Old School Computer Games [Archive] - Two Plus Two Older Archives

AngryCola

08-24-2005, 02:11 AM

Gary Whitta wrote a slightly interesting bit in PCG about going back to play your favorite old games.

Basically, he thinks you shouldn't do it. It ruins the memory of those games in most cases. Why? Because games don't age well. Even to the biggest fans, almost all old games seem much worse when people play them years later.

He wasn't specifically talking about graphics either. Gameplay and interface advances in the years since these old games were developed really make even the best old games seem boring and practically unplayable.

So, as some of you might have guessed, I completely agree with Gaz. I've been disappointed so many times when I tried to play my old favorites.

Some games, like Starcraft, aren't quite old enough for this to apply. But SC is becoming a bit tired and worn when compared to some of the new RTS titles. Everyone should still have their fingers crossed for SC:2.

vulturesrow

08-24-2005, 02:12 AM

Wow, I totally disagree with this. A few months back, someone posted some sites that had abandonware, etc. on t and I downloaded a ton of stuff like Neuromancer, Wasteland, a ton of Infocom games and had blast...

AngryCola

08-24-2005, 02:20 AM

[ QUOTE ]
Wow, I totally disagree with this.

[/ QUOTE ]

I suspect many people disagree with it. That's okay, though. If people can go back and play some of these games without ruining their good memories of playing sessions from years ago, they should go ahead and enjoy!

Personally, I can only go back so many years before my line is reached, but the line is set many years ago. NES games are quickly becoming unplayable to me.

Also, it's fair to say that some games age better than others for obvious reasons. For example, I can still really enjoy my favorite arcade game of all-time: Galaga
But I can't enjoy it for as long as I once did. The sessions are always shorter each time I go back to play it.

Jules22

08-24-2005, 03:26 AM

command and conquer!!

mike4bmp

08-24-2005, 03:46 AM

...man...
I love your avatar! LOL

stigmata

08-24-2005, 06:25 AM

I went back and played Monkey Island and loved every frigging last second of it.

Lawrence Ng

08-24-2005, 06:28 AM

[ QUOTE ]
Link (http://reviews.cnet.com/4520-6464_7-6300449-1.html)

This brings back memories of playing Marathon in Jr. High.. that game was revolutionary for it's time.

~Reef

[/ QUOTE ]

Commander Keen 2D.

Nothing and nothing still beats Final Fantasy 7.

Lawrence

DonBaker

08-24-2005, 07:55 AM

Monkey Island, Space Quest , Quest for Glory!

they stop making those kind of game.. dont know why..

DrunkHamster

08-24-2005, 08:04 AM

Xcom. Best old school game ever, trust me.

Hamish McBagpipe

08-24-2005, 08:58 AM

You call that old school, pup? This was the best keyboard ruining game back in the day (and only game available really). Second only to my Intellivision. The last event, the 1500 meter race, was next to impossible to win.

http://www.juegomania.org/Microsoft+Decathlon/fotos/pc/5/5382_t/Foto+Microsoft+Decathlon.jpg

http://www.juegomania.org/Microsoft+Decathlon/fotos/pc/5/5382/Foto+Microsoft+Decathlon.jpg

Vavavoom

08-24-2005, 09:03 AM

There are several games that I spent a helluva lot of time on :

By Sierra:

The PoliceQuest Series
The SpaceQuest Series
The KingsQuest Series
The LeisureSuit Larry Series

A Very Early RPG/Adventure game :

Rogue (MS-DOS)

One of the first games I played on a console :

Pitfall (Atari)

One of my favourite games was Final Fanatsy VII, and VIII was pretty good too!!!

08-24-2005, 09:05 AM

I got bored of FF7 after about 20 mins of playing it

FF3 could be my favourite game ever

You'll be suprised how many people who have played that game have admitted to crying because of the sad bits of the story line

Dave G.

08-24-2005, 09:27 AM

Starcraft? Old school? I think you meant Dune 2, the game that basically started the RTS craze and set the standard, the game from which every other RTS was fashioned.

Dune 2 is the king of all RTS games. Sure the interface is a bit dated now, but it's still a monster of a game. It was revolutionary. A couple of months ago my friends and I tried LANning with this new RTS game, I forget the name of it it was so crap. It took up 5 gigabytes of harddrive space and allowed you to do exactly the same things that you can do in other RTS games - build workers, build barracks / vehicle building, build units. Yawn. My friend had built some sort of super missile base within literally a few minutes of the game starting and was already bombarding my base with nuclear weapons from the other side of the map. I had only just built a vehicle plant. I quit and uninstalled it. Total time spent on my harddrive: 9 minutes. What a piece of [censored] game. Dune 2 pisses all over it and it was released 14 years ago.

