There are a few cravings I have that follow the major waves of releases. Despite what Yahtzee said I want to play L.A. Noire, Red Dead Redemption is permanently on my yes list, Skyrim's hovering over my head, but other than those, most major releases don't feel like impulse buys for me, whether or not I really intend on getting them or just hoping the stars will align properly.
What I wind up actually getting usually falls into three categories (bullet pointed for those who can't stand any other method of listing. Poor guys.):
- Finding old games that I'd transfered to CD-Rom
- Finding games I'd thought I'd lost in a pile of nondescript, boxless CDs.
- Finding games in bargain bins and on download services like Good Old Games.
Also, today Egge [inadvertently] brought to my attention the release on GOG of Bullfrog's Magic Carpet.
Someone very dear to me who I've lately lost touch with first showed me the demo for this game way back when it was first released (because back then I was a bit of a gaming philistine who was totally into Doom and not much else (gross simplification, but I figure I can trash my own history for the sake of narrative integrity)). This dear friend was the same person who introduced me to Thief, which is now one of my favorite gaming series ever, but it took GOG's release and Egge's video to remind me why "Now Me" might find it intriguing.
It looks like a very Populous-inspired system, but with some interesting direct involvement in the world that the god games don't quite have. That, and I guess I'm a sucker for mythical orient themes. I would maybe be more interested if it was even more of a world-roaming sort of game, but I guess that would be asking a bit much of older computers to process.
My finger is, figuratively, hovering over the buy button as I type this. I wonder if playing this game will, in some strange way, connect me to my now estranged friend. Probably not, but I guess it feels a bit like that anyway, if only symbolically. Lots of lost games out there, lots of broken threads. I wonder why the prior owner of Emperor got rid of it, and who they may have shared the game with, if anyone. Some of the best moments in my gaming life were when there was at least two of us hunched over the keyboard trying to figure things out, or playing co-op on a console. Gaming's become a bit more solitary; even with online capability you wind up being mostly alone. It's not quite the same, but I imagine at least younger folks get a chance to figure out obscure games together once in a while.
I've never really been able to repeat that experience with any other medium. Even if old friendships fade or change, the memories of figuring out some weird piece of software are worth having, even if the software is long gone.
Anyone have any youthful memories of figuring out games in groups?
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