Newsletter chitchat - January 7, 2025

[Cassel]

What were your favorite computer games when you started using computers?

Are any of them still available?

Are there any you wish would still be available?

Let's chat. We might discover some fun games if they are still around.

P.S. if you want more information on Roller Coaster Tycoon, check this Wiki page.

[Michele]

Tetris was my go-to computer game. I would still play it if I had a copy. I play a similar game from FB games, but you can't change the direction of the pieces.

[Leo Ooms]

I used to have a ton of games in my younger years. About ten years ago, I tossed them all because I couldn't play them anymore on my computer because of incompatibility.

Still regret doing that.

I used to play Commander Keen. A nice 2D platformer shooter in 6 episodes with lots of levels.

Also Ultima Underworld was one of my favorites. Its a 3D D&D game where you have to use your wits and talk to the creatures living in the dungeons. Ther are of course creatures that aren't friendly which you have to fight.

I used to play lots of RPG games from Sierra and other devellopers too. Think before you act...

These were mostly games for DOS and Windows up to Windows 98. So they don't run on a modern computer, but there are sollutions to that.

Now I use game launchers like  Launchbox and GOG Galaxy At that second website, one can find a lot of 'old' games. They are of course not free, but if you happen to still have an old game, you can use that in the game launchers to play your favorite games again.

[Ann Seeber]

I'm not a Gamer, with a capital "G" in the modern sense. My family, growing up, played card games like Canasta and Pinochle. To play Poker you needed to bet money and I shied away from that. We played board games, especially Monopoly. This was all pre-computer. My first husband played Poker occasionally but not as a habit. (We had no $$) My second husband and I visited casinos and played Black Jack and the poker game Texas Hold-'Em (both were card games, not computer games). We got interested in playing Ms. PacMan on a console at our favorite tavern. But we transitioned to a regional card game, German Pinochle, that we played seriously for money, in a tavern in Pine Island, NY, amongst the Polish/German onion farming community. Those people were intense! It was a LOT of fun! (PS-I was good at it and won constantly (at $2 per game). The mainstays of the game were older and are gone now. The farmers still play traditional Pinochle at the Polish/American Legion in PI but it's not the fast, exciting game that we played.  I miss it, still. 😔

[Rene Marker]

Way back when I had Where In The World Is Carmen Sandiego. Can't remember if it was my first DOS computer or my first Win computer that I played it on. I had Monopoly and Mom and I would sit at my computer and play it (this would have been early 90's). Sometime in the 2000's I bought a CD which had several games on it: Game of Life, Clue, Yahtzee. That got loaded onto a laptop. That laptop was eventually upgraded to Win 10 and the games still work. I think it was a Hasbro CD but I don't think I have it anymore. I still have the laptop even though I got a new one in 2023 and every once in awhile I will pull it out and play Clue. I'm sure there were other games over the years as well that got lost with the upgrades of computers.

I don't have or play any games on my desktop. But I do have some games on my Samsung tablet. I have games loaded on it that I don't play much and some games I play every day. I do have to limit how much I play though. When I had my iPad, I had a game that I would play hours a day. It was called Township and you built up a town. You could rearrange things which is what I would spend hours doing. When the iPad went black and wouldn't turn on, I got the Samsung tablet. I refused to load Township on it (actually didn't want to start over). 

I have seen some YouTube streamers play a game called American Truck Simulator that looks fun. Several of them will play it at the same time while streaming and it can be hilarious at times. I've looked at it several times but just couldn't justify buying it. It seems to get the full benefit of it, you need to have a "steering wheel" device (Thrustmaster) and I don't want to spend the money on one of those. I guess you can use a game system controller but I don't have one of those either. So I'll just enjoy watching them crash each other when they stream!

[Cassel]

  On 1/8/2025 at 1:41 PM, Rene Marker said:

Way back when I had Where In The World Is Carmen Sandiego.

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I remember getting that game for the kids. At the time, they were 5, 6, and 7, so they would work as a team. The youngest one had the mouse and would do the clicking (he could not read). The 6-year-old would read the instructions on the screen, and guide the youngest one. He would then tell the oldest one some keywords in the clue, and she would use the dictionary to search for that word, which would typically lead to the correct answer.

I wish I had a picture of them playing NICELY together!

[Jacques]

For my part, I loved playing with the MYST and RIVEN series.

The first versions for PC were available on 3½ inch floppy disks (That doesn't make me any younger...)

Link for MYST on Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6dzvtzamVNw&t=18s

 

[Anne Lamp]

My favorite and most played were the Roller Coaster Tycoon series.  I had the original and a couple of others.  I may have to check out the ones that are supposed to work on Win 10. But maybe not.  I could spend way to much time on those games.  (thanks for the link you shared about Tycoon)

[Cassel]

  On 1/8/2025 at 3:50 PM, Anne Lamp said:

My favorite and most played were the Roller Coaster Tycoon series.  I had the original and a couple of others.  I may have to check out the ones that are supposed to work on Win 10. But maybe not.  I could spend way to much time on those games.  (thanks for the link you shared about Tycoon)

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I installed RCT2 on my Windows 10 machine and then added the OpenRCT2. Now, it is available when I want to change my mind.

[Corrie Kinkel]

Our first computer was a Commodore 64 back in 1983 and I can't recall we already had a game on it, if so it must have been Packman which the kids loved. My husband bought it because he wanted to learn more about programming but it was our son (10 years at that point) who really got into that, no wonder he works in IT. My relation with our first computers:  I was able to turn them off when the rest of the family had left for work/school. Over the years the kids got their own for study and I remember playing some Tetris and Solitaire. Now I have my own laptop and it still has Solitaire and Mahjongg on it. We played a lot of boardgames and cards until the children left home.

[Rene Marker]

  On 1/8/2025 at 2:11 PM, Cassel said:

I remember getting that game for the kids. At the time, they were 5, 6, and 7, so they would work as a team. The youngest one had the mouse and would do the clicking (he could not read). The 6-year-old would read the instructions on the screen, and guide the youngest one. He would then tell the oldest one some keywords in the clue, and she would use the dictionary to search for that word, which would typically lead to the correct answer.

I wish I had a picture of them playing NICELY together!

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Follow your own advice... scrap a page about it without a photo. Grab some images from the internet and make that page. 

[Cassel]

  On 1/8/2025 at 4:59 PM, Rene Marker said:

Follow your own advice... scrap a page about it without a photo. Grab some images from the internet and make that page. 

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You are so right!!!

[Jamie Carey]

       

One of my favorite games was Bubble Bobble on the PC from 1989. Using bubbles to get your dinasour around and capture bad robots then poping the bubbles which would change to food or other bonuses complete the levels. I wasted HOURS playing this game geting to level 100 and completing the game seemed so unfulfilling all there was at the end was a little congratulations animation but it was extremely fun to play.