The Miller Brothers History Of Gaming

Don't expect organization here!

my rambling approximate personal pathway to geekdom nirvana: the motherfucking mother of all video games - PONG bitch -> arcades -> henry mack's atari 2600 -> sears atari 2600 clone -> trs-80 with tape-deck-loading nethack -> atari 400 with BASIC cartridge -> arcades in every pizza joint and strip mall -> star wars 4-6 -> atari 800 -> atari 800 XL -> windows 2.0 what shit -> mac with custom db sales app -> amiga 2000 -> neuromancer -> virtual reality -> win 3.0 thru win 7 (ssdd) -> descent -> redhat linux 4 thru 9 (ssdd) with emacs -> tribes -> LAMP with all the flavors of P -> thedigitalmachine.com -> sharp zaurus with Opie and daily updates IN MY PANTS -> palm treo with TCPMP -> fedora linux -> star wars 1-3 -> gentoo linux (always and forever) -> mythtv -> eclipse -> multiplayer mariocart DS at ABB -> hak5 -> PAX 2007 -> firefox addons with greasemonkey, javascript, DOM, css (50k cross-platform users!) -> mac os x -> iphone ios4 -> PAX West 2009 -> QT ftw -> thedigitalage.org -> xbmc -> splatspace.org -> android? -> (todo) wearable HUD and keyboard pants with head-mounted camera and projector -> robots!

• Tribes Vengeance
• F.E.A.R.
• LOTR: Battle For Middle Earth
• Age of Empires ]I[
• Psychonauts
• UT2004
• Tribes
• Age Of Empires ][
• Descent Freespace
• Descent III
• Unreal Tournament
• Descent ][
• Descent
• Driver
• Interstate 76
• Mech Warrior
• Palm: b&w racing game
• my first "bullettime" game, what the hell was it, a huge city to explore, lots of magic powers...
• Assasin? something like that... you had to snipe big hulking guys way in the distance, they would taunt you with silly dances...
• Some command-and-conquer 1st person game I played with John - you'd drive your tank, build a base, manage it, then jump back in for action (lots of it)

• PC: Reflections Destruction Derby 2 (AWEsome! Cars took damage!)

• Amiga: Ballistix (constant crowd cheering, raising, falling)
• Amiga: Montezuma's Revenge
• Amiga: Psygnosis horror/adventure game with objects based on ellipsoids
• Amiga: Cinemaware Rocket Ranger (epic)
• Amiga: Dragon's Lair (VIDEO! on a COMPUTER!)
• Amiga: Shadow Of The Beast ("parallax" scrolling!)
• Amiga: Lemmings
• Amiga: some racing game with a SPLIT SCREEN, best multiplayer yet

• Amiga: Tempest
• Atari: Marble Madness
• Atari?: Chopper? That helicopter landing to pick up people
• Kixx (played until popped blisters stopped me)
• Scramble
• Zaxxon

• A nethack-like game on the TRS-80 Model ]I[ - took 20 minutes to load off cassette tape...

• Joust – one of Dan’s favorite
• Dig Dug
• Atari: M.U.L.E. (see http://atarimule.neotechgaming.com/index.htm)
• Dan's TRON
• The vector based coin-op Star Wars and Battle Zone games
• Pitfall
• Atari: Adventure (remember the red and yellow and black? dragons)
• Robotron
• Missile Command
• Pole Position I and II
• Spy Hunter (dunt dunt DUNT dunt DIDDLEY dunt DUNT dunt)
• Taipan (Apple II)
• Crush, Crumble, Chomp
• Sinistar (RAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHRRRRRR!)
• Paperboy
• Breakout, Super Breakout, Arkanoid – a Michael favorite
• Q-bert
• Beer Tapper
• Super Cobra (helicopter flying through caverns!!)
• Defender
• Superman (Atari: Superman was made up of about 6 red and blue

blocks)

• Xevious (Mike was the champ at this game - 1st 3D shading in a

game!!)

• Donkey Kong
• Donkey Kong Jr.
• Moon Patrol (jump your moon buggy over the craters and rocks!)
• ZORK I, II and III
• Crazy Taxi
• Crystal Castles
• Mr. Do
• Some cop driving game where you get points for smashing through

donut shops

• Dark Forces
• GTA - the original top-down view
• Cloak and Dagger (there was a Disney movie tie-in filmed in San

Antonio, TX during our Youth Convention)

• Circus (clowns on a see-saw popping balloons)
• Choplifter
• 1942
• Tank - two tanks, one immovable screen, a few square-ish barriers

and unlimited ammo

• After Burner - now that was a heck of a joystick!
• Star Raider - kill the Krylons in the first 3D FPS ever!! with all 6

degrees of freedom, no less!

• Elevator Action - some kind of Spy game where enemies would emerge

from doors.

• Wizard of Wor
• Food Fight or BurgerTime?
• Toobin'
• Lunar Lander (b&w vector game - a little thrust, please)
• Frogger
• Star Castle (shoot the rings around the giant enemy ship)
• Night Driver (Atari 2600 paddle game)
• Lemmings
• a couple of racing games:
• one where there were four players with tiny cars - the track was on

one screen - it was coin-op

• one where there were multiple players, but the screen scrolled (was

it a split screen, or did you have to keep up or something - this was on one of our consoles)

• Something with Oil in the title (Oils Well?)
• Outlaw - Cowboy on the left, Cowboy on the right, covered wagon in

the middle

• Yar's Revenge
• What was the other old game where the alien would jump up into your ship's viewscreen if you landed on the planet and scare the bejeepers out of you - a lucasarts game, I believe
• Berzerk
• Old Atari Basketball
• Qix
• Karateka - the first head to head fighting game
• Ball Blaster (or Ball Blazer as it was renamed after the original was pirated so much prior to release) - an amazing Lucasarts game where two players went head to head in a futuristic soccer match - one of the first 3D games with solid surfaces and 4 degrees of unrestricted motion
• Maze or Walls or something like that - the first game with walls (even prior to Wolfenstein) - I remember being blown away by the graphics
• Miner '49er
• Kaboom - a very old game that I don't even remember but the title
• Gorf - woohoo!
• Pengo - push those ice blocks around!
• Eliza? The talking text AI? is that what it was called??
• Shufflepuck Cafe - a favorite of Sammy Boy on the Mac
• Temple of Apshai - can't remember anything but the name
• Seven Cities of Gold - one of Dan's favorites - discover the new world and plunder the gold!
• Prince of Persia - awesome
• The fast paced music played while you fly your carpet through colored rings in space - what WAS it??!!
• All the Psygnosis games - what WERE they??!!
• Homeworld - the game that re-defined the user interface
• Gauntlet - 4 player mayhem!
• Lode Runner - Todd Lorenz was the champ!

• Zork, all the versions - the first one I played was in 1983 on U of F's mainframe
• Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy - babblefish! - no idea what year or system - you can now play online
• A (multiplayer!) Star Trek simulation game I played in 1983 on the mainframe during a campus visit to Lehigh University
• Amiga: some "cyberpunk" graphic-novelish game where you started in your small room - had video on the wall of some Chinese mafia guy's slick apartment...

• Atari: Mike wrote a typing game, like pong with paddles at top and bottom - to turn on a paddle you had to hit the key next to it
• Atari: Dan wrote snake, had to be one of the first versions ever written!
• Darby The Dragon, most creative game ever! To quote Reiley quoting the game "who's that in the sky just a ziggin and a zaggin? it's darby, darby , darby the draaaaagon prince"!

• The motorcycle game Betty and I played to death on the Amiga at her place in Ft Myers!
• Monkey Island! ALL of them!!
• Psychonauts!!