The NEW Build Your Own Arcade Controls
Main => Everything Else => Topic started by: shponglefan on March 24, 2016, 10:34:01 pm
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When I say "essential classics", I'm thinking of the old PC games that helped define PC gaming. IOW, games which anyone who wants to appreciate the history of PC gaming should probably try out.
For me, it would be games like Doom, Warcraft/Warcraft II, X-Wing/TIE Fighter, LucasArts and Sierra adventures, Civilization, and so on.
Part of the reason I bring this up, is I've been going through lists of classic games and identifying ones I never played. I've put together a top 10 list of titles I'm going to try to get through in the next little while. Right now I've got Fallout, X-COM, Heroes of Might and Magic III, The Secret of Monkey Island, Zork I, Syndicate, Planescape: Torment,. Master of Orion, StarCraft, and Ultima VII: The Black Gate.
I'd be interested in others I can add to my "must play" list. Especially titles that have aged well.
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Played the hell out of Pool of Radiance back in the day.
Scorched earth, Cho Ren Sha, he'll there are a ton of sweet ass PC shmups...
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I actually just bought Planescape: Torment a month or so ago. Surprisingly difficult game! I'm enjoying it though. Love the skull.
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I still play Master of Orion, and it's usually the first game I install (with dosbox) on new systems.
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(https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/d/d1/WingCommanderBox-front.jpg)
The Wing Commander (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wing_Commander_%28video_game%29) series. ;D
Scott
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How about some more modern stuff? Star Trek Voyager: Elite Force and it's sequel are quite good. I know what you are thinking, but it's basically a fps if fps still have strong single player experiences. You run around killing borg and stuff.
Hasbro did a 3d reimagining of frogger in the late 90's and it was pretty decent as well. Speaking of Hasbro, Transformers: Beast Wars had a pc game and while pretty terrible I still had a lot of fun with it.
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Scorched earth
Scorched Earth? Hells yes.
And Hunt the Wumpus
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Back in the day I loved the Sierra and LucasArts stuff. Also anything by Sid Meier or Will Wright.
Especially titles that have aged well.
Here's the problem, none of my favorites really hold up. Just try and complete Space Quest II in 2016!
Although I'd like to give Syndicate another whirl.
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Hexen
Redneck Rampage
Duke Nukem
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Wing Commander: Privateer
Falcon 4.0
Unreal Tournament
Sid Meier's Alpha Centauri
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Here's the problem, none of my favorites really hold up. Just try and complete Space Quest II in 2016!
I agree with this for all the adventure games I loved as a kid.
Unreal Tournament still holds up., but it IMO it's too new to be a classic...at least for me.
Screamer for DOS. It would be perfect if not for the draw distance being so limited at the time.
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Oooh, good topic.
Games that defined PC gaming for me:
My first computer was a Vic 20, but since most of the games were cartridges for that, I will skip it. Although I have to say, I programmed a game called "Maze of the Minotaur" that was so big you had to load the second half of the game from the datacassette.. of course with 2.3kb of memory it didn't take much to run out..
About the same time, at school, on the old Apple II's we would play Wolfenstein and Oregon Trail, and I suppose you could say those were the first to wake me up to "PC Gaming".
My second personal computer was an Apple IIc, and on that I recall playing Kings Quest, Zork, Leisure Suit Larry, and Hard Hat Mack, but the one that really defined gaming for me was Ultima 4. I played that game for an entire summer, about 800 hours worth, and when I got to the very end and blew the horn, the game crashed. After that I got hooked on Wasteland, and the Bard's tale games were fun too.
At the same time I got my Apple IIc, my friends got C64's and I loved going over and playing Wizardry and the others in that genre (Zork with some graphics, lol).
Then there was a period where I was in college, and I would have to say the MUDs were what got me. In fact, I got so addicted it cost me the ability to stay in college. Not only did it get me in a lot of trouble (got kicked out of several computer labs and got caught stealing people's accounts so I could log more hours on the VAX), I got to the point where I was playing 20 hours per day and sleeping during classes. My gpa slipped below 3.0 and my dad stopped loaning me money for tuition so I had to drop out. While working to save (and to get off my parent's taxes so I could get a student loan), I knocked up my girlfriend and never went back. Such is life, but you could say that those prequels to MMORPGs really did define my life.
