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Re-installing/revisiting older PC games
Shoegaze99
Registered User regular
Registered User regular
Getting a new external drive last week rendered one of my backup drives redundant (I replaced a 250GB with a second 500GB drive), so I found myself staring at 250 (well, 232) GB of open space and wondering what to do with it.
I decided to install some games on it, in part to see how well games would run from a USB drive, and in part simply to revisit some old favorites. Here's what I found.
First, games run fine from it. I thought speed might be an issue, but nope. Everything ran nice and smooth, even with the settings blasted through the roof.
Second, this is the first batch of games I revisited:
Unreal -- Damn did I love the original Unreal. At the time Quake was the thing, but I felt all cutting edge for being an Unreal guy, even though it pretty much raped my PC. Played it, loved it, got the expansion, loved that, too. I recall revisiting it a few years later and thinking the graphics still held up. The series moving to a MP style game helped it explode in popularity, but my heart will always stay with the original SP game.
So, what about now? Well, obviously the game is visually well behind modern standards. That’s mostly because of the low poly counts, because the textures are still fairly nice. Still, it looks kind of crude now. However, the atmosphere is still AWESOME (the first few levels are just killer; great sound) and I still adore the gameplay. The gunplay is fun, the alternate fire stuff is still fun, and the levels still have nice surprises. The first time those brutes or whatever they’re called charge out of the tunnel is a thrill.
I may sit down and revisit this for a full playthough.
SimCity 3000 -- Not much of a revisit, I guess, since I reinstall this once a year or so. This game is still excellent in every way, and the design was so perfect that the visuals are not dated in the least.
Baldur’s Gate II -- No need to say much on this, since there is ALWAYS a Baldur’s Gate thread on PA. Holds up pretty well.
Might & Magic: World of Xeen -- Fuck you, Windows XP! Fuck you in your ass! I tried DOSBox, only managed to load the game once and it stalled on the opening cinematic/menu/whatever. Damnit!
Daggerfall -- Oh, how the mighty have fallen. I used to really love this game, but man, the controls are clunky as all hell. Loaded up a save that skips the first dungeon and still didn’t play for more than 20 minutes. I’ve considered revisiting this a few times lately. Now I’m rethinking that. This game does not hold up.
Frederick Pohl’s Gateway -- Awesome. Started it. Couldn’t stop playing. Finished it. An excellent “visual text adventureâ€. They don’t make games like this anymore. The puzzles were all very natural and intuitive, nothing outlandish or silly. The game provided a constant stream of “yes!†moments as you figured things out. The places to explore were decent, and the climactic series of environments were a nice twist. This was awesome.
Myst -- Wow, I remember when this game was pretty. Otherwise, Myst is still Myst. You either love it or hate it. When it came out, I loved it. I didn’t quite love it this time (played for about an hour), and in fact found some of it a bit clunky, but the core of a decent game is still there.
Links 2001 -- My favorite golf game of all time. Played it and, yup, still like it. It’s not as pretty as more recent games (though I think it still looks good) and the depth of career mode is … well, there is none … but I enjoyed playing a quick 9 with Sergio. I’ll probably install a bunch of the custom courses I have stashed away on a disc and start playing this again on a regular basis, as the only golf game since this I truly enjoyed was Links 2004 on the Xbox. Unless you count Mario Golf on the GameBoy …
Deus Ex -- Well damn, this holds up but good. Too bad it runs glitchy as fuck on my XP system, because the gameplay is still nice as hell, the environments look good, and the game itself is yeah. Sure, the character models are low poly and look silly, but whatever. The game way, way trumps that.
That was it for now. I have a few other games lined up in my reinstall & revisit queue. A few of the are:
Dark Forces II: Jedi Knight
Darkstone
Carmagedon!!
The Wheel of Time
Outpost 2
Masters of Orion 2
No One Lives Forever
Morrowind (with the Merged Mega Modpack. I’ve never played with it.)
Planescape: Torment
Colonization
There are others, but I can't recall them offhand. Not sure what I'll get to next, but it's fun going through all my old game discs and playing this stuff again.
Feel free to share your own experiences when it comes to revisiting old PC games.
I decided to install some games on it, in part to see how well games would run from a USB drive, and in part simply to revisit some old favorites. Here's what I found.
First, games run fine from it. I thought speed might be an issue, but nope. Everything ran nice and smooth, even with the settings blasted through the roof.
Second, this is the first batch of games I revisited:
Unreal -- Damn did I love the original Unreal. At the time Quake was the thing, but I felt all cutting edge for being an Unreal guy, even though it pretty much raped my PC. Played it, loved it, got the expansion, loved that, too. I recall revisiting it a few years later and thinking the graphics still held up. The series moving to a MP style game helped it explode in popularity, but my heart will always stay with the original SP game.
So, what about now? Well, obviously the game is visually well behind modern standards. That’s mostly because of the low poly counts, because the textures are still fairly nice. Still, it looks kind of crude now. However, the atmosphere is still AWESOME (the first few levels are just killer; great sound) and I still adore the gameplay. The gunplay is fun, the alternate fire stuff is still fun, and the levels still have nice surprises. The first time those brutes or whatever they’re called charge out of the tunnel is a thrill.
