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I prefer Mech Commander over X-com. I like stomping on the buildings. I have decided to play Dungeon Master if I can find a copy ... I may actually have a copy. I remember losing interest because of food or something, probably a mistake on my part. Actually you know what I am going to play ... Star Trail, I always wanted to beat it.

They tried to bring back Commander Keen... but the dream died.

I played Dungeon Keeper for a while. I didn't really like the game all that much but what I did love was the intros and closing sequences for each of the levels where the dungeon master would tell you about the place you were attacking or had just pillaged.

Snugglevale. A place of joyus, polite frivolity. Sadly, even the children are happy. This is because they are not punished for nonexistant crimes!

...these people know nothing of fear or hate or RANDOM ACTS OF SHOCKING VIOLENCE METERED OUT ARBITRARILY!

Pure gold. Anyone know someplace where I could dig up the sound files for those?

Don't know if this is really a "classic" but I did recently buy an old N64 so I could play Ocarina of Time. One of my fav. games ever.

Hummm, ask and you shall recieve.

http://www.thanatosrealms.com/dk/sounds.html

All the intros and closing sound bites for dungeon keeper.

So classic is before 2002???

Please.

Zelda > Link to the Past > Ocarina > Twilight Boredom

But I'll reminisce. Castlevania owned. Mega Man 1 and 2...owned. Contra owned.

Up, Up, Down, Down, Left, Right, Left, Right, B, A, Select, Start.

Rygar owned. Tecmo Bowl and even Super Tecmo Bowl. OWNED.

Elevator Action, Dragon's Lair, Afterburner, Altered Beast.

You boys need to get some time on the pond.

2002? That means that Gamecube launch titles are classic

B****, please.

Resident Evil on Gamecube, dude.

Altered Beast FTW.

dienekes96 wrote:Elevator Action

LOL Elevator Action rocked.

Herzog Zwei: excellent Sega Genesis 1v1 RTS, an absolute classic
Ultima Exodus: NES, loved the music and combat
The Gauntlet: the original 4-player arcade dungeon crawl
Eternal Darkness: Gamecube horror story, just phenomenal

I'll have to agree that River City Ransom was awesome, unless you couldn't beat it in one sitting.

Gauntlet on C64.
Impossible Mission on C64.
Seven Cities of Gold on C64.
Zork I-III on C64.
Anything you could be bothered to program in basic on C64.

I didn't have an Atari...

groz wrote:Herzog Zwei: excellent Sega Genesis 1v1 RTS, an absolute classic

Wow, I can't think of anyone else other than my buddies and I who ever brings up that game. It was really fun. All about circles of tanks with SAM launchers hiding out.

Ultima Exodus: NES, loved the music and combat

That was a computer game long before it got ported to NES. I used to play it on my Apple II+ and a buddy of mine had it for his IBM 286.

Another that I'm supprised hasn't shown up in this topic is Syndicate. That game ate up huge chunks of my life back in early highschool. So worth it though. I think I still have a copy lieing around somewhere...have to see if I can get it working.

Many old classics have already been covered, but here are a few games that were fairly groundbreaking at the time: (I am probably dating myself here!)

Star Raiders - 1979 (ref: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Star_raiders )

Features of note: A space flight sim on ATARI 8 bit cartridge. Featured advanced physics (at the time)

Rogue - 1980 (ref: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rogue_(computer_game) )

Features of note: The great grand-daddy of dungeon crawlers and spawned a whole genre. Infinite replay as every dungeon is random. Contents are random - item attributes are random.

Impossible Mission - 1984 (ref: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Impossible_Mission )

Features of note: Voice synth: "Stay a while. Stay FOREVER!" Huge number of levels with randomized gameplay for infinite replayability. Multiple ways to complete game.

Below the Root - 1984 (ref: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Below_the_root )

Features of note: Non-linear game play, a gigantic world to explore. Choice of multiple characters with different strengths at start of game. In-game impacts for theft and murder. Early instance of a game based off a written property, with input from the original author.

Ultima 7, The Black Gate - 1992 (ref: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ultima_7 )

Features of note: Possibly the best Ultima ever despite its hefty system requirements at the time. Featured user interaction -EVERYTHING- in the game world, and the game would record changes that you made. i.e. you could collect boxes and build a fort out of them, or build a bridge out of planks and the game would retain this. - every character in the game had preset behaviour for time of day. Contained animals with behaviours. Game had consequences based on alignment. Cool things you can do:

1. Place a canon on your cart. Teach those briggands a lesson.
2. Place a candle on each corner of your flying carpet. Unlike torches, candles never go out!
3. Hoe of Destruction!
4. The Avatar could "get some action".
5. Collect caltrops, preferably invisible. Place on ground in Fellowship HQ in Britain. Sleep until Fellowship meeting. Lock door with skeleton key. Hillarity ensues!

