A quick story time.
In 1994 my family and I moved back to The States from Guam. My father was posted there on Anderson AFB for a year (not the first time we moved either) I was born in Japan in 1982 and until that year we never stayed in one place long enough for me to make friends and have somewhat a “normal” life like all the other non-military brats I grew up with. Up until then, he would have 6 month, 8 month or 12 month postings. I managed to at least keep comfortable enough to do alright in school (must have as I skipped 2nd and 4th grade. (great. I am smart. All it did for me was stunt my social growth)
My parents were not very wealthy, but we were allowed some creature comforts. I had an allowance in exchange for house chores and being the only one of four siblings able enough to push a lawn mower (along with cleaning both bathrooms, kitchen dish and cleaning duty and vacuuming a two story house) , I earned my $10 USD a week. My father also helped me acquire parts to build a 386 computer. It had a 1.44MB FDD , a 520MB HDD, 8Mb ram and a “paradise” graphics card Which one, I cannot remember. I do remember it had SVGA capabilities and 64k colors in Windows 3.1 (I remember that because I had a hard time getting the drivers working. I also got a Sound Blaster CDROM combo for as a birthday gift I had pretty much built the computer on my own, selecting parts with random and sparse guidance from my father, the local library and donated or found parts. I think the HDD was the only thing bought new in-box. Everything else was open-box/returned or given as gifts from various people. I even learned the art of “dumpster/bin” diving as people were already beginning to jus throw things away. Good things. It was mounted and built into a wooden computer desk “because I could” That computer was retired in 2001 when I bought with my own job money a slew of parts to build a 486

My father splurged on the “family computer” and got a 486 from AST at that time while retiring the tired 286 I had grown up with until then. (a C64 was what I first “played” with until 1989.
Anyway, back to 1994 and “My First game” What I mean by “My First game”, a game I bought with my own money. I had already dived into my father’s collection and was playing Curse of The Azure Bonds A LOT. I would consider that game to be what got me into cRPGs and games that took more than a couple days to play.
With my allowance money, I visited a local computer store that not only sold parts, but had an assortment of games and old hardware as well. One of the first places to recycle old hardware I had ever seen. I had never been in a Babbages or EB Games. Suncoast was the closest but they rarely had games, the were instead more of an anime import place. And Best Buy and Circuit City always felt out of my price range. at the time. This little mom-n-pop shop also had games and the guy who owned the place helped me select what I needed to build my computer. When I would visit. He never upsold me on anything or pushed anything into my hands I didn’t need. No, this wasn’ t an EB Games or Babbages On that day, July 8th 1994; I bought Sorcerian and When Two Worlds War the first heavily discounted as he never sold it. The box even had dust all over it and I was curious why as the artwork looked great AND it was from Sierra On-Line.
I have never been able to find another game with a soundtrack like it. Very late 80’s and early 90’s anime-like and perfect for the kind of game it was.
I lost both games over the years, but I recalled this journey as I saw a VERY tattered box at a flea market last week and I couldn’t help but buy it and take it to a friend’s house who has a retro computer setup with a real MT-32. I NEVER had the opportunity to play that game with MT-32 until last week. I would like to find more games like it, or at least something as an RPG or adventure game that has a quality soundtrack like it.
I am starting to gather parts to build a DOS machine and have found myself in the rabit-hole of pcem and DosBox gaming. I hope to have a real machine soon and I have already started a boxed game collection
Anyway. Whwo else would like to share a “First Game”?
Also, thinking back to the Sorcerian, anyone have tips for a cRPG with that quality of a soundtrack from that era?