geocities rescue

Amusements

Even though I seem to have spent 40% of my life sitting in front of little rectangular boxes punching keyboards, I’ve never actually been very good at computer + video games. Even when everyone thought that a 12” disc was acceptable and that instead of loading a game onto the machine you had to copy-type the thing from Personal Computer World, I’d have trouble getting the little cross (or whatever passed as a spaceship) into the bracket (docking port). In the arcade, ten pence would last fractionally longer than the lick of an ice cream.

What was a bit embarrassing was my Dad could play them better than I did. He’d sit up for hours into the night playing Acorn Electron Pac-man clone ‘Snapper’ and the platformer ‘Chuckie Egg’, usually the same game, usually for hours on end. I’d try too, but there isn’t much fun in trying to beat an impossible score.

I think the only game I’ve ever made any sense of was Lemmings . . . perhaps it was the futility of their little lives, or the fact you could play each level as many times as you liked until you got it right . . .