You ponder your choice of setting carefully. One of your interests has always been history and in particular the Roman period. You decide that it might be interesting to take a virtual trip back to Roman Britain and perhaps visit some of the ruins that you've seen in real life. How closely will the simulator's view of how they looked in their heyday match your own?
You pick a date out of your head, 61AD. Only after choosing do you recall why that seemed familiar, the estimated date of the Iceni revolt. A map of the southern half of Britain comes into focus, flashing on and off are a few pinpricks of light on the map. You think about zooming in on one of the lights and the map enlarges around one. Beside the light are the words "DESTRUCTION OF CAMULODUNUM".
"Oh wow, this is way cool." You think to yourself.
You zoom back out and look at the marker lights again. Through your knowledge of Roman history they make sense to you now. There's a cluster in East Anglia where Boudicca's revolt started, no doubt each corresponds to a battle or important event during the ill fated rebellion. Three lights further south you guess relate to the sackings of London and St Albans and the final battle between the Britons and Romans.
If you're going to watch the revolt unfold you decide you want to watch from the beginning. You scan around for a moment and then zoom in on a light deep in the tribal homeland of the Iceni. This was where it all began, when the Romans provoked the Iceni to rebel. You choose this event.
More choices come up, but by now you're getting impatient to enter the simulation. You hurriedly choose an option that makes you an historical figure in the events and then pick "RANDOM" when a list appears. You rush through the final parameters choosing "FULL ADULT INTERACTIVITY" and "RUN ENTIRE SCENARIO" and finally reach the "ENTER SCENARIO" option.
Once you have chosen to enter your vision blurs and you feel disorientated. Colours and shapes coalesce and you focus, blinking in bright sunlight. You're now on the outskirts of Boudicca's celtic settlement and the first thing you see is a cluster of large thatched roundhouses surrounded by a defensive ditch and pallisade.
"OK, here I am." You say out loud. "But who am I?" |