After that I got my first "IBM compatible", a Packard Bell 486sx33 with 2mb of memory. On that I played games like the D&D stuff (Pool of Radiance) to recapture the old Bards Tale type games (and it was cool to play D&D licensed stuff), but what defined gaming for me at this point was Dune 2. That paved the way for all RTS games like Warcraft 2, Command and Conquer, and eventually Red Alert, StarCraft, Age of Empires, etc.
FPS games that defined the genre for me started with Wolfenstein 3D, which was great because I used to play the original Wolfenstein on Apple II's at school. Doom, of course was huge, but I LOVED Duke Nukem. That one got me to dial up with friends and play 1v1 for hours on end. I even played Doom and Duke Nukem over null modem cables at home with my roommate. So much fun... Years later when Call of Duty came out me and my friends go so involved I built a server and ran it for years.. so long in fact that I forgot it was running under a cabinet behind my desk. It was on an old high speed internet connection we only kept for a failover and never used, so this was the only computer on it. One day I logged onto it only to find it had been hacked by some Germans and was being used to pirate XBOX games. Took me hours to hack my way back into the server and the hard drive was packed full of games...
When Ultima Online came out, that was my first foray into "graphical MUDs", and like in college, I was hooked. Between that and Diablo, I had to have 2 phone lines... one for dial up and one to talk. Oh the good old days... From there came DAoC, which got more than just my few gaming friends involved.. that got my brothers and their friends involved too, and we could get 10+ of us on at any time, which was great. D&D Online was another one I loved because it was the first time D&D was done well. I ended up going back to that a couple years after release and got hooked for about a year. Lineage II was big for me because it started "the grind" - playing for hours on end to grind out one piece of equipment or one level. That game is one you could spend 1000 hours grinding just to get midway through levels and have moderate gear. It was also the first game I made money on, selling my characters for $800. Star Wars Galaxies was big for me because it was Star Wars where you actually felt like you were in that world, but also because I ran it like a business, and quit it because it was too much work (and the game was terribly buggy).. It was fun becoming the richest guy on my server, for a short time anyway.. Of course, WoW was great at first, because it was made by Blizzard, makers of Warcraft II and Diablo, but I played for barely a year and never looked back.
Around the same time as Ultima Online came Diablo, and OMG, talk about a defining game. I remember playing 4 way games too, which was great. When Diablo 2 came out years later I hated it at first, but nearly a year after release I got back into it with a friend and spent the next 2 years playing hardcore version daily until 2 am. It was the first game that hooked me for more than a few months.
I have played hundreds of PC games in between all these, but none really stand out more, at least not until League of Legends.. That one brought professional gaming into the mainstream, at least in the states (StarCraft was already huge for pro gamers in Korea). I stopped playing about a year ago though, started playing Heroes of the Storm because Blizzard, but haven't turned it on for a couple months...
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How are you emulating? If your on a mack Boxer is the best way to use dos box.
War craft 1 was good at the time and is still playable. War craft 2 holds up better. Loved Ms. pack man for DOS as kid and still play it in dos box from time to time.
I would say monkey Island 1&2 and the rest of the point and click games from lucasarts are a must play, SCUM VM (http://scummvm.org) is a grate way to play them.
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Here's the problem, none of my favorites really hold up. Just try and complete Space Quest II in 2016!
I agree with this for all the adventure games I loved as a kid.
Unreal Tournament still holds up., but it IMO it's too new to be a classic...at least for me.
Screamer for DOS. It would be perfect if not for the draw distance being so limited at the time.
Adventure games were never any good imo. The thing is, most people played them on their first pc when they were getting used to the concept of a mouse and pc gaming so they seemed much better than they were. Many of the games had rather entertaining scripts and visuals, but the gameplay itself, if you can even call it gameplay, was terrible. They remind me of FMV laden games from the mid 90's... it was the impressive gimmick that made them seem more fun than they were.
