I would be what people call a Generation X-er, those born between the 60's to the late 70's. Back then, people didn't have HDTVs, Home Theatre systems, or video games as entertainment. If we wanted to watch a movie, we only had one choice: the cinemas. If we wanted to play a video game, tough luck. I lived in a country called Malaysia, in a small town about 3 hours drive from the big city Kuala Lumpur. When Dad got me the Atari 2600 in 1981, I was too young to think about how he managed to buy one, let alone find it. It came bundled with just one game: Space Invaders. I was hooked on it, and needed more games for the console. Just one problem, there wasn't a single game retail store to be found in that town back in '81. So Grandpa came to the rescue. He made frequent trips to Kuala Lumpur, and I would fill him in on my wishlist. That was my only channel of getting new titles to play. Eventually, the Atari became obsolete during the video game crash of the 1980's, and I moved on to looking for another platform.
 |
| Remember me? |
I joined the computer club in my school, and together with friends, would take the opportunity to load games into the school's PCs (PC use policies weren't very strict then). The school was equipped with Apple computers, quite similar to the Apple IIe that my uncle had. When I got my first home desktop computer, the IBM XT, I brought back copies to play on it, but I didn't realise that IBM and Apple computers didn't "speak the same language". Oh derp!!!! I would later source the IBM-compatible games from friends who also happened to have IBMs at home, or through Grandpa again when he visits the big city. At around this time, one of the shopping malls in town started selling the Nintendo Entertainment System (NES), but they also had this business model where people could pay to play in their premises. This probably sounds strange, if not downright illegal, to those of you from the Western nations, but I think this practice was common place in Asia then.
Another major obstacle to gaming in Malaysia at that time was the lack of game guides, and walkthroughs. The internet didn't exist, and bookstores didn't have a section for game-related material. One of the major newspapers, strangely enough, did have a Q&A section for games, and that was how I would get my info. It was also mostly based on luck, because the paper didn't always discuss the same game I had in my collection. So it wasn't uncommon for me to take months to finish one game, because I really was using my brain to figure out how to solve every puzzle!
 |
| Using my head: not really what I had in mind |
Today, with the ease and speed at which information is shared worldwide, I really couldn't believe how I managed to maintain my interest in video games in those old days. I guess I am now old enough to say "you young 'uns today have everything easy"!
Back then, games were tough mostly because (1) video games weren't mainstream yet and catered for a very niche crowd, and (2) the level of technology back then only allowed so much content to be stored inside a 5.25 inch floppy disk, so the gameplay was extended either through an "infinite loop" like Space Invaders, or just made very very difficult like King's Quest.
ReplyDeleteI'd bet that anyone playing Space Quest 1 today would finish it in a couple hours flat.
For the PC, don't forget games didn't even use the mouse interface! Adventure games like the Quests series required us to type out every action, and in proper English spelling! Point-and-click really took away all that.
ReplyDeleteHi Ernie! Is it possible to still play these old games on modern computers like my notebook?
ReplyDeleteHello Nicholas! You can try searching for them using Google. Some old games are even playable online as Flash games now. For other old games, you might need to also install emulators like DOSBox, as those games were not designed for modern OS like Windows XP / Vista / 7. Good luck!
ReplyDelete