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The past is hard to look back on; some people don't like past events, perhaps feeling they are outdated and have nothing to do with themselves. For example, some people don't like things from the Republic of China, the Qing Dynasty, or the Ming Dynasty, and so on. They prefer events that have just happened or those from recent years, such as rocket launches, aircraft carriers being launched, conflicts and wars around the world, new programming languages, new apps, and the latest smart electronic products, to name a few.

China has a long history with rich accumulation and many historical dramas. The United States has a short history, but it is rich in technology and science fiction films. The long river of history is vast, and I can only hold a little water, but the water still flows away mercilessly through my fingers.

Recording a little is better than nothing. The legend of "Legend" existed before the internet became widespread, but it wasn't widespread at the civilian level. In the 1990s, computers were expensive, around 10,000 yuan for branded machines, and assembled machines were also quite costly. Ordinary workers earned only a few hundred to a thousand yuan a month. Liu Huan's song "Starting Over" also has its origins in this context of transformation, job changes, and re-employment. Many cities might have streets dedicated to re-employment, such as "Laid-off Street," with snacks, restaurants, and internet cafes.

Arcade Games#

Playing games began with arcade machines and then shifted to computer games. Arcade games often required coins, with one yuan for three tokens (boards) and two yuan for seven tokens (boards). The games included "Dinosaur Battle," "Punisher," "Romance of the Three Kingdoms," "Street Fighter," "KOF," and later "Journey to the West: The Legend of the Monkey King," "Three Kingdoms: Battle Chronicles," "Tekken," "Football," "Captain Hook," "Transforming Ninja," and many other names I can't recall, though I remember the graphics. Oh, and there were Mahjong machines; those who weren't good at games would often play Mahjong. Generally, the players were not young, and there were also some inappropriate scenes.

The blog "Broken Socks" 破袜子 – 一个脱离不了低级趣味的人 has also introduced Mahjong games.

Dinosaur Battle#

In the arcade, I often watched others play because I wasn't skilled. Passing levels and executing techniques required a lot of learning and practice. For example, in "Dinosaur Battle," to run, you would tap the joystick twice and then draw a circular arc to run. When attacking with the yellow hat, you would keep attacking while pulling the opponent, and just as the opponent was about to be thrown out, suddenly pull the joystick up and continue pressing A, allowing for continuous attacks while they were airborne.

Journey to the West: The Legend of the Monkey King#

In "Journey to the West: The Legend of the Monkey King," each character fills up energy and has a skill list:
→→ (run)

↓↘→ + A

↓ + B

A+B (health-saving move)

A+B+C (charge energy)

Use skills when fully charged

←↙↓↘→ + B

←→←→ (shrink)

B + ↓↘→ + A

↓↘→ + A (throw)

←↙↓↘→←→ + A combo skill, mainly to coordinate this skill to make the boss unable to fight back. As soon as they land, the other three characters start their combo skills, which require a certain distance to execute. Some levels have specific treasures with special effects, such as the spider spirit in spider form, which works well with the boomerang treasure.

↓↘→ + B

←↙↓↘→ + A

Additionally, there are combo skills between different characters, which I think is a great feature. This combo skill is particularly effective in the level with the Red Boy. The pig represents Zhu Bajie (Earth), the monkey represents Sun Wukong (Fire), the sand monk represents Sha Seng (Water), the little dragon girl represents Long Nu (Gold), and the dragon horse represents Long Ma (Wood).

I learned quite a bit about Chinese culture from this little notebook; the game programming design considers many Chinese elements. Of course, you could also interpret it as primarily making money from the Chinese people, so piracy seems to oppose exploitation and oppression.

ABC is to gather the first layer of energy; characters can also gather the second, third, and fourth layers of energy, which differ from the first layer. The second layer requires simultaneously moving the joystick up and pressing the BC buttons, and the methods for the third and fourth layers are the same, repeating the actions to continue stacking until full.

Pig + Horse — Lion's Roar, high output, suitable for large bosses, can be used to deal with the troublesome Money Mouse King.
Horse + Monkey — Flying Demon, not much damage, but the advantage is multiple hits.
Sand + Monkey — Thousand Buddha Hands, both advantages and disadvantages are obvious; it has great power but can only attack in a single line, and if not executed well, the skill is wasted.
Monkey + Pig — Wind and Fire Wheel, long-lasting, can hit multiple times, suitable for agile bosses.
Pig + Sand + Spinning Punch can hit enemies multiple times and has great power.
Pig + Little Dragon Girl — Sweep Across the Army, a 360-degree sweep of enemies, easy to hit, high damage.
Sand + Little Dragon Girl — Soul Confusion Spell, a very powerful fusion skill, with the longest duration and wide range, high damage.
Monkey + Little Dragon Girl — Universe Turn, very large range but low power; the fusion skill is not as good as Sun Wukong's individual ultimate move.
Sand + Dragon Horse — Ten Thousand Buddhas Facing the Ancestor, full-screen attack, does not test positioning, high damage; this combo skill is used very frequently.
Little Dragon Girl + Dragon Horse — The Dragon's Regret, full-screen attack, although the damage is not high, there are many attack points, suitable for clearing minions.

KOF#

This game is very coin-consuming.
The AI battles are okay; you can still play a few rounds against the computer.
In PvP, each match usually consists of three rounds. If the losing player continues to battle, they have to keep inserting coins. My cousin enjoys playing this and is quite good at it. During the New Year, I could see he had honed his skills well while playing on his computer with the keyboard. He said that when he was studying at Tianjin University, he would spend all day on Sundays at an arcade just playing this game.

Perhaps his enjoyment of this game stems from our childhood love for martial arts competitions; we watched many kung fu films and discovered some secret techniques, such as how to train the Iron Sand Palm. I find it difficult; even finding sand is not easy for me. Not to mention heating it up.

However, during the New Year around 2010, I saw a CCTV program where someone had actually mastered it. He used his palm to strike his balcony, collapsing it, and bent the railing by the river. He practiced for about an hour each day using his palm. Later, he built a platform with bricks at home, broke it, repaired it, and continued practicing. His palms felt almost no pain, and he had thick calluses with great strength, even participating in the Guinness World Record for cracking coconuts with his palm.

Perhaps it was this program: 《加油！向未来》胡可徒手开椰子 伊一过烈火

I'll write this much for now. I'll continue later; games are also niche, and there are too many games, just like reading; there are too many books, and every reader is also quite niche.

I wonder if there are many bloggers who can finish 50 books a year?
In the past many years, I estimate I haven't read 50 books in total. It's truly a waste.
As a self-motivation, I checked WeChat Reading and have already persisted for 236 days.
I paid 50 yuan to join the 365-day challenge, hoping to succeed.
I just finished reading and listening to the complete works of Zeng Guofan.
I started reading and listening to "The Courage to Be Ordinary," and Adler's psychology is also closely related to children's education.

I feel that writing about games and then writing about reading can balance things out, ultimately resulting in a Chinese character. That's all.