Games that aged well (Merge'd - Old Favorites)

[cathrl]

The original X-Com was excellent. It's possibly the only game ever where I've actually cared about the individual characters. It's also the only game for which I own a tie-in novel - by Diane Duane, no less.

Other games which have aged well for us include Warcraft and Warcraft II (currently being enjoyed by my 9 and 12 year olds), Starcraft (12 year old isn't interested, interface is too complex for the 9 year old but he loves watching dad play it) and Age of Empires (my 12 year old daughter managed to majorly impress her history teacher with her knowledge of medieval siege weaponry gleaned from it, and was then embarrassed by having to explain how come she knew all about trebuchets and mangonels...)

We haven't introduced them to X-Com yet. It used to creep me out - I think it would terrify the 9 year old.

[Amnesiasoft]

my 12 year old daughter managed to majorly impress her history teacher with her knowledge of medieval siege weaponry gleaned from it, and was then embarrassed by having to explain how come she knew all about trebuchets and mangonels...

I had something similar happen when I was in elementary school. Except with Sim City.

Convinced my teacher that video games aren't evil.

[Voco]

So, about that Arcanum...

Steampunk/Magic Isometric RPG - HOW WAS THIS NOT MORE POPULAR!?!?!

I am playing Arcanum right now! Well, not this second, obviously, but I was about to start it when I decided to check these forums. I'd say it has aged better than Fallout. I mean, in Fallout, there were two types of mouse click. Seems like you'd assign one to right click and one to left click, right? Wrong. In Fallout, left click clicked while right click switched to the other mode. This and similar basic interface issues were always something of a problem. Some of these, like the lack of pop-up help to explain the countless acronyms, persisted in Arcanum (now, is an item's DR the damage reduction or the dexterity requirement? let me look that up...) but the worst were eliminated.

As for character balance, well, there's room to improve. I tried playing as a tech-savvy smooth-talker, and was quickly overwhelmed by undead. I restarted with a bowman, and everything is extremely easy, and those same impossible undead didn't even land a hit.

[Gentlelady]

X-COM: UFO Defense
Half-Life
Tetris

I love Tetris. It's been around forever and it is still amazing.

[Adacore]

my 12 year old daughter managed to majorly impress her history teacher with her knowledge of medieval siege weaponry gleaned from it, and was then embarrassed by having to explain how come she knew all about trebuchets and mangonels...

I had something similar happen when I was in elementary school. Except with Sim City.

Convinced my teacher that video games aren't evil.

I agree - I know a heap of stuff from games that I wouldn't know otherwise. I learnt an unbelievable amount from the Civilopedia in Civ2 about all sorts of historical things. Hearts of Iron 2 gave me a far more solid grounding on WW2 than anything I ever learnt at school. You can learn a lot about economics and history from the Railroad Tycoon games. The list goes on... It worked surprisingly well at persuading my parents that games were a positive influence when I could spout random facts I'd learned from gaming.

See my previous post for my thoughts on the replayable games topic. Which I have just noticed was post #1440000, which is pretty darn awesome.

[el_loco_avs]

On that note:

FUN games in semi-accurate historical contexts with lots of background info >>> most kinda lame educational games



The Close Combat series made me go "i knew that" at most discovery programs on WWII tanks and stuff

[Kalasia]

Agreed

cathrl wrote:my 12 year old daughter managed to majorly impress her history teacher with her knowledge of medieval siege weaponry gleaned from it, and was then embarrassed by having to explain how come she knew all about trebuchets and mangonels...