Other old school favourites of mine include Kings Quest, Space Quest, Police Quest, Wolfenstein 3D, Mean Streets (which later spawned the release of Under A Killing Moon), Gunship, X-wing / TIE Fighter, Syndicate, the Ultima series, and my absolute favourite game of all time, the best game ever created in the history of computer games... Starcontrol II.

I dunno about you guys... but every time I've gone back to replay my favourite old games, I have had an absolute blast. They have lost none of their lure as old as they are now. They are still awesome games. Starcontrol II in particular I bring out every once in a while and finish it all over again. The atmosphere and the storyline is like none other, certainly better than a lot of the trash you see released today.

Old school 4 eva.

Wes ManTooth

08-24-2005, 09:32 AM

[ QUOTE ]
the best game ever created in the history of computer games... Starcontrol II.

[/ QUOTE ]

I agree, also liked the orginal Civilization, that game was just as good

davelin

08-24-2005, 09:33 AM

Bard's Tale

icepick

08-24-2005, 09:38 AM

[ QUOTE ]
Starcraft? Old school? I think you meant Dune 2, the game that basically started the RTS craze and set the standard, the game from which every other RTS was fashioned.

[/ QUOTE ]

Finally, someone talking sense. I was sitting here in disbelief, "old school" games like Starcraft, Command & Conquer, FF7. Good grief.

Zork, Adventure, Temple of Ashpi, anything by Epyx, Spacewar, hell, Pac-Man and Asteroids. Now you're talking "old school". Pfffft, whippersnappers.

LSUfan1

08-24-2005, 09:42 AM

[ QUOTE ]
Bard's Tale

[/ QUOTE ]

Now we are getting a bit older.

I was thinking commodore 64 or TRS80 games.

Anyone remember playing a game where you had to get opium and make money on the TRS80, can't remember the name but it had to be one of the first ever!

As far as graphic type games, I would have to say the C64 had some decent ones that would now just look horrible!

Dave G.

08-24-2005, 09:44 AM

Yes, Civ is a great game as well. I never figured out how to beat the top levels.

Dave G.

08-24-2005, 09:48 AM

Gunship was a C64 game, which became Gunship 2000 on PC. But the C64 version was rocking. Awesome sound effects, and even an attempt at 3D graphics! ON A C64!! One of my favourites.

Another great old school RPG on the C64 was a game called "Phantasie". I spent god knows how many hours of my childhood hooked to that game.

Thank god for emulators.

sammy_g

08-24-2005, 10:11 AM

I'm dating myself, but the Ultima games were fantastic, particularly IV, V, and VII.

Edit: Ultima IV (http://www.the-underdogs.org/game.php?gameid=2710)

Hamish McBagpipe

08-24-2005, 10:12 AM

[ QUOTE ]
As far as graphic type games, I would have to say the C64 had some decent ones that would now just look horrible!

[/ QUOTE ]

What's wrong with this?!? This is Alien Taxi for the TRS-80.

http://www.webweavers.co.nz/system-80/software_alient.gif

I believe Taipan is the game you are thinking about with the trading of opium. Here's a shot of that one.

http://www.webweavers.co.nz/system-80/software_taipan.gif

The C64 was obviously a giant leap forward in graphics. Look at the space age reality of the extremely popular Lode Runner.

http://entropymine.com/jason/lr/screenshots/c64.gif

Hamish McBagpipe

08-24-2005, 10:16 AM

Oh man, I had to add this while looking at "vintage" (not old) Vic-20 games. Shatner shilling for Commodore back in about '82.

http://www.8bitjoystick.com/archives/photos/WilliamShatnetandtheVic20.jpg

Freakin

08-24-2005, 10:21 AM

Starcon2, XCom, Jagged Alliance

I still play Starcon2. There was finally a decent port released for windows.

Freakin

TheWorstPlayer

08-24-2005, 10:22 AM

Wizardry (PC) - can you say unlimited XP?
Xyphus (Mac) - awesome game

Freakin

08-24-2005, 10:22 AM

And best game on that list is Wolfenstein: ET. It's a killer game (though I had a lot of fun playing various tribes mods for many months).

Freakin

Piper Tim

08-24-2005, 10:26 AM

Home of the Underdogs (http://www.the-underdogs.org/) is a great place. Tons of abandoned games for free. I think they have all the old Infocom titles, many of which I actually played on a TRS-80. They are still great! There a ton of other abandonware sites (GOOGLE it) that have some classics as well.

