1066 All Stars

Parts 1-6 of this feature can be found in the Videogames section, here.

PC

If my early forays into PC gaming were somewhat half hearted, from 2000 onwards, it has come to dominate my gaming landscape.

One of the key differences between PC and console gaming is that everyone's experience will differ. Nothwithstanding HD screens versus SD, a console experience by design will be uniform. One PS3 is identical in power to another PS3.

Not so with PCs. From low end to mid-range to ultra high end gaming rigs, each person's experience may differ depending on their set up.

This is reflected in my own PC journey. After ditching my original Advent, I felt comfortable building my own machine. Now, when I say, building my own, what I really mean is nagging my more technically minded mate to come and do it for me.

I was really pleased with this machine, an AMD processer running at something like 2.1ghz, with a reasonable level of memory and a decent graphics card Or so I thought (more later).

As would become a recurrent theme, I used it primarily for Championship Manager (as it was at the time). This spell marked a rare point where I engaged in multiplayer FM with my flatmate and I was rewarded with one of my most satisfying careers. There were other games too but these were often bought and discared. The Sims, Escape From Monkey Island, Star Wars Force Commander, various Star Trek games. It is a theme I will return to in another post.

Sadly my time with the machine was undermined by an issue with the graphics card, the screen freezing up randomly, the blue screen of death becoming a regular house guest.

This period of time gave me confidence to fiddle, to get into the guts of the machine but after the frustration of the graphics card crashes, I wanted some stability next time. And so I went with a Dell. Nothing fancy, nothing spectacular, just a good all round machine that served me well for many years.

By this time, the internet was the king of PC interaction. Whilst the majority of my game time remained focused on Football Manager, digital downloads began to come to the fore, led by Steam, which I came across when I bought The Orange Box. What a great idea this was, games available literally at your fingertips. And they always had sales on! My game collection would triple in size overnight as I snapped up the £3 and £4 bargains. I never played them of course. But how could I pass up the bargain?

Eventually my demands needed something more powerful and I got the itch to build another machine. This time I had the confidence to go it alone and, with just a quick phone call to check how to install the fan, I built my current rig. Quad core, 64 bit, bags of RAM, this machine would last me a while.

And for the first time I started to actually play some of my games. FM continued to doninate for sure, but there have been plenty of other highlights. Having started Half Life 2 before aborting, I decided to pick up the first game on the cheap and play that through first. Graphically it had aged but it was a fantastic experience, a clever FPS that, whilst packed with all out shooty bits, is equally adept at puzzle solving, exploration and mood. I have yet to go back to Half Life 2 but it remains very much on the agenda.

Having spent a short amount of time With Star Wars: Dark Forces in my youth, I was keen to play Star Wars Jedi Knight 2: Jedi Outcast. It had sat unplayed for some years but when I finally came to it I was rewarded with a rich FPS. Challenging, varied and perfectly capturing the spirit of the source material, this is one of the best Star Wars games I have played.

Other games shined. I went back and played Doom, the Godfather of modern FPS games. Race Driver Grid is a superb blend of aracde and simulation racing and deserves further game time. Lord of the Rings: Battle For Middle Earth is the type of game that I often buy, play a bit of and then discard. Instead I played it through to completion, the simple controls, decent visuals and once again the appeal of the source material combining to form an excellent whole.

Other games remain under explored, both Steam and otherwise. Rome Total War, World of Warcraft, Tales From Monkey Island, Bioshock, Knights of the Old Republic amongst others. I still plan to get round to each of them in time.

But there is one other aspect of PC gaming that came to fore, which brings us full circle.

Retro Gaming

My first experience of emulation was MAME. This was like finding a treasure trove, all these games from my youth that I never had the money to complete. Suddenly I could go back and finish Final Fight, Golden Axe, Dragon Ninja, Teenage Mutant Hero (Ninja) Turtles, Tecmo World Cup '90, Final Round and dozens of others.

I was also introduced to an early version of Amiga Forever. It was a bit cumbersome to use, technical knowledge was required to get the best out of it. And I didn't know where to get the ROMs from.

But from these early roots, Amiga Forever has grown into a superb, user friendly application. I operate the 2011 version which comes with support for the CD32 and with the resources of Rom and emulation sites such as this, almost any game in Amiga history is available for immediate play.

The Amiga has such a vast game librabry that it can be a little overwhelming to know where to start. But aside from revisiting some of my own gaming experiences, replaying the likes of Cannon Fodder and Lotus, I also look forward to trying some of the games I never bought, the likes of Harlequin, Exile or Populous perhaps.

Emulation also allows me to catch up on some of the consoles I missed first time around. The obvious contenders are games mentioned throughout this series, such as Zelda, with the Megadrive and SNES in particular chock full of games ripe for emulation.

Retro gaming is more than simply reliving your youth. It is an interactive history lesson, a chance to preseve the work of the many talented developers and artists who helped the industry become what it is today.

The Future

Phew! It's been quite an adventure down the years. but what does my future of gaming hold?

As a parent (including twins), time is a commodity that I am somewhat shorter on than in the past. So that means that game time is limited. To an extent my gaming is on hold. I have no plans to buy any new games, no immediate plans to buy another console. Instead I look forward to tackling my stack of unplayed games as time allows, or dipping into my past through emulation. Perhaps I can even teach the kids a thing or two.

Speaking of which, I suspect that they may play a role in any potential future purchase. Once Uncharted 4 drops I'm sure there will be a strong pull to grab a PS4 but it seems more likely that a Wii U might be picked up on the cheap at some point so that the kids can play Mario Kart or some other family focused game.

Handheld wise, I would like to expore the possibility of running emulation software on my PSP. It seems a natural fit if possible and a good home for some of the arcade based games from the 16 bit era. The JXD Retro Gaming Tablet also looks interesting but the price is a barrier for me at the moment.

And finally more of this; a period of reflection, exploring my love of games. The documentary Bedroom to Billions looks fascinating and I hope to pick it up at some point. In the meantime, I will enjoy writing, reliving my youth and filling in the gaps in my gaming past.

Now, time to get playing. Let's go Mr Driver.