Wil, its scary how much your story is the same as mine. Only I went right from Atari to Amiga, to PC, skipped over the Mac. As a gamer, I still skip over the Mac.

I got into a big nostalgia explosion a while back and downloaded free MAME, Atari, Amiga, and DOS emulators to play all of my favorite old games again. Highly recommended!

Lycoris

Toronto, ON

October 2005

NOV 13, 2008 10:11 PM

Yay! Favourite columnist!

attn_ho

Brooklyn, NY

February 2004

NOV 13, 2008 10:59 PM

Wait, Wil is Back? omg!

RileyStClair

Los Angeles, CA

September 2006

NOV 14, 2008 10:30 AM

welcome back, wil!

WhiskyFoxtrot

Pasadena, CA

May 2008

NOV 14, 2008 03:52 PM

Well Written Mr. Wheaton, well written indeed.

mydogfarted

Oakland, NJ

June 2003

NOV 14, 2008 04:10 PM

Welcome back Wil.

Sometimes I feel like I was the only kid screwed by having a TI-99/4A, because all my friends had the cool games on their VIC-20, and then Commodore 64.

12AngryBadgers

Winston Salem, NC

May 2004

NOV 14, 2008 06:40 PM

I'm so glad to see this column back! A great read, as always!

CheshireCat

Los Angeles, CA

January 2004

NOV 14, 2008 07:42 PM

Love the choose your own adventure books...slowly rebuilding my collection.

Pwndcake

Portland, OR

October 2004

NOV 15, 2008 05:19 AM

The timing of this article seems perfectly timed to me. I grew up enjoying many of the same games, and in the same way. I built forts around my tv in the living room to enjoy my Colecovision, and Atari 2600. I played the text adventures, and the single-screen picture adventures (including the first ever Hobbit game). From King's Quest through all the other Quest games (Police and Space), the original Ultima games, and Might and Magics. My mother actually called my school and told them I was sick for 3 days so she and I could play Starflight in shifts (one of us would sleep while the other would play, and vice versa). This was back when you had to write your own maps, and keep your own notes on important quest data.

I've often mourned the loss of imagination required to play most modern video games. The graphics are so far beyond what our brains had to work with when I was a kid. Not to mention the intellectual challenge of the quests. I remember when Quest Logs first made their appearance in a video game. It was a total mixed blessing in my opinion.

But why this article is so well timed? When I read this I had just started my second character in Fallout3. Another new game with a rich and engaging back story. One of the few games, including Bioshock, that has been able to draw me in and hold my imagination. Well it froze on me, and dumped me to Windows, so I decided to go read SG instead. =)

formerviking

Denver, PA

May 2006

NOV 15, 2008 09:39 AM

Add me to the long list of folks jazzed to see you back again . Are you sure you couldn't at least write bi-monthly Once a month doesn't seem hardly enough to fulfill my old school geek needs .