# Best old-time computer game



## jonathanmoeller (Apr 19, 2011)

Lately I've been playing a lot of MASTER OF ORION II. The game came out in 1996, but it's still splendidly replayable 16 years later. You choose a specific race with particular strengths and weaknesses, and start out with one planet. From there, you have to build an empire that spans the galaxy, while managing your race's technology, population, industry, and military. 

It strikes me that this is the definition of a classic game - 16 years old, but I still play it on a regular basis.

What do you think is the best classic computer game?


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## JimC1946 (Aug 6, 2009)

I go back a lot further than that. I remember playing some great games on my Commodore 64 in the early- to mid-1980s. I hate to think how much time I spent on games like _Ducks Ahoy_. I can still hear the silly theme music playing in my head!


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## Simon Haynes (Mar 14, 2011)

Old time for me is the ZX81/Sinclair Spectrum era in 1982/3 ;-)  Gaming is my third major passion after writing (2nd) and computer programming (1st)

Speaking with my gamer hat on I love gog.com with all those old games available DRM-free. I'm also a huge fan of Steam, where I'll happily spend hours browsing & buying titles (especially with the Summer & Xmas sales)

And don't get me started on Dosbox/D-fend reloaded for emulating the real old classics, or ScummVM, or ...

Back to specifics, I love Transport Tycoon Deluxe, and the freebie clone OpenTTD.  I still play Dungeon Master (ST version) on an emulator from time to time, and my all-time fave adventure is The Last Express (also on GOG.)

No One Lives Forever 1 and 2 were great games - female James Bond with a ton of very funny NPC dialogue.

And I can't go past Total Annihilation for my all-time favourite game. Utterly absorbing battles, and once you get a couple of Big Bertha cannon going it's party time!


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## JezStrider (Jun 19, 2012)

King's Quest 6!

It was one of the first computer games I played outside of school.  I played it through so many times.


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## Simon Haynes (Mar 14, 2011)

I think we had an advert/mobile for that one hanging up in the computer shop where I used to work. (Around 1990/1991)

I finished most of the Space Quest games ... now you're talking ;-)


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## JezStrider (Jun 19, 2012)

Ooh, I thought of another one I loved!  Grim Fandango!  

Apparently, I had a love of adventure games when I was younger. haha.


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## The Hooded Claw (Oct 12, 2009)

jonathanmoeller said:


> Lately I've been playing a lot of MASTER OF ORION II. The game came out in 1996, but it's still splendidly replayable 16 years later. You choose a specific race with particular strengths and weaknesses, and start out with one planet. From there, you have to build an empire that spans the galaxy, while managing your race's technology, population, industry, and military.


I loved that exact game, as well as the predecessor (Yes, Master of Orion with no Roman numeral attached). Sid Meier was in charge of a whole series of what some people called "God Games" where you were in charge of a culture for a prolonged period of time. The original one was Civilization, which was also a series (I believe they are on Civ V now, it is still going). I still play a "lite" version of it on my iPad regularly. There was also a one-shot called Sid Meier's Alpha Centauri where you lead a group of colonists on another star, and dealt with the local aliens as well as rival groups of colonists motivated by different ideologies (and the ideologies affected what you could do in the game). Lots of fun!

Going further back, on my old Atari 800 I loved Jumpman and Choplifter.










Choplifter had the positive point that rather than being a shoot 'em up, your goal was to rescue "hostages." You could shoot enemy tanks and planes, but didn't improve your score by doing it, and heaven help you if you shot a hostage by accident! The above screenshot is apparently from an Apple II, but the Atari screen was very similar.










In Jumpman, you maneuvered your acrobatic little man through a series of mazes with different rules, grabbing all the "berries." Meaningless, but fun.


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## ◄ Jess ► (Apr 21, 2010)

Star Control II is still a great game and very entertaining. I think it came out in 1992.


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## kmgiven (Jul 3, 2012)

I wasn't allowed very many computer games as a kid, but I have fond memories of SimAnt, Oregon Trail, and Civilization I. I still sometimes play Civilization I (and like it better than the newer versions), so I guess that gets my vote.


