Cravings for old games

[wolfbane]

A month ago I suddenly got a craving to play Vampire:Bloodlines again, and when I played it thru, I thought what other old game I really need to play right now, and I thought about a real classic, Tie-Fighter. And when I finally found my copy I remembered that I don't have any usb-joystick, does anyone know of a software joystick program so I at least can start to play until I get a joystick shipped to me.

And since I am on a retro craving, what other games should I play, I will play Deus Ex and System Shock, I am thinking about Baldurs Gate since I played Planescape a few months ago.

/Peter

[AndrewM]

Old games I keep coming back to again and again include Master of Orion, Master of Orion 2, Master of Magic, X-Com and Alpha Centauri. Apparently I have a certain bias towards TBS games. Also, the fact that the gameplay does not depend on the unveiling of a plot probably make them more replayable for me.

[mok]

I suspect the desire to play TBS is a sign of aging.

[Drunkagain]

I always go back to Doom 1 & 2, HoMM 2 & 3 and X-com.

[Drunkagain]

I suspect the desire to play TBS is a sign of aging.

Except I've had that same desire since I was a teenager.

[Khelavaster]

Except I've had that same desire since I was a teenager.
Ditto.
I think Risk and boardgames were the early culprits.
Then came HOMM 1, and the rest is history.

--Khel

[Tide]

I actually want to finish Planescape and Darkfall. But I haven't been able to find either. What's the name of that sub service you buy old games from? seriously

[LesJarvis]

I got a hankering to play Outcast yesterday, but I couldn't find it :( Maybe I'll manage to dig it up this weekend. I've been on a bit of a classic adventure game kick recently.

[mok]

Except I've had that same desire since I was a teenager.

Yeah same here. I played wargames as a kid. Guess its a sign of nerdiness as well...

[Fugitive]

I've collected a fair bit of older games that I keep meaning to get back to, but the ones I actually find myself playing are Diablo 2, Pod (though it's a pain in the ass to get working on modern systems), and Angband.

Yeah, yeah, Nethack rules all, but the loot whoring and mass monster-crunching of Angband satisfy my inner munchkin a lot more.

[Ed Solomon]

I actually want to finish Planescape and Darkfall. But I haven't been able to find either. What's the name of that sub service you buy old games from? seriously
I was going to say "game something," but I realized that wouldn't really help. A few seconds googling the new Sam and Max game got me Gametap (http://www.gametap.com/home/Home).

[Slainte Mhath]

Dig up some old D&D Gold Box goodness.

Another thread talked about Warlords and Warlords Battlecry, plenty of games in that series to replay for TBS and RTS kicks.

Starcraft.

If you like HOMM, check out Disciples.

You cannot go wrong with any Might and Magic RPG numbered 7 or less.

Darklands.

Half-Life (the original) is still one of my favorite FPS games to revisit.

[Thrag]

I have to profess my love for gametap for the old game goodness. I'm finishing some games that I never initially completed like Deus Ex and Torment.

[zx81-Amd64]

TBS + old games for the win!

I spend the majority of my time playing pre 2000 games. I dont know why, but for the most part much of the last generation of console games(and PC version of) that i could get on xbox turn out not to have that long time addicition factor?

[Deadron]

I second the GameTap recommendation...over 800 games covering the entire history of games (including Pong!), meaning there has to be something you missed or want to revisit.

Man, I'm starting to suspect myself of being a plant for Turner & co...I'm just amazed that someone would put up a service with zillions of the kinds of games I want to play. I'm waiting for the other shoe to drop and for it to be changed to a bunch of FPS games I don't want to play, or for the subscription model to change.

Anyway, since I actually do keep a list of the old games I want to play, might as well post them in case they inspire any interest:

Playing now:
Heroes of Might & Magic 2


Old games played recently:
Heroes of Might & Magic 1 (interesting historically but I'd probably recommend starting with 2)

Simpson's Hit & Run (great writing, initially fun, but too repetitive and parts just too damn hard)

Homeworld 2 (enjoyed this a lot)

Knights of the Old Republic (dark side) (not as brilliant for me as others consider it, but an RPG I played all the way through is worth something)

Homeworld (amazing ambiance, though I liked the missions in 2 better)

Kohan 2 (enjoyed this a lot -- some very different mechanisms from other RTS games)


Old games I intend to play:
Jagged Alliance 1 (Abandonia has but without full sound; I bought off eBay)

Emporer (city builder; planning to try Pharoah after this)

System Shock 1 (the graphics are a pain, but want to see why some people feel the gameplay is better than 2)

System Shock 2 (played through once but didn't beat it; want to play in anticipation of Bioshock)

Planescape: Torment

KOTOR 1 -- light side

Xcom

Prince of Persia: Sands of Time (stalled out first time due to spot I couldn't pass, would like to make it through)

Fallout 1 (maybe third or fourth attempt will be the charm!)

