Media diary: My childhood games

I stumbled upon one of my favourite childhood games that has been recently made available to play on modern computers. It made me think back to my very first games that have a special place in my heart. We had this family friend who sometimes gave us copies of games and we didn't get to choose usually. But most of them were a lot of fun.

I played my first games on PC before I knew how to read. Windows 95 released in 1995 (wow) but back then we still didn't have the luxury of the graphic user interface. My dad used to tape numbers on the keyboard to indicate what keys to press in what order so I could open a game in MS-DOS. That probably makes me sound like a huge nerd, but unfortunately I didn't end up becoming one.

I think my very first game was Supaplex. It was released in 1991 and it's one of the many copies of Boulder Dash, but with a computer hardware theme.

https://www.mobygames.com/game/supaplex/cover-art/gameCoverId,8353/

I remember that a lot of the puzzles in that game are really hard. I played through all the 111 levels multiple times and I can still remember a lot from them, even though I haven't touched it much since. But you can play it with a browser now.

I think I enjoyed Supaplex a lot since it doesn't have any time limits (like Boulder Dash does?). The graphics are also super cute. You collect these atom-like Infotrons, the walls are made of computer chips and you eat the green circuit board. Enemies are scissors, called Snik Snaks. There's also things like Bugs, Terminals, Ports and Explosive floppy disks.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Supaplex

Another important game for me was Star Wars Episode I: Racer which is, unsurprisingly, about podracing. This is the one I mentioned before that's available again (gog.com).

I didn't end up making an illustration for this post, so take this year 2000 graphics Anakin which honestly looks just like me as a kid back then.

I spent countless of hours playing this game. Something about it was really addicting even though I don't generally prefer the racing genre. Being able to choose your character was enjoyable and also that the level designs had a lot of different styles and colours. Overall the maps are really fast paced and the graphics are sometimes very migraine inducing. Good times.

This gem of a video just perfectly describes the nostalgia of trying the game again after a long time. I recommend watching it if you've ever played it
(or just don't have anything better to do.)

The actual Star Wars Episode I: Phantom Menace movie game gets a honorable mention because I only played the first level over and over again because I was too scared to move to the next one.

Have you played any of these games?