Name That Game: The Really Hard Unfair Edition

[TylerG]

Should be Titled: Name That Game: Never Underestimate the QT3 Shared Game Knowledge.

Back in the 486 - early Pentium days there was this raiden like game. You earned money by blowing up enemy ships and tanks that you could spend on new ships and ship upgrades. The best ship looked like a carrot and the best ship gun was either a mustard or ketchup gun. And here's the kicker this game was actually just an easter egg in another game that I can remember nothing about.
I don't know what made me think of it but boy is it annoying me now that I can't remember the name or the actual game it was in. So I'll ask the qt3 hive mind. Any guesses?

[idrisz]

raptor?

maybe tyrian??

[Adree]

Tyrian.


http://lostgarden.com/uploaded_images/Tyrian-Carrot-746836.png

[TylerG]

Sweet you guys are awesome

[idrisz]

Tyrian have that secret destruct mini game.

[Adree]

secret edit!

Tyrian was a good game, too bad it was so good there really weren't many other games like it on the PC at the time.

[Pogo]

Correct guess in 5 minutes, screenshot in 6 minutes.

New QT3 record?

[idrisz]

It wasn't that hard to guess in regarding to this question, there wasn't that many good vertical shooters back in the 486.

[Sol Invictus]

There were only three vertical shooters worth playing.
Raptor, Tyrian, and Raiden 2.

[Adree]

Ah the golden age of shareware. When Epic and Apogee were making tons of fun sidescrollers. Hours and hours of Scorched Earth.

[ElGuapo]

Have you played Scorched 3D (http://www.scorched3d.co.uk/)? It's pretty good.

[Adree]

Have you played Scorched 3D (http://www.scorched3d.co.uk/)? It's pretty good.

It loses something in being 3d.

[arctangent]

Have you played Scorched 3D (http://www.scorched3d.co.uk/)? It's pretty good.

It's just not the same, or as fun.

[Armando Penblade]

God, I loved Tyrian. As in, I played the demo version for months, then, years later, when I came across a used copy of Tyrian 2000, I ended up losing another couple of months to it.

Thank God for that game.

[Moore]

the open tyrian thing on DS is decent enough. not perfect, but worth messing about with.

[Jon_Danger]

HOLY SHIT

TYRIAN!!!

Tyrian was one of the first PC games I ever played, our new home P.C. that my parents got had Tyrian loaded on it.

I loved that game... especially playing co-op with my little brother... ahh... memories.

[Tim James]

Wait, is Tyrian the same as Tyrian 2000? The best ship is really a carrot?

[forgeforsaken]

Wait, is Tyrian the same as Tyrian 2000? The best ship is really a carrot?

Yup, the carrot was awesome. I also loved the screensaver thing that came with it.

[rei]

What was the VGA (lower budget) space shooter that came out a few years before Tyrian? (Raptor was good too) -Galact-something?

[Alan Au]

VGA? Makes me think of Xenon 2, which was one of the early 256-color shmups.

- Alan

[Juha Kangas]

I'm going to hijack this thread a little since this one was solved: I'm after a Sega game (not even sure which of the systems) where you walked around in a top-down view and beat up badguys. The one attack I remember is when you punched someone and the hand of the character became really big, looked like boxing glove or something. It was sort of cartoonish I think and the one level I remember was in a mostly light-gray city.

[Ragnar Oppedal]

What was the VGA (lower budget) space shooter that came out a few years before Tyrian? (Raptor was good too) -Galact-something?Galactix (http://www.mobygames.com/game/dos/galactix). The same studio made the vastly superior Raptor.

[Adam Altmann]

Okay, here's one...

I played this game on my Commodore 64. The idea was that you were captain of this space trading ship, and you'd choose a mission (I believe there were only three, ranked: Easy, Medium, and Hard. Though, there might have been more.) which would be to get to Planet Whatever. You'd be flying through hostile territory.

Basically, the game was you picking a mission, and then picking your crew (Gunner, Pilot, Engineer/Repair Guy, etc.), then you'd start the journey and would have to micromanage your crew as things came up. Say, you'd be getting all shot up, you'd go to the repair guy screen and prioritize the repairs. There were several choices for each crew slot, and you'd have to pick the one you thought best for the mission. They had different stats, or something.

This is all I remember about the game, beside the fact that I found it unbearably difficult and never successfully completed a mission. Yet, I played the crap out of it because I was in love with the idea of the game.

[Gordon Cameron]

Sounds like Psi-5 Trading Company.

[Adam Altmann]

You are my Hero of the Week!

[Damien Neil]

This is all I remember about the game, beside the fact that I found it unbearably difficult and never successfully completed a mission. Yet, I played the crap out of it because I was in love with the idea of the game.

I had exactly the same experience! I loved the idea, but not the execution--but the idea kept me coming back.

I think I might have managed to complete the easiest mission, however.

