8 Video Games (Not MMORPGs) That Stole My Life

Gaming addiction and ‘soul sucking’ is term usually connected to MMORPG titles. But what was happening before their time? What games were occupying young and innocent souls, binding them in front of TV or PC screens for hours and days? Flashy arcades, space shooters, written dungeons and ancient role playing games were as same addictive as some of the later popular games like Everquest or World of Warcraft.

Chance to play with thousands, even millions of players all over the world cannot be beaten by vintage games, but those ‘oldies’ gave us a lot of excitement during many sleepless nights.

Here is my subjective list of 8 video games that are not MMORPGs, but still had stolen the precious moments of my life.


8. Text Based Adventures

Back in the 80’s, when I was a little boy without computer, my friend with brand new ZX Spectrum had ‘special’ guest in his house on daily basis. I was thrilled when looking at the small black device every day, like it was a gift given to us right from the hands of deities of technology. I still have that Jet Set Willy screen and music in my head (“If I Were a Rich Man” from the “Fiddler on the Roof” or Gwen Stefani’s “Rich Girl” for younger readers). Alas, one day, instead of space shooters and race games we used to play, my friend started to play something weird, just plain white letters on black background (maybe that was a strategy to kick me out). That was a goad for me to buy my own computer. It was ‘fatty’ Commodore 64, one of the sweetest things that ever happened to me. Shortly, I was ordering some games, and one of the first tapes I bought was labeled ‘Adventure Games’. Unfortunately (or luckily) there were no quests for diamonds, killing the monsters or such things. Games on that tape were the same sort of ‘black background-white letters’ games. Well some of them had obscure graphics. But, love was in the air since that day. I discovered a world of textual adventures that stole my hours, days and weeks from the moment the first game on the tape loaded correctly.











It was a ‘Hobbit’ with a warm message “You are in comfortable tunnel like hall.” I still didn’t discover Tolkien. Bakshi will introduce me to his world few years later. But that simple screen and message were enough to seed the love in child’s heart.
Later, I’ve played many of those adventures. Shooting the invaders or fighting the bad guys wasn’t interesting as typing: “Look”, “Examine”, “Go North” and things like that. Instead of playing with my friends outside, I’ve chosen to discover mysterious worlds hidden behind the portions of the text on the screen.
Adventures were my first gaming love and addiction.

Honorable mention: Later, when the text has been replaced by 3D graphics, I’ve spent a lot of time playing adventures like Neverhood or Grim Fandango. But they simply could not beat textual based adventures out of my heart.


7. Wolfenstein 3D

When I got PC, guess what was on it? Vast majority of PC gamers back in 90’s was crazy about Wolf 3D. Crazy enough to spend days in front of PC screens with sandwich crumbs all over the keyboard. Well, I don’t know about you, but I was crazy enough.
Wolfenstein 3D was a game that introduced FPS genre and opened the door for future titles like Doom, Quake and all recent shooters that invade space on our hard discs, memories and lives. I remember one sleepless week session at friend’s house with almost no breaks at all. Breaks we made were hardly enough to change our diapers.









6. Worms Armageddon & World Party

While the cute finger-like worms armed with arsenal of unbelievable weapons were still in 2D, this game had its charm. It was originally created for Amiga in 1995, but I was lucky enough to meet this game later when it landed to PC platform. “Worms” game gave a lot of sleepless nights and days on caffeine to me and my friends. Well, mostly nights on Uni. This game was pretty innovative and infectious and its advantage was the fact that 6 players could set up a party on just one PC. So, when you add a beer and snacks, that meant a lot of fun.









5. Counter Strike

LAN parties later extended from one to 32 PCs, depending on the size of the club. We couldn’t imagine playing anything else than Counter Strike back in those days. End of the work day in the club didn’t mean end of the party, so we met many dawns using the famous “The fire in the hole” phrase.











Honorable mention: Return to Castle Wolfenstein
This is game great not only as a single player game, but also as multiplayer solution both on LAN or internet parties. It gave me a lot of sleepless nights, this time with famous “Ze enemy is weakened”.


