This page reviews many of the computer games I've played, although not all of them. As a Macintosh user, I don't get to play the huge morass of games that Windows users can, but on the other hand Mac games tend to be the better games on the market, so I don't feel like I'm missing out. At this point I can barely remember the games I played back in the days of the Apple ][ or early Macintosh, such as Ultima II, III and IV, Wizardry, The Fool's Errand and Dungeon of Doom. Those were the early, heady days of eccentric and exciting games, and it wasn't until MYST came along that that degree of creativity was integrated with modern graphics and sound. I sometimes miss the old days, though. They had a quirky charm all their own.
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Civilization

I never understood why this game (which has no relation I'm aware of to Avalon Hill's strategy game of the same name ) was so popular. It's a rather weak conquest game (the old Mac game Strategic Conquest was as good), and the "negotiation" element was lame in the extreme. But it's been wildly popular, and I guess its sequel, Civilization II, is also doing well. Oh, well.

I think this is a poor game.

The most recent version of this game is Civilization 3.

MYST

The revolutionary computer game which mixed sharp graphics with QuickTime animation, a full soundtrack and clever puzzles - and even a plot of sorts - to come closer than anything before to making you feel like you're really there. Later games have added to this feeling, of course, but this was the breakthrough.

You find a mysterious book which proves to be a gateway to the island of Myst. There you learn that the sons of a man named Atrus are trapped in two books, and they encourage you to use other "linking" books to travel to other ages to recover the pages necessary to restore their books and free them. There are four other such ages, and you must solve innovative puzzles based on space, shape, sound and other elements to get to those ages, and further puzzles to find the pages and return to Myst.

I still love this game, years later, and I've played both of the sequels, Riven and MYST III Exile. While both were superior in every measurable way, it's the immeasurable wonder of exploring this set of worlds for the first time that has never, for me, been surpassed.

Several MYST novels have also been written about the setting and background of the game. They're not essential, but they're also not bad.

I think this is a great game.

An alternate version of this game is RealMYST, which supposedly has snazzy, updated graphics. But I haven't yet played it.

MYST III Exile

The second sequel to MYST (following Riven) is quite good. Not produced by the original creators, it still very much has the feel of the earlier games. It adds a new wrinkle in that every spot you can stand in is a QuickTime VR movie so you can pan 360 degrees in any direction to look around. And the animations are therefore better integrated into the game as a while.

The story's premise is that you've been sent into a set of worlds to rescue a new age that Atrus has written which has been stolen by a man who was wronged by Atrus' no-good sons years ago and who wants revenge. The format is much like the original MYST, with one central world and three "spoke" worlds you must visit to gather items from, and a final world where the plot resolves itself. The puzzles are as ingenious as ever, though the resolution seems to require a real leap of logic to get correct on the first try. (Thank goodness you can save your game!) It's a bit more imaginative than Riven, and has better music, but MYST was so cutting-edge for its time that it's unlikely it will ever feel surpassed on a visceral level.

I think this is a good game.

Populous II

In this game you play one of two gods, moving Earth around to create space for your followers to multiply, thereby making you stronger - hopefully strong enough to fend off the followers of your opponent. It's got 1000 levels, and a wide variety of effects and terrain, which keeps it entertaining. But I find it gets discouragingly difficult around level 350 (maybe I'm just a wimp), and I gave up around there. Still fun, though. I'd like to see a further refinement of it.

I think this is a good game.

Quake III Arena

Quake III Arena is the third in the series, and the second "first-person shooter" game I've played (after the disappointing Marathon). While the renderings of the characters are fairly ludicrous, the game play is fine and the ability to blow away your friends makes for a great time decompressing after a long work week.

Some folks swear that Unreal Tournament, despite the lesser graphics, is a better game for overall game play. Having seen it (but not played it much), I can understand that, but it doesn't seem to add enough beyond what Quake has to be worth owning both of them. Quake certainly has drawbacks in that some of its weapons are very hard to use, some are just too powerful, and there's not much strategy in the game. Still, it has plenty of replay value just to kill your co-workers.