System Shock - 1994 (Ref: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/System_shock )

Features of note: FPS with emergent, non-linear gameplay. Multiple methods to complete the game. Pioneered many features now standard in role playing style FPS games. Ability to go up and down ramps, multi-leveled stages, crouching, in-game inventory, atmosphere through audio cues, leaning, alt-fire all revolutionary at the time. Had the option of a speech pack which was rare at the time.

-edit-

Star Control II - 1992 (ref: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Star_control_ii )

Features of note: Huge galaxy to explore. Non-linear gameplay, but linear plot advancement in plot as time goes on (alterable by player interaction). Resource gathering and fleet building. Supermelee side game. Low system requirements at the time. Superb soundtrack. Holds up well even today!

Honorable mentions:

Scumm games: King's Quest, Space Quest
Early Lucas Arts Games: Full Throttle, Moneky Island, Grimm Fandango

Zelda, Contra, Rygar, Maniac Mansion, the original Final Fantasy, hell even Super Mario Bros., all these are classics, there are tons of NES games that are classics.
For the PC I was always quite partial to Sam & Max and even more so to the Quest for Glory Series, in fact, I think I'll play some Quest for Glory right now.....

Yeah, 2002 is a ridiculous year for the "classics" to start. That would make Half-Life a classic. It's definitely an "instant classic," but I certainly wouldn't consider it classic yet. And I was only born in '86.

Talk to me in ten years.


Altered Beast though....that takes me back. I remember my brother and I playing that on Genesis in two-player mode. It was a lot of fun. The weredragons were sweet.

Hmm...has anyone mentioned Wing Commander?

Star Wars: Dark Forces. I played that game a lot. I thought it was the coolest thing I'd ever seen at the time.

Hordini wrote:Yeah, 2002 is a ridiculous year for the "classics" to start.

I think 10 years is a safe bet. Lots of bands from the early 90's are considered "classic" rock these days... though I'd personally dig further back into the archives for video games. Anything from the last two generation of consoles is too new IMO.

Manic Miner - I know people loved chuckie egg but MM is still a superior platformer IMNSHO!

Dune II, Battle for Arrakis - The first C&C clone and my intro to RTS. Loved the hilarious sandworm graphic.

Frontier, Elite II - If they don't make a good new version of elite soon, I'm declaring open season on the developers...

Wing Commander (especially III and IV, Mark Hamill FTW!)- why don't they make PC games you can play with a joystick anymore????

What was the old Dune sandworm graphic like? I hear it was very strange.

Don't get what everyones fascination with doom was about. Marthon series was much better. As I recall, marathon actualy had a storyline, as opposed to Doom. You could also look up and down, too! S'pose it was because Marathon was on the mac, and most of you never had it. I didn't, but I still play Marathon games on the Aleph One version. You shoudl check it out, its way better than doom, but it still got dubbed a 'doom clone', even though Pathways into darkness came out before Doom, and the marathon series only came out like half a year after doom.

Basically yes, because it was on a mac.

Also Doom was shareware. You could, and still can, just rip through an episode of doom in an hour or so. It had great music, was utterly evil (for the time), and you got a stat counter / timer at the end of each level. More games need timers. Helps your old-fashioned 'Gameplay' score. Remember when magazines payed attention to playability?

Marathon was still better, imo. More storyline. What was dooms storyline? You're on mars and you have to kill things, or something to that effect. Thats just something that matters to me in a game. Also I think the general gameplay was better in marathon

Chimera_Calvin wrote:Dune II, Battle for Arrakis - The first C&C clone and my intro to RTS. Loved the hilarious sandworm graphic.

You have that timeframe incorrect. Dune II was the first "RTS", in the way that we know it.

I was a big fan of the SSI Gold Box AD&D games.

Civilization 1...Even at the age of 13 or 14 or whatever it was I was asking my mom for "Just one more turn"

The original Pirates!

Autoduel (I'm a Car Wars player)

Battletech, the Crescent Hawks Inception

I really enjoyed the original Prince of Persia as well.

