I still remember running to the counter of a video game store with my crumpled change in my hands. The boss mysteriously pulled out a yellow cassette from under the counter, with "500-in-1" printed crookedly on the outer shell. At that time, I didn't know anything about genuine and pirated copies. I only knew that the cassette was inserted into the GBA. The Japanese and English on the screen were all guessworked. Even saving the game depended on luck. You had to repeatedly check whether the battery was charged before shutting down, otherwise the entire afternoon's progress would be lost.
I came across this game "Escape from the Galaxy" in the app store today. It reminds me of the feeling of finding treasures in Heka. The gameplay is very straightforward. You start with a broken raft and an iron hook in your hand. You can hook whatever you see floating on the sea - wooden boards, plastic bottles, broken tires, and even soaked cans. Isn't this just like when we were rummaging through the cards to find hidden games? Every hook is a surprise or a shock.
It's okay at the beginning, the mineral water and compressed biscuits in the box are enough to last two days, but as time goes on, the supplies become more and more scarce, forcing you to build a still, grow potatoes, and raise chickens. This pressure to survive reminds me of when I was playing "Harvest Moon" and staying up late trying to figure out how to stock up on enough feed before winter. However, people are farming for retirement, and "Escape from the Galaxy" is not so gentle - other rafts will suddenly float on the sea, with swaying zombies standing on them, carrying rusty machetes in their hands. You can only fight them with an oar or a homemade spear. If you win, you can pick up cloth and nails. If you lose, you will return to the title screen and start over.
The most amazing thing was the deserted island I passed by on the way. When I landed on the island for the first time, my hands were shaking - wasn't this the same nervousness I felt when I walked into the cave for the first time while playing "Zelda"? There are abandoned houses on the island, and generators and engineering drawings can be found, but mutated seagulls and poisonous snakes are also hidden. Every time you go out to sea to explore is like a gamble of your life, as exciting as the last few minutes before the pirated cassette cassette crashes.
Speaking of pirated cassettes, now that I think about it, I really have to thank those shoddy collection cards. Because there was no manual, no strategy, and full-screen tadpole text, we just turned the game into an archeology—trying the buttons one by one, memorizing the menu icons, and piecing together the plot with our imagination. Now playing "Escape from the Galaxy", looking at the Chinese interface and tutorial instructions, I feel a little confused. Resource management, combat positioning, and technology tree unlocking, these gameplay methods were considered gods in the GBA era, but now they can only be regarded as survival games near the passing line.
But I still recommend it. When I watched the orange-red fire glowing from the stove I built on a rainy night, and a familiar melody floated from the sea, I instantly felt that my youth was back. What is the essential difference between the days when I turned down the brightness on my handheld device and hid under the covers to play secretly, and now I hide in the toilet and use two rafts to survive? Isn't it all that rebellious and pure happiness?
Remember to save often when playing this game, although it is much more reliable than pirated cassettes. If your phone runs out of battery one day, don't panic. It will feel like the cassette battery ran out of power - you'll have to start all over again.