oneshotstop
Novice
Grab a seat in your chair, and turn it towards the window. Make sure you've got a beer with you before you do it, because we're going to talk about the good old days.
I fired up an old game of mine the other day. Raptor: Call of the Shadows. For those who may not know, that game came out back in 1993. If you're up for some math (I try not to be), you'll realize that 1993 was twenty five years ago. This is the part where you look into the sky at a big, white cloud and see a movie-reel of all the games you've played in the past two and a half decades. The Metal Gear Solid series, with its crazy subject matter and wacky (but awesome) gameplay. The Ace Combat series, zipping through the skies in an F-14 Tomcat (Talk to me, Goose!) and splashing ships that defy the laws of gravity. The Halo series, floating through a space in a wrecked cruiser and crashing into a war you were not prepared for with all that epic music and so, so many enemies to kill. Maybe Gears of War, Tomb Raider, Uncharted, or Grand Theft Auto. Each game following a similar formula, but trying to improve and expand upon its predecessor.
Go back further. MDK, a weird game where you had to make a flamethrower from a leafblower to make toast. Hidden and Dangerous, an old school and unforgiving squad shooter that focused on the planning. Rainbow Six, a tactical playground for all of your SWAT fantasies to come true. Sonic Adventure, bringing the blue hedgehog and friends into the 3D world, and floating around at the speed of sound ( got places to go, got to follow my rainbow!.....damn, so catchy!). How about SOCOM, sneaking through the jungle with your team to silently take out some terrorists. Lego games of all flavors. Batman, Lord of the Rings, Star Wars, Indiana Jones, and on and on. Rayman games, Call of Duty, Medal of Honor, Battlefield, Jane's Combat Simulation games, and on and on. There are an unfathomable number of video games out on the market right now. Nearly any kind of game you may want, is available. Be a gangster, or a pilot. Be a racecar driver, or an assassin. An overweight plumber, or his forsaken and green brother.
For me, the game that started it all was Raptor. I had the disk (a floppy, 'member floppy disks?) at my uncle's house, and they had a nice computer that could run it. 486DX2, 8 megabytes of RAM, 8 megabytes free on the hard drive, baby they had it all. What they didn't have, however, was a sound card. I was only 4 at the time, though, so what did I know about a sound card? The MIDI stuff was good enough for me.
Until one morning, my dad woke me up around 0600. He said he had something "sorta neat" to show me. He sat me down in front of the computer and brought up the DoS window. cd games/raptor/raptor.exe.
If I wasn't awake yet then, when that sweet bass line got rocking I sure as hell was. My dad spent the money on a sound card, some speakers, and had gone against that lovingly and masterfully put together rap, "Don't Copy That Floppy" and done just that. Sorry Double Def. He hasn't copied a floppy since. Probably.
I was hooked from that moment on. Twenty five years later, I've built my own PC multiple times, and fixed many more. After being a cop in the Air Force, I trained into Cyber Security. I've got the Security Plus cert, and am going to get the CEH cert soon. Computers are my life, and make me enough money to enjoy it. I'm thankful for my Dad going out of his way to do that for me (it was probably for him, but let me have this). All the games I've played since then until now have been more than worth that early morning wake up.
What got you into gaming?
Cheers, GR.
I fired up an old game of mine the other day. Raptor: Call of the Shadows. For those who may not know, that game came out back in 1993. If you're up for some math (I try not to be), you'll realize that 1993 was twenty five years ago. This is the part where you look into the sky at a big, white cloud and see a movie-reel of all the games you've played in the past two and a half decades. The Metal Gear Solid series, with its crazy subject matter and wacky (but awesome) gameplay. The Ace Combat series, zipping through the skies in an F-14 Tomcat (Talk to me, Goose!) and splashing ships that defy the laws of gravity. The Halo series, floating through a space in a wrecked cruiser and crashing into a war you were not prepared for with all that epic music and so, so many enemies to kill. Maybe Gears of War, Tomb Raider, Uncharted, or Grand Theft Auto. Each game following a similar formula, but trying to improve and expand upon its predecessor.
Go back further. MDK, a weird game where you had to make a flamethrower from a leafblower to make toast. Hidden and Dangerous, an old school and unforgiving squad shooter that focused on the planning. Rainbow Six, a tactical playground for all of your SWAT fantasies to come true. Sonic Adventure, bringing the blue hedgehog and friends into the 3D world, and floating around at the speed of sound ( got places to go, got to follow my rainbow!.....damn, so catchy!). How about SOCOM, sneaking through the jungle with your team to silently take out some terrorists. Lego games of all flavors. Batman, Lord of the Rings, Star Wars, Indiana Jones, and on and on. Rayman games, Call of Duty, Medal of Honor, Battlefield, Jane's Combat Simulation games, and on and on. There are an unfathomable number of video games out on the market right now. Nearly any kind of game you may want, is available. Be a gangster, or a pilot. Be a racecar driver, or an assassin. An overweight plumber, or his forsaken and green brother.
For me, the game that started it all was Raptor. I had the disk (a floppy, 'member floppy disks?) at my uncle's house, and they had a nice computer that could run it. 486DX2, 8 megabytes of RAM, 8 megabytes free on the hard drive, baby they had it all. What they didn't have, however, was a sound card. I was only 4 at the time, though, so what did I know about a sound card? The MIDI stuff was good enough for me.
Until one morning, my dad woke me up around 0600. He said he had something "sorta neat" to show me. He sat me down in front of the computer and brought up the DoS window. cd games/raptor/raptor.exe.
If I wasn't awake yet then, when that sweet bass line got rocking I sure as hell was. My dad spent the money on a sound card, some speakers, and had gone against that lovingly and masterfully put together rap, "Don't Copy That Floppy" and done just that. Sorry Double Def. He hasn't copied a floppy since. Probably.
I was hooked from that moment on. Twenty five years later, I've built my own PC multiple times, and fixed many more. After being a cop in the Air Force, I trained into Cyber Security. I've got the Security Plus cert, and am going to get the CEH cert soon. Computers are my life, and make me enough money to enjoy it. I'm thankful for my Dad going out of his way to do that for me (it was probably for him, but let me have this). All the games I've played since then until now have been more than worth that early morning wake up.
What got you into gaming?
Cheers, GR.