# ID this old PC game **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [February 26, 2007, 12:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/id-this-old-pc-game/393710 "2007-02-26T12:30:54Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Pushkin](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/ee59a6/32.png) [@Pushkin](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Pushkin)\ **Post date:** [February 26, 2007, 12:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/id-this-old-pc-game/393710/1 "2007-02-26T12:30:54Z")
It was a top down trading game where you drive your vehicle around a futuristic planet Earth trading and trying to understand the strange new slang of the future. Came out quite a few years ago, perhaps 4 years ago? No idea how popular it was, just that it was fairly different. ---
**Author:** ![E-Sabbath](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/e19adc/32.png) [@E-Sabbath](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/E-Sabbath)\ **Post date:** [February 26, 2007, 1:15pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/id-this-old-pc-game/393710/2 "2007-02-26T13:15:40Z")
Was there FMV? ---
**Author:** ![Pushkin](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/ee59a6/32.png) [@Pushkin](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Pushkin)\ **Post date:** [February 26, 2007, 1:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/id-this-old-pc-game/393710/3 "2007-02-26T13:23:43Z")
I only remember a demo of the game, so there may have been FMV. From the top down view it almost looked like Total Annihilation, or its engine at least, it had the same sort of 3-D from above view. ---
**Author:** ![silverfish](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/e480ec/32.png) [@silverfish](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/silverfish)\ **Post date:** [February 26, 2007, 5:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/id-this-old-pc-game/393710/4 "2007-02-26T17:24:36Z")
It sounds like you might mean [Vangers](http://www.mobygames.com/game/windows/vangers) ---
**Author:** ![Jayrot](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/3ec8ea/32.png) [@Jayrot](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Jayrot)\ **Post date:** [February 26, 2007, 7:14pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/id-this-old-pc-game/393710/5 "2007-02-26T19:14:57Z")
Sounds similar to my one of my all time favorites – [Starflight](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Starflight). Course there was a lot more to it then just driving around on the surface of planets and trading. But that was a main part of it. ---
**Author:** ![Gadarene](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/e47c2d/32.png) [@Gadarene](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Gadarene)\ **Post date:** [February 26, 2007, 7:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/id-this-old-pc-game/393710/6 "2007-02-26T19:26:34Z")
> [@](#): > > Came out quite a few years ago, perhaps 4 years ago? Welp, I feel old now. ---
**Author:** ![jayjay](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/jayjay/32/6765_2.png) [@jayjay](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/jayjay)\ **Post date:** [February 26, 2007, 11:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/id-this-old-pc-game/393710/7 "2007-02-26T23:40:26Z")
[QUOTE=Gadarene] Welp, I feel old now. [/QUOTE] Tell me about it! For me, an _old_ PC game is the original _Oregon Trail_…geez… ---
**Author:** ![DocCathode](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/doccathode/32/18773_2.png) [@DocCathode](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DocCathode)\ **Post date:** [February 27, 2007, 12:26am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/id-this-old-pc-game/393710/8 "2007-02-27T00:26:58Z")
[QUOTE=jayjay] Tell me about it! For me, an _old_ PC game is the original _Oregon Trail_…geez… [/QUOTE] I saw “Old PC Game” and immediately thought of 386 machines. ---
**Author:** ![Pushkin](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/ee59a6/32.png) [@Pushkin](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Pushkin)\ **Post date:** [February 27, 2007, 8:58am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/id-this-old-pc-game/393710/9 "2007-02-27T08:58:36Z")
[QUOTE=silverfish] It sounds like you might mean [Vangers](http://www.mobygames.com/game/windows/vangers) [/QUOTE] Bingo, that’s the one, thanks 🙂 ---
**Author:** ![Headrush042](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/a5b964/32.png) [@Headrush042](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Headrush042)\ **Post date:** [February 27, 2007, 9:30am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/id-this-old-pc-game/393710/10 "2007-02-27T09:30:22Z")
[QUOTE=DocCathode] I saw “Old PC Game” and immediately thought of 386 machines. [/QUOTE] I thought even further back… _shudders_ I still remember my first “upgrade” … going from an amber monochrome to CGA 4-color goodness! I think they were called XTs back then – I would get a 286 AT with 16-color EGA about six months later. Yikes! Is it time for me to retire yet? ---
**Author:** ![Pushkin](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/ee59a6/32.png) [@Pushkin](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Pushkin)\ **Post date:** [February 27, 2007, 12:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/id-this-old-pc-game/393710/11 "2007-02-27T12:32:03Z")
Ah, the various ages of video games 🙂 I can remember “big box” packaging, wherein my Doom collection came on 3CDs in a box that actually literally was the size of a cereal box. I can just about remember boot disks and finding out how to get Win 95 to run a few games so not needing them. I can’t remember anything less than VGA though. ---
