castle adventure.

Do you remember your first PC? In my family, it was when I was in third or fourth grade. An IBM 486. DOS-tastic. I had already been using computers in school for awhile, and had just learned about the internet when my parents brought this home. I loved using ms paint, and printing out pictures on our awful, screeching printer, but I also loved the games that came with the computer.

DOS games used to rock. None of this solitaire and mine sweeper bullshit. When we got our computer it had a space rpg game that was really difficult and obnoxious, a game where you were a gorilla trying to throw exploding bananas at another gorilla that was reminiscent of today’s ‘Tank Wars’, and my favourite, a game straight out of 1984 and into my heart, Castle Adventure.

I have rediscovered Castle Adventure and it is ruining my life.

I guess it is not entirely Castle Adventure’s fault. I am going through my senior slump in a big way (Barely attending and doing the bare minimum of work, anyone?) and Castle Adventure is an excellent distraction. It seems everything except cleaning my room is a welcome distraction in fact. However, my obsession with Castle Adventure has almost become a deep seated shame for me. Ever since I downloaded the program and installed dos box to play it, I have spoken very little of my obsession with the game for fear of intervention by my friends. But since getting up at 8am this morning to do work, and then spending 3 hours playing Castle Adventure I can acknowledge that my need for this game is bigger than the both of us. They say the first step to recovery is admitting you have a problem, and guys, I am screaming my problem from the internet rooftops.

I tried to uninstall it at the end of March, I really did. I told myself I had put enough time into this ’silly game’ and it was time to get down to business. But late one night when I couldn’t sleep, I found myself on my laptop in the living room, doing a quick search for Castle Adventure, just to play until I got tired and could fall asleep, I told myself. Then I loaded the platform on DOS box, and well, after all that work, it would be a shame to just delete it, wouldn’t it? So I kept on, playing into the early hours of the morning. I went to do ’school work’ at the library the next day, and within a matter of hours, delved deep into the world of Castle Adventure, fighting ogres, demons, vampires and fairies with my imagination and my impressive wealth of treasure which I had accumulated.

I sleep restlessly each night, dreaming in black and white, imaging the smiling faces of the demons I have slain, while midi music echoes in my brain.