Giant Wave of Nostalgia – Retro Books & Games

A close approximation to my wave of nostalgia

In a giant wave of nostalgia, that clearly heralds the start of my decline into dotage, I’ve hunted down things I used to love as a child.

I like to imagine the giant nostalgia wave literally – Picture a huge tsunami cresting, the water made from the salty tears of your childhood gone by. Floating on the wave, like so much flotsam and jetsam are old photos, floppy disks and various miscellaneous objects that trigger fond or melancholic memories. You are flip-flopping in the middle of this giant wave, as it sweeps you inexorably to the hard, sandy shore of the now.

Anyhoo I’ve been tracking down books I read when I was growing up.

• Enid Blyton’s The Faraway Tree
• Enid Blyton’s The Wishing Chair
• CS Lewis Narnia
• Barbara Cartlands
• Agatha Christie‘s Poirot.

These were also books I never had complete sets of, and always dreamed of owning the complete sets. (I had Narnia)

“When I grow up and have LOADS of money I will buy ALL these books…

I’m one of those people who are compelled to collect things. I can’t help it. If it’s not one thing, it’s another, much to the ex’s despair.

I’ve also been hunting various old DOS games I used play and loved. Luckily the nerds of the world are all online. Converting and uploading and sharing retro games. I’ve been systematically tracking them down.

I don't know how I ever managed to use this.

1. Prince of Persia

Prince of Persia. I never got past level 11. My brother had to play it for me.

I found this amazing retro game pack online called ‘Classic Games Formatted for Mac Vol 1, 2, 3′

(Google it – the download links pop right up)

It has loads of old games formatted for a Mac – Lemmings, Worms, Carmageddon, Sim City, Dune, Duke Nuke-em, Secret of Monkey Island and many more I had never even heard of.

2. The Secret Of Monkey Island

The Secret of Monkey Island. Such a wise-guy.

The Secret of Monkey Island was a most pleasant discovery from the Classic Games archive I downloaded. I had never played it before.

It’s an adventure game with a fun story line. (Your character has to collect objects and then uses them to solve various puzzles along the way. You type into the game telling your character what to say/do.)

I still love getting smart-ass comments back from the game if it doesn’t like what you asked the character to do. For some reason that just never gets old.

Punch him in the face (Got knocked out)

Say a bad word. (Won’t)

Spit. (Got a snarky remark from my character)

Pee in the sea (he does)

I cheated a heck of a lot.

I mean I tried not to cheat – but some solutions were so oblique I couldn’t figure them out. So I found some forum online with step-by-step detailed instructions on exactly what to do. I tried to use it as a last resort. It’s not as much fun as solving them yourself.

Which leads me nicely to…

2. Kings Quest

Kings Quest 6 - Heir Today, Gone Tomorrow. I had this one

We had only one version of this game and I never finished it. It’s along the same lines as The Secret of Monkey Island.

This comic by the Middlest Sister explains it perfectly.

So inspired by that comic, I was confident I could find this game somewhere online.

And so I did –  Click here to download the first 3 versions of the game formatted for both Mac & PC.

(Quest for the Crown, Romancing the Stones, and To Heir is Human)

I unfortunately, don’t like any of the first 3. The pointer speed is set too slow to make game play anything other than a chore. I can’t play it without feeling annoyed. Also KQ 3 has a timer and that ruins everything. I mean I’m never on time in life. I can’t be doing that in a game. It’s too stressful.

I found KQ6 online and its taken me the better part of a week to finish it and I cheated 4 times to get through it.

I recommend no. 6 out of the Kings Quest lot. It’s defintely the best.

So what with the balancing of pens on Luigi and finishing this game, it has been an hectic holiday week.

3. Chips Challenge

Chips Challenge. I once accidentally wiped out Shanaya's younger sister's game. Luckily she had saved the password. Man I got some evils for that. Her sister is scary.

I can’t find a decent, authentic Mac formatted version of this game anywhere. Frustrating.

If anyone finds one let me know.

4. Another quest game called Mission to Mars (or something like that)

This was a level by level puzzle based game. (Unlike Kings Quest or Secret of Monkey Island)

It was in only 3 pixel colours – Orange and Brown and maybe white. My memory is fuzzy.

I can’t find this one either. Mostly because I can’t remember the name correctly.

Alright – I’m going to go play Kings Quest now.

Even though that’s really the last thing I need to be doing… I was supposed to do some drawing on holiday…

Sigh.

Oh well.