I may sit down and revisit this for a full playthough.
SimCity 3000 -- Not much of a revisit, I guess, since I reinstall this once a year or so. This game is still excellent in every way, and the design was so perfect that the visuals are not dated in the least.
Baldur’s Gate II -- No need to say much on this, since there is ALWAYS a Baldur’s Gate thread on PA. Holds up pretty well.
Might & Magic: World of Xeen -- Fuck you, Windows XP! Fuck you in your ass! I tried DOSBox, only managed to load the game once and it stalled on the opening cinematic/menu/whatever. Damnit!
Daggerfall -- Oh, how the mighty have fallen. I used to really love this game, but man, the controls are clunky as all hell. Loaded up a save that skips the first dungeon and still didn’t play for more than 20 minutes. I’ve considered revisiting this a few times lately. Now I’m rethinking that. This game does not hold up.
Frederick Pohl’s Gateway -- Awesome. Started it. Couldn’t stop playing. Finished it. An excellent “visual text adventureâ€. They don’t make games like this anymore. The puzzles were all very natural and intuitive, nothing outlandish or silly. The game provided a constant stream of “yes!†moments as you figured things out. The places to explore were decent, and the climactic series of environments were a nice twist. This was awesome.
Myst -- Wow, I remember when this game was pretty. Otherwise, Myst is still Myst. You either love it or hate it. When it came out, I loved it. I didn’t quite love it this time (played for about an hour), and in fact found some of it a bit clunky, but the core of a decent game is still there.
Links 2001 -- My favorite golf game of all time. Played it and, yup, still like it. It’s not as pretty as more recent games (though I think it still looks good) and the depth of career mode is … well, there is none … but I enjoyed playing a quick 9 with Sergio. I’ll probably install a bunch of the custom courses I have stashed away on a disc and start playing this again on a regular basis, as the only golf game since this I truly enjoyed was Links 2004 on the Xbox. Unless you count Mario Golf on the GameBoy …
Deus Ex -- Well damn, this holds up but good. Too bad it runs glitchy as fuck on my XP system, because the gameplay is still nice as hell, the environments look good, and the game itself is yeah. Sure, the character models are low poly and look silly, but whatever. The game way, way trumps that.
That was it for now. I have a few other games lined up in my reinstall & revisit queue. A few of the are:
Dark Forces II: Jedi Knight
Darkstone
Carmagedon!!
The Wheel of Time
Outpost 2
Masters of Orion 2
No One Lives Forever
Morrowind (with the Merged Mega Modpack. I’ve never played with it.)
Planescape: Torment
Colonization
There are others, but I can't recall them offhand. Not sure what I'll get to next, but it's fun going through all my old game discs and playing this stuff again.
Feel free to share your own experiences when it comes to revisiting old PC games.
Shoegaze99 on
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On a related note, Morrowind Mega Mod Mwaha?
Oh, and to contribute to the discussion, it is amazing how well Doom, Heretic et al hold up when you're playing them with mouselook via jDoom or zDoom or whatever.
Heretic reminds me, I wanted to install Hexen, too. (Hexen was the third person game and Heretic was the first person game, right? I mean the third person game.) I got it ages ago and only ever played through the first level or so.
Also, some game with jetpacks and platforms. Something with "out" in the title, I think. Awesome demo, never did get the game.
Morrowind merged pack for those who want it.
I might reinstall Hexen 2 and play it again, I recall the Egyptian chapter being pretty cool with time travel puzzles or something, and then the aztec chapter being annoying as shit with the were-jaguars. That and the flying battle with death being awesome.
It's always interesting to go back and play old FPS games because the level design is so different to now. Especially going way back to something like Marathon or Doom where you have some levels which are just a nonsensical maze of corridors.
Holy dog doo that's an impressive list.
Don't miss the Holy God is That Really PST? resolution mod.
And you scoffed!
Seriously, I only played with it for an hour or two, but even in that time I was floored by how different the world around me was. Around every corner was something new, entire towns were different, all sorts of stuff. It's a game-changing experience in the most major of ways.
Heretic II was the only third person game in the Heretic/Hexen series. Heretic II also hates newer computers more than any of the other games in the series, but on the positive side someone figured out how to run it in widescreen by now.
Also, I would wait until the next release of the Infinity Engine widescreen mod before playing Planescape Torment. Pretty sure the DOS version runs more stable than the Windows version, FYI. There's a new renderer available here which will have less graphic errors. Also get this to make the UI not resize itself and look ugly.
Oh, awesome. I have a new laptop on its way. PS:T and this mod are going on it, stat. Thanks!
Unfortunately a lot of those mods don't "fit in" with the Morrowind setting, if you get my meaning. Some high fantasy stuff in there, and I know for a fact that there are equipable lightsabers in the Balmora Extended mod. Kind of spoils the immersion.
Though there's one mod I've always wanted but I don't believe exists. A Dwemer Blunderbuss.
Hmm, I have been thinking about giving the Ol' Planescape another round. I think I have a save right around when you get out of the slums (Ie: when it gets good). Note to Self: Load up high level save and bring fury the gods upon than damn Mind Rat hive.
