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Gaming – Page 4 – Janeil Harricharan

Gaming

So in my hunt of people to interview and ask questions for the “Summer of Gaming” series, I broadened by horizons. Not only would I just focus on the guys that made my favorite games from the 90’s when I grew up, I’d also poke at some more recent fellows.

This search led me to S.C. Watson, an illustrator and artist for Space Empires V, a game I spent a whole lot of time on before getting a great new computer in 2007. His iconic “painted” portraits of the races always stuck with me, giving a greater “realism” to the game than the previous 3D models. He’s a self-taught artist, doing all sorts of traditional and digital work.

After some hunting I finally found Shane’s portfolio site and contacted him via e-mail. Explaining my intentions and project, he willingly agreed to contribute.

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Hi guys,

As the blog slowly gets back on track, I unveil a short-term project for this early part of summer to entertain you! I know a portion of my readers are gamers of some sort, and in a special project digging into my past, I’m releasing a set of interviews I did with a few game developers and artists from the 90’s and 2000’s.

Many of these guys are people who made the games I loved when I grew up. Some are obscure “shareware” games, some are other semi-popular titles you may recognize. A few are some modern developers that have forayed into the modern world making games. As I have moved on and seen little or no information about the people behind them, I made an effort myself to delve into the history of the people and the games they made.

You can consider it a partial historical preservation project, genuinely interested in the people who made these games. I uncover how game design was back in the day, what the average developer faced and the stories behind how these actual games were created and worked on.

My list of guests include:

  • John Hattan – The Code Zone (24 Games Pack)
  • Adam Pedersen – Jetpack
  • Chuck Sommerville – Chuck’s Challenge, Chip’s Challenge
  • Parley S. Neely – Lunar BBall, historical puzzle games
  • Petite Games (William) – Midnight, Destronauts, Wii Game Developer
  • Walk Bilofsky – Original founder of The Software Toolworks
  • Scott A. Murray – Missile Master developer
  • Shane Watson – Artist, Fantasy Flight games, Space Empires
  • Steven Hugg – Comet Busters
  • Petter Henrikson – ClusterTruck developer
  • Louis Carrozzi – Far Gate developer
  • Dan Froelich – Solar Winds & Jungle Jill musician

(List is subject to change based on availability)

Posts are uploaded every Saturday evening. I have most of these interviews done already, so its just a matter of scheduling.
So grab your coffee, a Windows 95 box and be prepared to head back down memory lane to a time when the Internet barely existed and mail-order games were the thing.
–

 

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Hi guys, Janeil here. I’m still struggling to keep up with the Heather installments. However in lieu of that while I catch up, do enjoy this guest story by JP Hack, who’s graciously allowed me to post his shennanigans in the Elite: Dangerous universe. Enjoy!

Ah, the Evarate system. So nice. So peaceful. A great day for a little mayhem! My plan was simple. Interdict players and fight them. But not newbs. Nope, I have a moral code. I went for the big dawgs like Pythons, FDL’s, Cobras, vipers, etc. What’s more insane than a pilot with the balls and skills to try to take on a bigger ship? A pilot with a Slightly bigger ship trying to take on bigger ships! Good bye Eagle!

Sit down boys and girls, commanders of all ages, as I retell you what happened last night. Lets just say that some people take role playing too seriously.

Okay, I did my homework. So I strolled through the ship yard and bought a slightly used, fully loaded, with extended warranty, Viper MK3. I had the sweet matte black paint job with skull markings. “Surely, they will take me seriously now!” Not even close.

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Around December of 2007, I was browsing Big Lots when I found a clearance CD of Sid Meier’s: Civilization 3. I had seen this game in action a year earlier, loving how the game played and never had gotten the chance to own it for myself. For $3, it was a bargain.

About two months later, I found the Gold edition in Target for $20. Nice cardboard box, 3 CD’s, even a manual. This had two expansion packs and even a map editor, something that my original game didn’t have.

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When the boom of Minecraft’s popularity happened, I was barely exposed to what had happened to keep track of it. I was either out of the loop or not around the gaming scene to remember much. But when it became popular, I realized that it wasn’t just some silly cube game, it was actually something quite remarkable.

Circa 2010, first semester of ETSU. I was in Color Theory class with a few other people. There was this one kid in particular called Coty. He was a bit of a nerd and we talked now and then. I remember that when we weren’t painting, he had his laptop out and would play games.

One week he kept going on about “Minecraft”. He had asked me to borrow $20 to buy it, which I agreed to lend him. He never followed through for me to buy it for him that evening, but when we had Color Theory the next time, he had it out on his laptop, running around and hitting cows. I thought it was rude until he explained that you needed to eat, so you had to kill animals.

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Gaming was quite a different experience for me compared to some people. Not having really touched a console except for an occasional bout of SNES at a cousin’s house, any gaming (if any) was done on PC.

It was only about 2004 that I was allowed my first personal computer. Before that, my “gaming” machine was an old IBM 300PL desktop, running 512MB of RAM and had a 550mhZ Pentium III processor. Sat in the “label room” at my family business at the time, an empty spot where a commercial label printer was set up (hence the name). Said computer ran the machine.

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I see a lot of people that I see around me, trying to grab old videogame systems for cheap then turn a huge profit on them, or people who swooning how good 8-bit graphics are and downputting most 3D games. I never did and don’t get the hype about those old games; and it isn’t a generation gap, it I wasn’t brought up playing these games.

My parents greatly frowned upon most if not all forms of gaming. Computer games heavily as they owned computers (I didn’t own my first system till I was 16 or 17). Video game systems so much more. All my cousins had SNES or NES systems. Gameboys, even.

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My brother gets the credit for this one, while I’m the one who put it together. But multiplaying together every weekend, he got the idea after seeing that Meteor Stahp meme. If you’re a SupCom player, this will make total sense, you’re welcome.

 

Idea courtesy Robuster.

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