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Sounds like that old game F-19 Stealth Fighter from MicroProse.

I used to be able to fly across the Persian Gulf with no fuel just by nosing down and up. Landing was a bit tricky though ;)

Incidentally, some of these games have a plot many times better and more engaging than GTA. As for the demand on your side of the pond, here is demand for rape and here is demand for incest (Courtesy of Google). They don't look like Japanese sites to me.

And according to GoogleFight, incest porn is more popular than GTA. :)

MobyGames tries to become for games what IMDB is for movies. They are not there yet, but overall it is probably the best source of factual information about games.

2D rpgs made me wonder how the lands really looked and made me think about the character personalities etc. (think about how Link from Zelda never speaks)

I'd love to see a remake of my all-time favorite, Sword of the Samurai. Or maybe not. Everything I loved about the game was dictated by the limited technology of the time. Low-res EGA graphics? Make all the game screens look like a Japanese wood-cut. Junky MIDI music? Hire a good composer to write simple drum and lute pieces, then hire a clever designer to integrate the music seemlessly with the game action. Wonderfully beautiful. But if they remade it, it would have high production values and the playability of burnt toast.

....is Shufflepuck Cafe.

That's not true at all. If you have made a *complete* homebrew game for one of the systems that MobyGames supports, then they will be delighted to include it. Here's a tiny game that a friend of mine wrote:
Solver

Good luck,
-Sam

Sounds a lot like Space Hulk. So much for that :P

=Smidge=

Exposing ants to radiation and stuff might turn out to be a very bad idea.

Methinks the database still needs more data. :-)

Those mentioning games that Moby doesn't have can register and submit the game. From the looks of things though, it appears MobyGames isnt interested in Homebrew games.

Why is there a category for 1900?
Perhaps the 5 in that category should be taken off. 9,995?

(What is with all the 100 year old video game jokes?)

-Sean

I don't know about the rest of you, but this has me very interested. This franchise has been aching to have another installment. The good news is that Fargo is involved, which is a great sign. The question remains if a game, whose last sequel came out in 1988, can be updated to the standards of 2003.

• Sid Meier's Pirates!
• Sid Meier's Colonization
• Covert Action
• Gunship
• Silent Service
• F-19 Stealth Fighter
• F-15 Strike Eagle
• CPU Bach

Let's hope it'll be more Grim Fandango than Money Island 4. =)

Let's hope it'll be more Grim Fandango than Money Island 4. =)

Microsoft getting them will just kill the fun for everyone else, as you'd never see a Sega game for anything but XBox.

Because Microsoft does not make a handheld system for under $180 MSRP, Microsoft has published a few games on Nintendo's Game Boy platform, such as this one. Sega's Sonic Advance 3 can't come out on the Xboy if there's no Xboy, that is, unless Microsoft wants to re-brand the Game Park GP32 as the Xboy.

Kana Little Sister @ MobyGames.

To add to the article, the ScummVM Team got the source code of Beneath a Steel Sky from Revolution, so we'll soon see a version of ScummVM supporting this game to the fullest!

Kudos to Revolution for opening the source at least to the guys at ScummVM!

I used to have an Apple ][+, and I can tell you I played this games for hours, day after day, until I finished it -- " Below the Root", by Windham Classics (based on The Green Sky Triology by Zilpha K. Snyder).
It was simply fascinating! Even now, almost 20 years later, I still feel like reading the books (I never did) -- just because of the game.

Another one was the first "Castle Wolfenstein" (2D, also for the Apple ][). There was also the second version, "Beyond Castle Wolfenstein", which was also great. Both of them used to scare me to death!

And the last one: Swiss Family Robinson (sorry, couldn't find a link).

Anyway -- I can say several of the Apple ][ games were important to me. One of them was called "Adventure", and it was sort of console-imteractive, but with some graphics. It was wonderful. I don't remember much more about it.

Anyone else remember these?

nice link. I like how it gives you an error message. I now understand why you were very, very angry. If you want, you can try the html version. Not that there is much ado on that page, but whatever.

