Kongregate

An oasis in the midst of a desert of dreck for the readers of CS (graphic compliments of PixelJoint). Darren Monahan and Feargus Urquhart (Mobygames them and enjoy their bios), two owners at Obsidian, recommended the following site: http://www.kongregate.com/, and in particular a game called Desktop Tower Defense 1.5. The game has had me hooked for days, threatens my productivity, and has the worst graphics and sound of just about any game I've ever played. Beat THAT.

Kongregate is awesome. Unlike its commercial counterpart PopCap, it provides desktop games for free and allows users to upload their own for distribution. Back in the old days (of 1984 or so), Jason Emery (future CS "hero", you'll read plenty about him coming up) would have used this to distribute PC versions of his paper games such as "Pie Man", "Things That Happen", "Maze Craze" and "Adventureland" (which found its way to the HP48sx calculator as a game called "Nortquest"). Simple and fun, and in some cases long lasting; the hallmarks of the genre that can make a huge game with a bloated budget like Diakatana look rediculous (believe it or not John R. would agree, his heart still lies partly in the days of the Apple II).

For another fun short escape, check out Lost Garden for its post on Knytt Stories.

Comments

[Jim Greer]

Hah - Very amusing to see you blog about my site (Kongregate), right next to Wing Commander. If you look at me on Moby Games you'll see that my first job was on Ultima VII, which was at Origin at the same time as WC2...

Thanks for the link guys! What's your username on Kong?