Good obscure Pre-1995 PC games?
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I disagree in some ways. I agree that the word obscure it's pretty obscure itself and hard to define, but I think the retro-gaming community is evergrowing and I think at least trying the classics is slowly becoming the standard for gamers all around. Especially emulators and XBLA, Wii VC, Steam and GoG are helping modern gamers get into and try out these classics. Pretty sure Planescape: Torment is pretty widely played throughout the gaming community, at least in the parts where people know about it's existence. Same with most "classic" games, especially if there is a new sequal or a reboot coming.DioWallachia said:
Pretty sure the original X-Com, Deus Ex, Hitman and Fallouts started selling again, when the recent reboots started selling by the millions.
OT: The only truly obscure stuff I can come up with on the spot is "I have no mouth and I must scream" which is a wonderfully morbid post-apocalyptic point n' click.
Not that widely known by the common gamer, but has a big and devoted fanbase; I highly recommend the Heroes of Might and Magic series. The first one is pre -95 if I remember correctly. If you can go past 95 like a champ, 2 and 3 are absolutely fantastic TBS-games. Not that obscure, but still criminally underrated.
Well, it's not exactly obscure, but there's Myst. It gets a lot of shit from people that didn't have the attention span to pay attention to the story, puzzles, and visuals all at once, but it's honestly quite good. A little moon logic sometimes, but ultimately satisfying.
Yeah, it was alright. I never finished it, but a couple of my friends did and thought it was ok but just not quite the same. If you want to give StarCon2 another shot, check out The Ur-Quan Masters [http://sc2.sourceforge.net/], which is a port of it that runs on pretty much any modern computer/OS and is completely free. It definitely feels like it's 20 years old, probably because it is 20 years old this year, but as long as you don't mind taking notes yourself on where to go and what's going on (no quest logs/journals back then) it's still pretty playable.blackrave said:
Alrighty then, how about:Anthraxus said:
Sentinel Worlds I: Future Magic (This game is way fun! Space combat, ship docking and planetery landing / exploration. It's like a very early mass effect 1). Btw if you do play it there's a really nice weapon called an energy blade stashed in a chest at some intro building/facility you visit. It's pretty hard too. I watched my friend get close to beating it years ago.
Some other games I thought were cool:
The Bards Tale (kind of mainstream but rarely discussed anymore)
Sega rally championship (still looks good and has realistic driving physics and in car views with real time car damage and weather conditions. Way ahead of its time)
Wasteland (predecessor of fallout)
Jazz jackrabbit (side scroller with an anthro rabbit carrying a carrot gun^^)
Blackthorn (awesome side scroller)
Raptor: call of the shadows (space shooter like raiden)
Inherit the earth (Kind of irony here. This is one of the first 'furry' games but I never played it. It looked fun though.)
Star control 2 (you'll need the map or you won't be able to beat it - similar to future magic and just all around awesome)
Dark Lands: I never played this but I might check it out soon.
Wizardry 7: Crusaders of the Dark Savant (awesome rpg! Very fun)
Realms of Arkania: Star Trail (very hard rpg)
Also there was an early 90s space shooter kind of like Wing Commander where you play as a pilot named Roman. Initially you started with two types of space fighters in your hanger but you could capture enemy ships (one of your starter ships has a tractor beam). The ships had a HUD in three panels flanking the bottom of the screen. Ill look for the demo disk this weekend. I still have it somewhere.
For old school text/ ASCII games check out "Moria" or for a new free (and online) version check out dungeon crawl stone soup. It's addictive although Moria is personally my favorite. I took out a few umber hulks back in the day -- the big capital "U" that pretty much destroys you one hit).
Sega rally championship (still looks good and has realistic driving physics and in car views with real time car damage and weather conditions. Way ahead of its time)
Wasteland (predecessor of fallout)
Jazz jackrabbit (side scroller with an anthro rabbit carrying a carrot gun^^)
Blackthorn (awesome side scroller)
Raptor: call of the shadows (space shooter like raiden)
Inherit the earth (Kind of irony here. This is one of the first 'furry' games but I never played it. It looked fun though.)
Star control 2 (you'll need the map or you won't be able to beat it - similar to future magic and just all around awesome)
Dark Lands: I never played this but I might check it out soon.
Wizardry 7: Crusaders of the Dark Savant (awesome rpg! Very fun)
Realms of Arkania: Star Trail (very hard rpg)
Also there was an early 90s space shooter kind of like Wing Commander where you play as a pilot named Roman. Initially you started with two types of space fighters in your hanger but you could capture enemy ships (one of your starter ships has a tractor beam). The ships had a HUD in three panels flanking the bottom of the screen. Ill look for the demo disk this weekend. I still have it somewhere.
