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What Game Do You Love?
It's that time of year again, when a person's fancy turns to new games. It's still nice to think of old flames, though, and eToyChest wonders about games you've loved. From the article: "In 1992 I was spending time getting my gaming legs on a then-aging 486 PC. It was loud, ugly, and far from state-of-the-art. But it could still run games off the shelf, and when a friend of mine brought over what he was calling the "best role-playing game he had played since Ultima V", I knew I had to check it out. What began that afternoon stands out as one of the most important events in my life as a game, for as I installed each of the two high density diskettes comprising Sir-Tech's Wizardry VII: Crusaders of the Dark Savant, I somehow knew that I was in for a treat. What followed were two years of swords, sorcery, and the slaying of many humanoid rats." So what game do you still remember fondly, even if you haven't played for quite a while?
Half-Life blew me away
Half-Life 2 blew me away again
Other worthy mentions
M.U.L.E.
Diablo
Quake 1/2/3/4
"No matter where you go, there you are." -- Buckaroo Banzai
Vikings
BloodNet was probably the first game to ever drag me in to the story and want more. One genre I think that has been vastly underused is the cyberpunk genre. The last decent one I remember playing was Shadowrun on the SNES.
While games like BASS, Omikron and Deus Ex have elements that are parallel, I just don't consider it to be the same. Anyone care to share if I missed out on any new games in this area?
I still go back once a year and play Legend of Zelda all the way through. Earthbound and MarioRPG get at least once every two years. I still play Mario 3 pretty often. The classics will live on...
As for modern games:
Diablo2 and d2:LOD
KoL
and now, WoW
How Jaded Are You?
Its the legend of zelda: occarina of time and Majora's mask
I recently completed Occarina of time again and its as good today as it was all those years ago. Easily the best games I've ever played and truely defining moments in me growing up.
*''I can't believe it's not a hyperlink.''
Nethack is another great classic. DAoC was the first MMO I got into and really enjoyed. Original Quake is still my all time favorite FPS. The Need For Speed series has always been a source of joy for me. And now I'm keeping my eyes on The Chronicle http://www.mmocenter.com/v2/ from Rapid Reality.
-Rick
"Most people in the U.S. wouldn't know they live in a tyrannical state if it walked up and grabbed their junk." - MyFirs
FFII for SNES (really FFIV). I was really sad when Tellah died. And I orgasmed when I found out that you got to go to the moon.
This was of course back in the day when LucasArts made good games. If only that was still true.
If forums teach us anything, it is that logic and critical thinking should be required courses in the public schools.
The Space Quest series were great. I definitely think they went a little overboard with *Quest
On the console side, Earthbound for the SNES is simply the best RPG that I have played, period. I have played through this game going on 5 times now and is still enjoyable.
On the computer, it has to be Warcraft 2.
The games that I love over the years include
Simcity, Original/2000
Descent, All Versions
Wolfenstein
Zelda, all versions
Mario, All versions
Mario Party All Versions
Animal Crossing
Chibi-Robo
Those are the ones I can name off the top of my head.
Anthropic principle: We see the universe the way it is because if it were different we would not be here to see it.
Fallout 2 .. that game was a complete package to me.. :) today i mostly play CSSource // Mark
The games that I remember the most are the first Doom and the first Warcraft. Those were just both amazing to me at the time. I've always had a special place in my heart for Super Mario 3, but who doesn't? I went Genesis over SNES, and I had a lot of fun playing Sonic 2, but I also had tons of fun playing the first Mario Kart at my friend's house. And then, there was the hours of Goldeneye fun on the 64. Oh, and Baldur's Gate 2:, Shadows of Amn on the PC was fantastic... I was captivated by that game. All of the other rpgs in that genre are just me being nostalgic about that game. Later, there was KOTOR, which I loved... I guess those are the highlights of my gaming life. I'm currently enamoured with Harvest Moon: Friends of Mineral Town. A farming rpg sounds stupid but I got it as a gift and it is terribly addicting. You either have to be embrace its time-consuming wonder or avoid it like the plague, there is no middle ground...
-Da3vid-
Without a doubt. TAZ for Atari 2600. Kept me playing for 13 years on and off until I finally beat it. See, in the game manual it told you what the food item was for each level except that last one, it was a question mark. 13 years to finally see it with my own eyes, and I wasn't actually let down as with so many other games. Check it out in ROM form and with the Stella Emulator for a real treat.
My runners up would be: Warlords, Combat, Katamari Damacy, and Donkey Konga.
http://teasphere.wordpress.com - A little spot of tea
Doom was the first game that really blew me away, and I still have a copy of it that I play from time to time. What made it even better was that there were a host of different maps for it, so even when you got to the point of being bored with the original, there was always something new. It's nice to see that there's still ongoing development for it.
Eye of the Beholder 2 (Westwood) - this was my favorite :) - the first-person environment really drew you into the game. Just remembering the intro, the medieval world, the storm approaching and the drop of water falling in a small pond on the street of Waterdeep...
:) ) :D
Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade: The Graphic Adventure (LucasArts - this one included a copy of Henry Jones' diary
LucasArts' Classic Adventures: Monkey Island, Loom
Leyend of Kyrandia (Westwood)
Flashback: Quest for Identity (Delphine)
Lemmings!
Out of this world (Delphine)
And a bit later, Final Fantasy VI, Lufia 2 (SNES)
I'll always remember these games as part of my teenages. Sigh...
Old:
Chrono Trigger
FF6
New:
Cant decide... alot of good ones, but nothing that says WOW!
I love to slaughter the english language.
Quake 1, ThunderWalker CTF.
Fast, fun, and a whole lot of frags.
It went downhill when they started nerfing some of the runes, but after all these years it still has a fond place in my heart.
Zaxon on an 8086 was amazing. More than anything though, EGA blew me away. CGA was a small step from Mono, but EGA (16 colors) was a mind blowing experience.
1. Shadowrun, Sega Genesis. This game had a good storyline and more "player freedom" than most of the games I'd played at this point (I was eight or nine when it came out, I think). I really liked the world it was set in, and a bit of searching around to find out more about it brought me to the Gibson cyberpunk novels it was based on. The first cartridge I played it on had a bad battery in it, sadly, so I had to leave my system on for incredible lengths of time to finish it, but I did.
2. Shining Force, Genesis. These (it was a series) really played on my love of fantasy as a child. I think this was the first strategy game I played, as well, and got me into the genre.
3. Secret of Evermore, SNES. I played through this across many visits to a relative's house. Probably still one of the best action-RPGs out there.
I'm leaving out some great stuff, but I believe these are my "top three most loved".
http://www.abandonia.com/games/en/156/AirborneRang er.htm
Bubble Bobble is video gaming at its finest.
I seem to be the only one who's mentioned System Shock 2 so far :) It's one of those rare games that find their way back onto my machine every once in a while. With the most recent patches and texture enhancements it looks a lot better, and you get excellent multiplayer support as well!
Who could forget such classic Hybrids comments as:
"Your song is not ourrrss!"
"Hrrrrrrr... KILL ME!"
"Run, RUN!"
-- Linux: Stays crunchy even in milk! --
Regardless of all the other games I have, I always eventually come back to Sid Meier's Alpha Centauri. I think of it as kind of what Civ3 should have been. Plus, I think it has more interesting options for customization than any of the other Civ games did.
The dynasty warriors series.
I've put ~200 hours each into the 3 DW games and later Samurai Warriors. Wading into a crowd of enemies and slashing until you get tired will never become boring.
Now, if only they combined it with Diablo/Champions' limitless equipment system, then I'd simply quit my job and wait for the Man to repossess everything out from under me.
The original Wing Commander. The day I got it, I played it for sixteen hours straight.
Oh, to have that much free time to myself again....
No, not that stupid "news" site, the game.
They made a game out of Neuromancer for the IIc and IIgs. I can't recall how many times I played through that. I wish I could find a copy of it again. I lent it to a friend many many years ago, and it got lost when he moved out of our old neighborhood.
"In case of emergency, break glass. Scream. Bleed to death."
Game that will always have a special place in my heart and mind: System Shock
I want to name my Daughter Shodan, think she'd have issues later on?
Dungeon Master" on the Atari ST was the best game of its time. It was a very early ST game and was a real eye-opener for anyone used to 8-bit computers. It probably sold almost as many STs as Doom did for PCs. The use of the mouse was perfect and I can still recall many of the rune sequences to cast spells even now, almost 20 years later.
Input error. Replace user and press any key to continue.
Sim City 2000. 3000 was lame because it required too much micro managment. Anything that Sid did with the Civ saga. I still play my old dos Civilizations from time to time.
We are the Borg...
socom!
For me, the Atari 2600 version of asteroids never seems to get old. Even as laughably primitive as it is, I still fire up the emulator and blast rocks for an hour or two every now and again.
More recent (but still a decade old) is the Turbographix-16 game Military Madness (aka Nectaris). For some reason I keep coming back to this turn-based, hex-based strategy game -- I can't quite put a finger on why, but in my opinion it's even more addictive than Starcraft and all the other real-time strategy titles.
There is a spellbook here; eat it? [ynq]
Doom 2 co-op by in large my favorite game of all time. X-Wing and TIE fighter.
