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— 10 May 2007

A Life of Videogaming

Yesterday I went downtown and finally bought myself a Wii. The night was spent with Wii Sports and Rayman: Raving Rabbids and today I am a bit sore in my arms – throwing cows in Rayman can be exhausting…

The Wii is the latest in a long string of videogaming computers and consoles that I have owned or had around. Currently I have a Wii, a PS2, a DS, a Gamecube and a Gameboy Advance at home. There have been others as well. Here is a timeline on my gaming history.

Texas Instruments TI-99/4A

My father broughts home one of those around 1981. I was about 9 and I was instantly hooked. Initially, we played TI Invaders (A “Space Invaders” clone) on the family black and white TV, but soon I picked up other games, such as:

Soon I wanted to do my own games, and did a few – in TI Basic.

Commodore 64

I never owned a C64, nor did my father buy one. I had friends that did have one, however, and we played tons and tons of games on that machine. A few gems that come to mind are:

Me and a friend wanted to make games for the machine, but we aimed too high and never finished anything.

Amiga 500

Bought around 1987, this was my first own computer. I sticked with it for the upcoming years and played lots and lots of games on it.

Games I especially remember from the Amiga period was:

Amiga 1200

I upgraded to the A1200 in 1993 and focused more on programming, but there was a lot of games played as well. A few of them were:

Nintendo 64

When I bought the N64 in 1998, it was because of the fantastic “Ocarina of Time”. Since then, gaming has changed a bit for me. It has moved away from the desktop and into the livingroom. Notable N64 games:

The PC

I bought a PC in 1999 and ran Linux on it from the start. I also kept a Windows installation for the occasional game, but most games were played from the sofa by this time.

Playstation 2

I bought the PS2 around 2001. The reason? Well, if you like games you can’t affort not to have one. There are just too many fantastic games out there for this little machine. Just to name a few:

Game Boy Advance

I bought the GBA around 2001 and played it a lot while commuting to Uppsala and my work at Starbreeze. It was also handy to bring along on vacations. On the GBA, I had the chance to pick up some classic Nintendo releases, for example:

Apple iBook

Bought in 2003 to replace my PC. I looked for a system that allowed me to run the stuff I ran under Linux and also allow me to run programs such as Photoshop. OS X was my choice and I have never regretted it. Not much games are played on my macs, but there are a few:

Gamecube

I bought the Gamecube in 2003, again because of the latest Zelda game. The machine has brought a string of great titles, for example:

iMac G5

This machine bought in 2005 is now my main workstation. I don’t do almost any gaming on it, though. Just the occasional interactive fiction or emulation.

Xbox 360

I was never even tempted to buy an Xbox, and when the 360 was released I never bothered too much. Starbreeze, however provided me with one in 2006 and I had it at home until I left the company in March 2007. I didn’t play very many games on the 360 and the following list is actually all the games I played on it (including one Xbox title).

Nintendo DS Lite

I really liked my GBA, but hated that the screen was not backlit. Then the DS came and it seemed nice, but looked like s**t. But the DS Lite was love at first sight and I bought one as soon as it was released in 2006. Now, I have not played very many original DS games, but mostly replayed a bunch of my old GBA titles.

Nintento Wii

Bought yesterday (May 9, 2007). I initially wanted to get one at launch with “The Legend of Zelda: Twilight Princess”, but there was serious shortage of consoles and the game was available for the Gamecube. So I bought the GC version (I’m almost finished) and postponed the Wii purchase until now.

It is too soon to list any games for the Wii, but I suspect that I will use it as I have used my other machines – to play both new games and classics that was originally released for another older console. For one, I really want to play “Wind Waker” again.

— sicher

Comments

  1. Nice list but… I was expeting Another World to show up but i didn’t.
    Did you never play that one? =)

    — Jaqub · 12 May 2007, 09:15

  2. Actually, I heard of Another World when Flashback was out and, like many others, was told it was the sequel. I really liked Flashback but never got myself to play Another World back then.

    — sicher · 14 May 2007, 09:40

  3. I rember playing ti-invaders in norrtälje those where the good days….

    — Thomas · 15 May 2007, 07:12

  4. They made a version that works with XP last year.
    http://www.anotherworld.fr/anotherworld_uk/telechargement.htm

    The controls are somewhat funky but the story telling is still a lot better then many games today. And this without having a single line of dialog. =D
    Worth giving a try.

    — Jaqub · 15 May 2007, 21:20

  5. Yeah, I know about the revamped version and have wanted to play it. I’m on a mac though so I’m out of luck so far. But there are versions for the GBA and other platforms so I’ll probably play it on an emulator or something.

    I found a playthrough on youtube a while ago and watched it to get a sense of the game’s storytelling. It’s really scaled down and minimalistic, but good. I really liked the lurking monster in the beginning. It reminded me of an entry for the ifcomp a few years back. The game was called “Cattus Atrox” and has a really cool and engaging beginning. Unfortunately, after the opening, the game sucked. But it’s worth a try if you’re into interactive fiction.

    — sicher · 16 May 2007, 10:24

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