I can't believe no one has mentioned this game!! The title says it all. It was just unlike anything ever done before--very dark, very immersive. If you don't believe me, check out the reviews on Moby Games.

Another classic. The most heart-pounding moments were the one car chase, after which you have to follow police procedure to the letter to complete the arrest, or you're dead-- killed by the perp. I beat that game in 8th grade, and 16 years later I can still clearly remember the adrenaline that was pouring through me during that one part of it-- you had to type stuff quickly and carefully, because timing was crucial and you wouldn't get a second chance if you screwed up the commands and the computer didn't understand what you wanted to do. It's amazing how immersive it was for a 3rd-person viewpoint, and how caught up in it I got.

Sirtech/Telstar released a game in 1997 by a company called Makh Shevet called "Armed & Delirious" (although, IIRC, it was named Delirium in the EU)... this sounds remarkably similar.

According to Moby Games, he also worked on some other games, but I don't know how accurate that information is.

According to Moby Games, he also worked on some other games, but I don't know how accurate that information is.

If you played Simcity 2000.

Microwave power plants were an expensive, moderately dangerous power plant (Missed beam, anyone?)

I never really was a fan, but I did wonder if such a thing was scientifically valid. Guess it was.

> If i remember correctly you didn't learn that Samus was a girl until
> several games later though. But i could be horribly, painfully worng[sic]

My memory alleges that you find out Samus's identity at the very, very end of the original Metroid.

-JC

PS: We're not even "several" games into the series yet! A quick and possibly horribly inaccurate web search suggests to me that there has been only five Metroid games (seven if you count the two Smash Bros. fighters).

Oops--thanks for the correction. Battlezone for home computers came out in 1983.

It's also too bad that the whole team was fired as soon as the game shipped. Who gets the money when we buy Anachronox now? Eidos? Screw that. One of the fired devs recommended on some forum somewhere that people pirate the game, since he wasn't going to get any money even if they did buy it. If I hadn't bought it the day it shipped, I would have done that instead. I hope at least some of my money went to the devs. These are, after all, the people who released a patch after they were fired to allow me to play under Windows 2000. Something even Eidos wouldn't do.

Being that it is, at its heart, a console RPG, Anachronox is a really great PC game. I think it just took too long to develop and ION had its own problems at that time. Anybody know what Tom Hall is up to now? PocketPC games. I'm sure they enjoy making those, but I'd much rather see a second Anachronox game. Sorry about this being offtopic :|

Ravi

did you see this screenshot of the game,

they have stolen those hands and coming out of the wall from zelda 1 on the nes :-)

I'm a second-generation programmer. I'm in my mid-30s, and I've done little more than play Startrek on a mainframe terminal... I started out with TRS-80's and followed that track.

The first generation of programmers would be represented by my mother. She started working with computers before there was even such a thing as a "Computer Science" degree -- she has a Master's in mathematics. She was big iron, all the way... when I was a kid, she showed me the washing-machine hard drives and taught me to play the aforementioned Startrek.

She retired just a year or two ago, and she was nervously counting the days. Despite being in the airline reservations industry -- home of some of the biggest iron of all -- her skills and experience were held in less and less esteem as client-server and GUI became the buzzwords. Her biggest fear was that some beancounter would declare her mainframe expertise redundant before the magic date arrived.

On the other hand, at about the time the previous generation was sweating it out, my PC-based experience and VB credentials were all the rage, a ticket to ride the Rapid Application Development gravy train.

So here we are... GUI programmers (thankfully, not myself) frantically searching the want ads, and mainframers in demand. Go figure.

Or to put it another way, plus ça change, plus c'est la même chose! (Yes, I'm a French-speaking Dixie Chicks fan. Call John Ashcroft!)

