Author Topic: Old Computer Games (Read 19246 times)

MojoJojo · « **Reply #60 on:** November 03, 2009, 11:20:39 AM »

Gauntlet?

Marvin · « **Reply #61 on:** November 03, 2009, 12:07:42 PM »

Golden Axe?

biggytitbo · « **Reply #62 on:** November 03, 2009, 12:42:02 PM »

Dark Seal?

bennett · « **Reply #63 on:** November 03, 2009, 12:59:40 PM »

Quote from: Marvin on November 03, 2009, 12:07:42 PM

Golden Axe?

that's the one. brilliant.

Angst in my Pants · « **Reply #64 on:** November 03, 2009, 01:08:54 PM »

From the mere mention of "Dizzy" on the previous page I now have the music to "Fantasy World Dizzy" going through my head - I'm surprised I remember it from so long ago. I loved those Dizzy games, cracking stuff.

Look out, it's a very scary dragon!

Before the Spectrum I had an Acorn Electron. Oh yes. My favourites were:

Repton (especially the later versions where you could design your own levels)

Chuckie Egg

and XOR, which for some reason I always thought was particularly classy.

Oh! And Magic Mushrooms, another one with a fabby little level designer.

Garfield And Friends · « **Reply #65 on:** November 03, 2009, 02:39:43 PM »

Codename: Droid Longplay Part 1 of 3

Codename Droid was a great platform action adventure game on the BBC Micro.

El Unicornio, mang · « **Reply #66 on:** November 03, 2009, 02:50:27 PM »

I liked this game a lot as it had the sandbox feel which was quite rare at the time

Dustin

ZX SPECTRUM DUSTIN

Similarly, the Great Escape

Inept Reviews: The Great Escape (ZX Spectrum)

Shoulders?-Stomach! · « **Reply #67 on:** November 03, 2009, 02:55:55 PM »

BBC Micro game Strykers Run

Stryker's Run for the BBC Micro, as adroitly pointed out somewhat of a 'thinking man's Halo'

Check out the awesome music for this too. A Superior Software classic.

Phil_A · « **Reply #68 on:** November 03, 2009, 04:43:50 PM »

Hmm. Seems youtube has no footage of Spy Cat, Superior's bewildering espionage puzzle game. It wouldn't have been so bad except the instructions didn't actually tell you what to do. Maybe if I'd played it as an adult, I would've been able to guess that by standing on certain sections of floor and using the mysterious "extra" button you could make things happen, but how's a kid supposed to know that? All I remember is running frustratedly from room to room as my health got lower and lower, wondering why I couldn't get anywhere. It was cruel, man. Just cruel.

Here's a bit of Captain Dynamo instead. Great music.

Captain Dynamo - Intro music and first level

Garfield And Friends · « **Reply #69 on:** November 03, 2009, 05:54:14 PM »

Quote from: Phil_A on November 03, 2009, 04:43:50 PM

Hmm. Seems youtube has no footage of Spy Cat, Superior's bewildering espionage puzzle game. It wouldn't have been so bad except the instructions didn't actually tell you what to do. Maybe if I'd played it as an adult, I would've been able to guess that by standing on certain sections of floor and using the mysterious "extra" button you could make things happen, but how's a kid supposed to know that? All I remember is running frustratedly from room to room as my health got lower and lower, wondering why I couldn't get anywhere. It was cruel, man. Just cruel.

Heh, I remember Spy Cat! Some nice chunky four-colour graphics, as was the BBC Micro's stock in trade.

To expand on your point, I think so many of the early-to-mid 1980s home computer/video games were made wickedly difficult or without progress hints precisely because they were primitive affairs (constrained by the hugely underpowered hardware they were written for) and the programmers used such player-unfriendliness as a proxy for game length. 'Value for your £9.95.'

Nowawawadays with games typically being 20/30/40+ hour efforts, they've gone the other way and made themselves very player friendly with regard to difficultly (low) and objectives (hints and 'route funnels' everywhere). 'Every person can be a game winner now.'

Slaaaaabs · « **Reply #70 on:** November 03, 2009, 06:53:54 PM »

Fuck Chase HQ, Turbo Esprit was the real daddy of police pursuit games!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=13AhaXsKEmY#t=00m24s

biggytitbo · « **Reply #71 on:** November 03, 2009, 07:02:08 PM »

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vSTO4Qtyanc

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BDK5nkHrczc&feature=related

DJ Solid Snail · « **Reply #72 on:** November 03, 2009, 07:04:10 PM »

I'd do nearly anything to get another shot at The Magic Telephone Box, a text adventure for the BBC Micro - not completing it is right up there with the top unfinished achievements of my life. It was something I'd played at school, long before I had any kind of console - we'd get to play it if we finished what we were doing, so I'd rush through my work, jump right back into it, of course starting from scratch and remembering what to do from last time, getting a little further, before getting firmly stuck again. One of these days I ought to drop in and ask if they've still got it, and if I can take it off their hands, since it's utterly impossible to find it anywhere.

jimmy jazz · « **Reply #73 on:** November 03, 2009, 07:23:37 PM »

I remember an old game for the Acorn that I'd love to complete. You were an Archaeologist that had to go back in time whenever you found something, like papyrus paper, and find out what it did.