UT is 18 years old out of a 40 year old industry.... it might not feel like a classic to us old timers, but it's old enough to be one. Thus my mention of more modern games.
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A while Back I fired up "the bards tale" and "the Bards tale 2" (originals) on a C64 emulator and had a blast for an hour or two. I lost days to those games when I was a kid.
Oddly enough I have the PC versions too but they don't hit me in the nostalgia zone like the C64 versions.
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A while Back I fired up "the bards tale" and "the Bards tale 2" (originals) on a C64 emulator and had a blast for an hour or two. I lost days to those games when I was a kid.
Oddly enough I have the PC versions too but they don't hit me in the nostalgia zone like the C64 versions.
When Wasteland 2 came out last year you got Bards Tale (the original and the remake) with it for free.. they both ran on windows 8.1, but the original bards tale was so low res it was hard to even read on a 27" widescreen.
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Rogue, Wasteland, Starflight, Ultima 3, Command & Conquer Red Alert, Warcraft II, Planescape Torment, Baldurs Gate 2. Played the living hell out of all of them. I still play some Baldurs Gate every so often. I still have all the discs and manuals in the original retail boxes. Someday collectors items? Probably not, and as for playability: God bless gog.com :applaud:
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HAHA....I just remember doing a multi-config to screw with base, expanded and extended RAM. Used to piss my mom off so much....being 39 it sounds so funny to say that. Though sad that it was like 25 years ago!!!!
So many of those games.....memories. Life was so much simpler then.
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Star control 2--absolutely loved this game when it came out--A whole galaxy with over a dozen species to interact with--and the melee mode was brilliant for a quick head to head with your buddy--look up ur-quan masters project if you want to try it out..To this day I think babylon5 got much of its material from this game ;) (only half kidding)
Wing Commander :privateer
X-wing
Tie fighter
Starcraft --although I must admit I stopped playing it because it became less a game and more an exercise in micro-management..and since I've left jobs for that very reason, it sullies the experience a bit ;D
Diablo2--replayed it recently but again, i don't think it held up since I felt like all i was doing was trying to find better equipment and whacking stuff..
doom 2 and wolfenstein or really an FPS from that era--I use these games to point out to my kids that minecraft isn't actually the best game in low-res..
Syndicate was an awesome game for the time
I'm getting all nostalgic now--i wonder if there are some good youtube videos on dosbox..hmmm
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Command & Conquer Red Alert 2 and the Yuri's Revenge expansion. Still play it to this day.
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For you Bards Tale fans, they ported the updated game (doesn't have much to do with the original Bards Tale) to tablets and it's kind of fun. I could navigate Skara Brae blind folded. :)
I was a big fan of the Apple games Maelstrom and Dark Castle. Both of which can be played on PC now.
For Apple, it was Ultima, Wizardry and other turned based RPG's that probably haven't aged well. I took a break in the late 80's to early 90's but when I came back I was playing RPG's like Might and Magic, FPS like Duke, Quake, Doom, and RTS like Warcraft.
Good times!
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I see that my namesake Monkey Island is already on the list. Did no one mention Grim Fandango?
Grim Fandango.
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Back in the day I loved the Sierra and LucasArts stuff. Also anything by Sid Meier or Will Wright.
Especially titles that have aged well.
Here's the problem, none of my favorites really hold up. Just try and complete Space Quest II in 2016!
Oh, done that several times now :) A couple years ago I replayed all the old Sierra classics (KQ, SQ, PQ, Quest for Glory, etc). I'll grant they aren't the greatest games mechanically, but nostalgically I love 'em! I'm just amazed at how short they really are when you know what you are doing. Took me all of a couple hours to beat SQ I, II and III.
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(https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/d/d1/WingCommanderBox-front.jpg)
The Wing Commander (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wing_Commander_%28video_game%29) series. ;D
Man another series I missed. Played a ton of X-Wing and TIE Fighter, never played WC.
I'm assuming one can use a modern flightstick with DOSBox? If so, I'm adding these to the list ;D
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How are you emulating? If your on a mack Boxer is the best way to use dos box.
