Desert Island Disks

Imagine yourself stranded on a tiny salty island of the Pacific with nobody to talk to, no access to the Internet, no way to communicate with the rest of mankind, no smoked salmon delivery service, no books, no sex toys, nothing but a super-computer-console emulator thingy that could play each and every game ever. Now, imagine you weren’t an anti-social sociopath. Wouldn’t that be dreadful? Of course it would. You’d hate the place.

Anyway. Having established the setting, would you now be so kind and imagine you were foresighted enough to have brought some of your dearest games with you so as to, you know, sort of ease the pain of boredom? Great! What would them games be? Too shy to speak, huh? Well, suit yourself dear reader (better yet leave a comment), but here are my Desert Island Disks (CDs/DVDs too), all selected for their endurance, in a a feature inspired by the excellent Retro Gamer magazine.

Sid Meier’s Civilization IV

Not as groundbreaking as its esteemed grandfather, I’ll give you that, but definitely the pinnacle of the ever-evolving Civ series and a game I believe I could play forever. Well, provided I have some mods within reach. Still, trying to beat it at the toughest setting, experimenting with a variety of tactics, playing the tons of available scenarios (random or not), reflecting on human progress, preparing never-to-be-published attacks on its mechanistic understanding of societies and living out megalomaniac fantasies should be both highly enjoyable and appropriately time consuming. Even in solitude and without the multiplayer aspect of the game. Then, should the rescuers really take their time, there’s the excellent editor/modding tools to get creative with.

Elite Plus

Elite was huge, brilliant and a smash hit that all but dominated the home computing scene. It sported gazillions of planets to visit and/or exploit, the option to play anything from a space-pirate, to a bounty hunter, to a lawful trader and -importantly- provided with some rare opportunities at daydreaming. Shockingly, this amazing space-sim-opera of a game hasn’t aged a day. Well, ok, one day. Elite Plus cunningly updated the graphics to glorious 16-bit quality, without touching the core game and is thus the marginally better choice. Freeware remake Oolite is also excellent, but I'd rather have boxed copies on my island.

Day of the Tentacle

Adventures, my favorite genre, are unfortunately ill-suited for the desert island environment, what with their total lack of replayability. A shame, for Monkey Island would have been so appropriate. Thankfully, though, it’s been over 10 years since I last touched Day of the Tentacle and I’m bound to have forgotten most of the puzzles. Besides, there’s the full version of Maniac Mansion -one of the few Lucasarts games I have never finished- included as a game within a game. Oh, and as far as adventure games go, this is one of the best. Tim Schafer designed it you know.

Championship Manager 97/98

Unless you have actually played Championship Manager (or Football Manager after them corporate people got it all mixed up) you just can’t understand the sheer brilliance of this coach/manager sim. It’s the only game that, while being as utterly realistic as it is, can keep you up till 6 o’ clock in the morning chain-smoking yourself to the next division. Or the Championship League finals. If you love football, you’ll love CM, and if you love CM you'll love the perfectly balanced 97/98 edition.

Diablo II & expansion pack

I wouldn’t really call Diablo or its sequel a true CRPG, but I would definitely describe both of them as extremely addictive, time-consuming, fun and oddly atmospheric games. Oh, yes, and as action heavy hack-and-slash offerings set in a dark and horribly clichéd fantasy world featuring many nasty little (and pretty huge) devils too. Then there are them randomly generated levels and the huge variety of enemies, weapons, spells, you name it, that make sure the Diablos last more than roughly a dozen of your average FPSs. Obviously Diablo II is the better game, whereas Lord of Destruction is a typically brilliant Blizzard expansion. On the other hand, I might just go for Ron Gilbert's forthcoming Deathspank.

Heroes of Might & Magic III

I must have wasted quite a bit of my life on this one already, but nevertheless I’m sure I could waste a bit more. Especially if stranded on a bloody island. Heroes of Might and Magic III, you see, a game I usually spell Heroes of Might and Magick for some peculiar reason, is a superb turn-based strategy affair, that is incredibly simple to get into and incredibly difficult to master. HOMM III is played on three levels (World exploration/strategic - City/resource management - Battlefield/tactical level) and happily excels at each one. Also sports tons of missions to beat. Failing to grab a copy of it (quite impossible as I own at least three), I guess I could settle for the admittedly decent HOMM V, even though I still prefer my 2D graphics. HOMM IV is just despicable, mind you.

Sensible World of Soccer

Simply the best version of the best footie game ever and something you really have to play on an Amiga to truly appreciate. The pace is just right, the game actually feels like playing -not watching- football, the stylized graphics are pure genius and SWOS goes as far as to provide with an expanded team management bit. Probably needs a classic, sturdy digital joystick too, you know, for the complete experience. Infinitely replayable, despite the fact I can easily win the Euro Cup with Malta.

TIE Fighter

Wing Commander was great, X-Wing was better and TIE Fighter is simply above anything else. Getting to play the bad guy -with an option for joining the order of the abominably nasty- while flying one of those highly maneuverable though totally shield-less TIE thingies, was a fantasy come true and one I’m eager to relive. Happily, I haven’t played the thing for ages either, so I guess it should last me for a good 50-60 hours, what with its training missions, dozens of historic battles and three (if I remember correctly) pretty hefty campaigns. I could of course go for its Collector's Edition, that comes packed with extra missions and spaceships.

The Lost Treasures of Infocom

It's a compilation, I know, but I wouldn't call picking this one cheating. It was after all sold as one hefty old-fashioned box, and comes with enough reading material to make me happy for a week. It also sports 20 of the best, most difficult and most captivating text adventures ever produced, that could last anyone a lifetime, especially if those handy hint guides were misplaced.

Related @ Gnome's Lair:

• The Space Quest Retrospective
• 100 excellent freeware games
• Ten (mostly) Unsung Indiana Jones games
• Infocom's H2G2 Remade!