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2000s – Janeil Harricharan

2000s

When I started to get my feet wet on the Internet, not all of it went well. Quite the opposite. I was quite a newb, and my homeschooling background coupled with strict parents didn’t help. Then add that I wasn’t on it enough to get the hang of things. It was a very bad combination.

I talked to very few people online. But there was one person I was in correspondence with that I had met over an Atlantis fanfic. As time went on they introduced me to a site by the name of deviantART. I signed up in 2004 after hearing them mention they were on it, and slowly started to delve into what it had to offer. I do remember I had posted a few things but because of my social ineptness mixed with poor drawing skills, pieces were lackluster at best. I didn’t even have a proper scanner at the time.

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In 2001, I was slowly allowed to start buying PC games that I liked with my allowance. The first few titles were stuff available off the Big Lots store shelf, as they were often cheaper. Things like Bugdom and Disney’s Atlantis: Trial by Fire. However, one winter evening near Christmas a game caught my attention. It was a game by the name of Fargate, and it was 50% off in a bargain bin when I had walked in that day. I HAD to get it, considering it looked to be a more complicated game than the “standard” education games I’d play.

It was quite a trip. I had technical difficulties with the game for several years so I never played it past the 4th stage. When I went to college in 2010, I discovered my issues stemmed from the CD being scratched around the rim. I found a cheap replacement copy on eBay and proceeded to beat the game not too far after.

My original manual from 2001, along with the more recently acquired CD case from eBay. I possess the box but was not able to find it for publishing this interview.

When I started to do my interview series, Fargate was one of the games I had an easier time finding people who worked on. In addition to finding such little background information on the game, I felt a proper notation in the interwebs was needed.

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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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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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