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The gaming industry is more and more starting to feel like just another Hollywood branch. I wonder how long it takes before they'll start redoing old games, like they're doing with all old classic movies now?

They are redoing the old games. Just not the way you think of it (putting in them fancy new graphics and releasing them on same platform).

In gaming industry, they rerelease the games on new platform. Like Sonic Adventure went from DreamCast to every popular console today, with little or no changes. Like Space Invaders was rereleased with the same format. Like those "Classic XYZ collection" which comes packed with the same old games..

And very rarely they release the game with better graphics, but they have been doing that also. Like releasing SMB again on SNES or Bubble Bobble, but as you can see - these releases are old (in computer gaming sense) and nothing new here.

The point is, that is more easy to release classic games ported to new systems, like on joysticks . Why? Because there is a fanatic group of people out there who still thinks these games are cool. And I'm one of them.

i stumbled onto this a while ago after hearing somewhere about Van Buren.
when Mr. Sawyer left Black Isle, i had a feelin sumthin shitty was abrew :(

Warren Spector didn't have anything to do with System Shock 2. And I'm fairly sure there are a couple of others in there that he had nothing to do with. SS2 Credits

From 1 to 7. With huge pixels, please.

> Are we supposed to automatically know who Warren Spector is for some reason?

Google is your friend. As always.
http://www.mobygames.com/developer/sheet/view/deve loperId,127/ (Third hit).

A pretty good book to read if you are interested in gaming professionally, is Monster Gaming, by Ben Sawyer. Not only does it outline the competitive online gaming community, it delves into mods and other cool stuff like customization & configuration. The book has a foreword by Angel Munoz, the founder of the CPL, and cover art by Id legend Paul Steed. While Monster Gaming is not about becoming a CPL athlete, it is about being a better gamer.

The number of wicked web links in there is enough for any gamer to drool over. I've been thinking of doing a Slashdot book review of it, too.

Maybe I'm all alone, but IMO, the appeal of the Star Wars Universe is the Jedi mythos. This is why every other Star Wars licensed game to date has allowed you to "Use the Force" in some way shape or form

Here's hoping for that Incredible Machine FPS!

Here's hoping for that Incredible Machine FPS!

Here's hoping for that Incredible Machine FPS!

I want to see games where the motivation to continue through the game is to uncover the next part of the plot.
Interesting point. But I think FPS is not the best genre to expect that sort of gameplay. Shooters are shooters. You shoot shit up there. Currently if you make it first (or third) person, it's expected that there will be some fighting involved (show me a 1st/3rd person game without fighting). There are already quests whose main selling point is the story (such as this one, a great game, honestly) and also some RPGs. But in 1st/3rd person games you spend a lot of time controlling character's movements and actions. And if you do that, the developers better make it fun, which means fighting (or driving). So a large part of the game is already built around fighting.

One solution is to go away from direct control (like you had screens and very simple movement in quests). Another one, well, make direct brain-computer interface so that people no longer care about controlling a character and can concentrate on the story.

Battle Isle, the first game to make console-style hex-based strategy games popular on the Amiga and PC already had options for color blind people. The default colors for the units were red and green, I believe. You could switch them to yellow and blue in the options menu, and it was even explained as a feature specifically for color blind people in the manual.

Makes you wonder why a very small and at the time not very well known company could afford to spend some resources on this while today's million-dollar game developers can't.

It featured a cast of characters whose names were sourced from whatever happened to be on the develper's desk at the time. I cant remember them all but the two that stick in my mind are G'set Kasse (Cassette case) and J'am J'ah (Jam jar).

Who said creativity was dead in the games industry?:)

It's not a Dr. Who referance but a referance to Blaster Master

Does anyone else remember the great Atari/Amiga/DOS Dune adventure/strategy game by the French company Cryo from 1992? It was based partly on the book and partly on the Lynch film. I believe the same company tried again a year ago or so ago with "Frank Herbert's Dune", this time more based on the Sci-Fi channel mini-series. The reviews this time was more so-so.

The best thing about the original game was the atmosphere, helped along by the great soundtrack and the impressive architecture...

You can download the whole game here!
review

another..

another...

The underdogs site, from what I can tell, only (knowingly) distributes games that are not still being sold by the publisher. It deals purely in abandonware which admittedly isn't strictly legal(well, read not legal). There are a fair few arguments for and against the free distribution of such software, some of which may be read here, and here,.