War craft 1 was good at the time and is still playable. War craft 2 holds up better. Loved Ms. pack man for DOS as kid and still play it in dos box from time to time.
I would say monkey Island 1&2 and the rest of the point and click games from lucasarts are a must play, SCUM VM (http://scummvm.org) is a grate way to play them.
DOSBox mainly. Although I've used various SCUMM emulators on different platforms. Even played through the entirety of Day of the Tentacle on a Cassiopeia PDA. Worked surprisingly well using the stylus in place of a mouse.
Loved Warcraft and Warcraft II. I should look at playing those again...
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(https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/d/d1/WingCommanderBox-front.jpg)
The Wing Commander (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wing_Commander_%28video_game%29) series. ;D
Man another series I missed. Played a ton of X-Wing and TIE Fighter, never played WC.
I'm assuming one can use a modern flightstick with DOSBox? If so, I'm adding these to the list ;D
wow....now that you mention it, I only ever played WC with the keyboard. :laugh2:
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Man another series I missed. Played a ton of X-Wing and TIE Fighter, never played WC.
I'm assuming one can use a modern flightstick with DOSBox? If so, I'm adding these to the list ;D
wow....now that you mention it, I only ever played WC with the keyboard. :laugh2:
I guess that's always an option. ;)
But on the other hand there's also this... ;D
(http://www.thrustmaster.com/sites/default/files/imagecache/media_large/product/HotasWarthog800x600.jpg)
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UT is 18 years old out of a 40 year old industry.... it might not feel like a classic to us old timers, but it's old enough to be one. Thus my mention of more modern games.
I'd probably consider UT a classic at this point. It's all relative and it was a defining game in the early days of multiplayer FPS's. Especially the AI opponents it had at the time.
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Uh Diablo and Diablo 2 lol shoot ppl Still play Diablo 2 and that game is like 15 years old lol
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Did no one mention Grim Fandango? Grim Fandango.
Yes! This was updated recently too, I think.
Also, I second Star Control 2. Here's a link to the remake, which is really great http://sc2.sourceforge.net/ (http://sc2.sourceforge.net/)
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The Elite series was amazing.
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Oh, and Dosbox crash course...
mount c c:\yourgamesfolder
c:
cd gamefolder
game
ctrl-12 and ctrl-11 increase/decrease frame rate, and sometimes have to be fiddled with for speed and quality sound
alt-enter toggles full screen
you can set up shortcuts (http://www.dosbox.com/wiki/Shortcuts_that_You_Run_in_DOSBox) easily too
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My fav Classic PC game has to be Severance: Blade of Darkness. A crying shame they never made a sequel but i still fire it up every couple of years and beat it. Can't believe it's 15 years old...
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A lot of ones already mentioned and some early-mid 90s that I have not seen mentioned yet, Prince of Persia, Descent, and Microsoft Monster Truck Madness. 8 player ipx lan gaming on the last two was a blast and were staples at work for lunchtime gaming along with Doom. The added ability for building your own tracks in Monster Truck Madness and levels in Descent added to the fun.
(https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/5/5f/Descent_cover.png) (https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/thumb/1/18/Monster_Truck_Madness_BoxArt.gif/250px-Monster_Truck_Madness_BoxArt.gif)
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Holy crap Monster truck madness! Remember when Microsoft actually made games in-house? Yeah they were surprisingly awesome.
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Holy crap Monster truck madness! Remember when Microsoft actually made games in-house? Yeah they were surprisingly awesome.
totally forgot about that game, used to play the crap out of it. Crimson Skies count? It came out in 2000
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That's a good question. When they entered the console market was about the time that they started buying game development studios and having them make games on their behalf. Not that there is anything wrong with that, it's just the games sure were better when they made them themselves. I think project gotham was made in-house. I'm not sure about crimson skies.
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Really loved the Baldurs Gate games. Probably preferred the Icewind Dale spinoff a little more.
