post and I wholeheartedly agree with what you said (quoted above). Most modern games are toilet-paper games: you finish them, toss them aside, and move on to the next game. The 'endless' quality you speak of is what attracts me so much to the Atari 2600.

o2william

05-25-2005, 12:34 AM

So, was there ever a home console port of it?
As far as I've been able to tell, no. I believe there was a game called "Kaos" for some European computer (Amstrad CPC maybe?), but it was a different game. I still hope to get an actual Kaos coin-op when I have money and room. For now, I have the arcade manual, marquee, control panel, and a flyer from a coin-op magazine. eBay is a dangerous thing.

I hope that you can put all of your 30 games into one article and make it a column after it's all done.
Me too. :)

o2william

05-25-2005, 11:21 AM

Day 29: Super Mario Bros.

http://www.digitpress.com/dpsightz/nintendo/supermariobros.png

If you�re not much older than 25, then you may be too young to have really experienced the huge leap that Super Mario Bros. represented. Sure, people still think highly of Mario and many look fondly on his first NES adventure, but back then, the game was nothing short of a miracle. I�m a retrogamer and you�ll never hear me badmouth the classics of the pre-NES era, but Super Mario Bros. was in an entirely different league. It was a detailed, scrolling, sprawling world, filled with treasures, monsters, and secrets. As kids reared on the Atari 2600, Intellivision and Odyssey2, we�d never seen anything like it. We had a hard time believing such a game could even exist, especially outside of an arcade. If you weren�t there, then you can�t know. It was earth-shaking. It was stupendous. It was fun!

I remember it very well, although I�m not quite clear on the date. It had to be either 1986 or, more likely, �87. Several friends and I were staying overnight at my friend Sean�s house. Sean�s dad was a doctor and Sean was an only child, so he always got the cool toys first. Today�s toy was a new game console that the rest of us had never seen. Sean showed it off by playing Super Mario Bros. I don�t remember our exact reaction, but I do seem to recall a lot of broad smiles and shaking heads, because we could hardly believe what we seeing. With each new level, power-up and hidden secret Sean showed us, we fell more and more under the game�s spell. Within 10 minutes, Warren and I (the two most avid gamers in the bunch) were sold on this wondrous �Nintendo Entertainment System� machine.

We did nothing but play Super Mario Bros. that evening. Sean�s dad set a strict bedtime, but Warren and I ignored it and kept playing the game. Eventually we had to go to bed when Sean�s dad threatened to call our parents. Boy, were we pissed! He may as well have snatched the hypodermics away from a couple of heroin addicts. Sleep didn�t come easily that night with the NES ten feet away, beckoning us.

Needless to say, we soon bought our own consoles. We lived in the Mushroom Kingdom for a while, but soon moved on to the military environs of Rush�n Attack and Contra, the haunted locales of Ghosts�n Goblins and Castlevania, the fantasy realms of Zelda and Kid Icarus, and so much more. There are NES games I ended up liking better than Super Mario Bros, but none that impacted me more profoundly. It was the first. It changed an industry, and it changed my gaming life forever.

Who here remember Super Mario Bros. when it was new? Were you as blown away as we were?

The-Bavis

05-25-2005, 11:49 AM

I remember it well. I just remember watching in awe at friends' houses and after a cub scout meeting one time. My first attempts at playing were horriffic. It was very hard to use a controller with twice as many buttons as I was used to. In fact, it wasn't until I owned my own console for a while that I started using a thumb for the buttons instead of two fingers, as would be done in the arcade.

Watching this game was pure amazement. The character looked like a person and not just a silhouette. The coins were coins and the bricks were bricks. It was a freakin' arcade in your living room! After I saw Zelda in action, I started saving my $2-$3 a week allowance so I could buy my own NES.

Nature Boy

05-25-2005, 03:32 PM

I don't remember how we got the system and SMB, but I definitely remember the same sense of shock and awe that you felt. My sister and I spent a similar entire evening playing until we dropped.

What I remember most is just thinking that *this* is what I was hoping games would look like. Not that I didn't love Adventure and Yars' revenge, but *this* was like playing a cartoon! Just totally amazing...

Flack

05-25-2005, 08:43 PM

By the time the NES hit the states, I had put away my Atari 2600 and moved to computer gaming. I want to say we had an IBM XT at the time and our Apple II clone (the Franklin Ace). Our Apple had a monochrome monitor (first one was green/black, second one was amber/black) and the IBM I think put out four colors (as long as two of them were black and white). Both systems had an internal speaker capable of beeps and ... well, beeps.

The first time I saw an NES in action was at my next door neighbor's house. Like someone else said, I felt like I was watching (and playing) a cartoon. More importantly, I felt like I was playing an ARCADE GAME at home! Excitebike and Super Mario Bros blew away the Apple II games I was playing at time.

kainemaxwell

05-26-2005, 12:08 AM

I first played SMB years ago with my cousin at a friend's house. Took awhile to get used to a gamepad then a joystick and I sucked at first. Over time would play NES games with friends at their houses since I didn't get one till the Christmas of 1989...

o2william

05-26-2005, 10:59 AM

Day 30: Starflight

http://www.digitpress.com/dpsightz/misc/starflight_2.gif

We�ve arrived at Day 30! A month of memories has led up to this game, so you know it�s got to be a good one. And so it is. Starflight is my ultimate, my all-time #1, the game that no other will ever eclipse.

Have you ever read a book, seen a movie, or heard a piece of music that really clicked with you? You know, the kind of experience where you just sit there in awe thinking, �I can�t believe how good this is!� Well, that�s how Starflight affected me. I received it in 1986 as a Christmas present from my uncle Jim. Jim knew a thing or two about video games -- he showed me my first home Pong machine -- but I doubt he knew at the time that he was giving me the best Xmas gift I ever received. He knew I liked science fiction, and I vaguely recall him saying something about how he�d heard good things about the game, so he thought I�d enjoy it. He couldn�t have been more right.

