{"id":5565,"date":"2013-12-16T00:01:53","date_gmt":"2013-12-16T07:01:53","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.wambooli.com\/blog\/?p=5565"},"modified":"2016-06-25T13:30:55","modified_gmt":"2016-06-25T20:30:55","slug":"a-descent-down-memory-mapped-lane","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.wambooli.com\/blog\/?p=5565","title":{"rendered":"A Descent Down Memory Mapped Lane"},"content":{"rendered":"

I’ve been playing Descent<\/em>.
\n
\nA while ago (a long time, in fact) I wrote about DOS Box and Vetusware<\/a>. It’s a way to re-live the 1990s by installing a DOS emulator on your present-day PC or Mac. You can then experience life in the bad old days by running antique software.<\/p>\n

Some of the antique software is actually pretty good — including some classic games that just have no rival today. One of those — and one of the first PC games I truly adored — is Descent<\/em>.<\/p>\n

Descent<\/em> wasn’t as popular as DOOM<\/em>, but it was a better game. Unlike DOOM<\/em> and its contemporary first-person shooters, Descent offered full 3D with 360 degrees of freedom. I think that was too much for early gamers. Either that, or it made them physically ill.<\/p>\n

The goal of Descent<\/em> is to pilot your ship around an abandoned space mine to rescue hostages. Populating the mine are the assorted power-ups and weapons, things that frequently litter the typical gaming universe. Oh, and there are malevolent robots you must destroy.<\/p>\n

Descent<\/em> came in two versions: the original Descent<\/em> and then Descent II<\/em>, which was a better game. Descent III<\/em> was also released, but it was the final variation on the game, and possibly the best.<\/p>\n

Vetusware has only Descent<\/em>, which is really low resolution. To get Descent II<\/em>, I had to sign up with GOG.com<\/a>, and purchase Descent II<\/em> to play it. GOG stands for Good Old Games, and it’s a great place to visit to pick up older PC games and run them on your PC, Mac, and eventually Linux systems. The games are \u00fcber cheap.<\/p>\n

Below you see a screencast of me playing Descent II<\/em>. Feel free to criticize my gameplay at your whim.<\/p>\n