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!!