A combination of the slowness of my PC and my relative inexperience with complex games made my initial time with Starflight a lengthy one. My parents and I played the game together for at least three months, maybe more. The gameplay in Starflight is extremely nonlinear; you are expected to piece together clues from disparate sources in order to figure out where to go. Gradually, the well-crafted sci-fi storyline takes shape as you communicate with alien races and uncover clues on distant worlds. Along the way, you engage in some more �traditional� gaming elements like earning money to upgrade your ship and engaging in deep-space battles. Playing the game was like being the main character in a great science-fiction novel, and I loved every moment of those long months.

I remember the incredible immersion. I remember laughing at the goofy speech of the Veloxi, raging at the religiously fanatical Gazurtoid, running away in terror from the awesomely dangerous Uhlek. I remember shuddering at the fate of the Noah 9 colony vessel as I read its captain�s final log entries. I remember the eerie feeling I got while exploring the desolate ruins of Old Earth in the far-flung future. I remember the inevitable feeling of things rushing toward completeness as we closed in on the answers to the game�s ultimate mysteries. No other game had made me feel things before, not like this. And really, no game has since then -- not to Starflight�s extent, anyway.

Starflight will always be the high-water mark in my gaming experience. I�m sure there are other games that are as well-crafted, maybe even more so, but Starflight came first in my life and will always occupy a special place for me. The game�s stuck with me through the years. After 30 years, I�ve owned and played thousands of games, and Starflight continues to stand out among them. For me, it was just something special.

o2william

05-26-2005, 11:02 AM

Well, that�s that. As sort of a postscript to all this, I just wanted to say that I really got a lot out of putting this thread together, although I�m kind of glad it�s finally over (it turned out to be quite a lot of work writing all these stories!). I was kind of bummed about turning 30, but reliving all these memories left me feeling pretty good. Plus it was fun to see the replies to my posts and read other�s stories. Thanks to everyone who replied!

In closing, here�s one final story. A few days ago, I received an early birthday present from Tynstar. It turned out to be an Odyssey2 Power Lords manual, which was the last piece I needed to complete my U.S. O2 collection! I thanked Tynstar of course, and he revealed that the present was from not only him, but Phosphor Dot Fossils as well. So I thanked PDF and asked him how he got the manual. He told me that he�d been given the manual by Chocobokick, who found it at a yard sale that had been pointed out to her by Sothy. PDF already had a complete Power Lords, so he gave the manual to Tynstar, who subsequently landed a complete copy of his own. So Tynstar (following PDF�s suggestion) gave it to me, since I still needed it. As PDF put it, it was �six degrees of DP separation,� and it just goes to show what makes this community special. :)

NeoZeedeater

05-26-2005, 11:23 AM

I just want to say happy birthday and I really enjoyed that 30 game trip. :) It was always interesting to see which game would show up next, especially since most of them were games that rarely get mentioned. I turn 30 this year too and while I have played most of the games you mentioned, the 30 that affected me would be almost entirely different. It's neat to see the variation in past gaming experiences.

Julio III

05-26-2005, 11:48 AM

Happy Birthday. This thread was a great read even though I hadn't heard of most of these games. It was great just hearing stories of what these games meant to you and you're experiences with them. Now that the thread is over there is going to be a little gap in my daily reading. Happy birthday again and thanks for an excellent 30day read!

Lady Jaye

05-26-2005, 12:51 PM

Happy b-day, William!!!!! So, how does it feel to be in your thirties? What can I expect from 4 months from now?

Rogmeister

05-26-2005, 12:57 PM

Happy birthday and thanks for a great thread. I wasn't that familiar with several of the games myself but that's one thing I actually enjoyed about it. Sometimes it gets boring reading about the same handful of games over and over...

The-Bavis

05-26-2005, 02:12 PM

Happy Birthday and thanks for the good reads. I probably played half or less of the games mentioned, but I found all the stories to be interesting. Enjoyed all of the follow-on discussion as well.

To make you feel better (or worse), remember that your 30th birthday means you just finished your 30th year, so your done with that year already. Have a great 31st year.

squidblatt

05-26-2005, 08:45 PM

@_@ @_@

Starflight is my most favorite game ever in the world! I'm so happy someone else remembers it. I even had a special chair that was like a captain's seat that I used whenever I played it. No game can ever come close to supplanting the place Starflight holds in my heart.

Well, maybe X-com.

But no! Not even that! Starflight is just too sacred to me.

Oh yeah. Welcome to the thirties. It's not so bad, but you do have to start watching that diet.

o2william

05-26-2005, 09:07 PM

Happy b-day, William!!!!! So, how does it feel to be in your thirties? What can I expect from 4 months from now?
Well, your memory starts to go, you get the odd pain in the joints, your memory starts to go, you notice the occasional gray hair, your memory starts... hmm, what was I saying again?

LOL Well, not really... I actually feel no different other than the odd feeling of "being in my thirties." That's just weird.

@squidblatt: Glad to hear you're a fellow Starflight fan. Try looking online sometime for a Starflight FAQ. Odds are that I wrote it. A few years ago I went through the game and noted every single scrap of info in it in a giant 70-page document that's been floating around the 'Net for years. I love the game so much, I just wanted to be sure I'd seen everything it had to offer. But even after all that, I couldn't find an artifact I remembered called "Adrynna's Gold." I can't believe how much they crammed into that game!

I really hope the Starflight III project gets finished one of these days...