Sometime just before or after we moved to Royal Park, my dad acquired a computer. I don't remember what kind of computer it was, or what kind of "specs" it had, to my eight year old self, it was enough that it was a computer, and it was ours.
I remember it running on an operating system called Norton Commander:
See, it wasn't quite Windows, but it wasn't DOS either. You could actually see a list of all the files in every folder. My computer had a folder called GAMES on it, and that was my favourite folder.
When we got the computer, it had maybe nine or ten games in the games folder, all of which were shareware. At the time I had no idea what shareware was, to me they were full games and I would grow to love each one.
Spitwad Willy
Spitwad Willy was awesome. I remember it being one of the first ever games that was just played by me, in fact I don't think Dad even knew about its existence. It came on the computer as a shareware, but it may as well have been the full version.
The whole idea was that you were Willy, and you spat through a tube at bouncy balls that were bouncing all around you. The balls would start out large and slow, and when you'd shoot one it would separate into smaller, quicker balls. If a ball touched you, you'd lose a life. It was a simple, genius concept. I only ever played it for about five minutes at a time, but I very fondly remember it.
Jill of the Jungle
At the time, shareware was really hitting its peak in popularity, with companies like Apogee, id Software, and Epic Megagames sending out free trial versions of their games, some of which became more popular and widely known than the full versions ever did. Jill of the Jungle was one such game.
A simple run and jump platformer, Jill was just one among many colourful PC platformer games I grew to love during this era. Jill, for me, was also an introduction to sexy female protagonists. I could feel something stirring deep inside of me every time I looked at her pixelated little body. Jesus, that sounded wrong..
Commander Keen
Fuck yeah. Who doesn't love Commander Keen? I remember playing a Keen game, I think it was number four (pictured), and never giving up until I acquired the demos for all of them. Number four was always my favourite, though. I remember it had some really interesting and amusing enemy mechanics, like enemies that would run away from you. It was a really fun computer game world, and it really defined computer gaming for me at that time.
One of the Keen games also had a bonus pong-like game called Paddle War integrated into it, I think, and that was equally badass.
At the time, with me being quite young, I found many games to be too difficult or tricky for me to finish, so I recall being extremely familiar with the first level of pretty much every game I would play. For example, the level above, in the forest, I knew like the back of my hand, but every level after that was like a new discovery.
Hocus Pocus
Hocus Pocus was another one of those Apogee shareware titles. The thing about this one was that it was a bit more recent when I got it, so I was blown away by the shading on the graphics and cool sound blaster sound effects. The gameplay itself was decidedly average, however.
You were a little apprentice wizard, or something. You shot little bolts of magic. What else do you need to know?
At the time, I had a small circle of school friends, and we all lived in the same neighborhood, so we would ride around on our bikes, going from house to house, and hang out. I had the computer and the NES, my friend Ross had a Mega Drive, and my friend Pavel had a SNES. These two guys would be my introduction to the next generation of console games.
Ross would show me an equal amount of amazing stuff and horrible stuff. The amazing stuff included a game called Streets of Rage, which blew me away with its badassity. We would all take turns in co-op to beat the game. I think at one point, Ross may have even lent me his Mega Drive for a weekend, and my dad and I would thrash Streets of Rage and Golden Axe on it.
I was always the Dwarf in Golden Axe, and Dad was the Amazon. In Streets of Rage, I played as the girl and my dad was one of the dudes.
The horrible stuff on the Mega Drive that I was privy to included crap like Cool Spot, Bubsy and Shaq-Fu. All stuff that kids who don't know any better would buy.
Pavel would show me amazing stuff on SNES, like Donkey Kong Country and Killer Instinct.
For some reason, I never bugged my parents to buy me one of the current generation consoles. I guess I was content enough with my computer. It seemed more personal than a console -- to have all your games in one place, on one interface, rather than on cartridges, which would become sticky after being soiled with cordial and soft drink (I'm looking at you Ross).
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