Perhaps a little off topic and a little wordy but...
PongWhen I was a kid (we're going back a ways here) my parents bought the family a dedicated console that would run a couple of variations of pong. Thinking back on it now, the thing had to have been based on analog technology. I simply
loved that game. Can you say "burn in"?
Star TrekNot the video game; the computer game. I first played it on a teletype terminal in the computer lab at a local college in '75. Game play unfolded on paper. You could save and restore your game from 8-track paper tape punched at the console. It was one of those life changing moments. I suddenly knew that what I wanted to do was play and learn how to write computer games. I've been in the software biz ever since. I never did get around to writing computer games, but I'm having fun anyways.
A close second, in this category, is Adventure with its "maze of twisty little passages". I stumbled on that one on my first UNIX computer. By this time I was employed. I'd play Adventure at lunch, after work, and sometimes furtively while working. My desk was full of state diagrams, created to map out the underworld and discover its secrets.
Flight SimulatorNot the Microsoft game; we're talking about a late ‘80s Silicon Graphics (SGI) UNIX workstation with a dedicated graphics engine. Revolutionary for its time. Ultra smooth 3D graphics rendering; network based game play (but we only had the one machine
); additive record and playback. Wow! This game opened my eyes to the possibility of using software to simulate real world processes.
Halo for PCI'm a Halo addict now. Nothing beats a human adversary. My wife looks over my shoulder and says "you're
still stuck on that road?". My first thought is
no and its not a road, but well yes I suppose I am, in the same way people who play chess are stuck on the same board. It might be the same map, but the human element makes it different and exciting. This is my first experience with mutli-player games since Pong, and I've got to say, I simply
love this game.
Good racing,
Boot.