Computer Games - PC, the fourth

And then my father-in-law bought a new computer. Jennifer was going up for a visit, and he said that he would give us his old computer (complete with flat screen monitor) if we would help him move the data from the old to the new computer.

So the new-ish computer cost us an external hard drive that we also got to keep.

A couple friends got me a better graphics card, and I was off with new games.

We also did some hard drive work on it. I had learned about switching out hard drives long before when I had been given an old hard drive from a company that I had been doing part time work at. The important thing I learned was keeping the red wire of the ribbon next to the power cable. Otherwise while it plugs in, it won't work. I also used that knowledge for switching out a dead CD-ROM drive on a previous computer. This computer also came with a DVD-RW drive. Not that I had any use for it other than doing data CDs at the time.

So I was up to SimCity 4 by this time. I also had played a few of the Lord of the Rings/Middle Earth real time strategy (RTS) games.

And later the problems came up. he computer began to make noise. Mostly just a background hum. And I had to upgrade the USB ports. It had 6 (3 in various locations including two cards), but they were all original USBs and so I upgraded them to 2.0.

So last autumn I got my new laptop.

Computer Games - PC, the first

So my first PC game was one my first college roommate had. It was called Oubliette. I didn't play it much, but watched him. It was an ASCII dungeon game (if I'm remembering right).

Then my second roommate had a pool game that I thought was great because it let you see where all of the balls wold go after their first impact.

Then dad got one for working at home. I played a little Wolfenstein 3D that I got from a friend, and then dad got SimCity; the original game back from when it was just Maxis and they were based out of Walnut Creek. We all had so much fun with that game. Making cities, destroying them with monsters and fires.

then I got some games of my own. I played X-Wing and TIE Fighter, ad was mesmerized by not only flying the ships, but having the sound effects I knew and loved with John Williams soundtrack in the background.

And then for Christmas of my final year in Sacramento, I got my own PC. The amazing IBM PS/1.

Free at Last...

Wednesday, I bought SimCity for the iPhone. Electronic Arts was having a sale, so I got it for $0.99. It has the graphics of SC4, but seems to be based on the original SimCity. I played with it off and on, and was having lots of fun.

Then yesterday, I got home, and immediately went to Facebook, and was about to "play" Castle Age.

Castle Age is (or was) the last clicky game I was playing. But it hit me that the game serves no purpose. Okay, even less purpose than other computer games. It doesn't make you think. It doesn't improve hand-eye coordination. You just click and are told a result. You can rarely fail unless your army is too small.

So yesterday, I made the decision to stop playing Castle Age. I went to the invite section of Facebook, and clicked once on "Block Application".

Then I went and read for an hour. I was getting sleepy, so I thought I would go make one last check for FB updates, and then go to bed. While sitting at the computer, I thought about loading SimCity 4 on the laptop, and playing for a bit. I got out the CDs from the big CD book and started the installation.

But then I saw that it required a code from the original CD case. I didn't have that in the office anymore, just the book of all the install CDs I have. So I went to the garage and got down the two file boxes of computer documentation. Digging through, I found that I had put the insert from the CD case in the booklet. So happily, I put the boxes back, and completed the installation.

Then suddenly it was 12:30 AM, and I'd been playing with my first city for an hour and a half.

Now, I'm thinking I'm going to have to do a personal computer game retrospective. Not necessarily on all of the games I used to play, but definitely all the systems. I don't know if I'll start later today or tomorrow. It'll have to depend on how the day goes.

A Triumph!

I have finished Portal.

Or as it turns out the basic levels. Now I'm on to the advanced levels.

I have learned that the key to Portal success is save early and often. I saved after each sphere was destroyed, and then saved after breaking the angry sphere free, and then before creating the portal over the incinerator (since for some reason I kept having trouble putting the portal directly over the incinerator.

I still hate timed levels though. Turning down the music down help though.

Now I can devote more time to other things. Like SimCity Societies.