Lost and forgotten (except by us)

[Snorkack]

this reminds me of a game from around '98 where you could construct your own flying fortress and send it into battle against other flying fortresses. Can't remember much more. Does anyone know which game I'm talking about? And if it was any good?

 

[Dev_Anj]

Or the shareware version of CD-Man? I never liked the full version because: http://image.dosgamesarchive.com/screenshots/cdman1.gif

Just going to point out that this image gives me hotlink warnings when I try to open it. Anyhow, I do vaguely remember CD Man. I remember it being an enjoyable Pac Man clone, with some interesting details on the borders, but I seem to be remembering two more Pac Man clones too, one which had different times of day on the first level, and was pretty hard, and another which was a Flash game, but played pretty well.

Anyway, it's nice to know that there were so many interesting games that got overlooked, it's a shame that many of them can't be got easily through legal means but oh well. Can anyone give me the name of a third person shooter set in World War 2? It was made by a French company, and the English acting gave that away. It was possible to sneak around, but the stealth mechanics were clunky, and fighting involved switching between free aiming, and over the shoulder aim. It had bosses, and they had a lot of health, but it usually gave weapons to quickly kill them, like a Panzershrek. It featured a war torn town, a house in the countryside, a factory, a German governmental building that was visited twice, and a small bunker as the end level. I think the end level involved killing Hitler with a few Panzershrek rockets to the face, and most of the levels were overall reasonably sized, but divided by loading screens that you couldn't cross while fighting enemies. I did have fun with it, but I lost my copy ever since. What game was it?

 

[Dayyālu]

this reminds me of a game from around '98 where you could construct your own flying fortress and send it into battle against other flying fortresses. Can't remember much more. Does anyone know which game I'm talking about? And if it was any good?

http://www.rpgcodex.net/forums/inde...uest-of-the-skies-update-2-meadow-vale.95623/

The Codex sings to me , and I shall answer

 

[CryptRat]

http://www.rpgcodex.net/forums/inde...uest-of-the-skies-update-2-meadow-vale.95623/

The Codex sings to me , and I shall answer

OK, I thought it could be Storm master. Building flying fortresses, testing their flight and sending them to war on a strategic map are an important part of the game.
The game is divided bewteen 5 scenarios where you are more and more weak at the beginning.

Spoiler

Reminds me of Dragon breath wich was sold with Storm master as a bundle. It's a game where you raise your dragons and send them to attack towns. It has an awesome music.

Spoiler

I enjoyed these two games when I was younger, but I can't say if they are really good or not.

 

[Snorkack]

awesome, thanks!

Edit: I was looking for stratosphere.

 

[grudgebringer]

That looks totally awesome, never heard of it.

I myself only recently discovered it. It was the same team who made Hidden & Dangerous btw.

 

[Duraframe300]

Project Nomads



From Wikipedia

The majority of the game is spent on the player's floating island. At the beginning of the game, the island sports only a single control tower which is used to navigate. Throughout the course of the game, players can upgrade their island by building various structures ranging from defensive cannons to power plants that supply energy.

Structures are created with the help of so-called artifacts, magical remnants of an era long gone. Artifacts can be found throughout the game. Some are hidden, others are in plain sight, and some are handed to the player by NPCs. When activated, an artifact quickly deploys into a building.

There are two types of artifacts. Both are used to create buildings, but while red artifacts are lost when the building they created is destroyed, blue artifacts will reappear in place of the destroyed structure. Multiple artifacts of the same type can be combined to create a more powerful version. For instance, two defensive turret artifacts when combined will unfurl into a level two defensive turret which unlike the level one turret will engage threats automatically. Combining two of those artifacts will yield a level three defensive turret sporting dual cannons for twice the firepower.

Building is simple, the player selects an artifact stored in his or her belt and then selects the part of the island where the structure will be placed (certain structures, such as hangars, are limited to certain spots on the island). Also, a building cannot be created if the player's character is standing in the way. The island has energy, this energy is used for things like construction, or operating buildings on the island such as the gun towers, or repairs. The island also has health, which is represented by the state of a player's lighthouse. If the island's health is low, and the player cannot repair the lighthouse in time, the island will collapse and plummet.

