Ahh, many know of my career’s origins, my true love around the ages of 10-13 – it was a little game company called LucasArts, and they made some of the best action adventures ever to land on a computer screen.

Monkey Island, the first and the best!

Reading through Ron Gilbert’s blog: the Grumpy Gamer (this guy was one of the original creators of ‘Monkey Island’), he had announced the release of early 1990′s era point and click classics such as Loom, Indiana Jones and the Fate of Atlantis, and many others to Valve’s online Steam system. While originally used to sell virtual copies of Half Life and Half Life 2, Steam has become a great library of online games & game media (over 1,500 so far), allowing companies who can’t afford to pay publishers to sell their wares.

Loom - a short game but heavy on plot and character development

When I first played some of these games, I was floored.. the level of detail in the story, the non-linear gaming, the cause and effect action in the plot and the great characters all came together to form a memorable and life changing experience. I can only think of a few games in the last 8 years that have stuck with me as being fond memories, but nothing tops the nostalgia and thrill of those old classics 19 or so years after first playing them.. now that’s staying power.

Monkey Island 2, where else can you row a coffin through a swamp?

Those games got me interested in interaction, game development, character animation, story and plot, which in turn pointed me to a life in eLearning and educational games. I’m simply happy that a new generation of kids and adults now has instant access to these games, and might possibly get inspired the same way I did back in the day.