Quest

I bought my first computer when I was 14.

It was 1988. Computers in 1988 were not even close to what we take for granted today. Hell, the ipod I'm currently listening to has about 10 times the memory of my beloved little Tandy T1000. And it's an obsolete ipod.

Still, I loved my little Tandy, with it's 640 K memory and it's dot matrix printer. I was one of the few kids in my school that could type his homework. I even turned a tidy profit typing up essays and study notes for my classmates. My dad used it create databases of practically every material possession in our house. I suppose if I had known that, 20 years later, I would own a computer that was capable of downloading entertainment, browsing the world wide web (the world wide what?), uploading videos, editing, creating music, etc, etc, I would be less impressed with my little Tandy.

But I didn't know. So my little mind remained unblown.

The best thing that my computer could do, however, was play video games. I had never been allowed a video game system in my home. Now it seemed I had access to every game I could imagine! My favorite games, though, were the Sierra Quest games.

For those who are unfamiliar with the Quest games, they were a series of adventure games. There was a variety of titles to choose from. Police Quest



King's Quest:



There was even a series called "Leisure Suit Larry", which contained sexual content and nudity!



...this was more titillating when I was 14.

The concept of the games was simple but effective. You piloted your character through their world by using the mouse and typing in commands. For every action that help the protagonist reach their goal, you got a point. When you screwed up, the character would suffer a horrible, but hilarious death.

So you had to save. Often.

Being alone in a foreign city is a lot like being a character in one of these games. Minus the horrible, hilarious death (hopefully).

Today, for example, when I emerged from my train from Prague, onto a Berlin platform, I felt a sense of disorientation that I'm sure that Leisure Suit Larry, or Space Quest's Roger Wilco must have felt. There was a period of standing and blinking...a waiting for something to happen. Then a scan of my immediate environment, and an interaction with that environments objects and fellow characters. I could almost feel my score getting higher as I worked towards the goal of my quest: the hostel.

"Jimmy Kayak is standing on a platform of a Berlin Train Station. To his right is a set of stairs."
- Climb stairs
"Jimmy Kayak is standing at a subway platform. A sign reads BERLIN SUDKREUZ. There is a map of the system under it. There is a ticket machine nearby. A bank machine rests beside a sandwich stand."
- Buy ticket. Use credit card
"The machine only accepts Euros."
- Check inventory (Tab key)
"Jimmy Kayak has 30 Czech crowns."
- Use bank machine.
"1 point! Jimmy Kayak has 100 Euros."

(At this point, Jimmy Kayak yabbers at the screen. His dialogue appears at the bottom of the screen.)

Jimmy Kayak: Yay! I'm rich!

- Buy ticket
"The ticket machine's bill slot appears to be broken."
- Buy sandwich
"1 point! Jimmy Kayak uses his horrible German to purchase wares from the grouchy sandwich lady."
- Buy ticket
"1 point!"

...and so on.

By the time I reached my hostel, I felt that I had come to the end of my quest. At this point, in the Sierra game, credits would roll while Jimmy Kayak did an awkward, badly pixilated dance on screen. He would possibly be accompanied by Hula girls.

As it was, I just unpacked my stuff, bought a beer, and wrote this entry.

The Hula girls would probably have been more entertaining.

I'll be in Berlin for a few more days, and I have little doubt that there are more quests to come. But for now, I think I'll just buy another beer.

1 point!


Jim Out

P.S: I should lose that last point for selecting Beck's "Green Lemon" flavoured beer. This stuff is horrible! What was I thinking?