Video Game Nostalgia

[AARPLynne]

Retro video games give players flashbacks to their youth. Remember the Atari 2600 or Super Nintendo you played with as kids? Video game nostalgia has been growing by the year, and some collectors are doing what they can to preserve that feeling. Are you a collector of retro games? What's your most treasured item?

Share your video game memories in a post below!

[dt324]

I have Asteroids, Centipede, Donkey Kong, Missile Command, Poker, and Space Invaders.  Still play them all from time to time.  Joystick on your desktop, while not a must, really builds scores.

[laurievancil]

Zork. All of them.

[bikingbill]

"Want Some Rye?"

I was the technical producer on that game, The Return To Zork.

[JustThisGuyYouKnow]

You have my attention, Bill, Sir!  😊

Do you mind sharing what kinds of things you did as a technical producer on the game(s)?  Do you have anything fun, entertaining, or just interesting to share about the game(s) or those times?  "No" to either is fine, of course; but it seems worth asking 😊 .

[bikingbill]

I designed and programmed most of the game engine for Return To Zork (RTZ), as well as the user interface, video and audio systems. We had to do it all by ourselves. Right down to pushing pixels. More on this: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gQANZLRGV30

[JustThisGuyYouKnow]

Oooh, my Lord, YES!  I LOVE text adventures!

If you're a fan and looking for more, they're often called "Interactive Fiction" these days.  And there's still an active community preserving and creating more!  Visit The Interactive Fiction Database <https://ifdb.org/> as a great, great place to start.  The website <https://www.ifiction.org/games/idex.php> is another great place to go play free text adventures.  And look for the free program/app Frotz which lets you play TONS of text adventures [including Infocom products] in the one program, including letting you search and download more from the IF Database.  It's available on computers and mobile devices, for free!

I never got the chance to play all of the Zork games, and I never got to play Zork all the way through.  I've got a copy of Zork sitting on my laptop, waiting for me to have the time to sit and work all the way through.  Played in high school at a friend's house some.  Played some through this copy and began mapping, but like I said, I have to wait till I've got more time.  I *did* get a copy of Zork 3 for my dad's Kaypro IV computer a long time ago, and did completely solve that one -- I was so proud; it was my first complete solve (at least that I can recall)!  Interesting historical note:  "The first build of the game that went under the title Dungeon was actually the complete Zork trilogy, but when the game was released commercially it had to be separated into three parts due to data compression issues."  [quote from <https://screenrant.com/zork-text-adventure-game-call-duty-easter-egg>]

Of course, there's also Adventure (which some people over time have come to call Colossal Cave or Colossal Cave Adventure), the very first text adventure game  -- which directly inspired Zork, in fact.  Adventure is one of my favorites of all time, both because it was my first (I have to be honest there), and also because the *writing* is so darned *good*!  I first found it in 1980 on a university computer that we were able to access with a teletype terminal and good old 150(?) baud modem at a boy's club I belonged to, and which only allowed 30 turns on the days and times we could connect. Finding the first shortcut into the cave (no spoilers here) was exhilarating because it meant we could get *even further* into the game before we were shut out!  Heh, we had so much fun tracing our printouts and working out every bit of efficiency in our choices to get a bit farther!  Later, my dad got a copy of Adventure for the Kaypro IV computer, and I played the heck out of it, exploring and mapping and discovering -- and I still have yet to complete the game 😅 .  I do still have those maps from grade & high school, though!  And a new copy on my phone and on my computer.  [NOTE:  Since the original game by Crowther and Woods, there have been MANY ports to other computer systems and expansions that added more to the game since then.  My Kaypro IV version was certainly one of those, and I don't know if it expanded on the original's content or not.  A sincere dilemma is whether to try to find a faithful port of the very first incarnation or to try to find the biggest-content version that currently exists, when I do settle down to play through some day.]  I remember that when our family went to New York for a wedding, I didn't care at all about New York City or the occasion, and I don't think I was even aware of anything special to be seen in the city, but I was excited because our copy of Adventure had listed the author of that particular version and his phone number, which was a New York City area code!!!  It meant that I could actually call to speak to him on a pay phone; I couldn't take our computer, but I took the phone number carefully copied onto paper.  Such sadness when I finally tried calling from the airport and didn't reach the author by phone, and my parents dragged me away ☹ .  But I still love the game and the genre!

I've even written a text adventure based around the home of some friends; and extended one you can find at the IF Database -- HOBBIT, which is NOT the tale that Tolkien told, exactly (a parody not suitable for kids).  I've been in contact with one of the authors of that one, and some day will get it uploaded into the IF database website.  I'm still doing a little more extending and tweaking and bug-proofing, but at my own pace and on my own schedule 🙂 .

ASIDE FROM TEXT ADVENTURES, I'm also very pleased to own a pair of Atari 2600s and a bunch of cartridges.  If you're a fan of the 2600, you should check out <https://atariage.com> for ALL kinds of goodies.  My favorite cartridge ever has always been Adventure -- only related to the text adventure mentioned above by the fact that the author wanted to implement something like that as a videogame, where bumping into the sword was the equivalent of the command "GET SWORD", and so forth.  But I never knew that until I read an interview article last year; I just loved playing the game, even when it became pretty easy to beat consistently.  My favorite!

Well, that's enough for now.  Toodles!