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Submissions (7)

Rob Clark's avatar
Rob Clark10/9/2023

$4

Fields of Glory

The year was 1999. I had just taken delivery of my first desktop PC from Tiny Computers. Included in the box was a game that I will remember for the rest of my days. A game so challenging, I have yet to complete it.

That game was Fields of Glory.

Developed by Microprose and released in 1993, Fields of Glory centres around the Waterloo Campaign of 1815. Players take control of the Anglo-Prussian and French armies to replay the battles leading up to, and including, the famous Battle of Waterloo.

Each battalion of sprites represents the real battalions that were present with a rich encyclopaedia entry for each. A history nerds dream, this game had in-depth descriptions and details, chronicling every unit in the game. From Napoleon and Wellington, to the 95th Rifles and King's German Legion. It had entries for every nation, general, battalion, corps, and company on the battlefield, complete with matching music, played via the pizo-buzzer.

This game had an anti-piracy feature that I've never seen in another game, though I'm sure they exist. Before you could start a new battle you had to enter a password. To find this password the game would give you three numbers. These corresponded to the page, line, and word in the manual, with a random word selected each time. I still find this pretty amazing to this day.

Fields of Glory is now available of Steam, and I urge any who haven't played it to give it a go.

But be warned: it is very difficult. 20+ years and several hundred hours later, and I still cannot defeat Napoleon at Waterloo. That Arthur Wellesley with a military genius!

Bayou_Hashira_504 's avatar
Bayou_Hashira_504 10/9/2023

it was super mario bros I'm that old and the only game I never

Lanah Tyra's avatar
Lanah Tyra10/5/2023

$4

Alley Cat (1984)

I was about 3 years old and when my mother couldn't leave me with anyone she took me to her workplace and I played this game all day. I was always a cat-person and loved cats so it was the perfect game for me.

You had to jump up the bins on the top of the fence, but be aware of the alley cats pushing you off right into path of the chasing dog. From the fence you had to jump in at one of the windows, and you could end up in different rooms.

Catch the mice in a giant cheese, fish from the aquarium, knock things off the table... you know all the things cats are supposed to do.... until a broom comes along and sweeps you out that is.

As I was searching for videos the music started to play and my partner looked over to check what I was watching. When I told him I played this from the keyboard as I didn't have a joystick he said the cool kids had joystick. Ah well...

Philip's avatar
Philip10/5/2023

$4

Lode Runner on the Apple IIe

The first video game I remember playing was on an Apple IIe computer which had a floppy disc drive. It was our families first computer, I may have been 7 or 8 at the time. I remember that my siblings and I all vied to get a turn to play on it. We were utterly impressed with the technology!

Now on this computer we had 1 game on a Floppy Disc and it was called Lode Runner.

Lode Runner was a nifty little game, where you can run, jump, climb ladders and swing along monkey bars. Your character was something like a spy, and the enemy henchmen were out to get you. You needed to collect all the briefcases on the screen to beat the level. Meanwhile you had to avoid the enemies because if they touched you, you died. Your one weapon was to shoot a hole in the ground in front of you. The hole didn't last long, but if you could set it up so an enemy walked into it, they would be trapped and die when the hole regenerated and buried them alive.

It was a great little platformer, and it kept you on your toes as the enemies were constantly choosing paths to corner you and get you.

Plus you could create your own levels as well. My brother's and I would have fun making nearly impossible levels for each other to try and beat.

From that first taste of video games, I was hooked. It's amazing to think how far we've come!

Dan Thomas's avatar
Dan Thomas10/5/2023

$4

Ah a chance for my fellow grey-heads to show their age... wait a minute, how am I expected to remember something from so long ago? I barely recall what I had for breakfast... wait, what is it I'm doing again? 👴

In all seriousness though, I DO remember that the first game I played was on a Spectrum 48k (the rubber keyed wonder) in the 80s.

Trashman

Released in 1984 literally, a bin man simulator where you walk up a road collecting bins from people's gardens and emptying them into the bin lorry (US: trash truck?) before it pulled too far up the road. Once you emptied the bin and returned it you could go into the house and have a humorous little conversation with the homeowner and earning the bonus of a bit more time.

I was at a friends house when I first played and my parents subsequently bought our own machine that next Christmas which well and truly set me on my path. This game was a staple for a long time. I was not any good at it, but I do remember enjoying it and trying to beat my best score over and over. It was actually quite a fast-paced game for the time, I remember being hugely infuriated because you could easily step too far and walk off the path which would mean the household dog would come and chase after you. Looking back now, whilst it was a fun game at the time, it's amazing to realise Paperboy was released the same year which was leagues ahead in terms of graphics and gameplay action. I'm not sure any of these games hold up today, expectations are way different from what was possible on the hardware then, but it's always fun to check out videos to get a feel for what early games were like...

We've come a long way, eh?