Tuesday 6 March 2001

Pic of the day: Screenshot from Darklands.

Good old ... games?

I did not feel too well, so stayed home from work. This was probably a good thing, since I got worse before I got better. Sleeping a few times helped.

My recent exposure to GURPS roleplaying made me remember an old computer game that was my favorite back when I had my 80286 PC at home. Like, ten years ago? Darklands! So I found the old zipdrive it was on, and created two new characters. Then off to fight evil in medieval Germany! This is, as far as I know, the only computer role playing game that is set in our world rather than some fantasy world. It is a true role playing game, but uses authentic late medieval weaponry and armor, and real places from the real Germany. OK, there is a certain fantasy element: Alchemy works a bit better than it did in real medieval life, though not quite as well as modern chemistry. And saints actually help the pious ... or is it just their faith that makes them stronger?

Even though the graphics are a bit dated (as seen above), it is still a fascinating game. Since it is abandoned by MicroProse a decade ago, the usual ways to get it are Ebay or piracy. Since very few of us are willing to sell it, I guess piracy is more likely. Or you could borrow from a friend. It may get a bit boring if you play it for too long. Luckily, I have other interests too! :)

***

Back in the days, MPS labs made some of the best games to grace the PC. Besides Darklands, which incidentally also was the downfall of the company, there was the original Civilization and RailRoad Tycoon, outstanding games both. And I think they made Pirates! too. Certainly they made Covert Action, a spectacular spy game that you could play from 1 floppy. The same requirements were for M1 Tank Platoon.

For Civilization there has been various later versions; Civilization III is under construction now ... last I heard, they had given the job to Firaxis, the company where Sid Meier now works. This is probably good news, since he was the main creator of the game originally. (Actually, it was adapted from a board game, but it was significantly improved. The random terrain generator made the game even more replayable.)

RailRoad Tycoon came with a "de luxe" version that added a couple new maps, but it was not a significant upgrade. Many years later, PopTop software and G.O.D. (gathering of developers) launched RRT2, a game with modern graphics and modern machine requirements. I have only played the demo, which was impressive but a little more daunting and less carefree than the original. I boycotted the actual program because it was sold to Europe in a crippled version. I'm not eager to trade with people who regard me as inferior because of my ethnicity.

There was never anything like Covert Action ever again, which is a shame. It was not even a cold-war spy game, but focused on tracking down and busting terrorists. You had to solve actual wire layouts to install a wiretap, and solve coded messages - not impossibly hard, but enough so that the game must have favored people with above average intelligence. I guess that is why we never heard about it again.

M1 Tank Platoon, however, came in a heavily modernized version in the late 90es. It was very impressive, once you had the patches in place. (The CD was evidently burned before the game was fully debugged.) It was updated with the newest version of the actual tank and strategy, as well as the newest computer graphics. The book alone should be in every self respecting library ... it contains a wealth of information on military technology, tactics and strategy. The game seems rather incidental. The main weakness of the game would be that you cannot save in the middle of a battle ... and each of those may last for several hours. Not for the impatient.

Oh, and I guess I can include Master of Magic too, even if it was as late as 1994. A crossbreed between Civilization and Magic: The Gathering, it may be the most replayable strategy game ever. The many different races, spells, heroes, and fantasy creatures along with the random terrain generator made sure that no two games were ever alike. You could in fact set the exact same starting conditions and come up with wildly different scenarios.

***

It may be that there are actually a limited number original ideas for computer games, and it may be that we have used most of them by now. Certainly it seems to me that few new games stand out. Last year was the year of The Sims, and this year Maxis will release Simsville. It seems that Simsville even more than The Sims will be similar to my daydream about a game (which I dubbed "Simville") where you could actually watch a small community grow, where each person was part of the greater whole. (There was a children's game called Sim Town that attempted this, but it did not fare too well.)

But the golden days of MPS labs may never come back...

"Do not say, 'Why were the old days better than these?' For it is not wise to ask such questions." (Ecclesiastes 7,10.)