Timewaster's Guide Archive
Games => Video Games => Topic started by: The Holy Saint, Grand High Poobah, Master of Monkeys, Ehlers on July 15, 2004, 10:37:47 AM
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reference: http://www.timewastersguide.com/view.php?id=792
My biggest thought:
You young people are doing you're darnedest to make me feel old, right? The SIMPSONS arcade game is retro? I mean, it is, but but... it's not the oldest OR the best four player arcade game... How about some Gauntlet at least?
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I happened to realy like this article. Well said McDingus.
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Thanks Spriggan. I wrote it between 1 and 2 in the morning one night when I couldn't sleep.
No question about The Simpsons not being the oldest or the best, it just was the one that stuck in my mind. I never played the original Gauntlet... ;D
Hee hee. I'm a published writer!! Huzzah!
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I have always had a deep love in my heart for the Atari 2600 "Adventure". I'm not a big gamer, but I have an Adventure clone on my PC which still provides thrills.
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We had a TI 99/4A as well. Munch Man was really good (probably better than Pac-Man) and if I remember right, you were trying to fill the whole map rather than empty it.
Alpiner was a classic as well, where your task was to climb mountains containing hazards such as cougars, bears, and landslides (animals didn't move, but they had these little thingies you could try to get for points you could swipe from them, and you had to time it right or get your hand smacked.)
Parsec, Cat and Mouse, and especially Hunt the Wumpus were all great games. I imagine my mother was probably a little bit disturbed when we dubbed some of the cherry-flavored spots in a particular type of cake she made 'blood spots' after the telltale traces the Wumpus would leave behind. Whatever she thought of it, we know it as Hunt the Wumpus cake now. ;D
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You're right, Prometheus, about Munch Man. Your little guy would leave behind a chainlink as he sped around the track, and ate little blinking Texases for the powerups. It was like competitive fence-building. The maze didn't change, but the enemies did, and they got faster the further you went.
Bonus question! What level of Munch Man is my avatar from? ;D
I never knew those bits to be blood spots in Hunt the Wumpus. They were just warnings that the Wumpus was nearby. Turns out, according to my dad, that they were really called "blood spots". Not that he ever let us get close to the manuals when we (my brother and I) were young... :)
I still say "Press Fire to begin" all the time... heh heh. Parsec rules.
I never had Alpiner, but my cousins did. We still fire that up just to hear all the stupid crap the guy says when he runs into a pine tree. "Yuck"??
How'd you do on that game? I would get to Everest, but I could never beat it.
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I was the king of Yar's Revenge. and I was invincible at Space Invaders on the 2600 (had to be turned off to watch conference).
Early PC gaming: the Apple II Conan. You know what I'm talking about. And Karateka too. Oh yeah. You knew the guy was good when he could hit that stupid hawk/bird/thing.
Best of all, however, was a very early graphical RPG shareware called "dnd"
you could desecrate alters, run from dragons, etc. Oh yeah, that was so cool. wonder fi I can find the 5.25" disks it was on.
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I can't believe I actually remember my personal record for Alpiner.
In one instance, we made it to Mount McKinley on the 2nd run through the game. (after Everest 1) Everest 1 was pretty hard, but we could beat it semi-regularly after we figured out how to get past the abominable-snowman-on-skis. You should see the 2nd run. They started dropping all sorts of nasty stuff on your head instead of those sluggish rockslides.
I think our old TI is probably thrown away or something. The connection to the TV was never very good, and I'd almost be surprised if it was still compatible with modern equipment.
So your parents never told you what the red spots were in Hunt the Wumpus? Certainly changes the perception of the game. Hunt the Wumpus ruled.
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Dang, I remember most of the arcade games I played as a tyke. I loved Wizard of Wor and Joust. Gauntlet was awesome, as was Golden Axe and Space Harrier. And how could you not love Donkey Kong.
As far as the mighty Atari 2600 went, my cousin and I used to play Raiders of the Lost Ark for hours on end. Adventure, Defender, Yars Revenge, Pitfall and (of course) Space Invaders were also favorites.
And I think I might be the only person in the world who actually owned the Atari version of Popeye.
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The local skating ring had Kung Fu (name errors possible) and Rampage as their best entries, so I played those a lot when my mother would take us there. Joust was fun, but a little difficult for the age I was at the time, and Golden Axe never quite made it into my favorites of that flavor of semi-3D sidescroll fighters.
Knights of the Round was one of the great ones in that category for me...yeah, I could see myself playing Knights of the Round in a nickelcade again easily.
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Was Parsec oen of the talking games? I remember I used to play some space game but with it set to Spanish. lol "Continue el juego, Capitan."