![]() Seeing the teenagers of friends and family spending hours on their consoles rather than picking up a book, made me start to think.įor the record, I’m not on some crusade to get people to turn off their computers and consoles, I love gaming as much as the next guy (or gal). Understandable if you consider how much technology we have at our finger tips, vying constantly for our attention. It was becoming apparent through these interactions, that getting children/teenagers to read (particularly boys) is becoming more of a challenge. At the time, I was working as an editor for a teaching magazine, so had chance to visit a lot of schools and talk with teachers. But I still couldn’t shake the feeling that there was ‘something’ I could do to recreate that gaming high, but in another medium. I detoxed from Warcraft (the sensible part of my brain finally kicked in and said, enough is enough). They couldn’t hold my attention anymore – and there were genuinely times when I was too exhausted from playing, and didn’t want to stare at a screen a moment longer – and yet I still craved that same type of experience, just not sat in front of my monitor. What the hell was I meant to do? I was confused.ĭuring this time, when I wasn’t playing Warcraft, I found it difficult to concentrate on books. On the few occasions I did venture out into the (un)real world, blinking like a new born, I was always slightly unnerved by the fact that there were no quest givers to gravitate towards. Fear not, I didn’t quite hit that point, but I was playing 40-50 hours a week. I wasn’t far off becoming one of those people you read about, who end up losing their job and friends, living on a diet of energy drinks and junk food, and using a mop bucket for ‘bio-breaks’. I became addicted to online gaming – World of Warcraft, to be precise. So, what made me change my mind and go all retro? Let’s rewind a little… And I’ll admit, as an obsessive gamer, I’m not sure I would ever want to look back…īut wait. Hit a button or a key and your character will perform the associated action in the blink of an eye – no page turning, no dice-rolling, no cursing as you smudge your much-loved character sheet. We have a myriad of stunning 3D worlds to explore, hand-crafted by talented designers and artists. Today, we don’t really need to imagine anything for ourselves. ![]() As consoles and computers became more advanced, gamebooks – while still enjoying a devoted following – were inevitably superseded by the flashy interactive worlds on our television and monitor screens. They gave us choice – and at a time when game graphics were ugly planet-sized pixels, they also let us the play with the greatest 3D card ever – our imaginations.īut times change. So, gamebooks and table-top roleplaying games like Dungeons & Dragons (which I discovered by watching ET: The Extra Terrestrial – thank you Mr Spielberg) provided what computer games could not. You played these games for the sheer obsessive delight of beating your highest score. It had Pac Man, Donkey Kong, Asteroids… There was no levelling of characters, no assigning of skill points, no questing or story progression – hell, there wasn’t even any achievements to unlock (I feel the entire modern gaming world shudder). When the Atari 2600 came out, it was something of a gaming revolution – the first popular and truly dedicated console. If you were lucky, you might have a friend with a BBC Computer who had a copy of Hunchback (imagine Sonic but on a zimmer frame). As teenagers, we didn’t have the likes of Skyrim or World of Warcraft to immerse ourselves in. Gamebooks (like Lone Wolf and Fighting Fantasy) became popular at a time when other forms of interactive entertainment were still in their infancy. The power of life and death was, quite literally, in our own hands. At last, here was our chance to leave the real world behind, and set out on an exciting adventure – a chance to become someone else entirely and have our choices make a real difference. “Oh crud, I just got my legs ripped off by a giant cockroach!”īack in the eighties, such scenes were commonplace in schools and homes across the UK as nerds like myself discovered the delights of interactive fiction. Then the fated adventurer lowers his mighty tome and speaks. The whole world holds its collective breath…. Eyes scan the spidery print, knuckles whitening from the tension. Pages rasp as they are flicked back and forth. ![]() Our brave adventurer smiles, his pencil-stub deftly adding numbers to his hallowed parchment, their cryptic meaning known only to the dedicated few. ![]()
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