Favorite Pastimes at Chaos Manor
Jerry Pournelle
I really love computer games. My first encounter was with The Colossal Cave, the original Crowther and Wood adventure game -- written before there were any small computers. A text game, it's reliably reported that when it appeared in a minicomputer or mainframe establishment, system administrators lost two weeks per programmer. It got to me. I still remember the creepy feeling when I saw the shadowy figure waving at me.
There are still some pretty good text games, but now we want graphics, and not just "graphics" built out of ASCII characters. For a long time, graphics meant Apple. Then came the Atari and Amiga; but eventually, PCompatibles sported hot graphics capabilities, and now Doom is ubiquitous in glorious 3-D. Doom is the AutoCAD of games. Real Doom fanatics go on-line an
d download toolkits that let them design new scenarios, new weapons, and new monsters. You haven't lived until you've killed Barney the Dinosaur by firing frozen chickens at him.
Doom is fine action
, but I like strategy and simulation games, like Origin Systems'
Wing Commander
. When I first got Wing Commander, it was so good I had trouble believing it. I felt better when Professor Niklaus Wirth, one of the best-known computer scientists in the world, visited Chaos Manor and stared openmouthed pointing out Wing Commander graphics features to his wife. I gave a copy of it to science fantasy author Terry Pratchett on the theory that because I'd wasted so much time with it, I might as well slow down the competition; but it didn't work. He mastered the game and increased his output.
The latest games include movies and have budgets comparable to small feature films. Wing Commander's latest version is no exception. All the characters in the original Wing Command
er were animations, but Wing Commander III features Mark Hamill and a star-studded cast. They act out the role-playing part of the script. Then you go pilot your ship and slaughter aliens.
Wing Commander III is worth getting, but, perversely, I much prefer the combat action of Origin's Privateer -- a game that uses the Wing Commander flight-simulator engine but is more free-form. My preference may be due to age slowing my reflexes. Fortunately, there are plenty of games for us elder warriors. Master of Orion, a game of interstellar diplomacy and conquest, is one of my all-time favorites, and I play it about once a month.
For those who like fantasy without violence, there's Pratchett's Discworld, with actor Eric Idle as the voice of Rincewynde. Fair warning: while this is a lot of fun, you are unlikely to solve the puzzles without a lot of help. You can get help from several on-line game conferences; one of the best is Scorpia's on GEnie.
The CD-ROM has enabled the reissue of many wonderful o
ld games at low cost. While simulation fans may prefer the newer SimCity 2000 to the original, many of us think the original Railroad Tycoon is better than the upgraded Deluxe edition. If you don't know about Railroad Tycoon, you have a treat in store. Sid Meier, the genius designer of Railroad Tycoon, also designed Civilization, which remains one of the best games ever.
CD-ROMs have also made possible a really great buy: Strategic Simulations' Definitive Wargame Collection. It contains two wonderful fantasy games, Warlords and Sword of Aragon; a big collection of World War II strategic-level games; Reach for the Stars, a science fiction economics/star-fleet battle game; and a good Napoleonic game kit.
There's a stellar crop of games due this Christmas. Alas, a number of publishers are skimping on in-house tests. There's nothing worse than a Christmas present that won't run. There are so many wonderful old games in reissue that you can let someone else be a paying beta tester.
Now if you'll
excuse me, I want to get back to Stone Prophet. I've got a monster to kill.
PRODUCT INFORMATION
DEFINITIVE WARGAME COLLECTION (estimated street price)......$34
Strategic Simulations, Inc.
Sunnyvale, CA
(800) 245-4525
(408) 737-6800
fax: (408) 737-6814
DISCWORLD...................................................$60
Psygnosis, Ltd.
Cambridge, MA
(800) 438-7794
(617) 497-5457
fax: (617) 497-6759
DOOM........................................................$40
id Software, Inc.
Mesquite, TX
(800) 434-2637
(214) 613-3589
fax: (214) 686-9288
MASTER OF ORION.............................................$59
GameTek, Inc.
Aventura, FL
(800) 927-4263
(305) 935-3995
fax: (305) 932-8651
MICROPROSE RAILROAD TYCOON DELUXE...........................$70
MICROPROSE SID MEIER'S CIVILIZATION........................$70
Spectrum HoloByte, I
nc.
Alameda , CA
(800) 695-4263
(510) 522-3584
fax: (510) 522-3587
SIMCITY 2000................................................$55
Maxis
Orinda, CA
(800) 336-2947
(510) 254-9700
fax: (510) 253-3736
WING COMMANDER..............................................$30
Origin Systems, Inc.
Austin, TX
(800) 245-4525
(512) 335-5200
fax: (512) 331-9558
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Among other things, Jerry Pournelle is a science fiction writer, senior contributing editor for BYTE, and an advocate of spaceships. You can reach him on the Internet or BIX at
jerryp@bix.com
.
I'm Game