Metroid (NES)
Dragon Warrior (NES)
JetFighter
Rogue
GoldenEye (N64)
Tetris64 (N64)
Tony Hawk 2(DC)
Warcraft II
Command & Conquer
FFIII (SNES)
-- taking over the world, we are.
Final Fantasy 7, can't get enough of that game, and I just started a new game again! Yeesh.
Absolutely the most frightening game ever. Played late at night with the sound turned way up. Took me weeks to finish. Many times (in the game) I hid in the corner and prayed for salvation. Those monkeys still give me nightmares.
Monkeys....brrrrrrrrr...
Fallout. Nuff said.
The original Bard's Tale trilogy was a personal favorite. I can't tell you how many times I played thru each of them on my old Apple IIE.
And of course, by extention, I played quite alot of Wasteland.
Lethal Tender, Warcraft 2, Operation Flashpoint, Rogue Spear and GTA:VC/
The entire Total War Series. Shogun TW, Medieval TW, and Rome TW.
These are the main ones:
Fallout
Quake 1
Privateer
All three Descent games
Commander Keen
All three Thief games
Mechwarrior 2
Tyrian
I hate making lists like this since I always know I've forgotten lots of great games.
What really got me hooked on PC games was DOOM and DOOM II. I hadn't really played any x86 PC games until a buddy of mine let me try out DOOM on his Packard Bell (ewww). That day I spent 6 or 8 hours playing DOOM on his PC... he wasn't too thrilled about that. I eventually talked the parents into bribing me with a new PC to keep my grades up, which eventually led me to the field of Computer Science since I just had to know how it all worked. I have Doom, id Software, my buddy, and my parents to thank for my career.
Before that, I palyed Spy Hunter, Mario Bros., Moon Patrol, Ms. Pacman, and Joust on my Apple IIe for many many years. As a matter of fact I went from a IIe to a Pentium 90... that should tell you how long I played my Apple games. I was a Joust god.
Fallout was the first real RPG that I ever played for the PC. The detail in everything you could do (remember that I was a virgin to RPGs...) blew me away. I just loved how depending on how you leveled your character, different options became available to you that helped or hindered your progress throughout the game. And of course, if you didn't care about finding the other options, you could just blow up everything that moved!
A great story, varied and challenging gameplay, and enough side quests to keep you busy for a very long time. After getting my hands on a copy of it, I didn't do much else, except for the occasional break for eating (which the loading screen helpfully reminds you to do).
Sid Meier's Alpha Centauri. The peak of the most awesomely addictive series in history. Also, it ran well on my badly-aging AMD K5 (!). These days I'll still play it on my badly-aging Athlon T-bird every month or two. This game has absorbed literally months of my life, and put me in academic peril in middle school, high school, and college. With a history like that, how can I not love it?
Command and Conquer blew me away with what you could do on a 486/66. Same thing with Dark Forces.
If you don't know where you are going, you will wind up somewhere else.
While I do love playing all the newer games that are coming out these days, I still love playing the classics:
The Legend of Zelda
Metroid
Phantasy Star series
Final Fantasy (take your pick - yes, even #1)
StarCraft
Tecmo Bowl
Doom
Wolfenstein 3D
Tie Fighter
These classics will always bring me back to the early days of gaming!
âoeItâ(TM)s a funny thing about life; if you refuse to accept anything but the best, you very often get it."
Grim Fandango - "Those dang compact cars!" My kids and I play it every Halloween. Call of Duty UO - For over a year I've been playing Base Assault Multiplayer. The old games I used to play: Zork 1,2,3 The Enchanter series. Silent Service (the original one on the spud ..er.. C64)
The Killing Gameshow (Psygnosis)
The Monkey Island series (well 1, 2, and 3 anyway)
... I'm a turn-based gamer. Reaction-time games are just not as compelling for me. That promise of "just one more turn" just leads me on ... there's no accounting for taste, I suppose.
Civ 2 had a lot of improvements but the basic concepts were in Civ 1. I found Civ 3 to be boring ...
Similarly, Heroes of Might And Magic 1 was wonderful; I skipped 2; HoMM 3 was an improvement in every way but still basically the same concept; HoMM 4 wasn't worth the upgrade, to me at least.
Perhaps there's some basic "fun" concept at the core of any game that you can mess with, and you HAVE to mess with if your income depends on continued sales, but messing with doesn't necessarily mean improvement.
--- Attorneys Assisting Citizen-Soldiers & Families -
I really loved Pirates!, I would spend hours every day sailing the high seas in search of plunder.
Other great games:
Civ I-IV
Oregon Trail
X-wing
Tie Fighter
Super Tecmo Bowl
Phantasy Star(any on the genesis)
Total Annihilation
The football game was just darn fun(I want to be the Chiefs, go JJ Birden!). Phantasy Star had great stories, and great game play. I have yet to find a better RTS than Total Annihilation.
Two franchises I'm surprised I haven't seen on the list so far:
1. Street Fighter II - Did anyone *not* care about this game in 1992 or whenever that was?
2. Bomberman - Maybe the multiplayer Bomberman phenomenon wasn't as widespread as i had thought.
Han shot first.
Not as sophisticated as many of the games mentioned on here but as I have said before a stone cold classic I have owned and played to death on many of the systems I have had since it came out in '86 (currently Taito Legends version on PS2). God, am I that old?
Pong.
Everything else is just a rip-off.
"All you have to do is be fragile and grateful. So stay the underdog." Chuck Palahniuk, Choke
Thanks to DosBox, I am free to play nearly every game I've ever purchased, and so I can simply list games that are currently installed on my computer as those that I truly love: * Civilization * Colonizaton * Heroes of Might and Magic II * Master of Magic * Settlers 2 * UFO: Enemy Unknown * Warlords
All Time Favorite:
TES III: Morrowind
I've burned soooooo many hours on that game.
(Other favorites, in no particular order)
Eve Online
Final Fantasy
Final Fantasy VII
Super Mario Bros. 3
Mortal Kombat II
Duke Nukem (the 2D sidescroller)
Wolfenstein 3D
Minesweeper
Jardinains!
Super C
Donkey Kong Country
Unpleasantries.
It's free, it's old, and it runs on just about anything, but it's still as addictive as anything I've played. I started playing again at Christmas, and I'm still loving it almost 2 months later
Angband (I have to delete this from machines I use or I'd never get any work done)
Star Control 2 (Recently reborn! I'm getting addicted to this all over again!)
Loom (Can't find my old copy, probably couldn't run it on modern OSes anyway)
Fallout (I keep coming back to this! And the sequel wasn't bad, either.)
System Shock 2 ("Why do you serve the machine mother?")
Thief (Oh man, this series has consumed more of my hours than any other, period.)
I'd been playing games in the home since 1980 when I got my Philips Videopac G7000 http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Philips_G7000 but nothing grabbed me as much as Final Fantasy VII http://www.ffonline.com/ff7/ did. Before I had spent a few days on a game before getting bored, I played FF7 for over 7 months before I finished it.
:) - There's a Windows version at http://homepage.ntlworld.com/david.kelly4/robot.ht m
Just waiting for the movie to come out on DVD - http://www.square-enix.co.jp/dvd/ff7ac/
By the way, does anyone remember Super Robot on OpenVMS? I spent hours at lunchtime at this game at work, not graphically great by any means but great fun when all you have is a VT220
Jonathan
http://www.justgofaster.com/
That said,... after my wife goes to sleep I can be found playing Civ 3 or Enemy Territory. :)
"It takes considerable knowledge just to realize the extent of your own ignorance." - Thomas Sowell
Star Wars Galaxies.
Take the MMORPG and mix in a genere other than the D&D which is so overused. Add to the fact that it's Star Wars. Throw in that you could be anything you wanted to be and do whatever you felt like doing (at least in the beginning.)
(insert here: a giant flame about SOE's incompetence and lack of vision)
But anyway, it is dead to me now and I won't be getting it back nor will SOE be getting me back.
After playing Master of Orion (1) a lot in my "early" PC days, I think MoO2 was the most "craved for" game ever since I found out they were actually making it.
... , big dissapointment.
To THIS day, it remains a game I (would) still play at any given time, given the right (i.e. skilled) opponents... sadly, the only problem is "time"... for an engaging and "serious" game, you either have to hot-seat an entire weekend (that sucks badly, trust me), or get it on "on IPX" (bleah, disconnects and load from saves galore). Either way, it's a lot of wasted time.
MoO3 was a big, big,
I would buy a "Master of Orion 2 : Platinum Edition" at almost any price... of course, this "MoO2:PE" would have to have support for much larger galaxies, many more players, options for "live player addition" (heck, or even make it a persistent server with joins/parts), etc.
Hmm, come to think of it, the world just MIGHT be ready for a MMORTS based on the MoO2 setup.
By reading this signature you agree to not disagree with the post you just read.
I'm still running a very active fan community.
A with a little luck we can expect the start of a sequel soon (3rd in the series; after 10 years).
Uh uh. Computers were for work. Spreadsheets, databases, programming. Well, OK, word processing for the character sheets for the home-brew dice-and-pencil RPG we played. Consoles? Fuggeditaboutit. Kid stuff, right?
Until my buddy asked me to advise him on the purchase of a new PC. When I asked him what he was looking to use it for, he named all the regular Office stuff, and then added, "And of course, games. I want to be able to play games."
