09.22.16
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Yes, I’m A Gamer

Of sorts. When I was a young-un all the cool kids had these things called Atari’s. We never had one because we didn’t have money for such things. I was lucky to have a bicycle, a few board games, and a baseball and glove. I made do. Most of us did. Every once in a while I’d get a cap gun and I’d blam blam a few unfortunate imaginary foes until I ran out of caps or the cheap gun broke. By the time I was 10 or so I did finally get a single pump BB gun which was awesome (no I didn’t shoot my eye out), till that time if wanted a gun I’d have to substitute a stick from the yard. Ahh the good old days.

I did later get a dirt bike to ride (which I was paying for with my paper route) but I never really got into the gamer thing until I was married to my first wife, with kids and had a mortgage. I had picked up a computer a 386 SX and it came equipped with 2 entire gigs of Ram. It had even been upgraded with 1 extra gig! (Anyone remember Win3 and DOS 6.0?) Well at the time Kings Quest games were the thing and we had one of them, then I bought another for the kids. Well it came with a freebie trial for a new online MMORPG (Massive Multi Player Role Playing Game) called simply The Realm. It was by the same company that did Kings Quest, Sierra. Well I did the free trial thing and I was hooked. I have played that game on and off for several years. In the beginning it had a lot of people and was a very fun game to play. I have quit and gone back a few times, as of right now I don’t mess with it much. It has run its course I think.

Well with little desire to get into the pay to win games that have flooded the world today, and bored with my old game of choice, I thought I’d look for some sort of brain food. I like things that challenge my poor dilapidated noggin and when I’m not too busy mechanic-ing, or dealing with the everyday neccessities, I like to do SOMETHING with my brain. Mahjong which came on my computer did the job for a good while, I still play it, but was looking for something…new.

I learned how to play Cribbage a long time ago from my great uncle Leo. Leo had been captured in WW2 early on in the war. He was in the battle at Faid Pass. The Germans advanced, engaged in battle, then did a tactical retreat. The Allies thinking they had them on the run gave chase. It was a trick. They advanced into a trap and were blown to hell. Uncle Leo survived, was captured, and spent a lot of time in a concentration camp. Many of his companions were Brits. Brits love Cribbage. Leo learned from the Brits. I learned from Leo. So long story short I like a good game of Cribbage. So I set upon a course to find a free to play Cribbage game. (Yahoo used to have a really good one but they nerfed it) I found a decent one here:

http://www.freewebarcade.com/game/cribbage/

I played that game for a while, until I realized the game cheats. It always plays the game so that the opponents hand hits the upcard. Way too much to be a coincidence. I can still beat it, but don’t care for being disadvantaged. So, I decided to snoop around on the site and have found quite a few interesting, free, did I say free? Yep free games to play. No you won’t find the latest greatest anything at that site, but there is a lot to look over and try out. And it’s FREE! Yes there are a few ads(Which I just resize my window so I don’t have the distraction, don’t tell anyone) And some of the games are limited play before they want you to buy it. But you can still play the game without chucking any cash at them so what the hell.

Right now I’m really liking the game Alpha Assault, it is under the word/trivia category (All the categories can be seen at the link). It’s basically Scrabble with a twist. You have to make words to eliminate tiles threatening your position. It’s quite a bit of fun, somewhat addicting, and satifies my desire for brain food. And that is what matters I think 🙂

There are a few poker games I have tried. Governor of Poker was fun, and still is, but it moves a little slow and I pushed it to the point where they urged me to buy the game. Which I don’t want to do. There are a couple more good poker games there as well, and a host of games I have yet to try. But I’ll get there.

So, why am I posting this at all? Just in case there is another pour soul out there that needs a brain food fix. Someone up for a challenge. Someone as cheap as I am. If that is you then check that link out. You may or may not like the site but you sure won’t complain about the price!

 

21 thoughts on “Yes, I’m A Gamer”

  1. I’ll have me a look at the site.

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  2. I, on the other hand, is on the extreme. Never played computer/video games and still have no time to even think of trying

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    • What? What!? Does not compute. Does not compute. Engaging self destruct sequence in 3…2…1…

      Despite the innate curiosity I have never done computer porn. But the thing is porn never did much for me, I much prefer reality over the fantasy. But games, games are the challenge that must be conquered!

