Myst, Ogre and Legend of Zelda
Quick Notes about Games I know nothing about
There are some games I can’t write about. I have nothing to say, but are worthy of consideration1. In other words, they are puzzles to be solved. And I don’t like puzzles. So in this article (and every now and again) I will simply list some games and bare facts. If someone wants to step up and discuss the game further, this project could use a co-author or two. But if not; well … something is better than nothing.
Rand and Robyn Miller’s Myst was arguably The videogame of the 90s. It sold over six million copies, forced the mainstream media to recognize videogames as a force to be reckoned with (and an art form), and I will believe to my dying day that it is secretly the inspiration to the TV show Lost2.
But I’ve never played it. I could barely tolerate Zork (etc), and this was even worse … puzzles without narration.
Steve Jackson’s Ogre is reminiscent of the Fred Saberhagen “Berserker” series. A near indestructible war machine versus a small army bent on stopping it. That’s … pretty much all I know. It’s a “one vs many” game but in this case the “one” and “many” refer not to players but to units. Ogre was the original Metagaming “Microgame” tag (check out that $2.95 printed directly on the cover!). The reprint last decade was roughly a hundred times more expensive3 and presumably nicer, if not 100x.
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I know there’s an Ocarina of Time somewhere in there, but I’m not sure what an Ocarina is.4 But this sold seven million copies and many consider it to be the best videogame of all time, so I assume that either that game (or entire series) are worth putting on the list.
But I can’t write a tribute to it. If you’d like to write an article for any of these (or any other game) please leave a comment.
Which doesn’t mean they’ll get in, but they should at least be mentioned.
Excepting for the part where Myst supposedly made sense.
Ignoring inflation
OK, I looked it up.
I think Ogre was successful because it was simple, elegant, asymmetrical yet balanced. It had tactical depth but enough randomness to keep it fresh. The point buy system allowed you to try different strategies. I assume a noob playing against a veteran could buy high variance weapons and hope for a lucky roll. It was a whole lot of game in a small and cheap package that played quickly.
Ogre was no doubt also inspired by the Bolo series of novels by Keith Laumer. I think it can stand in for a whole game niche of small, inexpensive games mostly devoted to fantasy and science fiction, including games by Metagaming, Steve Jackson Games, Task Force Games, and others.