EPISTORY - TYPING CHRONICLES

There have been other typing games so far, yes, but none so elaborate, original and as beautifully programmed as Epistory.You do get incrementally better at typing  as you progress with this title, but the way the game unfolds  and the joy you get from playing the game is magical! You help the narrator of the story by running a girl riding a 3-tailed fox using only your keyboard. By following the narrator and helping the story unfold, new terrains and landscapes reveal themselves and your wisdom and magical abilities increase. You engage the enemies and manipulate  objects by typing out letters of the words that appear above them, and it plays a hundred times more exciting than it sounds. If you look at a game while it's played by someone else you do not get the feeling of experiencing a typing game at all.

Papercraft and origami designs were a clever addition to the "search of knowledge" premise behind the game, though largely introduced due to Unity's Tiled Map Editor's limitations.The exploration is easy, battles pose a real challenge to your  typing skills and you're presented with many tactical choices at each point in the story.

The fox/kitsune character  derived from Chinese/Japanese mythology was an incredibly clever thing to introduce, as the general non-conformity of available tales and myths surrounding kitsune through ages lend themselves beautifully to using the 3-tailed fox as a more generalized symbol. With a hundered years for each tail to grow, our fox has grown much wiser and powerful  and has already unlocked a number of magical powers that come of age (mouths or tails generating fire , lihtning, ice) , yet she has a lot to go to see all of 9 tails  grown on her, and this makes her a suitable companion to the main character.Kitsune also manifests itself in dreams and create illusions one cannot tell apart from reality. Should this be taken into account while playing Epistolary? You could , but being completely igorant of the story behind kitsune won't spoil the enjoyment of playing this wonderful game for you.

Oh, yes- the game's available in 9 languages and supports different keyboard layouts.

NEBULUS

I loved having someone else play this game while I observed Pogo the main character always being at the centre of the screen with everything else moving around him. The fake 3d looked pretty real to me and it was one of those c64 titles that you were bound to play for the value of graphics alone. Sure, it was all about memorization and you were supposed to learn where all the tricky bits were , but the experience of playing this "tower toppler"  was incredibly fun..It was only later that I learned that Pogo and Populus were beloved by people owning other home computers at the time , and that other ports were equally entertaining and pleasing to the eye. The rising platforms, the simple form of sprites and the sense of depth in perception combined with decent game mechanics on both the towers and the bonus levels made this title a gaming delight.

It might have failed as a sci-fi title if anyone considered this to be a sci-fi game to begin with , but it is an absolute classic of a platformer.  It did not spawn a host of clones and new games, but those that appeared (Phatasmagoria for dos!) were always eagerly played by yours truly/

SOCIAL JUSTICE WARRIORS

What a befitting title for this ingenious piece of gaming software. Whether you consider this to be a proper game or not, the idea behind it is absolutely unique,  no doubt about it. And the gameplay is very much true to life, as the trolling and fighting for and against social justice takes place in virtual space, just  as God intended. Progressivists troll, regressivists troll , trolls troll for the fun of it, and everyone looks exactly the same as everyone else , all in a world where it's ok and not ok to have an opinion on anyone and anything and run people down by use of cars if they disagree with the car owner. In a world where fascism is sold as freedom of speech  and the double standards are employed throughout the globe by big players, it is hard even for a politically-minded individual to keep track of what might be going on in this confusing new world.The aptly used pejorative term stresses this feeling  and gives the player a hint of what to expect from the game itself. The game does what it says on the tin, you engage in outwitting trolls until they go online and another troll takes their place, recreating and reliving "real-life"online experiences that are immediately identifiable. Expecting anything else from this game would mean steering away from its intent and purpose, if there be one.

The question is -why would anyone go through such lengths at recreating unpleasant trials and tribulations that everyone of us has experienced online? Is it meant to make us realize  people can't change and that  trying to prove otherwise is a complete waste of time? Does it make us rethink the agressive posture we sometimes assume when talking to a complete stranger or casual acquaintance we're never likely to meet offline anyway? I guess it's about preserving your sanity and reputation , online and offline.

OPERATION WOLF

I was so impressed by this game and played the proots out of it and dreamt it and dreamt of taking it back home with me (or at least  ripping out the massive machine gun and taking it home).All other FPSs I played never got even remotely close to this gem in terms of their hold on me. The detailed graphics, the moving screen and the magnificent sprites, a difficulty level on a par with Green Beret's- any one of these characteristics would have won me over. It had the 80s-Rambo-like-soldier-plowing-through-some-third-world-country-boondocks grit and exaggeration written all over it, and an impressionable kid like myself was instantly hooked (Little did I know my country was going to become a third-world country in just a few years after that). There are 6 stages  the completion of which bring their respective goodies, with  on-the-go energy and ammunition boosts you would snatch off the screen as you enjoy the feel of a cold machine gun in your 8-year old hands.Lovely. All the Dooms,Bloods,Quakes, Half-Lives appeared  after the novelty wore off for me. I'd still pay for the arcade cabinet to own and have displayed in my room today - a subtle reminder that wargames leave a nasty taste in one's mouth after shite hits the fan and  the war appears on your doorstep when you're a teen.

MARBLE MADNESS

Marble Madness aged incredible well, as if its makers knew there would one day be a retro-mania spanning across media such as music,film, gaming etc. So all the innovations used on the cabinet - the trackball used instead of a joystick to help you immerse into the game's world and its unique physics (and no buttons- a sincere thank-you to whoever came up with this idea!), the stylish graphics that could pass for some contemporary nostalgia-driven graphics of today, the interesting soundtrack that used a unique Yamaha audio chip that propelled  this 1984 title  to an almost 16-bit era soundwise. And it's as hard as an 80s' game gets- I remember being entertained and frustrated at the same time playing this in the arcade.

I have yet to try it on some emulator and although I guess it won't feel the same, it'll  still be worth revisiting for its architecture and physics.

BLUE WHALE

After reading the Big Whale Suicide game hysteria elegantly debunked in my favourite local computer magazine (Svet Kompjutera,July2017, p.43)  I started thinking about art in gaming and art in general and how it exists even if its sole existence is based on documentation and not on its actual physical presence/ form.
Social media games have been extremely popular since their very inception and a number of unique ideas have sprouted to this very day, but the fact that media constructed a game  around a forum meme tricking global post-truth population into thinking it existed is nothing short of revolutionary.
I always speak of the necessity of coming up with new genres in gaming- well, here's one! It's refined, it borders on art and its practices, it spurs bigotry, paranoia, xenophobia, anti-millennial hysteria,confirms new media uses and practices...
The supposed author of the meme-game wrote a new page in gaming without knowing it.

COLOSSAL CAVE ADVENTURE

This game was not only the first text adventure game ever, but also the game that inspired many rogue-like and role-playing elements in the games that were to come. Exploring a mysterious cave to find  the rumoured riches comes with simple and effective  sets of commands and the narrative unfolding of the story that is entertaining and conversational enough to keep you interested throughout. Even some words and sentences from the game became concepts in later games. For a pre-80s computer game this must have been a true revelation.

I played this game on  my ZX as a kid, and I greatly enjoyed playing it and looking at the accompanying pics , but when  a friend of mine recently posted the news of the original version being available online I had to try it, realizing I enjoyed it more. It probably had to do with the absense of pics and the feats of imagination that make the game so enjoyable.Playing a book and not a movie. And this comes from someone who never enjoyed text adventure games that much anyhow.

A true gem that needs to be played and appreciated.

 http://www.amc.com/shows/halt-and-catch-fire/exclusives/colossal-cave-adventure