The Last Express (love Jordan Mechner's stuff; didn't have patience for this the first time I tried it, but want to be more willing to give such games a chance)

Star Control II (free download)

Rise of Nations (w/expansion -- have played through this some, want to finish the expansion scenarios)

Beyond Good & Evil (started once)

Commandos 2 (enjoyed but got stuck; Commandos 1 was fun but had CPU speed issues that kept me from finishing it)

Earth 2150 (heard 2160 is very good; wanted to start with 2150, enjoyed but stalled out the first time)

Freedom Force vs 3rd Reich (loved the first, never finished this one, want to give it another chance)

Tropico (couldn't get into this the first time, but it keeps being mentioned)

Warlords Battlecry (enjoyed this, got distracted by a vacation and didn't finish)

Starcraft + expansion (revisit...and see if I can get through the expansion campaign this time)

Shogun: Total War (didn't work for me the first time, but since the series is so influential...)

Rainbow Six (see what this is all about)

Might & Magic 3 (need to read up on the interface first)

Freespace 1

Castlevania

Betrayal at Krondor (free download)

Alpha Centauri (see if I can get through the end game and deal more with unit designing)


A bunch of these are available on GameTap, but I decided not to indicate which to avoid seeming like their marketing arm.

[Thrag]

System Shock 2 (played through once but didn't beat it; want to play in anticipation of Bioshock)


Now that you mention it, I never finished SS2 either. I recall getting really lost toward the end in some twisty organic looking corridors and never getting back to the game. It's funny, it was a level that was obviously meant to disorient but unfortunately it worked so well I get frustrated and lost interest ;)

Is it coming to gametap? Or did I somehow miss it?

[fuzzyslug]

IBetrayal at Krondor (free download)

Where did you snag this? Did it have the music from the CD version?

[McBain]

Where did you snag this? Did it have the music from the CD version?

Sierra released BaK as freeware years ago. It's totally legit. It's the floppy version, though, and I believe it also has a game-stopping bug in Chapter 4 with Nalar's Rib or some shit like that.

I have the game on CD and I'm sorely tempted to put a torrent up, since my version is pretty much bug-free and has the rockin' Redbook audio.

And on topic, I'm playing Dragon Force. Again. For the 30 billionth time.

EDIT: And speaking of Krondor, I think that game actually held up pretty well. I mean, yeah, the actors looked ridiculous when the game was released, but I think the gameplay itself is solid enough to still be enjoyable. And the writing is, I would say, a cut above what's standard in CRPGs.

[scharmers]

Uh, holy cats, uh, why the fuck have I not signed up for Gametap before? I just corrected that mistake...wow. They've got some goodies on there.

[Deadron]

Now that you mention it, I never finished SS2 either. I recall getting really lost toward the end in some twisty organic looking corridors and never getting back to the game.

I got to the end but couldn't beat the boss...later I read how easy it is to beat the boss, so that's embarrassing.


Is it coming to gametap? Or did I somehow miss it?

Not that I'm aware of, though it would be nice!


Where did you snag [Betrayal at Krondor]? Did it have the music from the CD version?

I didn't actually snag it yet, but in a recent thread it was mentioned that it's available legitimately as a free download. Now that I look back at that thread, it's apparently in GameTap as well.

[Slainte Mhath]

BaK is a great game to revisit every so often.

Someone needs to come out with an updated and improved rip-off of M.U.L.E. for the PC (with online play of course).

I answered my own request. Seems there is something called Space HoRSE that came out a couple years back which is an homage to M.U.L.E.. Downloading the demo now...

[McBain]

Uh, holy cats, uh, why the fuck have I not signed up for Gametap before? I just corrected that mistake...wow. They've got some goodies on there.

Gametap is pretty awesome. As long as they keep adding more games I want to play, I'll keep handing them my money.

[zx81-Amd64]

A very usefull site with lots of good info about getting old games to run:

http://www.oldskool.org/guides/oldonnew/intro

This had been down the other day but seems ok now. Its proven more than useful on many an occasion when i was having a hardtime getting an old game to run properly.

[PanicKing]

X-com... because of El Guapo's game thread

Syndicate... whee! lots of shooting fun

The imperfect but fun category:

Sentinel Worlds: Future Magic

Battletech: Crescent Hawk's Inception (& Revenge?)

Sid Meier's Colonization: maybe not as good as the other Civ-category games, but I still remember having a lot of fun with this one

all the early Sierra adventure games (KQ, SQ, PQ, LSL)... Since I had an amber monochrome monitor for most of the 80s, I'd like to revisit these games and view them in their full 4-color CGA or 16-color EGA glory.

[Rob_Merritt]

Uh, holy cats, uh, why the fuck have I not signed up for Gametap before? I just corrected that mistake...wow. They've got some goodies on there.