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## geoffthomas (Feb 27, 2009)

Do games from the Atari 400/800 qualify?
Like Wizard of Wor?


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## Scheherazade (Apr 11, 2009)

I really loved Wizard of Wor. Jumpman Jr. was also the first game I bought with my own money. I remember because Toys 'R' Us had it priced incorrectly. Instead of it being $39.99, they had it priced $3.99. Can you believe games were still $40 and $50 over thirty years ago? And people complain about paying those prices today, that was like spending $140 per game, not to mention how much the consoles were. I had an Atari 400 and an 800XL with the tape machine backup, so mine was technically a computer. We also had a Commodore 64, Vic-20, and TI-99 all with tape machines and even a voice emulator for the TI-99.

I remember there was a game based on The Last Starfighter that was really good. It was kind of one of the first almost open world sandbox games I remember and you could zoom around from planet to planet. In terms of games for all these systems, there's just too many to name.

If we're talking old DOS Games... I didn't get my hands on too many but I remember playing King's Quest, Zork, Forgotten Realms RPGs, Discworld, Lemmings, Populous, Battle Chess, quite a few Dungeons and Dragons games, Pitfall 2, Ultima... it seems like even back then I had quite the penchant for fantasy RPG type titles.

There's a site called Good Old Games you guys might want to check out, at http://www.gog.com/ where they have tons of these games. They don't just make them available (DRM Free no less), but they also tweak them to perform on today's machines, and give you every single extra they can get their hands on. Soundtracks, pdfs of the original booklets, box art, maps, any bonus content with interviews... literally anything they can get their hands on and digitize. And most of the games sell for less than $10 with a good many of them as low as $6.


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## Linjeakel (Mar 17, 2010)

Simon Haynes said:


> I think we had an advert/mobile for that one hanging up in the computer shop where I used to work. (Around 1990/1991)
> 
> I finished most of the Space Quest games ... now you're talking ;-)


OMG - Space Quest - I remember that from, what would it have been? The 80s? And Leisure Suit Larry - that was so funny. We played those at work in our lunch breaks all the time.

Now I feel really old!


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## Mike D. aka jmiked (Oct 28, 2008)

Zork is in first place for me, no doubt about it. I first played it on an Atari 800 back when the game first came out. I still play it (and other Infocom games) on an iPad once in a while.

Second would be Shamus, which I obsessed on for months until I got to the end of the first level.

Third would be Airball, which I played on an Atari ST. I mourn the loss of the extensive map that I drew while playing. I later played the DOS version, but it didn't have the graphics that the ST did.

Honorable mention goes to Time Bandit, a game which only was produced for the Atari ST (as far as I know). It had a huge world to roam around in, with multiple time periods. My brother an I spent a lot of time on this one. I don't know of anybody that finished this game (or even came close).

These days, my gaming time is spent almost exclusively on the Tomb Raider series, mostly on user-created levels, many of which are more enjoyable then the commercial ones.

I also do a lot of flight sim time, but I don't lump that in with games.   

Mike


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## Aaron Scott (May 27, 2012)

Seems to me there was one for the Commodore 64 back in the day called Aztec or Aztek, that was Indiana Jones-ish.  Also there was the chess style game Arkon.


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## Scheherazade (Apr 11, 2009)

jmiked said:


> Second would be Shamus, which I obsessed on for months until I got to the end of the first level.


Gah! Shamus... I still have nightmares about that hopping thing that would chase you off the screen if you spent too long on a room.


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## geoffthomas (Feb 27, 2009)

Scheherazade said:


> Gah! Shamus... I still have nightmares about that hopping thing that would chase you off the screen if you spent too long on a room.


Yeah I liked Shamus too.


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## JimC1946 (Aug 6, 2009)

Simon Haynes said:


> Old time for me is the ZX81/Sinclair Spectrum era in 1982/3 ;-)


The Timex/Sinclair was my first computer. I bought it in the fall of 1981 at KMart for $100, then went back the next day and paid another $50 for the 16K memory module. I bought a Sams book and taught myself a little Z80 programming. I loved that little machine.


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## geoffthomas (Feb 27, 2009)

Yeah some of these early machines were fun:


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## Geemont (Nov 18, 2008)

They have already been mentioned before: Zork, Aztec, and Simcity.


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## JimC1946 (Aug 6, 2009)

And then there's Lunar Lander. An ancient game, but I loved it.


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## jonathanmoeller (Apr 19, 2011)

> And don't get me started on Dosbox/D-fend reloaded for emulating the real old classics, or ScummVM, or ...


DOSBox is superb. What's great is that there is a Linux version, so you can play old-timey DOS games on a Linux box.



> There's a site called Good Old Games you guys might want to check out, at http://www.gog.com/ where they have tons of these games. They don't just make them available (DRM Free no less), but they also tweak them to perform on today's machines, and give you every single extra they can get their hands on. Soundtracks, pdfs of the original booklets, box art, maps, any bonus content with interviews... literally anything they can get their hands on and digitize. And most of the games sell for less than $10 with a good many of them as low as $6.


I think a site like GOG.com is great - it's to gaming what KDP is to writers. One of their recent big hits, LEGEND OF GRIMROCK, was an indie-produced game.



> I loved that exact game, as well as the predecessor (Yes, Master of Orion with no Roman numeral attached). Sid Meier was in charge of a whole series of what some people called "God Games" where you were in charge of a culture for a prolonged period of time. The original one was Civilization, which was also a series (I believe they are on Civ V now, it is still going). I still play a "lite" version of it on my iPad regularly. There was also a one-shot called Sid Meier's Alpha Centauri where you lead a group of colonists on another star, and dealt with the local aliens as well as rival groups of colonists motivated by different ideologies (and the ideologies affected what you could do in the game). Lots of fun!


I absolutely loved a game called MASTER OF MAGIC - it's basically CIVILIZATION but with high-powered sorcery. Also available on GOG.com!


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## geoffthomas (Feb 27, 2009)

A more recent game that I really enjoyed was ROTT (Return Of The Triad).


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## Annalog (Dec 28, 2008)

I read the title of this thread to DH and he named my favorite game from our early VIC 20 days: Sword of Fargoal! It was his favorite as well.


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## Chad Winters (Oct 28, 2008)

Annalog said:


> I read the title of this thread to DH and he named my favorite game from our early VIC 20 days: Sword of Fargoal! It was his favorite as well.


That is available cheap on iOS (iPad, iPhone, etc.) and had pretty good reviews
http://www.fargoal.com/


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## Simon Haynes (Mar 14, 2011)

jmiked said:


> I also do a lot of flight sim time, but I don't lump that in with games.
> 
> Mike


Same here - my first Flight Sim was on the ZX81, and I think I still have the cassette tape somewhere. Flight Sim 2 on the Atari ST was the first really usable FS I owned, and there have been a string of them since then. I reckon I put most hours into FS5.1, including developing some scenery around Albany (Western Australia) for a public domain release, and a number of navigation maps I drew in Corel Draw.


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## Math (Oct 13, 2011)

If you are lucky enough to have an iPad, buy the Atari app. It has all the old arcade machine games and console cartridge games perfectly emulated. I still can't believe how many 10p pieces I fed into those machines 30+ years ago. It seems like last summer..

In the arcade, I loved Asteroids, Battlezone, and the first exciting game with a steering wheel..Pole Position!

I remember Manic Miner for the C64, and of course, the game that swallowed up whole days of my life...Elite.

IMHO, the game changers (sorry) for me were Pong, Space Invaders, Pacman, Manic Miner, Elite, Flight Simulator, Doom, Quake, and then Half-Life, which I think with Counterstrike spawned the whole Call of Duty Internet play revolution.

I think something other people our age will vividly remember is that feeling of amazement and awe when seeing something groundbreaking for the first time. And it happened time after time. I don't get that now. The expectation is just too high. Realistic heat-haze explosions and Dexter-like blood spatter...meh...so what....


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## Amera (May 22, 2011)

jonathanmoeller said:


> Lately I've been playing a lot of MASTER OF ORION II. The game came out in 1996, but it's still splendidly replayable 16 years later. You choose a specific race with particular strengths and weaknesses, and start out with one planet. From there, you have to build an empire that spans the galaxy, while managing your race's technology, population, industry, and military.
> 
> It strikes me that this is the definition of a classic game - 16 years old, but I still play it on a regular basis.
> 
> What do you think is the best classic computer game?


I played MOO2 an absurdly unhealthy amount back then. The same part is that no one has really come out with a 4x space sim that is as good. The galactic civ games are okay, but they're kind of slow and lack the fun combat. I bought the pack on GoG for $5 or something a while back.


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## Annalog (Dec 28, 2008)

Chad Winters said:


> That is available cheap on iOS (iPad, iPhone, etc.) and had pretty good reviews
> http://www.fargoal.com/


Thanks! Too bad I don't have any iThings.


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## Susan in VA (Apr 3, 2009)

Battle Chess, because the graphics were (unintentionally?) hilarious.    I see that GOG.com has it, and I might have to revisit that....


I admit to staring at the title of this thread for several long seconds trying to juxtapose the two concepts of "old-time" and "computers".


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## Simon Haynes (Mar 14, 2011)

The stand-out 'wow the future just arrived early' game for me was Knight Lore on the ZX Spectrum. I'd never heard of it, and I loaded it up from a dodgy C90 cassette loaned to me by a friend. The loading screen for the game was missing, so I didn't know what was going to happen until the screen cleared and ... wow. Ultimate Play the Game was the company responsible, but they've been known as 'Rare' for years now.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Knight_Lore


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## NogDog (May 1, 2009)

Around 1976 (+/- 1 year) I first played the Star Trek game on the university's mainframe (using my roommate's account), playing on a teletype terminal -- which means after a couple hours of playing there was a couple of reams of fan-fold paper on the floor.

Next year, they upgraded the computer lab so we could play on a CRT terminal:


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## jonathanmoeller (Apr 19, 2011)

> I played MOO2 an absurdly unhealthy amount back then. The same part is that no one has really come out with a 4x space sim that is as good.


No one game's been quite as good. And MOO 3 sucked, alas.


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## *Sandy Harper* (Jun 22, 2011)

Donky kong. I hope I am recalling the name right


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## Annalog (Dec 28, 2008)

NogDog said:


> Around 1976 (+/- 1 year) I first played the Star Trek game on the university's mainframe (using my roommate's account), playing on a teletype terminal -- which means after a couple hours of playing there was a couple of reams of fan-fold paper on the floor.
> 
> Next year, they upgraded the computer lab so we could play on a CRT terminal:


I remember playing that at a SF convention (TusCon IV?) on a CRT about that time. There was a line of people waiting to play!


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## Simon Haynes (Mar 14, 2011)

We had Star Trek on the Microbees at high school in 1984. I printed off the entire source code listing and spent many happy hours trying to rework it for the ZX Spectrum. (Never got past marking up the source, but I taught myself more with that printout than the kids were learning in formal computer lessons. I wasn't allowed to study computing because I'd only just emigrated from Spain, and had absolutely no computer background. Now I work as a computer programmer, so I guess things evened out...)


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## LaRita (Oct 28, 2008)

Does anyone remember Sentinal Worlds?  My boys and I spent hours and hours playing that one; it was in the early/mid eighties sometime.


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## Mike D. aka jmiked (Oct 28, 2008)

LaRita said:


> Does anyone remember Sentinal Worlds? My boys and I spent hours and hours playing that one; it was in the early/mid eighties sometime.


I spent quite a lot of time playing that, also. I still have my copy around in a packing box somewhere.

Mike


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## Simon Haynes (Mar 14, 2011)

Is that a sequel to Sentinel, or the same game renamed? There was a game called Sentinel on the Atari ST (maybe even the ZX), where you started down low in a valley and had to teleport upwards using squares where the surfaces were just below eye level. There was a statue thing which turned regularly (the Sentinel, I guess), which could fry you with its eyes. And you could consume trees and rocks for additional power.


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## balaspa (Dec 27, 2009)

Missile Command!


