Games that I rocked as a kid

Many purists bemoan modern games as being too easy. Sometimes they're right, but most game companies have added difficulty settings so that each game has a varying degree of difficulty, depending on how expert you are.

Not so with old games, where the punishing difficulty level would send you enraged or crying to the solace of a comforting teddy (or blanket or whatever you sissies used).

The above picture is a perfect example. It's from Crystal Caves, one of many Apogee games from the era that defined scrolling shooters for PC's. If you study the picture you can see a multitude of actions occurring. You must shoot the bad guys, but never let a bullet hit the air machine or else you die immediately. These air machines are conveniently place every 6 pixels, or so. You have keys, switches, eggs, elevators and enemies coming at you with a jumping mechanism that requires no error.

I can't believe the patience that I had as such a young kid playing these games. The difficulty was heightened by the lack of saving your games, meaning frequent deaths would result in playing the entire level over again. Even though my coordination has developed since those days, I don't think I could bring myself to play these again. The frustration would kill me.

Apogee Games I rocked (wow, a lot actually):

Crystal Caves

Secret Agent Man

Cosmo's Cosmic Adventures

And, to be discussed further in the future, Wolfenstein 3D