Old pc games that Cal loves


As you may very well know, Cal likes to waste lots of time playing computer games. Here are some of his great scores but, if you have not played any of these games, then they will mean nothing to you. You might suggest after viewing the following, that Cal has too much time on his hands. This could not be farther from the truth. The phenominal thing about all this is that these great scores came while a girlfriend stood behind Cal nagging at him through the whole game that he did not spend enough time with her. Imagine that. Below my links are my lame computer stories.

Axis & Allies

Blood Bowl

Commandos

Lords of the Realm II

War Craft II

Cals cd keys



I've played lots of games; below is a list of games
that I've played enough of to give advice on.
These are games I either finished or nearly finished:
Perfect General, Doom 2, Duke Nukem 3d, Civilization 2, Myst,
Age of Empires: Rise of Rome, Age of Empires 2: Age of Kings,
Heroes of Might and Magic 2 and 3, Dark Forces 2: Jedi Knight,
Europa Universalis, Delta Force 2, X-Wing vs. Tie Fighter,
Incredible Machine, Incredible Machine 2: Even More Contraptions,
Bioforge, Imperialism, Diablo, Diablo 2: Lord of Destruction,
Majesty: Northern Expansion, Total Annihilation: Kingdoms.

Starting in 2004, and after seven years of computer classes
at Kirkwood Comm College, Cal decided to make his own games:

Cal's Space Conquest Game

Cal's Monster Football League

Cal's Fantasy Ship Captain Game

Cal's BCS program

Cal and Rich's Heroclix Game

Cal's Computer Game Stories
Story 1: Tax scam
In my 3rd year at UI I lived in a dorm where nearly every room had a Macintosh. Everyone was playing Sim City. There was kind of a contest to see who could build the most successful city. Me and my good friend Dave would collaberate on on a city. Dave was an economics major and tried to apply his learnings to the game. Regardless, we always named our cities the same: "Shitsville". In Sim City you are the mayor and your set the tax rate: anywhere from 0% - 20%. Collection of taxes was the only way to get money. With money you built roads, utilities, police and fire stations (more about fire stations later), harbors, stadiums, ets. Your city would not grow without a mayor building, so having money was very important. However, the higher the tax rate, the weaker the economy. Get the tax rate above 10% and the economy would drop. Most people would try to jockey the rate from 5% - 8%. But that would only earn a city a couple hundred dollars a year. Sim City exists in real time. The months, January - December click away as you play. And you get your tax money at the first of the year based on last year's tax rate.
I can honestly take credit for the tax scam. I came up with the theory that the computer doesn't take the average of the tax rate over the whole year, but instead, calculated your taxes from the tax rate when the year ends. With this idea I suggested that in January we set the rate at 0%. As the year went by the economy boomed. Then when December hit, we jacked the rate to 20%. The economy dipped immediately but it was only for one month. When January of the next year hit, we made over $1,000 in taxes. We had to lower the rate back to 0% in January, but instead of pinching pennies with $100 - $200, we could spend like mad. An airport cost $10,000. None of my peers playing Sim City had the money to build one. Me and Dave's city would have four airports. Dave, ever the economist, would complain about the long-term effects of the tax scam but who cared. We had money to burn. Unfortunately, we were not able to keep the tax scam secret. People in our dorm who weren't building cities, watched people who did. Our scam leaked out and soon everyone was doing it.
As for fire stations, we never built many. A mayor was supposed to build several fire stations and spread them out to cover the whole city. We had one city that had a few fires and a fire station actually burnt down. We were pissed that the firemen couldn't even keep their own station from burning so we never built anymore. We fought the fires ourselves. If a building caught fire, we would just demolish it and build a new one.

Story 2: Shipmates This story has three stories in one. This story also involves my good buddy Dave. My 2nd year we started playing a game called Pirates. You played a pirate that sailed around the Caribbean capturing ships, taking booty, and trying to get as rich as possible in your short 20-25 year career. Me and Dave had specific jobs: I piloted the ship in open seas and did the sword fighting; Dave did the ship-to-ship fighting. Sometimes we'd alternate: if we came across some fat ship captain I'd let Dave slash him, likewise if we came upon a slow barque Dave would let me cannon it. But when we met a Spanish noble wanting to duel, I would cut him, and when we came across a 32-gun frigate, Dave worked the sails. Now and then I'd let Dave pilot in open seas but he had a habit of getting too close to reefs and we'd lose a ship or two. At the end of the game your pirate would cash in his booty, buy some land, and get married. Every port had a governor and every governor had a daughter. Dave always liked the red-headed daughters while I leaned toward the busty brunettes.
Pirate Story 1: Weasling. First, I have to digress for a bit. In some old, american-classic novel I read in high school the characters live on a farm and in one scene they "weasle" their dog. What this entails is locking a young dog and a weasle in a barrel and let them go at it. One of two things happens: (a) the weasle kills the dog or (2) the dog kills the weasle and the dog hates weasles. The benefit is that a weasled dog will hunt down and kill any weasles that come near the farm. Back to Pirates. There came a time when I had to weasle my partner Dave. In Pirates there are four nations using the Caribbean: English, Dutch, French, and Spanish. We usually chose to be English and we would attack Spanish ships and ports or go after the French if England was at war with France. One day we were sailing about and we came across a Dutch boat. I told Dave to attack and take the Dutch boat. Dave said, "No, we're cool with the Dutch." Meaning the Dutch were our allies and we should not abscond with their trade ships. Dave let the Dutch schooner go. Not much later we came close to a Dutch port. I told Dave to put in to get some supplies. We neared the Dutch harbor and they blasted us with their fort cannons. We got away, but we lost a ship. I hated losing a ship but I had weasled Dave. After that incident, anytime we came upon a Dutch ship, Dave would tear it apart.
Pirate Story 2: Greed. We had been sailing about for a while and were going to put in. We had captures many ships and would go to a safe town, sell the excess ships, sell our booty, and repair the ships we would keep. We were just inches from port when an enemy ship appeared. I said forget it and go to port but Dave wanted another conquest. He was really tempted by the fact that the enemy was a big one: a 28-gun frigate. Dave could use our 12-gun sloop and out manuver, and beat, a more-powerful ship but I thought we were this close to home that we should cut bait. I relented but told Dave, "If you take one hit: we run." The two ships dodged and weaved about each other. Dave let go with many volleys but couldn't land a hit. This went on for several minutes. Dave's little sloop would shake when 28 cannon balls hit the water near him. Finally it happened, a volley from the frigate hit Dave. I screamed, "Get out of there" but it was too late. One blast from the giant damaged the sloop's hull and broke a mast. Dave tried to run for open seas but with a shattered mast the frigate caught him. But its not over. We could still win the battle if I could beat the frigate's captain in a duel. The problem is that the two crews also fight and I have to win the duel before we run out of guys. The frigate killed half our crew, we had 20-some guys and the frigate had over a hundred. I cut that captain to pieces but our crew dropped like flies and when it became 100 against just me, we lost. Our pirate spent a few years in prison, but oh well, you win some, you lose some.
Pirate Story 3: Practice makes pirate. This is a real short story. Once in my third year I was playing a Pirates game without Dave. A dorm neighbor, Randy, saw me playing Pirates and said to me, "Cal, with study habits like yours, you'll never make it into law school." A few hours later, I came into our room and found Randy playing Pirates. I told him, "Randy, with study habits like yours, you'll never make a good pirate." Of course, I never made it to law school, Randy (the poor excuse for a cabin boy) probably did.
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