Features

• Duke Nukem 3D
• System Shock

It’s easy to get caught up in the present. Everyday life, current events, recent happenings – they’re all front and center. The same thing happens with games. The latest stories, discussion, and news all point to upcoming games and those that have just hit the shelves. Quite often, games will all but disappear just a short time after. The best of the best will hopefully shine in the spotlight for a while, but time will gradually consume all, whether good or bad. Others will never have the chance to bask in their deserved glory, with little marketing, little support, mixed reviews, or only small target audience.

Regardless, many of these games deserve another spin. Whether going through that old game for the first time or digging up a game that’s known inside-out; whether it was a cult hit with a small but devout group of followers or it if was the biggest and baddest, best-selling game of the time; whether it was good or utterly shit; whether the game needs some recognition or not: I’m going to take a look at them.

Generally, I’m looking at games that I’ve played through in the past and revisiting them, or I’m catching up on some of the classics that have passed me by. The goal here is not necessarily a review. It’s not necessarily a history of gaming’s past. It’s not necessarily a rundown of how the game controls or what it does. Instead, it’s me rambling on about some of these perhaps-overlooked classics. Think of it as a retrospective, review, personal comments, my experiences, thoughts, all rolled up into one, while I catch up on games that I want to revisit, or that I want to visit for the first time, just several years late to the party.

Most of these games are from a different generation, meaning that 16-bit code and DOS were part of the standard procedure. As such, part of the fun is actually getting some of these games running on modern hardware, so where applicable, there’ll be compatibility info and what I had to do to get these things running. If nothing else, it’ll be a record for me to go back to in a few years if I try running these games again. With a little luck, maybe it’ll help someone else out there.

Now, since I’m going to be mentioning storylines, gameplay, sequels, etc., I do want to add in a spoiler warning. If you haven’t played one of these games, then be prepared: there may be spoilers inside. There’s not necessarily anything that’s guaranteed to ruin the game, but there at the same time, they’re could be, so proceed at your own risk.

4/6/09