Entertainment For Lively Minds
Are you a Gameboy (or Girl)?
AKA my night of shame with Super Mario Kart.
Spurred on by the excellent Gameswipe BBC4 programme and not remembering any discussion of this in the past.
My High Score List: I think the first computer game I played at home was a hand held “Mini Munch Man” (a bright yellow “watch & game”) Pac Man knock off. Which me and brothers played to death, to this day I can still remember the sequence of moves to get HHH (a 1000 points on the limited LED display).
After that our family being the bastions of the road less travelled technology got a Dragon 32 (a sort of poor man’s Welsh BBC Micro) and we endured waiting an hour after school for Donkey Kong to load via the cassette player audio out lead. There was also of course “Manic Miner”, “3d space wars” and a weird game where you stamped on rats who were trying to eat your flower patch.
We also went round “normal” family’s houses to play on their Ataris (144 versions of space invaders anyone?) and Spectrums, mainly the Hobbit. I never got into slot machines (by the time I had enough pocket money to play them I’d rather spend it on records and comics!) but I always liked “defender” and the “stars wars trench game” when I was avoiding skating at the ice rink.
After that my Dad got an Amstrad pc and we got the byzantine Batman puzzle game with it strange green graphics.
I always enjoyed the odd game of pinball in the pub or Union bar and later for a short time had a 2nd hand Sega Saturn and played “Sonic” and “Doom” far too late into the night .
Coming up to date I’m a DS fan, having a number of Nintendo gameboys. The games I play most are the mighty “Advanced wars” series, the wonderfully simple best played against my nephews Mario Kart, the inventive and pleasingly daft Lego Starwars series and the eternal pleasures of Scrabble and Poker games.
I have never got into shoot ‘em ups and sim games and have only played a few bum notes on Rock Hero guitar band.
Oh and let’s not mention the time drain that is “just a quick game of Mah-jong”
So what video/computer games do people enjoy?
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Nintendo man, myself
And Mario Kart, in all it's major recent incarnations, has always been a love of mine.
Was always Nintendo
and the various Mario and Zelda things, and Goldeneye on the N64. Then there was the Final Fantasy series on the Playstation. Many many hours playing Final Fantasy 7.
Bought a PS2 last year after staying away from games for about 7 years simply to play Ico and Shadow Of The Colossus, two of the most beautiful games I've ever seen.
Goldeneye
I've lost all the other N64 games I had over the years, but Goldeneye remains, plugged into the dusty console in the corner of the room, ready to go.
Civilization is The Game
The Way. The Only True game and all who would deny this are heretics. I've worshipped it in all it's manifestations. I love Beyond the Sword best because I'm a perverse girlie and I like to win without any war at all...
But you can lose weeks in Civ so I'm also a PopCap fan - Zuma, The Bejewelleds, Plants V Zombies all are good for short bursts of gameplay.
I like a good adventure (any one else out there remember the old dead days of text adventures - esp. Infocom like Leather Goddesses of Phobos etc?) Good ones are thin on the ground these days but I like Jonathon Roakes work like Lost Crown - very atmospheric.
I rarely use my DS - gets used more on holidays. But when I do get it out I tend to play classics like Sonic, Bubble Bobble, Tetris, James Pond, etc.
We have a wii - but that's Mr Pogs' territory on the whole. I like Mario Kart but am crap at it.
So yeah, I suppose I am a bit of a Gamegirl...
I started
with a Binatone tennis, football & squash game. It was a joint Christmas present to my brother and I and we seriously loved it.
My brother got into computers so had a ZX81 and a Spectrum. I played games on those a lot (Hobbit and Jet Pack were favourites). I may have even gone to a computer fair to buy games on cassettes.
I then got a Sega Game Gear which was ace (I still think Sonic was perfect on this machine). Battery life was poor though.
I won 3 Playstation games on a GLR Saturday morning show phone in so bought a Playstation and then upgraded to a PS2. The PS2 now is used by my son who also has a Wii and and Xbox 360 (we don't spoil him - others do) but I rarely play with them now. We'll have the odd hour a week usually playing a football or driving game. The Wii gets more communal use - Mario Kart is great.
Staggered
Lee.. I thought I was the only one who had one of those Binatone consoles. My one had black and white games and took about ten very large batteries which eventually leaked and ended the fun. Only computer game my Dad and I have ever played together and he loved it.
It also had ice hockey which was the same as football with the goals moved in an inch.
did this have grid ball
on it? if so I think my "spoilt" mate had one he was always a jammy beggar think he got a walkman the same christmas!!!
It was this
http://tvcream.squarespace.com/toy-list/binatone-tv-master.html
I am seriously tempted to go to eBay and snap one up.......
I had one...
...Tennis, Squash, Football and best of all...a light gun...! you could shoot a white spot that glided around your TV. Or shoot at the table lamp for a guaranteed 15/15
yes!
me too! For my 13th birthday, I think. Never worked out the table lamp cheat though!
Re: The 'strange green' amstrad version of 'Batman'.
I suppose you had a green-screen monitor, then?
Here's that game played properly:-
Proustian rush: Thanks for that
I think I prefer our green screen! I of course now want to play the game again my thumbs where racing to the arrow keys to get him past the dangers in the right order cheers!
You may or may not thank me for this...
...but you can get the game (along with lots of others) here.
