Games That Time Forgot

[Roboto]

you piloted a little ship through a three-dimensional maze and blew up robots to a pulsing electronic soundtrack. It was a first person shooter where the "person" was a futuristic fighter plane and you usually couldn't tell which direction was up.

I know you were talking about a completely different game, but I couldn't stop thinking about Forsaken for the N64 after that description.

Forsaken was a descent clone. That game had its place in my heart, but it isn't nearly as good as I remember it. GOLDEN POWAH PODS.

Shamus, no Battlezone (and the ill-fated battlezone 2?) That game would thrive in today's environment, it was just too ahead of its time when it was released among quake-style FPS.

 

[tamerman]

Two games i would really like to see make a return are Battlezone and Pikmin.

Battlezone 2 and Pikmin were amazing, and i wish more were made.

 

[Lyx]

Man, i loved magic carpet, and the irony is that the biggest fun wasn't even in singleplayer.... get a buddy on the lan, and you're unable to stop playing for hours. I wouldn't really put it into the FPS corner... the gamemechanics are too different to an FPS.... thanks mainly to the way castles worked... it was either defend own castle ressources XOR collecting more castle ressources XOR reducing the opponents castle ressources... and switches between those tactics happened in a matter of seconds. In principle first-person RTS played at warpspeed.

And yep, i too am perplexed how this gameconcept could not have been picked up. The success of the original was a bit like matrix - it had it all: massappeal, intelligence, fancy fx, action.... and very replayable.

As for unusual space-based games.... all i've got to say is: Hard Nova.
It had all the sandbox-style exploring of starflight, but in addition to this it also had heavy RPG elements. You could land on stations and planets, board starships and move around from topdown perspective... go to bars, talk with people.... i cannot remember any other space rpg, that did this.

 

[tautologico]

Starflight and Star Control 2 will always live in my memories. I actually used a notebook to create a log of my discoveries in both games (did it first with Starflight, then did it again with Star Control 2).

Unfortunately I got kinda pissed with SC2 the first time I played it because there's a part in the story that, if you don't know what to do, the opportunity will go away and you'll never be able to beat the game.

Never played Starflight 2, though.

 

[Harry Buddha Palm]

One of my brother's friends loaned him the Sega Genesis version of Starflight back in '93. We couldn't wait to play it. We were on our way to our Genesis when the Blizzard of '93 hit and our power went out for seven days. I spent seven days reading the manual of that game dying to play it. When the power finally came back on, we took to it and I have to say, it was worth that agonizing wait.

 

[Optimystic]

And complexity has been steadily been reduced as far as possible. Even in MMO-RPGs, there are "set builds" to max DPS, which reduces the play experience to "use spell on bad guy".

I'm going to just assume you've never raided or even done a challenging dungeon.

Man, i loved magic carpet, and the irony is that the biggest fun wasn't even in singleplayer.... get a buddy on the lan, and you're unable to stop playing for hours. I wouldn't really put it into the FPS corner... the gamemechanics are too different to an FPS.... thanks mainly to the way castles worked... it was either defend own castle ressources XOR collecting more castle ressources XOR reducing the opponents castle ressources... and switches between those tactics happened in a matter of seconds. In principle first-person RTS played at warpspeed.

I agree, it was definitely more RTS. Hell, it was WAY more fun at melding action with RTS than Brooeutal Legend could ever hope to be.

 

[end_boss]

Syndicate and Crusader both had two games each, and are some of my favourites. However, it's almost in a way such that I wonder if maybe I'd rather they remain a fond memory and not be touched by modern gaming?

Another game I was a big fan of that not only did time forget, but nobody really played to begin with, is Planet's Edge: Point of No Return. Try to imagine a game that is an adventure with bold RPG elements. Easy enough? Ok, now picture a game where piloting your spacecraft is like Star Control, and the landing missions are like a sci-fi Ultima 6. Throw in resources, intergalactic trades, loose and pulpy plot, and a truly epic space opera adventure. It certainly had a few flaws, but not enough for me to hold to hard against it. Problem is, it's so unknown that the last time I looked it up on GameFAQs, it did not even acknowledge its existence. EDIT: Just looked it up now, and it finally has a page on GameFAQs.

 

[AlgarWolf]

My mom played the heck out of that game, joystick and all. And I got a kick out of watching her play it being to young to at the time, that and Readneak Rampage.

REDNECK RAMPAGE! That was a fun one. One of the most offensive games I've ever owned. Another CD I now have to dig up lol

 

[The_root_of_all_evil]

I'm going to just assume you've never raided or even done a challenging dungeon.

You'd assume wrongly. That's the problem with assumption.

If one guy can run 30 character raids with his own custom setup, it can't be that hard.