So I studied up on graphics cards -- in the computer magazine articles I had always skipped prior to then -- and made my recommendations. When his box arrived, naturally he invited me over to configure it, for a few beers. In the course of my new research, I learned that the "Game of the Year" in everybody's graphics categories was something called "Mechwarrior II," so on my way over I picked up a copy for him to christen the new box with. He had a state-of-the-art graphics card and monitor, so I wanted to see what a state-of-the-art game looked like running on it.
When the opening cinema played, "I Am Jade Falcon," and that unbelievable by anybody's musical standards score hit, our jaws hit the ground and we did this kind of Beavis-and-Butthead-Watching-NIN-Video take to each other. It was nothing like anything we old dice-throwers had expected in the least.
So, um, yeah, about 400 BattleTech miniatures, countless PC games, and several dozen console games later, I guess I'd have to say that "MechWarrior II" was the most memorable, if not the most, influential, in my experience.
I remember the original Wing Commander, wasn't it something like 5, 5.25" Floppies? I begged my Dad to buy the game from Origin so I could get the box signed by Chris Roberts. I would get home from school and the game would be ready to play by dinner time, or something like that, on my 8086. Wing Commander 2 choked my 286...now that I think about it, new Wing Commander releases drove our PC purchases until I left for college. Probably just I would get off my Dad's CAD machine.
That one took the cake for me. I loved all the pre-online Ultimas up to VII, VI in particular in part because everyone I knew was also playing it, the storyline and world and music all meshed perfectly with me (I'd been playing the series since Alkabeth)... But Martian Dreams... which didn't get nearly as much attention as it deserved... was IMO the best ending of any computer game I've ever played... Other ones that I reminisce over still... Battlemech (battletech clone for amiga) Archon (old atari/et al chess/like action game) The Wizard and the Princess (first text + graphics adventure game I had) Temple of Apshai Telengard Dungeon Master Wizard's Crown - SSI fantasy strategy game prior to D&D license System Shock and pretty much all of the Ultima Games. If i had to single out one other...
"Waste not one watt!" - CZ
I learnt everthing I know about ladies on Leisure Suit Larry.
Which is why on valentines night I am 42, alone and posting on Slashdot in my underwear.
Larry
http://www.vintage-sierra.com/lsl.html
I played many memorable games on various Apple computers (some pre-Mac), back when this wasn't a nearly evaporated market.
"Ancient Times": "The Middle Ages": "Modern Times" (well, loosely speaking):Diablo II and expansion has to lead the list- I had way too much fun with that game over the years. Starcraft / Warcraft games gave me a lot of fun as well, and I haven't seen them mentioned yet. (I haven't played WoW, I'm talking about the RTS versions). The best 8-bit games I played were Legend of Zelda and Final Fantasy 1 (For an NES game, it was really good).
You are reading a copy of my copyrighted post.
This was one of the best Futuristic RPG's of it's time. (Fallout 1+2 were very well done also)
No question...fun game AND you could make your own levels. Sweet!
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
s .htm
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/Download
But they're worth mentioning again: Wing Commander, X-wing (didn't get TIE Fighter till much later, but it's great, too), the first WarCraft. Ah, memories...
"This thing does science so hard, you say, 'I've never seen that much science.'" -Sam
Let's see...
Dune 2
Quake [1-2]
Doom [1-2]
Descent [1-2]
Total Annihilation
I still fondly remember LAN parties where the trash talk was as fast and furious as the game action, possibly more so. TA with four players and bots for each, with select mods installed is insane.
... And so it comes to this.
The original Dungeon Keeper was my famvourite game for months until I could whip them heroes with no problems. Then, the rather boring expansions came out (boring maps with "traps" of 10th level heroes) and then the terrible DKII.
I miss that game, it was great fun to play and, while it wasn't the most original design, and had the best sound effects and voice work.
*goes to see if the disk is somewhere around*
FALLOUT was possibly the single game that revived the dead CRPG genre for the PC, and I loved it. I miss it, and I want sequels to do it justice. The original Civilization and Pirates! rocked.
WoW has me now
ditto. My list: Alpha Centauri Monkey Island (original) Civilization 2 KOTOR
To name just a few...
NES:
Blaster Master (I still play this on my NES regularly)
Fester's Quest
Batman (the first one, by SunSoft)
RiverCity Ransom (and Japanese pre/sequels)
Ducktales 1,2
Rescue Rangers 1,2
SNES:
Actraiser
NeoGeo:
MetalSlug (all of them)
I just pooped your party.
Minish Cap, hands down! Seriously it was by far the best 1 player game I have played in the past 10 years. Minimal story but that doesn't matter. There were plenty of extras, and above all the game was simple to master and actually fun!
Monstar L
Here comes Johnny singing oldies-goldies:
Dune 2: The Building of a Dynasty
Flashback
Leisure Suit Larry 1: In The Land Of The Lounge Lizards
MIG-29
Monkey Island 1: The Secret of Monkey Island
Monkey Island 2: Le Chuck's Revenge
Space Quest: The Sarien Encounter (Text Version)
Syndicate
Wing Commander
Wolfestein 3D
If the world is invaded by aliens, we will be safe, thanks to my hundreds of hours spent training for that very scenario.
River City Ransom. Totally redefined the modern day set action-rpg. I have blown so many afternoons into evenings playing this.
Mario 3 still is the big one. I am quite glad that I now have it for long bus rides on the GBA.
Bury me in mashed potatoes.
Anyone remember Zeliard?
I had a fond memory of it when I was playing it about 15 years ago, and only until recently I recalled its name "Zeliard", and promptly found and downloaded it from Underdogs.
The music still makes me warm and fuzzy but the graphic is a bit disappointing now.
Virtual Betting on Facebook for non-geeks.
Quirkiest RPG ever.
The Gabriel Knight trilogy is by far my loved games.
Obviously, the first 3 X-COM games are worth mentioning. They were really awesome.
Sierra's The Realm, before it became Realm Online was a great game (version 2, mostly), which I spend countless hours playing
And last, but not least, Neverwinter Nights. Unfortunately, I don't have the spare time to play it these days, but I spend about 3 years online with this one.
morcego
Back in the late 80s/early 90s, I was a big fan of Knights of Legend, by Origin. I placed on the C64, but there was a PC version as well.
Now it's WoW.
I am not a "gamer" - I don't buy lots of games, I don't overclock, I don't need the latest and greatest video card every two months. That said, here are the games I've enjoyed over the past 20 years.
There are a few other time wasters that I did enjoy, but these are the ones that kept me coming back over and over.
Constitutionally Correct
While I love most of the games that have been posted here, what's everyone's favorite game music? I don't know about anyone else but I still get some of the music from old games like Zelda, The Guardian Legend, and Metroid stuck in my head from time to time. Anyone have any particular favorite game music (8 bit or otherwise)?
âoeItâ(TM)s a funny thing about life; if you refuse to accept anything but the best, you very often get it."
Back in the BBS days, my friends and I would spent our days playing LORD. While I don't recall much of the game itself, I do remember spending more time than my parents liked in front of the computer playing it and tying up the phoneline. Not sure if it was my favorite game of all time, but there is something to be said for the (mostly) text-gaming experience.
n d_of_the_red_dragon.txt
Ah, here is the original FAQ for it:
http://db.gamefaqs.com/computer/bbsdoor/file/lege
-Valiss
Star Control 2 is one heck of a game. Exquisite sense of humor, great story about galaxy-wide genocide, ancient technology, and what not. Part 3 sucked, though. The "Melee" part of the game is also fun. It is being resurrected for contemporary Windows and Linux systems at http://sc2.sourceforge.net/.
Cel-Animated (Not Shaded! actual animation!) and Rotoscope animated adventure games of the Era! They don't make 'em like that anymore! I'd trade a whole hell of a lot for a new Cel animated adventure game. On another note, if Tell-tale games actually manages to ship the new Sam and Max, I'll have to build a PC just to play it, and I will too. I switched to Macs as a result of the dearth of PC games that I liked, my gaming needs being better served by my Nintendo Gamecube, and the upcoming Revolution.
My Lionbear's beastfu will rip your hominid to pieces.
As copyright owner of this comment, I authorize everyone to defeat any technological measure which limits access to it.
Diablo 1. I still play it when I need some uncomplicated fun.
A game that scrolls up? Even at age ten the innovation was not lost on me.
Plus the game was awsome.
And the best of the bunch, the two games I could never get enough of, were the Electronic Arts titles of M.U.L.E. and Racing Destruction Set. Still my two favorite computer/console games ever.
Someone remembers Tyrian! I wish I would've bought that game back in the day--I was stuck with that tiny little demo that I can't get running these days. Of course, not having a credit card or bank account would've made it hard to order.
Man, I miss the Foodship 9.
I remember getting my hands of an alpha copy of Warcraft II back in the AOL days. I had just found out about some chatroom called "warez" and was attempting to get every piece of free software imaginable forwarded to me; good ole AOL. Anyhow, the alpha version was pretty bare bones and it contained some resources that were changed but it peaked my interest. About four months later I was in an EB and I saw it for sale; I purchased the game and there went my social life for the next nine months.
But to be fair, this is really a two part love-affair. Had Kali not come along just around when Warcraft II [yes yes, I know it was designed for FPS's...kissmyasss] did then I probably would have beaten warcraft II and that would have been that but I began playing multiplayer games; this caused me spend most of my high school in front of a computer instead of chasing skirts...