4. Tom Clancy’s Ghost Recon

It was a shooter, but not an ordinary shooter. You could not just rush into enemies, throw a few grenades or invite them on BBQ together with your Flammenwerfer 35. This was a tactical shooter game that required a lot of patience, stealth and time. Yes, a lot of my precious time spent ducking, crawling and hiding. Ghost Recon was a revolution for me. Game made both in first and third person has shown how the real combat should look like. From that moment on, I was looking only for realism in shooter games. Ghost Recon had determined objectives, but not a linear scenario. So basically, you could shoot or capture the boss first, and then fight his soldiers that you’d left behind in the first place. It was a problem if the soldiers ‘sniffed’ you, because they would wait on another location, which made the game harder and even longer.
 








3. Operation Flashpoint

This game is maybe more powerful in term of realism and non-linear scenario than Ghost Recon. When I played this game for the first time, I didn’t know how to use the map feature, so basically it was a pure survival experience. When I lost my squad in combat during one of the first objectives, I was completely alone without a clue what to do next. So, instead of restarting the mission, I thought “Ok, this is all a part of the game and I’ll go on” . So, I found myself hiding in the woods from enemies, walking literally miles on the map until I found a car in one of the backyards and stole it. I was driving and driving, then running away from the tank, then driving again (map was huge) until I came to plateau with abandoned facility wrapped in fog. I never felt such loneliness before: the realism of the game was too scary for me. However, on my way back I’ve noticed a little path that to the small forest where the ‘good guys’ rescued me shortly.
That survival game took 4 hours of my life (not to mention the rest of the missions) and it was the best gaming experience that was ever happened to me.









2. Championship/Football Manager

It all began with Tracksuit Manager for Commodore 64.











I never imagined it would be such infection of free time. Just as some players like strategies or simulations, others are crazy about sport managers. I am one of those. My love for football managers started in mid 80’s and still lasting, even while I’m writing this (I’m pushing Nottm Forest through the season 2014-15 in another window).
This game is a reason why my lunch lasts only 3 minutes, why I’m trying to drive away insomnia by setting up an ideal tactics for tomorrow’s match, why I don’t have friends, or why those I still have talk with me only about Football Manager.
However, this game rocks. You should try it once.









1. Elder Scrolls III: Morrowind

Finally, the game of the games. Master thief of the precious moments of my life.
In the world of RPGs, nothing can compare to this game. In fact, there’s no single player game that can compete Morrowind.
From the moment you step on the Vvardenfell ground and the Jeremy Soule’s music strike you, you realize that there’s no way back. In front of you are hours, days and weeks of wandering though tame landscape of Balmora, channels of Vivec or fumy Ashlands or wastelands of Molag Amur. Although being smaller than the worlds in prequels to Morrowind: Daggerfall and Arena , world of Vvanderfell still requires a lot of time to cross its various landscapes and complete numerous tasks. There is central quest, there are also various other quests depending on your race and profession, there are plenty of side tasks you’ll face with and there are many places that should be discovered.
To put it simple, after days of playing your limbs become so weak and your mind is so poisoned, that there’s no Potion of Restoration powerful enough to bring you back.
Now, even a glimpse to the CD box, makes me tremble. I even hear that ugly Cliff Racer’s noise, just when I think about Morrowind!
However, this is one of the best and most beautiful games I’ve ever played. It was worthy of playing it 2 years in a row.











Honorable mentions: Baldur's Gate and Diablo
Baldur's Gate was actually my first RPG, after which Diablo struck me. But, Morrowind outshined both of them, so these two games are just honorable mentions.


Games above are just a beginning of the slope: My one way path to the pit full of MMORPG titles I'm still stuck in.
However, I don’t feel bad about that.

If there are games that you loved, or that were your addiction or simply loss of time, or if you think that I’ve skipped some important ‘soul suckers’, please place them in comments.