A little back in the past, while I was playing games, there was something that has made me addicted to it very much. I've seen many games during all these years, from the Jaw Breaker and Haunted House (for C64) over Starglider and Chase HQ (Atari ST) to GTA3 (PC), and I was impressed the most by (and about) the fantasy role-playing games (like Lands of Lore, Shining in the Darkness, Menzoberranzan, Eye of the Beholder...), but nothing could compare to my hunger for demolition derby/car demolition-themed games.
(Of course, as soon as I turned the power button off on my PC, that hunger disappeared, and I returned to my usual life, happy and positive, without any leftovers of those games and leaving that portion of me safely locked inside the big box of my computer. In real life such thoughts would never come to my mind, on the contrary - for a smallest scratch or glitch on my car that I made by accident I would "cry" and be very sad about it.)
It all started with the rudimentary made PC version of the Destruction Derby originally made for PS. The graphics were limited by today's standards, the gameplay was no match to what I would find later and there were practically no game options, but slowly it started pulling me into itself.
Then I found its sequel, Destruction Derby 2, which was a bit better but still had some gameplaying limitations, but at that time I was so crazy about car destructions, that when I found the 1994 NASCAR Racing game by Papyrus Design I turned my playing of it into a destruction derby by making my car invincible in the options, and then bumping into other players' cars while they were still innnocently parked by the raceway until I damaged them totally and thus dropping them out of the race. I even recall that I made a custom paint job for my car which was grey, and on the hood it was written in purple letters "Death is here". :)
And then I found the great and revolutionary Carmageddon which has changed my vision of destruction forever... a combination of DD and racing game, with much better graphics, gameplay and detail of car damage, it was something that kept me glued to my computer for hours, and sometimes (when my parents weren't at home on a weekend) even from evening to the break of the new day. I even found and imported new vehicles into the game from the 'Net, made many many videos of stunts and crashes that sometimes landed even in the nothingness, outside of the racetrack. As an addition to it I found the Splat Pack with new fun cars (e.g. The Piecemaker) and new tracks, and the fun continued.
Carmageddon 2 (both C1 and C2 I bought in Austria, and so it was the "censored" German version which lucky for me contained robots and aliens instead of pedestrians) was even better than its predecessor, with more cool cars, with an excellent option of jumping from mission of mission without the limit of being stuck just in an area with just 3+1 levels, and with even more detailed car damage. Again hours and hours of fun and mayhem followed, and to add more fuel to it I imported many cars from the 'Net into the game. Now it wasn't an exception that on "home alone" weekends the clock turned 5:00 AM when I finally shut down the PC, and had some sleep until noon or 1:00 PM. The mission levels that followed after 3 completed levels have given me a headache, but somehow I got thru them, until I finally got stuck on the mission level on the USS Lewinsky. But since the selection of levels wasn't linear, I coped with the fact that I can't get through, and instead concentrated on my favourite levels - Airpain 3 was the one that I played the most before uninstalling C2. Again I made many funny stunts and bizarre ideas and screenshots from them (sadly the video capture option didn't work so I was tied to the screen captures), for instance a "swiss cheese" version of an imported blue VW Beetle driven through a minefield, or a "replica" of Cruella De Vil's car from the beginning of the 101 Dalmatians 2 movie (in the case of the LadyBug2 after performing a sky-high jump from a half-pipe).
The unofficial mod of the C2 named Banger Racing (S.O.D. - Seduction of Destruction) provided the same fun (and some fun), but some cars and tracks were strange, especially when an opponent was stuck in some part of the racetrack which you can't reach at all. My favourite in that game was the #145 "Sonic" ('63 Galaxie).
And then came Crashday that had the best detailed car damage so far, and I had lots of fun wrecking the cars in the Stunts mode, for example after taking a big loop and then landing on the hood. Unfortunately (and at the same time fortunately) I couldn't run the game at my home PC, so I played it in spare time on my former office PC again during weekends, most for just 2-3 hours.
The ultimate game that contained concepts of DD and C2 which I stumbled upon was GTA3, which again and ultimately made me frantic for more of it. I've never seen something like this before - stealing any car that was in sight (even a police car, but that wasn't recommended), detailed physics and detailed damage of that cars and of other cars, completely driveable town.... The fun and havoc that followed seemed never ending. Many crazy ideas in such a wide open environment have come to my mind, and many many crazy wrecking-spent hours (and weekend sunrises) followed...
Until, one day, I have been under the heavy effect of that gameplay - dizzy, very nonchalant, absent and not being thinking at all while talking on the phone with my love. This was so serious that we had an argue and almost said goodbye forever. Yes, it was THE moment which left me a bad taste in my mouth and turned the switch in my head permanently off - I've immediately removed GTA3 and from that day I stopped playing games for good!
Now, with a wonderful family of my own, I'm enjoying every moment with them, and with my love I'm enjoying the peace and tranquility of any unspoilt and untouched nature and scenery. No more computer games, I'm not going back!
But, what am I going to do if my kids become such game addicts in the future??? ;O