**Author:** ![E-Sabbath](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/e19adc/32.png) [@E-Sabbath](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/E-Sabbath)\ **Post date:** [February 27, 2007, 3:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/id-this-old-pc-game/393710/12 "2007-02-27T15:52:59Z")
I remember playing Infocom and not knowing about ANSI drivers, so there was always garbage on the screen. ---
**Author:** ![essell](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/34f0e0/32.png) [@essell](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/essell)\ **Post date:** [February 27, 2007, 4:09pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/id-this-old-pc-game/393710/13 "2007-02-27T16:09:24Z")
I rememeber going ‘ooooooo’ when I saw the graphics in my first VESA game… ---
**Author:** ![DSYoungEsq](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/c6cbf5/32.png) [@DSYoungEsq](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DSYoungEsq)\ **Post date:** [February 27, 2007, 5:06pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/id-this-old-pc-game/393710/14 "2007-02-27T17:06:16Z")
_I_ remember playing TRACON on IBM’s back in 1988, and the monitors were the most basic color monitors around. Of course, _I_ remember playing Star Trek on an old UNIVAC mainframe in 1978, where you saw your position and that of the Klingons and Romulans on an old monochrome monitor. I’m pretty sure that one was programmed in BASIC. Shall I stop now? 😃 ---
**Author:** ![Barrington](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/278dde/32.png) [@Barrington](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Barrington)\ **Post date:** [February 27, 2007, 6:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/id-this-old-pc-game/393710/15 "2007-02-27T18:19:40Z")
Whippersnappers! I remember _writing_ a computer game in 1975 - it generated crosswords with numbers as solutions and calculations as clues, all randomly generated. It ran under BASIC on a Honeywell mainframe over a remote teletype link (acoustic coupler modem). That programme helped me to get a good pass in O-level Computer Science, the first year such a qualification existed. It was subsequently used by the school in maths classes for B- and C-stream students as “fun” practice in basic arithmetic. By 1980 I was writing educational and schools administration software on an Apple II, the former being sort of game-oriented. Then I graduated college and got a job. ---
**Author:** ![Liberal](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/848f3c/32.png) [@Liberal](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Liberal)\ **Post date:** [February 27, 2007, 6:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/id-this-old-pc-game/393710/16 "2007-02-27T18:32:45Z")
Pong. (Help! I’ve fallen, and I can’t get up!) ---
**Author:** ![E-Sabbath](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/e19adc/32.png) [@E-Sabbath](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/E-Sabbath)\ **Post date:** [February 27, 2007, 7:09pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/id-this-old-pc-game/393710/17 "2007-02-27T19:09:31Z")
You know how you could tell someone had Pong in their house? There’d be a burn-in streak across the TV, from the first time they left it bouncing back and forth between the paddles. ---
**Author:** ![enigm4tic](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/7ba0ec/32.png) [@enigm4tic](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/enigm4tic)\ **Post date:** [February 27, 2007, 7:11pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/id-this-old-pc-game/393710/18 "2007-02-27T19:11:37Z")
Bah I remember Oregon Trail like it was yesterday, and Rocky’s Incredible Machine Hell I remember the old Atari 2600, in fact I think my family might still own a working one. Now THAT was a quality gaming system. Oh yeah and the floppy disks that were ACTUALLY floppy that you needed like a whole stack of to install one game, that was fun. ---
**Author:** ![Jayrot](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/3ec8ea/32.png) [@Jayrot](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Jayrot)\ **Post date:** [February 27, 2007, 7:15pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/id-this-old-pc-game/393710/19 "2007-02-27T19:15:11Z")
[QUOTE=enigm4tic] Oh yeah and the floppy disks that were ACTUALLY floppy that you needed like a whole stack of to install one game, that was fun. [/QUOTE] You’re not kidding. I have [del]not-so[/del] fond memories of installing Windows 95 when it first came out. **30 floppy disks**! ---
**Author:** ![Headrush042](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/a5b964/32.png) [@Headrush042](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Headrush042)\ **Post date:** [February 28, 2007, 2:09am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/id-this-old-pc-game/393710/20 "2007-02-28T02:09:56Z")
Anyone remember cassette tapes? I used to stare at a blue screen listening to 5 minutes-worth of beeps waiting for the cassette game to load up 🙂 And when 3.5" floppies went to High-Density? That was soooo awesome! [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/id-this-old-pc-game/393710.md?page=2)