I learned a lot from video games too. Unfortunately, I had to unlearn what I thought were the Seven Wonders of the Ancient World. Apparently Sid Meier wasn't going for accuracy on that one. I don't know how many times I struggling for the 7th one and thought it was the Oracle at Delphi

A couple that i haven't seen up here enough

Quest for Glory (1 and 3 in particular, though I think I would enjoy 2 equally if it were remade in the style of 1 and 3)
Star Control 2 (I have beat this game somewhere on the order of 30 times and every time I am fascinated by the characters, story, and gameplay. its the closest thing to a perfect game I have ever played.)
Railroad Tycoon II (excellent game to just play scenarios on and the graphics are good enough that you don't mind them being older)
Heroes of Might and Magic II (even though HOMMIII is a little better, HOMM2 holds up better to the test of time. Plus, its fun to raise so many skeletons that the number can no longer be displayed properly)
Pirates!( I dont think I ever even got close to rescuing any family members because turning the world dutch never gets old.)
Commander Keen in Goodbye Galaxy! (Definitely my favorite platformer of all time)

I think the key is cartoon-style graphics. they were easily to do and age really well

[Sir-Taco]

Age of Empires II (Conq expansion of course) - Still is a stock standard with everyone I know, fun, and the player community is still quite large.
Mechwarrior 4 - Personally I liked MW4:Mercs gameplay a lot, the final maps where chaotic and ludicrous to try to even survive through them.
Half-Life - No need to explain.
Doom - Sometimes mindless murder is pretty fun.
Quake - Get the Darkplaces engine and replay quake with really cool looking effects, I loved the whole setting of the game too.
Fallout - If they had a map editor for this game, I would not be seen by civilization for a very long time.
Starcraft - When the sequel finally comes out, I have a hunch that unless they have enough copies for Korea, Blizzard will have a problem on their hands.
Civ 2 - The only way Rome can go to space.

Theres more, but those I think have held a strong fanbase, or least left a very big mark on games today.

[Armadillo Al]

Star Control 2 - I still think this is the Best Game Ever. Go play it. Now.
SM's Alpha Centauri.
Master of Orion 2. Now if only I could figure out how to run this on Vista...
X-Com: UFO Defence.

Yeah, I think I just like games in space, apparently.

[headprogrammingczar]

Add Freespace 2 to that list then. The nebula sequences in that game were really good, especially the first one.

[zombie_monkey]

Master of Orion 2. Now if only I could figure out how to run this on Vista...

DosBox. The original CD runs fine since long ago, and it's the best way to play it, although I originally played it on, gasp, win95! (or 98, I really don't rememeber, everything from DOS 6.22 to Linux is in a bit of a haze). I remember I first player Civ I on DOS and Doom i/ii on 3.11 and Duke 3D on both 3.11 and 95 (I think).

[sgt york]

I have to second the people who suggested Morrowind, XCom, Total Annihilation, System Shock 2 and Homeworld. Those were certainly landmark games that are still fun to play. Probably. Can't say I've played any of those recently, but I may see if I can find my old copy of Homeworld this weekend.

But one that I didn't see mentioned was Space Empires 4 (2000). Turn based god-game, like MOO2 but much, much more complex. More complex than Civ4, even. There are dozens of fun community mods out for it. I actually do still have it on my computer at home, and play it from time to time. Works just fine on XP.

X-Wing Alliance is still a fun game, too. There is the "XWAUpgrade project" that replaces the ships with higher poly count & better textures. Makes gameplay more fun. What other game lets you defend your Mon Calamari cruiser against attacking Star Destroyers, played by your friends on LAN?

[philsov]

Jagged Alliance 2

real and turn-based strategy game with military themes -- you are a mercenary sent to a remote eastern european country. Overthrow the regime, hire buddies as needed, liberate towns, and kill every enemy soldier in your path.

[Armadillo Al]

Master of Orion 2. Now if only I could figure out how to run this on Vista...

DosBox. The original CD runs fine since long ago, and it's the best way to play it, although I originally played it on, gasp, win95! (or 98, I really don't rememeber, everything from DOS 6.22 to Linux is in a bit of a haze). I remember I first player Civ I on DOS and Doom i/ii on 3.11 and Duke 3D on both 3.11 and 95 (I think).

Awesome.

Now, after a few minutes poking around the interwebs, I have DosBox up and running...and cannot for the life of me remember where the MoO2 CD ran off to. Fail.

