I remember, vividly I and dad were in a music store and I was checking out the Game CDs. I knew in the back of my mind that dad was not going to buy any game CDs but just out of curiosity, I kept looking. I stumbled upon this game called the "18 Wheels Of Steel Across America". It did not make sense to me. So I read the description on the cover.
What caught my eye was the beastly looking truck. I don't know but somehow I felt I had to buy this and somehow dad also agreed.
I started playing and learned it quickly. The theme was that I had to operate a truck and I would get missions to transport a trailer from one place to another with little or no damage and within a particular amount of time. The tough part was learning the American roads. To make it easy, the game had a route planning feature just like we have in our GPS. But to make it more challenging, I would frequently avoid using that. And just like in real world, if I was above the speed limit or in the wrong lane, I could expect to get ticketed. The highways in the game were exactly mapped according to the US Highway system. And one of the best highways I had driven on was the US-101 pacific coastal highway.
Now 10 years later when I recollect about this game I feel, I had learned so much from that game. It helped me become more comfortable with the American Roads and Traffic rules even before coming to US. I grasped the names of all the states and their approximate locations. And I knew about the most famous highways in US. And I fell in love with the 18 Wheelers.
And on one fine day, I was with my dad in a car driving along the US-101 Pacific Coastal Highway and dad mentioned about this game. That's when I really understood why he had bought the game for me.
What caught my eye was the beastly looking truck. I don't know but somehow I felt I had to buy this and somehow dad also agreed.
I started playing and learned it quickly. The theme was that I had to operate a truck and I would get missions to transport a trailer from one place to another with little or no damage and within a particular amount of time. The tough part was learning the American roads. To make it easy, the game had a route planning feature just like we have in our GPS. But to make it more challenging, I would frequently avoid using that. And just like in real world, if I was above the speed limit or in the wrong lane, I could expect to get ticketed. The highways in the game were exactly mapped according to the US Highway system. And one of the best highways I had driven on was the US-101 pacific coastal highway.
Now 10 years later when I recollect about this game I feel, I had learned so much from that game. It helped me become more comfortable with the American Roads and Traffic rules even before coming to US. I grasped the names of all the states and their approximate locations. And I knew about the most famous highways in US. And I fell in love with the 18 Wheelers.
And on one fine day, I was with my dad in a car driving along the US-101 Pacific Coastal Highway and dad mentioned about this game. That's when I really understood why he had bought the game for me.
