Archive for September, 2008

This is me, checking to see that I haven’t destroyed a 15″ CRT with my ham-fisted attempts at carpentry. The eagle-eyed may note the title screen for Double Dragon, which was played after I let out a sigh of relief.

I was considering (as I spread gap-filler between MDF and the sides of a monitor) that hardly any of the components that I began this project with remain.

1. Keyboard – old clickity-clack style blew several capacitors during my original attempt to solder up the joysticks etc.
2. PC – got offered a newer, faster box for nothing.
3. Operating System – abandoned DOS since MAME doesn’t even support it anymore.
4. Graphics/Sound Cards – without DOS, there was no need to stick with the old S3 Virge and SB16.
5. Glass Top – one of the main drivers behind going for the cocktail style and the determining factor for its width and depth was a glass door I had pulled off of an old TV Unit. I shattered it when we moved house. I’ll need to order another one custom.

And lastly, the Monitor. I thought that I had already finished this portion of the cabinet. However, in doing so I must have turned it upside down one too many times and some funky colourations started appearing at the edges of the screen. Normally, I would just hit degauss but this monitor was so old it didn’t actually have that option. I got to the point of googling degaussing coils but eventually conceded.

Finding another CRT was not an issue. People are literally giving them away these days in favour of LCDs. The problem was summoning the will to do it over again. But last weekend I cracked open the case and went to work. Of course, it ended up being slightly larger than the other one so the cabinet will need some modifications but that’s alright. Progress is change. I still have my original speakers though. Let’s hope they survive.

I stumbled across a fangame project entitled The Silver Lining which is attempting to bring closure to the King’s Quest series, produced throughout the 80s and 90s by Sierra.

I played a heck of a lot of Sierra’s adventure game catalog back in the day but King’s Quest I was the first real game that I got on our old XT. There was something about those games (or maybe I’m just getting old) that seems a bit lacking in the games market today. The focus on story and characters peppered with wit and clever references to culture, literature and mythology. I kind of miss it.

So now I’m reminiscing about Quest for Glory, Space Quest, Police Quest and even good old Leisure Suit Larry. I even recall spending part of my official Grade 5 education attempting to complete The Black Cauldron on the school Apple IIE.

Roberta Williams, wherever you are… thanks for the memories.