Reflecting back...

It's summer time where I live which means I am riding my bike to work about 3 days a week. This allows me to kill two birds with one stone; I get exercise AND I get to work. Score!

The other bonus is that cycling in takes just a few minutes longer then a drive would, which allows me a to listen to a podcast or just think about whatever is on my mind.

On the ride in the other day, I found myself thinking about how I got started with computer games. This turned into a journey down the 'memory lane' of lost but not forgotten titles... I always smile when I think back on my time working through these games. Back then, PC gaming was so very new and fresh that you could consider each game to be revolutionary in some way.

Chronologically my timeline went something like this:
Zork I - 1980:
This was a Christmas or birthday gift from my parents I have pictures showing the box standing up next to a pile of wrapping paper. I spent hours playing this game with my dad. I was too young to be able to get through it all myself but with his help and a pad full of graph paper we would do a little 'Zorking' a few nights a week before I had to go to bed. I'll always remember that.

Wizardry I - 1981
There was a drugstore on the corner down the street from my house. My dad used to help the family with their Apple computer. In return, they gave us a copy of Wizardy I on some 5 1/2 inch disks along with a photo copy of the game manual.... I would be lying if I said I didn't take that manual to school with me every day for 3 months straight. I used to read the spell names and descriptions. I'd study class and race stats religiously. I loved that game. My dad and I would sit for hours playing. One of us would man the graph paper and the other would drive at the keyboard. Every move down the hall or into a new room was a coordinated effort between the driver and the mapper. Forward, Forward, Kick... An encounter!!!

Ultima - 1981
My wife has this game and Wizardry to thank for my computer RPG fetish. We used to play this in the computer lab (Apple II) back in school. Not sure how we pulled that one off, but hey... I still got into 'Collej'. I remember roaming big open continents in an Isometric perspective.. Quite cutting edge for the time.

Escape from Rungistan - 1982
This was another handed down copy from our friends at the drugstore. One of my first graphic adventure games. I loved some of the puzzles in this game and I can remember trying to dodge trees while skiing down the hill over and over and over... Take Candybar.... Give Candybar...

AutoDuel - 1985
I was into CarWars for a little while and this game was based on that IP... We didn't have a joystick for our computer and I remember playing this using a Koala Pad as an input device... I know, I know... Ghetto to be sure. I remember running missions in this game to advance the story and gear up my vehicle... I also remember lasers being way too overpowered and the fear I had of getting lost on the roads outside of town.

Bard's Tale - 1985
I loved this game... I liked the packaging, the town of Skara Brae, the music, the dungeons... It was great! I would come home from school and plunk down in front of the PC for a bit each afternoon to see what I could discover in the world. You can still find ports of Bard's Tale and Wizardry for today's PCs. Ahh the nostalgia. I was soooo disappointed at the crappy reuse of the Bard's Tale IP on the console generation. fail.

Sentinel Worlds I - Future Magic - 1989
A great Sci-Fi rpg. This one also had great music and good graphics for the time as well if memory serves correctly. I played this through to the end and enjoyed the whole thing. Nice balance between ship combat and party based combat. This was my Eve minus the whole online persistent world thing...

...and I'm rolling through the gate at work. Another nice ride and some good memories. I wonder what I'll be playing with my son when he is old enough... I only hope he doesn't roll his eyes and tell me 'That's for old people' if I show up with graph paper.

Jose

The Anti-Climactic Epic

Last Sunday we headed back to Veeshan's Peak for another shot at Silverwing to get our MT his mythical. The poor guy has had to hold aggro against an increasingly mythed out raid force... Ouch.

Without going into a ton of detail, this fight is another heavily scripted event that requires some good coordination of raid resources. It doesn't have nearly the bad luck = wipe factor that a Venril Sathir fight has, but it is still a technical encounter.

To be succesful, you have to coordinate tanking the main mob, burning and mezzing adds, jousting a nasty AE, work through a seemingly random charm effect, and clicking statues when called to. Lots to manage.

I was also assigned Main Assist duties, flinging the raid dps onto targets for the Off Tank and then back onto Silverwing after the adds had been killed.

This fight had adrenaline written all over it.

The call for the pull went out and the action started.

• People in the raid are jousting like champs! Things going well. Heartrate is up!
• Clicky classes getting called out and doing their jobs... Pulse rate rising rapidly!
• Mobs health down to 60%... Here come the adds... I start slinging dps.. Pulse up, perspiration incoming!
• Adds burning fast and dps back onto Silverwing.. awesome! Knuckles on mouse hand whitening visibly!!!
• Silverwing's health continues to drop... Looking good people!
• Oh MY GOD! I'm charmed and getting crushed! Heal me please!
• Awesome! Healers came through... Back to burning adds. Off tank needs a quick Monk heal from me... Feet dancing nervously on the floor!!!!
• Silverwing is at 9%... GO! GO! GO!
• Mezzing rest of adds and all dps on Mob for final burn!!!!!!!!!
• Silverwing Down!!!! Heart rate has to be about 200 beats per minute.

Awesome fight! Great job by everyone!

I am super pumped that we just pulled that off. The fight was a total blast and we have a good time hooting and hollering in voice chat... This was Epic!

Next our guild leader announces that we are going to take a shot at Shade of Khalan Dar and Phara Dar. I need Shade for my Monk epic... Cool!

We pull both mobs and proceed to burn Shade down for the kill..... Phara gets away from us but it is late and we need to break for the evening.

So yeah, I got my epic... But in all honesty, it was anti-climactic compared to the fight with Silverwing. For me, the best part of the evening was seeing my guild click like a machine on a very tricky encounter.

Gratz on the kill, Revelry and Honor! Well Done!