[sgt york]

For some of these games, like Doom, MOO, Civ 1, original C&C, etc, we're talking about pretty low-spec machines. I played Civ1 on a 486, MOO & C&C on a Pentium. What was that, 66MHz and a 800x600 CRT? Most of today's handhelds outperform those computers. Hell, the specs on my ancient Palm Zire72 are well beyond the specs of any computer I used before about 1998.

Would there be any way to run some of these games on a handheld? Cuz that would be pretty sweet. I'd never get anything done again.

[aion7]

You could get them on a handheld, but it would have to be hacked or an open platform (ex. the Pandora).


I came into this thread to ask about a specific game. LOOM was just rereleased on Steam, and I have heard many great things about it. I don't normally like adventure games because of ridiculous "puzzles" that involve what Mr. Croshaw (of Zero Punctuation fame) called "moon logic". I don't want to play a game where I have to use cat on bubblegum to create golf trophy which I use on broken window to create rubberband which I then eat, giving me the ability to climb a fence. GamesRadar did a good article on this a while ago (link). I heard LOOM does things a bit differently. should a non adventure game fan like myself purchase LOOM for four hundred and ninety nine US cents?

[SecondTalon]

I came into this thread to ask about a specific game. LOOM was just rereleased on Steam, and I have heard many great things about it. I don't normally like adventure games because of ridiculous "puzzles" that involve what Mr. Croshaw (of Zero Punctuation fame) called "moon logic". I don't want to play a game where I have to use cat on bubblegum to create golf trophy which I use on broken window to create rubberband which I then eat, giving me the ability to climb a fence. GamesRadar did a good article on this a while ago (link). I heard LOOM does things a bit differently. should a non adventure game fan like myself purchase LOOM for four hundred and ninety nine US cents?

From what I recall of Loom, you don't have 800 items to use on one tiny pixel of space. You do have a couple of songs that you play forwards or backwards on things that more or less make sense. That said, I do recall getting stuck at a point and getting distracted by something else shiny and going on....

I guess what I'm saying is - yes, Loom is probably one of the best adventure games ever made, and if you don't like it, you just simply don't like the genre at all and should give up now.

[Amnesiasoft]

Yeah, the problem with Loom is that you have to write down all the spells somewhere and not forget where you did...or look them up on a FAQ when you realize this has happened...

[skeptical scientist]

I was just playing Oddworld: Abe's Oddysee today, and I think that game aged pretty well. It's a puzzle/platformer, with a good story, beautiful world (although slightly pixelated to modern eyes), and a lot of humor.

[zombie_monkey]

For some of these games, like Doom, MOO, Civ 1, original C&C, etc, we're talking about pretty low-spec machines. I played Civ1 on a 486, MOO & C&C on a Pentium. What was that, 66MHz and a 800x600 CRT? Most of today's handhelds outperform those computers. Hell, the specs on my ancient Palm Zire72 are well beyond the specs of any computer I used before about 1998.

Would there be any way to run some of these games on a handheld? Cuz that would be pretty sweet. I'd never get anything done again.

ScummVM has been ported to many mobile platforms, so you can run a ton of adventure games. Some games for which source is available, like the Ur-Quan Masters (Star Control II) have been ported, too. Now to be able to run any DOS game from binaries, you need something like DOSBox. Most mobiles have ARM processors, and the people behind Pandora have done some optimizations to DOSBox for ARM, and it looks like it can also be used for a Symbian port in the works. http://s60dosbox.sourceforge.net/
Also I believe the Z-machine of Infocom text adventure games has also been ported to pretty much everything.
EDIT: If you have a Symbian device, check out the DOSBox port, it is much more stable than I thought. Someone at the fora said Civ I works well.

[Ralith The Third]

MOO2.
Exile 1-3
Dragonrealms.
MW4
WC3 TFT
D2.
Morrowin.
No typos.