It's time for another interview here on Curmudgeon and this time we have with us Brian Hook, president of Pyrogon Games and former developer at id Software and Verant/Sony Online Entertainment. Before working on the seminal shooters Quake 2 and Quake 3: Arena, Brian was the original architect of the Glide API used by the 3dfx Voodoo line of video cards. After departing id, Brian worked as a Senior Technology Architect at Verant, concentrating on development of technology for next-generation massively-multiplayer online games (MMOGs). After founding Pyrogon in 2000, he created the puzzle game Candy Cruncher, which we reviewed earlier this year. Two additional Pyrogon games have appeared since then, NingPo MahJong and Letter Linker, both available for Windows and MacOS X. (A Linux version of NingPo MahJong will be shipping in the near future.)

This interview covers a wide range of topics: game design criticism, OpenGL/D3D, making money as a smaller game developer, and the importance of porting software to different platforms. Indeed, something for just about everyone. It's quite long, so you might want to bookmark it and consume it in more than one reading.

The interview questions were prepared with the assistance of regular CG authors ruffin and michael.

jvm: What kinds of games do you enjoy playing the most?

Hook: That's a tough question. I guess in some ways I just have very high expectations about software these days, so most games pretty much turn me off within the first 5 minutes when I spot egregious design flaws.

That said, the games I've played and enjoyed the most recently have been No One Lives Forever 2, which I felt had some of the best production value I've ever seen in a game, and Ghost Recon, which is a hoot in multiplayer.

jvm: So you play mostly on a PC, as opposed to a console?

Hook: I should really get some consoles and play console games, but it's hard to justify the time.

jvm: Could we get an example of a game with these egregious design flaws, complete with a breakdown of those flaws? The more popular the game, the better.

Hook: That's dangerous ground =)

But a typical example I have is what I call "simulations that think they're games". To me, a game should be fun and exciting, which means that I should be making interesting decisions that lead to success based on the data I have at that time. Too many games today STILL punish you by just killing you because that's "realistic".

Hitman 2 is a good example of this. Starting with the very first mission, you can pretty much expect to go through and play that mission 20 times before you complete it, because there are timed events that you don't know about a priori. Which is a shame, because the actual mechanics in Hitman 2 were extremely fun. It was probably the one game in recent memory that I really wanted to like but which ended up being so frustrating and tedious that I couldn't enjoy it. Obviously it's a popular game, so I'm in the minority on this.

I think the games that really got a lot of this down were the 1980s LucasArts adventure games like Lo

I can only think of one Spector haunting the game industry.

Is he causing despair by making games that are too good?

like lemmings, there'll be a few dozen BF1942 clones, and most will die due to too much competition.

Really? There were lots of spinoffs, but I only remember one or two clones of Lemmings.

MobyGames has been around for four years and has been documenting the entire history of videogames. Help out the cause. Contribute your favorit game information MobyGames

Jeez, I was the one who submitted this story to Boing Boing. I never thought Slashdot would go for it. I keep missing so many Karma opportunities....

What I said in the Boing Boing submission that Wil didn't repeat here is, the 1974 review is by a gamer named Arnold Hendrick. Hendrick went on to run Heritage Miniatures and to design some cool boardgames for Heritage's short-lived Dwarfstar game line. Later Hendrick went into computer games, working for Microprose and others; he helped design or develop many of Sid Meier's best-known titles. Hendrick's best-known work as sole designer is probably the 1992 Microprose fantasy game Darklands. Here's his MobyGames rap sheet and a Darklands FAQ.

What I learn from this: Be bold! Despite all qualms, submit to Slashdot!

ahhh... but you forgot about Modem Wars for the C64 (1988)
http://www.mobygames.com/game/shots/gameId,1483/

Written by Dave Perry and published by Virgin in 1993 I think. He wrote Global Gladiators (McDonalds) as well...

Pushover, a 1992 release for the IBM PC was full of advertising for a potato chip brand. I remember paying full retail price for the game based on a positive review in a computer magazine (they didn't mention the ads) and soon ditching the game because of the obnoxious advertising. I never bought a game from that publisher again.

I really find it hard to believe that someone would have gone to this much trouble just to play Richard and Alan's Escape From Hell or Hillsfar.

