Back when I was nine-years-old, I like many of my
generation, spent far too much time in dimly lit, loud and smoky places deemed
to be havens of depravity and generation wasting; arcades. Every summer, every
cent I made mowing lawns, watching kids, or found in the bottomless pits of
furniture went into the coin-slots of my local arcade, a small neon laced
hole-in-the-wall at the corner of the mall known as "Space Port".
Pole Postion, Street Fighter II, Mortal Kombat, X-Men and
Ninja Turtles swallowed coin after coin. But one game, ruled them all, one game
that bound me to the arcade and held power over my existence and shaped my
years to come: Dungeons and Dragons: Tower of Doom.
For three years I played Capcom's greatest beat 'em up game.
I never beat it, I would always die fighting the dragon near the end, but that
didn't matter. Death never mattered, winning never mattered. To my young self,
the adventure the paths ways and slim decisions, the beautiful artwork and
character designs were what mattered. What more, it gave me a name, a name that
I hunted after until I joined the Army and found others who know it as more
than a Saturday morning cartoon.
Based on the basic rules of the world's oldest role-playing
game, Tower of Doom introduced me to many of the iconic things about D&D
and shaped my mental image of it until this day. My elves don't look like
Tolkien's elves (despite being a huge fan of the books), no they look like
"Elf" from this game, trolls, goblins, all of them look like they did
in this game. That is the greatest thing about Tower of Doom and its sequel
Shadows over Mystara, they were the greatest gateway drug for Dungeons &
Dragons and besides that great games.
Now, after years of begging and pleading and issues with
copyright, Capcom is finally re-releasing these classic games on damn near
everything. All the action, the adventure and oh yes, the glorious multi-player
(and now I don't have to give up my quarters!) are all back again. So, find me
on Steam, play with me and once again (or maybe for the first time) relive the
adventures in the Hollow World, in Mystara ... and if you're a player in my
"Age of Wanderers" game over at Roleplayinggames.net, finally know
who this Daimos I keep mentioning is!
Dungeons & Dragons: Chronicles of Mystara is now
available on Playstation Home, X-Box Live Arcade and Steam.
Go, play!
(Real post later tonight or tomorrow)
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