It is rather sad that MechWarrior 2 is still the best Mech game ever. It is amazing to me how certain game types have evolved (FPS Wolf to Halo, RTS Dune2 to StarCraft, etc) but a lot of other games have been left behind. There has never been a better graphics better gameplay version of X-Wing/Tie Fighter. Aces of the Deep is still one of the best submarine games. Why hasn't anyone remade Secret Weapons of the Luftwaffe or Red Baron (best game manual ever!)? Also, I would trade every FPS game that I have for a decent remake of Ascendancy or Masters of Orion.
My 486 died a few years ago. I kept it around to play a lot of the games listed above. Mainly I kept it for Syndicate and the 2 Crusader games. I remember getting Crusader No Remorse for Xmas one year and I was shocked that the game played Xmas music while I was killing people. It wasn't the first easter egg I ever found, but it was one of the best.
Someone may have already told you this, but you're doing yourself a great disservice if you don't obtain a copy of MechWarrior 2: Mercenaries, arguably the best MW2 title. Unfortunately, the revisions to the engine do begin pushing it into the Pentium area overall.
I could go on forever about arguing that Tyrian/Tyrian 2000 are, overall, better games than Raptor: Call to Shadows (acknowledging that I love both of them to death, but Raptor could never tear my young heart out the way Composition in Q could), but I think it'd be better if I mention a certain French suggestion you really ought to look at:
Little Big Adventure, or Relentless for you yanks, a 2D/3D adventure game with expansive world (for the time) and extensive (if amateurish) voice acting. The sequel is better in every regard, but the original is still pretty remarkable as one of the first CD-ROM titles. Very stylized, awkward controls but still playable. Once you get over the awkward perspective and occasionally frustrating AI, you're left with a surprisingly deep puzzle-solving experience that is actually much longer than a lot of contemporary CD-ROM titles. Plus, then you can play the awesome sequel.
Great thread, lots of warm/fuzzy feelings reading through it. My first gaming PC was a 486/SX-25 and my brother and I unwrapped the following Christmas presents with it:
We amassed quite a collection over the next couple of years. This thread reminded me of going to some PC Game shops and just seeing wall to wall PC games in those big boxes; unimaginable nowadays sadly. I love GOG but the virtual shelf just isn't the same. Unfortunately nearly all of my disk-based games and many early CD ones were lost in a move. I held onto the boxes for longer but ultimately marriage and a wife who's already putting up w/ tons of console crap and books meant I had to compromise on a bunch of empty boxes for games I no longer had, and they are gone now I did manage to salvage alot of manuals so I have a whole bunch of great manuals for old DOS games still; people today don't understand what old manuals were like...my Aces Over Europe manual was like a history of World War 2 Western aviation in addition to teaching you how to play the game.
Anyway, just to scratch everyone's nostalgia bug, here's a few more favorites I definitely had on my shelf at one point that I think were from around this era of PC gaming:
My office also does a charity fundraiser at the holidays each year where people are encouraged to bring in old books, CD's and DVD's and leave them out on a table in the lobby for others to browse and buy w/ the cost going to support charity. A couple years ago I was browsing what are mostly terrible children's movies, old travel guides and random religious books when I saw someone had laid out Mechwarrior 2 and Mechwarrior 2 Mercenaries jewel cases. I've had them on my desk ever since here at work
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Madpandasuburbs west of chicagoRegistered Userregular
edited January 2013
I spent a good chunk of grade/high school playing through some of the later 3d might and magic xeen series.
I was at my parents this weekend, my dad never throws stuff out. Hes looking for more but he was able to find my original copy of syndicate. Pretty sure I got it in a one of those giant 15 cd games for $20 compilations.
I know my old 5 1/4 and 3 1/2 disks are long gone. I had a lot of big spiral bound manuals and stuff also, seem to remeber a code wheel of wizardy with a guide also.
Hey, remember when "Janes" wasn't just a boring military publishing house for armchair generals? When they actually made really amazing games that represented an outstanding amount of complexity and attention to detail?