But as for your suggestion for using an Atari or Calico -- there was no Bard's Tale for the Calicovision, nor Space Quest. For DOS, however, we had Wing Commander, and a whole series of Leisure Suit Larry. By 1991, we had the original BattleTech and BattleTech II, not that wierd MechWarrior similator thing.

Hmm...I wonder what I did with the scratch and sniff card from Leather Goddesses of Phobos?

Hmm...it's times like this when I'm glad there's places like emulation.net so I can find something interesting to play with.

(yes, this is partly sarcasm...it's up to you to determine what part)

I really find it hard to believe that someone would have gone to this much trouble just to play Richard and Alan's Escape From Hell or Hillsfar.

But as for your suggestion for using an Atari or Calico -- there was no Bard's Tale for the Calicovision, nor Space Quest. For DOS, however, we had Wing Commander, and a whole series of Leisure Suit Larry. By 1991, we had the original BattleTech and BattleTech II, not that wierd MechWarrior similator thing.

Hmm...I wonder what I did with the scratch and sniff card from Leather Goddesses of Phobos?

Hmm...it's times like this when I'm glad there's places like emulation.net so I can find something interesting to play with.

(yes, this is partly sarcasm...it's up to you to determine what part)

I really find it hard to believe that someone would have gone to this much trouble just to play Richard and Alan's Escape From Hell or Hillsfar.

But as for your suggestion for using an Atari or Calico -- there was no Bard's Tale for the Calicovision, nor Space Quest. For DOS, however, we had Wing Commander, and a whole series of Leisure Suit Larry. By 1991, we had the original BattleTech and BattleTech II, not that wierd MechWarrior similator thing.

Hmm...I wonder what I did with the scratch and sniff card from Leather Goddesses of Phobos?

Hmm...it's times like this when I'm glad there's places like emulation.net so I can find something interesting to play with.

(yes, this is partly sarcasm...it's up to you to determine what part)

I really find it hard to believe that someone would have gone to this much trouble just to play Richard and Alan's Escape From Hell or Hillsfar.

But as for your suggestion for using an Atari or Calico -- there was no Bard's Tale for the Calicovision, nor Space Quest. For DOS, however, we had Wing Commander, and a whole series of Leisure Suit Larry. By 1991, we had the original BattleTech and BattleTech II, not that wierd MechWarrior similator thing.

Hmm...I wonder what I did with the scratch and sniff card from Leather Goddesses of Phobos?

Hmm...it's times like this when I'm glad there's places like emulation.net so I can find something interesting to play with.

(yes, this is partly sarcasm...it's up to you to determine what part)

I really find it hard to believe that someone would have gone to this much trouble just to play Richard and Alan's Escape From Hell or Hillsfar.

But as for your suggestion for using an Atari or Calico -- there was no Bard's Tale for the Calicovision, nor Space Quest. For DOS, however, we had Wing Commander, and a whole series of Leisure Suit Larry. By 1991, we had the original BattleTech and BattleTech II, not that wierd MechWarrior similator thing.

Hmm...I wonder what I did with the scratch and sniff card from Leather Goddesses of Phobos?

Hmm...it's times like this when I'm glad there's places like emulation.net so I can find something interesting to play with.

(yes, this is partly sarcasm...it's up to you to determine what part)

Here's some other questions people might have. I'll do my best to head them off:

What are you, Jason Scott, getting out of all this?

I am working on a Documentary about BBSes and run a site about 1980's BBSes and have a soft spot for anyone who dedicates so much time to bringing back computer history, as I'm doing myself. I know how much they spent in money on this (equipment, DVD pressing) and they went for tip-top quality in all of it, and I think this should be rewarded. Slashdot brings people to a site that might otherwise be overlooked.

What about the Amiga, C-64 and other machines?

I know they have plans to do those machines as well for the next in the series; that's why it's Volume 1. If this one sells well, they can afford to do another one. Therefore it's important that everyone who could want a DVD like this know about it. I know they're working on the technical issues of taking video output from these machines and making them look good.

