Video games were a big part of my childhood. I think if I was born in this generation, I’d be that kid at McDonald’s playing Angry Birds on my parents’ iPad. Awhile ago, I was taking a trip down memory lane when I recalled that childhood excitement of a brand new video game. I tried to recall what were the games I loved the most as a child, before I turned thirteen and decided to put together a little top 5 favourites.
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5. Chips Challenge
This still counts right? Chip’s Challenge was developed by Epyx, a company that is no longer with us this day.
It was a fun little puzzle game that was simple enough for kindergarten me to grasp. Before we had a computer that could run video games or even had video games, this little guy was already available in Windows.
So, as I said, the concept of it was simple enough. A tiny man who fits in a single floor tile for some reason, must collect collect computer chips to open a portal to move to the next level. There are little lock puzzles, enemies and mazes.
While writing this, I figured I’d go see if I can find a browser version to play. And whaddayaknow- there is. It’s a little different from the version I used to play but apparently this is the Atari version.
It’s also available on Steam.
I just found this out.
This is amazing.
(Lucine proceeded to spend the next hour playing the browser version because she doesn’t have Windows.)
4. Little Fighter 2
My older brother came home from school one day with a copy of this game he borrowed from a friend. This game brought on my first gaming rage. I was terrible at it and kept losing.
But it was a great game.
Developed by Marti and Starsky Wong, it was a typical 2D side scrolling, beat-em up game. Thinking back now, I’m not sure if many people I know today would have played it in their youth because it was more popular in Hong Kong. In typical beat-em up style, you could pick different characters with different abilities- if I’m not mistaken my favourites were Firen and Freeze.
If they’re obvious names weren’t obvious enough, Firen had fire based abilities. He threw fireballs, self destructed- I mean exploded and breathed fire. It was pretty dope. Is that what the kids are still saying these days?
Freeze had questionable ice attacks but I mostly remember he could spawn ice swords and that was what I spent the entire game doing. Brother and bots would be fighting and I’d be there, spawning swords out my butt. Great game 10/10.
Oh wow, the site I used to visit as a child to try and figure out how to play it, is still up and it looks pretty unchanged since the last time I visited.
3. Theme Hospital
“Will patients please stop dying in the hallway? Thank you~”
I honestly don’t know how this game ended up in our house. But I’m not going to question it, because guess what? I still have and play this game. I didn’t have Sims back then but this was close enough only with less dying by being walled into a swimming pool.
It was developed by Bullfrog Productions on the PC and was published by Electronic Arts. The whole point of the game is to try and run a series of private hospitals. You need to keep the place clean and rodent free while curing patients of… well- I don’t really know. I mean, there’s an illness where your head looks like a balloon and you cure it by popping it and inflating it to normal size. Also that one where your tongue is like three foot long and you have a very happy wife, but then you cure it by slicing of your tongue? And al-
Wait, I was supposed to be making a point here.
Anyway, it’s a ton of fun and is also super stressful. Stop throwing up in the corridor and dying while in queue damn it!
The game is still available on gog.com though it’s really buggy.
2. Seiken Densetsu 3
(insert inhuman noises here)
This game.
THIS. GAME.
THIS.
GAME.
My brother again was introduced to the world of emulators by his friends and came home one day to download it. This was the first game I played that had a strong, story driven plot. And I was addicted.
Developed and published by SquareSoft, Seiken Densetsu 3 is a classic 16-bit RPG game. There are 6 different characters you can pick from, where the first character you pick plays the role of the main protagonist.
There was a class system as well with the usual advantages and disadvantages of each class. If you were a smart player, you’d make careful decisions to make sure your team was properly balanced. But I wasn’t a smart player.
I was eleven.
So I picked an entire female team with Angela, Lise and Carlie. It worked out anyway because each character I picked had a role in different plots.
Yes, there were 3 separate main plots depending on which characters you picked. Angela, being my default main character because I liked being a mage, was a princess in the ice Magic Kingdom of Altena. Her mother wanted to straight up murder her and she somehow apparated teleported out of there. You then go on to meet every single character though only the characters you choose will join you on your journey.
I loved the characters, the pixel art was gorgeous and the music was amazing. I played it over and over again with different characters each time but my all-girl team, despite being a pain to work with, still holds a special place in my heart.
1. Dune 2000
And my number one childhood game; Dune 2000. No words can describe how much I love this game. There were several games like this that I was absolutely in love with as a child; Red Alert and Tiberian Sun which were both from the same series, Knights and Merchants, and Starcraft.
To this day, Starcraft is still my one true love, but I put Dune 2000 here simply because Westwood Studios who developed this and the Command and Conquer series, no longer exists. They were bought over by EA and I will remain forever salty that EA ruined Red Alert and shut them down.
But anyway, I should write more about the game and less about the salt. The game was loosely based on the book Dune which I never read because reasons- though I have vague memories of the movie and how bizarre it was.
The main plot was simple, the Emperor told everyone that whoever could mine the most Spice on the planet Dune would control the entire planet and therefore the source of Spice. I don’t know why or how he thought this was a good idea but it happened. After this decree, the player is asked which House they wish to join. There was more to this story, but it was over twelve years ago, what’s more important is that you know how awesome the house of Ordos was.
I mean, there are three Houses or factions to choose from, the House Atreides which I remember had a lot of air units. And I remember this because they were my brother’s favourite. Then there’s the Harkonnens who had a real asshole of a ruler but they had really powerful units. Then of course, there the House Ordos. They hail from a frozen wasteland of a planet. They had a bald guy who gave me all my missions. He was a really cool bald guy.
Like minerals in Starcraft, the currency in Dune 2000 was Spice which can be harvested from the sand. And unlike Starcraft where you could build defence units around the minerals while the harvesters got busy, Dune 2000 had Worms. I’m not sure if you could kill Worms because Lord knows I tried and failed repeatedly. These stupid Worms moved unseen except for a slight shift in the sand and will basically eat everything it can find.
This was the game that made me fall in love with the Real Time Strategy genre and I’ve never looked back since.
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If you made it this far in the post, thank you for reading and let me know what were your favourite childhood video games. I thought it’d be fun to make a tag of this to know what other people’s favourites were. They can be done as blogposts or vlogs! Can’t wait to see all the nostalgia!
Lucine
Lucine
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