Janes' USNF. Sadly, this is also definitely pushing into the Pentium area rather than the 486 area, but it's an amazing game nonetheless (while still being more approachable--and admittedly simpler--than the Falcon series and modern DCS titles. There's a robust campaign (even featuring FMV!), a huge diversity of aircraft to take into combat, dial-up multiplayer, a dedicated scenario editor, and an an informative internal encyclopedia.
And seriously, this thread needs more Dune 2, Civ 2, Sim City 2000, Ultima VII, Doom, Warcraft 2, Command & Conquer and definitely more Wing Commander.
Where is Lemmings? It had so many versions, I spent hours just playing the demos. Or Jetpack? Or that Mario knock-off that had one version with four levels and another version with six and a different name (it was by the author of Charlie the Duck, I think)? Or Rogue? Or ZZT?
why don't you add a few paragraphs or screenshots of the games you loved so much instead of complaining that the OP doesn't have every DOS game ever made in it?
This is still my favorite mech game of all time. I played that game with this:
I actually picked up a Sidewinder a while ago, this one here:
But sadly it's unusable until I either get my classic gaming PC here or pick up an adapter, because I don't own a PC with a gameport right now. I picked it, MechWarrior 2 Mercenaries, and an Infocom sci-fi collection up from a goodwill all in one haul.
Secondly, sheesh, @TheSonicRetard, for someone who memorized so much data about games, you still don't get it, do you? Talking about "I'll only play 1 and 3 because they're BETTER" is just...
When did I mention that I've only played parts 1 and 3?
That Sidewinder is godly for mech games - twistable stick= torso twist. I still got mine (though no gameport on these modern things).
Might be worth tracking down an adapter and giving it a run in MWO.
Sadly I tossed most my game boxes (kept the game discs) when I moved out of the shelter of parental living quarters.
No room . Only kept a few gems like the Deus Ex box, Ultimas and some Infocoms. And Baldur's gate.
If you can track down a copy of Quarantine, that was a fantastic game. Driving your future taxi around the city, buying weapons with which to kill everyone else, it made total sense.
I've paid upwards of $50 for a video game manual before. Just the manual, no box, no game. It was a rare game, though. There is a market for boxes and manuals, believe it or not. Obviously, just like games, some are worth more than others. You might have some luck looking for buyers over at the vintage computer forums.
EDIT: If you need proof that manuals and boxes hold value, go onto ebay, or amibay, or some other place where you can find old games for sale. Compare the sold prices of a game loose vs the sold price of a game MIB. That difference is the price of the box and manual. For some games, that paper and plastic can be worth more than the game itself. An example off the top of my head:
Seems to have some decent info but newish, are there any other sites to check out, preferably with a market place. I'll be keeping an eye out at garage sales etc. I also realized that I have a 19 inch svga crt sitting in my closest still that would work well for this. Might try to find a smaller one though as that thing is huge.
@maximumzero, It was pretty awful though--then again, the same could be said about SimCopter, and I enjoyed the hell out of that.
Of course it was awful. I knew that then, even at the age of 12. But being able to zip around the dozens of cities I had built in Simcity 2000 was nothing short of amazing.
@maximumzero, It was pretty awful though--then again, the same could be said about SimCopter, and I enjoyed the hell out of that.
Of course it was awful. I knew that then, even at the age of 12. But being able to zip around the dozens of cities I had built in Simcity 2000 was nothing short of amazing.
At least it looked nice (by the standards of Need for Speed II and the other driving sims of the time). You couldn't say the same thing about SimCopter compared to the flight sim market.
Then again, SimCopter had an insane number of things to do, even when compared to Streets with its deathmatch mechanic.
@maximumzero, It was pretty awful though--then again, the same could be said about SimCopter, and I enjoyed the hell out of that.
I played the demo of SimCopter so much. I hated it at first but came back to it, and it was so much fun. Then found the cheatcode to fly an Apache around.
@maximumzero, It was pretty awful though--then again, the same could be said about SimCopter, and I enjoyed the hell out of that.
I played the demo of SimCopter so much. I hated it at first but came back to it, and it was so much fun. Then found the cheatcode to fly an Apache around.
You didn't even need cheats--just a city with a single F-15 tile somewhere in it. Though that's not applicable to the demo--that was one of the first demos that I kept around for ages and ages (well, along with trials for Apogee games).
