Scoar!
My first encounter with anything called a ‘Video Game’ was with a Macintosh and a MacPlay CD-ROM of ”Putt Putt and Fatty Bear’s Activity Pack“.
It had an arcade style baloon bursting side-scroller, Fatty Bear templates on which we could color and lots of random fun stuff like card games and races which were amazingly intoxicating. Infact, I played this about 2-3 hours everyday for 2 months on our vacation to my cousin’s. I was about 5 years old and apparently it was the first computer I ever touched, that too a Macintosh (unlike most other Indians)
Then there was Spaceship Warlock, a dark game with a really scary title music piece (really, it’s pretty scary, like a fearful enchant or something). The graphics were pretty nice for a game that old and with mostly dark environments in places not prominent. Here’s a video.
A few months later after my brawl with the Mac, my dad bought home an Atari 2600 console which wasnt exactly the real Atari it was just some chinese hack. One of the games I remember was Superman in 4 bit colors.
It had a unique side scrolling environment where you could fly around different sets of areas connected in a circular loop (think circular array) so we could return to the first place after flying a set places (if I remember correctly). Telephone booths were strategically placed so we could change back to Clark Kent. The only thing I loved in that game was flying and flying all the time (Heroin Hero?).
Three years later, my Dad bought home a 486. (there were better home machines available at that time in India but that was the best we could afford) It had a Monochrome monitor and a pirated copy of Windows 3.1 installed. There was this game I somehow managed to find in a floppy disk that came in with some IT magazine, I wasn’t really adept at Software Management and the Principles of Operating Systems, so my brother installed it for me and it popped up a gleeming splash screen saying ‘Chip’s Challenge‘.
It remained my favourite game for quite a long time until it was impossible for me to get par a particular level (I always knew I wasn’t the best for the BitBuster club). It had that weird environment which hurted your eyes a little whenever you moved Chip around the pre-defined blocks, it isn’t annoying it is actually pretty engrossing to have your eyes glued to the screen that way.
Then came the 16bit Sega Mega Drive console, which was surely not a fake. And then there was James Bond. Another unique game with a fast gameplay merely because of the action filled background music and sound effects so quick that you’d probably laugh out while playing.
These are probably the most uncommon and influencial games I’ve ever played and loved. Try them, if you ever find yourself stumbling upon old emulators or consoles.
