What made Goldeneye so memorable?
Who was the best original Pokémon?
When, if ever, did Lemmings age?
Where did code wheels disappear to?
How on earth did you keep control of the ball in Sensible Soccer?
These are all questions we here at Pass the Pad have asked ourselves and each other at some point over the past decade or so – so what better way to answer them than to actually go back and play the games themselves. As an introduction, let me first welcome you to the Nostalgic Games series here on Pass the Pad. We promise to come up with a pun-tastic name for the series soon. Each month, one of the team will take up a game from our youth (worryingly we’re old enough to say that without a hint of irony) and replay it to see just how strong those rose-tinted glasses actually are.
The general rule is that each game will have 3 posts dedicated to it over the course of the month:
- An initial post to introduce you to the game and why it has been chosen along with some of the memories that it evokes and questions it poses
- A second post concentrating more on the actual gameplay, hopefully including some actual video footage of us struggling manfully to look like respectable gamers
- A third and final post going over the last few weeks of game-time, along with final thoughts on how it compares to our long-held memories.
So without further delay, onto the very first game of the series – Sid Meier’s Pirates! Yaaar!
He’s behind you!
Released in 1987 by MicroProse, the game was an open-world simulation of the life of a Pirate set in and around the Caribbean in the 1600’s. It allowed you to capture ships, trade with local merchants, engage in ship-based fencing with enemy captains, capture towns, search for buried treasure, marry Governor’s daughters and rescue your long-lost family to name but a few things. To think it could do all of this in 1987 is really rather impressive, although it is probably helped by the slightly rudimentary, or as an unnamed party put it, “crap”, graphics. There was a Gold version of the game released in the early 90’s I believe, with “upgraded” graphics and additional gameplay (and a lot more bugs if the internet is to be believed!), but I played, and will be playing, the original version.
The gameplay will be explored in more depth in the second article in this series next week, but suffice to say this is not a game where you’re going to find yourself short of something to do! Below is a map of the game’s world – larger in terms of area covered (if outrageously more simplified) then the latest Assassins Creed!
Geography 1600’s style
The two memories of this game that stand out the most to me actually relate to trying to get the game to work, not actually the game itself!
We had a floppy disk version of the game – something I have since discovered was a “PC Booter” version. This meant that the floppy disk had to be inserted into the drive before turning on the PC and the game would then boot directly. We were unaware of this fact, which led to many frustrating days of not understanding why “A:\Pirates” was not working in MS-DOS, despite there clearly being an executable file in this location. It was purely by chance (most likely from the computer being turned off in disgust and the disk left in the drive) that we actually managed to load the game. Cue wild celebrations topped off with rum (apple juice).
This led to a month or so of frenzied Pirates! playing – although the intricacies of the game were very much lost on me (more on this next week), the simplicity of the base gameplay made it a very easy game to enjoy.
However, disaster (read as ineptitude) was soon to strike once more. As part of what I can only assume was piracy protection (how apt!) at the start of each game the user would have to enter the date that either the Treasure Fleet or Silver Train would arrive in a certain town. These dates were listed in the manual, which was inevitably lost within a couple of months. This lead to countless hours and days sat in front of the small PC monitor with my brother noting down incorrect answers and hence trying to recreate the list of correct answers to allow us to play the game. This endeavour was not helped when we lost the piece of paper with our list of incorrect answers on it – we were not well organised kids. To this day, I still remember that in 1660 the Treasure Fleet was due to arrive in Caracas in early September. Completely useless information, but the game and the effort we undertook to actually play it means that it has stayed with me ever since.
Just look at that collar…
Fortunately, thanks to the power of the internets, this is no longer an issue. With a working copy downloaded (thank you www.gog.com), complete with manual and map, I can finally dive into the depths of this game and see exactly what I missed through the inability to either read or keep hold of a manual during my younger days.
Please stay tuned for an in-depth look at the gameplay and to see if I am any better than I was as a seven year old!
Pass The Pad Games 