A new featured series on LadiesGamers.com: Memory Museum. Our earliest gaming memories to the backdrop of what was happening in our personal life and what was happening in the world back then!
The 1987 action-puzzle game Saracen begins on Level 00 with “HELL” spelled in brick-wall blocks. As a kid barely out of preschool, I was always amused to see that word, like there was something naughty about it. As my avatar walked across the room, the full word “HELLO” revealed itself. Saracen welcomed me to the world of computer games.
The king’s head
Though I had three siblings, they were much older and mostly overseas for college. PC games kept me entertained when the household adults weren’t free to play. I would boot up Saracen on the family’s Apple–, I forget the exact model, but it could have been an Apple II with a green monochrome monitor. (I couldn’t find monochrome screenshots of the game, but the colored version is easier to look at anyway!)
The title screen showed a man’s grave-looking visage—a mask or a king’s head, I thought at the time. The goal of each level was to seek out that visage and destroy it with an arrow or bomb.
It’s only now that I wonder, “Why was the game called Saracen?” Finding a YouTube video of the game, I realize for the first time that the “king’s head” is the face of a Saracen, wearing what looks like a chainmail helmet. Meanwhile, the player’s avatar is a Crusader. Would the game’s concept fly with publishers today?
Watching older siblings play
Anyway, I never got beyond a few levels, but one of my brothers could do much better. On the rare event that he was home and played Saracen, I would pull up a stool to watch. It was amazing to see him advance level after level, making it past enemies, finding the “king’s head” and destroying it.
I’m not sure what a sibling is to you, but to me, siblings were special family members who came home only on special occasions. And because of the age gap, they weren’t rivals for attention or resources but respected seniors I looked up to. This was reinforced by our culture: I addressed them with honorific titles (“big brother” and “big sister”); while, being the youngest family member, I had no title attached to my name. I was the family’s smallest fry.
At the time, we didn’t interact as peers. But, at least, when my brothers played PC games, they let me sit by and occasionally ask them questions about what was happening on-screen. Which was rather nice.
Trying to remember everything I can about that period, I recall it was the time that: (a) I learned to type on a computer, (b) I accidentally wrecked an important floppy disk, (c) I realized my siblings were kinda cool and far, far ahead of me in life.
What are your earliest gaming memories?
Hi, I wrote Saracen back then, and actually when I submitted it to a few game editors, I had it called Dictator, not Saracen, and the goal of each level was to kill the dictator…
I’m not really happy with the name change (Saracen and crusader story) but I was too young (and too happy to get a game published back then) to know better.
Hi Mr Ilan, thanks for reading and commenting on this article. Good to know the story behind it all. I’m sorry you weren’t able to use the name you had planned for the game. You made a great game that had my family and I glued to the screen for hours!