I love it when the media pull a stunt like they did @ Columbine. Any idea how old DOOM was in 1999. It was 6 years old. 6! Do you think any self-respecting gamer (especially a teen) would play a 6 year old game? No. If I went out and shot somebody today the media would say it's because I played Pac Man in my youth. It's utterly irrelevant. It sells newspapers though.

Maybe something like an episode maker. Include craploads of animations and sounds and graphics on a CD, or DVD even for the PC, and let people make Simpson's episodes.

Do you mean like this?

Another good one, a virtual springfield. Pick any one of the zillion characters and live out their day in the town. Have multiple decision paths for each character, unlockable characters and a zillion minigames or some such to determine outcomes of things.

Perhaps this?

What it comes down to is that both have been created, and both suck.

Mike

Local police are following up harassment complaints filed against a large dog in a suit and a rabbity thing with teeth like a SkillSaw noticed in the area. Conventioneers cited aggrivation in the form of winding pointless conversations punctuated with witty repartee, continuous offers of strange junk such as fish magnets or hands-in-jars, and occasional pummeling and/or gratuitous violence inflicted by the cute yet lethal white animal accompanying the well dressed canine. Reports of similar disturbances at the Biggest Ball of Twine in the World, the Mystery Vortex, and Frog Rock seem unrelated. When asked why Frog Rock looks nothing like a frog, officials had no comment.

I just couldn't resist. If you're confused, get enlightened.

"Mind if I drive?"
"Not if you don't mind me clawing at the dash and shrieking like a cheerleader."

I'm really excited about this. Two of my favourite games were Knights of the Sky and Red Baron. I actually preferred Knights of the Sky though this is perhaps because of my computer at the time.

I loved the way you could go from the planes at the early parts of WWI that could hardly get into the air, to the monsters in later years that could do all kinds of acrobatics. I enjoyed the personal touches, the one-on-one challenges you would get issued when you became good. They were great games and I'm hoping this new WWI air-combat game will update the genre with better graphics and even more fun. They seem to be considering the role-playing elements so I'm really looking forward to it.

Rowan software, I think, made a WWI game as well but while I really respect the flight sims Rowan made, I could never really get into them. Maybe it is time to fire that game back up and see what I missed.

I'm really excited about this. Two of my favourite games were Knights of the Sky and Red Baron. I actually preferred Knights of the Sky though this is perhaps because of my computer at the time.

I loved the way you could go from the planes at the early parts of WWI that could hardly get into the air, to the monsters in later years that could do all kinds of acrobatics. I enjoyed the personal touches, the one-on-one challenges you would get issued when you became good. They were great games and I'm hoping this new WWI air-combat game will update the genre with better graphics and even more fun. They seem to be considering the role-playing elements so I'm really looking forward to it.

Rowan software, I think, made a WWI game as well but while I really respect the flight sims Rowan made, I could never really get into them. Maybe it is time to fire that game back up and see what I missed.

Ultima Underworld was proper 3D before Wolfenstein's and even Doom's fake 3D. Texture mapping and all.

Look at his rap sheet before you shoot yo' mouth off...

Forget Mavis Beacon, how about either "Mario Teaches Typing" (which is how I learned to touch type, and is probably available somewhere for download by now) or the new breed, "Typing of the Dead" which is basically "House of the Dead" but instead of guns, you use a keyboard weapon. It's true.

That said, I think that learning to type will definatly help you.

Anyone remember Dynamix?

I miss good games like that :(

Huh? I always thought samba was the name of a snake. Or at least it was in "Temple of Apshai" :-D

And to think, it required a whopping 256K of RAM! But it did support the bleeding edge CGA technology...

There was already a Paradroid sequel/remake for the Atari ST--Paradroid 90.

In the last part of the article, 3 games are listed, Combat, Pong, and Pac-Man. All three of which have have had remakes in the last 2 years. While they may not have been great games, its not like these franchises are languishing in obscurity.

Combat , Pong 3d and Pac-Man World 2.

In the last part of the article, 3 games are listed, Combat, Pong, and Pac-Man. All three of which have have had remakes in the last 2 years. While they may not have been great games, its not like these franchises are languishing in obscurity.

Combat , Pong 3d and Pac-Man World 2.

In the last part of the article, 3 games are listed, Combat, Pong, and Pac-Man. All three of which have have had remakes in the last 2 years. While they may not have been great games, its not like these franchises are languishing in obscurity.

Combat , Pong 3d and Pac-Man World 2.

Indeed. MobyGames shows the original Grand Theft Auto as coming out in 1997 (same year as Carmegeddon), two years before Driver.