I think this is a good game.

Railroad Tycoon

This is a very good railroad simulation, in which you run trains between stations in one of several venues (Eastern US, Western US, Europe, or Britain), delivering goods to places, making money, and growing your train, while trying to fight off the railroads of your competitors. It's a bit cheesy in its limitations (computer programs should allow you to grow to the limits of your computer's ability), and the interface, adapted from Windex machines, is just awful, but it's still fun and addictive.

I think this is an okay game; it'd be good with a better interface.

The game was eventually released in a second edition, imaginatively titled Railroad Tycoon 2.

Riven

Riven is the sequel to MYST. As one would expect given four years of technological advances, Riven is by far its superior when it comes to the visuals; while MYST sometimes seemed a little fuzzy or static - especially when it came to the water - Riven is very nearly photo-realistic. It takes advantage of faster processors to animate nearly everything, including most of the water (though not the sky). The animated sequences are more seamlessly integrated into the game, bearing only a small residue of QuickTime limitations. It looks far more real than MYST did.

However, Riven is not as fundamentally impressive as its predecessor. The excellent music is not nearly as evident in the sequel, and the puzzles seem basically less inventive. But most importantly, Riven seems to lack the basic feeling of exploring the unknown, as it is largely set in a small archipelago, and the player is given little opportunity to explore strange other worlds. Although the storyline and ending are stronger than in MYST, the game ultimately is not nearly as compelling.

I think this is a good game. The next MYST game is Exile.

SimAnt

Maxis released many simulation games during its heyday, and this was pretty much the worst: A simulation of an ant colony. Worth playing a couple of times, but basically just the product of someone with too much time on their hands.

I think this is an awful game.

SimCity

SimCity was Maxis' flagship simulation program on the early Macs, and two full-color, 3-D sequels have been release: SimCity 2000 and SimCity 3000. They sequels (which are fairly similar to each other) are very impressive pieces of work, with a wide variety of building, roads, special services, and so forth. They're satisfying quantum leaps over the original, and I still play 3000 every so often.

What I'd really like to see is some sort of SimRiverBasin, in which you can build multiple cities, and control trade between them, as the "connections-to-out-of-town" aspect of the games is disappointing. That would even allow the possibility for network play.

I think this is a great game.

SimEarth

One of the earlier Sim games, this game simulates the evolution of a planet, from the continental drift phase, to the evolution phase, to the growth of civilization. It's very detailed and fascinating, and I still play it sometimes, despite its somewhat primitive graphics by modern standards. An updating for newer hardware would be very welcome. Just sitting and watching the land masses form based on the parameters you program into your planet is really neat.

I think this is a good game.

SimTower

This simulation involves building a skyscraper, in which you balance between offices, condominiums, hotels, and food and other services. It's fairly enjoyable, but the whole thing basically comes down to elevator management. It has some built-in limits which are kind of annoying (see Railroad Tycoon above for my opinion on this).

I think this is a good game.

The nearly-identical sequel to this is Yoot Tower. I don't think either is currently in print.

Starcraft

Starcraft is a sort of sequel to Warcraft (which I've never played); it's a futuristic real-time war game, where each person controls a colony on a planet belonging to one of three races: Human, Protoss (cybernetic/telepathic being) and Zerg (biological/mutational entities). The game involves mining minerals to construct battle forces with which to wipe out your enemy, and to evolve your technology to get cooler units, with some strategic overtones, it's largely a tactical game. There are pre-set scenarios you can play, or you can play over a network against other people.

The biggest drawback to the game is that there's so much going on, it's very difficult to keep up with it all. Some units require a certain micromanagement which can be difficult in the heat of battle, and there's a certain temptation to just build overwhelming forces and try to smush your enemy. This can be hard, if your enemy is well set-up to get reinforcements to a crisis point. The game also is a little annoying in some of its hard limits (number of units you can support at once, for instance). But overall it's quite entertaining.

I think this is a great game.