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Classic Gaming, Steam style
BeenieWeenie
So DeliciousSo NutritiousRegistered User regular
So DeliciousSo NutritiousRegistered User regular
I was digging around on Steam and saw some things I haven't seen in a long time, though I'm sure classic games on Steam isn't news to anyone. However... I got a pleasant surprise when I dug up my old Half-Life 1 CD and installed it, then put it into Steam. When I put in my CD Key...
Steam thought it was the "Half-Life Platinum Pack".
Which means... while I originally just had HL1 and Team Fortress Classic, now I have HL1, TFC, both the HL1 expansions, Ricochet (meh), Counterstrike, Deathmatch Classic... and several other goodies.
I jumped into Deathmatch Classic and to my surprise, there are still some people playing... albeit just a few. Most of the servers were chock full of bots or had bad map rotations. Plus it's from the days of dial-up, so it doesn't really support high-speed downloads. So... it takes like five minutes to download the new maps. HL1 was more of the same... it didn't age as gracefully as I thought it did but it was still fun as shit.
But anyways... just a little gem I stumbled across. Anyone else had similar experiences? Or have a classic game (of any genre, not just FPS) that they have recently dusted off and found new life in?
Steam thought it was the "Half-Life Platinum Pack".
Which means... while I originally just had HL1 and Team Fortress Classic, now I have HL1, TFC, both the HL1 expansions, Ricochet (meh), Counterstrike, Deathmatch Classic... and several other goodies.
I jumped into Deathmatch Classic and to my surprise, there are still some people playing... albeit just a few. Most of the servers were chock full of bots or had bad map rotations. Plus it's from the days of dial-up, so it doesn't really support high-speed downloads. So... it takes like five minutes to download the new maps. HL1 was more of the same... it didn't age as gracefully as I thought it did but it was still fun as shit.
But anyways... just a little gem I stumbled across. Anyone else had similar experiences? Or have a classic game (of any genre, not just FPS) that they have recently dusted off and found new life in?
BeenieWeenie on
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I haven't done any classic gaming in a while, too many new games around at the moment. Last game I did a re-run through was probably Planescape: Torment. This time around I actually cheated and gave myself some slightly upgraded stats right from the beginning (not much, just a little) so that I could experience everything I wanted easily in the game without having to plan out where to put my skill points beforehand. Really, it's not a game that takes skill to play as such, so it was nice to have the extra points to allow me to do stuff.
Are they as hardcore as the Counter-Strile brigade?
Also, don't understimate the power of a classic deathmatch game that doesn't require a graphics card to run well. Even today most PC's aren't sold with graphics cards as such (although I would guess that the currently level on-baord graphics is probably at least up to the level of a Geforce 2 by now. I hope.).
Might be interesting to try sometime.
Deathmatch Classic is basically a Quake 1 clone on the old HL engine. Same sound effects and weapons and all. And it's still fun. But yes... about the only real people left are hardcore play-till-death vets who just own everything. But I don't remember such pronounced lag... I'm on a 5 meg connection and the lag is horrendous, even though my latency is like 30 or 40.
On a non-Steam related note, I installed Wing Commander Prophecy a few months back, and replayed through it (the one good thing Vista gave me. XP wouldn't run it but Vista will), and it's stood up to the test of time very well. If anyone hasn't had the pleasure of playing it, enjoys space shooters and can find it laying around somewhere or on EBay, it's well worth the buy. Graphics are still rather impressive more than a decade later.
Also hopped on Diablo II not too long ago, but there's not that many people left. The dedicated community's still there, but not like it used to be.
I wonder if Starcraft still has a big online following? Ah, who the hell am I kidding, I'm sure it does... especially since SC2 is coming now.
Republic of Korea
I tried playing Thexder 95 last weekend as well. The auto aiming in that game actually managed to make the game harder (you shoot anything on screen, even if it isn't within your direct line-of-sight + limited ammo).
Yeah space combat games tend to age quite well. I think more than anything as long as you've got the epic scale and huge draw distances, that really helps the game look good.
Only played up to WC3 though. Was Mark Hamill still in 5? I heard they went with an all new cast. Hope the FMV's are just as good / cheesy / cheesy good.
It always surprises me how well these games stand up to today's fare.
It's still pretty fun to play, if you happen to be on a PC that can't run HL2DM.
Wing Commander 1 and 2's sprites and bounding boxes haven't really aged as well as all that. And the warships in WC1 are pretty piddling; after the first 15 or 20 Fralthis and Ralaris you start to wonder why they bother to build the things in the first place instead of, say, 2 more Dralthis.
Mark Hamill played a fairly large role in Prophecy. I'm a pretty big fan of the game, although fans of the series tend to look down on it for some reason.
EDIT: Also forgot: the sphere-shaped lasers/mass drivers/neutron guns in WC1/2 are also kind of a drag nowadays.
It's what he likes so he just sticks with it
I think it's so odd
q2dm1 4 lyfe yo
I meant slightly more recent games, like Starlancer and Freespace. Just because they tend to age well doesn't mean time stops altogether.
Can't you inform them? I'm no expert on this stuff, but usually if you can send them some proof, like a photocopy of the manual with the codes, or images of the discs with that, then they may be willing to cancel the other dude's account and give you your games. When I lost my CD key for undying, all I needed to do was send them a photocopy of the disc.
Well, in any case I'd advise you to tell them. Who knows, maybe the system's just making a mistake with that key for some reason.
Yeah, you can send them proof of ownership and for a fee ($10USD?) they'll put it on your account, but at the time the exchange rate between USD and AUD meant that I could probably have just purchased a new copy of the game and used that. But now that the exchange rate is virtually 1:1 it might be worth my ten bucks to ruin some jerk's day.
Yeah, Hamill is pretty much one of the co-stars of the game. It was actually the only WC I ever played... kinda makes me sad. I had to read into the backstory to really understand what was going on. Thank you, Wikipedia.
The ending is very open as well. There was a small expansion pack released which followed the events of the game, but I never played it. Heard it had improved 3DFX support and all that jazz which was awesome back in the day, but sorta split from the storyline and didn't even mention Blair (someone correct me if I'm wrong).
Also, someone mentioned Zelda I think. I broke out OoT not too long ago and found it as fully enjoyable as the first time. It was almost like a fresh playthrough because I forgot everything.
Also, MGS1 for the PS1.
Seems like I play more old games than new these days...