Booyah! He's dead!
But, lives on in... nah, he's dead as can be.
Took a while, but totally worth it.
Onward to hard modes next.
And now, on another note
You know, I HAVE played other games ya know?
Back before "internet" wasn't Adsl with no limit to bandwidth. Back before dialup even. Back before that whole "MMO" thing came along and claims a part of your soul and keeps it forever.
Who needs to play outside, when you got a computer, right?
Just remember, you can "see other games", even while you've got a subscription to one. It's not like you're married to it. (And even then, /wink)
Recently I've picked up Torchlight. Which turns out to be quite an interesting game. It's much like Diablo but with a vast array of improvements. Go Check it out sometime. You can get it through Steam if you got that. Just use the search function and download the free demo. Yes I said FREE, no strings attached.
Annoyances
You know what annoys me?
Game producers raping a completely fine game and making it "balanced". Or adding features that nobody is waiting for.
Settlers.
It used to be an awesome game. Simple, but amazing.
Back when it was simply "settlers", and not with a 2,3,4,5,6 or 7 attached to the end it was all down to earth. Build stuff, gather resources, send your guys somewhere, build more stuff, conquer the world.
At some point, around settlers 4 or 5... dunno. I lost count after 3 or 4... They decided to make your Minions have needs. NEEDS?! What on earth? I rather liked the game the way it was thank you very much. Why do I suddenly need to keep restrictions in mind? Settlers 6 was awful. It looked fine, but as half the world has been shouting out for ages: Gameplay is more important than graphics.
Settlers 6 is just shit and 7 looks to be more of the same.
You make a woodcutter, who gets hungry. You make a hunter who gets meat, who also gets hungry. You make a butcher and a fisher, who get "food" so everyone is no longer hungry.
Fine so far, right?
No, wrong.
Next they want clothes to wear, water for bathing, soap and brooms for cleaning, and the list goes on. And every house you make has another settler that wants more of the same.
Gone are the days of having 100 farms all farming grain to feed your soldiers. Alas. Settlers has turned into the fucking SIMS... If I wanted to play that (And I most certainly Do NOT) I'd have sent my money to EA. (Who deserve to be paid in lead instead)
They ruined a perfectly good game.
Old things
I'll share some of my childhood with ya. In case you care.
And even if you don't, you'll still read this anyhow right?
I've played Settlers 1 for hours and ages, left my computer on for days so they could continue their building overnight. Resources stockpiling as my hundred farms all had miles and miles worth of grain. Woodcutters and planters, mills and bakeries, gold, coal and iron mines. And it was good!
Settlers 2 came along. It was good as well, though it lacked the "2 players on one computer" option that settlers 1 had.
Yes you can install settlers 1 on the PC still, but it doesn't support 2 mice. Seriously, don't get me started on what a ridiculous throwback in technology the "new" pcs were over some of the later commodore models. Both graphically, sound, and OS wise. I tenfold pity and curse the retard who came up with the idea that PCs were the better machine to use. However the fuck that happened.
My commodore was doing THIS (plenty of vids below), while your PC was doing BLEEP, and painting monochrome graphics in a 16 color DOS. While I had stereo, awesome vga, and an OS that some might describe as a predecessor of Windows 3.11. Stick that up your arse Bill Gates. Heck, even Apple had a GUI before most PCs did.
Some Grand names from the past: (May they be remembered forever)
* Team 17 - which is still active today, and the creator of a game many will know. Worms. Alien breed, if you don't know it, shame on you.
* Bitmap brothers - Made the chaos engine, Xenon, gods and many more. Now eaten by evil overlord EA.
* Rainbow arts - Responsible for Turrican 1 and Two, logical, rock 'n roll (And I do not mean those stupid snakes on the Super nes) and many more. Now "eaten" by EA as well.
* Psygnosis / DMA Design - Lemmings, Lemmings, Lemmings!, LeMMings!!, LEMMINGS!!!! (You get the idea now right?), Hired guns. DMA Design is now Rockstar north, yes those guys who made Grand Theft Auto (aka. GTA). this tune seem familiar? There was a vid out there with the HR Intro music that showed the awesome screen where the game detected "extended" memory worth 358 KB, and it was using that for improved sound. Classic.
Also, for some reason I've had this odd tune in my head for years thinking it was some fiddle from a megaman 5 level or such. Turns it it wasn't. What song? Wolfchild. Track 7.
Silly me. Though technically it's possible It was megaman 5... perhaps the megaman designers snitched it from the above game. But, I can't seem to find the actual track in any of the megaman soundtracks that matches it.
Also, if you've never played Moonstone, like ever, then seriously dude, you missed out on the most bloody game ever made before Mortal Kombat. And THAT one caused a riot like no other. I'll tell you this, the game had atmosphere. Playing it at 11 PM at night, the few hours befor mightnight on new year's eve. It sticks with you forever.
