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The Ten Greatest Years in Gaming
Ground Glass writes "Next Generation has posted an abbreviated version of gaming's history by only chronicling the high points - the ten best years in the history of the medium. While it doesn't cover 1998 (and therefore forgets the birthdays of Half-Life, Starcraft, and Zelda: Ocarina of Time), most of the memorable moments are there. What was your best year for gaming?"
Those were the best years. Innovation, new ideas, great titles, content, gameplay were king. Star Control 2, Indiana Jones and the fate of atlantis, Aces Of Pacific, and many more.
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I have no sig yet I must scream.
Wow, that was quick! Anyway, here's a full mirror of the one-page printable version.
Corel Cache version also available here
Just don't create a file called -rf.
The early 1990s were clearly the best for innovation and gaming, on ALL platforms -- but particularly the PC.
SimCity. Civilization I and II. Masters of Orion. Panzer General. X-Com. Wing Commander, Ultima 6 & 7. Doom. Tie Fighter. Dune 2. Warcraft. Not only were these games are very playable, but they defined genres unto themselves. The height of creativity.
Most games today are incremental improvements upon those original gems. I am disappointed with the lack of solid turn-based games in recent years (Advance Wars on the DS notwithstanding), but most of the rest of those genres are doing well -- FPSes, RTSes, first person RPGs, etc.
John Maynard Keynes: "When the facts change, I change my mind. What do you do?"
Uh, I'm sorry? The original offered great characters, (quality) Hollywood action movie story telling, and polished gameplay. The game is actually quite immersive (the only breaking of the "fourth wall" I can think of was the second controller trick for Psycho Mantis).
MGS2, on the other hand, was way over the top at times, convoluted, and wanted so badly to lack immersion. And of course, nobody liked Raiden. For those just looking for great gameplay, the game still had it.
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May I also recommend:
Privateer...
http://priv.solsector.net/
http://wcuniverse.sourceforge.net/
OSGGFG - Open Source Gamers Guide to Free Games
Coral Cache should die if the don't get serious about using port 80 so I (and most people at work) can see TFA!!!
Finding other idiots on
Following its launch in 1982, in 1983 the ZX Spectrum really took off with the release of classic games such as Jetpac, Atic Attac, Pssst, Cookie, Tranz Am and Lunar Jetman and Manic Miner, to name but a few.
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Like all of the other puzzles in KQ IV this was based on a fairy tale where a princess drops her golden ball into a pond by accident and a frog returns it. Then she is really mean to the frog, only to find out later by being made to kiss is that he's a prince. If you've read/heard the story this part of the game makes a lot more sense.
> Recent "interactive fiction" games are like stepping back to the bad old days, before anyone had figured out what made a game good. It's one thing to be limited by the medium, but another to embrace the very thing that makes the medium suck.
Err.. "Spider and Web" is hardly recent interactive fiction. It's quite a few years old now. It's also hardly representative of most games made lately.
What's more, the problems you cite (the irrational nature of the opening puzzle) is actually carefully designed as a clue to something later. Just remember you're not really there solving the door puzzle, you've done that already or you wouldn't be sitting in that interrogation chair inside the building. So ask yourself, what ARE you doing?
If Spider and Web's not your cup of tea, perhaps try 2001's "All Roads" by Jon Ingold. It's almost puzzle-less, and you're pretty well guaranteed to glide through once you get out of the cellar. The only serious puzzle is understanding what's actually going on, it's kind of a Phillip K. Dick mindfuck, which makes it one of my favorites.
Varicella is a good suggestion, in which you play an antihero, the fastidious Minister of the Palace who's hoping to gain the Regency now that the King has passed away. By any means, fair or foul.
For something more light-hearted, I enjoyed The Frenetic Five vs. Mr. Redundancy Man.
For a quick run through text game experience, there's Hunter, In Darkness, in which Andrew Plotkin turned Hunt the Wumpus into an awesome short-story. (A small hint: If you start to make a map, you're barking up the wrong tree)
Anything by Emily Short is worth a look, too. I think I like Metamorphoses best, but that might be my geekiness coming through, since it's a very magical-gadget kind of game.