Indeed. MobyGames shows the original Grand Theft Auto as coming out in 1997 (same year as Carmegeddon), two years before Driver.

Indeed. MobyGames shows the original Grand Theft Auto as coming out in 1997 (same year as Carmegeddon), two years before Driver.

"Out of this World" was it's other title. Screenshots here.

hearing enemies thing is . . . I'd go so far as to say revolutionary.

-cough-THIEF-cough

Could we get some some high rez passovers of these sites?

Doomsday Engine - Windows only, but my personal favorite.

It's amazing how a little OpenGL in the right places can make an old game look so much better.

What's even more amazing is how well DOOM has aged. I can't think of any other game from its era that I can sit down and play for a while, and end up totally forgetting that I am playing a retro game.

Trivia: DOOM got its name from the movie "The Color of Money" when Tom Cruise is about to open a pool stick case, and someone asks what is in there... his reply? "Doom."

Oh, more trivia... DOOM was originally going to be a game based on the movie Aliens, but that idea was scrapped since the developers wanted total creative control over the project. Likely a very good choice, since we're still talking about DOOM today, and it's still on the charts over at download.com.

Trivia source: mobygames

Not that I'm knocking Blizzard for their quality in their games but the packaging can be a little more accurate.

Here are captures of the packaging for Starcraft. If you look closely, you'll notice some things that aren't possible in the game. Things like:

Siege Tanks shooting Protoss Carriers.
Goliaths using guns (instead of missiles) on an airborne target.
Scouts using missiles (instead of guns) on ground targets.
Arbiters don't cloak anything.

Now obviously, these are not at all like the game. They are probably Photoshop chop jobs made by marketing gurus who had no idea about the gameplay. Yeah Starcraft is a fantastic game, but could you at least make the packaging accurate?

With that thought, here are some of my biggest disappointments (in no particular order):

1. Unreal Tournament 2003 : I played the original UT from the day it came out, up to the day the UT2003 demo (actually the leaked alpha) was released. I actually bought a new computer to play UT2003. I can't even tell you how disapointed I was by UT2003. The biggest reason is it seemed like Quake2003 and didn't have the feel of Unreal or Unreal Tournament. On top of that, the weapons were weaker than the ones in UT. The great thing in UT was all the weapons were useful, and most of them were top tier. Lastly, the characters seemed to be so much smaller than the original UT (no, it's not my monitor resolution either).

2. Ultima 8 , "pagan". After playing Ultima 1-5 and loving them I took some time off (ie the time between me having an Apple II and an a PC) and came back to playing computer games. The first PC based RPG I bought was "Pagan". It came on 8 disks ( I guess to match the sequel number...), and didn't run on my PC even though my PC fit the specs. After a few calls to Origin didn't help I gave up. A few days later I took it to a friends house and played on her PC. Then I realized the game sucked anyway and I wasn't missing much. It's funny how game companies can turns classics into crap after a few too many sequels.

3. Super Mario Brothers 2 - Way too easy, and too different in a craptacular way than the first one. Nintendo hit a home run with SMB3 though.

4. Wargods - From Midway, one of my favorite gaming companies came this crap. Sure, it looked really cool but trying to get off a 15 button fatality in 2 seconds was no fun. Never mind the complexity/sillyness of the combos. Ugg.

5. Mortal Kombat 3, 4, 5 - While I'm on the midway kick, Mortal Kombat has sucked for a long time now. It's downfall was trying to emulate the killer instinct dial-a-combos and putting in a run button in MK3 (which was correctly colored yellow...the CHEESE button). 4 was pretty bad, and 5 was aweful. This is a shame because 1 and 2 were both very good IMO.

6. Street Fighter Alpha 1 - chain combos..Ugg. Capcom much like Nintendo followed this up with a great game in SFA2. Maybe the mark of a good game company is to fix their own crap when they screw up a sequel.

With that thought, here are some of my biggest disappointments (in no particular order):

1. Unreal Tournament 2003 : I played the original UT from the day it came out, up to the day the UT2003 demo (actually the leaked alpha) was released. I actually bought a new computer to play UT2003. I can't even tell you how disapointed I was by UT2003. The biggest reason is it seemed like Quake2003 and didn't have the feel of Unreal or Unreal Tournament. On top of that, the weapons were weaker than the ones in UT. The great thing in UT was all the weapons were useful, and most of them were top tier. Lastly, the characters seemed to be so much smaller than the original UT (no, it's not my monitor resolution either).

