Lost Levels III - PC Edition

Nothing gets me excited like a trip back home to my parent's house. I don't travel home too frequently and never for more than a couple days at a time. Besides seeing the folks and reminiscing about the old neighborhood, I usually find some old hidden gems tucked away in my room (or my brother's room for that matter). Recently I collected a nice haul of old PC games dating back to old 5.25" floppy disks all the way up to CD games. I grabbed the best of the bunch, leaving some of the older, beat up boxes behind. I'll try to keep the words to a minimum and let you soak in the glory of PC history.

I only remember bits and pieces of playing this game, and what I remember playing was hard as hell. There were some cool moments taken straight from the movie though, like the courtroom scene and trapping ghost joggers in Central Park. Weird thing on the back cover: it looks like you pilot the Statue of Liberty with a NES controller, not the NES Advantage used in the movie. 

Oh, SimCity. I probably played this game more than any other PC game in my youth. I can't even remember how many cities I destroyed considering the game let you enter codes for actual cities around the globe. Take that, Katmandu! How about another tornado?!

Anyway, the graphics pack was a nice add-on with some cool architecture for Future USA, Europe and Moon Colony cities. And I even before those severed hands were introduced to the graphics pack cover, you better believe I used to fiddle with the 2D dials and switches on the cover of the SimCity box when I was a kid. I mean, how could you not?

Another massive timekiller for me was (actually, still is) Civilization II. Some pretty amazing cover art on the front of the box, and the ridiculously huge technology poster is still one of the best guides to date. I could barely fit the sucker in the light tent, let alone open up the other half with stats for units and land types (not pictured) It's a monster, which goes quite well with the mini telephone book of a manual.

Beyond being flat-out awesome, I'm not sure what makes this a Game of the Year Edition. One of the coolest covers ever, you know you're in for sweet gaming when an orc is squaring off with what looks like a pirate. This was also the first game I ever played online, and actually the last one for a number of years once I switched back to console gaming. The graphics might be a little dated, but the game play is still fantastic with a great combination of violence and humor. Many, many hours wasted poking orc peons...

Above: The most badass manual ever.

Now this little doozy is a special treat. I can only wish I had this game from childhood, enriching my life for the past twenty years. I am lucky, though, that my good friend Adam spotted this at a church tag sale and spent what I'm sure was a small fortune. I mean, this game has to be sought after, right?

All kidding aside this is a pretty awesome find. Everything was in pristine condition from the manual to the mini poster of the totally tubular cover photo. But the neatest bit is the letter that was included from Gametek, congratulating a Staples rep on this preview copy of the game. It looks like it's signed my Allen Eichler who was in Product Development and Marketing at Gametek (thanks Linkedin!).

Ninja Gaiden II? How the hell did Gametek nab that license?

Well, that wraps things up around here. It's always fun digging up old treasures like these, and I hope this brought back memories for some of you. And thanks again to Adam for nabbing America Gladiators; I'm not one to turn down gaming history.