RETRO-BLAST 90s

[Lemming]

(other equally dire thread titles considered included "GAMEWAVE", "PLAYBACK 90s", "DOS-PLOSION", and one that came to me while drifting in and out of sleep, the inexplicable "CRACK THE 90s")

Were the 1990s the greatest decade for gaming? The question will be answered once and for all as we investigate the gaming landscape of the 90s, with an approach best described as "let's play any old shit". It's a thread for playing and reviewing 90s games, basically.

No chronological order approach or anything like that, let's just pick anything that's interesting, released anywhere from January 1st 1990 to December 31st 1999. I'll give links to shareware and abandonware games where possible so people can play along, but sadly, the villains at GoG.com have bought up a lot of licenses for old games and forbidden them from being shared freely on abandonware sites (but don't let that stop you, if you get what I mean).

Have no idea how we'll decide games, maybe vote if enough people want to play along. But it makes sense to start with 1990's Wing Commander. It's gonna be worth looking at magazine ads for each game, just because some of them could get so shocking and bizarre. Wing Commander's is, mercifully, simply screenshots of the game with big talk about what hot shit it all is.



That's right, we're going to be ducking from starships on the screen, just like old-timey dipshits who run out of the cinema when a train approaches in a film!

Wonder if it's too late to call for the FREE Flight Cap - it's only been 33 years, there might be a couple left.

[seepage]

I wasted most of 1990 playing Harpoon but it was released in 1989. There is Harpoon Classic 97 however.

[seepage]

something topical from 1991:

[Mister Six]

Just throwing down a load of names here based on a series of lazy Google searches - most of them I haven't played, some I haven't heard of, but think they'd be entertaining to play/read about, even for a little bit. I'm skipping the obvious ones like Sonic, Monkey Island, Mario World etc but they're probably worth considering too:

1990
Smash TV (trash, but fun trash)
Castle of Illusion (lushly animated Mickey/Donald platformer)
Sex Olympics (no idea, but c'mon!)

1991
Lotus Turbo Challenge 2 (on the Amiga, mostly for the soundtrack)
The Simpsons (arcade game)
Another World
Elvira 2: Jaws of Cerberus (DIGITISED TITS!!!!!)
Battletoads (just kidding... or am I?)

1992
Splatterhouse 2
Kid Klown in Night Mayor World (just because of the name, it's almost certainly dogshit)
Night Trap
Dark Seed

1993
Return to Zork
Police Quest: Open Season (IIRC this one is the transphobic one written by some mental right-wing cop)
RoboCop versus The Terminator

1994
Panic! (aka Switch, unrelated to another Mega CD game, Double Switch)
Shaq Fu
Mary Shelley's Frankenstein
Hotel Mario
Under a Killing Moon

1995
Phantasmagoria
I Have No Mouth and I Must Scream
Brain Dead 13

1996
The Neverhood
Ripper
Derby Stallion '96

1997
Grand Theft Auto
Lego Island
Independence Day

1998
Apocalypse (starring Bruce Willis!)
The X-Files Game (disappointed to realise this is the FMV game I'd totally forgotten about, not the 2004 Resident Evil-a-like subtitled Resist or Serve)
Spice World

1999
Grand Theft Auto 2 (I don't know anyone who ever played this)
Pepsiman
Omikron: The Nomad Soul (the first David Cage game)

[The Culture Bunker]

I picked up a Wing Comannder/Wing Commander 2 (plus the add ons) package in the mid 90s and it blew my mind: just everything I wanted from a game, with the storyline giving the sense of being on the front line of a space war, great characters and the combat was exciting. There was also the element, which no longer exists, of getting the manual disguised as a magazine so you had something to read on the way home.

I checked out with WC3 because I hated the FHV stuff and the somehow the updated graphics lost something of the charm of the first two installments. Strike Commander, which was kind of a partner game set in the near future, was fab though.

Scrolling through the PS store looking for something to play this morning, I was reminded it's a long time since I was excited about a game. Could be age, could be that all the good ideas have gone and there's only recycled nostalgia left for us who can't be arsed with online stuff.

[Lemming]

something topical from 1991:

That "1973 - ?" on the cover art is brutal.

Just throwing down a load of names here based on a series of lazy Google searches - most of them I haven't played, some I haven't heard of, but think they'd be entertaining to play/read about, even for a little bit.

Some great ideas here - elated to see Lego Island, which I remember being deliciously naff (Lego Island 2 however is straightforwardly the best game ever). Putting these on the BIG LIST. Another World is a spectacular game.

I checked out with WC3 because I hated the FHV stuff and the somehow the updated graphics lost something of the charm of the first two installments. Strike Commander, which was kind of a partner game set in the near future, was fab though.

