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Forgotten Strategy Games

Bilgefar

Savant
Joined
Oct 3, 2012
Messages
184
Sid Meier's Gettysburg was pretty excellent. Probably the most fun I've had in a Civil War game.

antietam007_640w.jpeg


Not sure if it really counts as forgotten, being a Sid Meier game. But then, I have a whole bunch of friends who love strategy games, yet have never met anyone else IRL who has played it.
 

G.O.D

Arcane
Patron
Joined
Mar 6, 2011
Messages
851
Location
The Netherlands
Project: Eternity Wasteland 2
This thread has been around for a bit so I don't know if it is still relevant, but some people suggested Beasts and Bumpkins, and I would like to second that. I recently found a link to a working version of the game, since in the past it was hard to get it to work (Or maybe I just missed the memo, and it has been around some time)

So for those interested: http://www.squakenet.com/download/beasts-and-bumpkins/1947/



I got a working version from one of the mirrors, but I am having framerate issues. But that could be because I did something wrong installing. Also trying other mirrors might get better versions.
 
Last edited:

visions

Arcane
Joined
Jun 10, 2007
Messages
1,801
Location
here
They actually invented unit XP in RTSes before Warcraft 3 came out, with Tzar.

There was a game who had it even before, Rival Realms, sort of a Warcraft clone with the difference that units could gain XP and every one of them could carry items (whether potions, artifacts or whatever).

It was as unbalanced as fuck though, especially in the campaign mode where you could before every mission hire your experienced units which could eventually grow to be ridiculously powerful, I remember in the Orc campaign I started the first mission with some orc grunt ( I think his name was Bladefist or something) and as the campaign went by he was so powerful he could decimate armies/enemy bases all by himself, basically you just hired him for the mission and you couldn't lose.

Man, I miss that game.

Seven Kingdoms had unit XP a little earlier, in 1997.
 

sser

Arcane
Developer
Joined
Mar 10, 2011
Messages
1,866,661
Soldiers at War had great box-art:

51HJ94M20KL._SL500_AA300_.jpg


I'm pretty sure I bought it and Squad Leader on the same day. Neither game was particularly good, though Squad Leader holds a bigger memory for being the bigger piece of shit.
 

panzertoter

Arcane
Joined
Oct 13, 2010
Messages
628
Location
Poland
Paradise Cracked, probably only remembered as "that fucking game with TB mode you can't turn off" and its prequel, Cops 2170: Power of Law. Both games were very athmospheric cyberpunk squad-level tactics, with PC being more Gibson-ish where you start from the lowest of lows, underground slums of the metropolitan city and end up in the orbital station, while Cops were more GITSy, with your character serving the police first and foremost. Gameplay had a lot of nice features like in-combat hacking, vehicle driving, destructible objects, grenades affected by physics, armor covering different spots on your body differently, called shots, etc. I heard it had less than stellar translation, so maybe some stuff got lost in the process. Shame Mist-Land South went to shit.

001.jpg


209503-cops-2170-the-power-of-law-windows-screenshot-the-squad-ready.jpg


Is this a Codex Approved Game (tm)? I never played it (C2170) beacause of the reviews.
 

asper

Arcane
Joined
Nov 14, 2007
Messages
2,207
Project: Eternity
I'd like to second Gene Wars. The game was fairly original for its time, and now seems to be forgotten.
You herded creatures on an alien planet. They would mate and produce offscpring which had characteristics of both parents; you could eventually breed the creatures you needed to finish the game. The creature's sprite would represent its properties; being more fat, larger or stronger etc.I remember being quite impressed by this, and in general by the game's premise.
When I played it back in the day it really seemed very fluid; no creature relly had one sprite, but was always a ocmbination of characteristics.
I haven't seen the game in many years though, perhaps my memory isn't very accurate.
Also, all of the terrain was in real 3d, which was a new thing at the time.

Screenshot-7.png


12268-genewars-windows-screenshot-gameplays.gif
 

asper

Arcane
Joined
Nov 14, 2007
Messages
2,207
Project: Eternity
There also was a funny game about a war between the sexes called Gender Wars.
I remember it to be pretty bad, but it had an amusing backstory and writing.

Gender_Wars_DOS_26.png

246910-gender-wars-dos-screenshot-cryogenic-facilitiess.png
 

catfood

AGAIN
Joined
Aug 28, 2008
Messages
9,314
Location
Nirvana for mice
I'd like to second Gene Wars. The game was fairly original for its time, and now seems to be forgotten.
You herded creatures on an alien planet. They would mate and produce offscpring which had characteristics of both parents; you could eventually breed the creatures you needed to finish the game. The creature's sprite would represent its properties; being more fat, larger or stronger etc.I remember being quite impressed by this, and in general by the game's premise.
When I played it back in the day it really seemed very fluid; no creature relly had one sprite, but was always a ocmbination of characteristics.
I haven't seen the game in many years though, perhaps my memory isn't very accurate.
Also, all of the terrain was in real 3d, which was a new thing at the time.

