Forgotten Realms: Angelica, Remembered #gaming

Note:The following article was originally published in April 2017 on my website davidinark.com. The link to that is at the bottom of this one.

While poking around online, I discovered that I was late to a very cool party. It seems that Good Old Games managed to hunt down and secure the licensing rights to the classic “Gold Box” games from SSI built around the Dungeons and Dragons world. Now, to many of you, this means nothing. To me, however, this ushered in a surge of memories from my youth.

I played the “Pool of Radiance” series (as I called it) on my Commodore 64 from the time the Gold Box Series came out until well into my college years. Holy smokes. Stopping to think about that, I just realized I played that series starting in 1988 (freshman year) up until a couple years after my wife and I got married. We married in 1991, but I played the game at least until 1993 or later.

I loved the game. It was based on REAL D&D rules, regs, characters, stats… It combined two of my favorite things: computers and D&D. When I got the game in 1998, I fired up the game and began creating my characters and building a party. The first character I created was a female fighter. She was awesome from the very start. She had pixelated flowing blonde hair, was a tough character through stats, and became the undisputed leader of the party. I named her Angelica. She led battles, did most of the speaking for the group when put into such situations, and remained throughout the entire series – though others had not.

I have to admit, the temptation to resurrect Angelica from the depths of memory and plop her down at the beginning of a new tale, a new adventure, excites the nostalgic kid in me like you would not believe. Thanks to Good Old Games, I could do just that. They took the games, reworked them a bit, and created virtual DOS machines in which to run them. Oh, to fire up the games again and create a new band of adventurers in all that 8- or 16-bit glory…

Alas, it is not meant to be. You see, if I do buy the revamped games, I don’t think I could bring myself to create a new lead female character bearing the name and likeness of the one I had grown so fond of, the one who survived each of the games into which we could move our characters, allowing them to keep growing as new challenges arose from the disks contained inside those gold box games.

No. You see, sometimes you play with a certain character in a game series so long that when the time comes for that character to rest (she never died, the series just ran out and time moved on and I eventually got rid of all my Commodore 64 stuff), you let the character rest. Creating another wouldn’t be the same. And, if the replacement didn’t live up to the same level as the original, then the memory of the first is forever tarnished.

Angelica lives in my heart and memory the way she was: a strong, fierce, pixelated beauty.

Get the games here: https://www.gog.com/game/forgotten_realms_the_archives_collection_two

Link to original article:
http://davidinark.com/2017/04/11/forgotten-realms-angelica-remembered-gaming/

10 Years Since My Dad Died

(I started this back in April 2017, but let life get in the way of finishing it. So, I am finishing it now, before another 10 years goes by.)

...10 years...

My Dad passed away on April 28, 2007. That seems so long ago and like yesterday all at the same time. One of the hardest things about him not being here comes from our mutual love of gaming. He and I would upgrade our computers at about the same time, just so we could play whatever the latest game we both enjoyed could run on them.

We had different tastes in games for the large part, but some games we enjoyed playing independently but would share stories, watch each other play, etc.

Dad loved modding. He would get the latest FIFA, NHL Hockey, or just about any other EA Sports game just so he could go online and find the real-world add-ons he could download and install. He especially loved making FIFA as realistic as he could. Back in the early 2000's, he even downloaded the Spanish voice over (more that 600MB over dial-up) just so he could play the game as though it were on Spanish television.

I think of my Dad almost constantly, though I don't express that probably as often as I might should. I don't know the "rules" when it comes to those kinds of things.

If Dad were alive today, he would definitely have a YouTube channel, showing off the latest add-ons, mods, and real-world effects for the games he loved to play. He would probably be putting out "let's play" videos for horror games, too. Man, he loved horror games. By far and away, his favorite was "Clive Barker's Undying." It's pretty tame by today's standards, but back in the day, it was creepy with a good story and jump scares we hadn't seen in games before - or at least not done as well.

Ten years. I know it's hard for some folks, especially when you're young, to fathom how quickly ten years goes by. And, I also know I am suddenly sounding like a very old man here. But, really. You wake up one day and one of your best friends is telling you about something he and you are going to do when he gets back from Iraq. The next minute, you are told he died overnight. The world stops. The world slowly starts again. You close your eyes for a moment and when you open them, it's ten years later.

There are so many times my very first thought about a new game is that I wish I could tell my father.

On a much brighter note, my son loves gaming as well. He and I share stories, play online together, and continue the traditions started between my father and me. My daughter has started gaming a little, too. She prefers the "shared keyboard" type games where we can hang out together, side-by-side, racing, building, destroying enemies.

