Computer Games

In this post I'll talk about games that I've played since the very beginning on my father's old MS-DOS system, to the current Windows Vista-based laptop.

Looking back at those years, I'm amazed that how long I've been playing the computer.... Can't really remember when I started, but it should be sometime before 1995 as that time Windows 95 doesn't exist, yet!

The game that left a great impression on me was "Prince of Persia", the first instalment of the series.



Because I'm still a kid when I played this game, I know nothing much about the storyline, but pretty much is like killing the bad guy and saving the princess plot.
The eerie music used in the game makes me chilled and spooked as it sounds real bad (bad, in terms of the terrible atmosphere of the game where you can easily dead, the character I mean).



Until today I'm still amazed by the graphic of the game. You see, all the processing capacity of the machines back then are nothing when compared to modern computers, not even a handheld GBA unit! It certainly looks great back then, and still today.

Another MS-DOS games I liked was "Alley Cat".



The gameplay is simple, you move the cat around with the cursor keys, hop into the opening windows and play some mini-games.
After completed the mini-game, you're able to enter to a special level where you're to "wed" with another white cat (the cat you're playing is black).



It's quite addictive at that time, a great game to cooldown after the "Prince of Persia" game.

Some other MS-Dos I've played before were Tetris & Chinese chess. Not really fond of Tetris and as a child I definitely don't enjoy playing chess games against the computer, simply because I felt that it's cheating because the computer checkmated me almost everytime!

Ah well, I can't remember what happened to the MS-DOS PC then, got a new Pentiumm II at the year 1998. Was running Windows 98 that time, one of the most stable OS Microsoft ever created, way before Windows XP dominates.

I dunno how but I happened to got the game "Age of Empires" from a neighbour whom we consulted everytime for our computer problems. That time I'm not the boss of the computer, so whenever I wanna play the computer I must get permission from my elder sister.



"Age of Empires" affected me very much, I absolutely love all the geographical & historical details until now. I learn some of my ancient civilization history through the game's scenarios and campaigns. I still love it even until today!

Roman town in the Iron Age


Talk about this, I will try to install the game on this Vista laptop, not sure whether it's compatible or not.

Age of Empires II released shortly after the 1st AoE. I grab it immediately from the game shop after it's out. Because I dunno how the crack works last time, I actually bought 2 copies because I thought the earlier one was faulty.
Since then, every games pretty much need cracks in order to play.

You can see the huge difference between AoE 1 & AoE 2 in terms of the graphic.


AoE 2 takes place in the Middle Age, so I can refine my knowledge on the Renaissance & the development of the civilizations from the dreaded Dark Age to the glorious later eras.



I tried to install this on my laptop before, but the game crashes after awhile into the gameplay. Oh well, might try to fix this again sometime later.

Sometime in 2000 I'm hooked with The Sims series, yeah, so called the best-selling game at that time.



I remember very well, that I've purchased almost all of The Sims expansions and played every of it except the last "Makin' Magic".
At that time the Pentium II's 64MB RAM & 3GB HDD space couldn't support all the expansions well. :(

Since the Pentium II went busted (Windows crashed actually) sometime in July or Aug 2001, we've decided to move on to a next level of Pentium IV desktop, which I nicknamed Vikings due to the brand name.
With the specs of 2.0GHz processor, Windows XP, 128MB RAM & 80GB HDD, it's surely far better than the previous Pentium II.
I joked with my sis asking how much can we store in the 80GB HDD, and I got the answer few years later when I used up almost all the spaces with ~3GB space left on the HDD, the final state before I switch to this Vista laptop.

I played lots of games on the Vikings desktop unit, among a few memorable ones, might be The Sims 2.

When I heard that The Sims 2 is going to be released on Sept 2004, I asked my father for the permission to get the game originally, as my pre-PMR reward, and he agreed. Not easy to get the greenlight from father when it comes to getting games, but he did!



I can't really enjoy the game due to the fact that The Sims 2's requirement is a little too much for my computer to handle. But anyway I managed to build some nice stuffs there...



You see, as the time progress, the games look better and better. With the far superior processing power & graphical details over the previous generations, computers are getting better and better.

Somewhere in 2003 I tried my very first online game, Ragnarok Online, and since then I'm hooked up with the game until today. You can read what I have to say about the game in another post.

Busy street of Prontera.


I had the chance of trying out Civilization IV, a game that reminds me of the AoE series I mentioned above. Unlike AoE, Civilization is a turn-based strategy game rather than a real-time strategy game.



Another historical-based game, but it's fun to see how you change the history in the game, where you're playing as Queen Elizabeth of England but controlling the nation of Japan!

For now the games are pretty much stuck to a few that I'm still playing now, namely RO, Civ IV & The Sims 2. I switch games when I find one of them boring, to keep myself occupied.

I plan to get Age of Empires III collectors' edition that contains the core game and 2 expansions. It's a great game (though I haven't play it before) so I think there's the value for collecting it.



It's interesting to see how games evolved from MS-DOS to the current Windows Vista, and following this trend, games of the few years to come would be greater than what we've been playing today.

I actually want to play "Mass Effect" and "Assassin's Creed", but knowing that my laptop isn't meant for gaming, I might only play it when I can upgrade to a better computer in few years time.

It's been fun playing all the games since the early days of computing, I simply enjoy every moment trying out new games! :D


P/S: I'm not a fan of console gaming, I do not own any PlayStation or handheld game devices. I felt more comfortable hitting the keyboard rather than clinching a controller lol.