Big deal, they hooked a VCR to a PC

No, that is not the case! When the site lightens up, and you read all they had to keep track of to make the demos look decent on a DVD, you will understand what a massive undertaking this is. Flicker, color-quality, even the problems of general radio interference across the video cables.... they had to handle all these problems, find solutions, and deal with them.

Who are these people?

If it means something to you, these folks are the driving forces behind the Hornet Archive and Mobygames. They care. They care a lot.

....to post an incomplete, long forgotten URL to a site that hasn't gone ahead and added much in the way of content, when there are some truly excellent sites out there with really great and inspiring content, worked on by people who care.

Yeah, let me throw some URL where my mouth is.

http://www.obsoletecomputermuseum.org/
http://www.computer-museum.org/
http://www.homecomputer.de/
http://www.thelegacy.de/
http://www.mobygames.com/

And the list goes on, and on, and on.....

Credits for Rise of the Triad:

Programming
Mark Dochtermann, Jim Dose, Nolan Martin, William Scarboro

Graphics / 3D Programming
Stephen A. Hornback, Chuck Jones, Tim Neveu, Susan Singer, James Storey

Level / Scenario Design
Tom Hall, Joseph Selinske, Joe Siegler, Marianna Vayntrub

Music
Lee Jackson, Robert Prince

Documentation
Robert M. Atkins

Executive Producer
George Broussard, Scott Miller

Director
Tom Hall

Playtesting
Mike Bartelt, Steven Blackburn, Neil Bonner, Glenn Brensinger, Douglas Brewer, David Butler, Daniel Creeron, Scott Darling, Jason Ewasiuk, Craig Hamilton, Ken Heckbert, Terry Herrin, Greg Hively, John Howard, Douglas Howell, Dennis Kurek, Hank Leukart, Jim Lietzan, Ken Mayer, Wayne Millard, Penny Plant, Brian Prinner, Jeff Rausch, Kelly Rogers, Neil Rubenking, Todd Rubin, Steven Salter, Chris White

Special Thanks To
John Carmack, Gregor Punchatz, Ken Silverman, Pau Suet Ying

The release of the source code is dedicated to William Scarboro's memory, but it's not like the man singly-developed the game, and some group of people have pulled the source out of his frozen hands and given them for free, leaving his widow and children starving in a corner.

Rise of the Triad is over 8 years old, in an excellent game (still) but was the effort of many people, from a company that still sells it but wanted to let other people check out how it was done. Carmack does the same thing, god bless him.

So sit down.

I certainly hope it'll improve somewhat on that one's track record. They gave token awards to Doom and the SimCity CD-Rom game, but other than that, it was pretty much an ass-kissing to an FMV title by the name of Voyeur. Eventually it was swallowed up by IDSA and integrated into E3's awards, a much better fate to be sure.

What's wrong with dark, depressing and dystopian? I like dark, depressing and dystopian!

It is true that many mind-less first person shooters have spawned into existence since the release of Doom, but certainly this is not the only sort of game that is unleashed upon humanity today.

As for 3D adventure games, I liked Under A Killing Moon a lot. It has a compelling storyline, great graphics and yes, a dark, depressing and dystopian 3D environment. It's awesome!

More recently, I finished Sierra's Gabriel Knight 3: Blood of the Sacred, Blood of the Damned. It too has beautiful 3D graphics (for its time) and a great in-depth plot. Lots of things to explore and figure out, and I think it does justice to the old adventure genre in that respect.

As for RPG's since Doom, you may have forgotten about Baldur's Gate, which is-- God forbid-- a 2D game, as is it's successor Baldur's Gate II, but if you want 3D exploration, let's have a look at Neverwinter Nights or maybe you've got more interest in mindless hack & slack ala Dungeon Siege. Let's not forget the more recent hits in mindlessness; I think good fun can be had with Grand Theft Auto 3, despite it being mindless, but if you want something more intelligent in that vein, have a look at Mafia.

So, no. I don't think the gaming industry is totally down the drain. It could be better, it always can be. There's no such thing as the perfect game for everybody.

Wing Commander? SIMS? bah. Pinball Construction Set. Now there's a game.