Video Games that, apparently, you're the only person to ever play

One of the first true real-time-strategy games ever actually came out on the Sega Genesis. Warrior of Rome 2.

It was very similar to Age of Empires, you placed castles and towers, which grew over time and villages surrounding them, and seaports for ships. You created horsemen for land, or ships for sea. Your ships and soldiers would gain experience and advance in skill. The game was a blast to play. The graphics and gameplay were quite sophisticated for the time, this was before Warcraft, AOE, Command and Conquer, etc.

The only real problem with it was the interface was clunky as all hell.

Here’s a screenie:

http://www.genesiscollective.com/ShowPage.php?GameLink=699

Star Rider by Midway, one of the first laserdisc arcade games.

I was seriously addicted to this game in college–in fact, if I could find a console in good shape for not too much money, I’d be tempted to buy it just for the nostalgia factor.

Ahhh, that sounds more like it. I knew something sounded off.

Had to love his hurricane kick. Hehehehe.

These are all pc or game system, uh, games. I’ve not heard, much less played, a single one listed, or any other, really, as I’ve never been much of a gamer and my parents were mean enough to never buy me an Atari/Nintendo/Play Station/Sega etc. I did play a fair amount of video games in the arcade as an adolescent, however, and the only game I was ever any good at was Space Zap. This would have been about '81 or '82. The arcade, called Magic Galaxy had this game long enough for me to post a high score for about two days, then someone beat it and then the machine was removed. I never played anything else often enough to get that good at it, mostly cause I was too poor/cheap to blow all my money on Asteroids and the like.

One game I played a lot of and never heard anyone else talk about was Castles: Siege and Conquest, on the Mac. It was kindof a cross between a roleplaying game and a god game… very heavy on the diplomacy and strategy.

Set in early renaissance France, the king has died without an heir and you must rely on political and tactical savvy to earn a papal coronation before one of your rivals does. You build infrastructure and hire armies and suck Pope ass… and handle political intrigues that come your way in little side plots.

There were tactical combat screens, but they were so wonky and the controls so bad that I usually just let the game handle combat as a statistical outcome.

It was a pretty darn good game for something that had so little graphics.

It must have been 20+ years ago at the Sack (USA/Leow’s/Sony?) Theater in Natick, MA. Right next to the Tron machine was a little number called I, Robot . You were a fairly rudimentary (even by the graphic standards of the day) robot who had to make its way along paths floating somewhere in space. I never got past the part where you had to jump across the gap, and the giant floating eye that watched your progres would zap you out of existence. Never saw or heard about it again.

BTW, the trouble with these “X that apparently you’re the only one ever to Y” threads is that you can pretty much make up whatever you want to, and the rest of the Dopers will assume its just too obscure for them to have heard of:

Anyone played Doink!! , RibCrackin’ Wrestlin’ , or Spacefart in the Islets of Langerhans lately?

I was just trying to make the point. I really would like to know if anyone else has ever heard of I, Robot

I’ve heard of I, Robot; but it was just from a review on classicgaming.com .

Atari’s I, Robot will go down in history as the first arcade game to use polygonal graphics. The game was essentially a #D version of Make Trax, but the novelty of the 3D graphics made it that much harder. Don’t forget that you could also choose “paint” mode – instead of playing the regular game, you’d select polygonal objects, rotate them, and “draw” the screen with them.

I’m also not 100% sure, but I believe I, Robot was also available as a System 1 conversion kit – you could take a Paperboy, Marble Madness, or Roadblasters machine, replace the motherboard and marquee graphics, and have an I, Robot machine ready to go.

So, yeah, I’ve heard of the game. :wink:

Two things will always be tied together in my mind: the game I-Robot, and A-Ha’s “Take On Me.” I spent a whole summer in the local arcade playing the former while the later was recycled endlessly over the radio.

Myst - Hahahahaha, just kidding!

Addams Family - Platform game on the Amiga. Owed itself a lot to Super Mario Bros, I think, but it was completely addictive.

Valhalla - Weird adventure game for the ZX Spectrum. It had little animated stick figures, who were Norse Gods, and you had to find treasures from the clues. Couldn’t get past one stage because I think it had a bug in it.

Lotus Esprit - Another Spectrum game. You’re a cop in a Lotus and you have to chase down the Drug Dealers and catch them before they make the exchange. Had a pretend-3D city you could drive around in, and a pretty extensive map.

The corny dialogue was the best thing in that game!

