For anyone who had access to a computer in the seventies or early eighties, and recognizes the following passage, no further elaboration will be necessary . . .

"You are standing at the end of a road before a small brick building. Beside you is a forest. A small stream flows out of the building and down a gully . . ."

Legend of Zelda? Dragon's Lair? Those are the only two I can think of, based just on your quote, figuring it's from a fantasy themed game. Or am I way off?

So, what's the greatest computer game? Gee, name one. I'm relatively new to gaming still, even though I've been playing the most seriously for only about 2 years (especially now that I've got a new computer). Right now I'm so engrossed in Baldur's Gate (see The Games) that I haven't played any others for the last week.

Other games I've enjoyed, and some I'm still playing (or again), are the Half-Life series, Nocturne (despite its inconsistent camera angles), Star Wars Episode 1: The Phantom Menace (despite its idiotic jumping puzzles), Star Wars Episode 1: Racer, Rainbow Six, StarCraft (what little I've played of it), System Shock 2, Unreal, Quake II, Serious Sam, both Microsoft Combat Flight Simulators (Europe and Pacific campaigns), Jedi Knight II, Rebel Assault II, Alien vs Predator Gold Edition. I've played more sequels than their originals. Funny, huh?

Of all the games I've tried I haven't finished most of them; maybe I was bored, or it didn't work well on my last computer or for whatever other reason. I tried Resident Evil 3 and it totally sucked bigtime, so I just took it back for a refund. It looked awful no matter how I configged the resolution and I couldn't get used to the keyboard-only commands. I prefer the keyboard/mouse configuration. That's why Legacy of Kain, Soul Reaver drives me nuts, as well as the fact that you can't save and go back to where you saved at. You can save anywhere in the game but if you die you have to go back to where you first began. That's not a good idea. Games like Half-Life let you save at practically every step you take and reload immediately to try again and I like that. Others don't and it drives me nutsoidal.

"The walls are flowing rivers of orange stone."
"You are lost in a twisty little maze of passages."

Is that from the same one? It was called Advent on the DEC PDP-80 I played it on. Dang, that takes me back!

MarkN -- How did you ever get a refund for opened software! And just because you didn't like it! I tried to return a mislabelled CD single once and wasted 45 minutes going through the chain of command. I never got the refund, but I cost Best Buy about six man-hours of employees' time.

I actually had the source to ADVENT once...

You are in a maze of twisty little passages, all different.

Plugh
Plover
Xyzzy

In my experience, I'm divided between Final Fantasy 3 and Chrono Trigger.

Aifix, the place I got it from has a 7-day return policy. I bought it, took it home, tried it, hated it, repackaged it, returned it and got the refund. I almost got the Fallout/Fallout 2 package which was the same price, $22. This place is famous for reselling returned games. About a month or so ago I bought Klingon Academy cuz they only had it for $20, which should've been a tipoff, but the outside circular clear tape on it was sealed so I just thought it'd be ok. I got it home, opened it, and like Baldur's Gate it had one of them multi-CD holders that folds up. Well, guess what? Those also come with a seal but this one's was broken and 2 of the CDs were scratched up so of course I returned it. Can't say that I wasn't warned about it a few years ago, though, cuz a girl I used to work with once worked for them and told me that they did that a lot.

Oh, this is way earlier than Legend of Zelda or Dragon's Lair. We're talking before the Atari 2600!

The name of the game is 'ADVENTURE', also known as "Colossal Cave". At a time when the choice of computer games was limited this program was a wonder to play and a real mental challenge. The sensation of exploring an entire world was still there.

The game has its shortcomings . . . how anyone is supposed to solve the Plover room puzzle or the endgame on their own is beyond me, and the pirate's treasure cove can only be found through the most excruciating trial and error.

The game can be downloaded from many places on the web! Go here: http://www.rickadams.org/adventure/e_downloads.html

Adventure! That was a great game, though I never was able to solve it. Despite that, it led me to all those other great text-based games, Zork and all its sequels, Suspended, etc.

The Ultima games are still tops in my book. When I got Ultima IV, I was hooked for almost a year. My brothers and I had an entire notebook devoted to the game, filled with clues, handdrawn maps, hints and more. That was a great game.

I remember my brother had the early Ultima games and I played them sometimes. One of the things I liked to do was when I was in a town, attack and kill one of those street jesters just for the fun of it. Then the whole town would come after you and try to kill your party.

Wizardry7 is great too, an interesting cross between scifi and fantasy.

Thanks, Todd. I never played console games much when I was a kid, just at friends or something, and that was rare. Later on my nephews got some Ataris and then Nintendo and I'd play a bit of Mario with them but that was it. I played more arcade games than consoles at home, so I couldn't immediately think of any games other than Zelda or Dragon's Lair, figuring the clues were for a fantasy-based game, like they are. I never really got serious with games till I got a computer and then it took me awhile there, too. Now I'm totally hooked on BG, though I've slowed down a bit with it for now. What takes me so long is that I save and reload quite often to try out different strategies but it's still very fun.

My personal favorite was "Pool of Radiance." It was by SSI, and was the first official Advanced Dungeons & Dragons game made for the computer.

My favorite moment: My party had entered into a seedy tavern, and some roudy guy picked a fight with them. A wholesale brawl broke out, and it was the first time Magician Murphy had the opportunity to cast the "Fireball" spell. Needless to say, the party cleaned house. Later, after we had left, we returned to the tavern. The description read, "This bar looks like it was destroyed by experts."

Ah! The memories!!!

I don't suppose anyone here ever played King's Quest, either.

Of course I did, Todd! I've been playing those since KQ1 came out. This was before I could spell worth a darn, of course, so I was constantly asking my parents things like, "how do you spell 'climb'?" `

Believe it or not, I actually solved the riddle of the old man's name from the first KQ game on my own.

I played the KQ and Space Quest series lots (SQ is a classic), but always cheated in the end by getting hints. I still credit my quick typing skills to those early games (I remember trying to type "hide behind rock" before getting blown to bits by the spider orb-thing in SQ.)

Best computer game of all time?
"Exile", on the BBC Micro. Those of you who have played it will know. I still beg and plead that someone will update it, Warren Spector-style, for the PC.

My favorite online game was Acrophobia--used to be on the same site as You Don't Know Jack. You'd get anywhere from 3 to 7 letters, and a category, then you'd have to make a clever phrase with words starting with those letters (an acronym!). Players would vote on the best ones, and you'd get bonus points for speed. At 30 points, it would be a face-off between the top two players.

The sound effects were great, and the topper was being able to chat while the game was playing. I found a good "room" with some good regular players, usually playing late Fri or Sat night. "OH, I'll just log on for one quick game" (Two hours later..............)

Unfortunately, that site is gone. I really miss it!

Some old games I remember

Hampstead and Terromolinos on the ZX Spectrum

Police Quest

The first SSI Buck Rogers game and Curse of the Azure Bonds.