Sunday 23 September 2001

Pic of the day: Screenshot from the game Covert Action. This game is from 1990, but is suddenly very relevant. Too bad Sid Meier and his friends never released it with updated graphics and new case files.

Appropriate games

Today I mostly played computer games. Covert Action is one of my old favorites, but it looks really dated now. Still, there is a certain satisfaction in sneaking around and flushing out international terrorists, beating the clock time after time to stop them from some perverse plan. You know what I mean. Yeah, it's just a game. But it still feels good.

I'm sure there would be many more people playing Covert Action if it had been released with modern graphics and compatible with Windows 9x+. The same holds for several other games from that time. It was in many ways a golden age of gameplay. There were finally enough system resources to build a fairly large game, but still not enough to drown it all in glitzy video.

Probably the greatest game from that era was Civilization. And true to form, I spent the afternoon playing Civ2 as the Americans. I've usually played the Mars scenario the last couple years. And when I play non scenario, I've usually played as the Vikings, as is good and proper. But not today.

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Civilization is a bright example of how it should be done. The game has been upgraded with new versions every couple years: Civ for DOS, Civ for Windows, CivNet (multiplayer for Windows), Civilization II, various add-ons. And now, one of these days, Civilization III. I expect to have it as soon as I see it in the shops.

Other games were less fortunate. Master of Magic, possibly my favorite strategy game ever, has languished for nearly a decade now. It is increasingly hard to get modern operating systems to play it at all, at least with sound and music. And the graphics are a bit old too. It could certainly have benefited from an upgrade. And a multiplayer option too, I guess. It's a shame people shall have to resort to pirate copies of an old game, when there is so much potential. But who knows the minds of suits?

Simsville is cancelled. There will be no Simsville. Which is a shame, seeing as I have wanted that game years before they started developing it. I even got the name right ... or nearly so. I used to call it SimVillage, when I described it to my friends. A game where you created a bunch of Non-Playing Characters and set them loose on the terrain, letting them build a village from scratch. Now you can wave goodbye to that. It is probably so thoroughly copyrighted already before they shelved it, that no one can make anything similar.

They said the game did not meet their high demands for quality. I say they ran out of cash, just like the other game houses. Maxis have released cringe-worthy flops like "SimTown" and "SimIsle", they didn't have any high standards back then. It's not long ago, either.

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On the bright side, Hot Date expansion pack for The Sims should be out in November. Unless they go bankrupt, I think they will try to get that one out. With a few million Sims players ready to buy it, it should be a big cash cow. Yes, I've mentioned Hot Date already, but I've read up more on it and seen the screenshots. Looks very promising. Of course, there is no real need for it: The Sims already have hot dates at home. It has certainly not been a problem for most of my Sims to find love in the neighborhood.

Hot Date will let you build your own "downtown", with a mix of businesses such as you think appropriate for your Sims. Then you let the poor critters take a cab (taxi) to town, either alone or with someone in the neighborhood. The idea, it seems, is to build up a lasting relationship by spending money on someone. Uh uh. "In Hot Date, money can buy love", say the developers proudly. As a rule of thumb, the more money you burn on someone, the more they like you. Except it's not quite that simple. You have to find out what interests they have, and choose appropriate objects. For instance, if someone is into extreme sports, lingerie might not be such a big hit. Well, for normal meanings of extreme sports...

Games have a power to involve the mind which you just don't get with most entertainment. You can sit there and watch a TV till your eyes glaze over, but you remain a spectator. When playing a game, you cross the boundary between yourself and your fantasy. You become someone else, while still remaining yourself.

It shall be interesting indeed to see the generation of young adults who have been raised on The Sims ...