Games That Time Forgot

[psivamp]

I downloaded the UFO: Alien Invasion game and then the controls didn't work. I could only move one guy on a terror mission, then he died in the first enemy round and everyone else refused to leave the ship.

Thanks for reminding me about Descent and Freespace, though. I seem to recall Magic Carpet being included for free on my grandfathers Compaq back in the day. And I know that me and my dad tried out some shutter glasses in the mid-90's on a custom version of Descent running on a 66Mhz 486DX2 with a whopping 8 MB of RAM. That was the first PC I helped build.

 

[teknoarcanist]

I'm still amazed that Nintendo hasn't done more with the Starfox franchise than a few crappy hand-held additions. Those games were solid!

 

[Urthman]

A Magic Carpet sequel would be so awesome with modern graphics and physics technology. And as others have said, that RTS/action hybrid of quickly switching from attacking to defending to gathering resources was really fun. It seems like an empty niche that would be very popular.

Also, Mirror's Edge is a great game. Play it on easy (or use a trainer to make yourself invulnerable to bullets), ignore the combat as best you can, and enjoy the free-running. Play the time trials. It's much more like a racing game than a FPS.

Also, also, the Descent franchise was amazing. Being able to move and turn in any direction at any time and the crazy twisted 3D architecture of those mines was mind-blowing. I don't think any game has done anything like it since. Those wire-frame maps were amazingly cool at the time and absolutely necessary to navigate the mines.

It was a hard game to wrap your head and your fingers around, but once you did, you felt so agile and free.

 

[Disthron]

Your talk about X-Com got me to thinking how you could retain the fun and strategic aspects of it while leaving some of the more boring aspects behind. At first I thought of something like Mass Effect, where you could pause the action in order to give your AI team mates orders. But then I thought of another game. Valcuria Chronicles, it has the turn based structure but each unit's turn plays out in real time. I think X-Com would slip quite nicely into that formula, in fact the only feature VC doesn't seem to have is the base building. Everything else, researching new equipment, managing your squads load out, raising up there experience, it's all already there.

I guess it's still a lot slower that most games today, and maybe you're a purist and don't wont to add any real time aspects but I think it could be awesome if done right.

 

[Continuity]

X-Com was a complicated and unforgiving game of resource management tactical combat.

This seems to be the industries main move at the moment, and it's something we've all talked about before. The Industry's main fears are complex and unforgiving.

The industry is chopping out anything that might be a threat to accessibility.

Games that could only be beaten by practice and repetition are almost entirely a thing of yesterday.

And this is why I still play retro games, and why I ***** and moan every time they release a new and even more cut down iteration of some game..

Xcom is probably the ultimate example of a great genre with fantastic gameplay that has been completely ignored, wilfully ignored in fact, by every other developer. I'm sure that there is a plenty big enough audience out there for a proper spiritual sequel to XCOM.. if any developer has the kahunas to make it.

In the mean time I'll make do with doublebear's dead state, when it comes out that is. god bless the indies.

Your talk about X-Com got me to thinking how you could retain the fun and strategic aspects of it while leaving some of the more boring aspects behind. At first I thought of something like Mass Effect, where you could pause the action in order to give your AI team mates orders. But then I thought of another game. Valcuria Chronicles, it has the turn based structure but each unit's turn plays out in real time. I think X-Com would slip quite nicely into that formula, in fact the only feature VC doesn't seem to have is the base building. Everything else, researching new equipment, managing your squads load out, raising up there experience, it's all already there.

I guess it's still a lot slower that most games today, and maybe you're a purist and don't wont to add any real time aspects but I think it could be awesome if done right.

There were no boring aspects.

Now leave this place and never return, lest I kill you to death with a spoon.

 

[M4rsch]

Totally missed the Legacy of Kain series there. I never quite understood why that one ended. Or turned into combat based crap for that matter...

 

[Sicram]

Wow, I only started to touch gaming 9 years ago and then it was mostly AoE 2: AoK, Red Alert 2, Ceasar 3, Star Wars Galactic Battlegrounds (which was really just AoE with a SW skin, still fun though) yes, I was 11 and my favourite games were strategy and city management. Didn't get any Civ games due to me not liking turn based stuff.

It is interesting though, to look at thy old games and as a to be gamedev it's good to do some research.

Also, Mirror's Edge isn't canceled. There even was an article on this very site about that. It's just in slow developement.