I also remember a game called Betsy or something, you were a dog in Tudor times. I'd love to master the old educational games I had to play.

hpmons · « **Reply #74 on:** November 04, 2009, 08:54:51 PM »

Quote from: biggytitbo on October 30, 2009, 10:08:03 PM

Although in terms of computer games narrative, I have to shout out a virtually forgotten but amazingly influential game called the 'Last Express'. I remember playing this for hours, it has a genuine in depth plot, brilliant characters and a well realized story. All knitted together in incredibly well done rotoscoped graphics. Does anyone remember it? I don't think many of today's narrative driven games would be possible without it.

I had never heard of it until you made that post, and yet now I feel like I am seeing it constantly mentioned every game website I look at! Really, its truly bizarre. Must play it.

biggytitbo · « **Reply #75 on:** November 04, 2009, 09:14:06 PM »

Quote from: hpmons on November 04, 2009, 08:54:51 PM

I had never heard of it until you made that post, and yet now I feel like I am seeing it constantly mentioned every game website I look at! Really, its truly bizarre. Must play it.

it is really influential, because it was pretty much the first game that had a proper interactive, fluid plot, that was influenced by the choices the player made. It was the blue print for all subsequent interactive plot driven games, but I think few did it as well.

hpmons · « **Reply #76 on:** December 20, 2009, 12:19:59 AM »

I've just started playing Riven. Yeah! Riven! RIVEN! Y'know, that one that's the best out of the whole Myst series and has gorgeous music and cool live-action characters and that lovely bit where you ride in a glass carriage thing over the sea! And one under the sea as well I think!

From what I remember it has about five different endings. And that great sense of "less is more" - you rarely see people or creatures, so when you do it seems super cool. I remember years ago I had the demo of Riven and just kept on replaying the bit where you see two sea creatures.

It also comes with The Journeyman Project 3 demo! God I've always wanted to play that game, it looks so cool. I've always loved games with live action characters, THERE ARE ACTUAL PEOPLE ON MY COMPUTER SCREEN IN THIS GAME!

Baxter · « **Reply #77 on:** December 20, 2009, 01:51:12 AM »

I had a dream about the journeyman project just the other day, It was a dream in which i was thinking about how much I disliked the captured Egyptian captain on the boat in Atlantis, and then I was meta-thinking that I only disliked him because he initially took badly to be because I was disguised as the taxi-boatman, and then I was meta-thinking about how although one can be perfectly conscious of fiction and lies they still can affect your judgement and reactions and then I must have woken up.

I miss 1997.

thecuriousorange · « **Reply #78 on:** December 20, 2009, 02:35:59 AM »

I'm all about this:

The grappling system in this series of games still shits on what exists today. Easy to pick up and play, but also nuanced. And the characters were so satisfyingly big and chunky.

Skip to 4.40 in the vid for the actual rasslin.

WCW nWo Revenge N64 Epic Tribute w/ Entrances & Finishers

hpmons · « **Reply #79 on:** December 20, 2009, 01:47:23 PM »

Quote from: Baxter on December 20, 2009, 01:51:12 AM

I had a dream about the journeyman project just the other day, It was a dream in which i was thinking about how much I disliked the captured Egyptian captain on the boat in Atlantis, and then I was meta-thinking that I only disliked him because he initially took badly to be because I was disguised as the taxi-boatman, and then I was meta-thinking about how although one can be perfectly conscious of fiction and lies they still can affect your judgement and reactions and then I must have woken up.

I miss 1997.

Do you actually own JP, or used to own it, or downloaded it, or...what?

I remember when I was young the trailer thing looked so cool, and it's stuck in my head all these years. I think I originally got the demo off the Prince of Persia 2 CD - which also had the demos for Riven and...Warlords III: Darklords Rising I think. Looking it up, it seems the most recent of the Warlords series is some strange RPG/puzzle game.

I also played a bit of Creatures 3 the other day. I never owned it, though a friend did when I was younger. The world itself is really cool, you can connect loads of items together and the ecosystem seems to work quite well. The actual handling of Norns is pretty poor though, you can't seem to see confusing pages of data about them like you could in Creatures 1 and 2. I love confusing things I don't understand!

TedCunn · « **Reply #80 on:** December 20, 2009, 02:23:07 PM »

My oldest memories are of playing games. I started playing when I was four, before I could really read or write. We had a Spectrum 128k, my best friend had an Atari 2600 and, for one memorable summer, we owned a Space Invaders arcade machine (the one that was like a table, with controls on both sides).

