OLD RTS

[MrMoustaffa]

Very first game I ever played was starcraft, so it has a very special spot for me in my favorite games of all times. My original disc, which I've had for almost 10 years, got eaten by my computer today, and it really sucks. At least I've still got my brood war CD :3

As for other awesome old RTS games. The Stronghold games were awesome. You really got to make your own castle. I've been replaying it lately, and although the castle building controls can get wonky, being able to make the EXACT castle you want was pretty awesome. They even gave you a map builder mode and let people try and seige it.

Other old time favorites were Star wars Galactic Battlegrounds (even if it was basically an Empire earth clone, and naval units were completely pointless except to give the gungans something to not fail at.) I literally played it just so I could watch the empire crush the gungans over and over.

If you liked Company of Heroes, Try and find, "codename panzers: phase one". It did a lot of the stuff CoH did long before it came out, and was a ton of fun. And if you want something OLDER than those two, "blitzkrieg" is the same concept, except with MUCH larger battles. Just make sure you're cool with the older graphics.

And I dont care if its not RTS, Rollercoaster Tychoon was amazing, and any person that loves RTS should play it, it is that awesome.

 

[Nalgas D. Lemur]

Well, all the old games I used to play back in the 90s have been mentioned already, so that's covered. Moving on...

I'm also a HUGE fan of the RTS/4X hybrids

It doesn't have PvP (the multiplayer is co-op only), but go play AI War [http://arcengames.com/w/index.php/aiwar-features]. The base game is good, and then some of the stuff added in the expansions is just ridiculously awesome. Massive real-time battles with thousands of ships tearing chunks out of each other's fleets, where a fleet size of the maximum unit cap of most other games is considered a small diversion, are good stuff. The demo and tutorial kind of give an idea of what it's like, but after having played it as our main "game night" game for most of the past year, a lot of the really cool stuff shows up either later in the game or with options enabled that aren't in the demo. Worth checking out, though.

 

[The Code]

Metal Fatigue. Old 2001 RTS by Psygnosis and includes, aside from the standard RTS fare of tanks, buildings, and upgrades, maps with three playable layers and giant customizable robots! You can choose what kind of legs and torso the 'mech will have, along with the two arms it will use. For example, it can have a laser katana (a katana with a laser blade, I s#!t you not), arm blades (like Wolverine's claws), a cloaking torso, and HTH Upgrade legs (doubles melee damage). If a Combot, as they're called in the game, is equipped with bladed weapons, then it has a chance to actually dismember the enemy 'mech. These disembodied parts can then be recovered and reverse engineered so that you can use them yourself!

Also, there's Warzone 2100 from Pumpkin Studios. Post apocalyptic setting where your tasked with recovering 'Pre-Collapse' technologies to use in the advancement and survival of the human race. The gimmick of Warzone: Customizable units. You can choose the weapon, propulsion, and main body of your units and produce as many as you want. Actually, every unit you produce is of your own name and design (except Cyborgs and the starting Truck, but the Truck is still customizable.). At this current point in time, Warzone 2100 is active again, and free to download from the new developers' website: http://wz2100.net/

 

[DoomyMcDoom]

If we want older -and- obscure, I did get an unusual amount of enjoyment out of Psygnosis' Metal Fatigue, which, while blatantly unfair in regards to how the AI interpreted who would win in what should be a straight up fight so long as you weren't watching, was both highly customizable and extremely entertaining since you could collect together a bunch of giant clanking mechs and wail on each other...and steal their parts after they blow up. Salvage makes me happy.

Wow, didn't know anyone still remembered that game...

Was gonna say it but you pretty much stole my paragraph right outa my noggin... ok think... another game...

Well the original Homeworld is still a game I like to play, damn fine game.

