The Question of Lessening Gaming Time as One Ages

Flying Time...

I Feel Like I Use to Have More of This...

I’ve noticed something recently, and I wanted to ask if y’all are having a similar effect. When I was younger and starting to seriously get into games — around when I was 12-13 in the mid 80s — I could spend hours, nay, DAYS at a game. I tell ya there was this one time I guzzled a six pack of Jolt Cola and stayed up for five or six days STRAIGHT playing Starflight. Aahh, those were the days.

Fast forward to today. I’m working on several reviews — two for this site, one for PlaySF Magazine — at the moment, and even when I have HOURS to myself…I can only make myself play for two or three hours before stopping. Even if I have all day…I still stop myself. I’ll likely return to the game after an hour or so, but still, what the heck happened?

I’m thinking it’s one of two things. One, my ADHD is getting ADHD’er! ACK! Or…maybe my mind knows better now and is forcing me to take breaks, which might be for my betterment overall.

So what about you guys? Are you finding that this happens to you as you get older, or can you still put monumental amounts of available time into a game in one sitting? I look forward to your thoughts. :) Thanks for reading!

Happy 50th Birthday Space Games: A Look at How Far We’ve Come

SpaceWar! In Action

50 Years Ago, Spacewar! Was Born!

I recently realized that Spacewar! was first released in 1962, fifty years ago. In looking at the game’s Wikipedia entry, the first operational version of the game was released in February, while the version we’ve come to know and love was released in April. Therefore, I’d say now is good enough a time as any to say happy 50th birthday to space gaming, and to look back at how far we’ve come since the very beginning…

(more…)

Spacey Snippets – 3-16-12

All those little dots are news stories...

It's a Supernova of News!!!

Heeeeelllo everyone, how y’all been? Me, I’ve been busy, not only with work, but with some articles for here as well, so a lot of news has happened in the interim. I’ve got a ton to go through, so let’s get started:

WHEW! That was a lot! Thanks for reading y’all, and have a great weekend!

(more…)

Weird Worlds: The Flight of the Streaker…

This entry is part 1 of 2 in the series Weird Worlds Review

1 - Simple Startup Screen

Let's Jump Into the Action!

Remember how I brought up that Rich at Digital Eel Games was nice enough to send me a copy of their game, Weird Worlds: Return to Infinite Space (WW from now on)? Well, in the comments to that particular blog entry, garion333 and Therlun commented that, since it’s such a simple and quick game, I should do my review concurrent to my review of Distant Worlds – Legends. I thought that was a great idea, so please enjoy my first entry looking at Weird Worlds: Return to Infinite Space.

(more…)

Why Don’t I Ever PvP in Spacey MMO’s?

Why would I ever wanna leave Serenity?

My future home...

So I spent a little more time with EVE Online last night, trying to reacquaint myself with the practice of scanning. In EVE, to find entrances to wormholes, sweet mining areas and so on, you need specialized equipment — scanner probes — and several of them to “scan down” a site, as they call it. This involves using usually six scanners (four laterally in a square or diamond, one above, one below) to pinpoint the exact location of a wormhole entrance or whatever else one might find. I love this sort of thing in space games.

(more…)

What is Your Ideal Space Game?

My god...it's full of space gaming goodness...

My ideal space game is made of dreams and starlight...

What is Your Ideal Space Game?

We all have dreams, things we’d like to do, see, accomplish, experience, etc. As space games have taken up a huge chunk of my life, I’ve long had the idea in my head of what my ideal space game would be, and have been dreaming of it actually being made someday. Some games have come close in one way or another, but none have ever matched what I wanted for my ideal game. What makes up this ideal game, you ask? Click below to find out…
(more…)

The Day the Space Sim Died

Explosions in Freespace 2!

See that big explosion? That's the death knell of the space sim genre...

I’ve always felt that if a PC game has a spaceship in it, I’ll play it, no question. One of my earliest memories involving video games was Lunar Lander on the Radio Shack TRS-80. I had been fascinated with space and science fiction for many years thanks to the original Star Trek, and recall jumping at the chance to play a game set in space. When I received my first DOS-based computer some time later, I dove into games like Elite, Starflight, Sentinel Worlds I: Future Magic and many more.

(more…)

Soldak Space Game Q&A with Steven Peeler

These guys make great games...

Steven Peeler, the founder of Soldak Entertainment, has been behind some downright AMAZING role playing games. In Depths of Peril, we were given a huge world with warring factions, and as the head of one of those factions, it was up to us to make them the dominant power in the game world. In Din’s Curse, we were a lone here, suffering for the sins of our previous lifetime by having to save towns accosted by the forces of darkness.

Now, Soldak is turning their eyes to space, and bringing their dedication to depth, detail, and randomness to a new — and as yet untitled — space game that puts us in command of a mercenary ship, completing missions for various factions. I sent Steven some questions about this upcoming game, and he’s been kind enough to answer them in detail. Click below for the fill interview
(more…)

Why Space Games?

Ever since I first saw the USS Enterprise on the television at four years old, I had an immediate love affair with spaceships. Big ones, small ones, metal ones, organic ones, didn’t matter. If it flew in space, I wanted to watch it or read about it. You can therefore imagine my glee and delight when, just a few years later, I first popped in a cassette tape with Lunar Lander into my TRS-80, and effectively controlled my first rudimentary virtual spaceship for the first time. It was then, at seven or eight years old, that my passion for space games began.

(more…)