Games From Your Childhood

[Janszoon]

When I was a kid, my best friend's family had a decent computer with a color (!) monitor. We spent countless hours sitting at it playing King's Quest, Police Quest, and Leisure Suit Larry. That last one, if you're unfamiliar, was an "adult" game with a lot of jokey sexual content.

[Guybrush]

@Janszoon I played Leisure Suit Larry and King's Quest, but not Police Quest. On the other hand, I did play Space Quest II which starts with our hero Roger Wilco sweeping in space and then he loses his broom.

(At about 1:40)

I played the Leisure Suit Larry games from 1 to 6, although I don't think I completed 2 and 3.

[Lexi Darling]

When I was a kid, my best friend's family had a decent computer with a color (!) monitor. We spent countless hours sitting at it playing King's Quest, Police Quest, and Leisure Suit Larry. That last one, if you're unfamiliar, was an "adult" game with a lot of jokey sexual content.

My dad was a big Leisure Suit Larry fan back then, he had all of the games up to a certain point. He was and still is into very lowbrow sexual humor so I think those games were like a revelation for him, haha.

The one PC adventure game from that era that I do remember playing vividly was Maniac Mansion, which I recall being pretty cool, certainly for its time.

[Guybrush]

My dad was a big Leisure Suit Larry fan back then, he had all of the games up to a certain point. He was and still is into very lowbrow sexual humor so I think those games were like a revelation for him, haha.

The one PC adventure game from that era that I do remember playing vividly was Maniac Mansion, which I recall being pretty cool, certainly for its time.

Yes, I liked Maniac Mansion too and its sequel Day of the Tentacle even more so 🙂 The first 10 minutes of that might be the funniest 10 minutes in gaming history.

[Dianne W]

We moved on of course as we grew up and moved on to dares....mmmmm

Just say that one dare went really went so wrong...My sister has a slightly different version in her memory but at the end of the day she ended up with 30 odd stitches in her arm after our game of lock you out.....hand through thick plated glass which I had slammed shut so she could not get in the house and without turning you you over...rush for a wrap which was a tea cloth as her arm was spurting blood, within minutes Mother arrived home from her part time job in the local laundry and got help to call for an amublance...no phone at home in those times......Mother had to give up her job after that as we really were too young to be left alone. I think we were about 9 years old.

[Lisnaholic]

^ Wow! That must've been really scary for everyone, Dianne - and it's a cautionary tale that it doesn't take more than a minute for unsupervised children to really hurt themselves. In many ways, making it to adulthood at all is our greatest achievement!

@Lisnaholic I never really got into Yugioh, but I did play a lot of Magic the Gathering, another card game that has complex rules like that. Those kinds of games can be really fun and stimulating if everyone is clear on the rules, though yeah, it's hard when some cards interact with each other in convoluted ways. I played Magic regularly from ages 10 to 19, even co-hosted a group for it.

^ Even I have noticed that Magic the Gathering has a good reputation among those card games: it seems to be about the best, and in fact my (now adult) son plays it occasionally with a group of friends. All very amicable - no tears or tantrums (afaik )

[Guybrush]

I've also played Magic: The Gathering now and then going back to the 90s. It's a good game, although it must be getting crammed with various gameplay mechanics as they've made so much new stuff over the seasons.

[SGR]

We played a lot of Monopoly (and also some hooscotch) and it was fun, but I've since realized that Monopoly's game design isn't particularly good. Especially, your loss of the game is likely to be a slow, downward spiral that takes a while where you lose all your buildings and land over time. Every round puts you at further disadvantage and you're unlikely to get out of it. This prolonged death isn't good game design or very child friendly 😄

I'm very competitive in almost all games I play. Not to the point that I'm a bad sport or anything, but when I play a game, I want to win (because I always playfully boast afterwards). My wife is not that competitive and she doesn't consider the strategy as much as I do (for example, making decisions based upon the knowledge of which properties people are most likely to land on - the orange properties being the most hit, because they're 7 - 9 spaces away from jail, which every player ends up in eventually), she's playing mostly for fun. But when I've played with her and her sister, they have both given Baltic Ave (or Mediterannean Ave) away to someone in a trade completing the brown set for them (before anyone else had complete sets). And they did it despite my protest - and of course, the person with that set won the game as both became slow-bleed wars of attrition. Fuckin' Monopoly. 

[DJChameleon]

I think Monopoly is best played when you set the ground rules of having it only go for a certain amount of rounds instead of playing it out all the way until everyone is bankrupt.

[Lisnaholic]

Probably a good idea, DJ, but I don't think the children have been born yet capable of that kind of self-discipline! We used to play until the rain stopped or we got silly and started throwing the dice at each other.

I'm very competitive in almost all games I play. Not to the point that I'm a bad sport or anything, but when I play a game, I want to win (because I always playfully boast afterwards). My wife is not that competitive and she doesn't consider the strategy as much as I do (for example, making decisions based upon the knowledge of which properties people are most likely to land on - the orange properties being the most hit, because they're 7 - 9 spaces away from jail, which every player ends up in eventually), she's playing mostly for fun. But when I've played with her and her sister, they have both given Baltic Ave (or Mediterannean Ave) away to someone in a trade completing the brown set for them (before anyone else had complete sets). And they did it despite my protest - and of course, the person with that set won the game as both became slow-bleed wars of attrition. Fuckin' Monopoly. 

Hey! you were seriously into Monopoly, SGR, but were clearly not playing on the London-based board:-



Despite your impressive statistical analysis, we always felt that owning Mayfair and Park Lane were the winning properties, as you could charge  the highest rent.
(Even as a kid, I knew about half of those destinations irl, but not Jail though )
______________________________

Here's a tip to give you a competitive edge in the game of Risk, SGR :-



Get Australia if you can: it almost always wins!

[DJChameleon]

Probably a good idea, DJ, but I don't think the children have been born yet capable of that kind of self-discipline! We used to play until the rain stopped or we got silly and started throwing the dice at each other.

Hey! you were seriously into Monopoly, SGR, but were clearly not playing on the London-based board:-



Despite your impressive statistical analysis, we always felt that owning Mayfair and Park Lane were the winning properties, as you could charge  the highest rent.

Wait you had a different name for Boardwalk and Park Place? Those two spots are always highly coveted for their highest rent prices.

I found a Monopoly board that had places from my city and I'm so mad that I didn't buy it when I saw it at Walmart because it is so hard to find a copy of it now. I don't even know the company that custom made the board and was allowed to sell their product inside of Walmart.

Also nowadays there is a kids version of Monopoly that includes a rounds limit I believe so it ends up ending before it comes to blows 😆.

[Lisnaholic]

I found a Monopoly board that had places from my city and I'm so mad that I didn't buy it when I saw it at Walmart because it is so hard to find a copy of it now. I don't even know the company that custom made the board and was allowed to sell their product inside of Walmart.

^ I´m sorry you missed that opportunity, DJ: the game is so much nicer if you can visualize the places you are landing on.