Back to Kevin Chase’s Home PageToday’s personal computers with large hard drives and memories offer a very versatile environment for gaming software. Yet by and large I find myself unimpressed by many of the latest offerings from the gaming publishers. A year’s subscription to Computer Gaming World magazine ended recently (1994), and I failed to renew it since I felt the magazine didn’t treat the subject at all seriously. Computer games should challenge the mind and reward the player in interesting ways. However, as with movies, the publishers stick with what works and end up programming to increasingly lower common denominators. In spite of this trend, there are a number of good games out there, and I’d like to spotlight them here, in an effort to identify some of the best aspects of computer gaming.
Simulations are perhaps the most demanding and rewarding of games. Often intricate and difficult to learn, they offer a challenge which is sadly lacking in many computer games. Simulations aren’t real games at all. They’re miniature worlds to explore and interact with, and they are quite possibly my favorite kind of entertainment.
Maxis is the both the most well known and best publisher of computer simulations. I have been an enthusiast of Maxis’ products since their first product, SimCity, appeared on the Macintosh many years ago. Over time I’ve picked up and played most of their products (SimCity 2000, SimCity, SimTower, A-Train, SimLife, SimEarth, SimAnt and SimFarm). You could say I’m one of their better customers ;-), though lately I’ve had little time to play any of these. I admire the games because of their open ended design which means you’ll never exhaust the game’s possibilities.
The simulation I have spent the most time mastering however is Sid Meier’s Civilization, which is a must-have game for the Mac or PC. Playing a full game takes a couple days at least, and involves a great deal of attention, but there is a verifiable pleasure in watching your civilization grow and advance. Although not as open-ended as the Maxis products, Civilization can be mastered using many strategies, and the game constantly offers new challenges.
Flight simulators I also enjoy, though perhaps more from some understanding of what is involved in modeling the physics. Hellcats over the Pacific (Graphic Simulations) is an older but excellent combat aircraft simulator with a surprisingly good flight model. Chuck Yeager’s Air Combat (Electronic Arts) is another I have which I occasionally fly, though its flight model is somewhat primitive. Flight Unlimited is a fairly new simulator which offers a very advanced flight model. It implements a solution to the Navier-Stokes equation in real time. I haven’t played it but I’ve heard it’s quite good. The Mac Flight Sim Page lists many more of interest, but the amount of time required to really get into the games precludes me temporarily from buying F/A-18 Hornet or A-10 Attack. Every Mac owner should have a copy of Hellcats though. Now if there was only a PowerMac native version. :-). Rumors, anyone.
Lately, I’ve been playing a lot of Warcraft II for the Mac against human opponents. This game is not quite a simulation, but has many aspects which derive from successful simulations. In it, you need to build a town and use its resources to wage war against your opponents. The battles are in real time and are often quite intense. Many extra levels have been designed and released, and the game is sufficiently flexible that I am unlike to exhaust it soon.
Simulations are noteworthy for the time needed to really understand the game. Games like Doom (iD software) on the other hand require little up-front investment in time to get into, and are a relaxing way to spend an hour or two at the end of the day. I like Doom’s ability to confer the illusion of being in another world, and the engine is sufficiently flexible that the worlds are not monotonous and repetitive, although your opponents typically are. Doom would quickly become boring however if it wasn’t for the large number of independently designed levels available. Unfortunately, a number of these levels are poorly made, and separating the wheat from the chaff can be a difficult process. Still, Doom and its ilk are entertaining. But to be honest, I haven’t played much Doom per se. MacDOOM is the most well known, but I have deferred buying it indefinitely. Instead, I played Marathon (Bungie) and Wolfenstein 3D (MacPlay), the precursor to Doom for a time. Today I play neither, but I am considering purchasing Doom and trying my hand at some of the independent levels.
When I was a young teenager, my family would usually spend two weeks in York Beach, ME during the summer as a vacation. All year long I would save my allowance for this two weeks, and during it spend a good fraction of it at the video arcade. Anyhow, I became pretty good at some games and for several years I was an avid player.
By the time I got to college this had changed. Few arcade or computer games interested me. Then along came Tetris (Spectrum Holobyte). It was a deceptively simple game, but required great skill to master. Although I never became addicted as badly as some people I knew, I did play the game pretty intently for a couple weeks.
Tetris rewards you both for quick thinking and for deep thinking. It takes some time to discover that some moves that look like mistakes at first really are the moves to make. This process of building intuition is similar to the learning phase in simulations I so much enjoy, and explains my interest in such a deceptively simple game. I’ve looked for other games which are similar in style. Dr. Mario (on the Mac, Dr. Macinto) I have been known to play for hours occasionally. Blockade, the 3D version of Tetris never really appealed to me, though.
One of the best games I’ve ever played is the Oxyd/Oxyd magnum/Per Oxyd series (Dongleware). In this game, you have to solve puzzles by moving a marble around the screen. Most levels involve a deal of logical thinking, though there is some emphasis on mousing skills from time to time. Solving the puzzles brings such a rush. Heaven and Earth (Buena Vista) has a somewhat similar mix of puzzles and agility.
Traditional board games like Chess, Othello, Go and Backgammon I don’t play very often but have tried to program computer strategies to play. My interest arises completely from trying to understand the logic required to play the game effectively, and the difficulty in imparting that logic to the computer.
As I mentioned above, I grew up playing classic arcade games. So it is not surprising that I find myself playing them today, only on the latest hardware. Much as I hate to spend money on a Microsoft product, Microsoft Arcade is a must have for anyone with any sense of nostalgia. I play alot of Centipede, but Missile Command, Battlezone, Asteroids and Tempest are also quite cool. Return of Arcade has hit the PC with versions of Pac Man, Dig Dug, Galaxian and Pole Position, and may someday make it over to the Macintosh (I hope). In the meantime, there are a number of unofficial clones floating around which can be even more fun. Additionally, there are now a number of arcade emulators available so that you can play the original games on emulated hardware.
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Last modified: June 23rd, 1997
Kevin Chase