[aion7]

I bought and completed LOOM this afternoon. I played the FM-TOWNS version (http://steamreview.org/external/loom/), because it seemed to be the better choice. It was fun, the puzzles only degraded to try everything on everything a few time, and those times were because I didn't quite understand what the spells did.

Spoiler:

Like affa, that you get from a pool of water. I had no idea that meant reflection, and would let you switch bodies with someone.

The ending wasn't very good in my opinion. There were tons of things left unexplained, and nothing conclusive happened. The game itself was really short. Thanks to Amnesiasoft, I did write down all the spells. Otherwise it would have been fairly impossible.

Other spoilery stuff:

Spoiler:

Is it just me or did aaag (it's found in the glassmakers guild at the sickle) never do anything? Also, the note b was kinda pointless. It was only used for the "boss fight". How did Bobbin suddenly gain knowledge of everything when the cleric opened the holes. Example: when talking to the dying glassmaker, he said something like "but you had the sickle of somethingoerother you could have used that on the dead and saved yourselves. How did he know any of that? Also, why is it deadly to look at a weaver's face? That was never explained. Why were the clerics evil? What happened to the real wizard the farmers called for? There are quite a few unanswered questions and plotholes. Also, it just seems like the game was meant to be longer.

[MildCore]

Everything that everybody's already talked about.

Diablo 2. I've put countless hours into this game. I'll grind a character (or characters) to level 80+, gear them up, think to myself "What's the point?" and quit. The next week, I'll get on to keep my non-permanent mules from expiring (just in case) and I'll begin playing again out of boredom or some other kind of complicated emotion. It's a vicious cycle, it really is.

The first Fallout games. I actually played both of these after putting a couple hundred hours into the newest installment. I hadn't even heard of the games until I found me a Bethesda title I liked and realized I had never played the first two. Forgive me, classic gamers!

Morrowind. Never played it as much as some of the hardcore fans, but it's definitely a good game. I stumbled upon a level 1300+ character (manipulating glitches, pfft...) when I was YouTube'ing one day. That made me realize how totally inferior my character was and I was completely discouraged. Haven't played it since... But I will pick it up again, let me tell you!

There are probably more, but those are the ones that stand out. And seeing as how I was born in the 90's, I don't have much of my early life to look back on. So that kind of cripples my opinion here. /sadfaceduh

[aliosha]

I'm with everyone who mentioned Homeworld (never got bored) and TA (epic 5-way nuclear wars on seven isles, you know the game is epic when you can detonate 10 nukes on your enemy and they bounce back at you).

Why has nobody mentioned Ground Control?

[Jorpho]

I bought and completed LOOM this afternoon. I played the FM-TOWNS version (http://steamreview.org/external/loom/), because it seemed to be the better choice. It was fun, the puzzles only degraded to try everything on everything a few time, and those times were because I didn't quite understand what the spells did.

Spoiler:

Like affa, that you get from a pool of water. I had no idea that meant reflection, and would let you switch bodies with someone.

The ending wasn't very good in my opinion. There were tons of things left unexplained, and nothing conclusive happened. The game itself was really short. Thanks to Amnesiasoft, I did write down all the spells. Otherwise it would have been fairly impossible.

Other spoilery stuff:

Spoiler:

Is it just me or did aaag (it's found in the glassmakers guild at the sickle) never do anything? Also, the note b was kinda pointless. It was only used for the "boss fight". How did Bobbin suddenly gain knowledge of everything when the cleric opened the holes. Example: when talking to the dying glassmaker, he said something like "but you had the sickle of somethingoerother you could have used that on the dead and saved yourselves. How did he know any of that? Also, why is it deadly to look at a weaver's face? That was never explained. Why were the clerics evil? What happened to the real wizard the farmers called for? There are quite a few unanswered questions and plotholes. Also, it just seems like the game was meant to be longer.

The notes change every time you play, y'know. The nature of the spells is also a little clearer if you're following along with the "Book of Patterns". You're right that "aaag" (in your case) is itself not used for anything.

