Retro gaming at its best

Time to crank the gear shift one notch back, as we slide into the past and get all nostalgic in old toys. Toys for boys, so girls might as well just skip this. Unless the terms Dune, Sandworm, X-Com, Warcraft or Tiberium makes any sense to you, then by all means,read on and drop me a mail cause I love girls who are into retro gaming.

Anyway, when we speak of retro gaming, what is the first game that comes to mind? Other than this, of course...

For myself, it would be gems like X-Com, Warcraft (1 and 2, not that bloodsucking WoW), Command & Conquer down to puzzlers like Clockwerx, Incredible Machine or simulators like Championship Manager 2 or Simcity. But what I love far far far more than this, was the manuals that came with the games.

It was back in those 286 system days, where PCs were expensive and games were scarce. Actually, original games were scarce... expensive, difficult to obtain and import impossible. Mind you, this was a pre-internet time, an era where Amazon, Ebay and its likes never existed. So what was the next best options? Ask Malaysians, they know best when it comes to this. Pirate it. And they did it well. Imbi Plaza was stuff of legends. Any game you want, any genre, anything, could be found there. You name it, and they probably have it. If they didn't, just drop by the other 20 or more stores dealing in the exact same thing. The cost? RM8 per 5.25" disk (I may be wrong, it was so long ago), and RM5 for the manual. Ah yes, back to the manual.

Ironically, they said games brought your fantasies to life, letting you play the stuff of dreams. And I couldn't agree more. But the fact was, my imagination was more fun. I would consume the manual so much more than the game itself. The backstory, the units, the side stories, everything was so much better than the game itself. Don't believe me? Try searching for the Starcraft manual, read the Zerg and Protoss back story, and then tell me I am wrong. The manual for Dune 2 was far more vital, with the Mentat asking you questions from it (An ancient anti-piracy method which forgot about the advent of Xerox), or the old Dungeons and Dragons game, Shadow Sorcerer, where potion recipes are all in manual only (And also whereby I was murdered by a Dragon's fireball early in the game, gave it up, and spend the whole month just reading the manual, spells and potions and all.), down to another game which name I have forsaken, and is more of a gamebook + PC game combination.

Many games I bought end up like Shadow Sorcerer, too diffucult for my 8 year old mind, and abandoned after 30 minutes of gameplay, but the manuals lasts me a lifetime. Almost. Every now and then, I would pick one of them up, and imberse myself back into a life of spaceflight and lasers, to a time of sorcery and dragons, deeply engaged into the rich backstory and epic battles. My only regret? Tossing those books out after a spring cleaning session. I would love to read how the Zerg and Protoss are related to one another just one more time.

*Edit* - For anyone interested, replacementdocs is an excellent resource for all game manuals.