People say to me that I didn't know any better at the time. What looked and seemed amazing back then is just shit now.

And I have to disagree. Because I thought it was shit back then as well.

I remember going to the arcade and playing Outrun. It always annoyed me that the most exciting stuff seemed to be way off in the distance. I always wanted to reach that city and be able to drive through it. And not just down one road, but be able to explore it. Maybe get out of the car and be able to go into buildings.

So, basically, it took games until about Grand Theft Auto 3 to catch up with what I wanted.

And nowadays, with my PlayStation 3 and XBox 360, I've never been happier. I just logged 200 hours playing through Fallout 3 and all its expansion packs. As far as I'm concerned, that's the sort of game I want. Not a shitty platformer, with flickery graphics and four colours onscreen where everything kills you instantly. I had more than enough of that when I was a child.

Baxter · « **Reply #81 on:** December 20, 2009, 02:38:12 PM »

Quote from: hpmons on December 20, 2009, 01:47:23 PM

Do you actually own JP, or used to own it, or downloaded it, or...what?

I bought it on the strength of the demo that shipped with riven, all my hard-earned pocket money.

I'm sure I recall breeding sickle cell Norns in creatures 3, i think perhaps you have to get down into the shee labs before you can access all of the fun splicing and direct modification of all their chemical levels, possibly you needed additional downloaded objects to do this (while watching every byte tick by over 56k).

session9 · « **Reply #82 on:** December 20, 2009, 04:35:34 PM »

Quote from: TedCunn on December 20, 2009, 02:23:07 PM

I remember going to the arcade and playing Outrun. It always annoyed me that the most exciting stuff seemed to be way off in the distance. I always wanted to reach that city and be able to drive through it. And not just down one road, but be able to explore it. Maybe get out of the car and be able to go into buildings.

Sounds like you just wanted a car.

TedCunn · « **Reply #83 on:** December 20, 2009, 05:31:34 PM »

Quote from: session9 on December 20, 2009, 04:35:34 PM

Sounds like you just wanted a car.

I also wanted to be able to run around and shoot people from a first-person perspective, as was later fulfilled the first time I got my hands on Doom. Does that mean I just wanted a gun?

Also, given this was when I was between five and ten years old, I think it would have been a lot easier and safer to have just got the video game I wanted.

session9 · « **Reply #84 on:** December 20, 2009, 06:32:15 PM »

Quote from: TedCunn on December 20, 2009, 05:31:34 PM

I also wanted to be able to run around and shoot people from a first-person perspective, as was later fulfilled the first time I got my hands on Doom. Does that mean I just wanted a gun?

Also, given this was when I was between five and ten years old, I think it would have been a lot easier and safer to have just got the video game I wanted.

Whatever. Maybe you were born too soon! Or maybe you were just unrealistic in your expectations. Plus, "safer" I can agree with, but "easier"? To develop GTA3 on 1980s technology? Really? Source code or GTFO.

rudi · « **Reply #85 on:** December 20, 2009, 07:46:34 PM »

if 'someone' wanteed to play the first GTA on their PC for old-time's-sake is there a free way of achieving thus?

mikeyg27 · « **Reply #86 on:** December 20, 2009, 07:53:27 PM »

Quote from: rudi on December 20, 2009, 07:46:34 PM

if 'someone' wanteed to play the first GTA on their PC for old-time's-sake is there a free way of achieving thus?

Yes, and legally too. Go here.

rudi · « **Reply #87 on:** December 20, 2009, 07:57:11 PM »

Now I'm going to have to sleep with you. That'll teach you to be lovely...

TedCunn · « **Reply #88 on:** December 20, 2009, 08:18:32 PM »

Quote from: session9 on December 20, 2009, 06:32:15 PM

Whatever. Maybe you were born too soon! Or maybe you were just unrealistic in your expectations. Plus, "safer" I can agree with, but "easier"? To develop GTA3 on 1980s technology? Really? Source code or GTFO.

It didn't have to be GTA 3, that was just an example. I just wanted something more than what we got. I wouldn't call that being unrealistic, I would call that wanting better. And it worked out great, because I did get it.

Oh yeah, and 'whatever' to you as well.

session9 · « **Reply #89 on:** December 20, 2009, 09:17:56 PM »

Sorry, I was being a belligerent tosser for a little while (since the mid 1970s to be more accurate, but I digress). I, too, wanted better games than the ones that were being released. However, I took the added crucial step of attempting to write said better games, and found that it wasn't as easy as it might have seemed. When you can't put more than 8 moving things on screen without flickering and jerkiness, you soon learn to forget about turning your Elite-meets-GTA dream game into a reality. So I just wrote some fairly ropey old interactive fiction games, and waited for David Braben to stop procrastinating and get on with Elite 4 (still waiting, David).

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Author Topic: Old Computer Games (Read 19246 times)