Computer Games

Since I've been playing a lot of the Sims 4, I wanted to make a post of computer games that influenced my tastes, today. I always loved Nintendo, but I definitely put some time into PC (or DOS) games, as well. In fact, I'm pretty sure the computer was placed in my parents' room just so I wouldn't be on it all night. I didn't find many computer games I actually liked, but when I did I was stupid obsessed with them.

Okay, so the first batch of games are the ones from when I was really young. Two of them were on our old computer, Brix and Cosmo's Cosmic Adventure. The other, King's Quest IV, was on my Granny's computer, along with a whole list of games I couldn't figure out how to play.

Okay, so.

Cosmo's Cosmic Adventure

It was a DOS game, my mom had to enter the code every time for me to be able to play it. Cosmo's hands were suction cups and allowed the player to climb walls and things. It's a platform/adventure game, and the player collects fruit and stars in efforts to save his parents. I haven't recently replayed the game, so that's all I know so far. I really liked it as a little kid. I remember the first area, which is like the plains of the planet, an ice area, and the haunted woods. The woods actually triggered quite a few of my earliest dreams - they were just set in a really dark wooded area.

Look at how colorful it is. LOOK AT IT.

This game is on my list to go and play, again. Very high on my list. For a really early PC game, it still looks pretty good to me, and the music is cute. I love the little eye plants that watch you, as well. You all know me, bright and colorful is the way to my heart.








Brix

Sadly I couldn't find a place to play this one online. Anyway, it's a puzzler where the player selects a block and touches it to the same type of block, winning when they've erased each pair of blocks from the screen, before the time runs out. The player can also use the blue sand, but I was never good enough to get where that was actually useful.

The puzzles would get harder as the player climbed up the puzzle tree - I remember teleporters, bricks that would disintegrate under the weight of the Brix, and the orange sand that meant goodbye forever to your precious brickmates. It was totally cool to restart, though, since it had radically cool music and backgrounds and... sand. And portals. And stuff. Lots of stuff.




King's Quest IV

I still love this game. Totally bought the King's Quest Collection on PC when it was released, and then again on Steam because I lost the second disc. This game. THIS GAME. It's beautiful. The player controls Rosella as she tries to save the fairy queen who, in turn, will save her father, the King, and also the protag from earlier KQ games.

So, this game is fantasy. It is the most fantasy that fantasy will ever get. You steal Cupid's bow, you outrun a troll to find the fruit of life, you dig up Pandora's Box, you clean the house of the Seven Dwarves who leave you a bag of diamonds you give to the poor fisherman who lets you have his fishingrodsoyoucangocatchthefishthatwillall-

Yes. Also, the giant. And the giant's giant dog. And the unicorn. And the witch's weird green son. And being locked in a tower. And the scary mansion. A-

Okay, okay. I'm sorry. This game utilizes a lot of controls from text based games, except now you don't have to "look" every time you enter a new area. There's still the option, and that's how you figure out where to dig or whatever, but for the most part you can see that golden ball under the bridge.

Rosella is really, really easy to kill. If you try this game out, save every three seconds. Beware of sharks, long falls, walking too fast, and evil trees. Basically everything else is fine. If you hear music, you're either about to be eaten or you are doing something right. It's Dark Souls written by the Brothers Grimm!

There was also Wolfenstein, but I wasn't allowed to play that, although I was sure every screen saver that had the brick walls was, indeed, that game.

Ahem.

Okay, so those are my early childhood games. Let's now explore my "grade school" games, the ones I picked up and probably still play today.

Age of Empires
Okay. I got this game because my cousins played it a lot, and I loved the idea of controlling your own civilization, especially the early part where you kill animals and make teepees. That doesn't really happen, but we'll pretend. I loved collecting resources and building up my population. I barely ever used any cheats because I thought fishing and mining were so fun, and my army was almost always overpopulated.

I did find out, though, that against humans I am extremly slow and awful at creating an army. Like, really bad. So, when I play against ***, I'll usually send my scout out, capture all the sheep, and bunker the hell down. His army is usually thinned out by all my watch towers, but in the end he beats the crap out of me and takes all my sheep.

I never really liked the campaign challenges. I like random skirmishes a lot more, mostly because I could never finish the campaigns very well and basically sucked at everything except killing deer and mining gold.


RuneScape

This one sucked the life out of me for about thirteen years. I'll probably go back at some point, I'm not feeling it right now, though. I started playing when I was, like, eleven or twelve. First name was ***. I don't know why. I remember *** was always like, DEVILWORSHIPPER666 or
something because that's what phase she was in. It was hilarious.

Anyway, long after my friends stopped playing, I finally became a member. I started over because I realized, after three years, that you could train strength and defense by switching your type of attack. I was kind of an idiot.

