All weekend long I have been obsessed with downloading and playing some of my most beloved computer games of the past. At the "Home of the Underdogs" web site there are plenty ancient and obscure games available and I've hunted down and snagged some of my favs.
Back in the mid 80's my computer was the Commodore 64 and I fell in love with some of the offerings available for that platform.
Infocom was a software company that put out virtually only one type of game: text only interactive fiction.
This format required something so vitally missing in some of the titles today...imagination!
When I played the "Zork Trilogy", I was immersed in a mysterious ancient underground empire where magick and monsters abound!
In "Leather Goddesses of Phobos" I eagerly awaited the cue to go ahead and scratch the accompanying "scratch-n-sniff" card to find out what odor awaited me in this "room".
I raced through the very easy yet entertaining little "Wishbringer", not even needing to keep a map of my moves as it was so simple.
Got campy for "Hollywood Hijinx", rummaging through kooky Hildebud, the family mansion I hoped to inherit.
And I still remember fondly the excitement and triumphant relief of finally, after days and days of trial and error attempts, solving the Babel Fish puzzle in "Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy"!
Found all these and virtually every other Infocom classic at Underdogs, and will be spending some quality wee-hours reliving my past adventuring through their countless "rooms".
Also found these jems:
"Empire Deluxe for Windows"---one of my fav "big theatre" war games...love the rally point paths! Was having difficulty running though, wonder if I installed it wrong. Could be the files though...or the compatibility issues of a 21st century computer trying to run something designed for a 386!
"Pirates! Gold"---a slightly upgraded (graphically) version of the original classic by Sid Meier. Was playing this just before logging on to write this post...man, this game is hard! I keep getting captured! Gonna need to practice up on my swashbuckling skills!
"Legacy of the Ancients"---the first RPG I really got into! Graphics are incredibly archaic (Cyan, Yellow, Black and Magenta were still the prevalent, frequently only, color palates then!) but gameplay is solid and captivating.
"Lords of Conquest"---for years I kept humming the tune that the game played when you deployed a weapon in a territory. This strategy game rocked!
"Red Storm Rising"---I chuckled today when I installed it and began playing...no, not at the blocky, 16-color graphics but at the fact that it had "future" selections of submarines available in the Soviet arsenal as far "ahead" as the year 1996 when the "[Soviet] fleet reaches it's most advanced and surpasses the Americans"...ha! Oh in the Reagan years we really did believe that would have been the case though.
Between these acquisitions and my predominant time-waster, Wikipedia, I have been in this chair with only minor forays out into the kitchen and bathroom today.
Man, my butt is numb! LOL
Back in the mid 80's my computer was the Commodore 64 and I fell in love with some of the offerings available for that platform.
Infocom was a software company that put out virtually only one type of game: text only interactive fiction.
This format required something so vitally missing in some of the titles today...imagination!
When I played the "Zork Trilogy", I was immersed in a mysterious ancient underground empire where magick and monsters abound!
In "Leather Goddesses of Phobos" I eagerly awaited the cue to go ahead and scratch the accompanying "scratch-n-sniff" card to find out what odor awaited me in this "room".
I raced through the very easy yet entertaining little "Wishbringer", not even needing to keep a map of my moves as it was so simple.
Got campy for "Hollywood Hijinx", rummaging through kooky Hildebud, the family mansion I hoped to inherit.
And I still remember fondly the excitement and triumphant relief of finally, after days and days of trial and error attempts, solving the Babel Fish puzzle in "Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy"!
Found all these and virtually every other Infocom classic at Underdogs, and will be spending some quality wee-hours reliving my past adventuring through their countless "rooms".
Also found these jems:
"Empire Deluxe for Windows"---one of my fav "big theatre" war games...love the rally point paths! Was having difficulty running though, wonder if I installed it wrong. Could be the files though...or the compatibility issues of a 21st century computer trying to run something designed for a 386!
"Pirates! Gold"---a slightly upgraded (graphically) version of the original classic by Sid Meier. Was playing this just before logging on to write this post...man, this game is hard! I keep getting captured! Gonna need to practice up on my swashbuckling skills!
"Legacy of the Ancients"---the first RPG I really got into! Graphics are incredibly archaic (Cyan, Yellow, Black and Magenta were still the prevalent, frequently only, color palates then!) but gameplay is solid and captivating.
"Lords of Conquest"---for years I kept humming the tune that the game played when you deployed a weapon in a territory. This strategy game rocked!
"Red Storm Rising"---I chuckled today when I installed it and began playing...no, not at the blocky, 16-color graphics but at the fact that it had "future" selections of submarines available in the Soviet arsenal as far "ahead" as the year 1996 when the "[Soviet] fleet reaches it's most advanced and surpasses the Americans"...ha! Oh in the Reagan years we really did believe that would have been the case though.
Between these acquisitions and my predominant time-waster, Wikipedia, I have been in this chair with only minor forays out into the kitchen and bathroom today.
Man, my butt is numb! LOL