the internet might be a good place after all!

Such a maleable thing, the internet. Back in the days of Trumpet Winsock, we could only speculate about what the internet would turn out to be. You'd hear things.. what am I saying, you'd hear THE thing: "Information Superhighway". Likely coined by some marketing guy who didn't quite grasp what the person who seemed like a geek to him had just finished explaining at length with restrained enthusiasm.

Call it web 2.0, call it whatever, it's turned out to be the beast we made it. A big buddha with a million costumes in his wardrobe. We used to tailor for him, but now he's learned the trade. Sure, it's easy to find evil things on the internets, things that you'll complain having read, or more likely, "seen". Sustaining heavy trauma from taking a few wrong exits on the proverbial highway. In an age where turning a blind eye is frowned upon, our net surfing practices might end up ocularly biting off more than we can chew.

It's no longer the "blind eye", it's just that there's so many hours in a day. Without a desire to seek things we love, the internet can definitely swallow you into a pit of depression and bring you awareness of certain things that you might not come across on, say a trip to the store on the corner, maybe not even on a trip to Nepal. No, you might not bump into the likes of Yucko the clown, or someone who shows you a clever magic trick, or her underwear. Nor would you willingly yell at someone on the street that their clothes are "gay" and that they suck at Counter Strike.

It's not so much that the net is a strange place, but that it's turning us into strange people. Our social interactions sometimes come to an abrupt stop if you "haven't seen it?? Oh no! Oh you HAVE to see it, do you have an internet connection here?". We have seen things that we've never seen, heard songs that we've never heard, and read things that we've always wanted to read about.

Yeah. There is an upshot to the internet. A huge upshot. For those who are thirsty, it is the very asphalt of this superhighway that has turned into a throbbing mass of knowledge. And porn, yes, fine. How many files do you have? Are we done here?

Good.

Tonight, again, I've read about topics that have peaked my curiosity for QUITE sometime. One would think that once you hit your search engine of choice, you could think of something past "ummmm...", but it's true, when it's time to ask yourself "what would I like to know more about", the answers from the self are not-so-instantaneous.

I've never been a player of RPGs in the table and dice sense of the word. In fact, the very fact that I use the term "table and dice" should instantly signal to you that I know very little about it, aside from standing a few feet away from a table of avidly immersed classmates in High School.

But I've played a great deal of classic PC RPGs, may they be SSI, Origin, or New World Computing. I looked up games like "Pool of Radiance", "Demon's Winter" and "Phantasie": everyone's alive, and they say "Hi". In playing JRPGs and visiting various "systems" of combat and stats, I've been curious about the roll of the dice that my systems churn more times per second than I could bother to count. I've been wondering about the world of *Advanced* Dungeons & Dragons. I always called it that because of the one franchised Intellivision cart I owned: Advanced Dungeons & Dragons - Cloudy Mountain. The rest, was news on the 80's radio that kids who played it turned psycho and committed suicide. And that's.. AM radio, to you.

I read some nice informative historical entries on the Wiki, notably the subtle difference between D&D and AD&D, along with a plethora of information about the rulebooks that were real backpack-breakers. It crossed my mind that those boys who played that at my school, were smart as balls. I couldn't believe that I had never played any of these games. Extremely interesting stuff. Now all I need is a pusher who's got all some of those those rulebooks I've read about. Just to try.

Even MORE delightful was finding a database of computer games that are "abandonware", that is, that there is no longer a copyright / license owner for. Tonight, I've downloaded some of the greats, and I feel a 486 awakening from its sleep. It's gonna be, awesome.

The best part about all this, is that I've downloaded games that I recognize from the countless computer magazines that I read as a kid. Games I used to see ads for and just drooled over something as silly as CGA vs. EGA screenshots. I know nothing of what they sound or feel like, and I'm not about to go to youtube to watch them. These babies, I want first hand.

I will, though, watch a longplay of one of my favourite and most tedious "freestyle programming" adventure games, Future Wars, by Delphine software. Future Wars, was the precursor of Out of this World/Another World, and graced by the now "signature" artwork of Eric Chahi. Sure, it might be the Amiga version, and the music might sound a little more animated than it did for me (this was one of my favourite PC Speaker soundtracks, ever), but it's just gonna be nice to sit back and watch. In that seat that so many of my friends have occupied throughout my teenage years, watching me play videogames.

It's me in the passenger chair tonight, the backseat gamer. This one goes out to all the friends who were always there with me, just sitting back and watching as I poured my time into pixels. Suggesting solutions and to our animated problems of limited colors. A foundry of of emotions that were the computer games of yesteryear, that kept us all sane and at bay from our daily lives, and kept our dreams and fascinations awake, as we participated equally in the ritualistic hobby that saved most of us: gaming.

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