Kneenibble

The games I played and collected in 2023

The games I played in 2023

2023 was a great gaming year for me. I played a lot of games, which left me little time for reading books or watching movies. I played more than 25 games, some short, some long. The games that have left the greatest impression on me are replaying The Witcher III on PS5, finishing Divinity Original Sin 2, playing Hotshot Racing and Trackmania Turbo with my son and Dexter Stardust, Lost in Play and Alwa’s Awakening.

Here are all the games I played:

  • Skyrim (PS4)
  • Alwa’s Awakening (Evercade)
  • Boxy Moxy (C64)*
  • Evil Dungeon (C64)
  • Lost in Play (PC/Steambox)
  • Beyond a Steel Sky (PS4)
  • The Telwynium part II (Windows)*
  • Dexter Stardust (PC/Steambox)
  • Mr Pumpkin Adventure (Wii U)*
  • Fallout 1 (DOS)*
  • Sam and Max Hit the Road (DOS)
  • Brothers (PS4)
  • Hotshot Racing (PS4)
  • Indie Heroes 2 (Evercade)
  • 40 Winks (Evercade)*
  • Inspector Waffles (PS4)
  • Lykia (C64)*
  • God of War: Ragnarok (PS5)*
  • The Witcher III (PS5)
  • Lord Winklebottom Investigates (PS4)
  • Divine Divinity II (PS4)
  • Sydney Hunter and the Caverns of Dead (Evercade)*
  • Another World (Evercade)
  • Trackmania Turbo (PS4)*
  • Star Wars Episode I: Racer (PS4)*
  • Planescape: Torment (PS4)*
  • The Ghosts of Blackwood Manor (C64)*
  • KeyWe (PS4)*

Some are still unfinished (*). For 2024 I hope to at least finish Lykia, Planescape Torment, Fallout 1 and The Ghosts of Blackwood Manor. Other games I would like to play next year are Horizon Forbidden West, Pillars of Eternity, King’s Quest V and Planetfall. That’s quite ambitious, so we’ll see how it goes. Maybe there’s even time for Baldur’s Gate III. One game I don’t know about is God of War: Ragnarok. I don’t really like it.

The collection

My games collection grew with 84 games in 2023 to a total of 611 and there are still a few underway, like Tristam Island, The Art of Rally, Return to Monkey Island and Treasures of the Savage Frontier. 84 is quite a lot, but not as much as the additions in 2022 (103) and 2021 (90). (I have no easy way to see how many games were added in 2020, as that was the year I started using the CLZ Games app. I could probably look at all the posts I did in 2020, but I’m too lazy to do that.)

The games that have been added to my collection in 2023 that I am the most excited about:

  • Ambermoon (Amiga)
  • TRAZ (C64)
  • Albion (PC)
  • Planetfall (PC)
  • Leisure Suit Larry 1 (Amiga)
  • Shadow of the Comet (PC)
  • Battlespire (PC)

As for the games I’m hoping to add to the collection in 2024, I have a wish list, but it’s getting harder and harder to find them (for a reasonable price.) I’m still looking for some SSI and Sierra games as well as a lot of text adventure games, some C64 and Amiga racing games and some limited releases for the PS4. I guess the PS4 collection will not grow a lot bigger now that the releases for the PS are winding down, which is fine by me because I don’t have a lot of space left on the shelf. The Evercade collection will probably grow bigger, for which I will need to find more space. The PS5 will be predominantly digital, except maybe for a few collector’s editions. I don’t know which that will be yet, but I can imagine wanting a physical version of the new Broken Sword game for instance.

Other areas in which my collection might grow are boxed releases for the Atari Lynx. I have a lot of cart only games, but want to add a few choice releases complete in box. Like I did with Shadow of the Beast a while ago. Games that I’m thinking about are Toki, Chip’s Challenge, Blue Lightening and California Games.
Also boxed games for the N64 might follow, as well as some Wii U and Nintendo DS games.

Hardware

On the hardware side, 2023 was a relatively slow year. I replaced the B&O television with one from Sony. It’s definitely an improvement for playing arcade and console games from the MiSTer. But the N64 looks worse than on the B&O. Maybe 2024 will see me playing N64 games on the MiSTer also. A highlight in 2023 was the addition of Roland MA-12 speakers for the MS-DOS setup. They really look the part and sound great also. Although I still need to fix the issue that the C64 and Amiga now also use these instead of the receiver. The solution: ordering some cables which I haven’t come around to yet. And lastly there was the new Amiga tank mouse that I use quite happily.

Hardware wise, 2024 is going to be the year of new cases. I’m looking forward to receiving new keycaps for the Amiga 1200 case and a new Amiga 500 case, although that’s probably not going to arrive in 2024. A new case for the MiSTer is underway and parts for the thin clients that I bought a couple of months ago. One thing I hope we’ll see next year is the UniThor joystick. I’m curious how The A500 Maxi will turn out and I’m hoping we’ll see a new Evercade handheld with a bigger screen.

Books

Because of all the games I played this year, I haven’t read many books. 2023 was a good year for gamebooks. I enjoyed The Art of the Box and are still enjoying 50 Years of Text Games. As always there was a nice Zzap!64 Annual. I didn’t go for the Fusion or Zzap!Amiga annuals this year. In 2024 (or maybe still in 2023) I’m looking forward to The Retro Hour Book and The Monkey Island book.

The gameroom

The gameroom saw some much needed expansion in the form of extra shelves for spare C64s, extra shelves for magazines and for PS4, Evercade and Nintendo games. I turned the CRT corner around and added two half width Billy bookcases. The room is now almost completely full. I can maybe add another shelf or two, but that’s it. The extra bookcases are not completely filled yet, so there still is room for more games. As in previous years, I still want to add more lights. Who knows, maybe 2024 will be the year for that.

Leave a comment