 

[Panorama]

RA2 Yuri's Revenge

RA3 is so shit

 

[Keepeas]

Let's see..besides Starcraft?
I've played Warcraft3, Age of Empires(2 I think), Warhammer 40K: Dawn of War...
Out of those I'd say Warcraft3....but it's not an impressive list to choose from..
Starcraft is still my Favorite.(well, SC2 but whatever)

 

[The Madman]

Age of Empires 2 was bloody brilliant, easily one of the best RTS of its day and indeed all of gaming. I've got it installed right now and it still holds up well even compared to modern standards, plus the music remains fantastic as always which is always a nice touch.

 

[Pirakahunter788]

Star Wars Galactic Battlegrounds.
Total, and utter win.

 

[Toriver]

Age of Wonders was great. I enjoyed both single player and multiplayer. I built an epic Middle Earth map in the map editor, complete with the areas from the Silmarillion and almost all the races in the game, balanced so they all had a chance to win yet also in keeping with LotR lore. Trust me, picking the halflings in that map and pulling a "Zurg Rush from the Shire" takeover was a lot of fun. I should really take it out and play it again sometime soon. It works perfectly in WINE.

Civ 3 is a close second with me.

 

[Vivace-Vivian]

Total Annihilation will always dominate my heart in the RTS area. Fuck story. Fuck simplicity. Have eighty robots and KILL EACH OTHER. My kind of game.

 

[Yopaz]

Red Alert 2 is my favourite, but I also have some love for Majesty 2 as it offers a few differences from most RTS games.

 

[Jesus Phish]

The first C&C blew my tiny young mind back on the ps1.

Age of Empires 2 was an amazing LAN game with the right group

 

[BlindMessiah94]

Okay, here is a place to rip, rage, and praise all your favorite Real Times Stratagies.

THIS ENTIRELY EXCLUDES STARCRAFT. I'm sick of every fanboy whining about how starcraft is the most amazing RTS in the world.

>.>

Mine is a bridge between Outpost 2, and Outpost 1, outpost 1 because it takes colony management to an ENTIRELY new level, and Outpost 2 because I actually made a few missions for it once the OP2 community got a hold of it and got it mostly cracked. Yay freeware!

*sigh* just because someone likes a game that is popular it does not make them a fanboy. not all the time anyway.

I happen to love the original SC. It was a game that was still being played a decade after it's release for goodness sake. ONLINE. There's something to be said in the quality of a game if it can accomplish that feat. Most games now just start circling the drain a few years after their release in terms of playability and popularity.

but, to stay OT: I liked C&C Red Alert, and Star Wars Galaxies was it? whatever the SW RTS was. It wasn't that great, but meh, it was star wars.
Also does...does....Rollercoaster Tycoon count?? Cause that was the shizzle dizzle.

 

[Owyn_Merrilin]

He said old... and there's been no love for Dune 2? Come on... that game was awesome in its day!

[sub]but yeah, I'm a Supreme Commander fan too... [sub]I'm also a fan of the Supcom->TA conversion mod, however incomplete it is at the moment.[/sub][/sub]

You know, I actually came into this thread just to answer with Dune 2, because I was pretty sure he was looking for help identifying an old RTS, and that's the only one old enough to get the word in all caps.

OT: I've never been much of an RTS fan. I got a lot of fun out of Warcraft II with cheat codes enabled as a kid, but for the most part, I prefer turn based strategy -- anything from a 4X game down to something like Cyberstorm, which gave a choice of real time or turn based modes -- I, of course, always played it in turn-based mode.

Edit: Also, this thread has made me acutely aware of the fact that I don't currently have a numpad for my lap top. I've got four 4X games[footnote]Civilization, Civilization II, Galactic Civilizations II, and Sid Meier's Alpha Centauri[/footnote] sitting on my shelf, but I can't comfortably play them without the numpad; units move in 8 directions on a grid of squares in all four of those games. It's really annoying to have to move units with the mouse, instead of the keyboard.

 

[klakkat]

Total Annihilation was my favorite; single player I found superior to Starcraft by far. Multiplayer was decent, but lacking though.

 

[Sir Shockwave]

THIS ENTIRELY EXCLUDES STARCRAFT. I'm sick of every fanboy whining about how starcraft is the most amazing RTS in the world.

