scott d. feldstein

Andrew Leonard is being tempted. He thinks we should care.

I’ve listed my favorite computer/console games before, but somehow I’ve neglected to include a terrific little game by Ambrosia Software called Escape Velocity: Nova, the third installment in the Escape Velocity series. It’s an oldie but a goodie, as they say. It’s now at least eight years old and is still as entertaining as ever.

It’s kind of a space adventure game. You begin as the pilot of a small shuttle in a big, unknown universe. You visit other star systems, land on friendly planets and run the missions available to you: take 10 tons of medical supplies to another system, ferry passengers to some other place. But also there are commodities markets where you can buy low and hope to sell high somewhere else. It’s always worth stopping in the bar wherever you land, as special missions may come your way when you do. You may find yourself doing special and lucrative work for a government or a company.

As you earn more money you can buy new ships, weapons, sensor enhancements, shielding and other special technology add-ons.

There are several story lines in the game and you are free to play it any way you want. You can become a trader, a privateer, a pirate, a bounty hunter or an agent of one of several galactic governments.

What makes EV Nova so good? I think it’s the mix of adventure, strategy and arcade-style combat. Somehow Ambrosia got it just right.

In spite of its age, EV Nova will still run on the most modern computers.

I hope Ambrosia creates a new Escape Velocity game one of these days. Meanwhile, Nova is still a supremely engrossing time-waster. You can download the free trial and see how you like it before shelling out the $30 for a license, too. I recommend it highly.

If you’re around my age you probably remember going to the video arcade and playing old school console games for a quarter. I played Missile Command, Tempest, Asteroids, Donkey Kong, Centipede and Space Invaders in the back room of the Straw Hat Pizza near Sepulveda and National in West LA.

Here’s something else. I could be imagining it, but I swear that the place used to have actual straw on the floor at one point. (Which I presume they changed every night like a barn.) But restaurants couldn’t do that, could they? In the mid 70s?

What I do remember clearly is learning to use thread and Scotch tape to rack up unlimited numbers of credits using only one quarter.

Aside from a couple of weeks with Twilight Princess when we got the Wii system, it’s been a long time since I let myself become engrossed in a great video game. Twilight, like all Zelda games, is fantastic. But it’s no Ocarina. I don’t even think it’s as fun as Wind Waker.

Ocarina was a near-perfect video game, certainly the best ever created in the “adventure” genre. The only criticisms I have for it is that occasionally the interface for using items became tedious (switching your boots back and forth in the water temple, for example) and the dialog was sometimes unintentionally quirky, having been originally written in Japanese. In any case, it’s dated now. New gamers will not likely have the same reaction to it that so many of us did ten years ago. Time to move on, I guess, and wait for a new gold standard.

Diablo III is on the distant horizon, so that’s something. It’s been a busy couple of years and nothing else has really captured my attention. Perhaps when the Lord of Terror finally reappears–a year from now?–I’ll jump back into gaming again for a bit.

What’s your favorite video game? Are you looking forward to a new game?

Wow, after a lengthy hiatus, this might really bring me back to the world of computer gaming! The only depressing thing is, a game’s release is usually years after the announcement. Sigh.

Did I ever tell you what my favorite video games of all time were? Here we go.

1. The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time

2. Warcraft II

3. Diablo II

There are others that I remember fondly: The original Diablo, several of the other Zelda games, Marathon, Quake III Arena, and of course Super Mario Bros.

What are your faves?