I just came on this forum tonight to update my avatar (yes! That's me!) and I thought - why not add a new topic? After our recent digressions elsewhere I thought we could have a thread to reminisce about old favourites... so I'll start off with a few choice titles I remember and enjoyed. Who else knows them?
UFO - I mentioned this elsewhere. Very atmospheric, very well done (until you get psionic powers, at which point you become invulnerable) and I fell in love with this game the first time I saw it. And again, about two years later. And three years after that, when they finally released an Amiga version I could play for myself (oh, how it chugged in that floppy drive).
Doom - Absolutely classic game. I've still no idea why the Christian community found it so bad - I mean, you're roaming round hell killing demons. Isn't that a good thing?
Star Control II - gosh, this was good. I don't know how well known this one is but it had everything - space battles, exploration of other planets, forming alliances with a host of hilarious aliens... there is a PC remake which (for copyright reasons) is called The Ur-Quan Masters, and is a faithful reproduction with many (optional) bells and whistles.
Any more?
Artinum.
PS: More tower commentary on the way soon. If you can bear it.
Re: Other old games we remember.
Ah, finally someone has the guts to show his real face! Okay, Mayo and warcus have pictures on their web sites, too. Maybe I should look for a picture of myself some time.
Anyway, you're looking quite old for a seven year old boy! Or did I miscount the candles?!?
Concerning favourite games, well, there are SO many.... I played UFO and found it quite funny at first, but I lost interest some time. I'm usually not a fan of "rundenbasierte" games, you know, where you can plan how to spend some kind of movement or action points for one turn and then start the action. I probably wouldn't even play ToB if you could ONLY use programmed spiders instead of also controlling them directly. Doom was okay, though even back then I was unhappy with the poor graphics and the straightforward levels. I really enjoyed the intensity of Half-Life and the complexity of Deux Ex in the ego-shooter genre. I was also fascinated by the idea of Thief, though I somehow didn't get to play it very far. I don't know Star Control II (or even I), but the original version of Elite on the C64 is definitely on of the true cult games. There was also a game similar to your description of SCII on the amiga that I liked very much, but I forgot it's name...
What else did I enjoy? On the Amiga, some of my favourites were Starglider II (I never really understood what I had to do, but simply flying around and collecting a couple of things and listening to the wonderful sound effects was a great experience), Dynablaster (a nice version of Bomberman - Exiter and me fought endless mercyless battles in this game.), Indy 500 (which was no fun at all when I once tried to play it with an emulator), Silent Service, Interceptor, Rick Dangerous and many many more. If I had my disk collection here I'd quicky skip through all the games to find out what else I played...
Re: Other old games we remember.
Let's see...
No, I am not seven - twenty-seven this November (!). We just didn't have that many candles and that much cake, plus the bother of setting them all up. We'd set off the smoke detector. I'm also not 100% whether that was my cake or the one I got for my partner (February).
Old games I remember with fondness include Frontier (amazing how big it felt then, amazing how small it seems now). It was too hard at first and grows very boring when you've tried everything. I've been gas scooping, I've tried both kinds of mining (both equally difficult and unproductive), I've been a bounty hunter, a photographer and a bomber. I've delivered countless packages and persons. It's an ambitious game which sometimes over-reaches itself, which didn't stop me becoming addicted to it.
And I'm surprised no-one's mentioned Lemmings yet. That game was sheer class (you may remember my Original Idea article on Bytten some time ago that reviewed it). In contrast, Lemmings II is overdoing things, and I saw a 3D Lemmings game in a demo once which was unplayable. Worms has gone the same way - take a good idea, then release it over and over until you've ruined it.
I've just completed Valhalla and the Lord of Infinity, thanks to the magic of emulation, though I got completely stuck a few times due to the use of sound over text. A sword called Diemos had me looking up Greek mythology and the moons of Mars simultaneously, while another called Elidos was apparently connected to the Olympics - turns out they were Dilos and Eligarf, which were just spelt backwards (d'oh!).
I'm getting morose now. All these old games that aren't there anymore. I'll return to the present for the nonce.
Artinum.
Re: Other old games we remember.
(staring at Artinum's picture)
Er... right. Er... old games!
Warlords II! One of the best fantasy-style strategy games ever done. Absolutely brilliant!
Other members on my Top 5 Favourite Computer Games of ALL Times:
UFO (just gotta love it)
Dungeon Master (there's a very decent PC port available)
Turrican II (Amiga - excellent PC port available)
The very coolest game of all, for me:
- PARADROID (C64).
My god, I love that game. I know my way around those bloody decks better than my own flat. (I know of two remakes/ports, for Windows and Linux.)
Rick Dangerous II (C64) was pretty cool as well. Or Metal Marines, for Windows - hilarious. Sword of Fargoal (really old C64 - available in a cool port for Windows!) - Dungeon-crawling at its best!
Hmm.. I think I'll come back later and put up links for all those.
He, Artinum - ever tried Master of Orion II? Sounds like you might like it.
