In the Fall of 1994, when the internet was something people used for email, and Compuserve and archie servers were the closest thing we had to a World Wide Web, I read about an interesting game on the very precisely named usenet group comp.sys.ibm.pc.games.strategic. The game was called X-Com, and it had something to do with protecting the Earth from UFOs.
Based in the enthusiasm on the forum, I picked it up, and to this day (with some strong competition from Medieval II Total War) it is my favorite computer game of all time. My son found it recently on Steam, and I still enjoy it as much as I did then.
Why should you care about a game with twenty-year-old graphics that won’t run on your computer without special software? Because it provided the most interesting gameplay and most compelling story of any game I know, and because it’s being resurrected into the modern gaming world under the name XCOM: Enemy Unknown by none other than Sid Meier (Civilization) and his Firaxis crew! Do I need to repeat that? I’ve had dreams about this very thing. Honestly.
At the time this game came out, nothing else combined strategic planning and tactical missions and mysterious victory conditions into such a rich experience. Mr. Meier's Civilization had the grand strategy, but not the tactics. A few games provided interesting tactical options but weak overall planning and strategy. And nothing else did so much to actually scare the crap out of me on a 320x200 display.
I loved this game so much that I wrote a series of short stories based on it. I posted them on usenet and they made their way to some early web pages – some of the first fan fiction on the web. The stories are still out there today in a couple places. Be warned that they are full of spoilers for the old game, which may still give away too much of the new version.
Don’t expect any blog entries here in the Fall of 2012. I’ll be busy defending the Earth from aliens, and I encourage you to do the same.
 |
| Alas, these brave troopers will likely have short lifespans |
Links: archive of comp.sys.ibm.pc.games.strategic
