Being born in 1982 didn't lead to many options for RTS games. The ones you did see where so complicated that you cussed yourself for renting it on the weekend and not renting Street Fighter II, or going back even earlier something as simple as Super Mario 2. When you brought home a RTS game for your weekly rental as a 6 or 7 year old child you fumbled around pointed and pushed buttons with no idea of what to do or how to do it, and the early clunky nature of RTS games really did not help their appeal or understandability one bit.
The first RTS I really remember sitting down and trying to play was Sim City on the pc. To this day I still am baffled by SIM City and never play it. As soon as I see the title screen I am whisked away to a time of utter frustration and hatred so much so that I just built willy nilly and waited for the city to burn. To me that was the funnest part as a 12 or 13 year old.
The second game I remember really sitting down and trying at was Civilization. I can't clearly remember if it was part I or II but I had matured a few years and at 15 I knew I could build an empire. Like many people with civilization you fumble around for the first few hours THINKING you are doing great then you expand to the point of having enemies on all sides and soon after you die to raiding parties. Still it was a step up, the interface (while it doesn't hold up that well now) was simple and great for its time. I would play, die, and play again. To me thats the mark of a great game. I still have a copy of Civ II I purchased at the DG almost 10 years ago in a bargain bin, and I admit that every couple years I will put it in and get my ass kicked just for old times sake.
The next game i really remember sinking a lot of time into was one of the Might and Magic games from teh late 90's. I honestly can't tell you which one it was, I just remember drinking large amounts of coffee and taking caffeine pills getting wired like a 220 breaker and playing this all day. I moved to Indiana and didn't have the internet and the only game I had brought with me for PC was Might and Magic so I set myself to beat it in every way possible. I did but only after months of late nights and terrible campaigns where I would employ horrible strategy. I never was great at these games. If i did beat one it was by sheer force of will and determination.
What followed was a time where I fell out of the RTS scene. The games I bought and tried to play, such as Black and White, I never could get into. Now I know I am whitewashing over a few classics, Command and Conquer series, Starcraft, Warcraft, etc. I played these games although not to the extensive amount i played them in years to come. So I really can't give an opinion from my youth/teenage years when i really never played them much back then. I will say i have played these in recent years and received much enjoyment from them. Thats the thing about RTS games, the older you are the more they make since. So I can play a game NOW that I hated as a youth and really love it, and devote many many hours to it.
Ok the early 2000's is when things get muddled. To me games such as Baldurs Gate and its predecessors should be considered RPG/RTS games. Since they are real time and you have complete control over each character there are many many elements that come from RTS games. I think my devotion to those games really helped with the strategy element in RTS games. Sure you could pause and issue commands in the BG series but the majority of the game was making sure everyone was in the right place at the right time when a battle did occur, and isn't that a major portion of any RTS game. These games are what lead me back to try Warcraft once again. Now while I have never played WOW it saddens me that Blizzard has devoted itself to MMO's when their roots (beyond Rock N Roll Racing) where in RTS games. In recent years I have played the Legends series, and the Total War series religiously and love them. While the graphics can't hold up to teh latest release on 360 pr PS3, its not about the graphics. Its about the game play, and the game play just keeps getting better as (slowly but surely the kinks get worked out however it seams much more slowly than they do in other genres) .
I have not played any of the recent RTS games as my video card is just not strong enough for the newest games. HOWEVER I look forward to upgrading just to play the recent Warhammer games and Starcraft releases.
NOW onto something all the old foggies should remember. THAT SMELL! There are many memories associated with smells but one of the biggest for me is the smell of a video rental store. I don't know what exactly the smell was, fresh plastic, the sterile smell of fresh movie posters, the nicotine and coffee always billowing and forth from the behind the counter area. I don't even want to think how the smells from the adult only area mixed in with these. I also remember that early in the life of video stores they often doubled as teh only place to buy records/tapes/gaming stuff EVERYTHING COOL. As a really young kid i remember wanting to buy the Helloween ALBUM at the local rental store and my mother thinking that the cover was bad enough that she could not buy this for her 6 year old son. But back to the smell it was a smell that hit you as soon as you opened the door. Air conditioners running full blast, collage of movie posters spackled on the walls, it was a magical time where if you didn't know what game was coming out that week threw Nintendo Power you had to wade your way threw the old games to find the new gems. Then you rented a game maybe two if you were lucky. And you spent the next day or two playing these games hoping beyond hope that they where as good as they looked on the back of the box. Many times they weren't but when you did find a gem from the 8 bit early 16 bit era it was a great feeling. With websites, and mail in exchange game sites, and stores like Gamespot it kills that feeling of exploration and discovery. You know of every great game coming down the line, you know 2 years before the games come out. It takes away from the magic. I guess that SMELL is associated with the magic. Never knowing what your getting, having to struggle threw terrible controls and marginal graphics (even for the time) just to keep playing. I remember when the smell changed. To me it was the second big video game crash. It was the mid 90's when so many different systems came out that a video store need not have just two VG sections Nintendo or Sega you had the 3do, Sega CD, N64, Playstation, along with the Nintendo, Snes, Genesis. It became such a cluster fuck of who wanted your money who could make their large style boxes look the best and trick you into renting these horrible titles for even a night (at premium rates since the systems where so expensive it was 15 - 20 dollars to rent the system then another 3 to rent a game). At this time I started playing more games and really got into the PSX, I stopped renting games as much. If I wanted to play a game, I purchased it, since the games were typically so long renting them till you beat them was financially stupid. try renting FF7 till you beat it or let alone till you found all the secrets in it. Sure this can be said about some of the SNES RPG's, but it really started getting into 30+ hours of game play in the late 90's early 00's.
I just wanted to know how many people really remember the smell of their old game rental places. And the magic they envoked when games where such a new thing that just playing a new game, you had something to talk about on Monday on the playground. maybe I am just too nostalgic but its one of the things that stands out in my mind. Sorry if this entry seams kinda rough and tumble it is 5 in the morning and I just got bored and decided to write a lil piece about these games and memories. Please leave feedback, I know i can do better but if anyone is reading this I would love to know what you think so far. Signing out its me MikefromKy. Please leave feedback even if its bad.
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