Each week, when I sit down to write my The Games of our Lives column for The Onion AV Club, I have several “I can’t believe I get to do this!” moments when I giggle, spin around in my chair, and hope that nobody saw me.
Anyway, I’m particularly proud of this week’s effort, which is about a fantastic Atari 2600 game called Alien. Check out my column, and then try to get your hands on a copy of the game. It’s really fun.
Discover more from WIL WHEATON dot NET
Subscribe to get the latest posts sent to your email.
Talk about a blast from the past!!! (pardon the cheesy cliche) Aaahhhh, Atari 2600!!!… Now THAT was a game system! I love those games!
It’s a bad combo of PacMan and Xenophobe!
Ooo the Onion AV club. That puts us at like 3 degrees of separation (or is it 4). Your editor is my high school friend’s husband. Small small world I say.
your “games of our lives” reviews remind me of a friend of a friend of mine who worked for a company that distributed and service arcade games…one time i got to go to their service and storage center where he worked…and i played arcade games all night long…i mean till the sun came up!…good times!
I really admired the last part of your article that gave credit to those early programmers who ushered in a different genre of gameplay. Well done, good luck. Oh – by the way, caught an episode of Aqua Teen last night for the first time and heard you playing aqualad! I enjoyed it a lot!
-Fiona
P.S. When do I get to watch you on CSI?
Heh, I actually played the “Raiders of the Lost Ark” game. I think my mother actually bought it for me. It *REALLY* sucked, ‘cept for the part where you could blow a hole in the wall with a dot…errrhhh…a ‘grenade.’
Heh, I actually played the “Raiders of the Lost Ark” game. I think my mother actually bought it for me. It *REALLY* sucked, ‘cept for the part where you could blow a hole in the wall with a dot…errrhhh…a ‘grenade.’
(sorry if this posts twice…son of a….)
I have been having so much fun recently playing with my Ms. Pacman all in one joystick game! After trying (in vain) to compete with my son in any of his Xbox games, I finally rule his ass, old school, and beat him royally in Ms. Pacman, Mappy, and Pole Position! I am definately a child of the 80’s!
I remember playing Alien on my best friend’s Atari system when I was in High School. What a blast! Wakkawakkawakkawakka….
I’m really enjoying your column. Since you started it, I’ve been thinking back to some of the old games I played when I was a kid. I remember many lost hours late at night playing “Tunnels of Doom” on my TI99/4A….
I read GooL (neat, like ghoul) on Tuesday, and have to say it’s your funniest one yet, Wil! I don’t remember Alien, since I didn’t have an Atari 2600 (I had an Intellivision, remember those?), but the whole Pac-Man resemblence is uncanny. Plus too, in the screen shot you had there, I noticed that the horizontal rows of “eggs” weren’t lined up, and instead went higher to lower, left to right. Whasupwitdat?
Oh, THANKS Wil!
I had to immediately add the Atari 260 Emulator and Alien to my collection of retro games and have been burning valuable working minutes (not hours yet, but it’s just a matter of time!) playing this game. There was a similar (and I think even more fun game) for the Nintendo system, called Berzerk. Ah, the best of the early days of gaming – still available on the internet!
Sorry for the double post – not patient enough for the page transition.
Actually, turns out that Berzerk was also for the Atari 2600 – all the more reason to snag an emulator (or dust off your actual console).
I was thinking that each week when I open up your game reviews, I say, “I can’t believe I get to read this for FREE!” You encapsulate the game perfectly, yet manage to avoid overstating the crapulesence most games of that time natively possessed.
You speak to my heart, Dog. For that, I’ll have my MF Barb pour out half of a full rejuv potion out of respect for you.
Love the column, Wil. I was reading it again over lunch with my nerdy colleagues. The fact that you enjoy it really shows.
Don’t tell me you’ve left the Guinness team. We’d be so lonely.
I didn’t notice who wrote this article until the bitter end (i.e., the credit on the bottom of the page), but I can tell you it made me laugh regardless. Keep up the funny!
This weeks’ is SUCH a blast from the past… Damnable ducks! Thank you for even bothering to reserach this quarter-eater (Gorf will always be the #1 eater of pocket change. It laughs mightily at Sinistar.)
I too never fought the bear (however, when I was a teenager, my mother often accused me of “fighting the bear” when I had sequestered myself in the bathrom for hours on end… If you know what I mean… [And why is it anything sounds dirty when you add “if you know what I mean?” For example, “I cleaned out my car” becomes naughty when said like “I cleaned out my car… if you know what I mean.”])