It's the game that asks "why can't we have helicopter racing?" Or snowcat racing, or hovercraft racing, or rover racing on Mars? These are all perfectly good ways to race! In fact, why would anyone even bother with normal, boring cars any more?
Also, Gender Wars was good. Kind of like Syndicate crossed with Crusader.
What kind of sound card you got in there? If you can find it you should splurge on a gravis ultrasound. I remember saving up my money to buy one after I heard doom's music on my friend's computer that had one.
I’ll tell you what happens in Demon’s Souls when you die. You come back as a ghost with your health capped at half. And when you keep on dying, the alignment of the world turns black and the enemies get harder. That’s right, when you fail in this game, it gets harder. Why? Because fuck you is why.
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Madpandasuburbs west of chicagoRegistered Userregular
So after finding a few of my old cd-rom games my dad mentions he has some other computers I can have. They are both Ibm aptivas and p2/266's.
Think those will be too fast for older dos games? Wolf3d era stuff.
Kinda, very old games were quite speed-sensitive. Pentium 2's are like crazy supercomputers from the far future, Wolf 3D was a game of the 16MHz days.
They should be great for the darkest of all ages, though, the Mid-3D/Win 9x years, for stuff like Mechwarrior 3, Crimson Skies, Dungeon Keeper 2, Heretic 2, so on.
anoffdayTo be changed whenever Anoffday gets around to it.Registered Userregular
This is an awesome thread. If I ever get around to it, I'd like to build a windows 95 box. That's when PC gaming started for me. I wonder how much it'd cost to get the parts?
Steam: offday
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L Ron HowardThe duckMinnesotaRegistered Userregular
Kinda, very old games were quite speed-sensitive. Pentium 2's are like crazy supercomputers from the far future, Wolf 3D was a game of the 16MHz days.
They should be great for the darkest of all ages, though, the Mid-3D/Win 9x years, for stuff like Mechwarrior 3, Crimson Skies, Dungeon Keeper 2, Heretic 2, so on.
Wolf was coded correctly, I believe, in that it keeps its timing on faster processors. There are other games, like Blade Runner, which kept timing based on the speed of the processor, so it's nigh unplayable nowadays, even in DOSBox.
This is an awesome thread. If I ever get around to it, I'd like to build a windows 95 box. That's when PC gaming started for me. I wonder how much it'd cost to get the parts?
I don't know, but it's probably gonna be harder than a DOS box.
I did something similar a couple years ago with a Pentium I rescued from the "recycle pile" at work. It was so much fun. I wish I had kept that machine. It was pretty decent for what it was.
I think I ended up BUYING Windows 3.11 and Dos 6.21 floppies off of eBay, and maybe a joystick to make everything work.
I really wish they would do a complete overhaul of the X-Wing and Tie Fighter games, with a modern engine. I would buy the shit out of that.
Also, what's this Epic Pinball you guys are talking about. It reminds me of Pinball Fantasies that a foreign exchange student gave me for Christmas circa 1994. Wasted soooo much time on that game. You could type "earthquake" in to the game, before you started, and it would ignore you tilting the table. So, are those games from the same family or something?
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HenroidMexican kicked from Immigration ThreadCentrism is Racism :3Registered Userregular
A bit beyond the 486 era but this is one of those computer gaming memories that is etched in my mind.
See also: Sim Ant.
I found my copy of Raptor and decided to DOSbox it. Shockingly, it's working just fine. I should probably get Tyrian from GoG again and just DOSbox is manually. I manned the fuck up about this whole thing.
I did something similar a couple years ago with a Pentium I rescued from the "recycle pile" at work. It was so much fun. I wish I had kept that machine. It was pretty decent for what it was.
I think I ended up BUYING Windows 3.11 and Dos 6.21 floppies off of eBay, and maybe a joystick to make everything work.
I really wish they would do a complete overhaul of the X-Wing and Tie Fighter games, with a modern engine. I would buy the shit out of that.
Also, what's this Epic Pinball you guys are talking about. It reminds me of Pinball Fantasies that a foreign exchange student gave me for Christmas circa 1994. Wasted soooo much time on that game. You could type "earthquake" in to the game, before you started, and it would ignore you tilting the table. So, are those games from the same family or something?
