Age of Rifles and other classics…

[ArizonaTank]

Just looking through the list of SSI games on Wikipedia. So many great wargames!

Of all those great games, only a handful have been pillaged by devs and publishers in this century; Panzer Corps is a redo of Panzer General, The Operational Art of War, and Steel Panthers are the one ones that come immediately to mind (there are bunch of D&D RPG titles that were reissued, but let's agree to focus on wargames).

Sure a bunch of the old SSI titles would not be worth the effort for a redo. But I believe that most of the titles are like gold nuggets just waiting for someone to pick them up.

Here is the list.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_Strategic_Simulations_games

[Gusington]

^That list makes me cry nostalgia tears.

[Rayfer]

^That list makes me cry nostalgia tears.

I learned a long time ago with GOG that many of the great old games don't hold up well for me today.  Lots of nostalgia but little gaming joy now.  I never played the two games detailed here so my comment isn't directed at them specifically. The killer for me was the old original Xcom, which I played endlessly when it first came out. But it just didn't have the magic for me now.

[ArizonaTank]

I learned a long time ago with GOG that many of the great old games don't hold up well for me today....

I find that games without mouse support, or minimal mouse support, are harder for me to take now.

[solops]

Tanks was my all time favorite wargame. I have no idea how well it will have aged in the re-launch. GNB and AoR were right up there, too. Some how modern devs have not managed to capture the combination of game, history and military detail that these old games manifested. I think they tend to bias toward presentation/graphics in order to appeal to a larger, less wargamery consumer base. Hmmmmm....it must be a profit/money thing. Go figure!

[Grim.Reaper]

Thanks for the feedback everyone, I guess I will see how it resonates with me in a few days, although certainly keeping my expectations in check:)

[Dammit Carl!]

In my dream world, WDS would get the "Age of Rifles," license in order to go hog wild with the idea.  It'd be glorious.

[SirAndrewD]

In my dream world, WDS would get the "Age of Rifles," license in order to go hog wild with the idea.  It'd be glorious.

I want to live in that reality.

[Lowenstaat]

I enjoyed Tanks! and Age of Rifles' campaign generators.

In Tanks! the player could setup parameters for random campaigns that featured major combatants from WWI through the 1990s, even matching forces from orders of battle from different eras against each other. A modded version of Tanks! called XTanks! replaced the historical OOBs with force structures from around the globe circa the late 1990s to about 2000.

The scale of Tanks! is similar to Steel Panthers III, 250 meters per hex, 5 minute turns. Maneuver elements are platoons which belong to parent company formations. The whole company formation has ratings for morale, supply, and command. The game has on map player-controlled artillery and off map close air support that is semi controlled by the player depending on the time period of the scenario or campaign.

Tanks! also has a map editor and scenario editor.

Check out The Armor Site for more information about Tanks!
https://id3486.securedata.net/fprado/armorsite/main.html

[Grim.Reaper]

Says release is in an hour or so....I'll get it tonight (assuming not some crazy price) to give it a shot.

[Strela]

In my dream world, WDS would get the "Age of Rifles," license in order to go hog wild with the idea.  It'd be glorious.

I want to live in that reality.

Well....

In this  Tally-Ho Corner Interview

We said: 'We were pleasantly surprised at the response to the Little Big Horn Demo, and we can see that the period 1850 – 1910 is underserved, but ripe for some new innovations.'

We also posted this image.

[Tamas]

In my dream world, WDS would get the "Age of Rifles," license in order to go hog wild with the idea.  It'd be glorious.

I want to live in that reality.

Well....

In this  Tally-Ho Corner Interview

We said: 'We were pleasantly surprised at the response to the Little Big Horn Demo, and we can see that the period 1850 – 1910 is underserved, but ripe for some new innovations.'

Well that is great news, but to be honest my (rose-tainted?) memory of the Age of Rifles user experience is that it is above even the current (much, much improved) WDS-era Tiller-engine's. Don't get me wrong I have a lot of respect for the teams working with the various Tiller-iterations; the historical research put into the games and scenarios alone often warrant their purchase price, but I wish this extraordinary talent and effort could go into something more modern than a mid-90s engine.

[solops]

Wargame Construction Set + Tanks + Age of Rifles bundle sale all for $8.40.

[ArizonaTank]

I couldn't resist, and bought AoR and Tanks! 

Played around a bit with AoR, and was pleasantly surprised that the interface is pretty intuitive and slightly better than some contemporary wargames (IMHO). Graphics is what it is of course...IMHO AoR is better than you might think (the bar should be set for the '90s of course).

I was not as impressed with Tanks!  but oh well...

[solops]

OK, I fiddled with Tanks and AoR for a few minutes each. The UI is quirky, but not NEARLY as off-putting as I was afraid of! You CAN use the mouse to move stuff around. I need to spend some more time with each game, but I think these old-timers are more than just "playable". And while the graphics are not modern and slick, for tabletop game type wargames they are OK....nothing like a Total War game but not disastrously worse than something like Shadow Empire. I have no feel for how "adjustable" the graphics are, but both games fill up and look OK on my 17.3" laptop at 1920x1080. DosBox apparently comes with the download and automatically starts up before the game does. It all worked seamlessly for me. Both games have scenario editors and I wonder if the game can be "modded" re graphics.