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Then there was a period where I was in college, and I would have to say the MUDs were what got me. In fact, I got so addicted it cost me the ability to stay in college. Not only did it get me in a lot of trouble (got kicked out of several computer labs and got caught stealing people's accounts so I could log more hours on the VAX), I got to the point where I was playing 20 hours per day and sleeping during classes. My gpa slipped below 3.0 and my dad stopped loaning me money for tuition so I had to drop out. While working to save (and to get off my parent's taxes so I could get a student loan), I knocked up my girlfriend and never went back. Such is life, but you could say that those prequels to MMORPGs really did define my life.
Dang, that's rough and kinda a scary precursor to MMOs... had a roommate that got addicted to UO in a similar way. Watching his addiction kept me clear of any MMOs.
FPS games that defined the genre for me started with Wolfenstein 3D, which was great because I used to play the original Wolfenstein on Apple II's at school. Doom, of course was huge, but I LOVED Duke Nukem. That one got me to dial up with friends and play 1v1 for hours on end.
Oh yeah, Duke was the king back then. I especially loved the fact it came with the map editor. Probably played more deathmatch of that than any contemporary FPS's.
Around the same time as Ultima Online came Diablo, and OMG, talk about a defining game. I remember playing 4 way games too, which was great. When Diablo 2 came out years later I hated it at first, but nearly a year after release I got back into it with a friend and spent the next 2 years playing hardcore version daily until 2 am. It was the first game that hooked me for more than a few months.
I'm going to have to retry Diablo I think. I did play it back in the day, but only have bad memories of idiot PvPer's online. I should retry it single player.
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The ones I bought and kept (and still play today) on my 486 laptop.
Xwing
Tie Fighter
Elite
Starcontrol
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Quake(world) and Unreal Tournament are my top FPS games ever.
Total Annihilation is an epic RTS, that is still lots of fun today.
Giant Citizen Kabuto! The game is split in three parts that play completely different (third person shooter vs monster on a rampage vs third person RTS). It has loads of humor and is a blast to play. Made by former members of Shiny Entertainment that also made MDK (another highly recommended game).
Dungeon Keeper, or any other game made by Bullfrog :) You need to build a dungeon, amass vast amounts of gold, slap your minions around, and slay all the heroes that enter your domain.
Homeworld, might a bit too recent, but that game was so freaking awesome. Its basically a RTS in 3D space. There was recently a remaster for this game that also includes Homeworld 2. Have not tried it yet though, so cannot say if its any good. Sadly the expansion Homeworld Cataclysm is not included, as the source code was lost :(
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Doom 1 & 2. We used to LAN the crap out of it when we were kids. Lots of fun.
Not sure how far back we're going back, but I played a ton of rollercoaster tycoon. The original game and.
Age of empires 1,
I don't think anybody mentioned grand theft auto 1. I'd like to get that running in dos box through my frontend use a steering wheel like super sprint style.
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Alrighty, thanks to this thread and others I've been adding to my "list of classic games I really should have played the first time 'round". Currently it stands at:
X-COM
Fallout
Heroes of Might and Magic III
The Secret of Monkey Island
Zork I
Syndicate
Planescape: Torrent
Master of Orion
StarCraft
Ultima VII: The Black Gate
Crusader: No Remorse
Diablo/Diablo 2
Wing Commander/Privateer
Star Control 2
Populous
AD&D Gold Box (Pool of Radiance, Eye of the Beholder, etc...)
Man, that's a lot of games...
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Some of those games are ridiculously long... that'll keep you busy for a while.
What about Jazz Jackrabbit? It's not the best platformer in the world, but it's still worth playing.
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Some of those games are ridiculously long... that'll keep you busy for a while.
That's the plan! ;D
What about Jazz Jackrabbit? It's not the best platformer in the world, but it's still worth playing.
I remember JJ. I think I played the Holiday version. Good music from what I remember.
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I remember playing wing commander and thinking--cool I can fly--then played xwing and tie fighter and realized that the wing commander flight engine sucked in comparison--ruined the old wing commander titles for me--or maybe it was the machine I was using at the time--ibm ps1 386sx25 (sx stood for sucks)
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I remember playing wing commander and thinking--cool I can fly--then played xwing and tie fighter and realized that the wing commander flight engine sucked in comparison--ruined the old wing commander titles for me--or maybe it was the machine I was using at the time--ibm ps1 386sx25 (sx stood for sucks)
SX =no floating point coprocessor.