On the consoles, the game I remember most fondly is NHL'94 on the SNES. My friends and I spend many hours playing that game, the cheesy goals, the fact that five people could play at once, NHL'94 had so much replay value. Super Bomberman also got a lot of play time, and I probably saved myself many quarters playing Street Fighter II on the SNES instead of in the arcades. For the PC, the two that stick out as most memorable are Half Life and StarCraft. Myself and my gaming friends still load those games up occasionally to play. I wonder if there will ever be games like those again. Those games broke the molds they were made in...
Julie Moult is an idiot.
I never miss a chance to mention my Propeller Arena Fan Site . For those who don't know, Propeller Arena is a 3D aerial deathmatch shooter. It was going to be Sega's last major title for the Dreamcast; it was cancelled, but later - hoorah! - leaked to the net. It's a bit simple, the online mode doesn't work, but it's a lot of fun and replay value nonetheless! If you want to play it (trust me, it kicks ass), try this torrent .
Circumcision is child abuse.
Don't just give a list. Explain why you like the games...thats the interesting part.
Going by time, I would have played the following games for 500 hours or more:
Quakeworld
Final Fantasy VII
Final Fantasy XI
All truely great games in my opinion.
Rise of the Triad - best quirky mutliplayer experience
Duke Nukem 3D - best multiplayer FPS (out of the box)
Total Annihilation - best RTS. Ever. Well, until Supreme Commander comes out.
Full Throttle - The last great adventure game.
Half-Life - best single-player FPS.
Spider Solitaire - best waste of time.
Civilization II - best improvement upon a great game
Medieval: Total War - best Braveheart simulator.
X-Wing - Most entertaining space sim
Babylon 5: I've Found Her - most realistic space (combat) sim
X-COM: UFO Defense - most addictive game, best turn-based combat
Honorable mention: Civilization, Master of Orion, Wolfenstein 3D, Doom, Quake, Half-Life 2, Unreal, Far Cry, X-COM: Apocalypse, Lode Runner, M.U.L.E., Yar's Revenge, Adventure, TIE Fighter, Wing Commander series, Jane's flight sims, Falcon 3.0 and 4.0, Sid Meier's Pirates, Homeworld, Homeworld 2, a few dozen others I can't think of at the time.
120 characters for a sig? That's bloody useless.
I think was my favorite game ever. All in the crisp, beautiful graphics of an Amiga 500! Definately a great one. Rescuing my beautiful queen from those nasty Normans. Gaining the help of Robin Hood's merry men in the conquest against the Saxons. Yea, I went both ways.
After that, Ports of Call and Black Gold were some of the best Economic Strategy games ever made.
Of course, as once mentioned before, X-Com. The original was the best. I had the single engagement demo for a long time. I played that one to death.
Just because you can, does not mean you should.
Does anyone remember a bug-plagued little Windows 3.11 game called Inner Space? I loved that game, even though it was a little repetitive and rather frustrating to keep running.
Others:
Fallout 2
Deus Ex
FF9 (Freya owns you)
Quake
Half-Life
Morrowind!
Man, I love Morrowind. Take all the crazy crap USERS have made for the game and add it to the already huge and lore-rich world Bethsoft made. Wonderful. How can you not like a game that has a bunch of _moogles_ as a fan plugin?
There're just too many to name. I really, really want to love Planetside with its promise of forbidden MMO-FPS love... but PS makes it so hard, what with the AirCav whores and everything.
I'm pretty much a Zelda affectionato. Zelda games have consistantly been my favorite since I started playing games, but my feelings for "A Link to the Past" (the SNES iteration, re-released on the GBA in recent years) probably come closest to "love". I know every nook and cranny, I know where every heart peice and every optional item are, and it's one of the few games I can re-play over and over again.
So yeah. The Legend of Zelda: A Link to the Past.
--
M
I miss Master of Magic! Veteran Hafling Slingers kicked ass!
- Ultima V
This was a game with depth, with true player freedom, and with a perfect sense of there being something cool always around the next corner.
- Out of this World
From the very first scene in this all-assembler gem, the atmosphere was the focus. The game mechanics, graphics, sound, were all good, but the integration and eerie presence was superb.
- Star Control II
An open universe, moddable ship, super fun arcade combat, and the best writing, hands down, of any game I've ever played.
- Wing Commander
This really needs no explanation.
- Dungeon Master
Diablo, 10 years early. The spells, the graphics, the world. It was just plain fun.
GOD did I love those games.
Looking for a Rails developer in Chapel Hill?
the greatest RTS game to ever be made (imo) how is StarCraft/BroodWar not up there yet?
At the time it was THE best Mac game, hands down, and even today it still has a strong claim to that position. It's the reason Mac users seemed distinctly unimpressed by Doom.
STUNTS was a great driving game way back in the day... you could even create your own courses!
n ts.html
http://www.ibiblio.org/GameBytes/issue20/misc/stu
I've always loved platformers, and it's sad that everybody is so stuck on 3D that nobody makes 2D games any more. Game companies tried to translate old platform favorites to 3D, and they failed more often than not. The only 2D-to-3D translation that really took off was Mario 64, and it abandoned some of the best aspects of the Mario series that could have been awesome in a 3D environment (blind charges across stages, mowing down enemies with turtle shells, hopping into giant sewer pipes to see where they go..). I'm not a pure platform guy; I believe in polyGAMEy. I still get the warm fuzzies (and the cold bumpies) from the original Doom (using Legacy Doom since WinXP hates DOS games and Mac OS has gone through a non-backwards-compatible revision or two since Doom's original release [I own both a Wintel PC and a Mac]). I even get my kicks lobbing pixels of spinny death in Combat or slaying evil square-eating ducks with a yellow arrow in Adventure. I fire up Unreal Tournament from time to time to see what kind of inane mods are popular at the moment; last I looked, Strangelove and bunny tracks (WTF?) were all the rage, though the occasional monster hunt is fun. Tetris is and always has been awesome, as evidenced by the million and one Tetri-clones and knockoffs like Dr Mario. Overall, I think the best games ever are the ones people continue to hack and mod. Not only does that keep things fresh, it is a testament to the staying power of those games: People like the format and want to continue to play with it. I would merrily play user-created Legend of Zelda dungeons all night if they existed. Can you imagine a LoZ multiplayer deathmatch? I think console game manufacturers need to get off their high horse about PC-based emulators. They could cash in on it a bit if they wanted. They could even go so far as to open-source old games, as they're really not making any money on them any more anyway. Here's to wishing. *lifts can of ez-cheez*
Come on guys, doesn't anyone remember Leela, Durandal, and that crazy bastard Tycho? And all is not lost if you don't happen to have an old Performa sitting around--come join us at source.bungie.org and work on Aleph One, the open source version, now available for Linux, Windows, and just about anything else you can think of! (Some nut even has it working on Irix!)
Media that can be recorded and distributed can be recorded and distributed.
-kfg
Bungie was great before it sold out.
Of course, it still makes pretty good games.
Make love, not reality television.
For me it was Ultima VI. In fact, I've just started playing it again. It was the first game for the PC that I actually kept playing for a long time. Oh the memories it brings back. I used to goto my cousin's house just to play it, which to this day is the only game I've left my house for the sole reason of playing the game (outside of sports obviousely)
WWJD.... for a Klondike bar?
Any idea where to find a copy these days? Even better yet, a playable copy that doesn't come on 5.25" disks? I would think that if someone had the time, you could recreate the whole thing via a java applet, but I would love to get my hands on a version.
The Bard's Tale!!! God, did I love that game Might and Magic Baldur's Gate (I & II and the expansions) Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic (never played the sequel, should I??) Disc Tron for Intellevision Deus Ex and, I can't remember the name of it (can someone please help me??) it was on the Commodore 64... text based dungeons and dragons game ... DANG IT! There were some famous lines like, "the dragon makes a quick move(and steals your stuff)".... there was a spell that was instant death "QWERTY"... ring anyone's bell?
also,
Zelda: A Link to the Past (the best Zelda game)
Mario 64
Banjo Kazooie!! (LOVED that game)
Rygar
hmmmm... what was that MUD based in Midgaard? Loved that game, too... until the University of Arkansas cracked down on MUDs.
I probably blew most of my sophomore and junior years of high school on Star Control II. Even now I'll play through the whole thing.
Maybe you know, maybe you don't: Fred Ford and Paul Reiche III released the source a few years back, and it's being updated for modern systems as a open source project. Since Accolade / Infogrames / Atari / whoever-buys-them-next owns the trademark to "Star Control", it is now called "The Ur-Quan Masters". The project just released version 0.5 at the beginning of February, which you can find it on their sourceforge site. The project incorporates both the DOS version and the 3DO version -- so you can choose your music, spoken voice vs text, etc. Very nicely done.
Some of these I can't play any more as I no longer own the game or the hardware or both, but I have fond memories of all. I've limited myself to titles released before Jan 1 2000 in order to stay with the "oldies" theme:
TRS-80 Outhouse
TRS-80 Defender
TRS-80 Blasteroids (a freeware game I wrote in BASIC)
TRS-80 Escape From Death Star (another I wrote)
TRS-80 Night of the Living Dead (yet another I wrote)
Amiga Turrican
Amiga Frontier Elite II
Amiga F/A-18 Interceptor
Amiga F-16 Combat Pilot
Amiga Blood Money
Amiga Lemmings
Amiga Wing Commander
DOS Duke Nukem 3D
DOS Dark Forces
DOS Tomb Raider
Windows Aliens vs. Predator 1
Windows X-Wing
Windows TIE Fighter
Windows Half-Life
Windows Jedi Knight
PS1 WipEout
I still play some of these.