Agreed. I don't hate Starcraft...but I'd be lying if I didn't think the game is rather overhyped.

With that being said, I'm a long time Command & Conquer Player, but I also play some things your not going to find without really looking for them - my favourites being Rise of Legends, the original Perimeter and the original Ground Control (plus Dark Conspiracy). Some of my other favourites being:

-KKND Krossfire
-Warzone 2100
-The Earth Series (Earth 2140, Earth 2150 and Earth 2160 plus expansion packs)
-Metal Fatigue
-Emperor: Battle for Dune

And that's without counting the wonders of the modern era...

 

[Plinglebob]

Those of you saying games like Dawn of War and Company of Heroes really make me feel old as in my head I still count them as "New upstarts to the classics"

With that off my chest, I've always been a big fan of RTS games despite being absolutely crap at them (especially now turtling is purposely made harder now) so my list is pretty long.

Age of Empires (all 3): These hold a lot of fond memories for me partly because they were the 1st game I got when we updated from Windows 3.11 to 98 and partly because it was the 1st game I ever played over the internet. I had to warn my parents I'd be tying up the phone line and after about 30mins of playing with settings, 3 mates and I all got into a game together. So much fun.

Age of Mythology: This is a game developers need to take notice of more. Considering how much just one game got out of myths and legends, its surprising more games don't try it. It was also a nice way of adding C&C style super-weapons without breaking the historical settings. It also had one of the better storylines in an RTS.

C&C (all of them): I LOVED!! these games with Tiberium Sun being the first game I remember effectivly camping out for. I much prefered the building style in this to how AoE and Warcraft did it despite being less realistic. It was also the 1st game I ever tried the map editor on and my mate and I used to specifically create levels to play with infinite resources to blow each other up on over a Null Modem connection. RA 2 was definitely the height of the series.

Rise of Nations/Legends: Rise of Nations felt like the bastard love child of AoE and Risk and it was wonderful! Rise of Nations took the history of AoE and expanded on it brilliantly and the idea of the world map is again somethinng more RTS's need to steal. Rise of Legends felt a bit weird, but you'll never see a more varied set of races and units outside of Starcraft and tbh, I think RoLs were better. Who can hate a game where you have Steam-Punk fighting against Magic and Stone-Tech(tm). Like Age of Mythology, this is another avenue of game play that no-one seems to touch, but has a lot of promise.

Shogun: Total War: My overwhelming memory of this game was having an army of geishas killing off all the enemy generals so I could just walk in and take the land.

Total Annihilation: I hardly played this game. I missed it when it 1st came out and by the time I discovered it I'd played other RTS's and just couldn't get into it. Please forgive me internet.

Supreme Commander: The EPIC scale RTS to end them all. I love everything about this game. The unit scale, the rock/paper/scissor nature of the units, YOU CAN TURTLE EFFECTIVELY!!!, the interwoven storylines and a final mission (expansion only) where you can build all 3 factions units and buildings. Sometimes I install this just to load up that mission and go stompy again. Pity the sequal screwed things up. It also holds the crown for being the only game that uses multi-monitor set-ups to good use. Having it so one was the zoomed out strategic overview and the other was the zoomed in tactical unit view really helped the immersion and the feeling you really are in charge on an army.

Homeworld(2): I want to play this, but my PC has a hissy fit when I try running it at max settings for some reason and decideds to show it to me as a slideshow.

 

[Kestor]

Battlezone and Battlezone, played both till my fingers bled.
And who could forget Dark Reign?

 

[CountryMike]

I always liked C&C and Red Alert better than Starcraft. There you go.

Too bad the series went downhill fast after Red Alert.

More recently I also liked Company of Heroes and Star Wars: Empire At War

 

[NinjaRock]

Supreme Commander 1 and the Forged Alliance expansion are both pretty good RTS games. My favourite thing would have to be the resource system (although nukes come close second). It was simple, it only had 2 resources and when you didn't have enough of either instead of not being able to build anymore production slowed down. So much easier than spamming villagers at the nearest gold deposit >.<