The College of Communication and Education held an entertaining retro pc gaming event Thursday to welcome another program to their ranks. The dramatic, percussion-driven synth music of the Unreal Tournament soundtrack and the smell of a giant stack of pizzas welcomed gamers to the event.
Computer Animation and Game Development is the latest program to move to the College of Communication and Education. The Dean of the College, Angela Trethewey, noted how many great games lean heavily into storytelling. That focus created a natural connection with the college that Trethewey is excited to see future work from.
Tehama 105 was shoulder to shoulder at the peak of the crowd as students tried out all the different stations. There was an emulator setup with arcade-style joysticks where up to four students together played through some classics such as “Sonic the Hedgehog” and “X-Men.” Laptops ran student-developed games right next to a vintage Macintosh running 8-bit classics.
An old Commodore whirred away as students worked their way through the dungeons of “Eye of the Beholder” on dual-monitors, and a pair of laptops ran “Ultima Online,” an influential role-playing game from the late 90s that still boasts an active player base.
“I wasted a ridiculous amount of time on that game,” said CAGD Instructor Jeff Underwood. “I’m not surprised the servers are still live.”
“Unreal Tournament” and “Duck Game” were the most popular games at the event. The 10-station Unreal Tournament began with matches ending at five kills, but quickly jumped to 30 as students got the hang of the run-n-gun mayhem.
The 8-player insanity of Duck Game was a constant draw. The 10-year-old game pits players against each other as two-dimensional ducks with an arsenal of weapons to dispatch each other with until one is left standing, getting the win for that round.
The founder of local, non-profit E-waste company Tech Toss, Dakota Rose, provided some of the gear and games for the event. He noted that it’s great to get everyone together to talk about and enjoy retro games, but that it is also an opportunity for community outreach and to further the discussion regarding what we do with the ever-increasing amount of electronic waste.
There is something special about the excitement that comes with great local co-op games, and it was on display at the event as laughter and exclamations randomly filled the room.
Sure, it’s great that a gamer can play through a season as their favorite college football team or play a photo-realistic online shooter with thousands of strangers. But who doesn’t occasionally want to shoot their friend’s duck avatar with an ice-ray gun and throw their frozen body into a lake of lava for an immediately gloat-worthy victory?
Sean Shanks can be reached at [email protected].