[Squirrel Killer]

This is all I remember about the game, beside the fact that I found it unbearably difficult and never successfully completed a mission. Yet, I played the crap out of it because I was in love with the idea of the game.
Complete derail, but this reminded me of this homebrewed Star Trek-like game also for the C-64. Completely and totally awesome, it was as if you were sitting in Kirk's seat looking out the viewscreen. You all sorts of commands and subscreens to manage everything. Had a module-like structure so that the game engine could be re-used.

But even the first mission was so hard, I remain convinced that it's a bug that renders it unplayable. You're supposed to start off warping to a star so Spock can study it while it decays. As Spock studies it, you get a distress call from a nearby research station. Once, maybe twice, I've made it to the research station, but I've never finished beaming the staff up before the star decays and ends the game. I even emailed the author trying to figure out what I was doing wrong. He reply said that I was doing everything right, yeah thanks, but obviously I'm not.

But I still keep trying, even to the point of downloading and running it on an emulator a couple of years ago. Still no luck.

[John Keefer]

OK, if we are going to continue with guess the game:

Turn-based strategy war game, very early. I originally played it on my Commodore Amiga, although there were updates and sequels for the PC. I spent months playing this game over and over.

You could play against multiple AI opponents. You captured cities and built units in those cities. It was all 2D, but you could create your own maps, have randomly generated maps, or pre-rendered maps.

Hint: Nothing worse than having your unescorted transport almost make landfall full of 6 land units, only to have it sunk by a sub or destroyer.

Name the game.

[Staff Sergeant]

I got one, this one is nightmare difficulty (I know the answer, I want to know if Qt3 does).

You were a teenager randomly chosen (by opening a phone book) to be hired by the government. I don't remember if it was by LucasArts but it had the same "inventory, point and click, and combine items to solve puzzles" adventure style.

A memorable moment was wiring a broken light to a doorknob to electrocute a guard in order to escape from a cell.

[Fugitive]

Turn-based strategy war game, very early. I originally played it on my Commodore Amiga, although there were updates and sequels for the PC. I spent months playing this game over and over.

You could play against multiple AI opponents. You captured cities and built units in those cities. It was all 2D, but you could create your own maps, have randomly generated maps, or pre-rendered maps.

Hint: Nothing worse than having your unescorted transport almost make landfall full of 6 land units, only to have it sunk by a sub or destroyer.
Sounds like one of the Empire variants, which probably had an Amiga version at some point (I remember seeing a BBS door game version, and a semi-realtime one run on Unix servers...)

[Gordon Cameron]

Empire was definitely on the Amiga, I think in the Interstel version (they also made Starfleet 1, a Star Trek clone). My brother used to play Empire all the time.

[John Keefer]

It was Empire. Absolutely LOVED that game.

[Omniscia]

I got one, this one is nightmare difficulty (I know the answer, I want to know if Qt3 does).

You were a teenager randomly chosen (by opening a phone book) to be hired by the government. I don't remember if it was by LucasArts but it had the same "inventory, point and click, and combine items to solve puzzles" adventure style.

A memorable moment was wiring a broken light to a doorknob to electrocute a guard in order to escape from a cell.

That sounds like Teen Agent! I only ever played the demo for that one...

[Staff Sergeant]

Congratulations, you win the prize. I loved Global Star software demo discs. Did anyone here ever play Gunmetal (the one where you remotely control a little mini tank and shoot stuff and whatnot)?

[Rimbo]

Galactix. Tyrian. Raptor. One Must Fall. Solar Winds. Zone 66. Epic Pinball. Duke Nukum I (I had one of the v2.0 copies where it was spelled like that). And of course, Commander Keen: Goodbye, Galaxy!

Bringin' back memories, here.

[krayzkrok]

Ok, here's a hard one. I've been trying to remember the name of this game for years! I either played it on the ZX Spectrum or the Atari ST, I can't quite remember which (probably the Spectrum). You had to defend a moon base or a space station from attack by enemies (probably ufos) of some kind. There were multiple screens (ie. sections) of the station, and each one had its own damage rating and ufo activity, so you'd have to monitor multiple screens to repair damage and defend from the ufos. I seem to recall that each sector had a different role - one was reactor, one was defensive stations, one was repair etc. It all sounds pretty simple as a game, but I definitely remember it being great fun.

[Sol Invictus]

Hard one here: It's from the guys who made the Caesar games (Impressions, right?). You see a colorful tactical world map. You throw nukes on other countries.

A lot like Defcon.

[RichardC]

EDIT: Wait, you mean The Final Conflict?

(I was thinking of MAD, which was a similar kind of thing, but from someone else)

[mok]

Ok, pimpage time - Empire still lives:

http://www.killerbeesoftware.com/

[Wobbo]

Wow that brings me back... Tyrian. One of the best shmups of all time. The new episodes in Tyrian 2000 aren't quite as good as the older ones but still.

Would you beleive the masterpeice was created by only 4 people (including sound and music)?