Category: Otaku

The Early Days

  • October 27, 2019

In the last year I’ve added a few interesting games to my collection. They’ve come from various sources, but they’ve all been ‘rebuys’ of games I used to own back in my youth.

Even though I can’t actually run any of this software, the nostalgia value for me is high. I’ll cover them in reverse historical order…

The above two were purchased at a local comic show about a year ago, and I paid a mere $2 each for them. The seller had even more, including the second Xeen game and some early Heroes of Might and Magic titles, but none in as good condition as the above.

I bought Might and Magic 3 back in 1991 when it was first released, and it was amongst the first boxed PC games I ever bought. I recall loving it at the time and (probably) testing Bernards patience by how much time I spent using his computer! I’d been a fan of the series beforehand, and had played the first two in pirated form, and was pleased to own the latest iteration. I continued playing the series well into the Heroes offshoots, and once arriving in the US had a great time replying MM2 on an Apple and then the Genesis, as well as the NES and SNES versions. A great and important RPG series.

The SSI ‘gold box’ series of AD&D computer games were amongst the more important and influential RPG games of the late 1980s and early 1990s. Tabletop RPG fans had been dreaming of computer versions of their favorite game for years and SSI delivered in spades. Starting with Pool Of Radiance in 1988 there were many games (and spinoffs) in the series and I played them all! I recall particularly enjoying the Krynn titles, including the two above, the Amiga versions of which were given to me with an Amiga 500 by a colleague.

In fact the gold box was one game series that spanned the shift to the USA, since I even purchased Unlimited Adventures for Macintosh after moving here and wrote – and somehow put online in those very early days – my own ‘module’ called Dead Swamp Destiny (for which I even designed the enemy sprites!). Ah I wish I could load that up and post screenshots to this blog today 🙂

The gold box series is now long dead, but the basic game design lives on in countless tactical games still going strong today (such as the Fire Emblem series). But I’ll always remember the series as one of my favorite of all time.

And speaking of favorites, the above is the 1987 USC64/128 release of the original Wizardry (which first came out in 1981). I bought this copy earlier this year for $40.

As you can see it’s complete and in amazing condition. Does the disc work? I’ll likely never know, but I couldn’t resist this piece of history. Wizardry isn’t just an important game to my personal gaming history, it’s one of the most important games ever released, and has gone on to directly influence the design of many other juggernaut game series including Final Fantasy and Dragon Quest.

I’ve got a collection of many Wizardry titles for seven or eight systems and many spinoff games (the series and its variants is still going strong in Japan) and the ‘dungeon crawl’ is to this day one of my favorite game styles. Over my decades many a long hour has been lost in the labyrinthine mazes of the Wizardry series, and I hope many are still yet to be lost in my future…

  • Posted in Blog
  • Robert

Triple Force Friday

  • October 4, 2019

Today, as you all know, is Triple Force Friday! This means it’s the day product is in stores for not one, not two, but three upcoming Star Wars properties: the new film (The Rise of Skywalker), the TV Series (The Mandalorian) and some game no-one cares about. Naturally I hit the shops after work, giddy with excitement. What did I buy?

Target was mostly underwhelming. Yes there was a spiffy endcap, but isn’t it just the same basic design as the last two films?!? Also you can see that the shelves weren’t exactly bursting with choice, especially when you ignore (as we all should) the Funko stuff. They had a pittance of new figures like these:

As well as two lego sets, a t-shirt, some stuffed droids (?) and one or two instantly forgettable other things. Nothing grabbed me and I left empty-handed.

Barnes & Noble was my next stop and as you can see they had a nice little display. Overall it was better than Target with more variety including what looked to be a giant spoileriffic book that I didn’t open. I did learn though – from the packaging of the figures, that the new film will feature a speeder chase on a planet called ‘Pasana’, non-Tattooinian Jawas (!) and this dude:

I was mildly excited by the stuff at Barnes & Noble but not enough to buy anything, and left empty-handed.

Walmart was my next destination and the less said about what I saw there the better. Given that Walmart was hyped (by who?) as the go-to destination for TFF one would imagine they would have something. But no; it was the usual barren wasteland of no Star Wars toys. This was depressing to a fellow with money burning a hole in his pocket so to alleviate the despair before I left for the mall I picked up $20 worth of soup:

At the mall I skipped over to The Disney Store which – finally! – had a nice display. They had clothes and figures and hats and lightsabers and a few other things including these for a staggering $50 per set:

Fifty dollars for three medallions just like the ones that came free with POTF figures in 1983?!!? Who’s going to buy these??? And they had three sets! Madness I proclaimed loudly as I walked out empty-handed and beelined for the LEGO store.