Gametap is amazing. When it launched I was like "$10 a month to play old games? screw that." I signed up to play Sam & Max and got hooked on the mountains of great classic games. With the rate they are adding, I almost thing $10 is too cheap.

[Deadron]

With the rate they are adding, I almost thing $10 is too cheap.

I agree (shhh!) and hope the service doesn't get messed up in some way, like a big price hike or some funky new payment model.

As it is, GameTap (and QT3, dammit!) have actually cost me more than that, because they have Jagged Alliance 2 Gold, but not the original Jagged Alliance, so I ended up purchasing the original so I could play from the beginning.

I actually do own JA2, but not the gold version...and things are convenient enough to play on GameTap that if I own it and they have it, I'm likely to play it off GameTap. The remaining issue being what to do in this case when they have an expanded version of the game compared to what I have, but if I use my version I can install patches/mods that improve the UI. Ergh.

[Tide]

am I doing something wrong with Gametap?

I couldn't find any of the games I thought were listed (Planescape, Darklands) -- is there some second tier of membership? like free and paid. Very confusing reg path.

[Fugitive]

am I doing something wrong with Gametap?

I couldn't find any of the games I thought were listed (Planescape, Darklands) -- is there some second tier of membership? like free and paid. Very confusing reg path.
Are you in Canada? I think we only get a subset of the games on Gametap that the US does (missing mostly Sierra games, it seems. Fuck Sierra?), and Planescape is one of the ones listed as not being available. Darklands isn't on the list at all, though.

[Tide]

Are you in Canada? I think we only get a subset of the games on Gametap that the US does (missing mostly Sierra games, it seems. Fuck Sierra?), and Planescape is one of the ones listed as not being available. Darklands isn't on the list at all, though.

ya that must be it. Fuck. There's like less than 200 games. And none of them are appealing. Other than Deus Ex -- which died repeatedly on download attempts. So $10 CDN wasted. Phoning to cancel now....

[Deadron]

There's like less than 200 games.

Wow, that's a huge reduction in the number of games available. International licensing issues suck...

[Tide]

Wow, that's a huge reduction in the number of games available. International licensing issues suck...

Yup. Just talked to the rep who wanted to give me a free month. Was surprised. "TODAY'S GAME COUNT: 815" -- not up here dude. Suxx0rs. Unlucky.

[Zylon]

Now that you mention it, I never finished SS2 either. I recall getting really lost toward the end in some twisty organic looking corridors and never getting back to the game. It's funny, it was a level that was obviously meant to disorient but unfortunately it worked so well I get frustrated and lost interest ;)
That part of the game really isn't as bad as it seems--
http://www.sshock2.com/ss2walk/map_botm.html

[Kitus J.]

With the rate they are adding, I almost thing $10 is too cheap.

It was $15/month at launch, then they dropped to $10 somewhere along the line. Hopefully their subscriber base increased with the price drop.

[Thrag]

It was $15/month at launch, then they dropped to $10 somewhere along the line. Hopefully their subscriber base increased with the price drop.

I think if you pay in advance for a year it's even cheaper. I got hooked by a $1 for the first month offer that they may still be running.

[fuzzyslug]

It was $15/month at launch, then they dropped to $10 somewhere along the line. Hopefully their subscriber base increased with the price drop.

I got in when they ran their $60/year special. It's very much worth that particular price.

[tromik]

I went to my cousin's place the other day, and saw this weird message on his desk that talked about Scumsoft and jello pistols. It seemed familiar, but I couldn't put my finger on it. I asked him and he said he had just played through all of the Space Quests, and had gone on a spree and had bought every Sierra and LucasArts adventure game he could find. I wish I had the drive to ever attempt to go through them again, and many of them for the first time, but I remember them being so hard and frustrating a lot of the time. I tried Monkey Island 3 for the first time about two years ago and made it to the cannon/barrel (?) puzzle, and made it to the bar/lounge/casino in Grim Fandango last I played it. I'm so tempted to get a DS and Hotel Dusk.

When your favourites are FPS games, it's hard to go back, since most of them don't hold up that well. Though NOLF still does, really quite well actually.

[Rob_Merritt]

NOLF had styles which was a big plus.

[SlyFrog]

Oddly enough, I get the craving for older games generally after I have just shelled out cash for some upgrade to let me play new games.

[Robert Sharp]

Gametap is only $10 a month? Hmm....

Anyway, I'm about to start playing BG2 again. I figured out I have an old save, and I never finished the game! So I'll finish it and play through ToB, which I never played at all.

I did play SS2 again fairly recently, to the end. It's not far past that organic stage, actually. Fantastic game that has aged well, especially if you get the update patch that makes the textures a bit better.

I'm VERY tempted to fire up JA2. Independence War 1 and 2 are games I've never played. I did the first few missions of Freespace 2 a few months back, but I havne't played it since, mainly because I don't have a joystick on my PC so I have to use my wife's (I don't even have a slot for that old joystick...it's not USB).

Too many games!