Escapist Podcast: 045: Activision and First Games

[The Escapist Staff]

045: Activision and First Games

This week we talk about Activision's "Operation Icebreaker", the first game we ever bought with our own hard earned cash, and what we're playing right now.

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[ARCTIC_EAGLE]

Operation Firestorm is a map in BF3 and referencing it when talking about Activations being evil is just WIN. I also liked the OTR stuff, though I prefer Lone Ranger, I Was A Communist for the FBI, Richard Diamond, Dragnet, and Tales of the Texas Rangers more than the Great Gildersleeve

Edit: BTW Richard Hammond is short and very much into entertainment

 

[Caffiene]

Psst. The traditional way to count is for forty five to come after forty four.

Love the podcat regardless of its numbering, though.

 

[Susan Arendt]

Psst. The traditional way to count is for forty five to come after forty four.

Love the podcat regardless of its numbering, though.

Pfffft, sure. If you want to be, you know, ordinary.

 

[Kae]

On the topic of the first game you bought, well I grew up with a lot of piracy too here in México, so technically the first game I ever bought was a CD full of Emulators and ROMs that I got from my computing teacher for around 1USD, BUT the first games I ever bought were Jedi Knight II and Age of Empires 1 Gold Edition, which I got 1 time that I went to the US and saw them in a bargain bin for around 5$ each, I still have Age of Empires and I still play it sometimes, sadly JKII burned in a fire inside my old PC back in January of last year, I miss that old CD, with it's broken diamond cage, but oh well it's gone now.

 

[Parshooter]

Uh Paul Much Music is still Much Music.
Also it looks like you took Mike's job

EDIT: Did no one watch Epic Movie. I may suck but it did have Crispin Glover as a Wonka that uses children for his candy

 

[Mike Kayatta]

Uh Paul Much Music is still Much Music.
Also it looks like you took Mike's job

EDIT: Did no one watch Epic Movie. I may suck but it did have Crispin Glover as a Wonka that uses children for his candy

He finally gave it back, which is somewhat of a bummer. I was looking forward to a few days off.

 

[Caffiene]

I still cant figure out the first game I bought... I think the first proper boxed game would have been Quake, or maybe MechWarrior 2.

But I think before that I bought shareware games. I remember Id save up my 50 cents of pocket money or whatever, and Id get my dad to take me down to the sunday-morning swap markets and you could find stalls of guys who just had big stacks of shareware games. And Id hand over my hard-earned $2 and get Commander Keen, or Doom, or whatever on a pile of floppy disks that just barely fit in my little hands.

 

[Rainboq]

Psst. The traditional way to count is for forty five to come after forty four.

Love the podcat regardless of its numbering, though.

Pfffft, sure. If you want to be, you know, ordinary.

And as we all know, The Escapist escapes normality! [sub]let the pun wars commence...[/sub]

OT: Great podcast as usual guys! You guys may babble on, but it's interesting babble.

A question for the 4X fans of the crew: have you guys heard of Endless Space? It's a la Masters of Orion 2, with some very neat mechanics, like combat is a mostly passive affair, but there's a really frantic and fast paced rock-paper-scissors-lizard-spock game on top of the usual numbers show down that can radically alter the course of a battle based on the cards you and your opponent play. But what really makes the game interesting, for me at least, is what the devs are doing with it, as it's still in the Alpha build. First of all, they have essentially given people who bought the alpha limited creative input by allowing them to vote on certain things to be implemented (like which ship model to use, the backstory and stats of a hero, etc.). The second thing they've done is they have a page on the game's site the shows exactly where they are on the project.

Also: Operation Pocket Monkey

 

[Shinsei-J]

Pokemon Red
Fun times

 

[bdcjacko]

I remember my first game. Super Mario Bros. and Duck Hunt. Wooooooooooo! The 80's!

 

[flaviok79]

You should call these podcasts "The Susan Arendt Show", because she rocks in each one. Not saying the rest of you guys are not ok, but it is her stage.

 

[runningcat]

My first game & system was the Nintendo with R.O.B. and Gyromite & Super Mario Bros. I used all the money I got from my Bar Mitzvah.

I think this makes me REALLY old.

 

[Greg Tito]

You should call these podcasts "The Susan Arendt Show", because she rocks in each one. Not saying the rest of you guys are not ok, but it is her stage.

I agree, she makes the conversation so much fun every single week.

Greg

 

[Endocrom]

I think the first game I bought was Super Street Fighter 2: The New Challengers for the SNES, or maybe it was just that weird little mail-order fighter pad controller they advertised in the instruction book.

Operation Rolling Chunder
Operation Badger With A Gun
The Chidazzle Initiative
Operation Who's-A-Kitty
Operation Wandering Armadillidiidae (it's a real word)
The Calliope Sanction

 

[bdcjacko]

Operation Thor's Bagel is a go.

Also, speaking as an accountant. We don't wear ties anymore.

 

[Wuvlycuddles]

Saw Sir Anthony Hopkins in person once, TINY man. Also, Bob Hoskins, Ben Kingsley and Ian Holm. Not EVERY British actor is a giant, only most of them.

 

[Eleima]

I love that when you guys referenced "Willy Wonka", you spoke of the 70s version, and not Tim Burton's most recent iteration.
The first game I bought with my own allowance, I think, was Zork Nemesis. I loooooooved that game, it had so many elements I enjoyed: a compelling story, complicated characters, a gorgeous score, challenging puzzles. And the manual was wonderful (back in the days when we had manuals): it was more a journal of a man's journey into the Forbidden Lands and to the Alchemists's abandoned domains, it completely served to enrich the world.
The first CD I bought... Less glamorous, it was Aces of Base's The Sign. Move along, nothing to see here. ^_^

Even though I missed Steve and Justin, it was nice to have Paul back and to meet Mike!
"My experience was a PC exclusive!" Great save!! ^_^

 

[Susan Arendt]

You should call these podcasts "The Susan Arendt Show", because she rocks in each one. Not saying the rest of you guys are not ok, but it is her stage.

I agree, she makes the conversation so much fun every single week.

Greg

It'd be a monologue if I didn't have cool people there with me. It's all about the group chemistry.

 

[Scyla]

First game I ever bought with my own money was Secret of Evermore for the SNES. And it was really expensive.
Not as good as Secret of Mana which I played before I had SoE but still awesome (well I still have both games and my SNES). Loved the alchemy stuff.