Technostalgia Thursday: Outside the White House.
No, not that White House, sonny! This white house:
West of House
You are standing in an open field west of a white house, with a boarded front door.
There is a small mailbox here.
(Play it here. If you prefer the other White House, play it here.)
Technostalgia Thursday 06/23/05: What's the first home computer game you remember playing?
Zork had a big effect on me. You could
talk to your
computer. Well, you could try to. Often the dialog went something like:
There is a door here.
>open door
What do you want to open the door with?
>crowbar
What do you want to do with the crowbar?
>open door with crowbar
You're not holding the crowbar.
>get crowbar
Done.
>open door with crowbar
I see no door here.
>ARGHHHHH!
Sorry, I didn't understand that.
(One wonders if certain white house press secretaries use the Zork interface as a role model.) But it was fine. Whatever. Because even if the conversation didn't make much sense, you were having a (sort of) conversation -- you were talking to your computer. (I feel the same way about dailykos some days.)
It went beyond that. Not only had the computer gone beyond a souped-up board game to become an actual playmate, but there was a world in there. A world bigger than Pac-Man's dot maze. A world bigger than Q-Bert's pyramid. A world you could explore in any direction (provided it was n, ne, e, se, s, sw, w, nw, u, or d.) OK, a world you could explore in 10 directions. The computer went beyond a flat green display to become a terminal onto another world.
Of course, today's computer games are smarter, more complex, and routinely whup chess grandmasters at their own game. Artificial intelligence is better, and the graphics -- well, there are graphics. But none of it impacts me the way that first great computer game I played did.
So, tell me, old-timers. What were your favorites from 20+ years back? Larry Bird vs. Dr. J One-on-One? Choplifter? Or did you go for the arcade knock-offs... a little Tax-man, Monkey Kong, or Kanguru? What made it so special at the time?
And for those who really want to talk classic arcade games, have at it. Just remember to read The Top Three Things Q*bert is Pissed About Today.
(If you missed it, last month's Technostalgia Thursday: Networks.)