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View Full Version : Damn I love video games.


Camaero
04-10-07, 07:13 PM
This may sound strange, but video games are what have brought me to love history. I was just a punk kid in 5th grade when I first played Janes WWII fighters. Not only was the flying incredibly fun, but the game was packed full of video footage of the fighters in action, and of the real WWII aces being interviewed. It was such a cool thing to me at the time. That shot me off into a deep love of aviation. From there I started watching the history channel more and more often, I read aviation books, and I learned more history. That was the first game that really pointed me towards this direction. Later came games like LOMAC, B17II, and IL2. SHIII and DW is what got me into subs. Once I played those games I had to learn all I could by watching naval movies, reading books, and watching more of the history channel. If it wasn't for simulations, I, being 19 right now, would know nothing of history. They don't teach it in school at all. Once you get to the point of the cherry tree being chopped down, history is about over. My sister is in high school right now and she can barely tell me who Stalin is. She gets mostly all A's too.:doh: She doesn't care what happened in WWII, or what has happened even further back. I'm not knocking on her, because that’s how 95% of all youth today is. Why?

It may sound silly to some of you older gents who were raised in a different time, but without this stuff, I would have no way of truly appreciating the incredible importance of what some of our boys in uniform have done for us. Some of you grew up with Clark Gable manning the periscope in Run Silent, Run Deep, or maybe Carry Grant in Operation Petticoat or Destination Tokyo, or maybe it was Das Boot or some other movie you saw that got you interested. Think about my generation who has had nothing but shxt movies that are completely uninspiring. It is only now that I am older that I have discovered those old classics.

Pretty crazy post huh?:huh:

bradclark1
04-10-07, 07:23 PM
Pretty crazy post huh?:huh:
Not at all. I've always been into history but these games magnified my interest.

Platapus
04-10-07, 07:28 PM
Anything that gets people (not just kids) interested in history is a good thing.

As Harry S Truman was misquoted "the only thing that is new is the history you don't know"


Now only if there was a video game that could peak my interest in Statistics <blach>

ReallyDedPoet
04-10-07, 07:45 PM
I was just a punk kid in 5th grade when I first played Janes WWII fighters. Not only was the flying incredibly fun, but the game was packed full of video footage of the fighters in action, and of the real WWII aces being interviewed. It was such a cool thing to me at the time.

Great game:yep: I still have it:up:

kiwi_2005
04-10-07, 08:14 PM
First flying game i got into was a "Janes" game called Longhorn, you flew in a US attack helicopter, this game totally kept me glued to the screen for months, I went out and brought a MS sidewinder joystick cost me $150 odd bucks at the time which was seriously dear, i would of sold my mum if i had to... well maybe not but u know what i mean. I became addicted to helicopter games, Commache, and a little gem called Hind with crappy graphics triangles for mountains & everything green & brown but nice detail in the Hind and ground troops. It had the russian accent it had good AI. They never made a Hind 2 and the Longhorn series slowly died. They should bring them both back imagine the eye candy we would get now.

Camaero
04-10-07, 08:19 PM
I forgot all abouct Comanche! I still have that game along with Janes WII fighters. I had some good times with those!

Platapus
04-10-07, 08:39 PM
I forgot all abouct Comanche! I still have that game along with Janes WII fighters. I had some good times with those!

I have never been very good at flight simulators but I loved Comanche! That was a real fun game.

Does anyone know a good WWI flight simulator/game?

Onkel Neal
04-10-07, 08:42 PM
I grew up in the sixties, way before video games, but I thrived on paperbacks from the Sanford's Book Exchange (used book store). WWI aces, U-boat and US sub skippers, military and general history, I was lucky. Viedo games are great too, it's sort of like graduating from reading about history to simulations. :yep: