Lost and forgotten (except by us)

[Zarniwoop]

2 Games that were quite well known at the time, but somehow disappeared through the mists of time:

Netstorm: Islands at war

Probably the multiplayer game I spent the most time on before the internets became widespread. Launched in 1997 by Activision. It's a real-time strategy game that's actually really strategic/tactical.

Each player starts on a tiny floating island and you can build on it, but also bridges off the island, as long as the are connected to your islands or another bridge piece. You also had to CONSTRUCT ADDITIONAL PYLONS to increase your building range, basically these things powered your buildings. All your offensive and defensive "units" were actually buildings and can't move. Each military building had only a fixed firing arc and range so careful planning was needed to destroy your enemy's stuffies and eventually capture his priest, then sacrifice him at a temple to one of the elemental gods to win the map. Not exactly the classical 4 elements, but there was Wind, Storm, Sun etc. Only transport units could move and all they did was to collect crystals (money) or capture the enemy priest. It was some pretty unique gameplay, I've never seen anything else like it and it was extremely addictive.

Then:


The Last Dynasty, released by Sierra in 1995 and made by Coktel Vision. I never finished this one and I wish I could. Still have the original box lying somewhere at my parent's place from my childhood. I could never get it to run or even install on a modern system because it's a Windows-only game but has a 16-bit installer and unlike Grim Fandango, I couldn't find a replacement installer or emulator.

Graphics were amazing at the time, one of the first games I remember coming out on 2 CD's due to lots of voice acting and video etc. Of course it looks crap today.

It combined space shootan (Wing Commander style) games with pre-rendered 3D adventures, similar to Myst or Return to Zork, the latter being most of the game. Couldn't find a screenshot of the adventure part though. I think re-playing it now would be difficult due to the space combat part, in the same way I can't play the old Wing Commanders any more.

Basically the (weird) story starts off with 2 random guys in their garage trying out some new VR system or something and flying a spaceship (which is the training part for the space combat part). Then all of a sudden a real spaceship comes to collect the guys out of nowhere. It takes them to some unknown planet where they meet an emperor guy who tells one dude he's actually his son or something. There's also some big war going on and ships blasting each other in orbit. Then for some reason you fly to an abandoned space station after shooting some pursuers and the adventure part starts. I have gone quite far there but never knew what happens after the station. I'd love to finish the thing some day If I can get it running, but unfortunately it seems I'm the only one on the planet that has ever heard of this game so it doesn't exist on GOG. Even the Mobygames article is very light.

 

[Astral Rag]

I never played Netstorm but I always enjoy Mark Morgan's soundtrack.

 

[grudgebringer]

I remember Netstorm, it was really great and innovative RTS. I think that it still is today. Too bad it was overshadowed by Starcraft.

 

[Duraframe300]

Fable

I always liked the ending. People got so butthurt about it back then that they changed it for a shitty *happppppy* ending in the american (sir-tech published) release

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lTon4Cppg9w

 

[rado907]

Tzar: The Burden of the Crown
Awesome RTS game with minor RPG elements from 2000. Mixes Warcraft 2 and Age of Empires. Has good graphics and music, and a solid campaign.

 

[Unkillable Cat]

This was a shareware game that had seamless change between space and planetary surfaces. The only other game that was capapble of doing that back then was Frontier

If you want to count older titles as well, then count in Starglider 2. Starglider 2 even went the extra distance of having seamless change between space, surface and underground areas.

 

[pippin]

Magic and Mayhem




This is a RTS game with a focus on resource management and creature summoning. You control one druid person, and it's up to you to mix your reagents and find the best balance between summoning and spells (offensive and defensive). Every creature has its own stats and abilities, and you can also find tokens to summon creatures you don't have in your grimoire at a given time. I absolutely love the animations and models, which are made on superior claymation technique, although the sequel introduced 3d models, fucking decline of everything. Julian Gollop worked on this game.

 

[Raapys]

Sid Meier's Covert Action

Spoiler

Easily my favorite 'secret agent'-type game, Covert Action is essentially a product of various minigames connected by an overarching investigation into a specific criminal plot. You'll wiretap phone lines, search buildings for evidence while avoiding(or killing) guards, interrogate and turn suspects, do car chases and decrypt intercepted messages.

The game begins by announcing the possibility of a (randomly generated) terrorist or criminal plot. You'll get a few pieces of evidence to start you off, then you're left to your own devices. It's essentially an open-world game at that point, and how you use your time is up to you. Time is a critical factor in the game; every action, including travel, takes up a certain amount of time. And as time progresses, so does the plot you're trying to stop.

It's not just time that's your enemy though. You'll have to carefully balance your investigation so as to not tip off the plotters that you're on to them. Make an arrest of a lowly player too early and the higher-ups will have time to go into hiding before you can get to them. Similarly, botching an attempted intelligence gathering operation can also tip off the involved, making your continued investigation difficult or impossible.

Overall, a great title with decent replayability. The quality of the various minigames is okay, but they do get repetitive after a while. Best played a few hours at a time.

 

[Dayyālu]

Everyone knows Tribes, and Cyberstorm is probably the best mech TB the West produced (if we exclude Megamek). Yet, its parent series, EarthSiege/StarSiege, despite (as far as I understand) being quite successful in their own times died a quiet death after the failure of Starsiege 2845 and nowadays it's mostly forgotten. Sure, it's quite arcadey and focused on presentation (you can consider it a bit more "simulationist" than Mechwarrior 4, but quite inferior to Heavy Gear 2 or previous Mechwarriors). Yet, that presentation was top-notch, and it had all those things a young mind could remember:



Excellent soundtrack:



Big manuals full of "fluff" info, as it was usual in the mid-late '90:

We are not taking inspiration from something, sure

As Battletech has the Mad Cat, Earthsiege had the Apocalypse

I won't lie, it is not quite a "lost" game, but sure the Earthsiege series has been forgotten. It's not the best mech game out there, but it's quite cinematic and fun to play. Kinda like a mech version of Wing Commander.

 

[MadMaxHellfire]

This was a shareware game that had seamless change between space and planetary surfaces. The only other game that was capapble of doing that back then was Frontier

If you want to count older titles as well, then count in Starglider 2. Starglider 2 even went the extra distance of having seamless change between space, surface and underground areas.

starglider 2, quite a masterpiece, even if it can be finished in a matter of minutes if you know what needs to be done. even just the many ways to recuperate energy make it outstanding.
a shame i've never been able to finish it: never found out what to do after dropping the solar bomb, no matter how far i escaped, i still exploded.

 

[Unkillable Cat]

I never got far in Starglider 2 either, the most fun I had with it was flying right into the sun and watching my ship melt.

While I'm still sitting inside of it.

 

[Lady_Error]

VGA Planets

A phased-combat multiplayer strategy game that was popular during the Fidonet and mailbox days before the Internet. Was later ripped off by "Stars!".

 

[Astral Rag]

 

[Tzaero]

Yet, that presentation was top-notch, and it had all those things a young mind could remember.

I was in awe, as a kid, of the manual and history book that came with the box.
We just don't get cool things like it anymore.

Also while ya mentioned Heavy Gear 2 I googled and found that theres a new one being made.
Its multiplayer only though, but it looks better than the drek that Hawken.

HBS better make a kickstarter for a sequel soon.




Hostile Waters!

 

[Sykar]

Gobliiins!

 

[DDZ]

 

[Dayyālu]

I was in awe, as a kid, of the manual and history book that came with the box.
We just don't get cool things like it anymore.

Ahahaha. Particularly if you lived in a place where Battletech was unknown, it was quite novel and awesome. And it is rather noticeable how they were deeply inspired in art and style by Battletech, in retrospective. Dynamix did the first Mechwarrior games, right? I don't remember.

You are right: we don't get such toys anymore.

The (truly) lost and forgotten Starsiege TABLETOP game, Starsiege: Rebellion. No Apoc miniature and everything on Ebay costs an arm and a leg. My forbidden dream with the Nod pewter soldier from TibSun.

Hostile Waters!

TAKING HITS HULL STRENGTH FALLING IT IS A BLOODBATH! You forgot the menu theme, you heretic !

 

[potatojohn]

Life on Mars. More or less SC on mars.

 

[FeelTheRads]

Spoiler

I don't know that Fatal Racing is, but second image is Rollcage (2, if I'm not mistaken).

