Old Games that are Still Alive and Kickin'?
Lord Grey asks: "Recently I was killing time while debugging a long-running program and decided to fire up a copy of Shanghai II -- a Mahjongg game for the Macintosh. I've had this game for years, faithfully moving it from computer to computer while keeping pace (more or less) with the newer hardware. I started wondering if there were other people out there that just hold on to those old games and, if so, just how old are they? It would be interesting to see what the oldest game that still runs on current hardware is (my Shanghai II dates from 1991). Or am I the only one that's clinging to the past?"
Pirates! - 1987. Covert Action - 1991(ish) Sword of the Samurai - late 80's/early 90's (see a pattern forming yet?) The various Gold Box AD&D/DragonLance/Buck Rogers games - C64 days. Leisure Suit Larry/Quest For Glory/Space Quest
Vintage computer games and RPG books available. Email me if you're interested.
Some of the best games ever are the truly dusty ones. PCGamer released a CD not too long ago with some fantastic oldies that run well on todays hardware. Here I'm thinking Wing Commander, XCom and The Secret of Monkey Island among others. I spent money for The Ultima Collection awhile back and it was the best $30 I have ever given up. Even if you have mem or hardware problems, remember that there are some cool people who have reprogrammed games to run on modern hardware (Ultima 7 for example can now run under WinME) and one can always grab MoSlow or an emulator if you're desperate.