[11] Don't do the crime if you can't do the time

Growing up, I always had a soft spot for police procedurals and detective shows.  Early on, shows like Inspector Gadget would intrigue my elementary school mind, and later I would be exposed to it's spiritual predecessor, Get Smart.  Two things I wouldn't learn for a few years -- both starred Don Adams, and Get Smart was an early project of the great Mel Brooks, but at this point, I had probably fallen in love with Spaceballs or Blazing Saddles without knowing the connection.  Nick at Nite showed reruns of the classic Dragnet, and later, Adam-12.

Looking back, Adam-12 was probably a big inspiration for the game that I next played.

[10] Shiny Happy People

 On November 27, 1987, the number one song in the US was, appropriately, "(I've Had) The Time of My Life", the dance finale from Jerry Orbach's best acting work until Law & Order.  The day before, Scott Miller released the first in a series that basically started a game company.

The Kroz series of games was the result of Miller having written a couple of Infocom-inspired text adventures, and realizing how much more could be achieved on the computer instead, he upped the game.  His own words:

"After writing [two] Infocom-inspired text adventure games, Beyond the Titanic and Supernova, I decided it was time to step up my game and make something with graphics.  This was style four-color CGA days, and while 16-color EGA was making headway, the vast majority of PCs didn't have it.  So, I decided to try making a game with ASCII characters, using a lot of the high-end character, many of which worked quite well for games back then." - Scott Miller, from the release notes with the Kroz source code released in 2009.

I've already mentioned in my first post the game Castle Adventure, and this was likely also an inspiration to this and another game series we will discuss.  

Skipping to the end here

Kroz is Zork spelled backwards, and although that was an influence to Miller, a bigger impact was made on him with the game Rogue, a 1984 game that looks very similar, but has little AI and leaves more to random chance.

[09] I Lost on Jeopardy, Baby

Edit: Sadly, this was posted barely a day before the death of longtime Jeopardy host Alex Trebek.  Rest in peace.

So this brings me to the 5th grade, when I won a few prizes on a Nickelodeon show.

It was a show called Total Panic, a variety show somewhat modeled after the original You Can't Do That on Television episodes aired in Canada in the late 1970s, before being picked up by Nick.  Amongst the fun, I did a call-in contest where I won a Casio keyboard, a 110 camera, and a trip to Busch Gardens, Florida -- and their water park, known at the time as Wild Water Kingdom.

The tech story isn't in Florida, although the 7 day, 6 night trip was too short (and my parents made me give up a couple of those days to visit my grandparents, losing valuable theme park time).  No, it's the flight back, when my piece of luggage was lost.  It took them a while to find it -- and then had to drive it over 2 hours north from the airport -- so it wasn't until weeks after the trip that I was able to enjoy two bargain-bin games that I bought there.  For CGA monitors, in DOS, here's Pat Sajack and Alex Trebeck.

[08] Hit it, Rockapella

For years, computer game companies and computer stores tried to sell more games by adding a little bit of "educational" content and then claiming that it was really educational software made fun.  More often than not, they were just lying through their teeth.  But sometimes, they did it right.  Every now and then, a company would make good on this "edutainment" market.

Take, for example, the company Broderbund.  Founded in 1980 by brothers Doug and Gary Carlston, they often tried to be the clean, pure company in comparison to the wild and crazy competitors such as Sierra.  But competition in that time was friendlier -- at the same time each one would try to outsell the other, they also went on vacations together, rafting trips, and the like.  And there was an unspoken gentleman's agreement to not step on each other's toes so much.

So Broderbund later diverted their attentions more to educational titles, while Sierra pumped up their games.  They both still did a little of each; Sierra taught us a lot about sea life, for example, and Broderbund polarized the adventure gaming community with the non-standard interface and design of their best -selling adventure.

[07] Going down a rabbit hole...

I was in the middle of writing my latest post, and circumstances happened.  I found myself impulse buying a new computer to replace my 10 year-old desktop (Thanks, Amazon Prime Day!) So I got to thinking about some of my routines, whenever I upgrade hardware.  The last time I upgraded my monitor (to a 28" I still use), the last computer upgrade, the last time I got a larger TV.  How do I test these new things?

For the new TV, I pull out the DVD for my favorite movie, the 1980 sleeper classic Used Cars.  New speakers?  The gunshots near the beginning of Grosse Pointe Blank. For that one, I was introduced the the movie by a friend of a friend, showing off the new subwoofer in his college dorm room.  It's what started this tradition for me.

Hey, Jenny Slater.

For a new computer, it's often one of my favorite games, even if it's something not graphically impressive.  I've played some favorites like the original Police Quest often (and I promise, I will be getting to that game on this blog soon), but this time, the first game I played was a game that forced me to buy a new graphics card for my old desktop.  On this trip down the rabbit hole, we're going down into The Cave.

[06] Now, This is the Game of a Carpenter

For the last few entries, I have been excited about writing this post.  Finally, the first graphical adventure game, which from this point on would become my favorite genre.

Then, I started playing the game, and realized I had no reason to be excited, because this game wasn't very good.  But this blog is a blog of firsts, of memories -- if I was writing simply an adventure game blog, I would skip this game for the much, much better follow-up entry in this game series, Fate of Atlantis.

But that's getting ahead of myself.  First, let's set the stage.  Another game I copied from my friend Troy came on a bunch of floppy disks and had a seemingly-important, very large manual, the grail diary.  To be fair, if I had seen the movie Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade yet, I'm not entirely sure.  But it would definitely become one of my all-time favorites.

This is the companion, of sorts, to the 1989 cinematic gem by George "Star Wars" Lucas.  Set in 1938, Dr. Indiana Jones goes off in search of the biblical Holy Grail, after his father was lost on the same quest.  Some of the historic locations include Hitler's Germany, a scenic Italy, and more.

