Series

What The EFF is on this Disk!?

Unlabeled Mystery Disk

For whatever reason, I never labeled this disk. I always knew what was on it when I was a kid, as of course games were all that were on my mind circa 1992 (that and comic books). As time marched on this disk made it’s way deeper and deeper to the bottom of a desk drawer, forgotten until last year when I started tearing apart my childhood desk (not literally dismantling it, but ’emptying it’.) Of course I found the requisite dried out colored markers, my old combination lock that served me for over 10 years, and this disk. The ‘blank disk’.

What The EFF is on this Disk!?

50 Games! (PC)

What the Eff is on This Disk is a bi weekly column that has been up and running for a short while. Just this past week I had my first ‘request’. 1MC’s own Alex Weiss (@Chronoslinger) contacted me via direct message on Twitter. The conversation went nothing like this:

What The EFF is on this Disk!?

‘Basicga Mez’ (PC)

Circa 1988-1989, my nine year old self was so cool. I mean look, I was using a Z in place of an S. I was also labeling disks with a red crayon and drawing lines with squiggly arrows to connect text since I ran out of room. Seriously, go back and look at that title picture.. If you can make it out it reads

Basicga >>> Mez

Basic Gamez

What The EFF is on this Disk!?

‘Orange’ GAMES (PC)

My grandfather owned a body shop and was sort of a hobbyist computer guy from the late 70’s until his death in 2000. When I was around the age of six my parents decided to get themselves/us a ‘real’ computer to replace the Mattel Aquarius. Turning to my grandfather for advice, he suggested a Tandy 1000, as he was a then recent convert to the system, having had TRS-80’s previously. He of course supplied us with pirated disks of games and programs, long before it was even known as piracy. One disk, an orange-labeled ‘GAMES’ disk, that I think is written in my mother’s writing, contains some BASIC games. I don’t really remember running this all that much, but the disk has survived to this day. What was given to my 6-year old self? Do I remember any of these? More importantly, are they still fun?

What The EFF is on this Disk!?

Day Games (PC)

October 28, 1989. I was 9 and about two months into middle school. Every Saturday night I’d watch Star Trek: The Next Generation with my parents. I think Worf had already made his way out of red shirts into the yellow security uniforms. Mega Man 2 was my Nintendo addiction. My family had a Tandy 1000 as the household computer. While I’ve covered a ton of games that I feel deserve a Fair Shake, I stumbled on this disk recently while cleaning out a closet for paint. Written in my awful penmanship with a dollar store marker I can make out the following:

Day Games

Good

Games

Paul Potvin

Oct 28. 89

What The EFF is on this Disk!?

What The EFF is on this Disk!? Strategy Games (PC)

While most people either gave away, lost, or had their old games thrown out on them back in the day as some sort of right of passage into adulthood, I instead saw dollar signs, and short sightedly sold 75% of my PC games in one big eBay auction back in the early 2000’s. “I’ll NEVER want to play this stuff again” said myself, circa 2003. If I had a Delorean I’d go back in time and kick myself. Alas, I have no Delorean and I have no bruise from a self induced kick. In hindsight, the $40 I received in exchange for a barbeque grill-sized box of games and manuals wasn’t worth it, because of course, like most regular readers of my column, I DO want to play some of that stuff again. I can’t even recall what I spent that $40 on. Le sigh. As I later find, everything old, given enough time, is indeed new.