Hi! Thanks for stopping by my very first blog post. I started this blog with a focus on my thoughts on the video gaming scene, and my personal experience growing up around games.
I started playing games since the age of 6, and this year is, interestingly enough, the 30th anniversary of that fateful event. 30... freaking... years! So it's fitting that I start this blog to reminisce about the 'good old days', not that I am saying today's games are bad or anything. Heh!
I was first introduced to a PC by my uncle who owned an Apple IIe at his place. If I recall correctly, the only game on that machine then was Loderunner. It was a Pacman-style game in which your controlling character grabs treasure while avoiding the treasure guardians.
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| The Apple IIe system |
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| Loadrunner |
I was immediately hooked on the game, even though I played terribly and didn't progress beyond level 2. After returning home, I kept talking about how I wanted my own game system that on Christmas Day 1981, my parents got me my very first console: the Atari 2600. Unfortunately, Loadrunner wasn't a game that came bundled with it, and I don't think I ever got it for my console during it's lifespan. I did play E.T. and Superman, which in retrospect, were awful, awful games.
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| Atari 2600 with iconic Joystick |
Eventually the software for the Atari dried up due to the hardware's drop in popularity, and I next got a home desktop PC: the IBM XT, which had only 128KB of RAM (yes, that's Kilobytes!), no hard drive, no mouse, and the operating system was something called Microsoft DOS. Booting up the system involved using a floppy disk containing the DOS files, and then replacing the disk with another that contains the application programs or games I wanted to run. Despite the inconvenience most people will think of, I credit that machine for bringing me into the world of PC gaming. Adventure, and RPG (Role Playing Game) games in particular were experiencing a Golden Age at that time. These games emphasized on the element of storytelling as opposed to the common 'button mashing kill everything in sight' play style found in arcade shooters or fighting games. Some very memorable titles include the King's Quest, Space Quest, and Police Quest series by defunct Sierra Entertainment.
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| King's Quest 1 |
I did not go back to console gaming until I was studying in Australia, where I met a group of like minded gamers. One of the guys owned a Sega MegaDrive (Genesis in USA). About a year later, Sony launched the Playstation console, and I was one of the early adopters. Games around this time were moving into 3D graphics rendering. Note, this is not the same as 3D vision, which makes images appear to be coming out of the screen. Older games with 2D restricted their in-game characters and objects to movements of left, right, up and down. With 3D rendering, this meant objects could now move along a Z-depth axis (I paid attention to my maths/physics classes!).
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| Sega Mega Drive / Genesis |
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| Sony Playstation 1 |
Between '97 and now, I would switch between gaming on the desktop PC and consoles, as some games which are exclusive to consoles wouldn't be available for PC. I do not consider myself a hardcore fan of any brand or platform, as I have seen great games across all hardware.
Will I continue to game even as I approach 40 in a few years time? Definitely! Will I continue to blog beyond today? Let's see what tomorrow brings.
Ah, the IBM XT had its days. I think a majority of the games I still remember of all time was played on that.
ReplyDeleteI also remember Gunship, Tapper, Moonbugs, Ultima 4 and 5, The Ancient Art of War, Karateka, Hard Hat Mack and Montezuma's Revenge!