First game:
apple Trek
other Apple games:
Lode runner
Mac games:
Tetris
Sim City
Rogue
PC games
Rogue, Moria, Omega, Angband
and now TOME.
"Modern" games PC:
Toontown
Mechwarrior 4
Console games:
FF 1
FF VII
Coolboarders 2001
Halo (very little of this though)
Current game:
Wow
I think whats amazing is that no matter how far we've come graphics-wise from AppleTrek up to WOW, the main facet for me has always been, "How much fun is this game to play? Am I doing the same thing over and over, or is there some variety involved?" Graphics are nice, and you always want to see them and be wowed by them, but if the game is repetitive and stupid, I ain't playing. Kinda like why I never really played Halo very much. Mechwarrior 4 I really have only played in multiplayer mode with the kids and then with co-workers. Story mode sucks.
WOW has done an excellent job of attempting to add content on the fly to help people continue to enjoy the game. But I can see how hard it is to be a Blizzard (I am a programmer by trade) because gamers are SO demanding, not just of content (story) but of glitz. And you can never please everyone. Anyay, above is my list.
PS. Level 39 Warrior (Hungerstrike) needs gold for mount. donations always welcome.
Ira
All of the Civilization games, the Sim City series, Warcraft, and currently, Battle for Middle Earth. Oh, can't forget Enemy Territory either.
I can remember waiting with bated breath for my copy of the original Pool of Radiance to come in the mail after "8 to 10 weeks" (oh, the good old days). I loved that game, and would play with my brother.
I can also remember being introduced to one of my loves, roguelikes, on a Tandy computer via Moria. I subsequently played Angband, and now I like ToME.
I have a lot of good memories of the precursors to MMORPGS (in their glory for the past few years), MUDs. My first MUD was called "Aldara ][", and I spent a lot of time on a ROM called "Sanctuary", a SillyMUD called "KAOS", and an absolutely awesome Circle named "Rifts". I also have a lot of good memories of the original Everquest, which I played from the first day it went public until my levitation wore off over some lava in Sol A and I pretty much burned out.
I loved to play HOMM2 & later 3. I also have some fond memories of Moraff's World (bring on the soap!). King's Quest and (to a lesser extent) Space Quest.
When I was a kid, one day I casually asked my dad: "Dad, what's a prophylactic?". I'd found his floppies of "Leisure Suit Larry" and played it.
I also hand fond memories of the Intellivision game "Dungeons and Dragons", moving in a simple 3d maze fighting stuff.
Let's not forget Castle Wolfenstein fighting Nazis! The original "Pirates" was fun, I can remember that Trinidad was my favorite cove (I actually work with a girl now who's from Trinidad. Arrrrgh Matey!)
I used to cheat on Bard's Tale. I learned early on that when you cheat in games, you're only cheating yourself. But man was my monk buff!!
Phantasy Star (All 4 of the originals, yes even number 3)
Total Annihilation
Virtua Fighter 2
And I'm more then sure there are a few others...
Wiwi
"I trust in my abilities,
but I want more then they offer"
There's nothing quite like sitting in front of a teletype and waiting f-o-r-e-v-e-r until your lasers cooled down enough so you could put in the final laser shot and pair of missles into the opponent you'd been sparring with for the past 15 minutes.
*GILDOR*/UN=H7LT263
Mainframe/UNIX Bit Twiddler and long time Windows/Linux Hobbyist.
The Theorem Theorem: If If, Then Then.
I spent COUNTLESS hours playing Sierra's Space Quest Series, Kings Quest Series, even Leisure Suit Larry 1. I also enjoyed Freddy Pharkas, Frontier Pharmacist as well as Willy Beamish from Sierra's sister company, Dynamix. Also can't forget Diablo/Diablo II and the Wing Commander series.
Those were the days....
~.Evanrude
Adventure - Prime 750
Halls of the Things - Sinclair Spectrum
Elite - BBC 'B'
Quake 1 Team Fortress
Unreal Tournament
Diablo 2
Neverwinter Nights
Man, to list all of these games...
Elite (C= 64)
Elite Frontier (Amiga)
Tempest The Theif Series (PC)
Alice (PC)
Medal Of Honor multiplayer (PC)
Halflife 1,2 and Counter Strike (PC)
There's always something out there good but this is a short list of the really pivotal games.
Dedicated Cthulhu Cultist since 4523 BC.
Games I've loved:
:-)
C-64: Gunship and SSI's Pool of Radiance.
Amiga 500: Gunship 2000 and Civilization
PC: EA's NHL series (mostly). I still keep playing it. Half-Life. Duke3d.
and Freecell. Although I'm playing more sudoku these days.
I used to play that all the time. It came with my parents' PS/2 Model 25. That was by far the best of the games that came with it. I didn't even know it was a clone of Loderunner until years later!
I liked NES games, FF1 was the first rpg I played. Mega man, any of the dragon warrior games, etc. And anything that would run on my first computer (pentium 100) was also good. The games I played there the most were probably earthsiege and lords of the realm 2. Tyrian also, oregon trail, carmen sandiego. Good stuff
escape velocity
super mario 64
super smash bros.
Work is punishment for failing to procrastinate effectively.
One of the few games I still play. Great replay value, runs on any DOS box with a miniscule amount of RAM.
I love NetHack.
Half-Life
System Shock 2
Half-Life 2
Doom
Quake 2
Mundus Vult Decipi
the productive member of society that I am today:
:(
*Descent. Because of this game, I decided to get a degree in computer science.
*Final Fantasy. Because of ff7, I bought a secret playstation.
*Street Fighter 2 (Turbo!) for the SNES. My mom wouldn't let me play it because it was a boy's game (plus she though it was the horrible "Mortal Kombat" that she heard so much about on tv). She made me play "Barbie Supermodel" instead
*Super Mario Land for the gameboy. So good that it doesn't need shiny graphics.
*The Legend of Zelda: A link to the past for SNES. FINALLY! A game where I don't have to have perfectly timed combos or fancy jumping skills to lay some smack down.
I remember asking my dad to upgrade our 256K IBM PC to 640K specifically so I could play this game Nethack. He brought home some RAM chips from work, and we physically plugged them into the QEMM daughterboard. :)
:)
When I booted up Nethack for the first time, my dissapointment was tangible. No graphics?! I asked my dad to upgrade our computer for THIS?! Rather than admit defeat, I figured I might as well play the game and see what it was like.
I've been playing on and off for the past, oh 15 years'ish. I finally ascended for the first time one or two years ago, and in a generally good, happy, wholesome life, the feeling of beating Nethack ranks relatively near the top of the list of accomplishments I'm proud of.
Other games that I've played and LOVED, which I'm defining as "enjoyed for the longest length of time":
Wolf3D and Doom... I played those over and over again.
Diablo
Ultima Underworld (I think the first game I had a dream about)
Early Kings/Space/Police/Hero's Quest games
X-Wing
Happy memories...
My first MUD-like game was Island of Kesmai. At the ridiculous per-hour charges of compuserve, this grew into an expensive habit. After I found Gamestorm's Legends of Kesmai, they had me hooked for $9.95 per month from the time I found it until the time they pulled the plug, after selling out to EA to give them the Aries engine. I never had, nor have since, found a community quite like Kesmai.
The truth about Scientology, Xenu, and you: Operation Clambake
1024x768 in 24bit color (8 for the low-end Personal Irises) made these machines the cat's meow back then.
The worst bug on the sim was that that the guy who did the aerodynamics equations didn't know how to handle stalls, so he just turned it into a uncontrollable spin. This made landing without crashing really difficult. The correct way to land (as I understand it) is get above the runway and go into a controlled stall. (spin - splat!). Unfortunately, a decent (touch) landing was the only way to refill your missiles, so you had to learn how to do hot touch landings (often while under fire).
I wasted hours on that game!
The early version of dog also had a watcher program that gave you an AWACS type view of a dogfight. I don't know why they got rid of it. (perhaps the military convinced them that it might give 'the enemy' some ideas -- the cold war was still on back then).
Free Software: Like love, it grows best when given away.
Elite, of course, from the BBC B. I still have a copy of the unofficial windows port somewhere, too ...
:-)
:-) Forget playing against crappy AIs, playing against crappy real people is much more fun!
Really, where do you think the term "1337" even *came* from? Get a history, people.
