"Classic" Games

I am long past the days when I kept up with the latest hardware and jumped at the chance to play the latest games as soon as they came out. That died when I left college, back when I played Descent for hours on end over the campus network and then later Quake II. Sure, I've enjoyed some great games since like Quake 3 Arena, Unreal Tournament, Jedi Knight/Academy...but I simply don't have the time to play as I once did.

Well, I've since found myself longing to play some of the old games again. It started when I finally tracked down a copy of Willy the Worm and Sleuth, two games I used to play all the time on the old Kaypro 8088. Not to long ago I stumbled upon an online version of Zork, another classic I used to play on the old Kaypro (I still remember the day in fifth grade when I actually won the game!). I had some great fun revisiting my youth playing these games.

I have since found that, true to my mantra, you can find anything on the Web (anything, that is, except a picture of the battleship version of the USS Enterprise NCC-1701D from the ST:TNG episode Yesterday's Enterprise, but that's another story). I've come across utilities and mods to be able to play Duke Nukem 3D, Descent, and several other older games on Windows XP thanks to the ingenuity of some avid gamers and programmers.

My coworkers and I have found that these games run quite well on our laptops, so now we have impromptu mini-LAN parties on lunch breaks. Ahh...takes me back to the good old days...