I'd have to say Ultima 5 is still one of my all time favs

Orlanth's Recommendations

I only deal with certain genres, RPG's tactical game mainly. I also delieberately wrote this without reading through the thread, so my answers aremy own and not influenced by others or with meories jogged. edit : Reading above some were missed. Ultima Underworld is one, but as they did not come to mind maybe they were less memorable.

A grade late 90's games, aka normally modern(ish) graphics:

Diablo 2 - Best arcade game ever made. Dont mistake it for an RPG.
Wing Commander 3 - the first of the high graphics games
Wing Commander 4 - improved sequel
Baldurs Gate - probably the best fantasy 'squad level' RPG
Shadows of Amn - excellent sequel
Thief: the Dark Project - Seminal sneak em up
System Shock 2 - The pinnacle of the 1st person shooter, from this point only graphics haver improved.
Morrowind - Open ended first person RPG with brains, lots of brains and kept up to date by the freely available game engine.

B grade late 90's games

Anachronox - Obsolete graphics, superb plot and script
Fallout - Ditto with radiation and Baldurs gate style gameplay added in, almost an A, let down by poor AI ansd scripting
Gothic (sequals are post 2002 and A's) - first person RPG with brains

A grade early 90's games, aka basic graphics

X-Com Enemy Unknown - THE tactical battle game, beware of lame sequels.
Master of Magic - If the AI was ever fixed this game would take a lot of beating, old graphics or not.
Master of Orion 2 - Probably the best space leader game.
Daggerfall - Forerunner to Morrowind, over ended game universe and open ended gameplay and open minded plot. Its first person RPG goodness is the real reason Doom cannot of itself make the A grade. This game is simply better.
Darklands - Basic graphics team RPG but the inspiration for Baldurs gate and other titles. Again excellent plot and gameplay.

B grade early 90's games

Doom - Yes good but to me a B compared to the A's listed. We owe a lot to Doom, but it is not in the same quality league as those listed above in itself.
Civilization - Good but needed an upgrade to get real good.
Harpoon - Modern naval goodness, accurate to the time too, more or less.

A grade pre 90's games, aka no graphics

Nethack - You think you are a computer RPG fan? If you have yet to post your first sscension, you are not, not really. While an 80's game, with no graphics Nethack is constantly updated. You wont ses much when you load up the game, but I would trust this game to show more depth and gameplay that ANY you could mention, its own mods like ADoM excluded, Nethack is itself a clone of the earlier Rogue and is the culmination of that genre. Nethack was described in depth of gamplay as to Diablo 2 what the Marianas trench is to a paddling pool. This is only barely exagerrated.
Sword of Aragon - While not a survivor and sadly little known this charming game which asks if you have a hard disk will suprise you with its playability and replayablility in a genre where many up to date games fail. The genre is fantasy strategy game, with only Master of Magic and Fantasy General as worthy peers. Still it is not as deep as Nethack, but then it has graphics, all 16 colours of them, and upgradeable units, and mouse interface, and a plot. Play this the once and you will know where Age of Wonders and Spellforce 2 go wrong.
Elite - Especially Elite Plus, what more need be said.

I dont bother with B grade 80's games, and dontr care to recall here C grade games fromk the 90's

Here are a few others that I really enjoyed. Some may not be considered "classic" as they fall off the beaten path in terms of popularity.

Joust - 1982 - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Joust_(video_game)
This game is insanely primitive by modern standards, but for some reason, despite its age, it is still insanely fun for me. I remember struggling with cruddy 3rd party ATARI controllers as the analog sticks could be fiddly and positioning was key in this game.

Archon - 1983 - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Archon:_The_Light_and_the_Dark
Part strategy and part skill, this fore-runner to the battlechess archetype was pretty cool back in the day. Strong positioning of your pieces can make your life easier, but skillful fighting with your pieces can turn the tide.


Even the box art is awesomesauce.

Warlords (and sequels) - 1989 - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Warlords_(game_series)#Warlords
Cool one player action, and fun hot-seat multi-player action. Great moment where my solo hero (against the odds) razed a town which was defended by 23 orcish mobs. Much like Master of Magic, but much more primitive. Pioneered many of the features found in the later game.

Tank Wars (and spiritual sequels) - 1990 - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tank_Wars
Scorched Earth was the game that is best remembered in this genere, but credit where credit is due... Tank Wars did come first. Scorch only refined the genre. Death's Head on 1000 power, 30 degree elevation, wraparound walls. Fun.

Klax - 1989 - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Klax_(video_game)
"It is the nineties and there is time for Klax" Overshadowed by Tetris, I really liked this innovative puzzler made by Atari.