To Scee or not to Scee

I used to be a heavy gamer. No more. As I look at the investment in games on my shelf, I realise that many of them I can't play any more. I've spent the last day trying to get 3D Lemmings working in an emulator, but the CD protection is getting in the way and I'm totally pissed off with it.

So, I tracked down the last people with any connection to the game created by the team at Psygnosis (who are now part of Sony Entertainment Corp.) and I sent them an e-mail. If I ever get a response, I'll let you know.

---

Hi Folks,

I'm an old time PC gamer since ... oh, who knows how long ago. Put it this way, I remember playing aircraft simulators on the ZX81.

I've been digging up my old games, among them 3D Lemmings ... yeh, I bought it in the good old days. Anyway, I can't play it any more.

This e-mail actually contains a few issues that you might want to think about...

One of the reasons I don't buy games any more is because of the money. I mean, if I fork out fifty quid for a game, I want some form of longevity from it. Backwards comparability is really important to me.

I pay a fiver for a DVD, get an hour and a half entertainment from the film, a little more from the extras ... say two hours ... and I can take the films I bought in 1995 and still play the things who knows how many years in to the future.

I have a shelf of original game boxes, only a small handful of which I can actually play any more.

Fortunately, Unreal Tournament 2004 came out on a DVD with a Linux installer, so I can still play the game under Linux, whereas I've got problems under Windows 7. (Let's face it, I've completely ditched Windows recently; the way they treat the customer, I'd be happy if someone, somewhere, were able to make a 3D environment of Redmond's offices that the player could enter with a mini-gun and mow the lot of them down ... also enter Gates' office and gain bonus points for getting an arrow between his eyes ... a'la "Thief." but that is another story. Come to think of it, it could also be done in Apple's offices; as the keyboard pushers died, they could scream, "There's an app for that!" in similar fashion to the guards in "Wolfenstein.")

I'm also not going to spend a small fortune to have one of every console under the sun, beneath my TV. For one, I haven't got the money, for two, my ceiling just ain't high enough ... I'd be watching my TV upstairs. I'm also not going to lock myself in to a console path for a specific game. Even though I'm a Halo fan, I'm not buying an XBox 360 just to play it ... that is blackmail.

So. There is your challenge. To build a portable environment that will allow games to be played for years in to the future. Because without it, I'm not parting with another red cent. (I had to use the Americanism; "another green pound," just didn't have the right ring to it, and it was replaced with the pound coin years ago, anyway.)

So ... here I am, with a purchased copy of 3D Lemmings for the PC, and am unable to play it. What are you going to do about it?

Regards,