As it became clear that the C64 was at the end of it's life I faced something of a conundrum. At that time the logical choice was the Commodore Amiga, the 16-bit powerhouse that Commodore had developed to replace the C64. The problem was that was 17 and had other interests outside of gaming and the last thing I wanted was to be bogged down using a computer. Most of my friends were playing on consoles at this time and the Sega Mega Drive (Or Genesis as it was known in the USA) was the console of choice. However the Amiga had plenty of amazing games and was a proper computer as opposed to just a console.
In the end I opted for the Mega Drive first. There was a great library of games available for it and the multiplayer aspect was a real selling point for me. I didn't abandon the idea of getting an Amiga, but merely shelved it until I had enough money to buy one. It turned out to be a great idea. The Mega Drive was a great piece of kit and I got many hours of fun out of it. There were many fantastic games that I got to play but more importantly, and for the first time since I got the VIC 20, a games console became my lead gaming format. Even when I got the Amiga about 18 months later it was destined to play second fiddle to the Mega Drive.
The Amiga will always be remembered by me for one game. Sensible World of Soccer. For many years this remained my most favorite football game. There were other great games as well and for a while it led the way when it came to flight sims and point and click adventures until the PC market really started to take off.
The problem with the Amiga was that by the time I had purchased it, it's basic architecture was nearly 7 years old. There had been many re-incarnations of it since it was launched but it was essentially the same. Commodore did try and address this with the Amiga A1200 which I also owned which was a 32-bit machine but it was too late. By that time the PC was starting to become more versatile and more people were going out and buying one for use in the home. The A1200 was never really fully exploited to it's full potential by game developers who by that time had thrown their lot in with consoles and the PC leaving the Amiga market high and dry.
As the Mega Drive soldiered on, the Amiga vanished as Commodore folded and even after a brief re-appearance when Escom bought the rights to the technology, it's day in the sun was over. I enjoyed many great hours with the Amiga, playing brilliant games for it, but sadly I missed out on many years enjoyment by the time I got one.
As I said, I continued to play on the Mega Drive. When Nintendo launched the more powerful SNES, Sega decided to try and pro-long the life of the Mega Drive until their next console was ready for launch. The launched the Mega CD and the 32X addons. I got the 32X so I could play Doom though it turned out to be a waste of money. Despite the fact that it essentially was supposed to turn the Mega Drive into a 32 bit console it lack any real power to stand up with genuine 32 Bit machines. Also everyone knew that the CD ROM based Saturn was on it's way so it did seem like a waste of time.
I only ended up with a handful of games for it and spent most my time still playing the standard 16 bit ones.
My next console delivered one of my favorite of all time. The Sony Playstation.
The Playstation was perfect for me at the time. Sony took the decision to market the console at those with disposable income as opposed to kids which had always been the perceived logic. It worked. There were more games targeted at the adult audience and also titles aimed at people who liked to go out clubbing.
I remember being blown away by the 3D graphics when I first got the Playstation. Games like Wipeout, Ridge Racer and a decent version of Doom barely left the CD ROM drive. However it was games like Resident Evil and Tomb Raider as well as the influx of RPG games from Japan that went onto to define the console for me. Say what you like about Sony, but the Playstation brought the gaming industry into the modern age and set about the attitude that it was no longer just a thing for kids.
The inclusion of the CD ROM drive also meant that the console could stream some fantastic music as well. I can remember playing for hours on the Playstation. More so than any console up to that point it had games that captured my imagination.
I never regretted not opting to buy the Saturn. After getting my finger burnt with the 32X I decided I wanted to try something different. I am not saying that the Saturn was a bad console, it wasn't. However it was simply not the console for me and I never regretted it.
As is always the case, technology waits for no one. As I was comfortable with the Playstation, Nintendo released a 64 bit console called the N64. It was a fantastic console and again provided me with many hours of fun. The graphics were fantastic and I always remember the first time I started playing Mario 64. It was one of those seminal moments in gaming. To date it remains one of my favorite games of all time.
Although Nintendo didn't intentionally set out to do so, the N64 also saw some more mature titles come to it like Turok. It is a testimony to the console that one of the first things I did when I got the Wii was to start downloading classic N64 games so I could play them again.
Next up in the final part. Console threesomes!
Friday, 8 April 2011
A SONG FOR A SPECIAL PERSON
Sometimes someone can change your life in a heartbeat. They are so rare but so perfect
Wednesday, 6 April 2011
MY HISTORY OF GAMING PART 2
So after my initial encounter with video games there was a small period of time when I started to lose interest somewhat.