Ten years really does go by quickly. I miss one of the greatest gaming buddies I ever had.

The Sky(rim)'s the limit

Yes, that is an in-game screenshot (as posted on GiantBomb.com).  And, yes, I have been to that very spot.

Where is that, you ask? Why, it's in Skyrim.  Skyrim came out on 11/11/11 and it is an open-world, mostly open-ended role playing game.  I say "mostly open-ended" because, like all adventures, you ultimately walk through a series of scripted paths.  Well, might.  It is open-ended in that you don't *have* to do anything.  You decide to accept a quest or not. You decide, once you have accepted a quest, to complete a task.  Heck, even after you complete a task, you decide whether or not you want to finish it - for example, do you *want* to give the recovered gauntlets to the requestor or do you want to keep them for yourself?  You decide.

It's not a new concept. In fact, Skyrim is the next in the Elder Scrolls series of open-world games.  But, after playing Morrowind and Oblivion, I have to say, I like Skyrim A LOT!  Sure, it's got glitches...  One of the first sequences had me talking to a woman who faded into the wall behind her, only to "materialize" after the conversation.  And, okay, so you find randomly floating weapons, armor, bottles, plates, and even animals, during your romp through the countryside, but so what.  The scenery is flat-out gorgeous, the characters are mostly well-created, and exploring the unknown digital realm of Skyrim will suck hours out of your day that you didn't even know you had.  Granted, those hours may be the wee ones after everyone else in the house has gone to bed.

From the first dragon appearance to the bowels (yes, I said bowels) of various and sundry caves and dungeons, Skyrim sucks you in.  I've only played a few days worth.  I bought this past weekend and have played off and on since.  It is the kind of game that could make a person happily use up a week's worth of vacation time and not regret it.

There are definite improvements in gameplay over Oblivion (the game's predecessor):

1. No more "Too encumbered to move."  In Skyrim, if you are overloaded, you simply cannot run. You can still walk (er, shuffle more like it).  You also cannot "fast travel" which can be a particular annoyance when you are carrying a bunch of loot down from a remote mountain top.  In games before, once you reached your carrying capacity, you had to drop stuff because you weren't allowed to move at all.  "Fast travel" just means you pick any discovered location (one to which you have actually visited) and get there with one click instead of walking there in-game.
2. Skill trees have been reworked.  I'm not sure they are 'trees' so much as convoluted constellations with stars upon which you study to learn skill enhancements (like a percentage increase in two-handed weapons, summoning spells, etc).  I like the depth and breadth of skill development, though I have to admit it can be a bit overwhelming.
3. "Cleared" areas (caves, dungeons, etc) are actually cleared.  I always hated going back into areas that I had already supposedly cleared (in Oblivion, etc) only to return to find it inhabited by more creatures.  I do understand that a cave might not remain empty forever, but it just annoyed me.
4. Combat seems much more fluid in Skyrim.  That may be bad memory on my part (that is, not remembering what combat was like in Oblivion etc).  I definitely love the hot keys (you can assign weapons, armor, spells, etc to a key 1-8), though that was also in previous games.  In Skyrim, changing between items is pretty quick and can mean the difference between life and death.  Of course, the fact that you can get down to your last few health points, call up the menu and save yourself with potions has always been a little wacky to me, but if the game lets you do it, then better to take advantage!
5. The graphics, of course.  Everything has been update with new textures.  Some people don't like the "dirt" effect the characters have (everyone has a level of dirt on them, making everyone look a bit gritty) and you can download a "clean" mod for your game if you want (it removes dirt and fixes a few blocky areas like noses).  I prefer to play it like the game maker intended.  Besides, the effect gives the game a darker feel which fits well with the theme.

One of the biggest complaints buzzing about always comes with the Elder Scroll games: system requirements.  The game requires multi core processors. The game requires a DirectX9 video card.  The box says the video card must have 512MB RAM, but Tyler got his to run on his dual-core laptop with a 256MB video card in it.  Granted, he had to dumb-down all the settings and ramp up mouse sensitivity, but it actually looks okay and plays very smoothly from what I've seen him play.

For the record, yes, we bought two copies - one for him and one for me. Target had a gift-card offer when you buy two games and since we both knew we wanted to play it, we each bought a copy.  Besides, there's the whole Steam thing. I hate Steam.  I've said that before.

Overall, though, I'm liking me some Skyrim.  And, having a Thanksgiving holiday come around the week after I bought a copy ain't bad, either!

Come Get Some!

