You CAN go home again! (Sometimes) Old games that stand up today somehow!

Started by JasonPratt, February 01, 2023, 12:32:36 PM

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JasonPratt

I'm sure there's a thread about this already, because it's a natural topic. ;) Especially as we naturally grow older. (I clearly remember we had a smiley with a white beard and cane declaiming about whatever, but can't find it in our recovered smiley list at the moment, so just imagine I posted it here...)

The "ship and crew" thread mentioned some old games of that sort which may or may not be enjoyable today with our modernized standards. So I thought I'd set up a(-presumably-nother) thread for that purpose. If one is still running somewhere else, great! Link away!

For my own first entry, a game dating back to just after the original Doom; a game we'll never see released by GoG no doubt, due to conflicting licensing issues; a game that Games Workshop teases remaking through one of their dev partners but never quite does somehow...

SPACE HULK by Electronic Arts!

The atmosphere of a first-person shooter, married (figuratively ;) ) to that unraveling Lieutenant in the APC of Aliens, married to a legitimate port of the board game, but resolved in simultaneous wego time -- crushed to the limit of stress by a limited-time pause feature, which only slowly recharges.

Its sequel Vengeance of the Blood Angels looks better, but plays much clunkier (alas). The original looks clunkier but drips with atmosphere, starting with one of the nerve-wracking-est tutorials ever made where {spoiler} even happens!

I still fire up my copy on DosBox occasionally. Heck, I keep an older version of DosBox specifically to fire this up occasionally.
ICEBREAKER THESIS CHRONOLOGY! -- Victor Suvorov's Stalin Grand Strategy theory, in lots and lots of chronological order...
Dawn of Armageddon -- narrative AAR for Dawn of War: Soulstorm: Ultimate Apocalypse
Survive Harder! -- Two season narrative AAR, an Amazon Blood Bowl career.
PanzOrc Corpz Generals -- Fantasy Wars narrative AAR, half a combined campaign.
Khazâd du-bekâr! -- narrative dwarf AAR for LotR BfME2 RotWK campaign.
RobO Q Campaign Generator -- archived classic CMBB/CMAK tool!

SirAndrewD

I played Age of Rifles literally yesterday.

I always have it ready to go on Dosbox.  I even wrote my own batch files for it.
"These men do not want a happy ship. They are deeply sick and try to compensate by making me feel miserable. Last week was my birthday. Nobody even said "happy birthday" to me. Someday this tape will be played and then they'll feel sorry."  - Sgt. Pinback

SlagDog

My parents bought me a Franklin Ace 1000. I loaded up Ultima and Wizardry on that clunky old computer. It was like being right there!  :uglystupid2:

Since we are talking old games. My friends and I would spend hours copying code from a 'games book' we got from the library. then when we had it all coded we would save the program to a CASSETTE Player. LOL the games we coded NEVER worked and we could NEVER retrieve our 'SAVED' copy from the cassette player. Freak that was so much fun  :ROFL:

JasonPratt

Oh, I well remember typing basic-code games and saving them to the cassette! I even used that experience to write a decent-sized BASIC code (several hundred lines, saved to disc fortunately) for calculating battle results in a tabletop campaign of "Red Arrow, Black Shield" I played with my brother.

The most bothersome and epic cassette saves, however -- as might be expected -- were on my TI-994a, for a cartridge game called Tunnels of Doom, which in today's terms would be considered a mix of the Gold Box RPG series (4 characters in 2D tactical battles, moving around a 3D hallway landscape) and Diablo (100 level randomly generate dungeon with occasional shortcut portals to the surface scattered every five or seven levels, plus spells to portal back. I distinctly remember 100 levels, or 99, although the description at the 21st century remake site talks about only 10 levels.)

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

http://www.dreamcodex.com/todr.php

Tribute site here: https://www.ridingthecrest.com/edburns/classic-gaming/tunnels/

The save game took 7 minutes to write or read from cassette.