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## LaRita (Oct 28, 2008)

Simon Haynes said:


> Is that a sequel to Sentinel, or the same game renamed? There was a game called Sentinel on the Atari ST (maybe even the ZX), where you started down low in a valley and had to teleport upwards using squares where the surfaces were just below eye level. There was a statue thing which turned regularly (the Sentinel, I guess), which could fry you with its eyes. And you could consume trees and rocks for additional power.


Sentinal Worlds is a space exploration game where you visit different planets for resources to build up your ship and crew, fight invaders, travel through wormholes, and all kinds of fun stuff like that. I don't really remember the ultimate goal or if we ever got close to "winning," but we sure had a lot of fun with it.


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## Lyndl (Apr 2, 2010)

I never _played_ Grim Fandango, but my sewing room is opposite our computer room and I used to sew and listen to it while my husband played it. It was like listening to a play on the radio, I loved it!

My early favourites were Dune 2000 and Emperor. Age of Empires 1 & 2 ( couldn't quite get into 3) and early Command & Conquer 
_(That was left-handed!)_

Video games I loved were original Zelda, SuperFrog and Super Mario Bros 3.


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## Simon Haynes (Mar 14, 2011)

My wife is an Age of Empires III nut. She's such a peaceful person, but she'll send her little people into battle like a bloodthirsty axe-wielding maniac.


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## Natasha Holme (May 26, 2012)

I was playing Tetris for four hours every evening twelve years ago. I had to ban myself in the end.


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## sebat (Nov 16, 2008)

Zork 2 was the first computer game I was addicted to.  My next 2 favorites would have to be Space Quest and Leisure Suit Larry and they pretty well tie for second place.


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## Indy (Jun 7, 2010)

I miss Gorillas and Bananas, it was an old dos-shell game.


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## Simon Haynes (Mar 14, 2011)

All you need is Dosbox ...

Looks like there's a wikipedia page for the game too: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gorillas_%28video_game%29

The source for the game is on that page.


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## JezStrider (Jun 19, 2012)

NatashaHolme said:


> I was playing Tetris for four hours every evening twelve years ago. I had to ban myself in the end.


I remember playing Tetris nonstop in my elementary school years on the original Gameboy. I would literally put shapes together in my mind when I wasn't playing. Terrible. haha.


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## jonathanmoeller (Apr 19, 2011)

> I remember playing Tetris nonstop in my elementary school years on the original Gameboy. I would literally put shapes together in my mind when I wasn't playing.


That's how I've gotten several people to try Ubuntu - you can install a Tetris clone, Quadrapassel, that doesn't require an Internet connection.


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## Flopstick (Jul 19, 2011)

Rescue on Fractalus. It was worth sitting watching a tape go round for 45 minutes to get to play that. I saw on Youtube that some guy is working on a remake, which I can't wait to play with.

After that, the Amiga was simply awash with amazing games, I think that was when gaming reached its peak for me. Which reminds me, I need to check and see how they're doing with that Pandora handheld thing and Amiga emulation on it.

More recently, but still not terribly recently, the first System Shock game is still my all-time favourite. Sadly, it seems the uncertainty over who owns the rights to it probably mean we'll never get to see a remake. Of course, about the same time, a little game called Doom came out too. First proper FPS, first game I recall that actively encouraged modding, first action game to emphasize online / network multiplayer - I'd say that was even more seminal than Half Life.



jmiked said:


> These days, my gaming time is spent almost exclusively on the Tomb Raider series, mostly on user-created levels,


I did not even realise that was a thing. Sounds interesting.


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## Chad Winters (Oct 28, 2008)

Simon Haynes said:


> All you need is Dosbox ...
> 
> Looks like there's a wikipedia page for the game too: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gorillas_%28video_game%29
> 
> The source for the game is on that page.


I used dosbox not too long ago to play the first Master of Orion again. For some reason I always preferred the simplicity of the first one to the complexity of the 2nd one.