May I suggest Republic Commando as a game that definitely should have got a sequel.

Yes indeed! This came out in those days when PC had the vast majority of FPS titles (although it also came out on xbox). It was well recieved and in my opinion one of the most entertaining games I've ever played. The chatter between the squadmembers was also neat. Lucas Arts really let themselves go. Went from an awesome game (SW:RC) and made Fraction or whatever it was called which I haven't dared touch due to gameplay vids and reviews.

Also, SW:RC ended with some loose ends, I wanna know what happens!

 

[GothmogII]

I emailed Activision about Battlezone:

Hello,

Thank you for contacting Technical Support. Unfortunately, we do not have, nor do we provide information concerning future titles. Such information is provided in press releases and covered by various games magazines and blogs. My recommendation would be to follow such a publication for such information.

So, no luck there, boo. Still, I wonder if it's a standard response or if it may indeed be a 'future title'.

 

[CrystalShadow]

Experienced Points: Games That Time Forgot

Shamus wonders why some games don't get the franchise they deserve

Read Full Article

Ah, well those are all interesting series...

I remember Starflight well, but it's sequel even better.

Though... As DRM goes it also asked you to look up stuff on a map. XD

The rights to it are a little unclear.

There is a starflight 3 in production, and while it has assistance from one of the game's original designers, it is a fan effort, and seems to have stalled about 5 years ago, with no real progress made.
(http://www.starflight3.org/)

I can't say I've seen any game attempt the kind of thing Starflight does, though I've seen a few that aren't too far removed.

(X3 comes to mind, as does the Battlecruiser 3000AD series - Derek Smart's insane game series that despite a lot of well-founded critisism still exists, and still has stuff based on it being released.)

Oh well. It's a pity these things die out like that.
I can't see anyone making games like that anymore.

 

[Macar]

Page 2 FTW- two games that shaped my childhood.

I agree that someone should dust off these ideas.

 

[CitySquirrel]

I just want to say that, aside from Rogue and a few text adventures, Protostar was the first real PC game I ever played. I...fucking...loved that game.

 

[rsvp42]

http://www.ambrosiasw.com/games/evn/ Escape Velocity Nova is a sequel running on modern/Windows systems. Check out the plug-ins. There's mods which let you run the original and the previous sequel storylines through reasonable approximations of their old interfaces. Looks like there's also a mod for Star Trek ships...

Oh yeah, I've definitely played that. But the gameplay and graphics are still pretty limited. I don't mind, it has a certain charm, but I'd love to see the idea taken to the nth degree and given a AAA treatment.

 

[DanDeFool]

I'll be honest, I didn't really like the Descent games. They were fascinating, to be sure, but I always found true 3D movement in close corridors to be too difficult to master (at least with the control setup I was using).

Magic Carpet on the other hand... was also really difficult, but it was fascinating enough (especially the sequel) to stand up on its own merits. It even had deformable terrain! You erected magic castles and fought off evil wizards and their pet dragons. It was freakin sweet.

 

[Snotnarok]

I played Star Flight on the Genesis/Mega Drive rather than the PC variant, it's mostly the same in terms of story/what to do but has very little in common with how it's controlled.

Damn amazing game.

 

[Stone Cold Monkey]

Never quite understood why Shogo never saw a sequel. I mean, I knew there was one in works and it was scrapped, but with Monolith's F.E.A.R. games at what, its third, I would like to see a graphically updated sequel of the anime inspired FPS with giant robots.

Who wouldn't?

 

[SmileyBat]

Wow, Magic Carpet looks like a pretty kick ass game! Someone had commented that it's on the PSN, and if it is I might give it a 'ride'.

 

[SmileyBat]

So... Am I the only one who noticed that this was about games that don't get sequels/franchises, yet three of the four titles highlighted HAD SEQUELS?!?! Even several?? Bad writing, or at least bad titling. Bad show Escapist, we expect better.

It says 'games that time forgot', ie not titles that never had a sequel, it's entire sub-genres that have been abandoned with no spiritual successors. While we have a sickening amount of cover-hugging shooters, no one is tapping into the space voyager/carpet flier resource. And besides, those sequels you're pointing out are all things that happened quite a while ago. And fuck, even if Shamus made absolute nonsense, his ramblings would be worth listening to anyway. Take a second and think things out before posting.

 

[Veloxi]

Couldn't agree with you more about the Starflight series. *points to name*