Lock Down, Level Up

Game... er...

I can’t really remember a time before playing video games.

Well, I can, but it kinda feels like they were always there, a part of my life, even when they weren’t. I remember my brother had a ZX Spectrum. But that was his, he didn’t let me play much. And man, that thing took ages to load, ten minutes at least. From a cassette. Yeah, a cassette tape.?

Then, I got a Nintendo Game & Watch. One of the ones that flipped open. A design very similar to what would be the DS. It was Donkey Kong. It was silver and orange. And it was in my hands from the moment I got it, played until the batteries ran out and the text indicating the buttons faded away from the heat of my little hands.

I loved that thing.

It’s amazing now, thinking, how much detail I can remember. I guess that kind of info gets burnt into your brain.

So yeah, you could say I was into gaming from the start. That orange flip open Donkey Kong kept me entertained for years. Those two mini screens being my gaming world. Well, apart from an occasional stint on the Spectrum, when my brother would let me.

But then. It happened. All my Christmases came at once.?

Three letters: N. E. S.

The Nintendo Entertainment System. 8 bit. Two controllers. A flip up lid for playing multiple games from cartridges. And you could plug it into your TV. We picked it up in Hamley's. I couldn’t wait to get it into our living room and set up. It came with one game. Mario of course. But what it didn’t come with was the cord to connect to your TV. Or the right cord for our TV, I forget now exactly. What’s engraved in my memory is just not being able to play it that day when we got home. Can you imagine that kind of frustration? The next day we got that cable though. And bam! Mario Mario Mario. Nin. Ten. Do. I was hooked.?

Years and years of fun from that day on. That was my console for my whole childhood basically. My family never had the money to upgrade to the Super NES. So, I just continued with that. Which was kinda cool actually because initially the games were mad expensive but they got reduced a lot once everyone was upgrading to 16 bit.

I remember having so much fun just looking through the sale shelves of NES games, reading the back of the boxes, looking at the screenshots, calculating which games I could afford. Making my choice. I still remember distinctly the box art of even the ones I didn't choose.

Other than Mario, of course, I played a ton of Zelda. However, more of the second one actually. I then played the first later. I preferred the side scrolling style which was quite a daring shift from the top down of the first game. But there was another game of a similar vein which I absolutely loved: Battle of Olympus. That game was tough, but you got to adventure around mystical ancient Greece collecting different magical items.

Another super tough one but a wonder to play was the spacey explorer Solar Jetman. That got pretty trippy in places.

I remember playing hours and hours with my friends on the coop sci-fi shooter Protector (a literal Contra clone but with robots). Then there was?Double Dragon 2, in which we spent more time beating each other up than the enemies, to which we gave all the different types silly nicknames.

So many great games. So many great times.?

Growing up.

As the years went on, my gaming went a bit on and off. In my early twenties, stuck in a dead-end job I hated, my N64 (I’d evolved to 3D during college) became a source of escape for me. But too much so. There was a point when I moved house around that time and I needed a fresh start, so started spending more time outdoors, cycling loads and doing a bunch of gardening (that’s a whole other story there). I had perhaps overdone it with the gaming, it had developed a bad association for me, so I needed some time out, time away, time... outside.

If was some years later that I decided to pick up a PlayStation 2. I was missing gaming and they were dead cheap as I’d be jumping on board at the tail end of that generation. Around the same time, I discovered eBay. And a whole load of bargain titles that were just incredible. I had catching up to do.

I’d basically missed a generation of games, so was totally wowed by how far things had come. But something was different. There was more art here, more story, more emotion. I’m thinking games like Ico (pictured left top). Also, it was getting cinematic. Looking at you Metal Gear Solid 2 (middle), or indeed, Fahrenheit (bottom).

I found myself more immersed than ever in these worlds with these characters.

A few years later it was time for a new generation. I shifted a bit going from PlayStation 2 to Xbox 360. There were the usual triple A titles showing off the new tech. My first game was Halo 3. I’ve never been an FPS guy but that one certainly made an impact. Amazing visuals and an epic opening intro, especially with that soundtrack. Goosebumps.

But then, something else happened. Xbox Arcade. Indie games. It was a fork in the road. New games, but going for something different, often adopting a more retro style or older mechanics but with either modern or artsy graphics.

Shadow Complex blew me away, side scrolling shoot-em-up gameplay like Probotector back on the NES but with epic depth of 3D in the backgrounds. Masterly done.

Or Braid. A platformer, a Mario clone? Well, no, not at all. Intriguing gameplay with a deep narrative and stunning visuals that looked hand painted. Platforming poetry.

It was at this point that I realised video games were going to evolve into something far more complex, varied and artistic than I could have ever imagined. This relatively new medium was beginning to show its full potential. It was maturing. Another interesting element of being a gamer born in 1980, I was growing up in parallel to this medium’s evolution and development.

So much potential, and not only in the content, but also in the ways to play.

