Still one of the best beat 'em ups I've ever played, especially in two-player co-op mode. This legend is closing in on 40 years and still makes my gamer heart beat a little faster. Picking up the dropped weapons was such a blast! Double Dragon (1987, Technos Japan).

Watching a hard drive do its thing was one of the most zen-like, hypnotic, and soothing things you could do in the 90s. Oddly satisfying and deeply relaxing.

Two things that any Sim City player would have tried. The classic: Hold Shift and type FUND to receive $10,000. Using it repeatedly can trigger an earthquake, so it’s often best to use it before building much or while the map is mostly empty. I learned that the hard way... Tax exploit: Keep taxes at 0% most of the year. Just before tax collection, raise them to 20% (or higher), collect the money, then drop them back to 0%. Citizens stay happier as if taxes stayed low. Sim City residents apparetly have a very short memory. Any other tricks that you remember?

Duck Hunt for the NES from 1984 felt like magic. The actual technology behind it - though not magic - was pretty smart and relied more on how the human eye works (or in this case: doesn't work). The NES Zapper is a simple light gun that contains a photodiode (a light sensor) and a trigger button, it doesn’t actually shoot anything itself. When you pull the trigger in Duck Hunt, the game briefly turns the entire screen black for one frame, then immediately shows a white box exactly where each duck or other target is. The Zapper’s sensor checks whether it sees that sudden bright light, and if it does, the game counts a hit, and if not, it’s a miss. The reason why you don't see this? It simply happens too fast (a fraction of a second), so you barely notice the flash, especially not in the heat of the moment. This only works properly on old CRT TVs because of how they draw the image. Illusion perfected!

The master of martial arts - deadly, quick, and silent. Well, except for the shuffle of his feet. Bruce Lee (1984) by Ron J. Fortier. The composer was John A. Fitzpatrick, and how he came up with the sound effects for running will forever be a mystery!

Happy 40th birthday, Roger Wilco! Forty years ago this month, Sierra shipped a joke that turned into a series. Space Quest: Chapter I - The Sarien Encounter put you in the boots of Roger Wilco, a clueless janitor on the research ship Arcada, after the Sariens steal the Star Generator. Scott Murphy and Mark Crowe, the “Two Guys from Andromeda,” built it in Sierra’s AGI engine after working on King’s Quest, and they ditched the fairy-tale tone. It sold over 100,000 copies and got a VGA remake in 1991 (call me old fashioned, but I still prefer the original version even now). Sierra games were quite notorious for the many ways in which you could die, and none did it quite as well as Space Quest I. Roger stumbled head first into many, many traps, lasers, and critters. Did the high degree of difficulty annoy you back then, or were you in the camp of ”bring it on?” Personally, I find when games are too easy they're less motivating, they feel a bit pointless and lacking a challenge. Tougher games that make you work for it feel more rewarding in the end.