Thursday Thirteen

This is probably a bad thing to confess, but I like video games. I have been playing them ever since Atari came out with the first home consoles.

I have an older Xbox and a Wii but I have generally played games on the P.C.

Here are 13 of the games I have enjoyed over the years:



1. Oblivion. This is an RPG game put out by Bethesda as part of the Elder Scrolls series. I still see this game occasionally in the bargain bins, so I think it is available. This is likely the last RPG I will ever play, as I am not a fan of online gaming nor will I pay a subscription to play a video game. This game was initially released in 2006. The game has a main storyline that involves restoring the heir to the throne.

2. Morrowind. Also an RPG game put out by Bethesda, released in 2002. This is the only RPG I ever played on the Xbox.  Actually this game was the reason I even bought an Xbox. Yes, it was worth it. In this game the hero saves the land from annihilation.

3. King's Quest series. These are old games that involved puzzles. They were touted as "good for girls" because they weren't shoot 'em ups. The series chronicled a royal family and their trials and tribulations. Mostly the hero roamed around picking up items with which to solve puzzles. This was a DOS game.

4. Rise of the Triad. I daresay few people have heard of this game, but I enjoyed it. The game was released in 1994 by Apogee Software, a company that invented some of the best games of that time period. In this game, the hero was a member of a team of operatives who needed to get inside a secluded monastery in order to stop a plot to destroy a California city.

5. Wolfenstein. I'm not talking about the most recent release of this, but the earlier versions. This last version of the game, Wolfenstein 3D, was released in 1992, again by Apogee Software. In this game, the hero must make his way from a prison camp and outside, taking down as many Nazis as possible along the way.

6. Might and Magic series. These RPGs were released by New World Computing, which eventually became The 3DO Company. There were 10 games in this series, but I only played the last five. The games were mostly fantasy but sometimes a little science fiction crept in and suddenly you had not a wand available to you but also a laser blaster of some kind. These games were also released in the early to middle 1990s.

7. Heroes of Might and Magic series. This was a spin-off from the Might and Magic series, as you might guess. The first games were released in 1995. In these games the hero undertook various quests to save something or the other, and there was lots of magic involved.



8. Myst. This was an adventure game that, like King's Quest, required you to solve puzzles in order to progress through the game. It was released about 1993. In this game the hero is whisked away to a magical island and must unlock the clues to obtain his release.

9. Duke Nukem series. Another Apogee Software series that I enjoyed. The first Duke Nukem came about in 1991 and there were numerous games that followed.  Duke had to stop some bad guy and save the world.

10. Commander Keen series. Developed by Id Software and released by Apogee Software in the early 1990s, this series featured little Billy Blaze, an 8-year-old kid who travels through space and becomes Commander Keen. He saves the world a lot.



11.  The Sims series. I feel in love with The Sims from the very first time I saw a commercial for the game. The game, a strategic life simulator, was developed by Maxis and put out by Electronic Arts (EA) initially in 2000. This is the best-selling video game series in history. In this game the player has to keep the simulated people happy by giving them shelter, things to play with, a job, a family, and other items. The only real goal was to keep the sim happy; otherwise you could make up your own stories about the little simulated sims. It was like bringing a book to life. The later games were more goal-oriented and a bit more linear, which I did not like as well. You also had to make sure there was a bathroom around in Sims 3, the little beings had to pee a lot.

12. Area 51. This is the only arcade game on my list today, but this was one of my favorites. It was released by Midway in 1995 and later it was released for PC as well. In this game, you are a squadron leader shooting down aliens from another planet. I spent a lot of quarters on this game, mostly when we were on vacation.



13. Wii Fit. The only game that is not really a game, and the only one that might actually have some health benefits. It requires a balance board and a Wii Console. The games include yoga, strengthening, running, balancing, and other activities that burn a few calories. The game was initially released in 2007 and as far as I know there has only been one update to it. It weighs you and tells you your "wii fit" age if you want to know it. It generally told me I was fat and old, though not in those words. I spent hours and hours on this hoping it would do me some good. I should probably have taken up badminton or horseshoes instead.

What video games have you enjoyed, if any?

Thursday Thirteen is played by lots of people; there is a list here. I've been playing for a while and this is my 306th time to do a list of 13 on a Thursday.