I still remember having to look into a French-English dictionary to find the right word for 'spacesuit'...
Old games are like legos, less sophistication = more imagination.
Old games are like legos, less sophistication = more imagination.
My nephew has several of these, but I think they're such a waste compared to the old days where you had a bucket of blocks, and you built whatever you wanted. I also have fond memories of Capsela, Constructs, and old Erector Sets.
I had the same experience playing Space Quest I as an 8-year-old kid with my friend. Except that it didn't occur to us to look up words in a dictionary; instead we kept calling an older friend who actually knew English and could tell us the magic incantations we needed to type to get somewhere in the game.
I'll never forget that you need to "fasten seatbelt" before launching the escape pod.
It could become very frustrating, especially as in those days you couldn't just go to web and find the walkthrough.
I remember being stuck on the top of volcano in Larry 2, trying to create a bomb to get inside:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7QQRuRiPp6I#t=50s
Sometimes, the only option was to search through the game resource files, looking for strings that could be used.