Mattcrampy
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This question is true. For a given value of true.

NASA are putting together a team to colonise Mars, thanks to Bush's sudden push for NASA to become more adventurous. Naturally, they'll be sending actual trained astronauts up first to get everything together, but then they'll be flying people out every few months, a space shuttle at a time, up to the ISS to get them used to confined environments and space suits, then shuttle them over to Mars where they'll help build Mars Station #1 and start terraforming for the general civilian population.

For some ungodly reason, I'm on their back-up list. I don't know why, but I've got some theories, some of which would sound incredibly egotistical, and some that make sense (Ive worked with Australia's research group before, and I'd be about the right age when they actually start shipping people out). I reckon it's only the back-up list because, heck, I'm not that brilliant. Still, I'm pretty chuffed.

Here's why this is in Electronic Games - they're flying out the computers for the colony to the ISS in a week, and they've invited all of us to send them a zip file to put on. Now, I'm practical, so as well as zipping up scans of family photos and things, I'm also going to zip up a game. But they'll be checking all of these files, so I can only put, at most, two on. I can explain DROD away as being a reminder of where I've been during my life, an electronic family photo if you will, but I can get away with one more game.

So, friends, if you could only play one game for what could be the rest of your natural life, which game would it be? It has to be smaller than a CD. Let's not be too concerned about longetivity here - I'll have plenty to do up on Mars Station #1, so it need not be a game with infinite shelf-life. The key here is that it be a fun PC game.

Matt

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What do you call an elephant at the North Pole?

gamer_extreme_101
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The original Half-Life. The game itself was perfect. The awesome experience it gives you when you play it and the suspense and action that takes place throughout the whole game give me reason enough to put it in there. To zip the game up, it would probably be around 250MB.

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Malarame
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I would probably bring Planescape: Torment. It has to be one of my favorite games of all time, mainly because it really makes you think. Too many games these days have superficial and predictable plots, but not Planescape: Torment. The descriptions and the dialogue and the deeper meanings behind what happens are nothing short of brilliant.

One of the great things about the game is also a little bit of a spoiler...


[Edited by Malarame at Local Time:03-22-2005 at 01:46 AM: grammar]

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Matt O'Leary
Webb Institute
Class of 2007

"I never forget a face, but in your case I'll be glad to make an exception."
-Groucho Marx

Mattcrampy
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I've gotten a clarification from the CSIRO, who are handling Oz recruitment on behalf of NASA - policy is that I can only take up things for which a) I own the copyright or b) the copyright holder has released it for free use. (Apparantly they're going to archive everything for use to preserve the mission's history, and they're not letting us take anything they have to pay a royalty for. Cheapskates.)

I can get away with JtRH, as Caravel owns the copyright and Erik and Mike'll lie to the authorities for me, but unfortunately Planescape will have to wait until we get set up over there. (Although I guess I'm on the back-up team, so it's possible I might not even go up there until the place is terraformed.)

If you want, though, say what you'd take if you didn't have the restriction I do, as well. I'm interested to see what you say.

Matt

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What do you call an elephant at the North Pole?

stigant
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Well, if I were going, I'd make sure I had a great two/multi-player arcade puzzler. Because, lets face it, any one player game is going to get old after you beat it (even DROD unless you can get more holds while you're on your way to Mars). Tetris or Super-Puzzle-Fighter, or some reasonable clone there-of, would be my most likely candidates, though Magical Drop III is also very good (except I haven't seen any good free clones). Another alternative, if you don't like arcade puzzlers as much, is KungFu Chess (which is free, but probably copyrighted) - a very nice RTS type game.



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b0rsuk
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I'd take Spheres Of Chaos. It's not a puzzle game. It's arcade. Only demo is free. But the game doesn't require a lot of time, has multiplayer (registered), and is FUN ! And all the pretty colors...

They might question your sanity, but you shouldn't care. "I don't suffer from insanity, I enjoy every minute of it !"

http://www.spheresofchaos.com/

WAIT, I have a better idea. Take ADOM or Nethack with you ! If you can't accept ASCII, you can have Nethack with graphical tiles. Slash'em and Falconeye are one of best, I think.
If you don't like roguelike games, it's best moment to start liking them.

[Edited by b0rsuk at Local Time:03-22-2005 at 06:16 AM]

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Nillo
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ADOM, of course. Either that or JADE when it is released.
There's so many race/class combinations in ADOM, there'd always be something new you haven't tried.

While DROD is a great game, it has somewhat limited content.
You'd have to have internet access to be able to download new holds.

[Edited by Nillo at Local Time:03-22-2005 at 07:42 AM]

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jdyer
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I'd probably go with some sort of board game.

wackhead_uk
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I would have said 'Metal Gear Solid 2: Substance' apart from 2 reasons (and the obvious one that it isn't free):
1. They spent about 2 mnutes making it PC-friendly - the pre-game menus are very sloppy and it doesn't support gamepads very well at all.
2. Are you allowed to take 6Gb files up there?

If it was free, probably Sven co-op. It's a mod for half life, but it itself IS free, and you can download it form the itnernet at any time. I believe that's within the boundaries of your requirements...

fatboy
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Well, I would take Sensible Soccer because I'm easily the worlds best player and would like to spread my domination to other planets.
Unfairly though, its not even one of my favourite games, but I'm mind bogglingly terrible at almost everything else. Ah well, I guess we can't choose the gifts we're born with.......

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jdyer
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wackhead_uk wrote:
If it was free, probably Sven co-op. It's a mod for half life, but it itself IS free, and you can download it form the itnernet at any time. I believe that's within the boundaries of your requirements...

I imagine the lag from Mars would be terrible.

Now that I think of it, Doom (there's Freedoom so it could work) would make a very appropriate choice. For practice for when, you know, the portal to Hell opens on Mars.