Games nowadays...

[Ace 777]

My first exposure to PC Games were Sierra's "Quest" series (Police Quest, Space Quest, King's Quest, Etc.) played on my Tandy 486 DX2-66 with 16 MB of Ram! To me, those games had something that my Atari, NES and Super Nintendo lacked. I stayed up way past my bedtime and would even cut school just so I could make it to the next phase, location or level in the game. At the time I didn't realize it, but know I know it was the immersion and interaction with the environment coupled with the quest-type puzzles is what drew me away from console gaming to PC Gaming. The only thing remotely close on a console was the Old-School Legend of Zelda for the NES, of which I stayed up equally late and cut school just as often for.

I think that the decline (or perceived decline) of the PC Game has more to do with the PC itself rather that it's competition with the console. PC Games are finicky. You have to meet certain specs and requirements just to play a game on your PC. There is constant performance and stability concerns, even on high end systems. Console games only require that you own the specific console and a TV. PC processor speed increases every few weeks. Consoles update every few years. Some games work on multiple versions of a console (PS1/PS2 , GB/GBA). Marketing is also a factor. When was the last time you saw a commercial for a PC Game? Most game or gaming commercials are for games that are PC and Console Games, with strong emphasis placed on the console version.

When Diablo 1 came out, that was a big deal for me. In the arcade, I was a HUGE Gauntlet fan, plunking down $20 every weekend and begging my Dad for a ride to the mall to play it. Diablo was all that Gauntlet was for me and much much more! There they were...the Warrior, Sorcerer and Elf (Rogue), just like Gauntlet (minus the Valkarie). There it was, pure unadulterated Dungeon Hacking, just like Gauntlet. Then there were the quests....maybe not as elaborate as the Sierra gaming quests I was used to, but it was an added bonus for me. In the Diablo 1 days, I was purely singleplayer. I think I played once via modem to modem on my 14.4 baud USR. Diablo 2 Changed everything for me. Improved on what was offered in D1 and truely made me give up console gaming (at least for now since my daughter is begging me for a Game Boy and an XBox).

It upsets me to see what the Gauntlet licence has become, as Atari could have really had a hit on their hands today (at least in my eyes) if they had an ounce of forsight and creativity that Blizzard has today.

My 2 Pennies...