My history of goofing off

I have said before on this blog that I love computer games. I don’t play dozens of them. I pick one or two that I like and play them when I’m supposed to be working.

My favorite of all time was MYST. I played it in grad school when assignments were due. I have all of the MYST games and played URU online for months until it was shut down. I even go to the MYST/URU online forum to see when my favorite game will be available to me again.

The game that started it all for me was a DOS game called Altered Destiny by Accolade. It was about a man who was accidently sucked into an enchanted TV and teleported to a strange land while still in his PJ’s. His mission became, naturally, to get back home with all his limbs intact.

It came with a fold out rather crude map, a divination wheel, a manual, and a “travel diary.” I dealt with characters like zutterbys, Alnar the weapon maker, the Flubox and somna trees.

The art, music and animation were all very rudimentary, but I had fun with it. I never finished the game. I kept falling into the abyss and couldn’t figure out how not to.

Some other little known games I loved were The Lighthouse; about a man who has to rescue a kidnapped baby who has been taken to a parallel universe, and Amber Journey’s Beyond; about a scientist who is stuck in the paranormal world. I also spent a lot of time playing Bejeweled.

Another game I played was called Shivers. It was about some people trapped in an old condemned and haunted museum. It was pretty bizarre and disturbingly creepy. And after you went through all the creepy stuff you found that the people you were looking for and trying to rescue were dead. The sequel, Shivers 2 was so bad that I gave up on it.

Then there was a game I tried to play that had so many bugs in it that I gave up on that one too.

All of these games are completely nonviolent. There are no guns and no blood: just puzzles to solve and the thrill of discovering new worlds.

My newest time killer is from Big Fish Games called the Ancient Quest of Saggarah. which is a find three game, very much like Bejeweled but with a lot more variations.

So there you have it; the history of my goofing off from 1993 to the present. If I find some more cool or not so cool games I will let you know.

page from Altered Destiny