What's Your Story? - Aperama

Well, the bad news is that I won't be able to play Larry III this weekend, and therefore won't be able to post about it until next week. The good news (for me anyway) is that I'll be spending this weekend with a bunch of mates in a house we've rented on the beach a couple of hours out of Sydney. I'm certain it will get messy, and I may come back with a two day hangover next week. I've scheduled this What's Your Story post for the time I'm away in an attempt to stop the tumbleweeds taking over. It's time to find out about our most formidable community member. In the blue corner, all the way from Melbourne, Australia...Aperama!

Aperama: Not even big cats can stand up to his power!

My home country is… Australia.. Melbourne. Lived here all my life, though I've visited much of continental Australia elsewise (I'm more afraid of the trip to Tasmania than Perth, after all.)

My age is… 24. Yup, I'm a bit of a young'un.

The first adventure game I played was… I'm unsure exactly which, but it was either Police Quest or Space Quest (1). We got them both at much of the same timeframe in my household, so they've both blended in. I -do- remember needing a walkthrough for PQ1, though, as we had a copy that came second hand without a manual.. and as I'm sure you remember, PQ1 was essentially 'Manual: The Game!' However, I would -definitely- like to point out that there is an alternative solution to the bar with the bikies. I never once actually confronted them - every single time, I'd knock the bikes over (just walk into them if memory serves) then drive off, and never even walk into the bar. You didn't actually get slaughtered for it! (That said, I don't know that I didn't have to still threaten them off afterwards.)

You...knocked them over...and didn't get reprimanded or beaten up for it?

When I’m not playing games I like to… Find spare time to do other things! At present, my life essentially revolves around 'gym, work and sleep', where video games are something of the occasional escape I get away from such. I'd say riding motorbikes around, but it's less appealing when it's also your job. For those in the audience who are less familiar with Australia - postmen deliver by motorbike for the better part around here.

My favourite adventure game is… Quest for Glory 2. 4? 2. Well, 2 was what made me really want to play adventure games, and 4 is disqualified because of all of the bugginess. Quest for Glory 2 was my (tenth, I think) birthday present, and I played it more than I have just about any other game that has a linear storyline. I can virtually quote lines from it verbatim - and something about it never really got old. I was never even into the Arabic Tale-Of-Two-Cities style that they pushed through the entirety of it, but the game managed to grip me, possibly moreso than any other game I've played. I technically played it before I did QFG1, which has always sullied QFG1 a touch for me as QFG2 was leaps and bounds ahead of it IMO. Honorable mentions to Gabriel Knight (1 - not FMV-fest 2 or ridiculous puzzle 3), which today managed to help me with a trivia question in the Herald Sun that often gets read out on my lunchbreak at work ('What is the term used for the temple in ancient Haitian voodoo?' I spurted it out instantaneously, which turned heads -ever- so easily.)

Can't wait for this game!

The thing I miss about old games is… The feeling of excitement that came with a brand new game. The internet has probably advanced gaming much more than anything else ever really has, in truth, if you ask me - games are canned by many people early enough that nobody really bothers to play the truly terrible ones that exist, these days - but when you'd go into a gaming store, look through your selections with MAYBE a magazine review or a friend's advice.. there was this wonderful sense of trepidation and excitement that hit me, at the least, every single time I scrounged up the money to play a game. Demos did something about this, yes, but even they were sometimes not so easy to find...Or maybe the answer should just be 'some of them go longer than three hours'.

I like my games in (a box, digital format)… It's a toughie. Basically, the truth is, I don't really have the space for the clutter of the physical box, nor the CD - but it's the extra contents I legitimately miss about games. Having a silly paper map that's included in-game of Baldur's Gate, for instance, really made the game for me, somehow. I don't miss having to try and work out how to put away CDs, use folders, etc - but if they could have games that have digital copies, and would also allow you to buy the physical extras on top of, I'd really appreciate that. Perfect example, actually, would be Duke Nukem Forever - everything that came with the game itself was amazing. If the game had been any good, maybe that woulda helped, yes - but that silly statue of 'Carpe Nukem' still sits on my computer desk to this day.. along with the pair of poker chips, the cards and the dice.

Wow! That's some serious kit for such an underwhelming game!

The best thing about modern games is… Games that run out of the box more and more times out of ten. The worst part about the aforementioned trepidation was not the thought that the game you were picking up was 'bad', IMO - it was whether or not you could actually run this freshly picked up piece of tech. I took the best part of a weekend managing to get Quest for Glory: Dragon Fire running at proper speed. I took two -weeks- to get Privateer running. Some games I had to wait until Dosbox to ever actually experience as the designers just hadn't designed their games to be run upon whatever I was running at the time! While it still does happen (though less often now), patches and the like have grown more and more common - often, a game that has some sort of critical flaw is fixed almost immediately.. unlike, say, Quest for Glory 4, where when I found the Chernovies in the swamp.. the game died, every time.. or worse still, the game ending-breaking bug. Though while I'm picking on my beloved QFG series, here (Hi, Corey!) at least they weren't as bad as some of the older games like (insert anything made by Bullfrog here that wasn't Syndicate or a Theme-x game) for such things.

The one TV show I never miss is… Either Breaking Bad or The Walking Dead. Both have a fantastic narrative, and actively leave you wanting for more. I really don't watch much TV, though, so it's kinda hard to say much for me.

Breaking Bad: This has been recommended too many times for me to ignore.

If I could see any band live it would be… Well, I've hit a few off of my list already (Edguy, Blind Guardian) - but the one that I'm actively waiting for to tour Australia on their ridiculously long farewell tour is most definitely The Scorpions. They announced that they'd be hitting six continents out of seven when they announced that 'Sting in the Tail' would be their final album - and unless they're going to Antarctica, I'm going to find a way to see them.

My favourite movie is… I'm in something of a minority in that I don't really have that one 'go to' movie - I like lots of stuff, but I rarely 'love' anything as it comes to such. Still, Bill and Ted's Bogus Journey or maybe Gremlins 2. Both have the combination of hilarity, resilience to aging poorly and out and out fun that I tend to look for in a movie.

One interesting thing about me is… I'm a professional wrestler, I guess? It's what always tends to get people's heads turned, anyway. (Well, by 'professional', I mean 'men in tights'. Clearly, given it's a secondary thing to my proper job.. well, you get the idea.) I've been training along that vein since I was seventeen - my brother got me into it, and I've never really turned back since. It's never impeded me through anything (though I imagine were I to go for an office job, my damn-near-half-back length hair would possibly hurt my chances) and I've never got hurt, so.. that hits the main questions (oh, and 'it's real as you want it to be' for the other main one - if you try falling down on a hard chunk of wood and metal with a spring beneath it fifteen times, is that hard work? I think it is, no matter what you're doing.)

This is how I will picture Aperama from now on.

I really am out of responses now, so if anyone else wants to send theirs through and get 20 CAPs in the process, please send them to theadventuregamer@gmail.com.