Anyway, as Wikipedia will inform you, Brian Moriarty did indeed intend the game as the first part of a trilogy.

[SecondTalon]

There was also a 30 minute audio tape that came with the original game that fleshed out the backstory.

[aion7]

The notes change every time you play, y'know.

How embarrassing. I did not know that.

[Amnesiasoft]

Actually, I didn't even realize that.

[zombie_monkey]

Why has nobody mentioned Ground Control?

Nobody has? Oh, well good thing you did then. Seconded.

[el_loco_avs]

I just started playing Full Throttle again. I'll probably breeze through it pretty fast. I'm still absolutely loving the music though.

[headprogrammingczar]

I was playing through Metroid Prime about a week ago and it still looks as amazing as the day I bought it.

[sleeply]

I started to play SimCoaster (AKA Theme Park Inc.) a few days ago and I just can't get over how fun it is to manage theme parks

[TheAmazingRando]

I'm sure I know every puzzle in Zork: The Grand Inquisitor by heart, but it's still worth a play-through every now and then.

[frogman]

I recently replayed the first 3 games in the Myst Series! The first one was meh, because I remembered how to do everything, but the other two were pretty cool!

[el_loco_avs]

I started to play SimCoaster (AKA Theme Park Inc.) a few days ago and I just can't get over how fun it is to manage theme parks

I'd like to play that original ThemePark game again. I wonder if I can stand the UI, it often annoys the hell out of me in older games.

[Armadillo Al]

I still play through The Ur-Quan Masters (formerly Star Control 2) every year or so and it never gets old.

[el_loco_avs]

Man. Full Throttle still bums me out at the end a bit. Forgot how short this game was too. lol.

I forgot how good the voiceacting was. Futurama people among others.

[Jorpho]

Man. Full Throttle still bums me out at the end a bit.

As in, the ending is sad, or as in, that utterly, utterly stupid arcade-style puzzle at the very end is utterly stupid? (Some more of the game-design genius that resulted in the last bit of Psychonauts thar, says I.)

[sleeply]

I started to play SimCoaster (AKA Theme Park Inc.) a few days ago and I just can't get over how fun it is to manage theme parks

I'd like to play that original ThemePark game again. I wonder if I can stand the UI, it often annoys the hell out of me in older games.

Same for me, though I find that the UI bothers me more because it's mostly point-and-click, not because the graphics are dated.
Does anyone else who has played this game think that the little blue "advisor" that keeps popping up in the bottom right corner of the screen is really annoying? "Some old goat is whining to your staff and holding up their work! A guard would really put a stop to this sort of thing, you know." ad infinitum.

[el_loco_avs]

Man. Full Throttle still bums me out at the end a bit.

As in, the ending is sad, or as in, that utterly, utterly stupid arcade-style puzzle at the very end is utterly stupid? (Some more of the game-design genius that resulted in the last bit of Psychonauts thar, says I.)

Well. Sad. It's very well executed... I just thought they deserved a happier ending.

Spoiler:

First it does the fake-happy ending, off into the sunset Hero and Girl together. Bad guy reappears, you defeat him in style (all good stuff). And then... BOOM sad ending. Girl is preoccupied with the empire she inherits and guy gets on bike and goes off alone. Roll credits.

Same for me, though I find that the UI bothers me more because it's mostly point-and-click, not because the graphics are dated.
Does anyone else who has played this game think that the little blue "advisor" that keeps popping up in the bottom right corner of the screen is really annoying? "Some old goat is whining to your staff and holding up their work! A guard would really put a stop to this sort of thing, you know." ad infinitum.

Graphics wouldn't bother me. Popping up advisors would send me into a clippy-like RAGE.
Point-and-click is fine... but older UI's just have 0 contextual clicks and the like.
Example: Dune 2. Still plays awesomely. But to move a group you have to click a unit, click move, click on the location, for each unit, ie. AD INFINITUM. No drag to select group, no right-click contextual things.