Then Doom - to a certain extent Wolf3D, but Doom really made that step up from earlier games. And because of Doom, the Quake games. But it's Doom that really rocks
These days it's BZFlag
Quick wafting zephyrs vex bold Jim
Games that you can pick up and play again ten years later with nary a hitch are the ones that make it high up on my list. StarCraft, Super Mario 2, Snes Populous, Starflight II, Snes F-Zero, and Homeworld 2 to name just a few. I think a more appropriate question might be what gameS do you love? The whole swept away on a desert island which game do you bring? trick doesn't work very well without electricity anyways.
only one everything
Far and away, the most hours I've sunk into a game belong to Counter-Strike. I've been playing it on and off since b6.1, back in....2000 or so. I currently play one of it's Warcraft 3 MODs a bit each night. Followed by, in order: - Half-Life 2 - Rome: Totalwar - Day of Defeat - Combat Mission: Barbarossa to Berlin, probably the best wargame, ever. - Medieval: Totalwar - MindRover, an excellent game I doubt many people know about. - Team Fortress Classic - Half-Life 1 - Civilization: Call to Power (don't hit me!) - StarCraft - SimCity - Warcraft 2, my first online game (through AOL) - Romancing the Kingdoms 3 (Sega Genisis?) - Archon (Nintendo)
Left 4 Dead Gaming Group - http://www.l4dgg.com
I know. I know I'm showing my age. Pad 1 please
The Poetry of Google Voice is very strange.
gv-poetry.com
Here is some of the games I loved to play and still play today (lots from ye olde Activision):
:)
Kaboom!
Pitfall
River Raid
Ghostbusters
California Games (half-pipe and hackey sack? what's not to love
Populous (great game, still own copies of the original and the Bullfrog version)
The Bard's Tale (one of the greatest series of RPGs of all time)
Archon and Archon II: Adept
Dragon's Lair (heh, I still remember most of the patterns to this day and would kill to own the stand-up coin op)
Civilization
Starcraft
Alpha Centauri
and there are many, many more that I loved to play back then and still try to play now - when I can.
Back then, gameplay (AND replay) was king with graphics being nice additions to the gameplay. I wish game studios would go BACK to that style of thought.
Dream as if you'll live forever.
Live as if you'll die tomorrow.
~Anonymous~
Larry...., Boulderdash, heck; I even have an original disk with Space Invaders !
But Xonix beat them all. Spent night after night after night with that one. Hardly got any sleep for months on end.
I remember playing Wizardry I on my old Mac 128K.
On the Commodore side I spent tons of time in Bard'd Tale I (remember the groups of Berserkers?), and Defender and Congo Bongo.
I have never been able to get into the latest Wizardry games, but I think I played I-IV way back in the day...ahh nostalgia.
Worms 2 & Armageddon: I'm suprised no-one has suggested this one already. I got into playing Worms 2 about 9 years ago, when I was in either 7th or 8th grade (I forget which), and bought Worms: Armageddon when I was in High School. They're absoutly wonderful games, and if it wasn't for pricks on WormNet (and no way to have admins ban the fuckers), I'd play Armageddon online more often.
NetHack: NetCrack more like. Killing Grid Bugs has never been more fun (unless you read that Scroll of Punishment. Oh, and I always avoid the Gnomish Mines, they still give me nightmares, damn gnomes).
Gabriel Knight 1 & 2: Two of the greatest adventure games ever. Period. (Alas, I have not found a copy of #3 yet.
Extreme Warfare Revenge: The greatest booking sim ever, and has none of the atrocious copy-protection crap that was put in Total Extreme Warfare.
Civilization Series + Alpha Centauri and Colonization: Must... play... just one more turn!
Starfleet Command: I was always a fan of Star Fleet Battles, and this game did not disappoint in the least.
Fallout 1 & 2: Two of the greatest PC RPGs ever.
Smackdown vs. Raw 2006: Possibly the best console wrestling game outside of...
Fire Pro Series: Which is the best console wrestling series. Ever.
And that's all I can think of for now. I'll probably come up with more later.Zagreus sits inside your head, Zagreus lives among the dead, Zagreus sees you in your bed and eats you in your sleep.
In no particular order: Morrowind, Tie Fighter, Full Throttle, Sam & Max Hit the Road, World of Warcraft (still addicted), Neverwinter Nights, Master of Magic, Wolfenstein 3D - Spear of Destiny, Freespace, and the old Gold Box games.
I played Wolf3D - SOD so much that I had memorized all of the anti-pirate question answers. It ran perfectly on a 386-16mhz, too. Tie Fighter took up a lot of my time... I didn't have a joystick or even a soundcard on my 486/33, but eventually got one. I was so happy ever after.
Freespace was just plain amazing. It was the top end of graphics, I think, until hardware T&L showed up.
Morrowind still is awesome, but I'm far too addicted to WoW to actually play anything else (except FFX... mmm)
You need to restart your computer. Hold down the Power button for several seconds or press the Restart button.
Maybe I'm mistaken, but in 1992 a 486 was state of the art!
I loved Earth & Beyond. I miss it so much.
Yeah, I know. You hated it. Just let me be, okay?
Please consider making an automatic monthly recurring donation to the EFF
Come on...think about it
When I had an 8088 with no hard drive, we bought this game called Starflight. Considering it ran from two 5 1/4" floppy disks, a combined total space of less than 640k, it was well ahead of its time. It had an amazingly large universe that you was nearly impossible to fully explore, and very engaging game play that often had me and a few friends on the edge of our seats.
The graphics are dated 20 years later, but the game play is still compelling. It will always be the quintessential game in my memory.
System shock
System shock 2
Morrowind
But would you believe that from time to time, I still go back and play sstrek, I believe the version I played was written in Fortran. I remember as a 10 year old hiking to my local college to play sstrek on a green on black 9600 bps mainframe terminal. I still remember how cool I felt when I finally won an emeritus game. I got to print out my award certificate and hung it on my wall.
Most love affairs come and go, but a few always remain dear to the heart. I think the thief series will always be my weak point though. I love the fact that it requires patience, strategy and foresight. My deepest hope is that someone makes a thief game on the scale of GTA. An open city with a myriad of oddities could work so well.. *sighs*
Parsec
Munchman
Elite
Frontier
System Shock
Quake
Starsiege Tribes
Half Life (and HL2)
Warcraft 2
Dark Reign
Total Annihilation
Donkey Kong (all of 'em), all the Pac-Man and Ms. Pac-Man style games, Zelda, Mario, and among my absolute favorites – King's Quest!
Creative misinterpretation is your friend.
Most people are listing PC games but allow me to post both.
PC
1. CivNET - My first computer was Windows95 so I was a late comer to the Civlization universe. I still like to fire up a game every so often.
2. Command and Conquer: Red Alert - My first real time strategy game and a great one it is. I rarely play it but still on occasion play it's sequel with the Yuri's Revenge addon.
3. Starcraft - Quite possibly the greatest RTS game ever.
Console
1. Final Fantasy III (US) - Most people would choose FF7 but this game sucked me in like no other has to this day. FFX was great but still the plot could not match FF III.
2. Super Mario Brothers 3 - Can you believe this was a NES game? Certainly the greatest platformer of its generation.
3. Street Fighter II - The original SNES version that my parents bought for my birthday ($70) many moons ago. My first real fighting game. Yes the championship edition may have been better but by the time I played that version, I had kind of grown tired of the original. Still, I remember that game fondly.
Does God treat us as servants or friends? Check my homepage.
Airborne Ranger was the first game I'd ever played that had "stealth" options. You could crawl through trenches and travel unseen up the map. I've tried it on emmulators, but its not the same without giant "F" keys alligned vertically.
Old school:
C64 - Space Taxi
C64 - Steel Thunder
Dos - SeaWolf
Modern:
Dos/Win - MOO2
Dos/Win - Civ2
XP'ish - Tribes 1 & 2
"The price good men pay for indifference to public affairs is to be ruled by evil men." ~Plato (427-347 BC)
For coin-op, I was a Robotron fiend. I've really never been so mentally exhausted as when I would play for 8+ hours on one quarter at the local pizza joint in 8th grade. That game was an amazing experience.
I had an Atari ST in college, and my roomies and I would play Sentinel and Gauntlet II endlessly. Wish someone would put out a Sentinel clone again --- great original game.
Maybe my all-time favorite was Doom II. Great, immersive maps, and (like Doom I) you could get the monsters to fight each other. One of the greatest touches to a shoot-em-up I knew of. Great fun to see if I could make it from Level 1 past Level 30 with no 'cheats' (but lots of savegames). I liked charging into some ridiculously populated room with very limited ammo, hiding in a corner and getting off a couple of strategic shots, and watching them turn on each other.
YES! Mechwarrior 2 had awesome game play, and was one of my most favorite games ever even though the graphics were not that great. Then M$ took it over and dumbed it down for Mechwarrior 3. Sure it was prettier, but was no where near as fun. But I bought it and played it anyway. Then came Mechwarrior 4. Exact same thing. Dumbed down even further, and prettier graphics. No wonder the franchise died. Now to parallel: Tribes. This FPS had revolutionary open game play with a permanent jet pack and HUD scripting. No more running around in dark corridors. The freedom to fly! and emphasis on team play. I was instantly hooked. Then Tribes 2 came out. Again better graphics, but never quite felt the same due to several rules changes, but still playable thanks to Mods. Then the final nail: Tribes: Vengence. Vivendi killed this game almost before it was launched. Despite the big graphics upgrade, it was so dumbed down that they had just turned it into another Deathmatch game. I wanted to love it, but it just didn't hold me the same as the previous Tribes. Then with the patch fiasco's, they basically killed it too. I mourn the loss of my favorite games. Hopefully Volitant Assault being developed by former Mod developers will make it and be everything the next Tribes should have been.
Nevermore.
Nethack is like the ex-girlfriend from hell. Once upon a time, you had a mad, passionate love affair with her. You spent every spare hour with her, helpless to resist, almost psychotic in your obsession with her, until you realized that she was sucking the life out of you. To save yourself, to keep from flunking every single course and losing all your friends, you forced yourself to give her up. It was a long, long time before you undid the damage.