They also have Ancient Art of War, another classic.

gk2400

08-24-2005, 12:43 PM

How about Pirates on C-64
Also Three Stooges & RocketRanger
Great Games

swede123

08-24-2005, 12:49 PM

What was that C-64 sports game called, where you'd surf, skateboard, hacky sack, and what-not? That game was lots of fun.

Swede

Hiding

08-24-2005, 01:00 PM

Tunnels of Doom and Parsec on the TI-99/4A

gumpzilla

08-24-2005, 01:03 PM

[ QUOTE ]
Home of the Underdogs (http://www.the-underdogs.org/) is a great place. Tons of abandoned games for free. I think they have all the old Infocom titles, many of which I actually played on a TRS-80. They are still great! There a ton of other abandonware sites (GOOGLE it) that have some classics as well.

[/ QUOTE ]

Underdogs is an awesome site, I highly recommend it.

Two old games that I'd recommend that you can get there are Dungeon Master and Sundog. Dungeon Master is incredibly good looking for a game that came out in 1985 or so and is still a blast.

TheMainEvent

08-24-2005, 01:09 PM

Anyone else miss all the old lucasarts adventure games?

offTopic

08-24-2005, 01:34 PM

[ QUOTE ]
Bard's Tale

[/ QUOTE ]

You face 99 Berserkers, 99
Berserkers, 99 Berserkers,
and 99 Berserkers!

The Berserkers Advance!

The Berserkers Advance!

The Berserkers Advance!

dibbs

08-24-2005, 01:36 PM

Was always a Day of the Tentacle/ Sam and Max hit the road fan.

swede123

08-24-2005, 01:38 PM

[ QUOTE ]
Anyone else miss all the old lucasarts adventure games?

[/ QUOTE ]

I freakin' miss Lucasart's greatest games ever: X-Wing and Tie Fighter. Damn, those were awesome. How cool would it be if they did a new update of those games, with new graphics and all that but the same basic game play. That would kick ass.

Swede

dibbs

08-24-2005, 01:38 PM

exactly my thoughts. Day of Tentacle, Sam and max were incredible. there were others I forget them now though.

fnord_too

08-24-2005, 01:48 PM

Some random thoughts:

If you are not familiar with MAME, check it out. Emulator for old arcade games, you can run the actual games if you can find a download of the ROMS (and IIRC, that is an easy thing to do. DAPHNE is the same thing form laser discs, but I never really got that working. Now that I think of it I need to....)

Someone out there hosts all the old Infocom games (at least as of a couple of years ago). You hit his site and play them provided no one else is using the license for that particular game.

Damn you to hell, I only ever played Marathon 2 of the series, and now I see I can play all three for free (which is going to be a huge, unavoidable, waste of time for me). Marathon 2 I recall as being about the best in that genre, though that may just be memory glorifying it. My memory has it blowing the hell out of Doom 3 for playability and entertainment.)

Edit-
Oh yeah, all the old Wizardry titles came with wizardry 8 when I bought that like 5 or 6 years ago.

Smarty

08-24-2005, 02:05 PM

I was about to say DoTT, but I guess someone beat me to it.

Amid Cent

08-24-2005, 02:05 PM

[ QUOTE ]
Bard's Tale

[/ QUOTE ]

Remember in Bard's Tale 2?

"What is the value of Rote actions?"

Stupidest F****G question in the history of questions.

MrWookie47

08-24-2005, 02:08 PM

[ QUOTE ]
Xcom. Best old school game ever, trust me.

[/ QUOTE ]

I agree 100%. Man, I sure logged a whole lot of hours in that game. I also second the sentiment for X-Wing and TIE Fighter.

Slow Play Ray

08-24-2005, 02:11 PM

Not a computer game, but my buddy and I STILL play Excitebike when we're drinking and bored.

turbo + jump + jump + turbo + jump + finish line + 8 laps = hours of entertainment. still.

TheMainEvent

08-24-2005, 02:12 PM

I always though LOOM was underrated.

miajag81

08-24-2005, 02:18 PM

This thread inspired me to look for my favorite old-school turn-based wargame, The Perfect General, online. It appears some douche has purchased the rights to it and is selling it for $20 a pop. Lame.

TheBlueMonster

08-24-2005, 02:19 PM

Sam and Max Hit the Road!!

kenberman

08-24-2005, 02:22 PM

Summer Games was great, slightly better than Winter Games (both EA). C64 versions were great.

I was a world class swimmer, and was also good at the freestyle ski jump.

Nowadays, I prefer NHL 94

/images/graemlins/smile.gif

AndysDaddy

08-24-2005, 02:24 PM

I'll chime in with M.U.L.E. and Archon (I think - it was like chess, but captures were fought out instead of automatic).