Now this is what I was looking for! They even have a TFF sign! But look: just look at that Star Destroyer kit!!! So what if it’s $700 and so big that there’s literally no-one alive that would have a place in their home to display it? It’s a beauty indeed and would be so much fun to build. That the sort of lunacy one expects to see on a day about Star Wars product. Oh and they had this too:

(Yes I know the photo was taken at Target, but they had it assembled at the LEGO store and it’s truly the stuff of nightmares.)

Anyway I bought nothing at LEGO, which means on Triple Force Friday after a couple of hours going to all the usual stores I left with… nothing!

So I went and dropped over a grand on an iPhone 11 Pro Max so the trip wasn’t a total waste 🙂

  • Posted in Collecting
  • Robert

Q

  • September 20, 2019

Five years ago I had a surreal experience at New York Comic Con. I hinted about it on the day, but I think it’s finally time to recount the strange tale.

The tale of the day I met Q.

That’s Q, the near-omniscient all-powerful extra-dimensional being from Star Trek. He is played with appropriate bombast by the actor John de Lancie and I, for one, have always considered him absurd.

Florence loves Star Trek. I think she’s mostly a TNG fan and of course, as such, she’s a fan of Q. I’ll be bold enough to suppose he’s not her favorite by any stretch, probably not even top five, and possibly not even above Chief O’Brien. Regardless though she’s a Q fan, and therefore since John de Lancie was making an appearance at NYCC 2014 I took it upon myself to get her his autograph as a birthday gift!

So on a certain day a little under five years ago today I joined a line for de Lancies signature. Many Star Trek luminaries were signing that day, and I don’t remember why I lined up for Q over (for instance) Riker, but I do recall the original goal – Patrick Stewart’s autograph – had unfortunately failed due to a cancellation.

I stood silently in line alone while KLS camped out somewhere else guarding the loot we’d collected that day. All the lines were tightly packed together and I was surrounded by, let’s say, intense fans. Not of my caliber of course, and certainly less charming; the sort that endlessly blathered about their trivial knowledge of Trek and other topics. I tried to close my ears but failed.

It was an experience.

What I recall:
– One guy had a comic with three Trek characters on the cover. I believe they were Kirk, McCoy and Data (for some reason). He already had Shatner and was in line for Brent Spiner’s auto. He was boasting about getting them all and his friend informed him (how didn’t he already know?) that DeForest Kelly was long dead. The guy was undeterred though and simply said he’d forge the Kelly autograph!
– Another chap had a giant poster with loads of cast members on it and most of them had already been signed. Clearly he’d taken this thing to many conventions and was close to getting every signature. Someone asked him what he would do with it when he finished and he said he was going to print duplicates and sell them!
– A third person was strangely focused on LeVar Burtons singing (or musical) talents and even eventually spoke with him about it as he was getting his autograph. Burton was humble, but I got the distinct feeling the fan had confused him for someone else…

There was more weirdness but time dulls the memory. It was an excruciating wait for de Lancie to arrive. Eventually he did.

de Lancie’s line wasn’t the longest but there were several ahead of me and some behind. While waiting I had become aware of the fact that I seemed to be the only one there for Q’s autograph and the rest of the line was there since he was at the time voicing one of the Little Ponies! Indeed, of the photos he was selling most of them were ponies and only two were Q! I watched those ahead of me talk pony with him, or rather at him since although he was sitting right there it seemed he was elsewhere. I watched him look straight at a young girl and apparently talk to her before I (and she?) realized he was actually speaking to his assistant behind him. It was strange. Then it was my turn.

Now I forget exactly what I said to him, but it was mostly a total lie. I spun some eloquent and moving tale about my BFF Florence who ‘always wanted to meet him’ and loved Q since ‘he was funny but mischievous and had a heart of gold’. There’s a nonzero chance I said she read the Q novels, and I may have even told him that she thought that utterly alien Q was ‘the most human’ of the TNG characters, in no small part due to his wonderful portrayal.

He ate it up, looking me right in the eye, nodding knowingly once or twice. Through my words I was sure he felt the love of his distant fan Florence. How would he reply?

“And what is it”, he said, “that you do?”

And that was that. In one simple question he utterly dismissed the reason I was there. He didn’t care at all about Florence, and demonstrated not the slightest of hints that he had listened to anything I had said.

Money was exchanged. A photograph was signed. No personal photos taken (they cost extra) and I was done. Q who?

And that was that! It was weird and surreal and irritating and funny. Five years later I still vividly remember the experience and I’ve always wondered was it just me or is he always like that?

The upside was I got an autograph for Florence, but I don’t remember what he wrote or even if he personalized it. Regardless now she knows the whole story maybe it’ll bring a smile the next time she looks at it: the day I thought I was ‘meeting’ John de Lancie, but walked off feeling more like I’d – albeit briefly – actually met Q.