(edited: added MOFO bit)
-- Das Lemsche Gesetz: Niemand liest etwas; wenn er etwas liest, versteht er es nicht; wenn er es versteht, vergißt er es sofort.
Re: Other old games we remember.
Zitat: Artinum
Old games I remember with fondness include Frontier (amazing how big it felt then, amazing how small it seems now). It was too hard at first and grows very boring when you've tried everything.
I understand. A friend once invited me to a modern online version of the Elite / Frontier genre. I got a free one-month-membership and promised to take a close look. I bought a small ship, did some easy missions, flew around with the boys, joined the clan. One of my friends built a fancy ship for me, another one transferred a huge amount of virtual money to my virtual account to give me an easy start. And suddenly I felt really guilty that I didn't intend to keep on playing that game after that free month. Actually it was nice to play the game and chat with the other guys, but hey, I do have ONE job, and I really don't need another one for the evenings! Neither miner nor pirate nor bounty hunter.
Lemmings! Oh yes, that was a classic. When I first read "3D Lemmings" I thought you meant the version with the rotating tower (sorry, no zappers in that one... *sigh*). What was it called? Lemmings Revolution, I think. That one was actually playable, but on the other hand it didn't really introduce any new elements. Now I remember that I've seen a demo of a real 3D version, too, and didn't enjoy it at all. Worms was great, too! Though I hated to lose against Exiter.
Zitat: Artinum
I'll return to the present for the nonce.
You got to help me with that one, please! I could not find a fitting translation for nonce...
Paradroid was a very cool game indeed. I didn't get too far, I'm afraid. Z, I'd really like to watch you play it one day ("Ich sehe gerne zu, wűrde aber lieber nicht selbst mitmachen." *gg*)!
I have to add that Dungeon Master sucks. Incidentally, today I heard that there's going to be a satiric remake of "The Bard's Tale" soon! I'll definitely take a look at that, and maybe I'll even start to dive into the original again with the emulator. I liked BT III pretty much.
Re: Other old games we remember.
Zitat: Fawlty
I could not find a fitting translation for nonce...
Basically, "the nonce" means "now". Its literal translation and origin both escape me.
As for old games, permit me to go back a computer to my Atari 65XE. I had some wonderful games on there, the best of which was probably Rescue on Fractalus. Fly across the yellow skies and jagged peaks of enemy planet Fractalus, with its corrosive atmosphere and hosts of gun emplacements and suicide saucers. Rescue stranded pilots that have been shot down. Bring them back to the mothership. In the later levels, you get day and night - every nine minutes. Flying by instruments is difficult. As levels go up, something nasty sometimes happens to those stranded pilots. You'd better be sure who you're letting on board...
That was back in the days when I had bedtime at a set time of night, so I can't have been that old, and the first time I saw an alien rear up in front of my spacecraft I nearly fell off my chair. It was SCARY. Nothing these days scares me like that any more.
I also remember a bizarre game akin to chess called Archon. Two sides, supposedly balanced but with entirely different pieces, had to either wipe out the other side or control all five of the 'powerpoints'. Each side had either a wizard or sorceress, and they could cast spells. Some creatures could fly, some walked - some teleported. When you entered the same square as an enemy piece they'd battle to the death.
I have other things to do - so back to my nonce again...!
Artinum.
Re: Other old games we remember.
Atari 65XE. Interesting. Pretty unknown machine here in Germany. I didn't have any Ataris until just a few month ago. Bought a 1024 ST and a good old Atari 2600 then. Mayo and me had a nice conversation about old computers some time ago. Are you maybe a collector of electronic antiques, too?
I remember Archon. There were two versions of it. Since I never knew the rules, I found it quite frustrating. Nevertheless, some of the most intense and exciting moments of game playing in the early years were, in my opinion, the times where I tried to figure out what a game was all about or how it was played... Examples? Sentinel, Revs, Aliens, Impossible Mission, ...
Re: Other old games we remember.
Alas no. My old Atari is now long since gone, as is my Amiga. The perils of leaving them in your mother's attic, I'm afraid.
I'm not overly surprised you don't know the 65XE. It's an 8-bit machine that was totally compatible with the 800XL, though I think a bit more compact. It had a tape drive but you could get disk drives for it. It also had a cartridge slot at the back, which meant no loading times for Fractalus or Archon.
There are indeed two Archons, being Archon and Archon II. I've seen the second through emulation and I couldn't fathom it out either. The first is a much better game.
Another game I rather miss is an early (pre-Windows NT/etc) PC game called "Magic Carpet". I tried it on my laptop last night in case it could be persuaded to run but alas, no. Perhaps I could create a DOS boot disk and play it that way, though it would be difficult as my floppy drive is external... Hmmm...
I also enjoyed Command and Conquer.
Artinum.
Re: Other old games we remember.
Zitat: Artinum
I also enjoyed Command and Conquer.
Oh, then I hope you didn't miss the completely new Command and Conquer interactive-TV-event-game-thing that was on British TV last saturday! It was called "C & C - The Wedding"...
Re: Other old games we remember.