The Appeal of Computer Gaming

Ah, where to begin?

The allure of the computer game for me dates back to roll-out of personal computers in the early 1980s. Think about some of the oldest models:

Radio Shack's TRS-80
The Commodore Vic-20
The Commodore 64
The Apple IIc
The Franklin Ace 500
The Amiga 2000
The Apple IIgs
The Macintosh SE
The IBM PC

Computer gaming for me stretches back to 1978. I am not sure when Pong first came out, but a competing gaming console for the TV followed it around this time that featured “breakout.” Some would argue that the start of the video arcade fad should not be lumped in with “computer games” in the strict sense, but let’s face it: we were the same crowd. Space Invaders took discount store vending areas by storm, catching the attention of the amusement venue (pinball machines, cupie dolls). The transfer to personal computing did not take very long (1980?).

I remember the initial fascination that I had with this odd thing called a personal computer. When I visited a small plaza mall near where I lived, the Radio Shack sported a new electronic toy amidst the stereos: the TRS-80, by Tandy Corporation. The thing was slate gray, had CRT screen, separate keyboard, a cassette player, and an optional printer. All of this “software” on audio tapes were hanging in plastic bags arranged in a display. On the screen? You guessed it, a video game. I was hooked, and played with it for hours.

The games were not very sophisticated, and were usually blown away by the booming arcade-like TV consol games . . . the most commercially notable being the Atari. I owned the Commodore Vic 20 soon after my best friend upgraded to the Commodore 64. These were very clumsy computers, but would soon be replaced by the Apple II series of computers. This is where things started to change, for us Geeks.

My friend soon introduced me to the kind of games that you could play on the Apple IIc. The fine detail rendered on a small monochrome monitor, along with the ease of swapping out floppy disks made for a vast collection of stimulating, interactive games.
Some of the names included Stellar 7, Aztec, Bolo, Karateka, Choplifter, etc. The number seemed limitless, and the quality unsurpassed (by even arcade standards). They were much more intellectually stimulating than the mindless shoot-‘m-up aspect of the video games. This characteristic in gaming is what computer gamers seek even to this day.

So what are my favorites, today?

Call of Duty
Return to Castle Wolfenstein
Doom III
Baldur’s Gate
Neverwinter Nights

I will go into detail on all of these in another post. I’m getting tired.