Needless to say, you haven't seen her or thought about her in years. Then, one day, someone mentions her, and says she's still around, still ready for a good time. Thinking yourself older and wiser, and beliving yourself to have outgrown the kind of all-consuming infatuation that robs you of your time, your precious, irreplaceble time, you go to see her.
She is, indeed, ready to pick up where you left off.
After an hour of fun and good times, you wonder why you ever stopped seeing her.
After ten hours, you remember.
After a hundred hours, you remember all too well.
The man who does not read good books has no advantage over the man who cannot read them. - Mark Twain
Love those old adventure games,
Monkey Island games
Journeyman Project games
Sam And Max: Hit the Road
Bar none, the most revolutionary experience I'd ever had playing a computer/video game. It actually approached the pen'n'paper experience in terms of player freedom. So far ahead of its time that we're still playing catchup in many respect.
The others for me, in no particular order are:
- Duke Nukem 3d (I got so bored with Doom, but Duke kept me coming back over and over again)
- Civ (just one more click...)
- Sega Genesis Shadowrun
-- All views expressed in this post are mine and do not
-- reflect those of my employer or their clients
Atari 2600:
:)
* Adventure
* Kaboom!
* Enduro
Atari 800XL:
* Star Raiders
* Alternate Reality: The City
* Zombies / Realm of Impossibility
* most classic arcade ports I've played
Nintendo NES:
* Super Mario 1 & 2
* Megaman series
* Ninja Gaiden series
* Galaga
Atari Lynx:
* Road Blasters
* Klax
Atari Jaguar:
* Tempest 2000
PlayStation:
* WipeOut series
* Twisted Metal 1 & 2
* Pandemonium
* Jumping Flash
* Tekken 1 & 2
PlayStation 2:
* WipeOut Fusion
* Twisted Metal Black
GameCube:
* Viewtiful Joe
Linux:
* SuperTux
* Vectoroids+
* Defendguin
* Mutant Storm
* Wesnoth
* Frozen Bubble
Cellphone:
* Word Nerd+
I'm certain I've missed some, but these are off-the-top-of-my-head-at-lunchtime...
+ Ok, so I wrote these. Big whoop. Wanna make somethin' of it?
I'm not a gamester. But I got HW (the original) as a birthday present from a friend who assumed all "geeks" were into computer games. I tried it out one Saturday morning, and didn't emerge from my cave until late Sunday night. As I say, I'm not a game-player, but it was the STORY that drew me in. There are a handful of films and books that, from the time I was a kid, made me WISH that I could "go there." This was the first and only computer game that made me wish I could "go there." I found myself wishing I could "see inside" the mother ship, see the people in there and watch their lives. The "aura" surrounding that game is like nothing I've ever felt, before or since. (And yes, I've tried the sequels, and no, they just weren't quite the same. The Storyline is the difference. (Ever wish you could "forget" some of your favorite books and movies so you could go back and experience them again "for the first time?")
Any technology distinguishable from magic is insufficiently advanced.
CS.
I've wasted almost 8000 hours playing that damn game. Love it and hate it.
Transport Tycoon (Deluxe).
I learned my first english from playing this game with my dad.
I still enjoy whipping out the XP patched version at lan party's and have multiplayer fun.
Fragile Allegiance.
Bought it for $2 in a shop. Old, and not very know, game. Turned out to be a real blast. Space strategy at it's best, but with a stylish and alternative approach to interface. You actually get to see the planet being build on, and battles carried out in realtime.
Defender of the Crown was incredible. As were Maniac Mansion, Captain Comic and Police Quest! Damn you Bains!!
I remember it like it was yesterday. You had to perform nothing short of a miracle in a Tie Advanced (without the tractor beam upgrade, so it was short on power).
You had to fly to one Star Destroyer, inspect some containers, kill some ships, then get over to the other end of the battle area to protect your Interdictor from about a dozen wings of Z-95s with heavy rockets. Just as you were taking out one wing, another would have already launched and started firing rockets. Keep in mind, this was on MEDIUM difficulty.
I must have flown that mission dozens of times before I actually beat it. It would have been easy with a modified Tie Advanced because of all the extra speed, or maybe if they had given me a 16 missile load instead of the usual 8, but with a regular T/A it was a pain chasing down those Z-95s and trying to take out a few of the rockets before they moved out of range.
Needless to say, in the CD version this mision was toned down considerably. And, not surprisingly, no other mission in the game came close to this level of difficulty.
Man is the animal that laughs.
And occasionally whores for Karma.
Sam and Max, Hit the Road
That was a game that was fun and hilarious.
And lets not forget Maniac Mansion 2: Day of the Tentacle
Both made by Lucas Arts
But the first one always; Leisure Suite Larry
And, oddly enough, both for the same reasons: planning. Falcon 3 had a mission planning mode where you would set waypoints, speeds, weapon loads, etc. for you and up to 8 of your wingmen. I would spend 2 hours setting up the mission, and 20 minutes or less flying it. I never could land on hi-fidelity mode. Crashed just about every time.
Same with SC2K, what I liked was getting the freeway onramps to look right. Or I'd spend $250K to deepen a river so I could get a suspension bridge on it. The reverse interest money cheat made sure I wasn't constrained by cost.
It wasn't really the way the games were meant to be played, but I loved them for it.
There are 01 kinds of cars in the world. The General Lee, and everything else.
About once a year, i'll pull out the whole myst series, and play through it about twice, once to remember how to beat it, and once to see how long it takes me to get through the whole story.
I encrypt all my files with Double XOR Encryption!
(This is an exact repost of something I wrote back in January.)
When I found out the music in SC2 was MOD files, I found a ripper on my local BBS and promptly extracted the music. That was in June of 1994, and the files have followed me from drive to drive, filesystem to filesystem, with their timestamps intact. I still love listening to that music, having burned bits of it to CD for the car, and all of it still enjoying a place in my Winamp playlst.
Occasionally when a discussion of game storylines crops up, I'll pitch in a few kind paragraphs for Star Control 2. The conversation archives on The Pages of Now and Forever still relate the same compelling story, and I still remember my horror when I initially learned of the Kohr-Ah's plight. The most convincing villain is one you feel sympathy for, and they had that going, for sure.
A few weeks ago, I downloaded the most recent build of The Ur-Quan Masters. The first build I tried a year or so ago wouldn't start up, but this version ran flawlessly. The music was perfect, the graphics were just as I remembered them, and the interface took a little getting used to but then felt very comfortable.
So why did the game bore me? I played for probably half an hour, and couldn't seem to get interested. It's not that I knew the ending -- I played the game through 3 or 4 times back when it was new, and it didn't seem any less fun the second time around. I haven't been much for games in the last few years, and I'm still struggling to figure out why.
Still playing it.
If Chaos Theory has taught us anything, it's that we must kill all the butterflies.
Spent years playing games like Dangerous Dave, Hover Tank, Catacombs, Commander Keen, and Duke Nukem 1 - 3 side scrollers on that thing.
Then Wolfenstein and Doom came. I've spent so much time in Doom that I can probably run through the first nine levels of the shareware by memory again. Strangely enough most of my early game experiences were the result of a few people. Namely John C. and John R. and crew. Either working independently, together at GamersEdge or when they started id.
More recent games that I will always love to play no matter,
TIE Fighter (I would love a new space sim with the pace and feel of this classic)
C&C
Any Decent Adventure Game (What happened to all the Kings Quests and 7th Guest type games?!? At least LSL is still kicking)
Master of Orion 2
SimCity Series
StarCraft
Diablo 1 & 2
Quake (Fastest Deathmatch Game EVER! I still know every inch of the dm2 map)
To name a few: Wolf3D (PC) Doom series (PC) Quake 1&2 (PC) HL and HL2 (PC) Asheron's Call 2 (my first MMO) (PC) City of Heroes (PC) World of Warcraft (PC) Counter Strike series (PC) Tony Hawk series (PS2) Tribes was lots of fun at the office back in the glorious dot com days...
Anyone? This had to be the most comprehensive single player RPG at the time, far ahead of its time - its world was more immersive than even Ultima 6, Might and Magic 3, D&D Pool of Radiance, etc not to mention any FF, save FF online maybe.
Ultima Underworld was game that made me give up on the Amiga and get a PC. After seeing a friend play it I had to have it. Making long leaps in the darkness to barely visible platforms actually made my stomach flip over.
I'm not sure I'd include all 4 Quake games.. I never really got fully into the storylines or the atmosphere. What made the earlier ones for me was the mods. Action Quake2 was godly.
Champsionship Manager '93 was a revolution.
Took a long time to complete, but I collected everything and got to go to bed at the end.
That and Knightlore. Ultimate, play the game.
Task Mangler
Marathon - Probably the most convoluted FPS story ever.
Quake - Pure crack. This game devoured 2 years of my life.
Fallout & Fallout 2 - Another 2 years gone.
Come on, I couldn't have been the only geek here to spend my alotted turns each day exploring, trading, mining, etc. Collecting log files and transferring them to a big poster board with the spider web like map. That was the first online game I ever played (BBS = online, right?) - and actually one of the ones I enjoyed the most. No fast reflexes, no huge learning curve, just you and the Cabal putzing around the galaxy.
Of course.
