As part of TechRepublic’s Dinosaur Sightings series, I had the opportunity to create a gallery, located here, of Wolfenstein 3D. When I first loaded Wolf3D onto my Pentium 90 from Gateway, I remember being blown away by the first person perspective. After years of hexadecimal strategy games and side scrolling platform games, this new perspective was a breath of fresh air.

I actually stopped playing after the first level, so I could order the full game. Id Software and Apogee sold me the game in about 5 minutes of play. It was at least one case where shareware actually worked.

Thinking back on it now, I realized that I played Wolfenstein 3D almost exclusively for several months as I worked my way through the entire game, all 6 episodes, on the Death Incarnate setting. I vaguely remember having a slight case of repetitive motion disorder. Games that produce that much devotion and passion are rare and although I play World of Warcraft several times a week, it doesn’t create that irrational play pattern that Wolfenstein did. Perhaps that is because I’m older and wiser, but I also suspect some of the gaming novelty has worn thin for my chosen leisure past time. And that is a sad thought now that I think about it.

Do you have a computer/console/arcade game from your past that holds a nostalgic place in your heart like what I’ve described here? What game is it?