Circa 1994

So why? 
I've been playing video games since I was a kid in the 90's. At 28 I look around and still see video games as a creative medium ever evolving and changing. Nostalgia has called me back as of late, to a time when game design and particularly the FPS genre was setting the world on fire. It's here my passion for games would start to take hold.
A loop of visual stimulation, bleeding edge technology and user input that went directly into the blood, all married together in a 90's ascetic that would represent the culture of the decade just as good as any music or film piece. All this in a fog of creative design only the 90's and early 00's could have brought. It left a mausoleum of design and technology choices to cherish and inspire. This blog is to revisit and honor their memory. Its a personal inspirational tour, a project of passion and well....I wanna rip and tear.

Feeding the nostalgia.

In this blog I will be bathing in the nostalgia, drinking from it, eating it like the last supper. It's important I feel, when revisiting classic games to set yourself in the time period. Games are a digital medium. Like so much technology from the 80's-90's it was always created on the cutting edge. Each new game, new system, new computer, new set of software brought miracles and wonders.
While I could easily just play these games, without surrounding myself in the history and time of these creations one could easily not see the monumental effect titles had on a culture.


 Peter's list
As to what games to make apart of this journey, well some where  an obvious choice, while others have some personal abstract reasoning. Progressing chronologically was not optional. Seeing the progression of design choices and trends along with technology is key. Some franchises though I did choose the less obvious choice.I could, for instance,  go back and play DOOM again but found personally I'd played less DOOM II. With DOOM II also being the zenith of game design and technology found in the original and coming out less than a year later it was how I wanted the franchise first represented. I'm not opposed to remasters or mods as long as Im convinced the "feel" and ascetic of the game is true to itself. Games like Half-Life or Quake II, I've played so much that I'm excited by a different looking glass to see them through. So many choices on how to enjoy entertainment history is easily one of the best things about video games and particularly PC gaming.

Circa 1994

This all brings us to 1994. Technology was increasing at an unbelievable rate. Personal computing was invading the home. The internet was starting to climb out of its primordial soup. The Japanese games market was unstoppable and cannibalized its own arcades to invade peoples homes.Lets immerse ourselves in the history and moment of 1994.

• Medium income USA was $52,940

• Windows NT 3.5 would launch. DOS would would reign as the choice PC game OS.
• 61 million people used a pager.
• Nintendo's SNES was the most popular games console of the year. With its 16 bit CPU, 1MB of system ram and .5mb of Video ram along with a custom graphics chip it could run 2D games at 512x448 

 Toilet of the Gods
So now the journey begins. Its my intention to relive and play my favorite shooters, old classics and even those I might have missed back in the day, while making historically important games must plays. A journey of classic game design and technology that would change our world. If you are reading this and would love to jump in feel free to play along and share thoughts. You can reach me via email iJoshr@gmail.com