Food and Nutrition Blog: February 2015

Tuesday, February 17, 2015

Gauntlet: Dark Legacy

Gauntlet is a classic game. First released in 1985, Gauntlet became popular due to its style of hack-and-slashing. Featured in arcades, the purpose of the game was to run through levels, killing any monsters in your path by pressing the "attack" button, until you reached the end of the level. Though this may seem boring by some, the fact that your health drained (even if you were not being attacked) added to the excitement and desperation.

Eventually, the developer of Gauntlet, Midway Games, created a Gauntlet game for consoles, named Gauntlet: Dark Legacy. Dark Legacy expanded upon the original arcade Gauntlet by adding more characters, expanding the levels, and more attacks. It made Gauntlet bigger and better.

Four Jesters, all with different colored outfits.

One of my favorite features about Dark Legacy was the character customization. There were 8 different characters to choose from, ranging from Dwarf to Jester to Sorceress to Archer. In addition to the characters, each character had a different selection of outfits to choose from (see picture above). That way, even if you and your friend chose the same character, you could choose different outfits to ensure you don't get confused of who's who on the screen.

In addition to character customization, you could also add your own name to give it a personalized touch. But, by entering certain names, you could unlock special things. For example, entering the name 10000K would give you 10,000 Gold, which you could use to buy Power-ups and other items from the Shop that would help you move through a level quicker. Each time you exited the shop, the money reset.


The Shop was where you could purchase items and power-ups.

As for the Gameplay, I liked it a lot. Yes, the killing sometimes got repetitive, and sometimes I got lost in a level and had no idea where to go, but overall it was very enjoyable. What made it even more enjoyable was playing it with a friend. Gauntlet is one of those games where playing with a friend makes it 10 times more fun. Playing by myself and leveling up my character is cool, but exploring the levels and finding treasure with a friend is that much more fun and satisfying.

Fighting a Dragon in a level

At the end of each set of levels, there is a Boss battle. These were pretty hard, especially if you didn't use name cheats. Below is a picture of a Dragon boss. Not only did the bosses have an insane amount of health, they also had attacks that did a lot of damage. If you didn't prepare and stock up beforehand, prepare to die quickly. They are called Bosses for a reason.

A Boss battle in Gauntlet

My lasting memory of Gauntlet is playing with my cousin, both of us choosing the name 10000K, and rampaging through the levels, massacring everything that moved. It was glorious fun, because it made me feel powerful, that me and my cousin with our Super Power-ups could take down a Boss in about a minutes time. We never did Beat the game, but it doesn't matter to me. I know that no Boss would be able to take us down, not with the help of our 10000K trick.

Monday, February 9, 2015

Mickey Mouse: Magic Wands


Mickey Mouse: Magic Wands. The first game I owned.

The first of things holds a special memory. The first day of college. The first cell phone you had. The first car you bought. For me, the first video game I owned was special. Prior to this, the only time I was able to play video games was if I went over to a friend's house.

While that was fun, it is totally different having your own video game. A video game that is yours. A video game that you can play whenever you want. A video game that if you accidentally damage or lose, nobody would be mad at you except yourself. One day, my dad came home with a Blue Gameboy Pocket and a copy of Micky Mouse: Magic Wands. Finally, a lifelong dream was achieved! I had my own video game!


GameBoy Pocket

The first time I turned it on and heard the magical "Ding!", a warm feeling filled my whole body. The game was in black-in-white. The story was simple. Micky's friends are trapped in a Wicked Witch's Castle, and his job is to save his friends. To do this, Micky has to search the level for crystals, some of which contain pieces of his friend. If you complete all the pieces of the puzzle, then the friend is freed. Below is a picture of a level in the game:

As you can see, Mickey has discovered a piece of the puzzle. To make it harder, there are various enemies you encounter in the levels (In the above picture there is a Frog that is chasing Mickey).

In summary, Micky Mouse: Magic Wands is one of my favorite Childhood games because it was the first game I owned. Was it the best game I have ever played? No way. Was it the easiest game? Nope. What about the most adventurous? Not even close. But it was the first game I owned, and I will always remember it for that.

*Funny Story: The first time I played the game, after around 30 minutes of playing, I had to go somewhere with my parents. Because I didn't want to lose my progress in the game, I left my Gameboy on and placed it on top of the kitchen table before leaving my house. I returned 3 hours later to find out that my Gameboy had turned off. Apparently the battery had used up all its power. [Later, I found out that each level has a code, and you can enter the code to skip to that specific level.]*

Tuesday, February 3, 2015

Back from a One Year Hiatus

Hello everyone,

I am back after a one year Hiatus. The obvious question to ask is, "Where did you go?" There is no easy answer to that, but in short, I was focusing on other things in my life, such as working hard in school. I have never been the stereotypical Asian student who gets A's, but I tried to change that. The past year I did really well in my classes, enough to raise my GPA to 2.99. My academic goal this semester is to finish with an overall 3.0 GPA or better.

The reason I am re-starting this blog again is because of a class I am taking called "Video Games and Gaming." In the class, we are required to blog every week about a topic that has to deal with Video Games. So, for the time being, this blog will be dedicated to Video Games.

The topic that I have chosen to write about is "The Top 10 Videogames of my Childhood". Everyone had something in their childhood that they have fond memories of. Mine was Videogames. Back in the day, Videogames were a privilege for me. Every time I could turn on my GameBoy or PlayStation, a smile came across my face, and I would temporarily escape into another world.

Listed below are the Top 10 Games of my Childhood. Each week, I will blog about one of these, and explain what the game was about, why I liked it, and why it has a special place in my memory.