The island structures will be different depending on the character chosen by the player. The structures used by the character Susie, for example, look similar to plants (e.g. gun tower resembles a mushroom). Goliath's buildings, however, appear to very high tech (gun tower looks like a cannon on a turret). The player's character choice also affects the strategy the player will employ. For example, the guns fired by Goliath's island are slow moving, but very powerful. The largest threat to a player using Goliath would be swift enemies, such as enemy fighters. Meanwhile, a player using Goliath would have an easier time when under attack by enemy towers or islands.

Certain buildings, such as hangars, or gun turrets, can be directly controlled by the player. The player simply presses the appropriate key, and he or she will take control of one of those structures. Multiple presses of key will result in switching to different defensive buildings. Taking control of one of these buildings allows the player to attack enemies that are the most dangerous to the island first, or use a fighter to attack them before they can attack the island.

It's by the people that would later develop the Drakensang titles

 

[:Flash:]

Stone Age

This is a puzzle game from 1992. And it is one of my most favourite games ever. The principle is so simple, yet the puzzles can get really brain twisting. Great music, good controls, no randomization, only 100 hand-made levels. Nowadays puzzle games have come back into focus due to mobile gaming, but this game did everything right in 1992. It's a shame the two guys who designed this never made another game.

Spoiler

 

[Taka-Haradin puolipeikko]

Warhead (Activision, 1989)
Early newtonian physics space flight sim. Precedessor of XF5700 Mantis.


M1 Tank Platoon (Microprose, 1989)

Tank simulation set in cold war era. Player gets to command a M1A1 Abrams tank platoon, some attached units, airstrikes and of-map artillery.
Could be played as passably good RTT on tactical map, although it had brain dead AI (rush to the objective when offensive, completely stationary when defensive)
Also all enemy units were coloured red.


also that manual .

North & South (1989, Infogrames)

Probably my favourite 2 player game.

 

[Ninja Destroyer]

Nosferatu: The Wrath of Malachi

It was posted here but it really deserves an attention of starved FPS fans who don't want to go full popamole to try something fresh.

Since there is a promotion on Steam where you can get it for peanuts I'll post it here. Set in 1912 in a castle in the Carpathians, a wedding is about to take place between the sister of the protagonist and the count Malachi. Rebecca and the family Patterson are already in the castle when the latecomer and protagonist James Patterson arrives. It quickly turns out that Malachi is a vampire and we need to save our family members. We have garlic, holy water, potions that will boost our stamina and health for periods of time. The atmosphere is superb. Usually we hear ambient music with some occasional classic instruments. The graphics were good enough for year 2003, and that's what counts. What the Swedish developer Idol Fx did well was to minimize the source of light and create a creepy climate. It's a perfect combination. I still remember aiming left and right when I was moving through one of the libraries trying to survive and find the exit. To this day I can recognize most of the tracks. We will have plenty weapons: a sword, revolver, old pistols and guns, wooden stakes (only for vampires suitably), a cross, submachine gun and a cup which one can fill with holy water to splash the opponents with it. There are some funny enemies like farmers, but other than that it will be a tough ride. There will be of course hot slaves of Malachi.

The best thing about it, is that while some elements of the castle and the rooms will remain the same, others will change with each new game. The roguelike element gives the game a great excuse for a replay. Overall, I think it's more consistent when it comes to horror, and more freightening than Undying (even though I liked it too). There are two ending : good and bad. The first one is of course when we save our family and kill Malachi. The bad one is easy to deduct.

I suggest going full blind into the game and not looking for guides. You will have plenty of time to learn everything from the game itself.

 

[agris]

Nosferatu: The Wrath of Malachi

It was posted here but it really deserves an attention of starved FPS fans who don't want to go full popamole to try something fresh.

It's literally 99 cents right now on steam, for those interested.

 

[Anthedon]

Hard to argue with that price, I'm in.

 

[Sykar]

Drakan: Order of Flame is nearly forgotten from what I can tell, despite being huge back then:

It was also one of the first games after Tomb Raider to capitalize on the "kickass independent woman, but totally hawt" archetype. With much more delectable results, I'd say:

She was quite a babe.

