"Every day I wake up"
"Then I start to break up"
"Lonely is a man without love..."
Listening to the melodious music in his ears, Bill slowly woke up from the sofa.
An unfamiliar ceiling.
"Splitting your forces? You think you can outmaneuver me? You're dreaming."
Benjamin grumbled loudly from his fat-filled throat.
Then came Simon's rebuttal.
The argument between the two was accompanied by a series of clicking sounds from the mechanical components of the keyboard and mouse.
The two are engaged in a tense and exciting battle in Red Alert.
A thrilling match between players: a swift attack by Soviet Russia versus a barrage of France artillery.
Ever since they successfully met up in person, they would often get together to play games for a few days straight. After all, no matter how smooth the network connection is, it can't compare to face-to-face LAN battles.
Rather than going to an internet cafe, these two preferred to stay in the living room, playing with a bucket of popcorn.
Bill sat up and scanned the room.
The decor was pretty much what he remembered ordinary people's rooms should look like.
But the size of the television set increased, and the colors became vibrant and colorful.
A dense network of cables connected to various different game consoles.
Bill's gaze fell on the game consoles, and he was instantly drawn to the one placed in the center.
It was a round, flat sheet with a hole in the center. One side was printed with a vibrant oil painting, while the other side reflected colorful light.
The box that contained it was left open, set aside.
A line of capital letters was clearly printed on the box.
[Disco elysium]
Disco Elysium. "Disco..."
He had heard the word before.
In the 1970s, disco culture was taking shape in underground dance halls.
They are just a small opportunity away from stepping onto the world stage.
He loved the colorful lights and disco balls, and of course the dance floor and the loud horns.
"If you're interested, you can give it a try."
Benjamin's voice came from behind Bill, startling him.
"What's this?"
"Video games, they have so much text and content, no wonder I bought a new CD player... Anyway, I was planning to play them slowly tonight, but you can try them if you're interested. I heard you've never played games before?"
"Yes..."
"Huh, weirdo, this is California, bro. Anyway, if you want to leave, just go through that door. You just fainted from low blood sugar."
"Thanks." Bill nodded, quickly walked a few steps to the door, and was about to push it open and leave.
But his steps suddenly stopped.
He turned his head and glanced at the screen on their PCs.
The Hermes version of Red Alert has slightly better texture quality than the NX version due to its higher average system requirements.
But even the NX version is still a truly awe-inspiring existence for Bill at this point in his life.
"Gulp"
He swallowed hard.
"Can I... really play this?"
"Squeak--Squeak, squeak--"
Amidst the noise of the disc drive, the game slowly loads. [Disco elysium]
[lucas/arts]
Perhaps the greatest innovation that computers have brought to traditional paintings is the ability to bring them to life.
The entire main title screen is created by scanning multiple original oil paintings hand-painted by the master Francis Bacon.
They each hold different positions in more than ten different levels, including front, near, middle, and far.
Through parallax scrolling at different speeds, the entire city, composed of oil paintings, exudes its own charm under the dazzling, bursting orange-red clouds.
It's like it came to life, like it's three-dimensional, like it's actually moving!
"In just 20 years, video games have changed so much..."
Compared to the Atari "Pong" he remembered, he would believe this thing even if you told him it was 200 years old.
The visual style is not purely dystopian and dark, which is different from Diablo.
After several days of discussion with Lin Lixin, Bacon finally accepted the Insulindian Phasmid.
Or rather, it's about accepting that Revachol still holds hope, and adding a different kind of emotion to his paintings.
The city looks dirty, but it is precisely because of this that, with the deliberate use of color, it gains a touch of everyday life.