The First Classic
There was a time, not long ago when the image that came to mind of a "computer gamer" was that of a nerdy twelve year old kid with thick glasses, pimples and little hope of ever reproducing, hiding in his room playing games naturally by himself. Sadly that was not that far from the truth back in the 80’s early 90’s, except of course regarding the age of the so called geeks. We know now that in fact most of the "computer nerds" back then, were actually young adults between the ages of 16-35 with thick glasses, pimples and little hope of ever reproducing who hide in their rooms playing games. These unsuspecting gamers were about to kick start one of the soon to be largest entertainment industries in the world, if you can believe it an industry that was in short order going to become main stream. They weren’t just playing games either, they were creating them using imagination and skills that would soon pay as much as a hundred thousand dollars a year.
I was one such nerd and although I wouldn't dare take credit for shaping the gaming industry, I have watched it grow from its infancy and played along every step of the way, even making an occasional contribution now and then. No matter how much laughing and finger pointing I endured for my secret hobby, I like many kids and young adults from that era look back on those early days of gaming with great fondness. Those of us who risked ridicule enjoyed an American sub-culture that was so tightly woven together that even today there is an unspoken recognition by most gamers from those days of what is considered “classic gaming” and what it means to be old school. The rest of this article is dedicated to those card caring nerds from those early days of gaming. If the next few paragraphs triggers an emotional response and you find yourself day dreaming of your wasted youth you can consider yourself to be on the in. If you read the rest of the article and find yourself wondering what the hell this guy is talking about, unfortunately it means you missed “The Golden Age” of gaming.
Having been partial to role-playing games as a result of my exposure to pencil and pencil RPGS games like dungeons and dragons (yes I know I'm a total geek, lets all say it together) the golden age of gaming on the commodore 64 was unmatched. Not that there were that many options as far as systems go, consoles had certainly been around but if you think Pong is classic gaming your kidding yourself. The Atari was certainly an option, but the commodore brought new possibilities to gaming because it was a far smarter machine with far better specs then had been possible up to that point. More importantly however Q-basic and similar programming languages made it possible for closet geeks to create their own games and it wasn’t until then that the golden age of gaming began.
The first and perhaps the most nostalgic game that comes to mind was barely a game, in fact it was nothing more then interactive reading with no graphics to speak of at all. Text based role-playing games like ZORK were so classic, that I can actually remember the feeling of playing the game even now. What made them so amazing was that it gave you control over a story that was there for you not just to read but to discover its secrets, while allowing you to imagine the scenes rather then having graphics feed it to you with a spoon as is the case for all games today. It was very much like RPG games like dungeons and dragons that you could play on your own and perhaps it’s creators intended it to be as such. My favorite part of the game was the fact that you weren’t a fictional character, in fact unless you really read into the game the assumption always was that you were the character. It was a in a way a first person game, assuming you had enough imagination to make it so and the goal was to explore, find treasure and solve the diabolic puzzles created by the twisted minds of Marc Blank and David Lebling.
ZORK defined a new genre of gaming and is easily considered the great grandfather of PC based RPG gaming by most old school gamers. There were plenty of other text based games that deserve their credit in the historical gaming archives, notably the ZORK sequals and the lovable Hitch Hikers Guide To The Galaxy. ZORK however holds a special place in my heart and I see the game like a pet that died long ago who could do no wrong. Text based gaming fell of the map rather quickly, replaced by graphical RPG’s, but if you happen to be around for that brief moment in time you were lucky enough to experience gaming in it’s purest form. For anyone who isn’t too jaded to travel back in time to grasp on to a piece of gaming history I strongly recommend taking a crack at ZORK even today.If you are brave enough to tackle this classic let me be the one to get you started. Lets see if I can remember it now. " You are standing in an open field west of a white house, with a boarded front door. There is a small mailbox here. "
Good Luck
Get ZORK for free here http://www.csd.uwo.ca/Infocom/zork1.html.