Other oldies to replay!
X-Com: UFO Defense (You know you love it)
Monkey Island (I am selling these fine leather jackets)
Day of the Tentacle (Hey, I'm Hoagie)
Sid Meyers: Alpha Centauri (Don't go. The drones need you. They look up to you)
Companions of Xanth (The game that started me down a long path of reading terrible fantasy novels. Stupid book included with the game)
And some others I can't really think of. Lay off it is 9 in the morning.
But if you're re-visiting this game for like the 100th time. Then it doesn't matter too much that things don't fit the original feel of Morrowind.
If you haven't already, you really should play the sequel. As much as I love Gateway, I feel that Gateway 2 improved on the original in every way and had some really cool stuff.
And if you like the format of the game, check out some of Legend's other games. As awesome as Lucasarts and Sierra were, I think Legend was my favorite adventure game company. I really like Death Gate and Shannara, make a point to play through those every once in a while (which reminds me, I'm about due), but they had a ton of awesome games.
Wasn't the "fine leather jackets" thing referenced in the Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade SCUMM game? I miss those old LucasArts games so much... especially Full Throttle.
This is my PSN ID— Radthanael
Hmmmm, I happen to be listening to the Sword of Shannara audio book right now. I wanted to revisit the book (haven't read it since 6th grade) but didn't want to read the book again. The same folks who made Gateway made a Shannara game? I'll have to look for that.
Even if you don't have UT, you can install the multimedia patch on Oldunreal to at least get the OpenGL support: http://www.oldunreal.com/specialpatches.html (choose the one for the version of Unreal you have installed). Someone is working on S3TC textures for Unreal, as well as improving on them, but they aren't finished yet. Copying the UT ones to Unreal may work anyway.
If you have UT2k4 you can also download a mod that is pretty much the entirety of the original Unreal. That's how I first played the game, actually, and it worked pretty decently.
Actually, the Shannara game was published by Legend but made by the group that made Quest For Glory (the husband/wife team, can't remember their names at the moment). It used the familiar Legend engine (after it had moved away from the graphical/text hybird to mostly graphical).
The game is basically a sequel to the book, with a new generation of heroes having to defeat Brona. As a game, though, it's quite good.
Cool, I just found it, the description makes it sound like some sort of mash-up of the original game, beta and expansion pack content all in one though...
Critical Failures - Havenhold Campaign • August St. Cloud (Human Ranger)
Link please? I just found my UT2k4 disks.
If anyone knows of any Action/RTS hybrids, let me know because all I've seen are Battlezone, Natural Selection, and Pikmin. And they are all the greatest genre ever
Jedi Knight's graphics didn't hold up even at the time I got it, but that didn't matter. It was SUCH a blast to play. Really cool levels, fun combat. Can't wait to see if it holds up.
Carmageddon was AWESOME. I have Carmageddon 2, too, but it paled compared to the original. The physics were INSANE. You could do some really amazing stuff. Damn did I ever love that game.
I wonder if DOSbox and the 360 controller play nice with one another? I originally played the game with a keyboard. Hand cramps something fierce.
I have to agree carmageddon 2 wasn't as good as 1 but it was still a very awesome game. The spring power up in 1 was awesome. I would just sit my the train tracks smashing cars into as it went by. Also for Dark Forces 2 you also need mysteries of the sith expansion which i still have on disk and have been playing on my laptop that I got a month ago. I also played about 100 games of MoO2:BaA
I really wish they make a new carmageddon too. I'm not sure if you played death race:2000 but it sucked ass. I wonder who owns the ip.
Are the graphics updated in any way, or is there any co-op?
I might go for something like that but I wouldn't see the point of it over just installing the original game otherwise.
And, of course, D2.
I was thinking of putting myself through Ultima 8 again. I love the creepy atmosphere but the platform jumping parts always kill the game for me.
Yes commander keen is great...whenever I hear a dial up modem go off at work it always kicks in the ol' nostalgia. The sounds they make are the same sounds used for the jump sound effect in that game, it was a pretty slick platformer though.
Great soundtrack, levels, and atmosphere. Pretty much one of my favourite shooters ever.
Some games for me that i still enjoy that are getting kinda old:
The original Neverwinter Nights, great game, like 6 years old or something now? Bioware RPG's are awesome.
Homeworld/Homeworld 2, awesome games.
Mechwarrior 4 Mercenaries. Love Mechwarrior games so much, i am sad Fasa is gone but they really screwed up with Shadowrun. This one is still alive and kicking online and is supported by its dedicated fanbase.
Mech Commander 2, same reason as above. There also was a very active online community and League at one time but that died out when they stopped the online service. Still a great game.
Mechwarrior 2, love these games, what can i say i love giant robots.
Star Wars Republic Commando. Yeah not super old, i think its clocking in around 4-5 years now, but it really is a fun game.
Lunar Silver Star Story: Complete. Yeah not a PC game but its like my fav RPG ever.
Phantasy Star 4: My other favourite RPG ever and the best in the series.
Thinking about hauling it into work and using one of the Ultimate games as a way to avoid work.