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http://www.elastomania.com/
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Scorched_Earth_(computer_game)

That's exactly what happened to me!

I got DoomIII, and was all geared up for it, but after a while it was just filler. Sure moving those barrels around with that cargo gripper was pretty spiffy, but once I hit "Hell" and was just shooting dead babies.. it sort of fell apart.

Now I'm being presured to get HL2, but from the recent dissapointments, my motivation to shell out the cash just hasn't been there.

And then I look at awesome indie games. For example one of my all time favorites is Elasto Mania. I swear I've lost months of my life from swinging ledge to ledge with my front tire. This stuff reminds me that a game can rock, even when it doesn't have music!

I'm still at school, you insensitive clod :)

And I dont do/learn much in there, I already know some/most of the stuff they teach.. so 70% of my time is spent on research (translation: /. ), chatting, and playing Elastomania.

Well, some of the most pure fun games I've played are obscure titles like these.

I completely agree. The game I've spent the most time on in the last five years is not Half-Life, Diablo II or Unreal Tournament (all three of which I own). Rather it's Elastomania. It's a silly little side-scrolling platform game on a motorcycle, with passable graphics and cheesy sound effects. It's even difficult to learn the controls. But once you do, look out. I've been addicted for five years. Best $10 I ever spent. (By the way, it requires DirectX 7 or higher. Haven't tried it on WineX.)

Perhaps my favourite game is elastomania. It's got 18 levels for free (I soon registered) and it may not be for mac (Windows or BeOS). There's loads of fan sites with plenty of free levels as well. I had everyone playing it where I used to work and I've been looking for similarly simple but fun games since. If you think you're getting good at it, just check out the world records for the levels, some people seem to have dedicated their life to it.

It's actually a remake of Action Supercross, but I think it's pretty much a modern classic.

Other games I've found are PocoMan, Pontifex and Triptych

If anyone like these and has more similar suggestions then let me know!

I find this study very interesting. I see parallels with myself when I was playing a game an average of 3 hours a day (6 on the weekends) called Action Supercross. It is a stupidly simple game where you drive a 2d motocycle through a level and try to get the best time, that's it. Of course there is a world record list where people from all over the world try and get the best times. On top of this, there is another goal to add up all your best times from all the levels for your Total Time. Spending 5 hours shaving 20 seconds, or even less for the top players (1-5 seconds), of your total is totally normal. I was so into this game that when I had a History paper to write I would let my self have "one life" for every 100 words I wrote!!!

This game has since evolved into Elastomaniathe site of all sites is here. For some reason it is dominated by Scandinavians; I think they invented rally racing so it makes sense I guess.

It looks stupid I know, just download one of the track replays for the demo version and see if you can come even close to the top times. Some people have been playing since 1998

There are also *NO* Bridge Builders or Elastomanias for the N64, and there will never be. Because it's too risky to bet the up-front cost of console development on an unusual concept.

I've recently been consumed by the non-violent fun found in Bridge Builder (fulfill all your secret engineering fantasies), as well as the cartoon physics motorcycle puzzle game. Bridge Builder is Free (as in Beer), and the motorcycle game has an 18 level shareware version.