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Surely it can't be as huge as a ningi ?

I originally had a Commodore 64, but the first actual PC game I can remember playing and being addicted by was Castle of the Winds. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Castle_of_the_Winds

I received both games with my first IBM PS/2. It was the first game, after Solitare that I ever played on windows. I probably spent upwards of 100 hours playing through both games, and even have it loaded on my laptop right now.

Both games are now freeware and can be downloaded leagaly. (Drop the author, Rick Saada http://www.exmsft.com/~ricks/ , an e-mail if you like it.)

Be careful of these websites. They appear to be a bit underpowered to handle the slashdot effect.

http://www.the-underdogs.org/game.php?id=4403
http://wind.prohosting.com/cotwrpg/download.html
http://digital-eel.com/files/castlewind.zip
http://www.exmsft.com/~ricks/castl11a.zip
http://www.freewebs.com/castleofthewinds/Downloads .htm

Or a space exploration game where the universe is always different.

Try SAIS (Strange Adventures in Infinite Space)!

http://www.digital-eel.com/sais/files.htm

The common sentiment seems to be that the video game industry churns out nothing original, and has not for years. The article certainly reflects that. I suppose it isn't difficult to feel that way when you see so many licensed games and sequels on the market. Regardless, I have to voice my dissent.

If you look deeper at the underground independent games you will see a totally different situation. Just check out the one source for independents that sometimes gets kinda-sorta media attention, the Independent Games Festival. Look at last years winners such as Gish and Wik and the Fable of Souls. Intensly original and very fun. How about Strange Adventures in Infinite Space, a charming little game designed to be replayable, with each game finishing in about 5 minutes.

Go to The-Underdogs and just browse around their top-rated titles. There are tons of freebies that are top-notch, very fun, and quite original.

I feel that this situation can be compared to looking out your in your backyard vs traveling to the rainforest. If you sit at home and look in your yard you see tons of squirrels, moles, etc. You get jaded and start to say that there are no unique animals. Occasionally perhaps a deer, and you get worked up over something that isn't really that spectacular. But if you go out and really explore the more wild area you will find tons of great stuff. It is not brought to your doorstep, and it is quickly being eroded away, but it is out there. Just go look for it.

Actually while I do feel that the independent underground is the best source for creative original titles, there are tons of published games that 'fit the bill'. People loooooove to spoute Katamari left and right, and it is an original game, but how about.. Mizuguchi's line of original games (Lumines, Meteos, Rez). How about Wario Ware? How about Dance Dance Revolution? Even the Battlefield series added major innovations into the FPS genre (the huge scale of combat and variety of vehicles) and Guild Wars is an MMORPG that pretty much seems to go contrary to every other MMORPG on the market.

Finally, the 80's were not the golden age of game innovation that people give them credit for. Currently I am intently reading through a great book The Ultimate History of Video Games: From Pong to Pokemon. Long story short (I realize my post has already crossed from '?interesting? comment' into 'psychotic rant') the 80's original and innovative games were simply original and innovative because there were so few games created yet! Once any succsessful game formula was established, there were an incredible amount of clones. The fact that is true now, is true then. Popular games are copied, repeated, and sell like hotcakes. Pac-Man, for instance, was beat in coin-op sales only by Ms. Pac-Man! There is constantly an influx of new game ideas, the 80's arn't so special.

/prepares to be modded into oblivion by the legion of /.ers weaned in the arcades.

Given the overabundance of long, yet boring games, short games are my preference. One of my favorites allows you to "Explore the galaxy...in 20 minutes or less!" http://www.digital-eel.com/sais/

It is a game called Strange Adventures In Infinite Space. Excellent game, and done by a really small studio.

This is their site.

How infuriating! That is the name of one of my favorite games, "Strange Adventures in Infinite Space" which you can read about here.

By far, the best game for the wage slave is STRANGE ADVENTURES IN INFINITE SPACE. It's a space exploration game that never takes more than 20 minutes to play (usually less) and has random levels so it's always different. Great to come home, play a few games, and do whatever else you have to do.

(And, no, I don't work for them - I just really dig the game.)

PomPom have neato modernized clones/rehashes of Defender/Uridium and Robotron. Both are extremely pretty in that they don't fall into the now-standard be-as-naturalistic-as-possible trap ~ the graphics have an abstract and psychedelic feel to it that fit the simplistic arcade game concepts well.

"Egoboo is a 3d dungeon crawling adventure in the spirit of NetHack. It uses OpenGL and SDL. It should run on any Wintel, Unix, and MacOS X system." (I don't really see the Nethack semblance, but oh well. It's kinda wacky in a lovable sorta way.)

Starscape has some Asteroids-ish arcade sequences wrapped inside something more complex. Looks good.

Digital Eel's Strange Adventures In Infinite Space is a 2D Elite-esque space game (obviously) with, I thought, an emphasis on playability rather than complexity or sophisticated-ness. Link is to the screenshots page, they work as a description.

Spheres of Chaos might be a game but it looks quite like an early Amiga demoscene effort to me ~ psychedelic, chaotic, colourful and completely abstract. Something for the Jeff Minter fans maybe?

I own both "Strange Adventures In Infinite Space", by Cheapass Games, and "Moonbase Commander", by Humongous Entertainment/Infogrames.

SAIS is a great, addictive game with short play times- a regular game doesn't last more than ten minutes, but then you just fire up another one immediately. It looks like a little like Star Control 2, with about the same graphic level, but it's different in both implementation and intent. There's a free demo here that will give you a good idea of the game.

Moonbase Commander is an excellent and clever game, even more so in multiplayer over a LAN or the Internet. The website for it is here. Humongous Entertainment is part of Infogrames, so technically not indie, but the game is cheap and not at all like mainstream works.

A major advantage I see with indie games is that they're often fun, generally not overly complicated, and cheap- both of these games are $15, and well worth the prices. They're different than what is already on the market and are a refreshing alternative to, if not as graphically stunning as, mainstream fare.

If you are a programmer, look at how the game runs, think about it technically. No offence to the writers (I admire y'all greatly), but those games are relatively technically simple. One's an RPG, one's sort of a myst-like adventure. But the games sell, and they are paying for themselves well. Woo hoo!

Anyone of you, if you learn to sell, can sell your games. A good salesman can sell anything, they say. So if you learn that _one_ thing, provided that you have all the programming skills, and can get a friend to do some artwork for you, or can spare a couple K for art and music, you can sell your indie game.

Now excuse me, I've got to go play Strange Adventures in Infinite Space.

As seen in these secret plans confiscated from Nicola Tesla by the foreign property office, you just need enough flys! It scales perfectly.

I am amazed at the amount of disinformation spread on slashdot daily.

Now I'm older, but my love of RPGs (and other games) has not ceased. However, the playing time for these RPGs has become prohibitive. It takes me a month to beat XCom, several months to beat FF8. I still haven't beat FF8, and it's become something more of a CHORE (work) than play.

What needs to happen is for games to become more numerous, shorter, and cheaper. We need the equivalent of the SitCom (static) or Babylon5 (dynamic plot, optional episodes) for games.

Ignore aging gamers at your own peril. My dad told me when I was 13, that when I was older, I wouldn't be playing games. It's an understandable prediction, but in my experience, it's false- my friends, with jobs and children and family, are STILL playing games. It's just turning a little sour, because the games are so long.

Something interesting is happening- I'm finding myself far more attracted to short-run games such as Strange Adventures in Infinite Space. Time will tell whether my friends do the same; I suspect they will.

Strange Adventures in Infinite Space was produced by a two-man team, and they're able to use what they make on SAIS to fund their next game.... which you're really going to dig.