Obsolete Gaming

[vovat]

I feel rather behind the times as far as video games go. I mean, I don't have any of the newest systems. I'd like to get a Wii someday, but it's likely that a new system will be out by the time we get around to it. I mean, I'm not someone who has to get my hands on the new gadgets when they're first released, but I guess it would just be nice to be more up to date in this respect. But then, there are still a lot of older games I'm trying to get through. I'm basically stuck near the end of both Mario and Luigi: Superstar Saga and Final Fantasy V. Not to mention the first Paper Mario, but bethje's Nintendo 64 isn't where I can easily use it. It kind of seems pointless to start a new game when there are still so many left to finish, but playing something new would almost certainly be more interesting than fighting the same battle over and over again until I get it right.

Speaking of out-of-date games, I remember being interested in Sierra's King's Quest and Space Quest games when I was a kid, but I never actually got the chance to play any of them. They're now available in complete packages for not that much money, so I'm seriously considering buying one or both. Can anyone offer any input on them?

Turning now to books, the first volume of The Arabian Nights was due back today, and I'd already renewed it twice. So I returned it, and I think I'll hold off on reading the rest for a little while. They had Dracula on display at the library, so I decided I should give that a try next.

And here's a book-related meme that I got from annamatic:

* Grab the nearest book.
* Open the book to page 56.
* Find the fifth sentence.
* Post the text of the next seven sentences in your journal along with these instructions.
* Don't dig for your favorite book, the cool book, or the intellectual one: pick the CLOSEST.
* Tag five other people to do the same.

It was this powder which brought to life such famous Oz personages as Jack Pumpkinghead [sic], the Sawhorse, the Gump, the Blue Bear Rug, the Patchwork Girl, and the Glass Cat. Ozma deprived him of his magic powers but straightened out his body so that it was no longer crooked. Dr. Pipt was then quite happy to return home to his wife Margolotte.

Dollfins are little, doll-like fish-fairies which live in the Nonestic Ocean and follow every ship that passes through their waters. They want nothing more than a little girl as playmate. To date, they have had to be satisifed with mer-girls. It is too wet in the Nonestic Ocean for real little girls to play house there.


Okay, I tag revme, slfcllednowhere, rockinlibrarian, zimbra1006, and anyone else who wants to do it.

Comments

[nova-one.livejournal.com]

Hmm... well, I played a little tiny bit of Space Quest (III and IV), and they looked promising, but circumstances were that I couldn't get into them (discs got lost or corrupted with III; the CD for IV was only borrowed).

But King's Quest is another matter. I've played every one, and beaten II, IV, V, VI, and VII. VI is my hands-down favorite - the graphics are VGA, but they're beautiful. The story and writing is also, in my opinion, the series' best. VII is a radical departure; it's kind of Bluth-like and doesn't have the same kind of challenging format. There aren't enough ways to get killed in it. =) The first six games are dastardly deadly. You could spend weeks just finding all the different ways to get killed. Seven is more dull than deadly, and doesn't let you get stuck in a way that you can't progress (which the first six games all do - you must save often, and be open to frequent restarts, too - but that's part of the fun).

There was an eighth game, too, Mask of Eternity, but it's basically a 3-D hack-and-slash game with puzzle elements. I didn't get very far in it, but it didn't look nearly as much fun as the first six / seven games.

Recently, I played Kings Quests I-VI on my computer using DOSBox. With just a little tweaking, the games ran flawlessly. I used the old DOS / Windows 3.1 version of the collection - the new Windows XP release with DOSBox built in and pre-configured should be just as swell and easier to get up and running.

Hope this helps!

[vovat.livejournal.com]

Thanks! I might well check out the XP version of the collection, then.

[rockinlibrarian.livejournal.com]

The closest book to me right now is a thesaurus! But then again I'll possibly actually getting around to doing that tonight at the library at which point there might be a more interesting book (ie, one with actual sentences) nearby.

[rockinlibrarian.livejournal.com]

Oh... ACTUALLY the closest book to me is an ARC of a picture book that isn't being published until December-- seven sentences is a large chunk of a picture book, so I don't know if that's a fair thing to leak.

Bringing us back to the first point, I might as well wait until I'm at the library tonight.

[daveychu.livejournal.com]

I played both King's and Space back in the day and they're both fun but the humor in Space Quest made it way more appealing to me.