The main problem was that the games were so limited by the technology at the time. Hand held devices only played one game and as I already mentioned the Pong console that I had was only really for two players and without a regular gaming partner it soon found itself taking up residence at the back of the wardrobe.
At that time I was more interested in playing with my Star Wars toys and I had amassed quite a collection of them. The thought of playing anymore video games was quite far from my mind I am sure.
Christmas 1983 was a watershed moment as they say. Without any prompting my mum and dad had decided in their wisdom to buy me a proper computer. The saw where the world was headed and wanted me to have a head start and so invested in a computer. I am not sure whether they actually thought that playing games on it would be the prime reason for me powering it up but that's what ended up happening.
On Christmas day 1983 this nine year old boy unboxed his Commodore VIC 20. I remember that it came with some games but the two a I really remember were 3D Emit Attack and Matrix. 3D Emit Attack was programmed in basic and involved you blasting various combination of keyboard symbols across a fake 3D battle ground. Matrix was something else altogether. It was a full on technicolor audio assault coded by none other than Jeff Minter. I had never encountered anything quite like it before.
The VIC 20 was an interesting computer. It had a proper typewriter keyboard and a standalone tape recorder supplied which plugged into the back. The tape recorder was used to load games and record data. The most important thing was that this enabled you to buy different games so immediately my interest level increased as I was no longer restricted by what I could play.
Despite my initial joy with the VIC 20 it was clear even to me that it was not that powerful compared to other computers on the market and getting new games could prove to be difficult as Commodore had released another computer at the time. The legendary Commodore 64. Despite this the VIC 20 was the most important computer I owned because it really got me back into gaming and also I learned how to program in BASIC curtosy of the manual that came with it which taught you the basics of BASIC if you pardon the pun.
It was my sister getting a Commodore 64 that was another game changer. I was obsessed by it because it was so much more powerful than the VIC 20 despite it looking very similar. Not only was it capable of better games but the sound was fantastic as well thanks to the SID chip. If there was one game that really made me want a C64 it was Ghostbusters.
Whenever I was round at my sisters house I would bother her to play Ghostbusters as well as Beach Head and Raid over Moscow. I was finding it more and more difficult to play games on the VIC 20 and the fact that I never managed to locate a copy of Ghostbusters on it pretty much meant that it ended up being neglected.
That changed in Christmas 1985 when my mum and dad bought me a Commodore 64. For me it was like arriving in the promised land. Not only did I get the computer but a wealth of games including my precious Ghostbusters.
If the VIC 20 was important for getting back into games, the C64 was the computer that molded me into a gamer for life.
The incredible thing about the C64 aside from it's sheer power was that it had a huge library of games to choose from. Over the next few years I amassed a huge amount of games and spent hours playing on it. I also learned more advanced BASIC as I got older and actually coded my own text based adventure game though I never sent it off to be published.
To select stand out games on the C64 is almost an exercise in folly. There were simply too many to mention but the Last Ninja series was fantastic. Brutally hard but compelling it sported some beautiful graphics and an awe inspiring soundtrack. You also had a plethora of brilliant games from the software house Thalamus such as Armalyte, Hawkeye and Delta. I could go on and on.
Without doubt the C64 was and remains my favorite games machine I ever owned. From 1985 to 1991 I played on it regularly until I got a Sega Megadrive (Genesis for readers in the US). It is worth mentioning that in the time I had the C64 I also owned a Sega Master system which I liked a lot but I always came back to the C64.
The Master System was a great console. It's arrival was actually inspired by a visit I made to my relatives in Canada when I was 15. I stayed over at my cousins house and he owned the Nintendo NES system. It was the first time I had encountered a console since playing on a friends Atari VCS 2600 which was so brutally basic compared to the C64 it was untrue. The NES was a revelation though. There was no loading time for games (using the infamous C2N tape loader took tens of minutes to load games) and the control pad with two individual button controllers worked so much better than the more clunky joysticks which only afforded the gamer one individual button.
When I came back from Canada I really wanted a games console. In Europe and the UK the NES was under competition from the Sega Master System. The reason I chose Sega's baby was simple. It had more arcade conversions and they looked and played better on Sega's format than on the Commodore 64. The problem with the Master System was that the games were far more expensive than the C64 ones and despite crisper graphics the sound was awful. The C64 ultimately had more interesting games to play on it as well so there were times when the Master System was left gathering dust until a major title came out and I had the money to get it.
Despite my long love affair with the C64 it had to come to an end. Time moved on and the games dried up as more powerful machines gained a larger market share. As I looked at what was on the market to go for next, two possibilities came up and choosing between them was almost impossible...so I ended up getting both of them.
That is for part 3.
