Jun 22
Following the recent unveiling of my Las Vegas plan I have been regularly fielding questions about what that plan actually involves. The most common question is naturally the most difficult to answer. I find myself reinventing answers with each asking, not with a motive of deception, but rather for lack of actually having a good answer to give. What AM I going to be doing in Las Vegas? While work will occupy a few days a week, the rest of my time seems up in the air. Near the top of my list of possible diversions is a more serious and dedicated return to game design. To be honest, as much as I love gaming and as cool as I imagine game design to be, I fear that the realities of the industry are moving further and further from the idyllic fantasies of my imagination. Reflecting on the subject, I can’t help but wonder if the current generation of 50 million dollar juggernauts carry the same influence as their 50 thousand dollar, 15 year-old counterparts. Naturally I then started to compile a list of the incredibly awesome, though historically underappreciated games that I grew up with.
Beginning with Skate or Die.
Admittedly, I found this game during my ‘maybe I want to be a skateboarder’ phase. Sure, I was 6 years old, but a mothafuckin’ hardcore six-year-old complements of Skate or Die. My friends built a 20 foot high half-pipe in their backyards. That was my first realization that blood seen in a video game may actually correlate to real blood flowing out of my real knees when I try to replicate the game in real life. I probably cried, but that didn’t make the game any less sweet.
Blast Corps. Hell Fucking Yes. This game has been in my head all day, but there is no accounting for why. The important thing is this, and pay attention: a nuclear reactor from somewhere needs to get from point A to point B. Unfortunately, there is a lot of stuff in the way (buildings, trees, boxes, entire cities). In order for the nuclear reactor to get through, you need to clear (read ‘completely destroy’) all the objects in the path. Honestly, I can’t imagine a more compelling premise for a game. If I had my way there would be a new Blast Corps game every 6 months. As it is, nobody else liked the game and now you’d be lucky if you were able to find a copy, let alone play it.
There are a ton of games that I played whose names I have long since forgotten. But while their titles may be lost, my appreciation remains undiminished. Among them:
An incredibly simplistic game for the old Macintosh where you control a helicopter that has a man dangling from one of it’s legs. A horse-drawn cart moves at various speeds across the bottom and you have to drop the man into the buggy. The higher you are, the more points you get. The game eventually becomes incredibly fast and the action becomes incredibly furious. Some might even say Too Fast. Too Furious.
Another game for the old school Macintosh based on Camelot and the Knights of the Round Table. Of all the games that I have ever played and forgotten this has to be the one that I most wish I could remember. You control a legion of knights, each controlling their own small army. You have to complete various quests (as all knights should, obviously) and along the way engage and defeat the armies of all the baddies. The game installed off at least 12 floppy disks and came with a giant map that I used to meticulously plan my campaigns; the back of which I covered almost completely with the different passwords you needed to continue games before save files were invented.
Alright, I could probably write a similar list of games for every day of the year, but my time is up. I need to leave work and pick up lukas from the train station. And if there’s time, I need to pick up Kirby: Canvas Curse and Pokemon: Emerald, too.