Memories of Games Past

[Ephesos]

Linkage

 

A lengthy but truly intriguing tale, which resonated with me. Thought perhaps it might ring true for some other people here.

 

What games have left that kind of echo in your mind?

[Slawbug]

A unique tale. Thanks for sharing it.

[Enraged Slith]

I've had a few remotely similar experiences.

 

My parents threw out a lot of my childhood memories when we moved a few years back. One of these was an ancient black & white computer that I used to play games on. Nothing sticks with me like in this story, but there have been times I wish I could get the darned thing back.

 

One of the most significant games of my childhood was an adventure game called Indiana Jones and the Fate of Atlantis. I probably played through that game a hundred times. Eventually, the old color Macintosh that we used to run the game on died along with a bunch of other favorites such as this game. Out of all of them, FoA was my favorite. For years, I didn't even think about it, but one night, while on a train in Europe, the memories came flooding back. When I returned home, one of the first things I did was search for a way to play the blasted game, but nothing turned up. Three years later in 2008, I discovered that the game was available for free on the ScummVM emulator.

 

I had a similarly haunting experience with the title theme to the old Jurassic Park game for the Game Boy. Out of all the things I could remember about it, the title theme sat just out of reach on the edges of my memory. It was a sensation not unlike when the name of a song you like sits on the tip of your tongue. My initial searches yielded nothing, but I finally found what I was looking for after a second attempt about a year later.

[La paix]

He's a very good writer with a unique and peculiar style. I liked it.

 

Now I'm remembering a similarly haunting puzzle game, now gone from me, but this one's only about 20 years old.

[Ephesos]

Originally Posted By: Enraged Slith

Indiana Jones and the Fate of Atlantis

*cough*

I know you said you found the free version, but yeah. I'm quite happy to see gems like this being dragged along into this century.

And Fractal, and distinguishing characteristics? Someone here might be able to help... epic stories can't begin if there's no prompt.

[Dintiradan]

I played a lot of great DOS games in my misspent youth, but what really made the games shine wasn't their quality but who I played them with. The Commander Keen games were fantastic, but I wouldn't have enjoyed them half as much if I wasn't always competing with my sister for the high score. Shooting down Kilrathi was a decent experience, but doubled in intensity when the person waiting his or her turn was cheering you on.

 

I never was much into prompt-based adventure games like the one described in the article. The only one I played was Castle Adventure. In retrospect, the game was sub-par, but I thought it was quite clever at the time.

 

(Oh man, I kept on trying and trying to get past this booby-trapped statue at the exit of the castle, and it kept killing me, and what you had to do was wear this magical necklace that you found in another section of the castle, but there's no way you could wear every item at once, so the only way you knew what item was needed was from reading a book in the library in yet another section of the castle, but the only way you were able to read is by wearing a set of bifocals, which you found in...)

 

I tracked down a copy of the game a few years back. It was one of those lazily coded games which measured ticks with an empty loop rather than using the system clock, so it was impossible to run away from monsters. With my newer computer, I'd be able to run an emulator that could slow the emulated processor speed, but it's really not worth it, at least for this game (the Wing Commander series, on the other hand...)

 

 

 

In the spirit of this thread, let's try find the name of a game I played a couple of times at my cousin's. I'm usually pretty good at remembering game names, by virtue of typing in the DOS commands needed to play them, but as I wasn't playing it on our computer...

 

You played a mercenary piloting a jet. Unlike Raptor: Call of the Shadows, this wasn't a side-scrolling game; you could pilot your jet in any of the cardinal directions. Don't remember much about the actual gameplay, but I do remember the intro cinematic. You see the player character in the cockpit, having a flashback. The PC is running up a hill, and you see a thought bubble of what is presumable his wife and child. He gets to the top of the hill, you see his city getting carpet bombed, cut to him crying, then end flashback. I'm not an old gamer, and I remember the game being decently polished, so it shouldn't be too tough to track down.

 

(By the way, if you're like me and played Raptor because of its music,

these remixes

.)