I loved those games - especially M.U.L.E. - Four player games were totally awsome!
--
Scott

BottlesOf

08-24-2005, 02:31 PM

1 ft. 6 inches??? FORD THE RIVER!

davelin

08-24-2005, 02:31 PM

[ QUOTE ]
[ QUOTE ]
Bard's Tale

[/ QUOTE ]

Remember in Bard's Tale 2?

"What is the value of Rote actions?"

Stupidest F****G question in the history of questions.

[/ QUOTE ]

Didn't get that fair in 2. I pwned number 3 though.

PTjvs

08-24-2005, 02:49 PM

the only correct answer here is Angband. ASCII graphics > all.

http://img135.imageshack.us/img135/3672/angband5sl.gif

Packerfan1

08-24-2005, 02:50 PM

On the double 5 1/4 inch floppy drives even!

Wow, talk about dating myself.

Pack

Slacker13

08-24-2005, 02:58 PM

Might and Magic II DOS 1988

Hamish McBagpipe

08-24-2005, 03:08 PM

[ QUOTE ]
What was that C-64 sports game called, where you'd surf, skateboard, hacky sack, and what-not? That game was lots of fun.

[/ QUOTE ]

Footbag, Surfing, BMX, Rollerskating, Skateboard, and Frisbee all on California Games. Nice.

http://screenmania.retrogames.com/c64/01/c64_0029_08.png

08-24-2005, 03:27 PM

This post motivated me to download a NES emulater (Nintendo), and about 1000 ROM's, I'm in heaven

Just hearing the music to my favourites has made me happier than I can remember being for a long time

Played Mega-Man 2, remembered exactly how to beat Wood-Man's level (I always started with him), and it's the first time I've played it in over 10 years, makes me wonder how much of my brain computer games have taken up

Lawrence Ng

08-24-2005, 03:36 PM

Archon for tehwin

Lawrence

DonBaker

08-24-2005, 03:42 PM

that was a nice game!!!
i have played soooo much a this game!!
and Ultima serie too..

oh yeah and i forgot one of the best...

Wing Commander!

Shajen

08-24-2005, 03:53 PM

Shining Force out there anywhere?

I'd love to play that game again. Sadly, I can't search from work. Anyone hook a brother up?

ddubois

08-24-2005, 04:22 PM

I still play Nethack occasionally. The statement that going back and playing old games kills the nostalgia and that they won't be any fun is utter bullshit. If anything, earlier games' simplicity makes them superior to today's games, not worse. Today's games are bloatware. Develoeprs feel compelled to continually add more and more features to justify releasing new software. But imagine playing "New Tetris 6, now with 27 shapes and desctructable boxes!" Sometimes more is not better.

durron597

08-24-2005, 04:24 PM

[ QUOTE ]
[ QUOTE ]
the best game ever created in the history of computer games... Starcontrol II.

[/ QUOTE ]

I agree, also liked the orginal Civilization, that game was just as good

[/ QUOTE ]

No it wasn't, but it was quite good. StarControl II = best game evar.

durron597

08-24-2005, 04:26 PM

[ QUOTE ]
[ QUOTE ]
Xcom. Best old school game ever, trust me.

[/ QUOTE ]

I agree 100%.

[/ QUOTE ]

I was so, so, so bad at this game. It was the only game I ever put a lot of hours into and never got at least decent at /images/graemlins/frown.gif

durron597

08-24-2005, 04:27 PM

[ QUOTE ]
the only correct answer here is Angband. ASCII graphics > all.

[/ QUOTE ]

Don't you mean nethack? (http://www.nethack.org/)

Piper Tim

08-24-2005, 04:48 PM

[ QUOTE ]

Someone out there hosts all the old Infocom games (at least as of a couple of years ago). You hit his site and play them provided no one else is using the license for that particular game.

[/ QUOTE ]

Another site has all of them for download. Each one takes up a minute amount of space. Awesome games, all of them. I spent hours playing them one winter a year or two ago. Nobody has ever come close to creating games with great stories and problem solving as Infocom did.

Sarge85

08-24-2005, 05:10 PM

[ QUOTE ]
Bard's Tale

[/ QUOTE ]

Dave G.

08-24-2005, 05:50 PM

Yes, the Lucasarts adventure games were awesome. Indiana Jones and the Fate of Atlantis was great. I wonder whatever happened to those really great adventure games; has anything comparable even been released in a while?

Anyway, for all you Starcontrol II fans, this may not be news but if it is you'll be glad you read it. Head over to The Ur-Quan Masters (http://sc2.sourceforge.net) site, which is an open source remake of the original SC2. It's just a straight up port of the old game that runs on Windows. They've done an awesome job - it runs almost flawlessly from start to end.