Favorites – Computer Games
WARNING: DEMONSTRATION OF EXTREME NERD-LIKE QUALITIES AHEAD
The topics of the blog have been a little heady lately so I’ve decided to write about a lighter subject. Favorites, or at least MY favorite things.
It’s no secret that I’m a huge computer geek, have been ever since the huge 3.5 floppy disks of the 80’s. Back then I was playing the following games:
Early Childhood
Amy’s First Premier
A not so well known learning game, this “game” taught critical thinking and reading skills. It was for ages maybe 5 to 8, but I was pretending to know how to play at 3.
Moraff’s Revenge I never quite understood this game. My sister usually played it and I usually watched. It was something like dungeons and dragons, except you had it like F8 or something repeatedly to kill monsters.
Winnie the Pooh and the Hundred Acre Wood
Was a childhood favorite this one. I watched the show on the non-commercial version of the Disney channel where the characters walked around in life-size outfits (as well as Dumbo’s Circus and Under the Umbrella Tree) but this computer game. I don’t right remember the point of it so I looked it up (and downloaded a copy for entertainment purposes).
Wheel of Fortune/Jeopardy
Early, early games. The graphics are horrid, but back in the day, they were high tech.
Elementary/Middle School
Now we get to the good stuff, most of which I still have a copy of now.
Commander Keen
Commander Keen was the first game I’ve ever seen played on the family’s second computer. I remember it well, I came home from my Girl Scout Christmas party and my sister was playing on a computer that didn’t look familiar. She was playing this game about an unusually smart eight year old that had intercepted a message on his homemade radio that a galaxy somewhere was in danger. He dawned his big brother’s football helmet and took off on his Bean McRocket to save the galaxy. There were many episodes, Invasion of the Vorticans, Goodbye Galaxy, The Armageddon Machine, and Aliens ate my baby sitter. All classic. All still on my computer to this day.
Wolfenstien 3D
Also made by Apogee like it’s Commander Keen peer, Wolfenstien was about this American that went to Germany for some reason to kill Hitler. This game allowed us girls to learn German curse words and exclamations. If you put in the cheat codes for commander Keen, there’s a humorous little message that pops up.
Lemmings
Hilariously, I saw Lemmings in the store the other day. It was just released on PSP. I played the same game over ten years ago. Blows my mind.
Prince of Persia
It’s so awesome that they didn’t let this legacy die. I played through Prince of Persia 1, 2, 3d, sands of time, warrior within, the two towers. All of them in the last 20 years or so. And they’re even better today.
Adventure Games
Myst
Myst. Myst came on later. I couldn’t get into the first one, but did eventually solve it. Its sequels where better. Riven, Exile, and even just a few minutes ago I solved Revelation for the third time. Impossible puzzles, but beautiful games.
Monkey Island
My all time favorite RPG/Adventure game. The sarcasm the humor, everything about them, so me. I’ve all of the games except the second one which I haven’t been able to get my hands on even after ten or so years. LucasArts was SO GREAT back then. Now all they make are lame star wars games.
Loom
Another LucasArts game. This one was about a weaver. You explore the world with a staff that produces music. You could manipulate things by “casting spells’ on them. It was cool because you had to write down note combinations and know how to read music to some degree.
Kings Quest
I’ve only played 5-7. After hearing the 8th was more like Prince of Persia, I swore them off. Roberta Williams was a genius.
Zork
Zork, Zork, Zork
Another fantastic adventure/rpg. I believe my sister got it for Christmas, but I played it the most. It was cool for several reasons, first because the game really included you in the game play experience. In the game, you’re a person who wins a sweepstakes to visit the faraway Valley of the Sparrows. When you get there, you find out that evil happenings have occurred, making half of cities disappear and making once leisurely places death traps. The thing that was cool about it was in the box the game came with, you recieve the same letter, you as the player recieves in the game. It also came with an encyclopedia that gave tips and a history of the land. It was also one of the first games to have live action characters.
Years later I found out that Zork was actually one of the first text adventure games ever created back in the late 70 early 80’s. It was made by some students at MIT. Return to Zork was actually the first Graphic Adventure in the series.
RTZ was followed by a couple of sequels, Zork Nemesis, and Zork Grand Inquisitor. Both were great and both had fantastic humor and innuendo.
Sports Games
NBA Live 95
Fun times with this game. I was virtually unbeatable.
NBA Jam TE Lame game, but I played it anyway…
Microsoft Golf This was something by dad brought home one day. I took over. He still beat me all the time though.
Hot Shots Golf Okay technically this is a playstation game I know, but still. My ex boyfriend put me on this one. Fun game.
Recent Years Sims
Sims was a present from my sister for Christmas three years ago. She’d gotten me the deluxe edition which included an expansion pack or two. From there I went wild and the rest is history…I have pretty much every expansion pack and Sims 2 with a few of those as well.
Tomb Raider Got into this in high school. I found demos in random places and played them to the end. Eventually I ended up buying Chronicles, Last Revelation, and Angel of Darkness. I’m waiting till I get my 360 for Legends.
Roller Coaster Tycoon Used to spend hours playing this. I was always annoyed when I built roller coasters I’d ride and the test run would say it’s “ultra extreme.”
I think I’m good for being a nerd now. I’ve been up all night downloading throwback games from this site. A lot of the games I mentioned can be found there. Check em out! Other games of note:
Tunnels of Armageddon
Family Feud
D/Generation
Colossal Caves