It's pretty much Epic Megagame's answer to pinball fantasies (and pinball illusions). Pinball Fantasies is a much more popular series - it was a big hit on the amiga, a game worthy of note on the atari jaguar, got a fairly high profile GP32 release, and was ported to the iphone to good reviews - but I prefer epic pinball.
They're very similar, though. Except for Enigma - Enigma is probably the most far out there video pinball table I've ever played. There is nothing like it, and it really takes advantage of the "video" aspect of video pinball:
Also, blasphemy I know, but I think Epic Pinball has a better soundtrack. The person who wrote the soundtrack also wrote Jazz Jackrabbit's soundtrack, and they share the same sound samples.
HenroidMexican kicked from Immigration ThreadCentrism is Racism :3Registered Userregular
Well for some reason Tyrian doesn't like loading save files. But I found a way around it. Never shut the game off.
So I spent a couple days at it and beat it. I couldn't really follow any "plot" that was happening because reading the data files would cause an error in the game, but whatever. It's a fun very arcade game. I eventually got to a point where I was able to try out a bunch of different weapons and found that the game is actually pretty poorly balanced. Some of those weapon choices are just plain ol' shit. So there's definitely must-use type things about the game, which is unfortunate because it has so many options.
When I got the game to loop around over to the start I setup a fully-maxed vulcan-weapons-only ship, just to see how that worked out. Better than I thought, and yet still lacking compared to other weapons.
@henroid you are crazy if you think using dosbox is more difficult than using real hardware. Or you dont remember the frustrations involved.
Example - i have wasted hours trying to install these cd rom drivers in dos.
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HenroidMexican kicked from Immigration ThreadCentrism is Racism :3Registered Userregular
It may be I don't remember things properly. MS-DOS was the operating system I used as a kid and it's how I learned computers so my memories of it are colored. I can say though that as kids we probably are more willing to go through frustrating bullshit when it comes to video games. Which is why I tolerated DOS in the past.
As it stands DOSbox is easier to use than I remember when I first tried manually operating it several years ago. I actually spent the last couple days going through all my shareware / DOS disc backups fucking around with things. Sadly Blake Stone runs like total shit.
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BroloBroseidonLord of the BroceanRegistered Userregular
BroloBroseidonLord of the BroceanRegistered Userregular
Yeah, Dosbox is already pre-configured to have all the memory you'd ever want, and most drivers for sound/mice/cd-roms pre--loaded - and remember that back then there was no internet to help you find help/drivers/answers!
@maximumzero, It was pretty awful though--then again, the same could be said about SimCopter, and I enjoyed the hell out of that.
Best review I saw of SimCopter:
"This is not a civilian copter simulator. Just think of it as A) a modern day (199x) Choplifter and a new way to explore/enjoy your SimCity 2000 cities and you'll have fun."
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NocrenLt Futz, Back in ActionNorth CarolinaRegistered Userregular
Posts
My 486 died a few years ago. I kept it around to play a lot of the games listed above. Mainly I kept it for Syndicate and the 2 Crusader games. I remember getting Crusader No Remorse for Xmas one year and I was shocked that the game played Xmas music while I was killing people. It wasn't the first easter egg I ever found, but it was one of the best.
I could go on forever about arguing that Tyrian/Tyrian 2000 are, overall, better games than Raptor: Call to Shadows (acknowledging that I love both of them to death, but Raptor could never tear my young heart out the way Composition in Q could), but I think it'd be better if I mention a certain French suggestion you really ought to look at:
Little Big Adventure, or Relentless for you yanks, a 2D/3D adventure game with expansive world (for the time) and extensive (if amateurish) voice acting. The sequel is better in every regard, but the original is still pretty remarkable as one of the first CD-ROM titles. Very stylized, awkward controls but still playable. Once you get over the awkward perspective and occasionally frustrating AI, you're left with a surprisingly deep puzzle-solving experience that is actually much longer than a lot of contemporary CD-ROM titles. Plus, then you can play the awesome sequel.