I loved the music of this game, and the world. I became a member when I found out I could make baked potatoes and cut more gems - this was long after the party hat drops, sadly - and so began my saga of sucking at all the combat-oriented quests.

I made a friend in Canifis, we'll call him Cya. He was a member of the Marines stationed in New Mexico, I think. He always helped me train combat and was extremely fun to talk to, until his girlfriend decided I was a threat and made him delete me. That sucked. I miss him. I still get to talk to Shreddy, another person I met while chopping maples. He'd had surgery from a skateboarding accident, and was trying to afford dragon chainmail. After he healed, he stopped playing, but I got a hold of him somehow and we still talk occasionally.

Then, I joined the Caped Carousers, a questing clan. They were extremely fun, and one of the players I looked up to most currently ran it. Shortly after, I made my own clan, the Twilit Crusaders. Then the new clan systems were introduced, and I had to choose one or the other. Obviously I chose my own clan, and we continued on. A few years later, after I'd been inactive, the clan went a different direction and I chose to continue on my own, staying friends with most of them and bothering them
in the Guest CC. Which I still do when I log in.

Anyway, I love this game because it gave me something to do while doing homework, so I could "still play" while being responsible. It got me through most of high school and college. I'll probably go back, sometime, but I'm enjoying other games now.

My favorite skills on there are Cooking and Herblore. I definitely loved being a Zamorakian most, and the best area was definitely Canifis.

I don't really like the changes made to the game - I may play '07 when I go back, again. This game had the best tutorial, hands down, and quests. I really enjoyed doing those, too.



Might and Magic VII: For Blood and Honor

K, this is an RPG, you pick 4 characters and their classes/starting skills, and their inventories are predisposed based on what you pick for them. You have to do a scavenger hunt before you become the new lords of the mainland. Lots of skills to learn and things to do.

This game was in my early childhood-now area. My brother got it when I was six or seven, and I didn't understand what I was supposed to do at all. For the first couple of years, I killed mosquitoes and tried not to piss off the guards on Emerald Island. Then, on accident, I cleared out the Temple of the Moon and completed the tutorial.

To get to the real game, I had to sell literally everything in my inventory to afford the ship ride to the mainland. It was embarrassing. But hey, after I got there, I totally became an expert - alchemist. The layered potions were the coolest thing ever. (This is why I loved Herblore in RS) I waterwalked my face off - until I was killed by something. Then I went into really cool caves! And was killed. Desert? Killed.

These are easy. JK! Whomp. Dead. 

Yeah, most of the enemies are freakishly hard to kill for a beginner. Who knew? So I retried the game last year, and utilized my expertise from other games, grinding on Goblins til the battlefield was stained purple with blood.

Then, I could kill Troglodytes with ease. Who knew?

Okay. I still think this game is beautiful, even though it's not really 3D. Forgot what that's called, but the objects will continually face you and only change if you end up "behind" them, then show a new image. You probably know what I meant. The music is BEAUTIFUL. I listen to it all the time. I'm in love with it. Yes. It is wonderful. Look it up. The quests are mostly fetch/kill quests, but that's okay. I actually enjoy those. When you have to escort, they don't follow you. They're just in your inventory.

I was extremely close to beating this game last year, then my computer quit. So, I'm going to download it on this one and try again. I absolutely adore this game and need to try out others in its series. My cousin used to come down to my house all the time and play this with me - he lived half a mile away so we were at each other's houses all the time.

The Sims

Okay, this encompasses all of the games in this series because I started on the first and immediately became hooked. Usually I make a family and they die really quickly - it's not my fault, they think "douse fire" means "roll in flames." Stupid Sims. Now, in 4, they're a lot more intelligent and less annoying. That's all I will say since I made a huge post about it the other day.

Curse of Monkey Island: LeChuck's Revenge

Another game I got from my cousin. I loved it so much he burned the discs for me so I could play it at home, where I promptly lost disc 2. This was my first point and click adventure, and also why I appreciate Tristin's puns as much as I do.

The story for this game makes less sense if the previous installments haven't been touched, but it's not impossible to play without them. There's not much of a tutorial, so I had a bit of a hard time figuring out what to do in which sequence, but I enjoyed everything I could do. The euphoria of solving one of the game's silly puzzles, like using a saw on the rubber tree to best the Scottish pirate at his own game, was wonderful. I always felt so clever.

I really like the piratey atmosphere of the game, being able to upgrade my cannons and out-pun the greatest scourges of the bay area - ah, what a life. Sadly, Guybrush still has all his legs. No pegging around. Sad. Still fun though.

I'm sure there are more, but I can't think of any right now. Yup.