2. Ultima 8 , "pagan". After playing Ultima 1-5 and loving them I took some time off (ie the time between me having an Apple II and an a PC) and came back to playing computer games. The first PC based RPG I bought was "Pagan". It came on 8 disks ( I guess to match the sequel number...), and didn't run on my PC even though my PC fit the specs. After a few calls to Origin didn't help I gave up. A few days later I took it to a friends house and played on her PC. Then I realized the game sucked anyway and I wasn't missing much. It's funny how game companies can turns classics into crap after a few too many sequels.

3. Super Mario Brothers 2 - Way too easy, and too different in a craptacular way than the first one. Nintendo hit a home run with SMB3 though.

4. Wargods - From Midway, one of my favorite gaming companies came this crap. Sure, it looked really cool but trying to get off a 15 button fatality in 2 seconds was no fun. Never mind the complexity/sillyness of the combos. Ugg.

5. Mortal Kombat 3, 4, 5 - While I'm on the midway kick, Mortal Kombat has sucked for a long time now. It's downfall was trying to emulate the killer instinct dial-a-combos and putting in a run button in MK3 (which was correctly colored yellow...the CHEESE button). 4 was pretty bad, and 5 was aweful. This is a shame because 1 and 2 were both very good IMO.

6. Street Fighter Alpha 1 - chain combos..Ugg. Capcom much like Nintendo followed this up with a great game in SFA2. Maybe the mark of a good game company is to fix their own crap when they screw up a sequel.

Lost in Time. Just terrible. Bad, bad, bad, with a terrible story, technically wrong (ie a strange and ugly mix of pictures and rendered scenes made by a 3-year old boy), and with an unusable UI.

The problem, as usual, is that we "geeks" are almost ignored by politicians and lawmakers.

Sort of. The _bigger_ problem is that there exist consortiums of corporations which hate abandonware. Despite the size, organization, and good intentions of the abandonware community (check out this webring, for instance), there are stubborn corporations that will see practically no profit but want to retain their copyrights on silly-but-fun games forever. Slashdot has covered the IDSA's legal maneuverings in the past; Mobygames has an excellent feature that discusses some of the issues around the legal status of abandonware.

Nobody is going to pay absurdly inflated (probably price-fixed) shelf prices of $40 or so for old games. If the companies won't sell their copyrighted software, these games -- good games, like Civilization or Colonization or Wolfenstein 3D -- will gravitate towards an open trade on the Internet. They're often smaller than MP3's, and they're considerably more fulfilling. This kind of "copyright infringement" is usually ignored and not typically prosecuted; the situation's more or less fine as it is. But it's damned annoying trying to find a safe venue for sharing what is, in a way, cultural heritage. oh, and:

The problem, as usual, is that we "geeks" are almost ignored by politicians and lawmakers. It'd be interesting to see a future article describing why that's the case...but who really knows the answer?

IDSA=money

The Ford Simulator.

Now thinking back, the best flight sim I recall playing was the one by the guys who made System Shock. It was an aerobatics focused sim, and the physics seemed very accurate.

Flight Unlimited III by Looking Glass Technologies (1999). Review.

Oddly, that goes by the same name of a Spectrum Holobyte/Gordon Walton title, Orbiter. I used to play this for hours on my Mac Plus back in the 80s. In fact I'm sure I still have the install disks.

I was impressed with the art to barbarian (As a little kid in the 80s), but the game itself was excruciating. Not only was it exceedingly difficult, it just... sucked.

And I seem to have found a web version here.

Here is more on the original version (the c64 version, but whatever works.)

And more.

I guess it's not exactly a conventional gig, but at least the company bothered to hire someone who knows what he's doing when it comes to making an adventure game.

DecafJedi

He must mean the best game since Burger Time.

Ah, what about publishers that want a violent-er rating to appeal to an older audience? E.g. the original Wipeout for PS1 had a "mature" rating for "violence". The only violence in the game was firing weapons from hovercraft to hovercraft, and even then the only consequence of a direct hit was slowing the enemy down. How violent is that? Not at all. They just didn't want their cyberpunk game to get labeled with the kiss-of-death "appropriate for all ages" moniker.

But I do remember seeing a Wipeout clone for the PC that was released about the time Wipeout was a budget title. They tried to give it an edgier image by including an MTVish soundtrack, but they just ended up releasing the only game I know of that had a "all ages appropriate" rating on the box underneath an "explicit lyrics" warning label.