perfidy

Back in the day, when I was a Mac user, there was a game that I loved. When I switched to Windows, I thought that I would never play the game again. But a chance encounter in the Safeway led to a reunion... 

I was walking down the frozen foods aisle when I saw a guy wearing a shirt with this logo:

That rang a bell, but for a few seconds I couldn't place it. Then I remembered! 

Escape Velocity! Escape Velocity was a simple, yet addictive game. You start out with a small shuttle, with little cargo space and virtually no combat ability. But, if you're clever, you can make money through sharp dealing and avoid being killed or captured by pirates. You can use the money to upgrade your little shuttle, or save for a new and better spaceship. There were hundreds of planets, the Rebellion and the Confederation, pirates, aliens and bars.

All of what I just described would probably keep you occupied for a few hours. But the beauty of EV was the storylines embedded in an otherwise fairly simple yet wide open trading and fighting game. These kept your interest. It was a near perfect balance between the freedom to do what you want, and good narrative. A very clever game that focused on playability rather than snazzy graphics and eye candy.

For years, Ambrosia software vowed that they just wouldn't make a windows version of the game. But the guy in the shirt informed me that they had a new version, and that it had a windows port. One of the reasons (along with tax preparation) that I did little or no blogging over the weekend was the fact that this game now resides on my computer. So, for a good free (well, shareware) game, go right here and download it.