We amassed quite a collection over the next couple of years. This thread reminded me of going to some PC Game shops and just seeing wall to wall PC games in those big boxes; unimaginable nowadays sadly. I love GOG but the virtual shelf just isn't the same. Unfortunately nearly all of my disk-based games and many early CD ones were lost in a move. I held onto the boxes for longer but ultimately marriage and a wife who's already putting up w/ tons of console crap and books meant I had to compromise on a bunch of empty boxes for games I no longer had, and they are gone now
Anyway, just to scratch everyone's nostalgia bug, here's a few more favorites I definitely had on my shelf at one point that I think were from around this era of PC gaming:
My office also does a charity fundraiser at the holidays each year where people are encouraged to bring in old books, CD's and DVD's and leave them out on a table in the lobby for others to browse and buy w/ the cost going to support charity. A couple years ago I was browsing what are mostly terrible children's movies, old travel guides and random religious books when I saw someone had laid out Mechwarrior 2 and Mechwarrior 2 Mercenaries jewel cases. I've had them on my desk ever since here at work
I was at my parents this weekend, my dad never throws stuff out. Hes looking for more but he was able to find my original copy of syndicate. Pretty sure I got it in a one of those giant 15 cd games for $20 compilations.
I know my old 5 1/4 and 3 1/2 disks are long gone. I had a lot of big spiral bound manuals and stuff also, seem to remeber a code wheel of wizardy with a guide also.
Steam/PSN/XBL/Minecraft / LoL / - Benevicious | WoW - Duckwood - Rajhek
Hey, remember when "Janes" wasn't just a boring military publishing house for armchair generals? When they actually made really amazing games that represented an outstanding amount of complexity and attention to detail?
Janes' USNF. Sadly, this is also definitely pushing into the Pentium area rather than the 486 area, but it's an amazing game nonetheless (while still being more approachable--and admittedly simpler--than the Falcon series and modern DCS titles. There's a robust campaign (even featuring FMV!), a huge diversity of aircraft to take into combat, dial-up multiplayer, a dedicated scenario editor, and an an informative internal encyclopedia.
why don't you add a few paragraphs or screenshots of the games you loved so much instead of complaining that the OP doesn't have every DOS game ever made in it?
I actually picked up a Sidewinder a while ago, this one here:
But sadly it's unusable until I either get my classic gaming PC here or pick up an adapter, because I don't own a PC with a gameport right now. I picked it, MechWarrior 2 Mercenaries, and an Infocom sci-fi collection up from a goodwill all in one haul.
When did I mention that I've only played parts 1 and 3?
Might be worth tracking down an adapter and giving it a run in MWO.
Sadly I tossed most my game boxes (kept the game discs) when I moved out of the shelter of parental living quarters.
No room
steam | xbox live: IGNORANT HARLOT | psn: MadRoll | nintendo network: spinach
3ds: 1504-5717-8252
A bit beyond the 486 era but this is one of those computer gaming memories that is etched in my mind.
Switch: 6200-8149-0919 / Wii U: maximumzero / 3DS: 0860-3352-3335 / eBay Shop
Is this the forum you meant to link? Your link goes back to your main post
http://www.vintage-computer.com/vcforum
Seems to have some decent info but newish, are there any other sites to check out, preferably with a market place. I'll be keeping an eye out at garage sales etc. I also realized that I have a 19 inch svga crt sitting in my closest still that would work well for this. Might try to find a smaller one though as that thing is huge.
Steam/PSN/XBL/Minecraft / LoL / - Benevicious | WoW - Duckwood - Rajhek
Of course it was awful. I knew that then, even at the age of 12. But being able to zip around the dozens of cities I had built in Simcity 2000 was nothing short of amazing.
Switch: 6200-8149-0919 / Wii U: maximumzero / 3DS: 0860-3352-3335 / eBay Shop
At least it looked nice (by the standards of Need for Speed II and the other driving sims of the time). You couldn't say the same thing about SimCopter compared to the flight sim market.
Then again, SimCopter had an insane number of things to do, even when compared to Streets with its deathmatch mechanic.
I played the demo of SimCopter so much. I hated it at first but came back to it, and it was so much fun. Then found the cheatcode to fly an Apache around.
