Early TW days

[Tamur]

It's great to have my memory sparked to life by your comments, everyone. A sincere thanks to you four (edit, five now!)

How many times my poor troops stumbled blindly through the rain and fog to find the enemy 30 metres away... I had completely forgotten how blinding it was. I haven't had to struggle like that since, well, since Shogun stopped working on my 2000 machine. And the crows! I can hear them calling again. Nature played a very vital role in the game.

I think for many of us, our knowledge of the history of Japan was minimal at best. Thus the game has this sense of mystical wonder at the ways of the Japanese warrior, the culture, the clans and the new geography as we discovered this land so beautifully protrayed in the game.

Perfectly said Gregoshi. I think this was the defining element for me. Back then I felt as if I had discovered something that no one else knew about, and held words like bushido and Tokugawa and daimyo as personal treasures only given out to either Japanese friends who were direct inheritors of this history and tradition, or other friends who showed themselves "worthy" of such knowledge. Funny to think of now, but very true.

Currently in the TW universe, of course, the marketing people are happy to claim that tens of thousands of copies of the game get sold instantly when the game comes out, that the game is accessible to the most novice user, etc etc. Though this makes the masses want to buy the game (and of course funds the developers), it simply points out that the small and precious world I knew in Shogun isn't coming back in the TW series.

Sobering trip down memory lane.