Computer Games and Africa
When I was a kid, up until I left home for college, I loved computer games. Mostly strategy games and old adventure games, not typically very violent. However, I basically haven't played any computer games for over 8 years.
Next month, I'm going on my first major multi-week foreign vacation I've had in over a decade. I'll be going to Africa for four weeks with my parents. We'll start in Marrakesh in Morocco, go to Casablanca, and down the coast by Western Sahara. We'll be on a boat to Cape Verde as part of an eclipse cruise. My favorite astronomer, Alex Filippenko of UC Berkeley, will be on the cruise as the resident astronomer and fellow eclipse buff.
I am super looking forward to the trip, as I've never been to Africa. However, I was totally freaking out last week when it finally dawned on me that I would be trapped on a boat with my parents with basically no Internet access whatsoever for at least two solid weeks while on the cruise, and probably not much Internet access for the week or so before either. Internet in Africa is notoriously poor and Internet on a boat is a whole nother issue. We'd be along the coast, so I could use data tethering with my iPhone; however, none of the countries on my trip are eligible for Verizon's Global Data Plan and so I would have to pay $20.48 per MB. AT&T is no better. I briefly looked into buying a satellite phone before realizing that I'd only get dialup speeds and it would be even more expensive and impractical than mobile phone data roaming. Supposedly the boat has a library with a couple of computers hooked up to the internet, but I'm sure it's not fast either and I couldn't use it for longer than to check email.
I mean, how was I supposed to VPN into my office computer and do research on sexy exciting high-frequency trading algorithms? I didn't know what I'd do with myself without work. This cruise would be boring. Sure, I'd see exciting sights of Africa during the day, but I'd be bored at night. Also, the boat is probably going to be full of old people. Even if there were a couple of cute young girls on the cruise, it seems like a terrible idea to try to fill the two weeks on the boat with sexcapades, especially since I would want to still be dating J when I got back. I supposed I'd have to actually read books or something. The part of Africa I'm visiting though does not even have service for any Kindle devices, so I'd have to decide on all my books ahead of time.
Then it hit me: this is a perfect time to rekindle my love affair with computer games! I can download them onto my laptop and run them offline while I'm in Africa. So, along with a Kindle full of books, that's my plan. I'll revisit some old favorites, like Alpha Centauri or Quest for Glory, and try some games I'd once meant to play but never had, like the classic LucasArts game Indiana Jones and the Fate of Atlantis or like The Longest Journey or maybe even Gabriel Knight.
If you have any suggestions for awesome computer games to play, I'd love to hear them. Nostalgia can be fun, but I'd also like to have the option of playing some games which I neither played nor even considered playing before. Ideally, these would be adventure/RPG/strategy/simulation/etc. games and would run on OS X, but I'm open to suggestions and will probably install Windows as well.
Next month, I'm going on my first major multi-week foreign vacation I've had in over a decade. I'll be going to Africa for four weeks with my parents. We'll start in Marrakesh in Morocco, go to Casablanca, and down the coast by Western Sahara. We'll be on a boat to Cape Verde as part of an eclipse cruise. My favorite astronomer, Alex Filippenko of UC Berkeley, will be on the cruise as the resident astronomer and fellow eclipse buff.
I am super looking forward to the trip, as I've never been to Africa. However, I was totally freaking out last week when it finally dawned on me that I would be trapped on a boat with my parents with basically no Internet access whatsoever for at least two solid weeks while on the cruise, and probably not much Internet access for the week or so before either. Internet in Africa is notoriously poor and Internet on a boat is a whole nother issue. We'd be along the coast, so I could use data tethering with my iPhone; however, none of the countries on my trip are eligible for Verizon's Global Data Plan and so I would have to pay $20.48 per MB. AT&T is no better. I briefly looked into buying a satellite phone before realizing that I'd only get dialup speeds and it would be even more expensive and impractical than mobile phone data roaming. Supposedly the boat has a library with a couple of computers hooked up to the internet, but I'm sure it's not fast either and I couldn't use it for longer than to check email.
I mean, how was I supposed to VPN into my office computer and do research on sexy exciting high-frequency trading algorithms? I didn't know what I'd do with myself without work. This cruise would be boring. Sure, I'd see exciting sights of Africa during the day, but I'd be bored at night. Also, the boat is probably going to be full of old people. Even if there were a couple of cute young girls on the cruise, it seems like a terrible idea to try to fill the two weeks on the boat with sexcapades, especially since I would want to still be dating J when I got back. I supposed I'd have to actually read books or something. The part of Africa I'm visiting though does not even have service for any Kindle devices, so I'd have to decide on all my books ahead of time.
Then it hit me: this is a perfect time to rekindle my love affair with computer games! I can download them onto my laptop and run them offline while I'm in Africa. So, along with a Kindle full of books, that's my plan. I'll revisit some old favorites, like Alpha Centauri or Quest for Glory, and try some games I'd once meant to play but never had, like the classic LucasArts game Indiana Jones and the Fate of Atlantis or like The Longest Journey or maybe even Gabriel Knight.
If you have any suggestions for awesome computer games to play, I'd love to hear them. Nostalgia can be fun, but I'd also like to have the option of playing some games which I neither played nor even considered playing before. Ideally, these would be adventure/RPG/strategy/simulation/etc. games and would run on OS X, but I'm open to suggestions and will probably install Windows as well.