This is part of a short series about computer games I've played.
Part 1: Arcades
Part 2: BBC Micro
Part 3: Movie time
Part 4: Amiga
As previously detailed I was very into the Amiga for some years. There were several magazines about it and an active on-line community. Unfortunately Commodore, the company behind it, were struggling. The Windows PC had become the computer of choice and was getting all the attention. The Mac was doing pretty well, but was an expensive option. In 1994 Commodore filed for bankruptcy and were bought by Escom. I remember them having a local store where you could see Amigas, but there was no real marketing effort. Escom went bust a few years later and the Amiga brand has been pretty much dead since then.
I got this card at the CeBIT computer show in Hannover in 1989.
So I eventually gave in and bought a Windows PC. It was a 350MHz Pentium III with Matrox graphics and Windows 98. This was the first of many PCs, but the only one I bought ready-built. The rest I put together from parts to get exactly what I wanted. I’ve had the current one for a few years now. It has an AMD A8 processor and 8GB of memory. I’ve not installed a fancy graphics card as I don’t play games much.
Before I had my own PC I did play some PC games. I worked in a software company where we could get away with playing games in our lunch break. We played a lot of Duke Nukem 3D and a bit of Quake. I never had a sound card there, so I didn’t get the full experience.
I played a few games on my own Windows PC, but the one that stands out is Half Life. This was fairly ground-breaking in its time. I spent many hours working through the levels, but I gave up eventually when action moved to an alien planet and it just got too hard.
I never got into the on-line multi-player games that came after this. About 10 years ago I switched to using Linux. I have played a few games on that, including good old Doom. My kids enjoyed some of the free games I could get such as a clone of Mario Kart. Later on my son used Steam on Linux to play a few games.
My gaming kicked off again when we got a Nintendo Wii. This was great for playing as a family. I just found I was having less time for games and drifted away from it. My son has kept interested in them and has had a PS4 for a couple of years now. He spends a lot of time playing games with his friends, but I’ve hardly used it at all.
As you will have seen in this series I have been involved in gaming through their infancy and into the start of modern 3D games, but now I hardly play them at all. I expect I could get back into them, but there are other things I want to do. The main one is making music. I want to be a better guitarist and that takes a lot of my time. I just need to reduce the time I spend on Steemit really. It can be addictive, but it has also helped my music by encouraging me to do performances for the contests. I’ve also written a few songs about Steemit.
I still see some gaming news and hear about the rise of E-sports. Gaming has come a long way from Pong. Games are more like movies, with production costs to match. I know a lot of people my age are still keen gamers and a new generation has been raised on amazing games. There’s certainly lots of interest in games on Steemit. That’s great if it brings more people here. Please don’t feel I’m dismissing games as a pastime, but we each have to choose how we want to use our valuable spare time. Do whatever you find fun.
I hope this series has been fun for some of you and maybe stirred a few memories.
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Halflife was such an awesome game. I put so many hours into it. I was finally able to beat it, but only by using god mode. I was never that great at games to beat them on my own. Unless they were role playing games. It's funny you talk about wanting to spend more time learning the guitar. I had bought a guitar some time back and had every intention of learning to play it, then I started playing World of Warcraft and that consumed all of my free time. I don't play WoW anymore, but I still have the guitar in a closet somewhere. I feel like my fingers aren't coordinated enough to pick it up now. Our first gaming system was from Sears and it was just Pong. I don't even remember the brand of the system. We had an Atari after that. This was a great series! Thanks for sharing!
I get that games are a social thing now, but otherwise I'd just use them to fill spare time that I don't have :)
Yeah, I really don't play them like I used to either. The only consoles I have ever owned are the Atari, Nintendo(original), PS2, and now a Wii for our relatives. I never turn it on.
Argh! WoW, I extracted myself from that years ago, before that it was Everquest.
I never played EverQuest. WoW gave me a free trial and then I was hooked 😋. I stopped playing during Pandaria.
With you on the wii. Great family fun they are. Good to keep fit too with the wii sports. I worked plenty of sweat up boxing and playing volleyball in the living room :)
I don't play much either as there's too many other things that take my time up like... STEEMIT.. grrr., I need to cut this time down just like you say you need too.
