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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Terraism" data-source="post: 12125" data-attributes="member: 278">Hate to admit it...Well, I'd like to say that Tolkien was the writer who influenced my views of fantasy - as in, established them.  However, that's not the case.  Though I've loved the fantastic and magical as far back as I can remember, I'd have to say that a few certain things influenced me to become a fierce advocate... and they are, in no particular order, as follows... <ul> <li data-xf-list-type="ul">The Last Unicorn (The movie)</li> <li data-xf-list-type="ul">Hero's Quest (The Sierra game, later renamed "Quest for Glory"</li> <li data-xf-list-type="ul">The Pyrdain Chronicles (The Book of Three, et al.  Lloyd Alexander)</li> </ul>I remember watching the Last Unicorn for perhaps a half-dozen times in one weekend, and then two weeks later (when next I visited my dad,) doing it again.  I just watched it again a couple of days ago - it still hasn't lost it.Now, the game Hero's Quest (Quest for Glory) is another obsession with me.  Now, the King's Quest games debuted in 1984 - I was one.  By the time I was three, KQ2 was out, and couple of years later, so was Hero's Quest.  When I wasn't watching The Last Unicorn I was banging on the computer keys and watching the screen to see what the funny colors would do next... <img src="https://cdn.jsdelivr.net/joypixels/assets/8.0/png/unicode/64/1f600.png" class="smilie smilie--emoji" loading="lazy" width="64" height="64" alt=":D" title="Big grin    :D"  data-smilie="8"data-shortname=":D" />  I 'cut my teeth,' so to speak, when I was four, and computers have been mine ever since.  But as much as I loved King's Quest, Hero's Quest was much more than that - it was true magic.  As far as I was concerned - and still am - Hero's Quest I, EGA, was and is the best game ever made for a computer.  Things have come a long way since then, but nostalgia never changes - I taught myself to read by playing that game over and over again and climbing out of the big comfy chair to make someone read me a line every time I saw something new.  I'm told that they only had to tell me what a certain configuration of letters was once before I had it down.  I just remember, vaguely, the wonders of that game.  I've still got it, actually, in a place of honor on the shelf above me, in four different forms - the original on 5 1/4's, one on 3 1/2's, the VGA version, and the CD compilation.  <img src="https://cdn.jsdelivr.net/joypixels/assets/8.0/png/unicode/64/1f600.png" class="smilie smilie--emoji" loading="lazy" width="64" height="64" alt=":D" title="Big grin    :D"  data-smilie="8"data-shortname=":D" />Lastly, as a natural extension of my love of the computer screen and that great thing called 'reading,' I demanded something to read when I wasn't at Dad's house - which, as far as I was concerened, wasn't often enough... Mom didn't have a computer! (Gee, can you see my priorities? <img src="https://cdn.jsdelivr.net/joypixels/assets/8.0/png/unicode/64/1f609.png" class="smilie smilie--emoji" loading="lazy" width="64" height="64" alt=";)" title="Wink    ;)"  data-smilie="2"data-shortname=";)" />)  Inspired by the computer game (again by Sierra), The Black Cauldron, I coerced my mom to buy me The Book of Three when I was in kindergarten.  Every two days we made another trip to the bookstore to pick up the next one.  No matter what I've read since then, to me those books will always be very special.You know, I haven't thought about this before - and really didn't even until after I started writing.  I'm going to ammend my statement at the beginning of this post... I don't hate to say that Tolkien didn't set my view of fantasy - I'm just fine with what DID.  <img src="https://cdn.jsdelivr.net/joypixels/assets/8.0/png/unicode/64/1f642.png" class="smilie smilie--emoji" loading="lazy" width="64" height="64" alt=":)" title="Smile    :)"  data-smilie="1"data-shortname=":)" /></blockquote>

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