You can't possibly get bored of it.
-- javaDragon is an instance of JavaDragon.
I can still remember puzzling through the first one.
The second was good.. but not as good as the first.
Monkey Island 3 was excellent.
I'm going to pretend that Monkey Island 4 was never released. WHY go 3D if it's not a 3D game?
Monkey Island 3 was the best in the series. Good graphics, puzzles worth solving, amusing storyline and interesting quirks. The interface was very good too.
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Unreal Tournament: Favorite of all time. I've logged more time with this game than any other game or series of games. For years, I didn't play many other games but this.
Other favorites in no particular order:
Marathon series
The Legend of Zelda
Legend of Zelda 3
Doom
Duke Nuke'em 3D
Tie Fighter
Castlevania series
Super Mario Bros.
Mega Man 2
Street Fighter 2 (and CE and Turbo)
Final Fight
Streets of Rage 2
Metroid
Final Fantasy 7
I really miss this game. I wish they would either release the code to opensource or continue building on this game model. Still haven't found anything that kept me engaged for so many years. DOOM (1-4), Quake (1-4), Half-Life 2, Wolfenstein RTCW and many others are terrific games and very entertaining to play. SOme are downright addictive. But nothing replaces that first rewrite of Battlezone. I'd pay $80 for a good sequel to that game.
Man, I miss that game and the team that created it!!!
Ididn'tdoitnobodysawmedoityoucan'tproveanything!
Populous and Powermonger ~ atmospheric early Peter Molyneux games. Loved the rain, the birds, the boats... Powermonger was beautiful (although not terribly entertaining in the long run).
Starflight I/II and Star Control II (as The Ur-Quan Masters) ~ they're very, very similar - except Starflight is older and technically more primitive, as well as more serious in tone than the often quite frivolous SC2. 2D space exploration games; artifacts, mysteries, diplomacy, banter, upgrading, mining *sigh*, trading, fighting, and a wee bit of strategy. Epic and very much not "on rails" - you decide on your own what to do when or whether to do it at all. Played on DOS, Amiga, Linux, Windows.
Mercenary: Escape from Targ/The Second City, Damocles, Mercenary III: The Dion Crisis ~ a series of 3D vector graphics space games (although most of the game takes place on the surface and inside buildings). Some annoyingly absurd puzzles, by hindsight (pick up cheese to fly faster). However, the sense of freedom, vastness and complexity they evoked was quite unusual by 80s standards, and there weren't many better games for the Commodore Plus/4 anyway. Played on Plus/4 (Mercenary), Amiga (others). Windows remake of the whole series.
On the less adventurous end of the space game spectrum: Elite, Freespace I/II, Freelancer, Wing Commander...
Ultima IV ~ A real world map, not just dungeons! Towns with trees and ponds and hidden nooks and crannies! Conversations! Secret islands and shrines hidden away in the mountains! Monsters that didn't just pop up out of nowhere! I liked this so much better than the maze-based "puzzle" RPGs of the time. And I really loved the cover art, at the time :). What a change from all the muscle-bound Conan-alikes and horned demons. Played on DOS.
Ultima V ~ The NPCs had houses! You could harvest their crops! They really went to bed at night (though never complained if they found you sleeping in it)! Played on C 64.
Archon ~ most conveniently described as a chess-inspired strategy game with one-on-one combat and unicorns, goblins, banshees and other such mythological critters. Terribly good game, almost managed to feel more ancient-in-a-good-way than chess itself. If I ever wanted a coffee table with a built in video game, this would be it. Played on Atari 600/800XL, C 64, Amiga. Dunno if the remakes are any good.
(Net-)Hack. Played on DOS, Amiga, Windows, Linux, Psion...
Moonsweeper and Beamrider ~ I never really understood why those weren't the most popular VCS games... 3D-looking 2D shooters, one smooth and pretty, the other confined to a grid not entirely unlike Tempest and with a growing number of enemies to predict, evade or shoot. Both quite atmospheric. Played on Atari 2600 and 7800.
Many "adventures", by which I used to mean "text adventures". In fact text adventures were among the first computer games I ever saw and I was fascinated by the freedom they seemed to grant the player: you could go where you want and issue any command you could think of. Neither was the case, but I had never used a computer before, was generally impress
The first one, give it a try... after all these years I don't think I've played a game I liked so much
P.O.D.
MegaRace
Doom
Syndicate
Carmageddon
Sim City
Wolfenstein 3D
Half-Life
Dune 2
Civilization
Monkey Island
Rise of The Triad
Space Quest (1+2+3+4)
Leisure Suit Larry
Theme Park
7th Guest
Phantasmagoria
Zak McCracken
Indiana Jones: Fate of Atlantis
King's Quest
Prince of Persia
Outrun
Test Drive
Commander Keen
4D Stunt
Dynablaster
Bubble Bobble
Super Mario
Lemmings
Eye of The Beholder
Lands of Lore
Turtles
Warlords
Day of The Tentacle
Sam 'N' Max Hit The Road
Grimm Fandango
Morph
Mortal Kombat
Street Fighter
Cannon Fodder
IK+
Ghostbusters
Goal
MDK
Unreal
Battle of Britain
Battle Chess
The Incredible Machine
Another World
Pinball Dreams
Pinball Fantasies (Amiga)
Stunt
4D Boxing
In no order:
Starflight I & II
All the Civs
Master's of Orion
Starcraft
Warcraft
Fallout
Wizardry 1 (because I cracked the heck out of it.)
and I have a fondness for my first text based adventure on a trash80 written in Basic. I can't remember the name of it, but it taught me a lot about programing because I had to do traces in the code to figure out what I needed to do next in the adventure. The whirl of my tape player loading that game still makes me smile.
"Only one thing, is impossible for god: to find any sense in any copyright law on the planet." Mark Twain
first was the old nintendo
... dude was flashing his bios at 10 and doing
.. college. so to speak a hole
hand helds with those button
batteries. i think it was mickey
as a fireman and the hose with
holes.
then the two screen donkey kong 2&3
the a apple 2 with elite and that side
scrolling indian jones kindda aztek temple
(really neat grafics!).
then IBM PC. frogger, allycat, summer games, caligames etc.
all the Xquest series (sierra). space quest
being the favourit after leisure suit larry
series. roger wilco!
the "nearly" a amiga and popoulus.
then i guess the wing commander series 1&2&3 (plus special missions add-on, get to fly a dralthi(?), privateer (alien "one shot
you're dead" super green gun, yay!), strike commander (bomb the
pyramids etc.)
my friend was into ultima 1-7. a real computer wizard. and another series
but i didn't like RPGs at the time. thought me alot about pcs. you know
"dir, copy, cd" etc
hex editor to get more money in the really old original castle wolfenstein,
mostly to bribe the guards.
his brother told me about the wing commander series and ultimatly (sic) origin
and all their great games.
civilisation, sim city, LHX, railroad tycoon.
i missed doom 1 abit and halflife
bewtween 486DX2 and pentium 2 800 Mhz.
but i'm back and now i like quake 3 and UT 2003/2004 very much. not a doom
fan but for the grafics. halflife two without steam is also very enjoyable.
any version
openstreetmap.cz
The two I remember the most, and that I certainly lost the most hours to:
1) "Gunship" for the C64. You were the pilot of an Apache helicopter and got sent on missions. Very realistic for it's time, and came with this nifty keyboard overlay that showed where all the controls were.
2) "Wasteland" on my old 286. You whippersnappers with your Fallout don't know your history (Fallout is a great game, no doubt).
Ah yes, Wasteland is probably the greatest game ever for the Commodore. I still play it occasionally using VICE. You can get game images at C64.com.
How far back are we talking about? In the PC world, I played Wolfenstien 3D spear of destiny (IIRC) Actually finished that one! Doom II , made more hi-larious by adding the Simpsons overlay to it. Stunt Island. Was cool to fly various planes around the city and stuff. Never really got as far into this game as one could have. Simcopter. Lots of people disparage this game for the poor graphics it had. If you could get past that, it was fun and had its funny moments too. I still play it occasionally and have version 1.0 which has some sort of easter egg in it.
-- After all is said and done, more is said than done.
Ultima Underworld is one I don't often hear mentioned... but it was fantastic!
Space Quest 1-3 and Hero's Quest/Quest for Glory 1-2 were great too.
Quake2's multiplayer got me hooked on multiplayer deathmatch for a long time. Counterstrike did that too.
Currently I've been playing Guild Wars for months, and can't get enough of it, so I'd count it in too.
Roguelike games have held my interest since I first got into computers in the mid 1980s. I discovered Moria on an Amiga in 1989 or 1990, then Angband a few years later, and moved from there to Zangband about the time I got into the internet - about 1994. I've kept playing it on and off ever since - never won.
Occasionally I fire up one of the modern graphically impressive games, but I tire of them quickly. The Civilization series would be my favourite "conventional" game, and I've spent long hours on Civ, Civ2, Alpha Centauri (probably my overall favourite of the series), Civ3 and Civ4. I've looked at Age of Empires but find the micromanagement a complete pain.
A couple of years ago, I got hooked on Wikipedia, and that now takes up most of my gaming time. I know Wikipedia isn't a game, but it appeals to the same obsessive-compulsive element in me, and the countless hours I spend there researching and writing articles, copyediting or playing whack-a-mole with vandals produces a long-term result which is good for everyone.