Gaming Pedigree (3) Part One of Two

So I've been thinkin' about the third part of my self-introduction, especially since I seem to have found the right cocktail of drugstore cold medicine to keep my head cold symptoms at bay. Still, can't seem to get my router to work which would probably make me more upset except my cold medicine is keeping me in a fuzzy mellow place so that's a good thing. Again, I do not claim that all my game release memories are 100% accurate, but this is how I remember everything going down. For any of you sequential folks, you can find my first couple introduction posts:

• First post click it here
• Second post is right here

Anyhow, where did I leave off? Oh yeah, computer games and a certain video game company. Let's talk about computer games first. I'm going to backtrack a few years to bring me up to speed, some games that were probably older I wasn't introduced to till later so...there :). I would love to be able to relate that I was one of those clever people who were hot in the computer scene before comps were cool for all but I really think I got into them toward the end of that phase and a little before the beginning of everyone and their grandmother heading to Radio Shack, getting a computer and modem to see what the Internet was all about. Timing is everything regarding these sort of things.

My initial computer exposure (beyond Commodore and school programs) happened largely through friends who's parents either purchased them for work or status. Computers offered a different herd of games. Remember that time when having a black screen and green text was the height of hotness? Text and interactive fiction games were all the rage? No? How about the movie Wargames that came out when the Cold War was still arctic? Now, what was the message of that movie....besides war being a game no one wins...no...not the one about talented hackers getting away with nearly killing the planet...no....not about intelligent AI and lazy humans being a bad mix... Ah Yes! That other message... computers games are cool!

A friend of mine (same one who had the Commodore I might add) turned me on to Zork (and later all the sequels), Oubliette and Mystery Mansion. I found l liked the challenge of the text games and the humor at times, but hated the lack of visuals for mapping. I know half the fun for some people is making maps on graph paper but I never was into that part (though I did it). Give me the puzzles and syntax stuff to workout and I could be happy. A possible exception to this might have been Colossal Cave but I never got to finish it as my friend's computer died just as I started it and his parents were P.O.. I realize because of this exposure in my life, I have a love of text and interactive fiction games (interactive books come on gotta love that! I believe Hotel Dusk can directly nod to these games, btw.). Zork was cool, but it was Hitchhiker's Guide To The Galaxy that really won me over for text games. (At least until some years later when I got my own computer and started checking out what MUDS were about...) But there are other games I'll skip for sake of *some* brevity that were fun and kept showing the growth of the medium.

A few more years down the line more colors and graphics added and everything evolves a few notches, if not improves. New computers and improved processing technological leaps that amazed my grandmother given her childhood without electricity. Another friend, who's parents were...indulgent let's say had a family computer that was top of the line for it's time. She turned me on to graphic computer games on par or sexier than my video game system or arcade. But to get a computer to play them was expensive, let alone buying the games themselves. Still, I recall falling in love with a LucasArts game called Loom where music and tones were a vital part of play. This same friend also turned me on to The Secret of Monkey Island I was knocked out about the way the text and graphics the midi music it all came together to create this experience. It was amazing. You remember when Sierra was into making games with an adventure bent to them, deeper story, logical puzzles with relevance to game and intent? That's not to speak ill of anything they make now - it was a different company, different people, different generation and time. And again...things were new games were innovative. Many of the genres that are established now as well as the technology hadn't existed before. I think most of you reading this get the idea but in case you don't...

Can you remember the first time you saw the ocean, perhaps? Stood in the sand with your toes sinking slightly. Maybe some seagulls squawking around you and you watched those odd little holes that appear when the tide rushes back and forth on the surf (That you later found out are made by clams or sand crabs). Can you recall that scent of salt, maybe seaweed perhaps accented by the sweetness of Hawaiian Tropic suntan lotion or the slight creamy scent of some sort of sun block? What about the first time you watched a sunrise or sunset over the ocean. Did you notice the way the colors roll and mute, or shimmer like music notes in a song, how vibrant as they reflect against the clouds? Did you catch that special color of blue that only seems to display in the twilight hours? Or maybe you don't live near the ocean, but you remember the first time you hit a ball with a bat and ran the bases all the way home. These things have and continue (fate willing) to exist before you experienced them, but when you discovered it for yourself and felt (hopefully) that exhilaration....it's something special. The sun sets and rises all the time, but no two are the same. People hit baseballs, softballs, beer cans and rocks with sticks or bats but when you did it yourself even if you do it again and again there's something different about each experience, personal and unique.

Well this is a bit how I feel about games, their evolution and how we enjoy them. It's why we can play the same game and get something totally different out of the experience. And in all that, that first time for each experience is even more special because it's something new for you, it expands your view about it. I guess it's all about perspectives, right?

So ends this digression :). Back to the reminiscing. Well..almost.

There's more, but it seeemed good idea that I break this one up a bit... So part 2 is the following post. Take a break then read on!