Nothing sucked about the 365sx -25. It brought computing to an entire new level. Well the level you are enjoying today...
Yeah I remember my 486 DLC 25 which was really a 386. Played Xwing and Tie Fighter to death with my Adlib sound board, 1 mb of memory and a 256k VGA with the top of the line VGA monitor with .39 dot pitch. :cheers:
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I always liked spooky mansion games for some reason back in the day. Games like the 7th Guest and the 11th Hour. Though not as spooky but just as fun was a game called Colonels Bequest. Once I beat the game it lost it's edge because I knew the outcome but I would always come back to it every couple of years.
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Not really my cup of tea, but.....
Amazon has Baldur's Gate Enhanced Edition for $5
http://www.amazon.com/Baldurs-Gate-Enhanced-Online-Game/dp/B00B1VJZNK/?tag=slicinc-20&ascsubtag=e30a1c76f8e511e594c45a23d83000f30INT (http://www.amazon.com/Baldurs-Gate-Enhanced-Online-Game/dp/B00B1VJZNK/?tag=slicinc-20&ascsubtag=e30a1c76f8e511e594c45a23d83000f30INT)
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Not really my cup of tea, but.....
Amazon has Baldur's Gate Enhanced Edition for $5
http://www.amazon.com/Baldurs-Gate-Enhanced-Online-Game/dp/B00B1VJZNK/?tag=slicinc-20&ascsubtag=e30a1c76f8e511e594c45a23d83000f30INT (http://www.amazon.com/Baldurs-Gate-Enhanced-Online-Game/dp/B00B1VJZNK/?tag=slicinc-20&ascsubtag=e30a1c76f8e511e594c45a23d83000f30INT)
GoG also has it on sale. And BG II and Icewind Dale enhanced versions as well for $8 apiece.
Not sure whether to get these or the originals though. Reviews on GoG seem split in that regard.
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Not really my cup of tea, but.....
Amazon has Baldur's Gate Enhanced Edition for $5
http://www.amazon.com/Baldurs-Gate-Enhanced-Online-Game/dp/B00B1VJZNK/?tag=slicinc-20&ascsubtag=e30a1c76f8e511e594c45a23d83000f30INT (http://www.amazon.com/Baldurs-Gate-Enhanced-Online-Game/dp/B00B1VJZNK/?tag=slicinc-20&ascsubtag=e30a1c76f8e511e594c45a23d83000f30INT)
GoG also has it on sale. And BG II and Icewind Dale enhanced versions as well for $8 apiece.
Not sure whether to get these or the originals though. Reviews on GoG seem split in that regard.
A further FYI, I bought the original versions of BG and BGII on gog.com a few years ago as part of a D&D bundle. As a result of the originals being in my GOG library, the enhanced versions are only $2.99 each for me. I went ahead and bought them as BG and BGII are my all time favorite PC games. I have played a few hours of BG enhanced and the ability to run it at higher resolutions and also scale the text and menus really makes a big difference (a positive one). So far I really prefer the EE over the original.
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No one mentioned Sim City? ---daisies---.
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Obviously when we talk about genre defining, we have to go with tooth invaders.
(http://thehouseofgames.org/files/t/tooth_invaders/tooth_invaders-2.gif)
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No one mentioned Sim City? ---daisies---.
For the longest time I thought that was a SNES exclusive. To this day, I like it better on the SNES
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No one mentioned Sim City? ---daisies---.
For the longest time I thought that was a SNES exclusive. To this day, I like it better on the SNES
Agreed, the SNES version was so fun I'd play that over it's PC version. I had Sim Earth on PC, but IDK Civilization felt better IMHO.
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I feel the same way about Street Fighter games.
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No one mentioned Sim City? ---daisies---.
...Also anything by Sid Meier or Will Wright.
;)
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No one mentioned Sim City? ---daisies---.
...Also anything by Sid Meier or Will Wright.
;)
Token always keeps it real. :cheers: