It doesn’t seem like all that long but it was on this day back in 2008 that I did my first 2 posts on this blog. Somehow I’m still here 5 years later which certainly wasn’t the plan originally but I’ve had some fun along the way. That year spent playing through Origin games clearly gave me an appetite for retro gaming which has continued to grow ever since. I won’t hazard a guess as to whether I’ll still be doing this in another 5 years but there are still plenty of games to play that relate in one way or another to Origin and I intend to get around to most of them eventually.

Despite that I’m considering broadening the scope of the site to include other games of the same era and this seems like it would be a good time to start. It’s either going to be that or less frequent posts as, much as it pains me to admit it, there is only so much time I can spend on this hobby and there are other games I want to play. For instance I’d really like to look at other RPG series like Wizardry, Bards Tale & Might And Magic all of which would keep me busy for months. So I’m putting the question out there, is this something anyone would like to see or should I keep this site relatively on topic?

Anyway back to Origin and if this isn’t the appropriate time to dig out this particular artefact I don’t know what is:-

This is ex-Origin QA Rhea Shelley’s 5 year service award which he presumably got in January 2000. The base is made from a similar material as his 200K UO subscribers award so I expect it’s the same manufacturer. This is a whole lot better looking at least in my eyes and with a nifty Origin logo stamped on the base. I had this in my hand luggage last year when I was coming back from Austin and airport security did not initially take to me carrying all that glass. I had to dig it out of my luggage and was expecting the worst but the guard just remarked on how cool it was and she let me through no more questions asked. That would probably only ever happen in Austin.

I do think that it perhaps says something about the games industry that there even was a 5 year service award as it doesn’t seem like a whole lot of time coming from my line of work.

As long term readers will know, most of the more unusual Origin artefacts on this site came courtesy of Rhea Shelley who had quite the hoard to say the least. There was one item of his that probably led to me getting quite as much of that collection as I did since it would have cost a small fortune to ship either on its own or with other goodies. That particular item was this:-

Yes, it’s a 5 foot long sign/poster with the Origin logo. I had to own this from the moment I saw it as I figured if anyone in the world should have a giant Origin sign in their home it’s me. This is currently adorning one of the walls in games room #1. I’m no idea of its original use but I would assume it has to be either from a trade show or possibly could have been used in a games store. It’s got a stiff foam backing so it isn’t the most transportable of collectibles.

I’ll dig out another relic for a second post today which is appropriate since it goes back to one of the games I played on day 1 on the blog.

It’s nothing to do with Origin but I was asked for some scans of Descent Freespace reviews last week and was curious enough to oblige. It’s one of those series that I own but never got around to playing for some reason. I have seen Freespace 2 accused of killing off the space sim genre not because it was a bad game but due to the lack of sales for such a well reviewed title. Freespace 1 was clearly just as well received with every review I’ve found scoring it around the 90% mark.

This first comes from the September 1998 PC Guide:-

Number 2 from the September 1998 PC Home:-

Number 3 is from the August 1998 PC Format:-

And another from the August 1998 PC Zone:-

And finally this is from the September 1998 PC Gamer:-

Moving this website around is becoming a habit this year and after a brief absence I’m back up and running once more on a new host. The previous provider decided that the amount of bandwidth I got through from 7-8am Saturday morning constituted a denial of service attack and blocked the site. Given the levels involved this seemed more than overzealous, I mean I can download 3 times more than that in an hour single-handed. Suffice to say, I asked for a refund and at least got most of my money back. The service was so cheap in the first place I was bound to run into something like this sooner or later but I had been hoping for later.

Moving everything around has gotten old so this time I’ve gone the full hog and the site is now running entirely on its own VPS. This is complete overkill and took an age to set up from a blank slate but I intend to use the server for other things so it will come in handy now I have it. It came with a hefty bandwidth allowance so feel free to download to your heart’s content. I don’t think I’ve forgotten anything but please let me know if things don’t work.

This is my 700th post on here and I’ll have been blogging for exactly 4 years after today so I thought I would do something a little different. Once in a blue moon, I make a quick set of photos of my collection for insurance purposes. I’ve little idea what it would all be worth and hope never to need to find out but I need to have some proof of what there is should the worst ever happen. Putting the photos up here is as safe as anywhere so I thought I’d do a virtual tour of sorts.

There are much bigger collections around but this is definitely up there and has grown way beyond what I expected when I started. It’s far from just Origin games with the main focus being late 80’s/90’s PC games with a definite bias to adventure games.

These first two bookcases hold all of my magazines + the cover CD’s that will fit. I’m not sure if I want to hold onto all of these long-term or not but for the moment, I can safely say there is no shortage of articles to scan in. Don’t ask how long it took to get all these in the right order so that I could find anything.

As collectibles, these old magazines are more fun than the games themselves in many ways and they are certainly cheaper but they do take up a lot of room, and weigh enough that some of those shelves are decidedly curved. These have all migrated into my spare room, with my far too small and crowded game room not being up to the job any more. There is plenty of Origin memorablia in the spare room keeping them company but I’ll skip over that and get to the games.

In the games room, the only game on the near wall is my copy of Akalabeth which I had to frame having paid so much for it. That sits next to my completion certificate.

Every other wall is lined with bookcases. Bookcase #1 contains all of Lucasarts’ adventure games, a plethora of Star Trek and Star Wars, near enough every Bullfrog game, a full set of Might and Magic and some random RPG’s and adventure games. DOS 4.01 serves as a suitably geeky bookend for the row of boxes balanced on the top.

Most of bookcase #2 should be familiar from this blog. I’ve had many of these games for years which is one of the things that prompted my attempt to play through them all. There is also a little Sierra/Dynamix on here and a load of Westwood on the bottom shelf.

Bookcase #3 concentrates on all of Sierra’s adventure games + some of their other titles. As far as I know, every SCI and AGI game is represented except for the AGI version of King’s Quest 4 and the King’s Quest 1 remake which I only have in a compilation. I’m not keen enough to chase down EGA versions of SCI1 games although I wouldn’t say no to the pre-AGI adventures. Also on here are all of the Access adventure games + the UO figures stuck to the side for want of anywhere else to put them.

From here on it all gets a bit random. The highlights of bookcase #4 are my growing but still far too small Infocom collection, a full set of Trilobyte and Descent games and the copy of Caverns Of Callisto it took me 10 years to track down.

I have a sloping roof getting in the way for the last wall so the rest of the bookcases are all undersized. This is the largest containing a complete run of Legend games, a set of Lemmings games + all the boxes that are just too big to fit everywhere else (except for Ultima Online Charter Edition which is too big to fit anywhere).

That gets me onto the baby bookcases, this first being dominated by a large pile of GOG games on the top. The highlight on here are the Interplay RPG’s.

Bookcase’s #7 and #8 contain most of the game guides that won’t fit in their respective boxes as well as gaming novels and all the Wing Commander figures stacked at the top. This corner of the room tends to house some of the games I’m less keen on which probably won’t survive the cut if I run out of room.

The final case has Japanese books/games, some of Origin’s console games and a smattering of cover CD’s that I couldn’t find anywhere else to put.

It should come as no surprise that I haven’t played all of these games but it isn’t about to stop me looking for more to fill the gaps. Once you have the collecting bug, there is no such thing as a complete collection although I will run out of room sooner or later. The main things I’m currently after are a full set of Infocom games, Maniac Mansion and Loom hint books, Space Rogue + Ultima 4 & 5 on FM Towns and a Japanese copy of Underworld with the letter opener. If you happen to feel the urge to part with any of the above, drop me a line.