Nine Games

30 Sep, 2026

Thanks to snail for this meme, which is helping me get past my writer's block. (I've been overthinking my posts, sigh.)

He writes:

...list nine games that made you… as opposed to nine games you’re playing at the moment, or your nine favourite games, or even nine best games. Just nine games that stand as being somewhat developmental or significant in your life.

On first reading his post, I thought I wouldn't be able to come up with nine games, but then I managed to very quickly scribble down nine games without too much effort.

My list:

1. Game and Watch Parachute - this was my first introduction to electronic games. I remember playing this in primary school! I never owned one and only played at school. One time I remember convincing a classmate to let me borrow and take their device home overnight, to the disapproval of my parents. I think they were worried I would break the thing (my father) and didn't like me wasting time instead of doing homework (my mother).
2. Lemmings - the first game I actually played on a computer, I think. I didn't have regular access to a personal computer until 1993, if I'm remembering correctly.
3. Civilization. I think I've played all versions except the most recent one, with Civ 4 being my favourite, for the music.
4. Sim City 2000. Also Sim City 4.
5. Everquest. I never got into pen-and-paper role playing games but loved this. M and I played with a local guild and met some of the members, and are still friends with one of the members to this day. (He got into game design and development and ended up working for Blizzard for a while... )
6. Alpha Centauri. Writing this list is making me want to play all these games again... I loved the music and sounds in this game.
7. Rollercoaster Tycoon. I loved designing rollercoasters but quit playing when one of my rollercoasters crashed and burned and destroyed my park...
8. Pocket Frogs. An old iOS game that I STILL play...
9. Sudoku. I like doing pen-and-paper Sudoku but it's also satisfying on my phone.

Honourable mentions:

• Pandora's Box. This was a beautiful Windows puzzle game. I must have spent hours and hours and hours playing this.
• Quake. I'm not a big fan of first-person shooters but I enjoyed going along to LAN parties way back when and playing this. Usually ended up killing myself with a rocket launcher more than landing any useful shots, but I had fun doing it.
• The Sims. It's funny, I didn't think of this game when I first wrote my list, but I did enjoy it at the time.
• Words with Friends. Another one of the first games I played on iOS.

It was fun to think back about games that made me.

I think it's fair to say that I like turn-based strategy games, puzzles and word games.

I don't seem to play games much these days, even though I have the time.