Last updated 6/18/09



Thursday, September 18, 2008

Master of WTF

So some upfront warnings about this post: it's not related to Japan, it is related to video games, and I may use foul language.  Yes, actually I'm quite sure I will.

So every once-in-a-while the mood strikes me to play an old game. You know - an oldie but a goodie.  Recently I've been playing this old strategy game called Master of Orion.  It was pretty unique for its time, and in some ways is along the same vein as Civilization-type games, but in space.

The game has a little bit of a learning curve, and the graphics are none too special, but that doesn't usually phase me.  After a little online research and toying around, I quickly developed a feel for the interface and how the game works.  Then, all of a sudden, I lost.  I have to say, this is one of the most frustrating, "WTF" losses I have ever experienced.  And I wish I could say it was isolated, but it seems to randomly happen everytime I play this game, so I need to frequently save so that I can reload if it happens (and when I reload the random game over usually doesn't come until later).

So let me paint a picture of the experience:


1. Ah, title screen looks good.


2. Ok, getting into the groove. Have my starting planet and a colony.


3. Hey, things are going pretty well.  Got myself another colony.  No sign of aliens yet.


4. Soon I'll have a whole em- wait, what the hell is this?  "Identify this class of ship"?  How the hell should I know?  Ok, looks like a Banshee?


5.  Another? Geez, I don't know...looks like the Enterprise to me. Ok, how about Dark Star?


6. WHAT? Are you f&*king kidding me?!  I couldn't ID some ships, so I lose?  What the hell kind of strategy game is this?  So, like, a bunch of ships secretly rolled up to my planet and since I didn't know what they were, they raped me?


7.  Oh, so a bunch of guys in robes took over my planet.  Great.  Awesome.

Seriously, this happens to me at random points in my games, and I have no idea why.  I've looked it up on the internet, Wikipedia, and checked out some online strategy guides for the game, and there is NO mention of this phenomenon.  You'd think more people would have complained about or at least noted this shit.

Gah!

8 comments:

Gobbler said...

Go play a game that doesn't suck.

Anonymous said...

Yeah! What's up with that? Masochism?

Blue Shoe said...

Must win.

Gobbler said...

So be it. You and your sick 8-bit fetish.

Anonymous said...

Its a protection on the game, you refer to the manual and get the answer. It stops you playing because you did not pay for the game. Your bad, not theirs.

Blue Shoe said...

I suppose so, but it is a poor protection. If one loses the manual or buys the game second-hand by itself, it renders the game unplayable or very frustrating to play.
Of course in my case I played it on an emulator, so you're arguably right.

Andrew said...

I found a manual with ship listing...

Anonymous said...

http://jonsullivan.com/misc/ships_1b.gif