 

[Lucky]

Jazz Jackrabbit 1 and 2

Fun action-platformers. Epic Megagames usually gets all the credit for them, but most of the games’ content was created by hired freelancers and the code was done by Dutch developer Orange Games, which later merged into Lost Boys Games and eventually came to be known as...Guerrila Games, creators of Killzone. In other words, we’ll probably never see the people responsible for these games ever work together again.

They’re not particularly hard games, with the original being the most difficult, but enjoyable nonetheless and still worth playing. The plot is standard save-the-princess stuff there to give you an excuse to blast turtles in the face. No twists. No turns. Just you running, jumping and shooting your way through colourful levels while catchy tunes play in the background.

You can get The Christmas Chronicles and The Secret Files if you want more levels in the style of Jazz Jackrabbit 2. Also, Jazz Jackrabbit 2 is still actively being worked on by the jazz2online community, including providing a patch that fixes some bugs and which is necessary if you plan on doing multiplayer.

 

[Infinitron]

Sacrifice

Outcast

Giants Citizen Kabuto

Jazz Jackrabbit 1 and 2

You have an unusual definition of "lost and forgotten", friend.

There should probably be a rule that any game available for sale on Steam or GOG is disqualified.

 

[Jimmious]

KKND a sadly overlooked futuristic RTS game that came out around 1997. You could create your own units and battles could get extremely chaotic with huge armies battling it out. There was a second one too:


Battle Isle: Incubation. Part of the Battle Isle series, my personal first ever turn-based tactical game. Extremely difficult for me when I was young. Quite cool in general with lots of customization and a decent (branching if I recall correctly)campaign:


And for the fun one my favorite platformer-kinda games, UGH! You have to save people from the upcoming flood with your flying helicoptery thingie. Awesome fun that one!

 

[Lucky]

You have an unusual definition of "lost and forgotten", friend.

There should probably be a rule that any game available for sale on Steam or GOG is disqualified.

Well,

What old games do you wish more people remembered and talked about?

It's right there in the first post.

 

[Archibald]

Everyone who isn't aware of Incubation should get a dumbfuck tag.

 

[Jimmious]

Everyone who isn't aware of Incubation should get a dumbfuck tag.

Hah is it generally known? I consider it kind of obscure just from personal experience, really few people that I know have actually played it

 

[Unkillable Cat]

Everyone who isn't aware of Incubation should get a dumbfuck tag.

Hah is it generally known? I consider it kind of obscure just from personal experience, really few people that I know have actually played it

I've recently read through a few issues of PC Gamer (US) from late '97-early '98. They were BLASTING ads for this game in every issue, sometimes several times in the same issue. We're talking fold-out 2-page spreads and such here.

 

[Jimmious]

Oh well! I just remember back then that I was the nerdy guy playing this while everyone else was into Diablo and Starcraft(not that I didn't play these too ofcourse ). I guess I was cooler than I thought. Nice.

 

[AngryEddy]

Esoteria is a weird 3rd person action adventure game that I played way back in the day.

Disruptor was a pretty fun FPS for the PS1.

Metal Arms Glitch in the System was probably one of the most fun 3rd person adventure game's I ever played for the original Xbox, the framerate was silky smooth, practically everything in the environment was destructible, you could blow up enemies arms and legs and they'd still come at you, very good game.

 

[Durandal]

Neocron 2

A cyberpunk MMOFPS with a large focus on player economies. Stuff like high-level weapons require other players to first make a blueprint, than another player to construct it. Implants can only be implanted by other players. If you're going to raid another company, you also need alot of other people like a hacker, a driver, a field medic, a tank, and some other people.
The city was large, and was fun to explore/get lost in, especially if you liked cyberpunk enviroments.
I thought the combat was kinda drek for a FPS, though. There is a private server up maintained by the original devs, it has like 50 people on at most times.


Uplink

A hacking simulator released by Introversion Software (DEFCON, Darwinia, Prison Architect) in 2001.
A game that didn't hold your hand, and getting traced by the police meant you had to start all over. The beeping of the trace counter constantly puts you on edge as your slow-ass rig is busy disabling the proxy systems on this Criminal Database. It's very immersive as well, as if you were directly hacking systems from your own machine. There are no cutscenes or annoying tutorial pop-ups. Even more amazing is how 14 years have passed, and there's still no better hacking simulator on the same or greater scale as Uplink. Which mostly stems from the fact nobody has tried to make a better Uplink.