I'm sure there are instances like Hamidon, The Batcave, Ragnoros(sp?),Bertoxxulous, Nûrz Ghâshu where you have to be careful of "that bad thing" happen, but you can't tell me that most raids are more than stick to monster, spam weapon attack (spam taunt if it moves away).

 

[tur2n]

So does this mean that Experienced Points is officailly back from hiatus? I always liked this column and was sad when it wasn't around.

I prefer it when Shamus writes a column when he really has something to say, rather than a forced one every week.

Also, I wonder why there's a new iteration of Civilization and Heroes of Might and Magic every few years, while Master of Orion is dead and forgotten. Master of Orion 2 with a few subtle changes and modernizations, and, voila, there's your strategy game of the year.

 

[cabalistics]

I still love Mirrors Edge for me the main flaw was there was not enough of it play wise or story wise but the actual gameplay and art style was perfect.
Anyone else remember Vigalante 8 it was a sort of Twisted Metal that looked like a Mad Max version of the 70's with stolen alien technology so you have lasers and rocket launcher attached to these muscle cars and truck and buses and the soundtrack wasca lot of 70's style rock and disco. I think it got one sequel then I never heard of it again.

 

[matell]

no mention of Legacy of Kain? for shame! if Descent and X-com were on the list, why not this jewel? also, Homeworld should get another sequel IMO

 

[veloper]

So does this mean that Experienced Points is officailly back from hiatus? I always liked this column and was sad when it wasn't around.

I prefer it when Shamus writes a column when he really has something to say, rather than a forced one every week.

Also, I wonder why there's a new iteration of Civilization and Heroes of Might and Magic every few years, while Master of Orion is dead and forgotten. Master of Orion 2 with a few subtle changes and modernizations, and, voila, there's your strategy game of the year.

Master of Orion 2 is fine as it is. Sure nice gfx and sound would be nice, but not worth buying the game again for.

So yes to a new MOO2, XCOM, Magic Carpet, etc. but not without significant expansions to the gameplay. Even more variety in weapons, better balance, etc.

 

[LadyRhian]

So does this mean that Experienced Points is officailly back from hiatus? I always liked this column and was sad when it wasn't around.

I prefer it when Shamus writes a column when he really has something to say, rather than a forced one every week.

Also, I wonder why there's a new iteration of Civilization and Heroes of Might and Magic every few years, while Master of Orion is dead and forgotten. Master of Orion 2 with a few subtle changes and modernizations, and, voila, there's your strategy game of the year.

They did MOO3, but that sucked. I'd like to see MOO2 done again. And Master of Magic, too.

 

[Larmo]

My mom played the heck out of that game, joystick and all. And I got a kick out of watching her play it being to young to at the time, that and Readneak Rampage.

REDNECK RAMPAGE! That was a fun one. One of the most offensive games I've ever owned. Another CD I now have to dig up lol

Sorry i tweaked your nostalgia button.

 

[Jacob.pederson]

Shamus

You win my adoring fanship for mentioning two of my absolute favorite old school games, Descent and Starflight. I thought I was the only undying fan of these two! I also completely agree that Descent 3 went in a completely incorrect direction; however, Descent 1 and 2 have some awesome openGL remakes going on if you want to experience the original (they even support Windows joysticks!).

Correct me if I'm wrong on this, but I think Descent featured some of the first real time lighting in any game. I still get shivers thinking about firing a flare down a long dark pit and watching it snuff out somewhere in the distance. Also, this was a SOFTWARE renderer, done completely on a 66mhz 386

I think a modern day Starflight would be almost impossible due to the game's NUTS scope. Can you imagine being able to go from interplanetary diplomacy and trade, to stellar navigation, to planetary navigation, rpg stats, mining, biological sampling AND ship to ship combat with modern production values??? We're talking a budget in the 100 of millions for an untested concept. Never gonna fly. Ironically, now that you have me thinking about it, Sid Meiers Pirates is the closest any modern title has gotten to Starflight's gameplay.

What might be able to fly for Starflight is something more akin to the original 2d sprite based production values . . . perhaps something on the 3DS?? We can only hope.

Now if only you had Homeworld on your list

 

[Jacob.pederson]

Damn, now I gotta fish up our old copy of Decent 2. First game to ever give me serious vertigo/headaches. Great stuff, that. Fortunately a couple decades of gaming have boosted my tolerance for crazy 3D action awesomeness.

All the Descent games are on Gog.com, and I believe they're bundled with DosBox to ensure they run on the latest computers. http://www.gog.com/en/gamecard/descent_1_descent_2

Of all these titles, Starflight sounds the most interesting to me, although it seems pretty hard to find a copy of these days. Maybe Star Control would be easier to track down....

Starflight (still in possession of the original floppy!) will run fine is DOSbox (looks great with a little filtering), but brush up on your command line skills, as a lot of copying is required.

 

[Timmibal]

Freelancer.

Come on, that game wasn't even properly FINISHED.