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Importance of games

aladdin

There are many reasons to play games. A simple Google search reveals many articles on the importance of games, such as to relax, to socialize, to improve yourself, etc., etc… I will not attempt to come up with some grand theory on why games are important (with this article at least). Instead I will just write about some of the memorable games that I have played at different stages of my life and how they have created an impact in my life.

I grew up with computers from an early age thanks to my father. As a kid (between 6-10), most of the games that I remember playing at this age were DOS-based. These games were purchased by my father in the form of 3.5 inch floppy disks. Perhaps it is nostalgia that has distorted my memory, but I remember the graphics of most of the DOS games that I played as beautiful, even by today’s standards.

DOS-based games

  • Lion king
  • Skyroads
  • Aladdin
  • Volfied
  • TMNT
  • Mortal kombat
  • Street fighter

A notable game I played here was Aladdin, a 2D platformer that basically runs you through Disney’s Aladdin in about 10 levels. Controls for the game were simple, arrow keys to move, Ctrl to slash with your sword, Alt for throwing apples, and Spacebar for jumping. The only time I managed to complete the game was by playing it together with my cousin. To clarify, Aladdin does not have a co-op mode built in. We actually delegated duties. My cousin would control Aladdin to move and jump while I would press the buttons to slash and throw apples. We managed to complete the whole game including killing the final boss, Jafaar.

Many years later, when I was an older teenager (and once as an adult), I revisted Aladdin. I thought I should be able to breeze through Aladdin as I had accumulated years of experience playing hardcore platformers like Megaman by that time. However, I was surprised to find that I could never get pass level 8, the Genie level, and many times, I fail even before that. It is absolutely bonkers that as kids, me and my cousin actually managed to share controls, co-ordinate, and complete the entire game. Perhaps our success was due to the constant encouragement we were giving each other while playing, or perhaps it was because we could concentrate on doing our jobs well. Whatever it was, the lesson I learnt here is that sometimes you may achieve more when working on something with someone you trust, rather than go at it solo.

My father gradually upgraded our home computers to Windows 3.11, and later to 95, and 98. I was around 10 when I started using Windows 98. We had dial-up internet access at the time. Somehow, as a 10 year old, I managed to navigate the internet, and by chance, stumble upon emulators and downloaded the Red and Blue Pokemon ROMs to play on the PC. All of this despite not really understanding what are emulators, ROMs, or Pokemon. For context, this was 1999, a full year before Pokemon would arrive in Malaysia.

I fondly remember exploring Veridian forest and battling Pikachu for the first time. Excited, I went to school the next day to tell my friends about it. They entertained me but I am pretty sure they thought I was babbling nonsense when they heard me talking about a “rat that can shoot lightning”. When Pokemon arrived in Malaysia the following year, it was all the craze among my classmates, but by then I had already finished the game multiple times.

Growing older, I began to understand emulators and ROMs. I understood it as a way to play Gameboy and Super Nintendo (SNES) games for free. At the time, my family could not afford Gameboys and Super Nintendos. So discovering the world of emulators was a literally a game changer. I downloaded all the ROMs I could get my hands on. Initially, Gameboy and Super Nintendo, eventually Playstation 1 games when a reliable emulator was released (VGS emulator). Thus, began the era of emulator games.

Emulator games

  • Pokemon series
  • Final fantasy 4, 6
  • Digimon World 2
  • WWE Smackdown 2
  • Megaman series

There are so many things I can talk about on the emulated games that I played during this time. I will choose to focus on the Japanese RPGs, like the Pokemon series and Digimon World 2. Once I had more experience in understanding emulators, I began to keep track of the ROM release of new Pokemon games. The Japanese version always gets released first, before it gets ROM-hacked (modified by other users) to have partial fan-translation in English, and finally the full English release. It may take months between the release of the Japanese ROMs and the English ROMs. At the time, I would not let something as minor as not understanding Japanese to stop me from enjoying a new Pokemon game. I managed to complete every single new Japanese Pokemon game together with my brothers. We had some help of course, by scouring the internet for FAQs and walkthroughs. A lot of trial and errors and guessing were needed to finish the games but we enjoyed every moment of it.

A few years later, when Digimon World 2 was released, we did the same thing, completed the Japanese version with the help of walkthroughs and FAQs. However, our confidence did eventually grow a tad too big and we purchased some Japanese games that were not popular enough to have online walkthroughs. Despite a lot of trial and errors, we still could not figure them out. Still, I learnt a great lesson in being resourceful and resilient to achieve an objective. I never considered not playing the games as an option. All I could think of at that time were thoughts like, “How to get past the pesky NPC that is blocking the path! What does he want??”.

As a teenager, I played a lot of LAN games, mainly with my brothers and cousins. I was fortunate that my father got me and my brothers each a PC of our own. Although the specs were not the greatest, it was sufficient to play most games at least on the lowest graphical settings.

The interaction enabled by LAN games made games so much more enjoyable to play with other people. Many good memories were made in the land of Dungeon Siege as well as in the high-stakes hostage rescue mission of CS_Assault. However, some of the most memorable LAN sessions were from playing real-time strategy (RTS) games like Red Alert 2 with my brothers and cousins.

LAN games

  • Age of Empires 2
  • Starcraft
  • Red Alert 2
  • Star Wars: Galactic Battlegrounds
  • Dungeon Siege
  • Counter-strike
  • NBA Live 2006

Although games like Starcraft or Age of Empires 2 were more popular, we never really played those games in multiplayer LAN. The most memorable RTS game that we played in multiplayer LAN was Star Wars: Galactic Battlegrounds (SWGB). SWGB was based on the Genie engine, also used by Age of Empires 2 (AoE2). Despite not knowing this fact at the time, we pretty much intuitively felt that SWGB was more or less a reskin of AoE2 but with stormtroopers and Jedis. The futuristic theme made it more fun for us as teenagers.

We avoided playing against each other, and largely chose to play co-op against computer AI. Although we never really talked about it, I believe we wanted to avoid negative feelings associated with being crushed in a game by family members (though I can say as adults, that sentiment has completely flipped). We played many long sessions of SWGB in co-op against AI. The most notable being a 4-hour session that was unfortunately cut short by the game crashing.

Although we initially experimented with many ways of playing together, our eventual strategy of choice was to join forces as early as we can, and collaboratively build our base by delegating base-building responsibilities. At the start of the game, we would identify which one of us has the best spot. The other two players would then farm just enough resource to build a Town Centre (to build workers), abandon the old base and migrate to build a new base near the player with the best spot. Then, we will start delegating tasks. One of us would be in charge of building base defenses, another would be in charge of building walls, and yet another would be in charge or building an offensive army. As there was an option to share resources, we discussed and managed the use of resources depending on priority. In hindsight, this strategy was not the best way to win in an RTS game against AI as we essentially turtled ourselves. However, it was the most fun way to play together. The big lesson I learnt here is the delegation of duties. It was a useful lesson in leading the numerous societies in school and university. Playing the game did not make me a better delegator of duties, but it did make me realize that sometimes it is just so much more fun for everyone to have their own role to play in achieving a goal. As long as their responsibilities are clearly communicated to them, people have a tendency to try their best to achieve it.

Most of the games I played as an adult were online games. I am incredibly lucky to have a gamer wife who plays many of these games with me. To avoid this post from being too long, I will write about these games in a future post.

Online games

  • Dota
  • Red Dead Redemption 2
  • Valheim
  • Call of Duty: Warzone

To be continued…