Marathon series (Marathon, Marathon 2: Durandal, Marathon Infinity)

A trilogy of FPS that Bungie (Halo, Destiny, Myth, Pathways into Darkness) made before being known as the Halo guys.
Often disregarded as Doom clones for the Apple computers, it actually plays as a more fast-paced Doom.
One of the most notable things of Marathon is its plot, which starts going absolutely nuts later on in the series.
You mostly kill aliens, while reading terminals which give you more bits of the plot. You can get it for free using the Aleph One sourceport.

 

[ultimanecat]

Hearing so much about Hatred but also seeing that it's hardly revolutionary, I got the itch to play a gory twin-stick-style shooter.

Project Overkill is a Playstation-only title from 1996 created by Konami's now-defunct American design branch. Released before dual analog sticks became popular on consoles, it controls similarly to many other twin-stick shooters although unfortunately movement and shooting are limited to 8 directions each. A very small, nearly imperceptible amount of auto-aim has been incorporated, but lining up your shots remains incredibly important. It also has a bit of a limited viewing space, which early on isn't so much of a problem but later can mean some pretty cheap deaths.

That being said, I'm enjoying it, and have been methodically trying to get through it without becoming frustrated.

The game takes place over three "phases", which are large interconnected maps with beginning and end points. You can choose whichever route you want, and choice of level becomes a bit strategic, because as I alluded to earlier, the game is difficult, even on normal setting. You have four characters to choose from:

The characters are broadly similar but do have their differences: Quogg there above, for instance, can kill your basic human enemy in a single punch whereas the others take two (making melee a somewhat viable option for him early on), while Kreeg's 3rd weapon is an autoturret instead of the more grenade-like 3rd weapons of the others. Most importantly, though, is that health and ammo for each character carry over between levels, so it can help to take more than one character through an easier level or two to guarantee you have someone to fall back on in the later on. In that screenshot, Quogg only has 8 HP left and barely any ammo, so taking him into a level would be somewhat suicidal unless you already know there are health powerups and few enemies near the start. Once one of your characters die, they're out of the game permanently. Mostly, this encourages replaying levels a few times to try and figure out whose weapons are best suited to the mission, and how to complete it with an acceptable amount of health. Killing every enemy also nets you an ammo bonus, which over time is one of the better ways to prepare for the tough stuff later.

Gameplay is satisfying on several levels - the standard gun of all the characters is an automatic weapon of some type, with correspondingly suitable sound effects that give the sense that you are putting out a lot of heat. This is reinforced even more by the gore - humanoid enemies spurt blood and viscera in creatively animated ways, with the backs of heads being blown out, guts spilling out of abdomens, and splatters left on walls and floors. Levels are usually military-style bases with corridors, colored keycards, and a shitload of secret areas (many of which are barely telegraphed to the player - be prepared to poke every slightly discolored wall). Missions have some variation, however, for the most part there are very few missions where killing every single enemy isn't the optimal strategy. Even if you're tasked with protecting an NPC, enemies won't deliberately target them so it benefits you to leave them behind and clear the level out ahead of them.

Not a perfect game by any means, but very challenging and somehow not rated Adults Only despite no nudity and tons of violence. At the very least, it's scratching whatever itch I got from looking at Hatred, as well as a few concerning 90s gameplay that I doubt even Hatred would be gunning for.

 

[Durandal]

Omega Boost

HOW COULD THE GRAN TURISMO GUYS GET A GAME THIS BEAUTIFUL RUNNING ON A PS1 WITH 60FPS
HOW COULD THE CONTROLS FOR A 3D SHMUP BE SO DAMN GOOD FOR A NOTA BENE DUALSHOCK 1 CONTROLLER
WHY HASN'T POLYPHONY MADE AN OMEGA BOOST SEQUEL
WHY AREN'T THERE MORE 3D SHMUPS AS GOOD AS OMEGA BOOST
WHY AREN'T THERE MORE 3D SHMUPS FOR THAT MATTER
WHY