Tuesday, April 03, 2012

From the back of my boyhood closet, part six

Have any of you played--or even heard of--the PC game called Planet's Edge? (It was made by New World Computing, perhaps best known for producing the Might and Magic series.) No worries if you haven't, as the game came out all the way back in 1992 and I've yet to run into anyone who claims to remember it.


Regardless, I have fond memories of playing the hell out of this outer-space-based RPG as a teen. In particular, I have fond memories of exploring--on foot, with my four-member party--the many, many planets (Wikipedia says there are hundreds, which means I barely scratched the surface of the game when I played it) of Planet's Edge.

I also remember enjoying the title's mining aspect. (You're often able to transfer some of a planet's raw materials to your ship, which can then be taken back to your home base and used to make bigger and better ships and, if my memory's not failing me, weapons.)

All that said, I'm not entirely sure why I brought the game's box and disks from my boyhood closet to my current home in Seattle, as our PC doesn't have a disk drive. For nostalgia's sake? It wouldn't be the first time.


Thankfully, it seems I should be able to download a copy of Planet's Edge fairly easily (such as here and here, I think). Should I be able to get it up and running, I'll give it a go for old times' sake and then (attempt to) write up a "somewhat gay" review of it.

See also: Previous 'from the back of my boyhood closet' posts

8 comments:

Unknown said...

Your boyhood closet makes me incredibly jealous! I've never heard of this game, but I love old PC games, so I'm going to have to try and check this out some time!

Bryan Ochalla said...

Yes, check it out, Matthew! I absolutely loved it as a kid. I'm really going to have to try it again soon -- assuming I can play it on my current PC...

Viewtiful_Justin said...

I'd love to hear more about this! I have a crapton of games from the old PC days...multiple disks and CDs that don't read anymore...

Bryan Ochalla said...

I'll definitely write about it more should I be able to play it in some form or fashion, Justin! At the moment, though, I can't remember much more about the game than what I mentioned in this post :| Well, other than "I died a lot." Oh, and I remember that whenever you kill a creature/robot/whatever during one of your many planetary explorations, their pixelated corpses remain exactly where you left them (even if you leave the planet and come back for more exploration). At least, that's what I think happens...

Viewtiful_Justin said...

That just seems so advanced...even for TODAY!

Bryan Ochalla said...

I think so, too, Justin, although I've read that this game in many ways apes earlier PC releases like Starflight and Star Control. I wouldn't know, though, since I have pretty limited experience with PC games.

Sean said...

That does look like a cool game, at least from the box`s cover art.

I do miss playing games that came on disks like that. I had an Apple IIC as a kid and most of my childhood gaming memories are actually games played on floppy disks rather than carts.

Bryan Ochalla said...

I can't believe you miss playing games via floppies, Sean. Didn't you find it a pain to have to switch them out every so often. I did. Of course, maybe I'm just a lazy gamer :P