PixlBit

Wizardry: Proving Grounds of the Mad Overlord came out for PC in 1981, the same year the first video gaming magazine started, Electronic Games. Donkey Kong was out in the arcades and my favorite Atari 2600 game came out, Stampede. But enough history, let's get to playing Wizardry.                          

1980 was the true dawn of the arcades. In addition to the four previously mentioned: Space Invaders, Asteroids, Galaxian, and Lunar Lander, we now add Pac-Man, Missile Command, Tempest, Battlezone, Berzerk, Defender and Centipede. These 11 games, plus maybe Rally-X for a neat dozen, make the core of the arcade experience in the 80's to me. More excellent games would come, especially the Nintendo ones, but these 12 are how I remember the arcades at the beginning. The games that started it all.

1979 still saw the Atari 2600 unchallenged but Mattel was test marketing the Intellivision which was soon to give it a run for its money. I played Adventure and Superman that year on the 2600. The arcades saw the releases of Asteroids, Galaxian and Lunar Lander, three pieces of an only partially complete killer arcade along with Space Invaders. On PC Richard Garriott made role-playing game Akalabeth, but you probably had to be in California to know of it (I believe there is a version for phones right now I'd like to try). And Star Trek: The Motion Picture was released in a year full of great films, however, this is the only one I can reliably remember having seen in the theater. The rest I would see via VHS rentals soon after.

The Atari Video Computer System ruled the home gaming landscape in 1978. This was its year in the sun, undisputed. The arcades exploded with Space Invaders starting the first video game craze, and Superman was a big hit in theaters. My favorite film though was Force 10 From Navarone which showed that Harrison Ford was going to do more than just Star Wars.

1977 was an important year for me: I was 10 years old, Star Wars was in the theaters that summer, the first Electronics Boutique (which became EB Games and then was merged with Gamestop) opened in my Mall at King of Prussia, PA, and the Atari 2600 was out for Christmas. For me it was ground zero for video gaming and science fiction, two of my favorite subjects.

My plan in 2014 was to keep up with the latest releases, buy one new game a month, and play that game as thoroughly as possible. Well, I've finally got overwelmed by the number of games out now that I haven't played. Not only that, my best friend and gaming buddy is out of work, probably for good, and can't keep up with me anymore. This kind of kills my interest in keeping up with the Joneses, so I'm going on a vacation and taking a long nostalgic trip through the years of gaming history - and my collection.

Just for fun I went through the database at allgame.com and wrote down how many of each genre of video game I've played all-time. This is the result.

On Monday this week I picked up some under $5 games to try online co-op on PS3 now that my friend and I both have the system and he has no ID problems there (I also picked up a Dreamcast memory card and a copy of Sega Bass Fishing for him since he misplaced them. They were both under $10 at Jay Street Video Games, my go-to source for all things retro). Here's the result of my efforts.                          

Last week I went through the headaches of transfering data from my old 360 to a new one as did my friend Mark. This week I experienced throbbing pain in my head from transfering data from my old PS3 to my new Azure Blue PS3 Super Slim. Somehow I managed to avoid a migrane and squeezed in some EDF 2025 on my Xbox 360, some Silent Hill Book of Memories with daftman on my Vita, and some PixelJunk Monsters when everything was up and running. Gaming today was like eating lots of appetizers or Spanish tapas.

Sunday may have been blah but Monday was much better. My friend was able to log into Xbox Live and we played EDF 2025 most of the day with a couple hour break for me to play some Silent Hill: Book of Memories with daftman here at Pixlbit. Then I switched my schedule around so I could get some handheld play in the wee hours instead of my usual blogging and what not, which I moved to the daytime right after breakfast. All together, it made for a game filled day. My only regret is that I didn't get in any Demon's Souls like I wanted to for the Pixlbit Club, but after Sunday, I didn't want to do much else than lots of EDF 2025 co-op.