Personally this is one game I have no desire to return to, but I fondly remember it!
ICEBREAKER THESIS CHRONOLOGY! -- Victor Suvorov's Stalin Grand Strategy theory, in lots and lots of chronological order...
Dawn of Armageddon -- narrative AAR for Dawn of War: Soulstorm: Ultimate Apocalypse
Survive Harder! -- Two season narrative AAR, an Amazon Blood Bowl career.
PanzOrc Corpz Generals -- Fantasy Wars narrative AAR, half a combined campaign.
Khazâd du-bekâr! -- narrative dwarf AAR for LotR BfME2 RotWK campaign.
RobO Q Campaign Generator -- archived classic CMBB/CMAK tool!

Gusington



слава Україна!

We can't live under the threat of a c*nt because he's threatening nuclear Armageddon.

-JudgeDredd

CaptainKoloth

I bring a Windows 98 laptop with me on work trips because otherwise I can't get Civilization II to run EXACTLY the way I want. It is also of course on DOSBox on my Galaxy Fold 3.

FarAway Sooner

I saw my best friend, Chris, having real problems with the cassette loader on his dad's TRS-80 and went for the FANCY new 5-1/4" floppy drive.  Man, was I a high roller on my Commodore-64 (which only had 38KB of RAM, but that's a different story)!!

Sadly, my copy of Temple of Apshai still had trouble saving and loading.  Any time the save game or load game took longer than 2 1/2 minutes I knew I was hosed.  I was so bummed that the sequel to that game, Hellfire Warrior, was never ported to the C-64.

Then, I got Telengard and I never had to worry about game-save failures.  Cosmic Balance was a surprisingly sophisticated space-combat sim, but limited by contrived scenario choices.

Those were the good old days.  None of those games would fly today.  Funny enough, the Gold Box games (Pools of Radiance) that came later survive in a similar format today (minus the need to read Journal Entries in the game book to get relevant sections of story line, because the text displays can accommodate longer passages).  Today, the gameplay of that formula is still intact, but the graphics are just a little bit better...   :Party:

I also remember playing Warlords when I upgraded to my Apple MacIntosh LC-III in 1992.  For all its simplicity of gameplay, that game could survive as a beer & pretzels game today.

W8taminute

I still have Civilization III: Conquests on my hard drive and play it from time to time.  In fact I've revisited it again this past week. 

I'm also working on an ambitious "End of the World" mod for it as we speak but am not sure I can release it once it's finished on CFC.  It will be a very controversial if not politically incorrect mod but too bad.
"You and I are of a kind. In a different reality, I could have called you friend."

Romulan Commander to Kirk

Sir Slash

I remember fondly designing by own battle scenario on my Amiga for Battles of Napoleon. Is that Nerd Street Cred enough for you?  :Nerd:
"Take a look at that". Sgt. Wilkerson-- CMBN. His last words after spotting a German tank on the other side of a hedgerow.

rwenstrup

Kept my old Dell Laptop 233 with DOS and an early Windows setup that I've never upgraded ... still play the original Steel Panthers on it ...

bobarossa

I kept my Atari 800 up until about 10 years ago just so I could keep playing Grigsby's USAAF. Played it at least once a year until then.  Much better/easier to play then Bombing the Reich.

W8taminute

Quote from: Sir Slash on February 02, 2023, 11:28:00 AMI remember fondly designing by own battle scenario on my Amiga for Battles of Napoleon. Is that Nerd Street Cred enough for you?  :Nerd:

Well done!  I've never seen such enthusiasm in all my life.    :grin:

"You and I are of a kind. In a different reality, I could have called you friend."

Romulan Commander to Kirk

Gusington



слава Україна!

We can't live under the threat of a c*nt because he's threatening nuclear Armageddon.

-JudgeDredd

Sir Slash

"Take a look at that". Sgt. Wilkerson-- CMBN. His last words after spotting a German tank on the other side of a hedgerow.

CJReich46

I have X-Com UFO Defense (30 years old next year!) using the Open X-Com Extended mod. What that does is permit:
1) Larger screen resolutions
2) A TON of options and bug fixes
3) MODS! MOD! MODS!
 

" He either fears his fate too much
Or his deserts are small,
Who dares not put it to the touch
To win or lose it all."  - James Graham 1st Marquis of Montrose