In a Gaming Mood 2 - Rise of Dragons

It's not easy growing up as a gamer. I think most would agree on that. The fact that you grow up in a family that can't tell Tetris from Call of Duty. (OK, to be fair, they can probably tell what Tetris is; my dad used to... I think I'll just stop now) So, growing up, I had to resort to some strange means in order to get a new video game.

I'm talking about birthday loot. And the first game I'd gotten, from my godfather no less, was this one. Heroes of Might and Magic 3.

Hail Friends, this is Drakai of the House of Nidhogg and today we'll go over the patience and the strategy involved in rushing a bunch of dragons at the other guy.

Heroes of Might and Magic was my first real introduction to fantasy. Even before I started reading Tolkien. And my first introduction into gaming more serious than the odd colorful console game or... well, something I'd rather mention here.

But the best part of this game was all the different races and monsters there. And how many of us can honestly say they don't absolutely love such a a sight as this:

I know I do.

You're probably wondering what the story of the game actually was. Well... I have no idea. When I first played it I was at that age when the Escape key was my best friend during cut-scenes. And still to this day I never bothered. And after discovering the cheat codes in the game I don't think I played through the campaign.

And speaking of the codes, they were pretty cool. There were two expansions to the base game and each one changed the codes. The last one, with both expansions, were Matrix references. Then, with only one, Star Wars. The first set, and my favorite (even though I didn't really understand them at the time) were references to one of the greatest movies of all times. A movie filled with excitement, action, suspense, and strange, British animation.

It's a great movie.

So I give a lot of credit to this game for helping get me here. That's why it's number two on my little list. It's a pretty good turn-based strategy game even years (maybe even decades) later, and I still enjoy playing it.

So I'll just leave you with this for the day.

This is my dragon. There are some who call him... Tim.

See you Friday.