Sunday 11 April 2010

Getting Wasted. Part 1 - We're Having a Party!

I'm starting a couple of new irregular features, to be updated when I feel like playing the games in question.

Getting Wasted will follow my attempts at playing an all-time classic RPG - Wasteland. I owned it on the Commodore 64 and got a little way into it, and really enjoyed it. But it ground to a halt for some reason that I can't remember. I've always really wanted to get back into it, but I haven't got the patience these days, even with an emulator, to figure out all that disk swapping and boot disk creating and what have you.


It all starts here...

Fortunately, I've got the PC version. I've had it for years, but haven't been able to play it because it's a DOS game and I can't do DOS. I know, I'm rubbish. I've tried and tried, and can't figure it out. And I know it's probably quite simple, but apparently so am I. Help is at hand, though, courtesy of a program I've discovered called D-Fend Reloaded. It's a front end for DOSBox from what I can gather, for people like me who can't even manage that program. And it works. Programs I haven't been able to use for over a decade are now up and running.

I have to say, compared to what I remember of the Commodore 64 version of Wasteland, the PC version is somewhat lacking charm. It's very generic looking, whereas the 64 version has more style. But that doesn't matter for this... I just want to be able to play the game.


I don't want anything to do with this lot. I'll have all their gear, though.

So, why "We're Having a Party!"? This hasn't been much fun so far. Well, mighty oaks must start from little acorns, and before you can embark on the quest you must create your party of characters. I've always struggled with this... I've always had a hard time naming so much as a pet, and you don't want to know how long it took me to come up with my kids' names. So, naming fictional characters in a video RPG? Impossible.

Still, it was done, with the party leader being me, PaulEMoz. Strong as an ox (eh?), lucky and highly charismatic (who said games had to be like real life?), I was the perfect choice to lead this little band. Next up is YJ Malmsteen. I always put him in role playing games... named after Swedish guitar maestro Yngwie J. Malmsteen, I always figure you can't go wrong with a Viking by your side. Quick and agile, he'll hopefully be doing the sneaky work for me. My third character is Ed the Head. Strong, clever and lucky, he'll be patching up the gang if they get injured, and hopefully still slaughter enemies like the Iron Maiden mascot he loves. Yeah, I spelled it wrong.


And we're off. Let's see how long we last...

Aaaand finally, we have Kelly Bundy. Wasteland was something of a revolution to me, in that it was quite important to have a female character in your squad. And I thought it would be quite funny if the most intelligent member of the party was called Kelly Bundy. I always thought that girl had hidden depths. She's also a nurse (medic), which I like the idea of, and she's highly charismatic, so should be able to charm the socks off any would-be assailants.

And so, with that, we're all set. The party is formed, and out into the Wasteland we venture...

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