Wow, 20 posts in and no one has mentioned The Seventh Guest, first released in 1993 and to this day a remarkable game that’s been re-released multiple times and still enjoyable today. I can still play it today on Windows 7 via a DOS emulator. Perhaps one of the most immersive video games ever made, and praised by Bill Gates as “the new standard in interactive entertainment”.
The basic story line is that you’re one of seven guests in a spooky old mansion and have to solve a series of puzzles created by its former owner and now haunted by his evil spirit. Each puzzle you solve advances the story line with more spooky scenes and allows you to explore more of the house. The quality of the live action video clips and generated graphics was outstanding for its time, and the creativity is still impressive today.
Galaga was my main game in the 80s. There was a Galaga on my college campus that I and another guy took turns on making new high scores. We had completely different styles- he played for points, I played to survive. So when I watched him play I’d marvel at his ability to wait out situations that might get him killed, to squeeze the maximum points out of the game. And when he watched me play he’d say whoa, I never saw this level yet!
My favorite game of all time is Jak and Daxter: The Precursor Legacy, released for the PS2 in 2001. It’s my son’s favorite game too. He still plays it all the way through every year.
The game was notable for its graphics and lack of visible loading screens between levels.
In college, my favorite game was an old arcade game released in 1986 called Rygar.
Created by Interplay. Published by Electronic Arts. When Interplay wanted to make a sequel, EA–who as publisher of the original owned the intellectual property for the name (though Interplay owned the actual game IP)–wanted a huge amount of money to release the name to Interplay, who had grown to the point they had they’re own publishing wing.
Instead of playing EAs game, Interplay released Fallout as a spiritual sequel.
After Brian Fargo left [got forced out] Interplay and formed inXile, he was eventually able to acquire the rights to the Wasteland name and make an actual sequel. By then, Interplay had folded and Bethesda owned the rights to the Fallout franchise, which they would license to Obsidian to make Fallout: New Vegas and now all three companies are owned by Microsoft.
I’m not much of a gamer, but there was a time in the mid-80s when I was very much at the vanguard of early gaming systems in my hometown. I was one of the 3 students in my class who not only played video games regularly, but also owned a computer (a good old C128 that my parents had bought for my 12th birthday).
I have very fond memories of Infogrames’ Madragore (1985). I spent entire weekends playing that game. The map system was completely new to me at the time, and I was fascinated with how huge the world seemed compared to the other games that I had.
The main goal was nothing fancy, explore the map, visitdungeons, solve puzzles and fight random monsters, including some which would pop up suddenly as you were just wanderingaround the map.
I forgot Castle Wolfenstein (also 1981). So bad by today’s standards but I really loved that game (and it was legit good for its time…there is a reason it has been re-made and excellent re-makes at that).
This game blew my mind as a kid. A few years ago I tried playing a Flash version online and I quickly lost interest: I forgot about random encounters and messing around with spell components, among other systems that didn’t age well.
On the other hand, I played the arcade game Golden Axe: The Revenge of Death Adder (from 1992) last year and all the fond memories I have of that game came flooding back.
Silent Service 2 was such a great convergence of slow stalking, fast and furious hits and maneuvers, and sometimes followed by creeping away to avoid counterattacks all with limited resources of fuel, battery power (for underwater propulsion), and torpedoes (with unlimited ammo for surface guns), all with the potential to take damage and keep on fighting.
Technically there was nothing groundbreaking on the use of graphics but how it all came together was amazing.
This one. Beaten it dozens of times. There is no branching storyline, it’s always the same, but I keep playing it again anyways, usually with less and less gear so there’s some challenge. Last time I played it, I used only melee weapons or fists.
Is that F-19 Stealth Fighter (aka. Project: Stealth Fighter) or F-117A Stealth Fighter? I played the crap out of the former on my C64 and managed to figure out how to play the game with no documentation whatsoever (it was a crack.)
Gateway to Apshai was fun to play (and better than Temple). But while I think Ultima IV has aged reasonably well (some might disagree, there are certainly tedious parts, but plenty of it is surprisingly well designed and seems to have been widely borrowed), I don’t know about Apshai. It is not very complex. But it is fun, and it has black mambas to watch out for.
Not sure these are up to the standards of others, but I spent too much time playing Myst, Doom, Duke Nukem and Star Wars: Tie Fighter on the PC, along with Goldeneye on the N64.
