History Lessons will be a series of posts about older games viewed through a modern lens.  I take a look at a bunch of games of yesteryear and examine the ways in which these games have inspired and evolved into the games of today.  For readers who have already played these games, the posts may not be particularly informative, but my goal is to inspire those who never experienced these games to give them a try, to gain some historical perspective on our favorite pasttime.  As such, I will endeavor to avoid spoilers.

The focus will be on games that I did not play when they were released, but have only played for the first time recently.  This will hopefully keep me relatively free of the effects of nostalgia, and allow me to make unbiased judgements about the games’ merits.  I will not completely exclude games simply because I’ve played them before, but if I write about those games I will re-play them to make sure I have a fresh perspective.  Some entries will be about games I’ve already finished and will be single posts, while others I will write as I play, in several installments.  I’m not going to impose any limits on what I write about, so some entries may be entirely about mechanics while others might be about how the games evoke emotion in the player (me)… basically I’ll write about whatever strikes me most.  Hopefully they’ll be interesting.

So without further ado, let’s get started!