[Dikiyoba]

I can't say there are any games that have stuck in my memory in that way, but there is a novel. I don't remember the title, the author, or what year it might have been published. (I do remember that the copy I read had a red cover, though.) The book was about animal... prophets, I think, who try to save other animals from human pollution or habitat destruction or something similar. All I really remember is a desparate, slightly crazed crow descending on flocks of birds screaming "Adapt or die!" and always being driven off. I haven't really bothered to look for the book, since I didn't like it all that much, but for some reason the image of that crow has haunted me for years.

 

Dikiyoba.

[Rowen]

I remember playing a game where you killed a turkey with a turkey baster. I cannot remember the name of that game.

[Sudanna]

Originally Posted By: Dikiyoba

I can't say there are any games that have stuck in my memory in that way, but there is a novel. I don't remember the title, the author, or what year it might have been published. (I do remember that the copy I read had a red cover, though.) The book was about animal... prophets, I think, who try to save other animals from human pollution or habitat destruction or something similar. All I really remember is a desparate, slightly crazed crow descending on flocks of birds screaming "Adapt or die!" and always being driven off. I haven't really bothered to look for the book, since I didn't like it all that much, but for some reason the image of that crow has haunted me for years.

Dikiyoba.

I remember that book. Or at least what you said of it.

[Triumph]

Originally Posted By: Dintiradan

The Commander Keen games

...

In the spirit of this thread, let's try find the name of a game I played a couple of times at my cousin's. I'm usually pretty good at remembering game names, by virtue of typing in the DOS commands needed to play them, but as I wasn't playing it on our computer...

You played a mercenary piloting a jet. Unlike Raptor: Call of the Shadows, this wasn't a side-scrolling game; you could pilot your jet in any of the cardinal directions. Don't remember much about the actual gameplay, but I do remember the intro cinematic. You see the player character in the cockpit, having a flashback. The PC is running up a hill, and you see a thought bubble of what is presumable his wife and child. He gets to the top of the hill, you see his city getting carpet bombed, cut to him crying, then end flashback. I'm not an old gamer, and I remember the game being decently polished, so it shouldn't be too tough to track down.

Yeah, Commander Keen was cool.

I believe the game you're describing is called Zone 66. Google it and you can even see the intro on Youtube. When my family got our first computer with Windows 95 on it, it came with a CD with a ton of game demos. The first level of Zone 66 was one of the many demos with which my brothers and I amused ourselves.

[The Ninjas Doom]

every game i have ever played burns another hole in my brain about said games, and leave some room so other things fit in the same hole. and im not saying that this is bad, it is actualy pretty good. except when the game is bad, that is.

[Lilith]

Originally Posted By: Rowen

I remember playing a game where you killed a turkey with a turkey baster. I cannot remember the name of that game.

Was it an old black-and-white World Builder adventure game for Mac? If so, Radical Castle.

[lampshade]

Boy did I love playing me some Realmz, Escape Velocity, and several surprisingly fun shovelware games (shovelware had a different meaning back then).

[Lilith]

mailing a shovel to the developers in order to get the registration code sure was inconvenient though

[Dintiradan]

Originally Posted By: Triumph

I believe the game you're describing is called Zone 66. Google it and you can even see the intro on Youtube. When my family got our first computer with Windows 95 on it, it came with a CD with a ton of game demos. The first level of Zone 66 was one of the many demos with which my brothers and I amused ourselves.

Yes, that's it! Thanks, that was quick! My memory wasn't as good as I thought it was -- I remember the graphics being a bit better, and the city was nuked instead of carpet bombed (according to the intro text, the nukes used were much more powerful any made in our time -- that means our hero was staring at ground zero when something bigger than the Tsar Bomba hit... and he wasn't even blinded).

The music is sub-par too; Kenny Chou has written better.

[Rowen]

Originally Posted By: Lilith

Originally Posted By: Rowen

I remember playing a game where you killed a turkey with a turkey baster. I cannot remember the name of that game.

Was it an old black-and-white World Builder adventure game for Mac? If so, Radical Castle.

Wow. I sent 2 hours trying to find the name of the game with my dad the other day. Thank you for finding it.

[Slawbug]

World Builder... zomg.

[Celtic Minstrel]

Originally Posted By: Triumph

Yeah, Commander Keen was cool.

Why the past tense?