Summer Camp and Computer Games of My Youth

I'm not talkin' Oregon freakin' Trail here! While that is a fine game, it gets all too much attention! Specifically, I'd like to talk about other lesser-spoken-of PC games from the late 80's to mid 90's. The games that drove some of my enthusiasm for computers early on. Games that made you use your imagination due to the graphical limits of the time, games that for the most part used the keyboard as the 'controller'!

I won't get into console games, and won't touch on Unisys ICON games (an education based Canadian computer system aimed at school/student use) - I think that could be its own post. I either didn't have a computer myself at home at the time... or later, didn't have one good enough to play these, so as mentioned in the title, I'd eagerly get to play these at summer camp. The summer camp deal was that it was a 50/50 split of computers and sports. Both were good to have looking back- but at the time, I was largely more interested in the computer part.

First lets talk graphic adventure games! I have to shout out to Sierra On-Line- the video game dev and publisher. For me here, for sure a summer camp game memory, was King's Quest I - Quest for the Crown. For me, this was a game where you could immerse yourself in another world and another time.

Its hard to believe that (immersion) was possible given its graphics, but your mind literally filled in everything that was lacking graphically. Maybe.. being younger, the imagination was stronger too, so to speak? That said, the computer art for K.Q. done by Roberta Williams has always been lauded. Looking back at the screenshots, brings back fond memories- for example of the rooms as if they were real rooms, walking through game landscapes as if they were places actually visited. Ah the places I 'went' as a child!!

Another one with immersive artwork of the time, was Robin Hood Conquests of the Longbow- also by Sierra. This one wasn't a camp game, and was a more difficult game intended for an age range older than what I was at the time. I still loved to wander around and see what I could do.

Also from Sierra, Police Quest, Leisure Suit Larry, Gobliiins (more of a puzzle adventure game).

Lets switch to Broderbund with their graphic adventure game- Where in the World is Carmen Sandiego, for sure one of the games from my summer camp days. Prince of Persia was Broderbund as well, but not sure if that was one at my camp.

Changing things up- something NOT a game, the program language Logo, and their 'turtle' that followed your program commands to make graphics on screen. This was really wondrous for me, there at computer camp! Thinking that I could myself, write a program for a computer to follow- and subsequently create graphics. Forward 100 (or FD 100), RT 90 (rotate 90 degrees), Penup (PU) or Pendown (PD), and REPEAT command essential for making geometric shapes. Before learning this in summer camp, I was trying to do computer graphics by using ASCII art. Below is a dead simple example but you could make wonderful 'spirograph' type pictures with a rainbow of color, using other more advanced commands.

Absolutely- Lemmings, was the cause of much laughter and collaboration at summer camp. I think everyone just loved to make the poor lil guys blow up. Setting them to do that started a 5 second timer above their head before boom- self destruct! Hey, some needed to be sacrificed to get the others to safety!

Buena Vista Software's Who Framed Roger Rabbit- I remember there were only certain parts of this game that kids liked to play.

The Ford Simulator- really made to promote Ford's 1988 lineup, and be a forward thinking way to 'test drive' cars... was a popular one back at summer camp. Wild to think this game consisting of 4 different driving events for 16 different models came on one 1.2MB 5.25 floppy disk!

Then of course, talking about sims, SimCity by Maxis. Looking back, it was relatively basic- but for me, enough to keep busy and still have fun. SimCity was like a software toy- a kids dream, to create a whole city and set it to life. It was open ended, there wasn't a 'win' situation, it was a choose your own adventure. All the while it was teaching so many things like systemic thinking, how zoning and infrastructure worked, etc.

As luck would have it, the camp councilors allowed and even in some cases assisted kids in copying the games to take home, as long as we provided the 5.25 disk(s). My mom was able to score some of those disks from her work every now and again- and I remember taking a copy of Ford Simulator home for myself.