Nostalgia: Video Games
Sitting here at work, I’ve Googled my way into some nostalgia - specifically video games from my past. When I was young, I would spend my days logged onto a local BBS (Virtual Arcade, I think), downloading custom Doom II maps, chatting in the Telecommunications room, guessing at Trivia for free credits, but most of my time was spent playing…
Trade Wars 2002. I actually got so serious about this game that instead of using Telex to dial into the server, I pirated a copy of the specialized terminal networking program that had a front-end with a ton of shortcuts for TW2002, such as route spidering/planning, arbitrage tools, and other macros that made the game significantly easier to play.
I remember being pissed off that the balance of power was getting so lopsided with the alliances on the local BBS and desperately hoping that the sysop would rebang the game to give us a fresh start. Wow, talk about a verb I haven’t used since I was 13!
Apparently there are tons of dedicated nerds that play this game using Windows-based TW2002 server packages, but it wouldn’t be the same.
Another amazing game that I loved was…
X-Com: UFO Defense (also known as X-Com: Enemy Unknown in some markets)
This was the first turn-based strategy I had ever played, and it was just awesome - my words can do no justice. Check out these YouTube videos for gameplay action and walkthroughs. The game involved downing UFOs with your Interceptor ships, landing with your personnel shuttle, and taking out the remaining aliens while capturing their technology and researching their dead (and alive) bodies to figure out how to develop superior weapons - with the eventual goal of building a ship powerful enough to take the fight to Mars and obliterate their colony.
Unfortunately, all of the sequels to the game sucked (though Terror from the Deep was reasonable).
I know some of you people are old enough (and big enough nerds) to remember these games. Please share your favorite ones for me to distract myself with at work!
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