You didn't even need cheats--just a city with a single F-15 tile somewhere in it. Though that's not applicable to the demo--that was one of the first demos that I kept around for ages and ages (well, along with trials for Apogee games).
F-15 STRIKE EAGLE II
Jesus fuck that game was the best thing EVER.
It's the game that asks "why can't we have helicopter racing?" Or snowcat racing, or hovercraft racing, or rover racing on Mars? These are all perfectly good ways to race! In fact, why would anyone even bother with normal, boring cars any more?
Also, Gender Wars was good. Kind of like Syndicate crossed with Crusader.
Let me tell you about Demon's Souls....
Think those will be too fast for older dos games? Wolf3d era stuff.
Steam/PSN/XBL/Minecraft / LoL / - Benevicious | WoW - Duckwood - Rajhek
They should be great for the darkest of all ages, though, the Mid-3D/Win 9x years, for stuff like Mechwarrior 3, Crimson Skies, Dungeon Keeper 2, Heretic 2, so on.
Wolf was coded correctly, I believe, in that it keeps its timing on faster processors. There are other games, like Blade Runner, which kept timing based on the speed of the processor, so it's nigh unplayable nowadays, even in DOSBox.
I don't know, but it's probably gonna be harder than a DOS box.
I think I ended up BUYING Windows 3.11 and Dos 6.21 floppies off of eBay, and maybe a joystick to make everything work.
I really wish they would do a complete overhaul of the X-Wing and Tie Fighter games, with a modern engine. I would buy the shit out of that.
Also, what's this Epic Pinball you guys are talking about. It reminds me of Pinball Fantasies that a foreign exchange student gave me for Christmas circa 1994. Wasted soooo much time on that game. You could type "earthquake" in to the game, before you started, and it would ignore you tilting the table. So, are those games from the same family or something?
See also: Sim Ant.
I found my copy of Raptor and decided to DOSbox it. Shockingly, it's working just fine. I should probably get Tyrian from GoG again and just DOSbox is manually. I manned the fuck up about this whole thing.
It's pretty much Epic Megagame's answer to pinball fantasies (and pinball illusions). Pinball Fantasies is a much more popular series - it was a big hit on the amiga, a game worthy of note on the atari jaguar, got a fairly high profile GP32 release, and was ported to the iphone to good reviews - but I prefer epic pinball.
They're very similar, though. Except for Enigma - Enigma is probably the most far out there video pinball table I've ever played. There is nothing like it, and it really takes advantage of the "video" aspect of video pinball:
Also, blasphemy I know, but I think Epic Pinball has a better soundtrack. The person who wrote the soundtrack also wrote Jazz Jackrabbit's soundtrack, and they share the same sound samples.
1. Epic Pinball
2. Pinball Illusions
3. Pinball Fantasies
4. Extreme Pinball
5. Pinball Dreams
with a special shout out to Space Cadet Pinball
So I spent a couple days at it and beat it. I couldn't really follow any "plot" that was happening because reading the data files would cause an error in the game, but whatever. It's a fun very arcade game. I eventually got to a point where I was able to try out a bunch of different weapons and found that the game is actually pretty poorly balanced. Some of those weapon choices are just plain ol' shit. So there's definitely must-use type things about the game, which is unfortunate because it has so many options.
When I got the game to loop around over to the start I setup a fully-maxed vulcan-weapons-only ship, just to see how that worked out. Better than I thought, and yet still lacking compared to other weapons.
Example - i have wasted hours trying to install these cd rom drivers in dos.
As it stands DOSbox is easier to use than I remember when I first tried manually operating it several years ago. I actually spent the last couple days going through all my shareware / DOS disc backups fucking around with things. Sadly Blake Stone runs like total shit.
must resist...
Best review I saw of SimCopter:
"This is not a civilian copter simulator. Just think of it as A) a modern day (199x) Choplifter and
Two words/files to back-up TSR's claim:
AUTOEXEC.BAT
CONFIG.SYS
himem
LOADHIGH=C:\dos\mscdex.exe D:mscd001
DEVICEHIGH=c:\NEC_IDE.SYS /D:mscd001