In replaying this game after some time, I planned to run the CGA/EGA version, but sadly, I decided I couldn't stomach it.  I think this is why I gave up on the game very early back in that time.  Well, that, and the fact that I didn't have access to a BBS to get a walkthru yet.  Nor was I yet a subscriber to QuestBusters, and their incredible hint pages each month.

[05] Many Hours of Productivity Down the Drain

 Another game Troy had in his collection was Pipe Dream from LucasFilm Games.  A simple game, you needed to quickly lay down the pipe shapes you were given into the grid, so that the liquid (flooz) would flow far enough away from the starting point.  I found in research that a later re-release of the game from a later publisher added a goal of connecting the output to an appropriate exit -- something definitely missing from the original.

From a blurb in Computer Gaming World:

PIPE DREAM: This is a spatial strategy game that'll keep you on your toes. As a Plumber-in-Chief for a chemical company, you've got stay one step ahead of the flowing 'flooz' as you try to build the longest possible pipe system. The pipe segments appear at random and you've got to use quick thinking and forward planning in laying the pipe. As the rounds progress, you'll have to deal with obstacles, one way pipes, and faster flowing flooz. One or two players.

So in a way, a game that is reminiscent of Tetris -- here's a bunch of random pipes, quickly lay them, but try to plan ahead.

I wanted to do my replay in CGA, as I played it then, but I could not get the program working under DosBox for anything less than EGA.  So, enhanced graphics I didn't have at the time.

A title screen that accurately depicts the game to come

[04] A Rad Execution of a Quarterpipe by a Computer Semi-Pro

Well, it seems Mom won't drive me all the way to Keith's house, so we'll go halfway -- to my friend Troy.  Not a massive gamer of his time, he would later go on to work at a local McDonald's in high school, help me get a job there with him, and use that money to buy his first car, a 12 year-old Pontiac that he would upgrade with, among other things, a light-up neon license plate border.  But this isn't the tech you were expecting to read about -- so, back to the topic on hand.

Up to this point, I don't think I owned a lot of commercial releases of software myself.  Most of what I had gotten, some with my grandfather's help, were shareware and freeware titles.  And the rest, well, were (ahem) obtained over the SneakerNet.

Technically, this ad campaign didn't come about until a few years after this post...

[03] Having a daffy time in the third grade

 Back in elementary school, one of the greatest joys, besides trying to get your playground swing to do a 360°, was when we spent time in the library, which often meant we could use the computers.

Memories, memories... I have more than this computer could hold in it's RAM.

For anyone in Generation X, or even those a few years after us, certain games at school were a rite of passage, a required step in life.  Lemonade Stand, for example, was a 1979 classic that was played for over a decade without upgrade or revisions, and has since been ported and re-released multiple times over.  Oregon Trail is another one that has avoided dying of dysentery for many decades, most recently, as a card game that I have yet to experience.

[02] Dice and Ladders

 I remember some of the games I played on Grandpa's XT, before I had one of my own.  Other than Castle Adventure, the earliest game memory from that PC I have is Willy the Worm.

Willy the Worm in color mode

Willy the Worm was released in 1985 as a shareware title from Alan Farmer in Charlottesville, Virginia.  Sadly, his name is one way too common to track down, the best I found so far is a few other game credits through about 1990.  This game is both simple, yet impressive for different reasons.  Firstly, it was distributed with the source code, in Pascal.  Secondly, it came with a level editor (also with the source code).  While admittedly not a very challenging game, unless you play it on a modern speed computer, I'm sure that, in the right hands, a challenging set of levels could be designed.

[01] My first computer, and my life of piracy at age 9

My grandfather was an early adopter of the IBM PC/XT, their early foray into the personal computing field inhabited largely by Apple and some others.  I was 7 or 8 at the time, so I don't remember all the details, but it initially had an amber monochrome screen and only one 5 1/4" floppy drive, to which he later added a second.  He also added a hard drive, likely a 10 megabyte one.

It looked very much like this, with a printer by its side.

Together, we played what was my first adventure game.  A shareware classic named Castle Adventure, written by a 14 year-old kid, although I hadn't noticed the typos and bad grammar at the time.  I do plan to do a detailed post on this game -- and try to solve it with a fresh set of eyes 30+ years later.  [Edit: I've since done this, for The Adventurer's Guild.]

[00] Introduction & Reboot

 A re-introduction to a blog I haven't posted to in over 12 years, and a fresh start.

This will be an exploration of my past -- as connected to computer games, technology, and other related things.  It won't necessarily be chronological, but at least to start, it will focus on a lot of firsts.  My first computer.  My first video game system.  The first week of 6th grade, when a new friend introduced me to my first Sierra game.  My goal is to explore everything around me, the books I read, the magazines, the ways I enjoyed that tech.

It may seem unfocused, but that's not entirely true.  My goal is to relive the fun of the past and try to look through my past eyes.  No play-by-play walkthroughs here, although I will definitely link to them if I feel one is a worthwhile read.  No ratings, other than me simply saying, why would I have played it then, and would I still enjoy it now?

Some inspiration for this blog is coming from other trips to the past:  The Adventure Gamer is a largely chronological replay of popular adventure games starting from the early 80s, full playthroughs and ratings.  The Digital Antiquarian is a little less focused, but a very well research delve into the past.  I'm sure we will cross some of the same paths, perhaps with different opinions.

It won't be revisionist.  This is a point I feel I should make.  I'll be judging things from the time they came out, even if something wouldn't be made by modern standards because of a change in our public morals.

Once I get this going, it'll be fun to make this a collaborative project.  That's a future goal.

But for now, sit back and enjoy the ride.