A ten year old challenge

Now that I think of it, it might even be longer than that...

I got my first PC when I was 11 or 12, I don't remember exactly. It was a Pentium MMX 233Mhz: not exactly a beast, but it was the way I started to interact with computers. The first thing I did with that PC was to write and print a message to my mother with MS Works and added a Clipart. There was no Internet where I lived (that came when I was 19 and moved to another town), so I relied on a limited number of CDs for entertainment.

My first game was Age of Empires, and I spent countless hours on it; I knew that game inside out, I memorized unit costs, tech trees, sight radius... Sometimes my dad came home with a gaming magazine with one of those CDs with demos and free games, and that was it. Later, I got Civilization: Call to Power, and many more hours went there as well, forging my future taste for gaming entertainment.

There was, however, another title I owned, I had fun with, but have NEVER beaten. That game was Caesar III. I remember it being not incredibly long (10 missions total, maybe?), but I never made it past the sixth mission. Getting a villa was already an achievement, and every map with invading enemies would screw me over. Not even tinkering with the config file helped me. The game came in a yellow cardboard box, I think it was a budget edition, and it had a thick manual that I used to bring when I went on vacation and car trips with my family, and I read it several times to learn what buildings did and what every screen said. You know, you have to pass your time while travelling.

A couple days ago I visited my mother's house, and while in my bedroom I saw the CD case for Caesar III. It still runs on Windows 7 64bit, so I decided to pick it up again. I don't know why. I hate thinking about my past, there are not many pretty things back there; summoning memories from the past hurts a bit, but people keep telling me I have to do that in order to feel better about my life.
Anyway, I decided to boot it again and see if, at the "old" age of 25, almost an Engineer, looking for a job, I can summon the citybuilder in me and beat what I left unfinished ten years ago.
I have "better" games to play. I have Bastion ready to go, I'm a hour into The Witcher 2, I bought Portal and still have to install it... so why Caesar? Am I doing this to prove something? Is it the younger me I try to repress, emerging from the murky water of the past? I don't know.

I completed the fourth mission (2 tutorial + 2nd "real" one) before I wrote this. I'll keep you updated.

Edit: Post #17 contains update.