What's Your Story? - Charles
I'm afraid this week has been a very busy one for me professionally. As much as I'd love to have the time today to write about the awesomeness that is Psycho, I'll have to try to get to it tomorrow. In the meantime, I'm happy to be able to bring someone that I genuinely feel is a companion here at The Adventure Gamer into the spotlight. Please welcome to the stage...(drumroll)...Charles!
My age is… I hit the big 4-0 recently. A nice age actually -- I'm quite happy to have lived through the rise of the adventure genre. :-)
The first adventure game I played was… Has to be "The Hobbit" on a friend's ZX Spectrum. It blew me away. Graphics. Companions that followed you around! Later I discovered a graphical version of "Colossal Cave" on my own MSX computer and spent endless hours with it (there weren't many text adventures in Spanish back then, and my English was still quite primitive). If we consider point´n click graphical adventures, my first one was Maniac Mansion, and it duly floored me again. It was just so funny, clever and bold. Like absolutely nothing that had come before. To this day we quote parts of it with my friends. It was then that I became aware of the enormous potential of this new narrative medium that just asked for brainpower and ingenuity to unlock new parts of the story.
My favourite adventure game is… No contest -- The Secret of Monkey Island. It was simply exhilarating. As far as puzzle design, humor and lasting charm, it was Maniac Mansion x 100. Probably the closest to a perfect adventure game experience.
When I’m not playing games I like to… Read, take long walks while listening to science podcasts, and play boardgames with the family!
The one TV show I never miss is… Thanks to Netflix I became acquainted with Mad Men and The Office. Those are my current faves. Mad Men is possibly the best TV I've seen.
I like my games in (a box, digital format)… Like The Trickster, I've come to appreciate the conveniences of the digital format. However, if I could choose (and could spare the trees sacrificed in the process) I would always go with a heavy box, detailed art and bulky manual. There was this sense of huge love and effort put into those early games that showed in the physical components - much like the care that often went into those elaborate LP covers (and CDs weren't just the same!). The Ultimas are a prime example of this. As for adventures, I just love the Freddy Pharkas box... :-)
The thing I miss about old games is… The freshness, inventiveness and -why not- innocence evident in many of those games as they broke new ground. You got this sense that making them was an adventure for the developers too, and they enjoyed it just like you.
The best thing about modern games is… Atmosphere. Most of my favorite modern games deliver it in spades. I generally favor a cinematic experience -- the original Thief is an unsurpassed masterpiece in this sense IMO, and today I find myself particularly enjoying the Mass Effect series.
If I could see any band live it would be… I'm not much of a concert-goer, I´m afraid...
My favourite movie is… This is an impossible question to answer :-) Rather than a favorite movie, I have an elite "segment" of movies that I consider masterpieces of their genres and no one stands out above the others. But I´ll throw in Alien (the original) and Let the Right One In just off the top of my head.
One interesting thing about me is… A series of recent events in my personal life have led me to discover the practice of meditation, and my only regret is not having tried it sooner.
This is not Charles. It's just a representation of how I imagine him to be.
My home country is… Argentina. I've always lived here in Buenos Aires.
My age is… I hit the big 4-0 recently. A nice age actually -- I'm quite happy to have lived through the rise of the adventure genre. :-)
The first adventure game I played was… Has to be "The Hobbit" on a friend's ZX Spectrum. It blew me away. Graphics. Companions that followed you around! Later I discovered a graphical version of "Colossal Cave" on my own MSX computer and spent endless hours with it (there weren't many text adventures in Spanish back then, and my English was still quite primitive). If we consider point´n click graphical adventures, my first one was Maniac Mansion, and it duly floored me again. It was just so funny, clever and bold. Like absolutely nothing that had come before. To this day we quote parts of it with my friends. It was then that I became aware of the enormous potential of this new narrative medium that just asked for brainpower and ingenuity to unlock new parts of the story.
It's amazing that once upon a time we may have looked at this screen in pure wonder at how far graphics had come!
My favourite adventure game is… No contest -- The Secret of Monkey Island. It was simply exhilarating. As far as puzzle design, humor and lasting charm, it was Maniac Mansion x 100. Probably the closest to a perfect adventure game experience.
When I’m not playing games I like to… Read, take long walks while listening to science podcasts, and play boardgames with the family!
The one TV show I never miss is… Thanks to Netflix I became acquainted with Mad Men and The Office. Those are my current faves. Mad Men is possibly the best TV I've seen.
I have to agree on this one Charles. The best TV drama along with Six Feet Under.
I like my games in (a box, digital format)… Like The Trickster, I've come to appreciate the conveniences of the digital format. However, if I could choose (and could spare the trees sacrificed in the process) I would always go with a heavy box, detailed art and bulky manual. There was this sense of huge love and effort put into those early games that showed in the physical components - much like the care that often went into those elaborate LP covers (and CDs weren't just the same!). The Ultimas are a prime example of this. As for adventures, I just love the Freddy Pharkas box... :-)
The thing I miss about old games is… The freshness, inventiveness and -why not- innocence evident in many of those games as they broke new ground. You got this sense that making them was an adventure for the developers too, and they enjoyed it just like you.
The best thing about modern games is… Atmosphere. Most of my favorite modern games deliver it in spades. I generally favor a cinematic experience -- the original Thief is an unsurpassed masterpiece in this sense IMO, and today I find myself particularly enjoying the Mass Effect series.
If there's one regret I have with starting this blog, it's that I haven't got to finish the Mass Effect series.
If I could see any band live it would be… I'm not much of a concert-goer, I´m afraid...
My favourite movie is… This is an impossible question to answer :-) Rather than a favorite movie, I have an elite "segment" of movies that I consider masterpieces of their genres and no one stands out above the others. But I´ll throw in Alien (the original) and Let the Right One In just off the top of my head.
What do you mean you've only seen the remake! Go see the original!
One interesting thing about me is… A series of recent events in my personal life have led me to discover the practice of meditation, and my only regret is not having tried it sooner.
Interested in sending your answers and getting 20 CAPs for you trouble? Email theadventuregamer@gmail.com.
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