THERE AIN'T NO TIMES LIKE THE OLD TIMES

Today I was thinking of posting some comments about some of the engines out there, but then I said "naaa! It's Friday. Let's take it easy and leave that for Monday".

So, what's for today? Doing some search for new posts in a couple forums I found some references to "old" games and I couldn't help remembering the old machines, old games, old sweet days. Snif! Snif! So let's go retro ...

Going back to the mid 80's I remember receiving my first computer ever: a ZX Spectrum Plus ... aahhh! My first love. Responsible for my passion on videogames. Titles like "Pssst", "Atic-Atac" and "Game Over" come very fast to my mind. Those were the days when you had to wait like 5 minutes or so until the game loaded into memory (48k ... wow!) while you prayed not to receive that nasty error message that appeared when the cassette player emmitted a wrong sound. Remember that? I bet you do. Then without loosing your hope, you used to rewind the tape, press "play" so that everything started again.

Then I switched to a "Commodore 128D" with a 5 1/4 drive. A whole new world for me. Just the fact of not having to use a tape was terriffic for me. Games like "Dig Dug" and "Bruce Lee" helped me tolerate those boring afternoons after high school when there was no one to call, no football matches, not even homework.

Then came an "Amiga 2000" (without hardrive I regret -too expensive back in those days) but again with an unknown hardware for me: a 3 1/2 floppy drive (I know what you're thinking: "what a challenge!"). This was a big change regarding visual quality: the graphics, colors, the cut-scenes. And also regarding sounds and music: my favorite? "Shadow of the Beast" (that guitar track that played when the game was over was really enjoyable). Games like "Prince of Persia" (with those impressive movements of the main character), "Lotus Espirit Turbo Challenge" and "The Blues Brothers" (a very funny platform game) caught my attention for hours and hours.

Finally, I bought my first PC computer: a notebook "Presario 1080". After that I realized something "I love notebooks". I have to admit that desktops are in general more powerful and you can get a better desktop for the same price or less than a notebook (especially if you buy the part separately and assemble the machine by your-self), but notebooks are quite more handy. With time I started to value more "handiness and comfort" than "hardware power" (yeah, I know, to some extent, since it has a direct relation to your needs as well as your purchasing power). We all know PC games but the first I played was "Pod" (since it came with my notebook), then "Primal Rage", "Alone in the Dark", the "FIFA" and "Star Wars" series (Rebel Assault, Tie Fighter, etc.), among others.

Now-a-days, I've got a 64-bit-processor desktop with the power to run smoothly each and every newest PC game in the market (like one of my favorites "Prince of Persia: The Sands of Time") but I still enjoy playing classic retro games, every now and then.

Well, that's all guys. Have a nice weekend!

[By the way, which are/were your favorites "retro" games?]