RETRO-BLAST 90s

[PlanktonSideburns]

Loving this series

[Mister Six]

I think the only one of these games I ever played was Hired Guns, which had a four-way split screen for a separate view of each character. It also had REALLY SPOOKY ambient sound of twigs breaking and things rustling through the undergrowth in the dark around you that made me CACK MYSELF.

[Lemming]

Hired Guns is on the list! Never played it, but a game can't be bad if the cover art shows a bunch of people shooting the logo apart.

Game for 1992 will be THE SUMMONING


This is actually the sequel to 1990's DarkSpyre, a game I started playing then thought "this is shit" and stopped after 20 minutes. This looks way better, though, so full speed ahead.

I like how "our inventory interface isn't total shit and has mouse support" is a selling point for the game.

[PlanktonSideburns]

The whole poster seems like an apology for a previous complicated clunky game

[Lemming]

"Sorry our last game was finnicky as fuck" does seem to be both the selling point and the main design philosophy they're working with. Reading the manual now in preparation and this was nice to see, especially having just played Eye of the Beholder:

[PlanktonSideburns]

I like the honesty of it

[Lemming]

STOP PUTTING POISONOUS SPIDERS IN VIDEOGAMES THAT HAVE AN EXTREMELY LIMITED NUMBER OF ANTIDOTES. I'M NOT HAVING FUN!!! As a bonus, poison in this game causes you to become "confused" which means you can't control the fucking character, so you try to run away and instead turn and walk into five other poisonous spiders.

This game is excellent though, spider bastards aside.

[madhair60]

do chips challenge

[Lemming]

chips challenge

Ooh, MobyGames says it's a 1989 release, but was ported to DOS in 1990. I'd say that counts as 90s, so I'll chuck it on THE LIST.

[madhair60]

there's a win 3.1 version, Entertainment Pack 4

[gabrielconroy]

Really enjoying these. May I formally request as a companion to Wing Commander the great 1996 FMV-heavy masterpiece

PRIVATEER 2: THE DARKENING

I believe I shouldn't need to say more than it stars Clive Owen, Christopher Walken, Brian Blessed and John Hurt.

[Lemming]

On the list! Speaking of FMV-heavy games, I've also got "Mission Critical", starring TV legend Michael "Worf" Dorn*, as well as Patricia Charbonneau of lesbian classic "Desert Hearts" fame. Can't go wrong.

*possibly filmed when he was trapped in limbo between the end of Star Trek TNG and the start of his stint on DS9

[Wonderful Butternut]

Adding Master of Magic (1994) or Master of Magic Classic as it's now known to the list of potential games.

Basically CIV 1 smashed into Magic: The Gathering.

[madhair60]

any chance.

of a bit of.

crusader no remorse.

[madhair60]

my nominatés:

Bad Mojo
Blood Omen: Legacy of Kain
Carmageddon
Crusader: No Remorse
Eric the Unready
I Have No Mouth and I Must Scream
Jazz Jackrabbit
Magic Carpet
MDK
Oddworld: Abe's Oddysee
Rayman 2: The Great Escape
Take No Prisoners
Theme Hospital
Time Commando
Tomb Raider
Zork Nemesis

i haven't checked the rules sorry

[Lemming]

Adding Master of Magic (1994) or Master of Magic Classic as it's now known to the list of potential games.

Love Master of Magic, used to watch my cousin play it and go absolutely apeshit at the summoning animations.

any chance.

of a bit of.

crusader no remorse.

Yes!

my nominatés:

All great, I think I'm gonna do Tomb Raider for 1996 on this first run-through because it's mint.

I'd forgotten about Take No Prisoners, used to love that shit. Along with MageSlayer, the cover art of which entranced me as a kid (the game itself less so).

[Mister Six]

It's odd how much of an impression Take No Prisoners had on me, given that I only played the demo. I should dig it up. I assume it's abandonware now.

[seepage]

Adding Master of Magic (1994) or Master of Magic Classic as it's now known to the list of potential games.

I used to play the similar Age of Wonders (1999) via PBEM!

[seepage]

anyone mentioned UFO: Enemy Unknown aka XCOM (1994) yet?

going to fire up Jagged Alliance from the following year to see if it's as good as I remember

[madhair60]

It's odd how much of an impression Take No Prisoners had on me, given that I only played the demo. I should dig it up. I assume it's abandonware now.

as of quite recently it's on gog!

[Lemming]

Still playing The Summoning and loving it, but it's a long game - there's 40 levels and I've only fully covered 9 so far!

So, there's time to fit another, shorter game in alongside The Summoning. Might as well look at 1993's ShadowCaster, Raven Software's second ever game!

It's astonishing that all these old adverts proudly say "we've streamlined everything, we've made it easier to play" as a selling point. For the record, I think they're absolutely right and I think not having to fuck about with the spell memorising stuff of the AD&D Gold Box games genuinely is a great selling point. But it's funny how older games have developed a reputation for being somehow more intricate and "deep", when in actuality both devs and consumers seemed to actively desire a degree of streamlining, and the obtuseness of older games seems to be far more by accident than design.

Also, check out the cover:


One for the awful game covers thread. That's a masterclass in getting people to not play your game. Especially when you compare it with the gorgeous Gerald Brom artwork they used for Heretic just a year later.

[seepage]

Another awful Origin game cover. October 1989 so just misses the window

[Mister Six]

anyone mentioned UFO: Enemy Unknown aka XCOM (1994) yet?

going to fire up Jagged Alliance from the following year to see if it's as good as I remember

I had Jagged Alliance: Deadly Games, which I absolutely loved. The idea of giving each Merc their own personality and quirks was brilliant, like the medic who'd have a breakdown and leave your team if he had to kill anyone, or the biker who'd refuse to wear a bulletproof vest because it'd mean giving up his beloved leather jacket. IIRC the handsome rogue guy would sometimes just steal a load of your money and piss off on holiday for a few missions, and if you had the sexy lady operator she'd join him (and if you fired one of them, they'd both quit).

Level editor was fun too.

[seepage]

^ yes, someone used to send me letters via the medium of Jagged Alliance levels on floppy disk in the post, which was weird

[Wonderful Butternut]

Love Master of Magic, used to watch my cousin play it and go absolutely apeshit at the summoning animations.

Summoning animations in the new version (which is nearly a blow for blow modernised remake, not like that 'Planar Conquest' shit) suck ass, unfortunately.

[PlanktonSideburns]

take no prisoners looks amazing

[Video Game Fan 2000]

take no prisoners looks amazing

played the fuck out of this one

think it was one where the shareware version just lacked certain files so you could play the full game just by dragging the maps into a folder

[Mr_Simnock]

Gaming in the 1990's for me went from lots of different console and game creators to the start of the PS and XBOX dominance, I preferred it before that dominance set in, I find most of todays gaming world all a bit boring in comparison.

[Mr_Simnock]

It was also the decade of the failed hardware such as the crackers Apple Pippin

[Lemming]

Instantly killed by a dude holding his own decapitated head that turns you to stone. Many such cases!

Started ShadowCaster too, interesting game. My main impression of it is that it's amazing that Raven got their shit together so fast for Heretic/Hexen right afterwards.