As time passed and I moved on to PS4 (jumping ship again). Meanwhile, I was also starting to discover the awesome titles available now on mobile. An example of perfect use of the device, simultaneously making something beautiful as well as very playable, is Monument Valley. Very cool.

And then one day I came across something even cooler...

Better emulate than never.

I discovered I could emulate the NES on my phone. Downloading and playing ROMS of practically every game ever released. You can bet I looked up some of those games I never did play back in the day. Finally experience the games behind the box art.

I thought of little old me with my Game & Watch, imagining him seeing my smartphone with its HD screen running NES games, in the palm of your hand. Mad. That younger version of me, his brain would melt at the prospect. Suffice to say, it was a hell of a nostalgia trip.

One downer was the lack of a controller. I realised how that tactile interaction with those few little buttons was so much a part of the experience. Tapping the smartphone screen just wasn’t quite the same. Not on these old games.

A lot of the games didn’t age so well. It was more the little things, like not being able to save whenever, or the difficulty, oh god those games were hard. Some of them still do hold up. Still giving that same vibe of wonder and exploration. It was that which hooked me back then. It’s that which has kept me playing throughout my life.?

One that I must mention that retained all it’s magic is, fittingly, Solstice. You explore a labyrinthian castle as a wizard. No combat, all puzzles and platforming. Truly magical, both then, and now.

And now...

Then 2020 happened.

Lockdown. I found myself unemployed, having to stay in, nothing really to do.

Hmmm, how could I possible entertain myself?

The answer would seem simple for a lifelong gamer, but for one big problem, I was between consoles at that point (another long story). What to do, what to do..?

It was then I found out my laptop actually ran games pretty damn well. Well, so long as they were a little older or less demanding graphics-wise. But there were certainly a bunch of games from the PS2 era I was happy to replay, and few I’d missed from 10 years ago ish. And then a few that I’d wanted to play but couldn’t quite get past certain annoyances (things like FOV, control layouts). I knew on PC you could get creative and tweak things a bit, either with mods or just messing around with files or settings etc. Oh boy, I was about to discover another level to my video gaming hobby.

It reminded me a lot of those times with my NES. A door opening. A discovery. An adventure. I was getting immersed in some great games but also able to peak behind the curtain. Indeed, not just peak, step on back there and tweak, make the game my own, with my view of how to play it.

Make the game my own.

There’s an interesting thought. Without much effort it could easily change to:

Make my own game.?

And then. There was Unity.

A free game engine. Available, accessible, and widely used. I started checking if I’d played any games made with it.

That phrase there, ‘made with Unity’ had a familiar ring in my mind, like I’d seen it before.

I had seen it before. I had, in fact, played more games than I’d thought brought to life in the Unity engine. Monument Valley, Firewatch, The First Tree, just to name a handful.

I’d just downloaded it when I randomly came across the fact that Citylit, a London adult college, were doing online courses for free to those unemployed on state benefits. They were doing two courses on Unity, 3D modelling and coding. It was a very happy coincidence, resulting in a very happy Toby. I could actually make something in Unity maybe, make a game.

I still had a long way to go but after a few weeks I was able to make an actual demo level. It sort of evolved on its own, it would seem.?

Start small. Aim big.

The room emerged from one single chess piece you see on the table (see pictures, right).

It kept growing until it somehow became a playable, platforming level. You play as a tiny person, think, 'Land of the Giants', anyone else remember that?! Or 'Ant-Man' would be a more modern reference, but not quite as small as he gets.

You have to navigate the room starting from the floor, working your way up to the table, using objects as platforms (eg. a pile of books becomes like a staircase). Once up there you can drink the magic potion, and hey presto, be normal size. I even managed to write some C# code to have you actually transform big again. It ain't too flashy, but it was a start.

That kind of natural evolution was often what it was like for me with my creative pursuits. I’d written a screenplay a few years back one summer, that basically wrote itself as I typed. When I was into oil painting my first year in Italy (yet another long story), all my best pieces took a life of their own as I mixed paint and put brush to canvas.

Now there was a new medium for me to try. New, yet old, it had always been there, as long as I could remember. A game world.

So, yeah, it came to be, it grew, blocks became chess pieces, rectangles became a table and walls, cylinders became chair legs and gun barrels, a sphere the base of a potion bottle, and beyond.

And then, at a certain point, with a first-person movement C# script done, I hit play. And I was in the world, platforming around trying to get up on that table. Exploring my little game world. My little creation. Playing as a tiny little person in a big ol' world (there's a metaphor in there somewhere, I'm sure). Little old me with his NES would be mad excited. Big old me was excited and mad at myself for not doing this sooner. But, hey, here we were. Shut in, but with any world I could conjure at my fingertips.?

Path. Career.

Could it be this journey I’m on is my new career, my new path? An inspiring thought. From playing as the wizard on my NES to meeting the wizard that is Unity, to stepping behind the curtain, and me myself becoming the wizard. The creator.

That’s the plan anyway. Do wish me luck. I think I need it.

So here I go.

From being locked down, to levelling up!

I’ll try and remember to save often and here’s hoping there’s no crashes at critical moments.??