If You Win, Are You a Loser?

You know anyone who has to stop at two beers because if they have a third they'll just get maudlin and sing Eagles songs tunelessly?

Or more like it, the person who doesn't drink because bitter experience has shown they can't have just one or two, or they'll wake up in a trailer somewhere with a new best friend and no idea where that underwear could have gotten off to?

That's me with video games.

Solitaire, the crappy comes-with-Windows game, for instance. The artist formerly known as Frau Lobster and I were visiting friends in Lincoln one time, and I discovered this game. Our host was a software engineer, always had the latest and greatest computers and software. At the time, my work computer was an IBM 8088, the hard drive of which is now a clock on my desk at work. It had something called a 'Windows Shell,' but nothing like what you'd recognize as 'Windows' in the modern world. I forget what version of Windows it was that our host had, but it was the first one that came with Solitaire, okay?

I lost sleep playing that stupid game. Aren't you coming to bed? No, I think I can beat this. Do you want to eat? I'll eat after another round or two. Why did you pee your pants? I couldn't stop this game long enough to use the bathroom.

Yes, I was a bad guest. No, I couldn't help it. At least it didn't cost me a bunch of money like that Cabal game at the 7-11 when I was 18. I'll bet I spent $90 in quarters beating that sucker and my take home pay was like $120 a week.

So anyway, I lucked out when we moved and I couldn't get the Nintendo to work, then lost the controllers while pretending to try and figure it out. Me not playing video games is how shit gets done.



Then there was the back-sliding I did when a fellow Cultie (back when the Cult as still fun) turned me on to this big waste of time.

And I got nostalgic for it the other day, and went back to it.

Then I noticed a link to another game by the same designer. Damn.



I've played a few rounds of Vectoids lately. Quite a few. I've read magazine articles a few paragraphs at a time while the Vectoids come at my latest array of towers. I've plunked in CDs and grabbed a big draft of cider and vectoided my way through a few hours.

I've gotten through all 50 levels on two maps, and if my writing sucks on this blog post, it's probably due to my divided attention as I attempt to solve the Frog.

Anyway, addicts love company. So lest you accomplish something with your life, I offer this:

Vector TD
The Vectoids are on the move. Can you stop them?