[QUOTE=Neidhart]
Derek Smart’s Battlecruiser 3000 AD. Released about 90% unfinished, it spawned the longest flamewar ever in the comp.sys.ibm.pc.strategic newsgroup.
[/QUOTE]
SHHHHHHH! Not so loud… You don’t want to bring the Wrath of Smart™ down on these boards, do you?
[QUOTE=Enright3]
I’m definately talking about the PC version. I’ve never owned console versions of this game. I couldn’t tell you if the default controls are the same or not, but I know I could never customize the controls to my liking.
[/QUOTE]
I’ve never played it except on the console, but I’ve heard it claimed that part of the problem is that the keyboard is digital, and you really need an analog interface for lots of the controls. The PC Vice City’s helicopters are said to be very hard to fly for just that reason; there’s no moderation; you go UP ! or DOWN !.
[QUOTE=Tijuana_Golds]
It was nothing but a smoother, more cartoonish version of Civ II. The tradable resources were already part of the franchise so that was nothing new,
[/QUOTE]
Tradeable resources were not a part of Civ II. That was first implemented in Civ III.
[QUOTE=Shagnasty]
The Atari 2600 game ET is almost universally known as one of the worst games it. It is credited with making the whole video game industry crash in 1983. Several million cartridges had to be secretly destroyed by Atari and many claim they hid them in a special landfill in New Mexico. The game was poorly written to begin with but it also had bugs that made it impossible to complete under many conditions.
[/QUOTE]
I must have missed it when that was ported to the PC. 
Nope. Civ II had bonus resources that made a particular tile more productive (which, I believe, was also in the original Civ) but the resources were not tradable, nor were specifc resources necessary to the production of certain units. This alone was a massive shift in the gameplay, as did the implementation of national borders and the concept of cultural conversions. I’m also not so sure what was so unfathomable about the combat system. Although, it does remind me of another innovation in that game, the great leaders. Not as huge a deal as the other factors I’ve mentioned, but still significant, especially after the second expansion.
Big Rigs must be metioned and underlined. Do not miss out on GameSpot’s very illustrative and funny video review:
[QUOTE=Capa84]
There was a game that came out in 94 or so…it was supposed to be “simcity in space”…but the damn thing was so buggy, and there was a glitch where no matter what you did, you ran out of a certain mineral and your colony was doomed… For some reason I want to call it Outpost, but I don’t think that’s right…anyone else remember it?
[/QUOTE]
Outpost sounds right.
Amazing cutscene graphics for the time but everything else was awful.
[QUOTE=Miller]
nor were specifc resources necessary to the production of certain units.
[/QUOTE]
Hehe - having the most powerful nation in the world by far until you discover you have no oil or rubber, but your opponents are plenty. Took a bit of getting used to, that did
[QUOTE=Miller]
I’m also not so sure hat was so unfathomable about the combat system
[/QUOTE]
Reverting to the ‘my battleship has been destroyed while bombarding a Phalanx’ and 'my Mech Inf has been taken out by 3 Warriors" mode of Civ 1 was unfathomable to me. It stopped runaway victories by anyone getting too far ahead technologically, but it was damn frustrating.
[QUOTE=Miller]
I’m also not so sure what was so unfathomable about the combat system. Although, it does remind me of another innovation in that game, the great leaders. Not as huge a deal as the other factors I’ve mentioned, but still significant, especially after the second expansion.
[/QUOTE]
What frustrated me personally about the combat system in Civ III was that weight of numbers would win the day almost every time, irrespective of technology levels. I played it for a couple of months, and repeatedly encountered this. The example that really sticks in my mind was this. I’d already achieved conscription, and so my border cities had 4-5 riflemen each, fortified behind city walls (I don’t think the walls had been obsoleted yet, but I could be wrong). My aggressive neighbor declares war, pours over the border with what must have been 20 chariots. These chariots roll up to my city and win.
Now, technology is not and should not be a guaranteed win - we’re all familiar with battles like Islandhwana. But chariots attacking riflemen in prepared defensive positions in a build-up area ought to be slaughtered 999 times out of 1000, and that just wasn’t the way the system worked in Civ III. I had that happen to me again and again, and it was frustrating enough that I gave up on the game. Civ IV improved on this, and while I still didn’t like the combat system - I just don’t want to have to pay that much attention to it - it at least made some sense to me.
Granted, because I loved Civ II so much I bought Civ III as soon as it was released, so I was playing it without benefit of patches. I wouldn’t put Civ III in the worst games ever category - it was just a significant disappointment after Civ II and SMAC.