For old school text/ ASCII games check out "Moria" or for a new free (and online) version check out dungeon crawl stone soup. It's addictive although Moria is personally my favorite. I took out a few umber hulks back in the day -- the big capital "U" that pretty much destroys you one hit).
Can I say Street Rod II? I don't know if it's obscure or not. I didn't have internet when I was ten. It's the only racing game I ever played where you modify your car by unbolting things and bolting on new things.
I played "X5700 Mantis, Experimental Fighter" a bit when I was a kid. Having wingmates that talk to you in dogfights made the game really come alive.
Lords of the Realm II came out in 1996 but was always one of my favourite games. It's turn base strategy with real time battles and is fully multiplayer.
I played "X5700 Mantis, Experimental Fighter" a bit when I was a kid. Having wingmates that talk to you in dogfights made the game really come alive.
Lords of the Realm II came out in 1996 but was always one of my favourite games. It's turn base strategy with real time battles and is fully multiplayer.
The first one that comes to mind is Veil of Darkness. I don't know how well-known or obscure it was, so I'm assuming you haven't heard of it. It a nice isometric RPG-adventure hybrid set in Romania in the 30s. As you can imagine, the plot revolves around killing a vampire lord who rules the valley where your plane crashed in the beginning of the game. If you didn't gather as much from the description, let me tell you: it oozes atmosphere from every pore.
Other than that, I can't remember one that was good and obscure. I don't know if anyone has already suggested, but why don't you take a look at Home of the Underdogs? The original site is long dead, but there are two "new" versions of it still active. It's a great place to go looking for old and obscure games.
This is the "classic" design of the site, it's the best for finding specific kinds of games.
This is the other one, not that good as an archive, but with a lot more games.
Other than that, I can't remember one that was good and obscure. I don't know if anyone has already suggested, but why don't you take a look at Home of the Underdogs? The original site is long dead, but there are two "new" versions of it still active. It's a great place to go looking for old and obscure games.
This is the "classic" design of the site, it's the best for finding specific kinds of games.
This is the other one, not that good as an archive, but with a lot more games.
Myst really isn't remotely obscure. It was the best-selling PC game in the world for a good 10 years.
Of course I'm not one to talk, since the most obscure game from that period I can think of is SimAnt, which was made by Maxis so it can't have been all that obscure (though I was the only person I knew who played it). Fun ant colony simulation game, oddly fascinating.
Of course I'm not one to talk, since the most obscure game from that period I can think of is SimAnt, which was made by Maxis so it can't have been all that obscure (though I was the only person I knew who played it). Fun ant colony simulation game, oddly fascinating.
Heretic? Not sure how obscure it is (I don't hear people mention it much) but it originally came out in 1994, and you can now get it on Steam. I have a big soft spot for this game as it was the first video game I ever played, sitting on my dads knee with my sister, smashing the attack button. We were always terrified of the "big scary heads" or Iron Liches!In hindsight it was probably a poor choice for dad to be playing with his 6 and 8 year old daughters... XD
I think its pretty good myself, I just got it off Steam and am having some major nostalgia, but sometimes the speed of the movement makes me feel a bit sick!
I think its pretty good myself, I just got it off Steam and am having some major nostalgia, but sometimes the speed of the movement makes me feel a bit sick!
Kiwifeathers said:
+ 1 for Heretic.
If you add in this mod here: http://sourceforge.net/projects/deng/
Plus this resource pack: http://www.moddb.com/games/heretic/addons/jheretic-resource-pack-packed-to-box
You get a nice old game with quake 3 era GFX and stuff like mouse aim and jumping *warning jumping can break certain lvls*
Also Hexen which is the sequel of Heretic.
Basically everything from MicroProse. Even Sid Meier's most disappointing title, Covert Action, is still enjoyable to me. Colonization was such an interesting twist on Civ.. Master of Magic which was mentioned earlier is still my favorite 4x game of all time, so much depth.. someone mentioned Darklands very early on, Sword of the Samurai, The Ancient Art of Knights in the Sky, Red Storm Rising, Gunship, Lightspeed/Hyperspeed, Airborne Ranger, M1 Tank Platoon....
NOT IF I HAVE ANYTHING TO DO WITH IT. Seriously, if I'm not here to promote a game that was a huge commercial flop and yet is still one of the genre-defining all-time classics of the medium, what am I even suposed to BE?CrossLOPER said:
I have fond memories of Jazz Jackrabbit also.
