When I was a young man there was only one company worth knowing about when it came to computer games and that was Sierra Online the makers of the Leisure Suit Larry, Space Quest, King’s Quest and so many other games that helped define my childhood.
Amongst my friends and I these game franchises were as big as any movie, TV show or comic book series. We knew all the characters and the story lines and without the internet it was always exciting to get any news of what Sierra were doing next.
Then one day a game came across my path, one that would provide me hours of entertainment, frustration and ultimately satisfaction: Thexder.
Basically in Thexder you were a Robotech like machine that would transform from robot to jet fighter depending upon the need of the screen, the game itself was a side scroller and frankly I think it was one of the hardest side scrollers that I ever encountered with such a rich and varied series of screens.
Apparently there were 16 levels to get through in Thexder, I made it to 12 and in my circle of friends and acquaintances I’m the only one I know of to have made it that far. I attribute this to two things, 1) I played it constantly for hours on end over and over and 2) my computer set up was that rare perfect alignment between game, player and peripheral.
I had a Tandy 1000 with 16 colour graphics and a perfect fit joystick, nothing fancy, just the standard Tandy joystick but I knew it’s feel and reaction perfectly.
I can’t say I miss the old Tandy 1000, but I do miss Thexder, I never played the sequel, it didn’t look as much fun and since I hadn’t finished the first one there seemed little point. I also only ever played Thexder on one other computer, using a new joystick/keyboard and it all felt wrong.
I did see though that the game has resurfaced on the PSP and now the PS3.
I’m definitely buying Thexder, I’m not sure how we’re going to get along with new controllers and different screens etc. The graphics on the new one are amazing and completely respectful to the original game which I see is included in this “Thexder Neo” as well. It’s exciting to revisit my youth in a game that I suspected was barely known or have that much of a fanbase.
It also makes me feel a little old, sad and nostalgic.
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