That's how I feel about the series too, the filmic qualities of the first game are incredibly impressive, but as it goes on it increasingly feels like they just wanted to make a movie so bad that it couldn't even pass as a straight-to-TV thing, and so hid it inside their increasingly-outdated space combat game.

That said, watching Malcolm McDowell cringe his way through his whole subplot in WC4, reading out some of the most nonsensical shit of his whole career, makes the whole thing worth it.

[The Culture Bunker]

That's how I feel about the series too, the filmic qualities of the first game are incredibly impressive, but as it goes on it increasingly feels like they just wanted to make a movie so bad that it couldn't even pass as a straight-to-TV thing, and so hid it inside their increasingly-outdated space combat game.

Chris Roberts did get to make his film eventually. And that went great!

A couple of little details that were great about the first was that the Tiger's Claw looked like some beat up old warship, with the old vet behind the bar and the scoreboard on the wall where you could track yourself rising up the ranks. Plus the medals/ribbons were a nice touch - all of that sadly lost in WC2, though of course that had a stronger narrative.

[PlanktonSideburns]

Hell yea

[Video Game Fan 2000]

i think watching a building explode in Syndicate Wars was the most 90s gaming moment of the 90s

[druss]

Syndicate Wars was so damn good.

[dontpaintyourteeth]

Hell fucking yeah to I Have No Mouth and I Must Scream, nothing quite like that one

Either Phantasmagoria game would a lark.

Omikron is an interesting one too- Bowie's in it!

Pretty sure Blade Runner is abandonware if anyone's into it

[Video Game Fan 2000]

Syndicate Wars was so damn good.

one of my key gaming culture memories (and probably the "year punk broke" moment for PC gaming in my mind) is going into a branch of Game in London in 1996 around when the first Mario 64 demo kiosks were set up

and the front side of the shop was full of Syndicate Wars stuff. the window of the shop being mostly the Syndicate Wars. ultra minimal - just the fembot T1000 face and the typefae, more like PS2/Dreamcast era game advertising than 90s. the tvs show looping demos of the cinematic with buildings getting blowed up and the in-game drive ins.

i clearly remember going in and it being older guys pumped for Syndicate Wars and asking what console they needed for it. Mario 64 getting no attention even though it was brand new and Syndicate Wars was already out for months. i think that might of been the first time i played an N64 because no one gave a fuck so i could putz around in Thwomp's Fortress. unless im misremembering and i was just watching Thwomps Fortress on a monitor. but either way it was getting little to no attention and guy at the desk was fielding questions about Syndicate 2

Bullfrog really, really dropped the fucking ball in 1997.

[Lemming]

Played the 1993 Syndicate, but never played Syndicate Wars for some reason! It's going on THE LIST.

Was thinking for this thread, instead of ratings out of five, it could be a star system. Something like:
NO STAR = game is hard to recommend, either due to being shit or simply due to being too dated, derivative, unmemorable, etc
SILVER STAR = game is decent or good, but has some problems or is notably dated
GOLD STAR = game remains good to this day, can recommend it

[Mister Six]

That rating system looks good.

The talk of Bullfrog got me looking at their Wiki page, and among the hits that may well be worth considering (Dungeon Keeper, Theme Hospital, Theme Park) there was Magic Carpet - a game I coveted but didn't have a good enough rig to play - and a game I'd never heard of: THEME AQUARIUM!

What is that? No idea! PUT IT ON THE LIST!

And, just squeaking in with a 1999 Japan release date, this fucking guy:



SEAMAN!

[Lemming]

Magic Carpet was mint, I remember we had it along with Terminal Velocity. My brother liked the military feel of Terminal Velocity and I naturally gravitated towards the more fantasy-like, mystical aesthetic of Magic Carpet.

Dreamcast stuff will be awesome to check out; along with SEAMAN there's ChuChu Rocket and Shenmue both just narrowly making it in with November/December 1999 release dates.

[Video Game Fan 2000]

can we suggest 2D masterpieces too?

[Video Game Fan 2000]

[PlanktonSideburns]

TRJRNL?

[lazyhour]

[PlanktonSideburns]

WHERE DID YOU GET THAT ROBOT?

I built it myself, do you like it?

It's crap, son.

[Mister Six]

Magic Carpet was mint, I remember we had it along with Terminal Velocity. My brother liked the military feel of Terminal Velocity and I naturally gravitated towards the more fantasy-like, mystical aesthetic of Magic Carpet.

Dreamcast stuff will be awesome to check out; along with SEAMAN there's ChuChu Rocket and Shenmue both just narrowly making it in with November/December 1999 release dates.

Was Terminal Velocity the one where you could fly above the clouds? I played the demo of that over and over.

