One Man’s Computer Gaming Odyssey

My experience in – and passion for – computer gaming

A Computer-Gaming Odyssey

The early years

Computer gaming has been an interest of mine ever since I was a young child. This article is part-reminiscence; part history – tracing the development of gaming culture over the decades.

My youthful experiences – in the 1980s – included playing Pac-man on some of the early Atari models, to playing the early installations in the legendary Ultima, Wizardry and Bard’s Tale Series on my beloved Apple //c. While the Ultima series was comprised mostly of two dimensional tiles, the early Bard’s Tale and Wizardry titles involved a rudimentary grid-based first person view.

The graphics – by today’s standards – could be described simplistic at best.

Over the years game designers sought ยูฟ่าเบท continually to to extract more and more from the limited potential of Apple II and Commodore 64 personal computers. (Although I do not include, here, the IIGS)

Bard’s Tale 3 ‘The Thief of Fate’ – was perhaps the most impessive title to emerge for the Apple II- not long before the line was abandoned to concentrate instead on Apple’s Macintosh series.

For its time, ‘Bard’s Tale 3’ provided a sprawling game world, and devilish, maze-like dungeons. Given the extraordinary limits of the

Hand-held electronic games were also popular for the time. Popularity at school rested at lest partly on possession of such titles as ‘Frogger’, ‘Scrambler’, ‘Burger Time’, ‘Donkey Kong’ and others.

I even recall my mother staying up late at night: entranced by my Pacman hand–held electronic game. Even then, gaming was not ‘just for the kids’.

Computer role-playing games, however, were always my favourite – and they still are.

At the time – of course – no one had even heard of ‘Massively Multiplayer’ games OR of the internet.

Some of my favourite memories of my youth include days I spent at my local libaray, playing the quiz game ‘Millionwaire’, wagering 5 1/4 inch floppy disks on who would be winner. Back then, amongst enthusiasts, there was a real sense of community.