Ever heard of Monkey Island? Sure you have! It all started way back when, along with king's quest, Leisure suit larry, and so many others like it. Monkey island was the master above them all. (Though opinions may vary) It had comedy, it had violence, it had innuendo, swordfighting. It even had undead! Not to mention a three headed monkey!
There were more games of course, I could go on for hours (and have, by now in writing this), but I need to press that "Publish post" button sometime so you lot don't think I've been hit by a truck or anything silly like that.
Look em up, youtube, google, whatever.
* Lotus challenge II+III
* Super Cars
* Super frog
* Swiv
* Speedball
* Dogs of war.
* Spin dizzy
* Lemmings!!! those poor little creatures, i have murdered so many.
* Theme Park, even with all it's bugs.
* Syndicate
* Cannon Fodder
* Alien Breed
Undoubtedly I've forgotten a few of the other rare gems.
They don't make games like they used to :/
Honorable mention, Fairlight. While not a game, is a very memorable group for various cracks and demos. Look on youtube for 64KB demos by fairlight. Yeah, that whole thing is under 64KB. How's that for compression and coding eh? No silly libraries and DLLs that cause a giant overhead. Just pure awesome writing.
This one's nice too. But not fairlight. :P
Disclaimer:
* Historical accuracy may vary based on perspective. So, don't come crying to me about your pc having been better than the junk I got saddled up with back then.
Lich king, and on old games
Booyah! He's dead!
But, lives on in... nah, he's dead as can be.
Took a while, but totally worth it.
Onward to hard modes next.
And now, on another note
You know, I HAVE played other games ya know?
Back before "internet" wasn't Adsl with no limit to bandwidth. Back before dialup even. Back before that whole "MMO" thing came along and claims a part of your soul and keeps it forever.
Who needs to play outside, when you got a computer, right?
Just remember, you can "see other games", even while you've got a subscription to one. It's not like you're married to it. (And even then, /wink)
Recently I've picked up Torchlight. Which turns out to be quite an interesting game. It's much like Diablo but with a vast array of improvements. Go Check it out sometime. You can get it through Steam if you got that. Just use the search function and download the free demo. Yes I said FREE, no strings attached.
Annoyances
You know what annoys me?
Game producers raping a completely fine game and making it "balanced". Or adding features that nobody is waiting for.
Settlers.
It used to be an awesome game. Simple, but amazing.
Back when it was simply "settlers", and not with a 2,3,4,5,6 or 7 attached to the end it was all down to earth. Build stuff, gather resources, send your guys somewhere, build more stuff, conquer the world.
At some point, around settlers 4 or 5... dunno. I lost count after 3 or 4... They decided to make your Minions have needs. NEEDS?! What on earth? I rather liked the game the way it was thank you very much. Why do I suddenly need to keep restrictions in mind? Settlers 6 was awful. It looked fine, but as half the world has been shouting out for ages: Gameplay is more important than graphics.
Settlers 6 is just shit and 7 looks to be more of the same.
You make a woodcutter, who gets hungry. You make a hunter who gets meat, who also gets hungry. You make a butcher and a fisher, who get "food" so everyone is no longer hungry.
Fine so far, right?
No, wrong.
Next they want clothes to wear, water for bathing, soap and brooms for cleaning, and the list goes on. And every house you make has another settler that wants more of the same.
Gone are the days of having 100 farms all farming grain to feed your soldiers. Alas. Settlers has turned into the fucking SIMS... If I wanted to play that (And I most certainly Do NOT) I'd have sent my money to EA. (Who deserve to be paid in lead instead)
They ruined a perfectly good game.
Old things
I'll share some of my childhood with ya. In case you care.
And even if you don't, you'll still read this anyhow right?
I've played Settlers 1 for hours and ages, left my computer on for days so they could continue their building overnight. Resources stockpiling as my hundred farms all had miles and miles worth of grain. Woodcutters and planters, mills and bakeries, gold, coal and iron mines. And it was good!
Settlers 2 came along. It was good as well, though it lacked the "2 players on one computer" option that settlers 1 had.
Yes you can install settlers 1 on the PC still, but it doesn't support 2 mice. Seriously, don't get me started on what a ridiculous throwback in technology the "new" pcs were over some of the later commodore models. Both graphically, sound, and OS wise. I tenfold pity and curse the retard who came up with the idea that PCs were the better machine to use. However the fuck that happened.
My commodore was doing THIS (plenty of vids below), while your PC was doing BLEEP, and painting monochrome graphics in a 16 color DOS. While I had stereo, awesome vga, and an OS that some might describe as a predecessor of Windows 3.11. Stick that up your arse Bill Gates. Heck, even Apple had a GUI before most PCs did.
