You know you're a 90's gamer when...

You know those people who never leave a particular decade, the ones trapped in a cultural time-space continuum?  Sometimes they are 80s fanatics who wear shoulder pads and leg warmers and just can't seem to get "Hit Me With Your Best Shot" out of their heads.  Sometimes they are stuck in the 60s and keep a tape, CD or mp3 of the White Album around (Hi, Dad!). As for me?  I am trapped in the gaming world of the 1990s.  

I want to reminisce about those classic DOS games that set the stage for what would become an incredibly popular activity.  The topic of gaming has gotten a lot of attention in the past ten years.  From generating controversy over the potential link between video games and a rise in violence to the academic attention gaming has received from intellectuals such as Jane McGonigal, author of Reality Is Broken, gaming has become an industry, a field of study and a highly popular past time. 

Without further ado...

Cosmo's Cosmic Adventure

Alien children and human children definitely have one thing in common: they believe that Disneyland is the happiest place on Earth!  Cosmo's parents decided to take him to Disney World for his very first time.  But during their journey to Earth, their spaceship is hit and Cosmo and his family wind up stuck on a foreign planet.

Cosmo can walk, run, jump and climb. (His hands are made of suction cups that stick to walls!).  The goal of the game is to kill monsters (by jumping on their heads or bombing them) and to earn points by collecting stars, fruits and crystals

Commander Keen

Commander Keen aka Billy Blaze is an eight year old boy who travels through space avoiding monsters and collecting lollipops, pizza, hotdogs and the like for points.  This game doesn't actually let you kill monsters like so many other games. Instead, when you jump on them they are temporarily stunned and you have time to run away.  This game was particularly fun because there were so many different versions of the games, called episodes.  Whenever you finished the game there was always a whole new round of levels waiting for you to try and beat!

CLICK HERE to play Commander Keen!

If this game were popular today, people in the Public Health field would go insane!  You earn points by collecting candy and junk food and lose points if touched by vegetables!  

Asparagus and potato attacking Commander Keen

Monster Bash

A ten year old boy, Johnny Dash, must rescue all of the captured cats and dogs before he can move on to the next level.  The ultimate goal is to save his own dog, Tex, who was dognapped by Count Chunk, the evil villain.  Johnny is armed only with a sling shot and an infinite number of rocks to shoot at the locks of the animals' cages and at zombies and monsters who attempt to stop Johnny from freeing the animals.  

Johnny rocks a blue and white onesie with a backwards red cap and occasionally rides a broomstick to tree and save the animals who are trapped in flying cages.

Jill of the Jungle

This game required a lot of  creative thinking -- some  of the levels require turning into different creatures like birds and fish in order to get to the finish line.  Of all of the DOS games I ever came across, Jill of the Jungle was the only one featuring a female character!  

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An endless variety of games exist today.  I know there are probably games out there that would really interest me and yet I am stuck in the 90's.  It might be that I never evolved virtually because I am pretty terrible at video games...if you can't win what is the incentive to play?