      But hey man I still love ya 🙂

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  3. I got you beat. I am a proud possessor of a copy of Windows 1.0 (wasn’t a damn thing you could do with it), so yes I remember DOS 6 and Win 3. I once actually read an 1100 page book on DOS. Oh, the enthusiasms of youth!

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    • Wow. I didn’t even know (I suppose it makes sense) there was a Win 1.

      I used to have a friend who went to school for computer stuff, he used to call me for advice with Dos. Ever since they married the two and made everything a few clicks away, all of that Dos stuff I used to know went right out the window, and I’ll take the pun 🙂

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  4. The best game I’ve ever played is Bridge. Too few people today play it and even fewer play it well.

    And like Steve, I started on DOS (2.0 in my case) and a Commodore 64 (64K RAM) and my video system was Intellevision. (I had to learn Pascal… if anyone remembers what that was.) And I’ve been playing computer games on the computer ever since. (I can still recall the musical pattern for my modem dialing up the internet connection so my friend and I could play the original Duke Nukem. Way too cool and the potential…)

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    • I have never played Bridge. Played Canasta does that count?

      Wow the Commodore 64! I remember when they came out. But never had one. Do you still have it? From what I understand they fetch a fair price these days.

      Wolfenstein was the first computer game I ran into that was worth a damn. Never plaed Duke Nukem, but did play some Doom and Serious Sam.

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      • Naw. Sold it to help pay for my 386, sold to pay for my Pentium, sold for my 486, sold for my Pentium 3… and then I started to build my own.

        Canasta is to Bridge what marbles is to bowling: quite a different game. In Bridge, you can figure out a lot of stuff by what isn’t said, what isn’t done, what isn’t played. And this is a skill that can be learned and applied to many other card games.

        Someone argued that luck played some significant part in Bridge so my friend bet he and I could beat this person and any partner of his choosing every time. The challenge was taken up and over the course of the next few weeks we played 27 matches before the other person gave in and paid up. Of course, some people just don’t want to learn anything if it interferes with reducing their certainty or confidence in their misplaced beliefs and it’s nice to collect money from such people.

        I’ve noticed a correlation, that the more religious a person claims to be, the worse a Bridge player they are. But, between you and me, I would prefer all players had the desire to improve through learning rather than sticking with the facade of pretending to know stuff they do not know and maintaining this belief not by merit but out of pride and hubris. It’s a guaranteed way of being a mediocre player, a mediocre thinker, at best.

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        • After a quick rundown on the game Bridge, it sounds a lot like Spades or Rook. With a few exceptions, notably the cardinal direction thing and the laying down of the dummy hand. Also there seems to be an advantage of suit naming, which can be a clue for the partner in bidding.

          Sounds interesting.

          If we could all gain insights through learning rather than assuming we know everything already, the world would be a much better place…

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  5. Pot-limit Omaha consumes a lot of my time. I love all card games and really just any multi player game where strategy, math, and and phycology come into play. The most primitive game that I know of that involves all three is rock paper scissors.

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  6. Hello. Have you tried the game Bookworm. I know we played it for years in my home. My adoptive mother played it for years even when she was in hospice. it is a word game with falling tiles and some extras. A quick google search gave me this https://www.amazon.com/Bookworm-Deluxe-PC/dp/B0007UQ0O8?th=1 . I think game playing keeps the mind young. Too many people forget the joy of simply playing in this world we life in. Hugs

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    • Welcome Scottie!

      Nope, never played Bookworm. Sounds interesting 🙂

      I agree, playing games helps to keep the mind sharp. Or at least I like to think so. Games scenarios require one to think, be quick on your toes, and use strategies. If that isn’t a brain workout I don’t know what is. And as a pleasant side effect they are fun!

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      • Talk about brain workouts … I recently downloaded “Peak” to my (Android) tablet and have found it pretty stimulating. It’s actually promoted as a neuroscience-based game. In another place it says it will “push your cognitive skills to their limits ” I just have the “freebie” version, but I guess it you’re really into this sort of thing, you can move up to the paid version.

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