I received the "Holiday 2010" issue of PC Gamer magazine the other day, I was greeted by the face of an old friend.  You may recognize him by description alone: Blond hair, crew cut style; Dark sunglasses; Smoking a cigar; Wielding a hefty weapon; Muscles to carry anything; Signature smirk on his face.  Recognize him yet?  How about this:

Yeah, that's right.  Duke Nukem really is back for the game that has been on the "waiting list" since 1998.  Seriously.  If you were a gamer back in those days, Duke 3-D (and its spin-offs) ruled the 1st person shooters, and then there was word that a bigger, badder, be-all/end-all of Dukes was coming out.  It would be called, "Duke Nukem Forever" and the buzz was everywhere.  And then, it was nowhere.  Duke Nukem has got to be one of the longest-running pieces of vaporware known to gamerkind.  The game was coming, then it wasn't.  Then it was back on, then off again, then revamped, then scrapped, then back again then tossed into the bowels of 3d Realms.  It was an emotional roller coaster that only those who grew up in a world PRE-3D games, through "BattleZone," "Wolf3d," "Doom," and "Duke 3d" would ever truly come to appreciate.

Duke 3d was the first 3d game that I am aware of (or that I really cared to play, really) that featured a blend between linear and not-quite linear gameplay.  You had to walk through the various levels, but you could generally get where you needed to go under your own terms.  And, it featured a jetpack.  Oh sure, you could win the game without using it, mostly, but where was the fun in that?  We were no longer glued to the ground ala Doom (though you could "fall" in Doom).  We could jump, jetpack, you name it.  All the while, the smart-alec comments from the main character spat out the things you were THINKING ("Your face, your (butt)? What's the difference?").  It also had a wonderful interactive world.  Tell me one person who played the game that never once went up to the urinal and pressed the spacebar.  Of COURSE you did it!  And when word got around of other fun things to try, gamers fired up ol' Duke just to find those hidden gems.

Of course, for me, the real prize was getting into the editor!  Oh yes, we could make our own levels and play against our friends over the local network!  I know that sounds trite by today's standards, but back in that day, this was HUGE.  The guys I worked with would spend many lunch hours downloading the modified levels we could find online at the time, blasting each other silly as we ate.  Once I had the editor in hand, I was making all kinds of goofy levels (one designed around a not-to-scale replica of my house).  I learned how to make exploding walls, moving trams, deep pits that would leave you with one hit point (if you fell fully healed to begin with) only to be blessed with every kind of weapon in the game. 

Duke 3d was the game everyone upgraded their systems over: more memory, better video cards, enhanced sound cards.  We mucked around in config.sys and autoexec.bat to eke out as much memory as possible while getting the IPX networking right for our LAN parties.  Okay, that's a stretch.  In truth, DOOM is what started all of that, but Duke 3d is what MADE you want to follow through.  Er, well, made *me* want to, anyway.

So now, all these years later, Gearbox announces (and actually shows off) Duke Nukem Forever really is coming in 2011.  And much like the first go-round, I want to know the requirements.  I want to make sure my machine is ready for the smart-mouthed, cigar-chomping, muscle-bound alien killer.  "Forever" is the first game in a LONG time that I have been so genuinely excited to see coming to fruition.  It is so top-secret that PC Gamer had to hire a courtroom artist to sketch pictures of the gameplay.  Oh, I know. You're thinking, "That is ridiculous."  Yes. It is.  And those of us waiting, are eating up every single morsel.

40 Favorite Video Games

Welcome to another installment of "40 Things!" For this round, I thought it would be fun to make a list of my 40 favorite video games. Some of these you may know and others you may have never heard of, but some of these may take you on a trip down memory lane.

1. Little Computer People


2. M.U.L.E.




3. Qix


4. Pac Man


5. Zork


6. Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy


7. Star Wars: Tie Fighter


8. Zaxxon




9. Donkey Kong


10. Far Cry


11. Wolfenstein 3D


12. Duke Nuke 'em 3D


13. Doom


14. Pirates!


15. Below the Root




16. Secret of Monkey Island


17. Leisure Suit Larry


18. Need for Speed


19. Battlefield 1942


20. Ghost Recon


21. Pools of Radiance




22. Solo Flight


23. Lemmings


24. Totally 80's with Martha Quinn


25. Combination Lock


26. Card Sharks


27. Wizardy!


28. Ultima


29. Yie Ar Kung Fu


30. Summer Games


31. MVP Baseball


32. Space Taxi


33. Intellivision Football




34. Ea Sports NHL


35. MySims


36. Guitar Hero


37. SingStar


38. Empire Deluxe


39. Crayon Physics Deluxe


40. Medal of Honor

My list could have kept going with various Star Wars titles, the whole You Don't Know Jack game series, Gun, Outlaws, and many, many more!