Just One More Turn

It was (and still is) a dangerous era. There were whole tribes of computer games (usually devised by the arch villain Sid Meier) which devoured your time in both real-time and in turns. Unsatisfied with merely having one success, Meier devised 'Railroad Tycoon', 'Civilization', 'Colonization' and even 'Pirates'. He used up decades of people's lives, not even including 'Silent Service' and 'Gunship'. His real success was in the 'one more turn' temptation of 'Colonization' and 'Civilization', though, which haunts me even now, decades later, in the form of 'Colonization', published in 1994. It's fiendish. It should be nothing compared to later offspring 'Alpha Centauri' and 'Civilization IV', but it's definitely better in its simplicity. Curses!

'End of turn' is an addictive phrase. With one click you could be off exploring the consequences of all your actions, moving cargo and military units, preparing for the inevitable end game. It is a strange and compulsive process, and one that taunts this writer even now. At this moment I could be selecting 'Declare independence' and rushing off to see if I can ward off the evil empire and liberate everyone, but instead discipline is holding and a blog post is being wrung from the keyboard of fate, which complains at not having to just provide an 'enter' key from time to time. 'One more turn' is a phenomenon wherein the game player repeatedly puts off finishing a session by thinking to themselves that they will play 'just one more turn' over and over again. Hours later, the player looks up and out of the window and sees darkness. A whole day has vanished, their eyes are bleary, and they haven't even build that fort in Baltimore yet...

You can guess what kind of weekend it has been now, can't you? Swimming, cycling and lots of turn taking! In other news, 'Strangeness In Space' (look it up) is going to Kickstart a two-episode season finale (featuring Sylvester McCoy?), 'Quincy, M.E.' is proving far better than I remembered or even predicted during the confused first run of episodes, the Labour leadership elections grumble on interminably, and 'Star Trek's fiftieth anniversary rolled by. 'Star Trek' is fifty, and I spent the weekend playing 'Colonization'. What kind of weird world is this? What else happened? Oh, the movie 'Hellzapoppin' arrived via DVD rental, and I'm not entirely certain how to react. It was... indescribable.

More 'Star Trek' thoughts will follow in the week to come. My students will certainly get bored with it, if nothing else! Maybe I should 'Deep Space Nine' on DVD after all. Maybe.

O.