03 / CULTURE
Video games.
From a five-duro coin in Benidorm to several thousand hours that could have been spent productively.
03 / Video games
Seven games that wasted an unreasonable amount of my life.
No ranking. Just games that belong here.
Civilization
one more turnFinal Fantasy VII
still hurtsDune II
the blueprintElden Ring
beautiful sufferingMonkey Island
insult swordfightingResident Evil 4
somehow still perfect
COIN-OP YEARS
Before “one more turn”, there was “one more coin”.
Pocket money had a very clear business model.
ALSO
Game & Watch·PC gaming·probably too many hours lost to “one more turn”
THE THREAD
From arcade reflexes to systems that eat whole evenings.
The games I remember most strongly tend to do one of two things: create a place I want to inhabit, or create a system I cannot stop prodding. Sometimes they do both.
That line runs from the Pac-Man cabinet in Benidorm through Doom, Civilization and Dune II, and into games such as Elden Ring. Technology changed; the compulsion to see what happens next did not.