i am done with game apps, i think

I used to be addicted to video games. I would spend all weekend playing games. I know, I know. Many of you probably are thinking, that is what kids do today. I mean, I would play and play and play. I would not leave the console. I am talking about old-timey stuff here too.

clone wars adventures, when i just cleared 4 million republic credits, F1-V3L was so proud of me

Atari 2600 with Combat. I loved the bi-planes and even more so the tank game. Both had glitches you could take advantage of. In the tank game, if you jammed your tank and kept firing it would transport you to the other side of the battlefield and you could blow your opponent away before they could turn around.

Then there was Colecovision. That one I did not really like, but I would play anything. A lot of football and pong with that one. There were other consoles, but this was really before what we know today as the Nintendo and Sega gaming systems and all other blingy ones out there now.

I also had a Vic-20 and Commodore 64. Now, that was cutting edge. Playing a Star Trek type game from a cassette. If a buddy had one of the early handheld games, I was all over it. I still have a Gameboy Color with Tetris and Battleship that I have not played in years. Then, as I got older, the drive to play somewhat faded, but I still went to arcades now and a gain or if I was somewhere and they had one of those sit-down games, like they did for Pac-man, Galaga, Asteroids, and many others, I would grab a seat and play. There was a laundromat that had one, man I spent many a Saturday not putting my clothes in the dryer while playing.

And again it faded away some. Then I met a guy after university through a co-worker. He introduced me to Mortal Combat and early virtual reality gear. I do not remember the gaming console though. One Saturday, I went over before 6:00 AM and played until near on midnight with only pee breaks and paying for delivery food. My thumbs were sprained and hurt for a week. That, ladies and gentlefish, was when I hit rock bottom. I stopped playing for a long time.

Then, many years later, a friend got a Wii for their kid at Christmas and we were over for a New Years celebration. I boxed for about three hours and also raced Mario Kart. Then I walked away again. After a few weeks of visits.

There was talk of getting the boy a Wii. I actually told the wife that I would rather not get one in the house as I may become obsessed with playing. However, why deprive the boy of some mindless fun from time to time. So, we did get it. I would help the boy out from time to time with his games, but the helping started to get longer. I loaded a bunch of cheat codes for games. Then I walked away again. The Wii now is mostly used for Netflix and I do not play it at all.

who is this guy?

Then the boy found Clone Wars Adventures. Then I found it. It was a massive mulitplayer game. I would play with the boy. I would play on my own. I would play for hours on end until three or four in the morning. I was pretty good at Lightsaber Duel. I was ranked in the top 100 in every category of that game. I loved Republic Defender too. I had several astromech companions, but one of my favourites was my first droid, a mouse droid, F1-V3L. I had my own squad, the Mandalore Legion. Then Sony, who created and owned the game before Disney bought the film rights from George Lucas, killed the game. It was a sad day.

i used to be a bigshot!

I stopped playing yet again. Then a friend introduced me to game apps for smartphones. I played Charm King. A lot. However, for some reason, the game wiped itself out and brought me back to fresh, shiny, and new. Three times. I stopped playing. Then, it was Flow Free, but that was played mostly in airport lounges and while waiting for trains and the like. At the time though, it only look me a few months of part-time play to complete every single level and game.

an earlier incarnation of my character, riding a mount at the transport station, a favoured glitch at the time

A year and a half ago, I got a little Acer tablet for Christmas. I loaded Charm King again, Flow Free (all three versions), Two Dots, and several others. Then I loaded the original Dots game. Then Dots & Co. Oh man, I was playing a lot. Then Two Dots added extra goo to play. Oh no! Then it started glitching. So did Dots & Co. Sure. Fine. A game can be hard and tough to beat to advance. But when it glitches out? There is no excuse. Bad enough when the game appears to be working against you. All the Dots games seem to do that. And Charm King has gotten in to what I call buzzard mode. (I am trying not to cuss. I cuss too much and it is something I need to work on. I will eventually post about my cussing and cussing in general.)

i loved that boba fett helmet

Now, with Dots & Co and Two Dots, I only go for the free daily boosters. Except I do play the Two Dots Expeditions, but they have gotten even more glitchy and ridiculous to play. I will probably only keep playing the Gem Expeditions, I like the Gems (that would be game play about every five weeks). I play Dots and Flow Free only occasionally. Dots has reached a point where it really is not fun to play and I do not want to ruin Flow Free as the occasional time killer when waiting around for a plane, train, or the like.

i had my "dark side" in the game too

Charm King though, they have a couple of daily challenges. One is just repetitive in order to collect enough charms, it is becoming boring. The other challenge has just become ridiculous, sometimes I hate playing it. Then why play it? I get obsessed with the games, they can be addictive for me.

who knows what evil lurks in the hearts of men? the emperor knows... (pre-order 66)

Now though, with this blog, my daily hikes, trying to cleanup and organise my crap, not to mention several expeditions such as the Canada Jamboree and numerous camping, hiking, and canoeing trips I am trying to get off the ground, I may be on the cusp of walking away from the regular daily app game play I engage in. It would please the wife to no end.

for some reason, this was important to me, the filename is "i am the king"