ChuChu rocket was a classic. But concerned that Shenmue will be a bit shite now we have the Yakuza games doing basically the same think minus all the tedium. Am I right in remembering that Shenmue only had a handful of fights in it?

WHERE WERE YOU ON THE DAY THE SNOW TURNED TO RAIN?

[Jerzy Bondov]

That rating system looks good.

The talk of Bullfrog got me looking at their Wiki page, and among the hits that may well be worth considering (Dungeon Keeper, Theme Hospital, Theme Park) there was Magic Carpet - a game I coveted but didn't have a good enough rig to play - and a game I'd never heard of: THEME AQUARIUM!

What is that? No idea! PUT IT ON THE LIST!

Theme Aquarium wasn't actually developed by Bullfrog, it was made by Tose for PS1 in Japan only. There was a PC port later which was just renamed Aquarium. It's really not remotely up there with Park and Hospital. Here's an explanation

[oggyraiding]

Queen: The eYe is an odd one, and probably unlikely to get a proper port due to the music licensing. Didn't get far in it at the time, but it's like We Will Rock You but less shit and more weird. Third person action adventure with fixed camera angles. Also the first area the music is just the first 25 seconds of Made In Heaven on a loop which is cool. A very weird thing to have been made.

[seepage]

SSI titles:
1990: Eye of the Beholder [Dungeon Master-style game for PC]; Second Front: Germany Turns East [example strategic wargame]
1991: Neverwinter Nights [first MMORPG with graphics, don't know how you'd play it now, though]
1993: Dark Sun: Shattered Lands
1995: Steel Panthers [best example of a turn-based tactical wargame, iirc Stanley Kubrick intended making a film inspired by it]
1996: Su-27 Flanker [example flight sim]

Others:
1993: Master of Orion
1994: Genghis Khan II
1995: Jagged Alliance; Heroes of Might and Magic
1997: Emperor of the Fading Suns
1998: Warhammer: Dark Omen
1999: Age of Wonders

[mikeyg27]

Grand Theft Auto 2 (I don't know anyone who ever played this)

There was a time until quite recently where GTA 1 & 2 were free to download off the Rockstar website (and I think bundled with the PS2 era games on Steam). I remember enjoying GTA2 a lot but I think it had a nonsense save system.

Anyway, to add a game to the list: Future Cop: LAPD (1998). A game that knows that it's just about blowing shit up and doesn't try to get get cute. Pretty much just non-stop explosions.

Looking at the initial list: the change in gaming from the start of the 90s to the end is radical.

[Lemming]

But concerned that Shenmue will be a bit shite now we have the Yakuza games doing basically the same think minus all the tedium. Am I right in remembering that Shenmue only had a handful of fights in it?

I think it holds up; the pacing is very deliberate and slow and the fights are relatively rare, but it only starts to drag near the end when you're forced to work like three days of full shifts at the harbour. But then that leads to the ridiculous ending fight where 70 people rush you at once, so there's at least a huge cathartic payoff.

[Mister Six]

Looking at the initial list: the change in gaming from the start of the 90s to the end is radical.

I was thinking that. You go from Super Mario World and Monkey Island in 1990 to System Shock 2 and Omikron the Nomad Soul in 1999.

In 1990: Final Fantasy 3...



In 1999: Final Fantasy 8...



For comparison, GTA V was released in 2013 on Xbox 360, and again on PS5 nine years later with just a few graphical improvements...

[Lemming]

When doing the FPS thread I found the rate of technological progress to be astonishing. I still can't believe that Wolf 3D and Half-Life were just 6 years apart.





That's the same as the time between 2017 and now! I think the only innovation we've had in that time is RTX, which looks hugely variable.

[Wonderful Butternut]

Was Terminal Velocity the one where you could fly above the clouds? I played the demo of that over and over.

You could although there were only ~2 levels where there was stuff up there to blow up.

Suggestions:

1991/1992:
Street Fighter II

1992:
Star Trek: 25th Anniversary

1993:
Duke Nukem II
Simon the Sorcerer

1994:
TIE Fighter
Need for Speed (original one)
Raptor: Call of the Shadows

1995:
Sensible World of Soccer 95/96 European Championship Edition (best one, imo)
Terminal Velocity
Star Trek: TNG - A Final Unity (if you can get it working)
Simon the Sorcerer II


1998:
Jazz Jackrabbit 2

[Lemming]

Star Trek: TNG - A Final Unity (if you can get it working)

The release on Zomb's Lair has worked for me in the past, though I think my save still got somehow corrupted in the Chodak ruins right at the end. Good game though, definitely will include it in this thread alongside 25th Anniversary and Judgment Rites.