I never had this problem, Just make sure your copy is patched. Then, never use your sidekicks, except in the boss battles. There isn’t any other reason, anyway. Take it solo, and its a very, very good Diablo-clone.

Oh, and never use guns. They suck. Give your guys melee weapons, cause you’ll do more damage than even bazookas.

These are all in the last few years:

Ghost Master - absolutely fantastic strategy game. It’s about $25 at Amazon right now, so if you’re in the mood for something humorous, give it a thought.

Geneforge - it’s the only game I’ve ever reviewed that I asked for an extension on in order to review it more properly. Best RPG that year (and that was the year of Morrowind and Neverwinter Nights). I ordered the sequel just last week, and I just can’t wait until it comes in.

Full Moon In San Francisco - worst game EVAR!!1! Seriously, this game blew major chunks. It’s so bad, it’s almost like the Plan 9 From Outer Space of computer gaming.

Startopia - this game was so much fun and had such a great sense of humor. I wish more people had bought it. Maybe Muckyfoot wouldn’t have gone out of business and been able to make a sequel. If you can find it in the bargain bin and like strategy titles, check it out.

Midnight Nowhere - except for FMISF above, this is the worst adventure game I’ve ever played. Even worse, I’ve now played it twice (not through choice), and my loathing only grows.

Thanks, rjung andTentacle Monster.

The machine I saw was lacking its proper top banner, so I did not know it was by Atari. I found this page which is a repair guide for people who have found themselves an arcade console. A small screen shot on one of the guy’s pages suggests that the Atari name did not appear on the splash screen.

That page links to this one , where someone has worked with the old Atari guys to create a PC port of the game as long as you have access to the original ROM images from the arcade machine, which are not available on the site. I will never cease to be amazed at what my fellow tech people consider to be a final product.

It’s not a port; it’s an emulator. In order for an emulator to run, it requires the original software from the machine–it works by pretending to be the original hardware.

I actually remember this game. I never did play it, though.

Hm. Another arcade game I spent an awful lot of time playing was Cadillacs and Dinosaurs. It was a Capcom Final Fight clone (but better in many ways) based on a comic book license. There were a large number of characters you could play and a great variety of special moves you could use.

I have also played Marathon. The entire series, in fact. Also I will second Apache Strike. (“STD sighted!”)

I wonder if anybody here remembers Lazarian for the Commodore-64.

And lastly, has anybody here other than my brother ever played Bugs Away!? :slight_smile:

Central Intelligence - A CD-Rom based game from the mid 90’s. A coup has occured on a small Caribbean island. The new govenment has kicked out all western diplomats and corporations and is in the process of signing new treaties with the Chinese (who seem to have been behind the coup in the first place). The island is one of the largest suppliers of oil in the region and is of strategic importance.

You have been sent in with a small band of operatives to see that the govenment on the island is replaced with something friendlier to western interests. Your operatives cannot do everything alone so you have to recruit local help.

Missions are things like bribing newspapers to alter the slant of their articles, blackmailing government officials to influence votes, distributing propaganda at schools, passing money and equipment to the rebels and the like. You have complete freedom to do whatever you like and the island is huge with short video clips from every location.

Sound good? Forget it. The game, to put it mildly, sucks!

First, the game is real time. You can change the speed at which the “clock” runs but there is no way to pause it to plan your next move. While you are issuing one set of commands you are also constantly getting reports from your various operatives and agents and there is a “news ticker” constantly running across the top of your screen. You have to be looking three places at once or you risk missing something.

Second, issuing commands is a pain. The game is controlled through a series of nested menus. Just about everything you want to do seems to require about a dozen mouse clicks and if you find yourself in the wrong menu you have to back all the way out and try again.

Third, there is no map! As I said, the island is huge. But, they don’t tell you where anything is! Want to put a spy at the presidential palace? Find it first. Want to spread some propaganda around the college? Find it first. Want to break someone out of jail? Find it first. There are hundreds of sectors on the island and the game doesn’t tell you what is in 99% of them (beyond “urban” or “forest” or whatever).

Fourth, the game doesn’t even give you a clue as to how to proceed. Yeah, you have an incredible amount of freedom to do whatever you want, but you have no clue as to what might or might not work or even a suggestion as to how to go about overthrowing a govenment. So you spend huge amounts of time simply trying things to see what they do.

I could go on. The most frustrating part is that the game should have been fun but wound up being too much like work. Too bad. There’s a certain amount of fun to be had in poking around in someone else’s country doing things that would have the secretary disavowing any knowledge of your actions if caught. I really wanted to enjoy this one but in the end it was just an exercise in frustration.