You'll also need an emulator which you can get here.
get thee behind me
:) I stick with my memories *hand hovers over link...*
Lemmings
Started with a ZX81 and then progressed through a SNES, a PC / Mac and to the current Wii (which is more or less taken over by the kids nowadays). Never been a huge gamer but have always enjoyed the various flavours of Mario / Mario Kart.
But the one game that I've always enjoyed most (and still dip into occasionally via various emulators) is Lemmings. Simple and addictive. Who needs fancy graphics when you have that level of gameplay....
Oh No. .. My Pet Hate...
Let the little buggers die. Life's too short. Etc.
I know next to nothing about games
but since being given my first ever 'games machine' last year at the ripe old age of 36 I've been very taken with the Lego adventures of Batman, Indiana Jones and Star Wars. Other much lauded stuff has bored me to tears but these were great - silly but entertaining and massively addictive. I have, I'm proud to say, completed the lot.
Lego Games
The Lego series are, as you say, silly, entertaining and massively addicted. I've got the Star Wars one, myself, but have played through a lot of the Batman one as well.
The Lego games are
great except the ds version of the original starwars game was sadly buggy (in my version) but I loved the others.
Charlie Brooker's
recent gameswipe might bring back some memories. Hope he gets more chance to geek out in the future
Its on iplayer for those in the Uk who missed it
http://www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer/episode/b00n1j8q/Charlie_Brookers_Gameswipe...
I tend to go for gameplay and silliness over impressive graphics these days so the Lego games suit me down to the ground - Indy 2 is out soon.
Mario Kart, Ghost Recon and other group games beat watching the telly more often than not these days.
Oh and playing Jet Set Willy, Wizball, Skool Daze on my C64 Emulator
I try to limit this behaviour because of that old 'put away childish things' bollocks
My brother and I
used to spend hours on the Amiga back in the early 90s, usually playing Sensible Soccer (complete with 60 yard sliding tackles/diving headers), Lotus Challenge (I was always the bottom half of the screen) or, if there was only one of us, Lemmings, or a Simpsons game in which you had to spray-paint bins and stuff.
Wii rules in our house
My desire for a PS3 was firmly over-ruled by the younger generation. They play currently
Lego Star Wars
Mario Kart/Mario Galaxy
and a great paint-em-up called The Blob
then when they've gone to bed I might sneak an hour or so a week on the seriously un-pc House of the Dead Overkill.
But the Proustian rush is currently around Final Fantasy VII, a copy of which the kids found. Still the best storyline ever in a video game...what? Aeris? Noooooo...
Just me, I'll get my coat then.
Not at all...
Final Fantasy VII just ABSOLUTELY ROCKED..I remember getting a bit teary when I finished it and watched the cut scene..just a completely engaging experience..don't think anything's ever grabbed me quite in the same way since..SHINRA! AVALANCHE! CHOCOBOS!
BBC Computer
Bat n' Ball - hours of fun
'Old gits having fun'
I don't play many games but have spent far too much time on Metal Gear - PS2 and I really enjoy the multiplayer version of Call of duty - World at war. Add this to The Word Blog and there's hardly time to go to the local!
My life in pixels
The Binatone mentioned above, then to the Vic20. Saving hard for those cartridges (16 quid in 1982!) Jelly Monsters, Rat Race, Gorf, Galaxians. Then the Scott Adams Adventures (there were 5, I think, did four but failed to complete "The Count". Go North.
Cassette games from ads in magazines - pretending to myself they weren't crap ("Wacky Waiters", anyone?). Typing in listings that didn't work. Waiting for next month's correction.
Manic Miner and Jet Set Willy on the Spectrum, then better hardware with an ST, of course it was better than the Amiga - these were fighting issues back in the day...As a student, Speedball, Xenon II ("How come 'Escape to New York' has the same music), Stunt Car Racer sessions in to the wee hours, far too much "Blood Money" - the first time my computer spoke to me ("First, there was Menace, now DMA Designs present....Blood Money"). Far, far too long with my roommate finishing 100 levels of "Bubble Bobble". Pirated software on floppys with mind-bending scrolling menus - why didn't these guys write games?
A flirtation with Jeff Minter's "Trip-a-tron" light synth.
God, now bleeding Tetris on a crap x86 PC. These machines were laughable compared to the ST and Amiga, they'll never catch on. A quick dip back into the world of Text adventures with the Infogames bunch. Brief obsession with Lemmings
Wolfenstein 3D - bit too much dog-shooting for me. Really early version of Mame which emulated about 20 classics from the arcade.
Tomb Raider! Damn, some of the later ones were disappointing. MUST FINISH ONE MORE LEVEL OF LEMMINGS BEFORE SLEEP! Why do my Sim City developments keep falling into ill-repute - don't these Sims know what's good for them?
Hours playing keepy-uppy with MAME releases and finding the roms until I couldn't take it any more. Brief solitaire obsession at work.
Marriage, Child. No time. A hiatus of 6 years.
Battle of Britain II. A fine, fine flight sim, but a very steep learning curve. One for bachelors, I think.
Recently. A strange urge to complete the Medal of Honour series. Two left to go. Tomb Raider Legend on standby. Maybe play for 1 hour a month.
MAME
Multi Arcade Machine Emulator (MAME32 is best)
Is a bit of kit which makes your computer think like an old games machine. So you can run old ROM files and play Space Invaders, Asteroids, Missile Command, Robotron and all the rest. I tried to move with the times but I hate first-person shooters. I had a Megadrive in the early 90's but that was about it. I play the odd game of Tiger Woods golf. There's only so much time and I prefer books.