I’d like to welcome you to a new series of blog posts here where I’ll be interviewing various people of interest and asking them what games they grew up with and what was it that made those games special for them.
If you’d like to be interviewed in the same fashion and show off your favourite games from when you were growing up then get in contact with me and I’m sure we can work something out.
So without further ado, let’s get the ball rolling with Mathias Rehnman.
Mathias Rehnman is a 25 year old Austria based madman (strike that, 3D artist). A graduate of the University of Applied Sciences Hagenberg who relatively recently switched towards production of high quality CGI and storytelling from game modding.
He is currently working on several small scale CG projects of his own and a work-in-progress novella. Follow his irregular rants and showcase of skill at Nutty Fanboy Productions.
Leisure Suit Larry
Back in the day of the 8086, I was naturally too young to actually understand what was intended with this game. I had more fun letting Larry sit down on the (malfunctioning) toilet in the starting bar and either flush it (killing him in the process due to a flood) or entering the ‘fart’ command. Many giggles were had.
UFO – Enemy Unknown
Definitively the most scary game in my youth. I loved building bases and ordering my men around, shooting aliens. Naturally, I was less concerned about score or income, and the games ended quite prematurely often enough. But I had a blast blasting aliens. And I hated the terror missions, especially at night. I still do.
Transport Tycoon Deluxe
I spent hours in the config.sys and autoexec.bat files to squeeze free enough memory to run this game. Then I wasted hours upon hours building rail networks. With time I developed quite a few efficient junctions. Even though the game is banally simple for today’s standards, I still play it a lot in the OpenTTD variant.
Settlers II
Well.. what’s not to love about it? I enjoyed building gigantomanic empires. The only beef I had with that game was that mines ran dry so frakkin’ quick.
Command & Conquer
I came relatively late to the fray with C&C as I got Red Alert first, and C&C Gold after that. But I loved the fast-paced action compared to the turn-based games I normally had back then. Yet, I grew to loathe missions with limited units and/or no construction yard. Especially the infantry-only missions of Red Alert cost more than one nerve and a vein to boot. I’m looking at you, allied spy-needs-to-go-across-the-entire-map-with-1000000-dogs mission!
Freespace & Freespace 2
While the game ‘Retribution’ was my first foray into 3D space shooters (to a degree), Freespace really introduced me to the genre and got me hooked. The main reasons for that were what I considered an immersive story (back then, anyway) paired with so much background information (in form of the ship, weapon databases). It also paved the way for me to acquire Wing Commander: Privateer and later on.
Wing Commander Prophecy
What can I say? It was my first game where it made me feel like being the star of an action hero film. The cinematics were impressive, and so was the (back then) impressive amount of three CDs. Add to that gorgeous graphics and action-arcade gameplay with memorable characters, you’ve got yourself a winner. I still kind of hold hope out for new space sim games that hold up the torch of Freespace and Wing Commander by offering cinematic gameplay and an immersive story.
Star Wars: Rebel Assault II
I spent a lot of time in 1995 and 1996 with this game. While gameplay wise it is a dumb rail shooter. It being an interactive film, and Star Wars to boot, made me enjoy it greatly. I just remember back then that I wondered how they managed to get such good graphics while most other games were 2D or shaded 3D (instead of textured 3D).
Master of Orion 2
Discovered by me only in 1998, it became an instant classic for me. The ship design and starship combat alone were enough to win me over, but couple that with the galactic management part, diplomacy and research, and I was in love. I still play this game from time to time, and kind of wish that there would be a new space 4X in its image – maybe even more so than a space sim.
Imperium Galactica
If I were to sum up a game from the 90s, this one would read ‘near perfection’. In my eyes, it got nearly everything right. It had city building, tank warfare, space battles, diplomacy, ship outfitting (to a degree, anyway), research… and an immersive story to boot. I remember certain parts of the game being hectic as hell, but dammit, I loved this game. I so so loved it. I have yet to find a worthy successor to this.
Super Mario Kart
Probably the greatest time waster to ever grace a console, and one of the few console games I enjoyed.
Need for Speed 2 & 3
I have some great memories back from when I was 10-14. Playing with my best friend in hotseat practically every day after school. Good times.
Star Trek: Armada
This game sent me modding, and I started modeling because of it… it just went downhill from there.