I am starting to think I need to just do my comments in the morning, then shut it down for the day. Too much happening on Steemit to distract me!
My kids nowadays play PS4 online games like the popular Fortnite. I have played a lot online in the early day's like Quake I, II and III. Games I played a lot too where games like red alert "Afirmative" lol... You can still play it online in emulator mode... Great game :)
We occasionally play Call of duty on line with my brothers and some friends, the we talk with a headset to eachother, but that more for fun :)
Aren't all games for fun?
I guess you're right :) But what I meant whas that we weren't any good and didn't pay a lot of attention to the game but where mostly chatting through the headsets with eachother :)
I used to play Descent.
It was f-ing AWESOME!
flying around in a 3D space in zero gravity, where any direction could be up, shooting robots - loads of fun. i also played Tombraider a lot. that is until I got to a puzzle that no-one in my flat cold get past, so then i just quit playing it.
But the games today are graphically way superior to the games we had back then. But I think the fun is just the same ;-)
I've been gaming for nearly 27 years... And this year has been the longest I did not touch a game, more than 3 months.
I have nearly 150 games on Steam, some I've been waiting to play for quite some time, and somehow, it just lost its appeal. I've looked at this, and the only reason I see is that since I started steeming, I had to cut something as my personal time is limited (as 99% of people, non-millionaire people I guess).
Between Japanese self-learning, reading, and trying to stay in shape in my too-fast moving field of work (software dev) and gaming... Something had to be cut, I can't fabricate time...
I waited more than a year to buy Shadow Tactics: Blades of the Shogun cheaper and play it. And since I have it, I played 18 minutes... I will play from time to time, but only because I can play in subtitled Japanese ;-)
I think I will come back to game more in the future, but for now, I've put other things on top of my personal time, same as you did a while ago.
ps: and having played nearly all Assassin's Creed games (love the history side), that AC: Origins game will be mine at one point, I can't resist ;-)
It seems a lot of games need a serious time commitment. I used to have some little games on my phone, but I don't even play those now. If I have a spare moment I will be checking steemit
Indeed, a lot of games are very demanding. I played more than 150 hours of _Rocket League _ to come to the conclusion that I just suck at it, and that it's not for me ;-)
I played the most excellent Witcher III for more than 320 hours, it was more than 2 years ago when I had more time. I don't regret any second of it. Since then, I played lots of indie games, and a lot of them can be "finished" within 20 to 25 hours.
I like to have a feeling of completion, that "I did it" moment.
One thing though that I tried and I don't play anymore: punishing rogue games where you have no savegame and tens of hours of gaming can be gone in a matter of seconds... Except for Dungeon of the Endless which was rogue but all games ended within 3 to 4 hours if you managed to go to the end.
Ah well, too little time, and always something interesting to read, whether it's on steemit or not!
That’s very random I went a similar way to you, from Atari STFM to a 350mhz pc on win 98 I think, before that I had Atari Lynx, Mega CD, PS2 and 3 and SNES to name a few - now a few PC’s and 2 Xbox Ones.
My kids had Game Boy and DS too. I sort of bypassed the original consoles as they came out late for me.
I started on the 2600 then the ST, then likely the Lynx missed out on the Jaguar then to SNES, I’ve now a Lenovo Z50 for video work and a quad core AMD for mining and other bits.
@steevc Good to hear that you are still interested in playing a computer games. Well, in music, you are good but you should try playing some awesome games which have been recently launched in the marked named as 'Detroit become human'.
I am eagerly waiting for steemit song which you have written
No need to wait as here's one of them from last year
wow!!! @steevc I loved the song you are an expert guitarist and lyrics are just awesome.
Just loved it its so unique and also subscribed your youtube channel
You have been involved in gaming for a very long time and have played a lot of different games , I am amaze at you interest in playing games over these year. And now that you are pursuing a new passion for music I wish you all the best and I know you will become a good guitarist and musician also @steevc
A very special article
Really a very special and entertaining game
I wish you good luck
This Is Great!