 

[Astral Rag]

It's Rollcage 1's Paradise track.

 

[lightbane]

Hm, don't we have several threads like this one somewhere already? Either way, after spaceships and mechs, the next step is obviously power armors:

Terra Nova

Not exactly unknown here, but even then it deserves being mentioned. TN is the first (and only) Power Armor Simulator ever done, with incredible graphics (for its time), not completely brain-dead AI, awesome gameplay (I love how damage done to the suit has immediate consequences besides health loss, showing an increasing performance degradation to the point of barely being able to move) and lots of weapons! The only downside is that it's quite short. And that something like this won't be done ever again in these days, at least not without heavy popamolification. Anyway, have a gameplay video:




Wrath of Earth

Before Terra Nova, there was... Wrath of Earth. Another power-armor themed game, but this time it's more like a bizarre mix of FPS, adventure and survival horror elements. Your character starts with an incredibly advanced suit powered by solar energy, capable of carrying multiple heavy weapons and repairing itself. Unfortunately, like the Metroid's Power Suit, it shares energy between all of its systems, so if your environmental shield consumes all of your power, the shields, weapon systems and life-support will quickly follow. In fact, it's possible to sustain so much damage to the point you cannot even see your HUD (and by extension, remaining health and shields). A recommended course of action when that happens is to run away like a little girl perform a tactical retreat and search for a light source, hoping that the suit can repair itself before something hostile finds you in such weakened state.
In any case, it's worth a try. Have a gameplay video:

 

[warpig]

Wrath of Earth looks primitive for a 1995 game. (SS came out in 1994 so it wasn't "before System Shock")

 

[DwarvenFood]

There was this cool platformer/puzzler with three different kind of colour balls (?) one could for example jump, other had a ninja rope (?), something like that.. pretty good game, kind of overshadowed by others in that time. Title can't come to my head.

 

[warpig]

Fury of The Furries?

 

[Trash]

Love threads like this. I've been playing games since the early 80's and it reminds me just how many awesome games I've played with and forgotten. Some of the lost and forgotten here have been big hits in the past, btw. Megalomania for instance was huge on the Amiga.

Anyway, one of the truly great Lost and Forgotten for me is Bioforge. Origin Systems have a trackrecord of amazing games and truly earned their 'we make worlds' tagline. Bioforge has you scour a research station as an escaped cyborg who's mind has been wiped. Difficult puzzles, great fighting system and a very decent story about identity thrown together with mad doctors and alien ruins. Memorable moments? Beating a fellow midwiped and mad convict to death with his own severed arm. Downing a craft filled with space marines send to mess you up, going in to encounter and kill the last survivor and hear your characters comments after the deed. Finding out who you where before you got turned into a cyborg and seeing your character's reaction was a great moment as well. Loved the game, despite the usual tank controls of the time.



Rowan Software made a series of amazing and deep flight simulations (check out Mig Alley for an amazing flight sim set in the Korean War with a neat dynamic campaign going on). Then they took that engine and tossed in a steampunk world where you where flying around with a zeppelin to restore a fractured realm through diplomacy and flying sorties. Guess where Dragon Commander got its inspiration? Air Power was a shitload of fun and the many varied aproaches and missions kept it fresh. Game required quite a hefty machine at the time, one of the reasons it got good reviews but never was a huge hit.



Shadow of the Horned Rat remains one of my all-time favourite games. Yes, it has a sequel that's supposedly much better but I simply loved the original more. A tighter story, amazing cartoon cutscenes that have aged well and an utterly devastating difficulty with some genuine C&C along the wat. Play a mercenary company in the GrimDark world of fantasy Warhammer and butcher countless Skaven along the way. Great fun and the best medieval fantasy merc sim to date. Perhaps Battle Brothers will manage to take up that mantle...



Another forgotten gem is Seal Team. Tactical Squad Based shooter where you engage in a huge variety of missions as a Seal member in the Mekong Delta during the Vietnam war. From assassinations to scouting to capturing pow's. Call in airstrikes, mow down civilians, sink sampan's on the river in hails of gunfire and dodge booby traps. Amazing game that had atmosphere, interesting missions that had nasty little surprises and great gameplay mechanics. Never saw anything like it.