Some Grand names from the past: (May they be remembered forever)
* Team 17 - which is still active today, and the creator of a game many will know. Worms. Alien breed, if you don't know it, shame on you.
* Bitmap brothers - Made the chaos engine, Xenon, gods and many more. Now eaten by evil overlord EA.
* Rainbow arts - Responsible for Turrican 1 and Two, logical, rock 'n roll (And I do not mean those stupid snakes on the Super nes) and many more. Now "eaten" by EA as well.
* Psygnosis / DMA Design - Lemmings, Lemmings, Lemmings!, LeMMings!!, LEMMINGS!!!! (You get the idea now right?), Hired guns. DMA Design is now Rockstar north, yes those guys who made Grand Theft Auto (aka. GTA). this tune seem familiar? There was a vid out there with the HR Intro music that showed the awesome screen where the game detected "extended" memory worth 358 KB, and it was using that for improved sound. Classic.
Also, for some reason I've had this odd tune in my head for years thinking it was some fiddle from a megaman 5 level or such. Turns it it wasn't. What song? Wolfchild. Track 7.
Silly me. Though technically it's possible It was megaman 5... perhaps the megaman designers snitched it from the above game. But, I can't seem to find the actual track in any of the megaman soundtracks that matches it.
Also, if you've never played Moonstone, like ever, then seriously dude, you missed out on the most bloody game ever made before Mortal Kombat. And THAT one caused a riot like no other. I'll tell you this, the game had atmosphere. Playing it at 11 PM at night, the few hours befor mightnight on new year's eve. It sticks with you forever.
Ever heard of Monkey Island? Sure you have! It all started way back when, along with king's quest, Leisure suit larry, and so many others like it. Monkey island was the master above them all. (Though opinions may vary) It had comedy, it had violence, it had innuendo, swordfighting. It even had undead! Not to mention a three headed monkey!
There were more games of course, I could go on for hours (and have, by now in writing this), but I need to press that "Publish post" button sometime so you lot don't think I've been hit by a truck or anything silly like that.
Look em up, youtube, google, whatever.
* Lotus challenge II+III
* Super Cars
* Super frog
* Swiv
* Speedball
* Dogs of war.
* Spin dizzy
* Lemmings!!! those poor little creatures, i have murdered so many.
* Theme Park, even with all it's bugs.
* Syndicate
* Cannon Fodder
* Alien Breed
Undoubtedly I've forgotten a few of the other rare gems.
They don't make games like they used to :/
Honorable mention, Fairlight. While not a game, is a very memorable group for various cracks and demos. Look on youtube for 64KB demos by fairlight. Yeah, that whole thing is under 64KB. How's that for compression and coding eh? No silly libraries and DLLs that cause a giant overhead. Just pure awesome writing.
This one's nice too. But not fairlight. :P
Disclaimer:
* Historical accuracy may vary based on perspective. So, don't come crying to me about your pc having been better than the junk I got saddled up with back then.
4 comments:
The PC's rise was never about performance at first, really. Nowadays, that and its modularity are among the prime features (see the Overclocking and Custom case scenes) but back in the day, the PC - while still modular - was quite underpowered compared to some machines out there.
The ones at fault for the fall of the Amiga are really none other than Commodore themselves - the Amiga was so far ahead of its time that no one, least of all Commodore themselves, really understood what they had. The "Multimedia computer" concept would be coined much later, long after the Amiga had been lost to time. Commodore sold it as a pure home/gaming computer, while IBM sold their PC as an office Workhorse. And unlike the Amiga, the PC and its OS were easy for other companies to replicate.
In the end, with there being so many IBM Compatible machines around, people started realizing they'd make a good market for fun things like games and whatnot, which in turn created a market for better sound, visuals and performance. The latter two having spawned long-lasting (and quite aggressive) hardware development races.
Indeed, PC gained marked because schools started telling their students to get a PC so they could learn stuff like "word perfect".
Amiga got sold off to Tulip at some point iirc. It now still exists as a downloadable Operating System, but that's about it.
Golden years that will be fondly remembered :)
Haha, that's a trip down Memory Lane right there T. I also remember this game you were totally addicted to where you had to gather water through a large variety of levels. Can't recall the name. I do know you played it a lot, so you probably mentioned it somewhere in this post =D
Gonna get me an amiga emu and see if I can get some of the classics you mentioned =D
Hmm. Flip-it and Magnose I guess?
Was fun enough, but hard without second player, as the CPU works against you to win.
Oh, and Indy heat, we played that with 3 players a few times. Without getting the key-locks you get in PCs nowadays if you tried such a thing.
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