The main problem was that the games were so limited by the technology at the time. Hand held devices only played one game and as I already mentioned the Pong console that I had was only really for two players and without a regular gaming partner it soon found itself taking up residence at the back of the wardrobe.
At that time I was more interested in playing with my Star Wars toys and I had amassed quite a collection of them. The thought of playing anymore video games was quite far from my mind I am sure.
Christmas 1983 was a watershed moment as they say. Without any prompting my mum and dad had decided in their wisdom to buy me a proper computer. The saw where the world was headed and wanted me to have a head start and so invested in a computer. I am not sure whether they actually thought that playing games on it would be the prime reason for me powering it up but that's what ended up happening.
On Christmas day 1983 this nine year old boy unboxed his Commodore VIC 20. I remember that it came with some games but the two a I really remember were 3D Emit Attack and Matrix. 3D Emit Attack was programmed in basic and involved you blasting various combination of keyboard symbols across a fake 3D battle ground. Matrix was something else altogether. It was a full on technicolor audio assault coded by none other than Jeff Minter. I had never encountered anything quite like it before.
The VIC 20 was an interesting computer. It had a proper typewriter keyboard and a standalone tape recorder supplied which plugged into the back. The tape recorder was used to load games and record data. The most important thing was that this enabled you to buy different games so immediately my interest level increased as I was no longer restricted by what I could play.
Despite my initial joy with the VIC 20 it was clear even to me that it was not that powerful compared to other computers on the market and getting new games could prove to be difficult as Commodore had released another computer at the time. The legendary Commodore 64. Despite this the VIC 20 was the most important computer I owned because it really got me back into gaming and also I learned how to program in BASIC curtosy of the manual that came with it which taught you the basics of BASIC if you pardon the pun.
It was my sister getting a Commodore 64 that was another game changer. I was obsessed by it because it was so much more powerful than the VIC 20 despite it looking very similar. Not only was it capable of better games but the sound was fantastic as well thanks to the SID chip. If there was one game that really made me want a C64 it was Ghostbusters.
Whenever I was round at my sisters house I would bother her to play Ghostbusters as well as Beach Head and Raid over Moscow. I was finding it more and more difficult to play games on the VIC 20 and the fact that I never managed to locate a copy of Ghostbusters on it pretty much meant that it ended up being neglected.
That changed in Christmas 1985 when my mum and dad bought me a Commodore 64. For me it was like arriving in the promised land. Not only did I get the computer but a wealth of games including my precious Ghostbusters.
If the VIC 20 was important for getting back into games, the C64 was the computer that molded me into a gamer for life.
The incredible thing about the C64 aside from it's sheer power was that it had a huge library of games to choose from. Over the next few years I amassed a huge amount of games and spent hours playing on it. I also learned more advanced BASIC as I got older and actually coded my own text based adventure game though I never sent it off to be published.
To select stand out games on the C64 is almost an exercise in folly. There were simply too many to mention but the Last Ninja series was fantastic. Brutally hard but compelling it sported some beautiful graphics and an awe inspiring soundtrack. You also had a plethora of brilliant games from the software house Thalamus such as Armalyte, Hawkeye and Delta. I could go on and on.
Without doubt the C64 was and remains my favorite games machine I ever owned. From 1985 to 1991 I played on it regularly until I got a Sega Megadrive (Genesis for readers in the US). It is worth mentioning that in the time I had the C64 I also owned a Sega Master system which I liked a lot but I always came back to the C64.
The Master System was a great console. It's arrival was actually inspired by a visit I made to my relatives in Canada when I was 15. I stayed over at my cousins house and he owned the Nintendo NES system. It was the first time I had encountered a console since playing on a friends Atari VCS 2600 which was so brutally basic compared to the C64 it was untrue. The NES was a revelation though. There was no loading time for games (using the infamous C2N tape loader took tens of minutes to load games) and the control pad with two individual button controllers worked so much better than the more clunky joysticks which only afforded the gamer one individual button.
When I came back from Canada I really wanted a games console. In Europe and the UK the NES was under competition from the Sega Master System. The reason I chose Sega's baby was simple. It had more arcade conversions and they looked and played better on Sega's format than on the Commodore 64. The problem with the Master System was that the games were far more expensive than the C64 ones and despite crisper graphics the sound was awful. The C64 ultimately had more interesting games to play on it as well so there were times when the Master System was left gathering dust until a major title came out and I had the money to get it.
Despite my long love affair with the C64 it had to come to an end. Time moved on and the games dried up as more powerful machines gained a larger market share. As I looked at what was on the market to go for next, two possibilities came up and choosing between them was almost impossible...so I ended up getting both of them.
That is for part 3.
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