Screenshot-7.png


12268-genewars-windows-screenshot-gameplays.gif

Here are a couple of extra games in the same vein:

In War Breeds you could collect DNA from enemy units and you could combine it with your own to make new creatures. Sadly I only played a demo of it waaaay back in 1998, but to be honest it didn't seem that good of a game now that I look back to it.

warbreedscr_002-large.jpg


warbreedscr_003-large.jpg


warbreedscr_001-large.jpg



In Evolution The Game of Intelligent Life your job was to take care of species of prehistoric animals, find them an ideal climate to live in and evolve them. I think you could set any goals you wanted such as: defeat all opponents (who in turn controlled other species), or be the first to evolve to a certain level such as first mammal, first intelligent creature etc.

810-1.jpg


810-12.jpg
 

Infinitron

I post news
Staff Member
Joined
Jan 28, 2011
Messages
97,228
Codex Year of the Donut Serpent in the Staglands Dead State Divinity: Original Sin Project: Eternity Torment: Tides of Numenera Wasteland 2 Shadorwun: Hong Kong Divinity: Original Sin 2 A Beautifully Desolate Campaign Pillars of Eternity 2: Deadfire Pathfinder: Kingmaker Pathfinder: Wrath I'm very into cock and ball torture I helped put crap in Monomyth
That game was really cool! Although it could get repetitive. I liked the generals' names ("Ulysses S. Ant" :P)
 

Darth Roxor

Royal Dongsmith
Staff Member
Joined
May 29, 2008
Messages
1,878,404
Location
Djibouti
Although it could get repetitive.

No way. Every damn level felt unique in that game, and some of them were TOUGH AS A MOTHERFUCKER, considering it was sort of like Commandos - actually more of a puzzle game with troops than an actual tactics/strategy game.

I liked the generals' names ("Ulysses S. Ant" :P)

Winston Anthill vs Adolf Antler, never forget :salute:
 

Boyarpunk

Hey there, fuckface-uh!
Patron
Joined
May 30, 2009
Messages
908
Location
Trapped in flat of angles
Codex 2013 Codex 2014 Codex USB, 2014
Anybody else here old enough to remember Broderbund's "The Ancient Art of War" and its stellar naval based sequel "The Ancient Art of War at Sea"?
Strategy wise, primitive as hell but definitely something totally sublime about them. Plus you could "match wits" against history's greatest generals and admirals.
First games I ever played where you could create and build your own campaigns/maps.

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Cyberarmy

Love fool
Patron
Joined
Feb 7, 2013
Messages
8,450
Location
Smyrna - Scalanouva
Divinity: Original Sin 2
Although it could get repetitive.

No way. Every damn level felt unique in that game, and some of them were TOUGH AS A MOTHERFUCKER, considering it was sort of like Commandos - actually more of a puzzle game with troops than an actual tactics/strategy game.

I liked the generals' names ("Ulysses S. Ant" :P)

Winston Anthill vs Adolf Antler, never forget :salute:


You know, I couldn't able to complete it back then, beat all them missions except one. Against 4-5 praying mantises, game gave you some stinky bugs, ants and a bee. You don't have any chance to win by fighting at that level, only need to hold them off with cheese and farts(lol) till you capture that foods but I've never managed it. I really should try it again on an abandonware site sometime.

Each bug had a style my favourites are wasps and diving beetles. My lil'brother loved them assassin bugs and their hammers :) Even that HUGE UI and battleground is styleish still today.
 
Joined
Dec 31, 2009
Messages
6,933
I'll add Fragile Allegiance to this list, if it's obscure enough. And final liberation, though I obviously have that one from the other topic in this forum section. Anyone know where I can aquire a full version of final liberation? The one file I find is without sound.
 

Lady_Error

█▓▒░ ░▒▓█
Patron
Joined
Oct 14, 2012
Messages
1,879,250
VGA Planets (1991) - phase-based(!) scifi multiplayer strategy that was played over the FIDO-Net. :D Everyone prepared their turn, uploaded it to a local mailbox, which automatically called each other at night to exchange data. Yep, that was the Internet back in the early 90's.
 

wwsd

Arcane
Vatnik
Joined
Jun 16, 2011
Messages
7,620
There was this game based on the legendary 80s film WarGames: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=J3EkwI02vPg

I borrowed it from the library when it came out in 1998 after having seen the film. In the game, NORAD is represented by humans, and WOPR by AT-ST-like robots. The copy that I borrowed was dubbed in Dutch for some reason (who would want to localise a game like this?), and the unit voiceovers were pretty funny (deliberately, I think).

I don't remember it being particularly good, but according to MobyGames, it was rated pretty highly. I also don't remember what function the DEFCON levels served. Maybe I should give it another go sometime.
 

catfood

AGAIN
Joined
Aug 28, 2008
Messages
9,314
Location
Nirvana for mice
There was this game based on the legendary 80s film WarGames: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=J3EkwI02vPg

I borrowed it from the library when it came out in 1998 after having seen the film. In the game, NORAD is represented by humans, and WOPR by AT-ST-like robots. The copy that I borrowed was dubbed in Dutch for some reason (who would want to localise a game like this?), and the unit voiceovers were pretty funny (deliberately, I think).

I don't remember it being particularly good, but according to MobyGames, it was rated pretty highly. I also don't remember what function the DEFCON levels served. Maybe I should give it another go sometime.
I played the demo back in the day. I thought it was pretty cool then but looking back I agree that it was nothing special. I also seem to remember reading an article in a local gaming mag about how the game or its demo came with a virus. I don't know whether that was true or not.
 

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