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## RedGolum (Nov 2, 2011)

NogDog said:


> Around 1976 (+/- 1 year) I first played the Star Trek game on the university's mainframe (using my roommate's account), playing on a teletype terminal -- which means after a couple hours of playing there was a couple of reams of fan-fold paper on the floor.
> 
> Next year, they upgraded the computer lab so we could play on a CRT terminal:


I played that a lot in high school! We had a few old Apple II's floating around, and we would play Star Trek during study hall.
A favorite of mine was XCOM. Mid 90's, but still one of the best turn based combat games around.


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## Simon Haynes (Mar 14, 2011)

The XCOM series is available from steamgames.com  When you install it, it runs under Dosbox so it's compatible with just about any hardware.


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## D.A. Boulter (Jun 11, 2010)

My first contact with computer games was at college -- back around 1976, with the Star Trek game mentioned above. But I never really knew the rules and only had limited time on the computer -- played maybe 3 or 4 hours total.

Then came Zork in 1985. A bit frustrating -- never did figure out how to open the egg until last year when I went hunting for Zork on the net and found a cheat-sheet. Got eaten by a lot of grues.

I like Civilization II -- never played Civ I and had limited fun with III. Couldn't get into Alpha Centauri. I'm actually just finishing a game of Civ II now. I'm not sure why I play it any more. I've figured out the secret of winning, where no other civilization has much of a chance at all. Thus, it pretty much becomes wasting time for the sake of wasting time.

As for Arcade games: In 1984, which I spent in Winnipeg at a technical school, I came across this:










It stole many a quarter from me. I became quite adept at it, and when the comic shop that had the console got rid of it, I felt somewhat bereft.


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## Simon Haynes (Mar 14, 2011)

MAME plus a bit of searching around will bring back those fave memories.


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## Atunah (Nov 20, 2008)

Scheherazade said:


> There's a site called Good Old Games you guys might want to check out, at http://www.gog.com/ where they have tons of these games. They don't just make them available (DRM Free no less), but they also tweak them to perform on today's machines, and give you every single extra they can get their hands on. Soundtracks, pdfs of the original booklets, box art, maps, any bonus content with interviews... literally anything they can get their hands on and digitize. And most of the games sell for less than $10 with a good many of them as low as $6.


Why, oh whyyyyyyyyyyy did you have to post that site . They have the Longest Journey, and Syberia. I am a late starter in gaming. I never owned a console until I got a Wii. I played very few online games, besides card games and such. But I discovered I love the kind of games like Longest Journey. I am not versed on the abbreviations and what is what in gaming, but I know I don't like shooting and killing and I don't like fighting dragons and such. But I like puzzles and trying to figure things out. 
I had a CD set of Longest journey a few years ago, but I had a XP then, so I think I am going to try the one from Gog. I stepped on the CD a while back. . I really hope I can get it to work on Win7, even though it doesn't have it listed.

So those are the kind of games, whatever they are called, I would have liked, had I played any when they first came out. 

We did have an Atari game when I was a kid, but it was mostly my older brother's, who in turn ended up in computer related works. I don't know the model name, it had cartridges you stuck in the top. One I remember was motorcycles jumping over somthing. . And I remember playing pole position at my uncles. My brother had this tape thingy attached to things. I think he loaded games from it? Its been too long to remember.

Now watch me get stuck on playing games for hours.


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## JezStrider (Jun 19, 2012)

Atunah said:


> Why, oh whyyyyyyyyyyy did you have to post that site . They have the Longest Journey, and Syberia. I am a late starter in gaming. I never owned a console until I got a Wii. I played very few online games, besides card games and such. But I discovered I love the kind of games like Longest Journey. I am not versed on the abbreviations and what is what in gaming, but I know I don't like shooting and killing and I don't like fighting dragons and such. But I like puzzles and trying to figure things out.
> I had a CD set of Longest journey a few years ago, but I had a XP then, so I think I am going to try the one from Gog. I stepped on the CD a while back. . I really hope I can get it to work on Win7, even though it doesn't have it listed.
> 
> So those are the kind of games, whatever they are called, I would have liked, had I played any when they first came out.
> ...


I actually just bought the Longest Journey and it's sequel on Steam. You would probably like The Monkey Island games, too.


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## Simon Haynes (Mar 14, 2011)

I don't think I've bought a game on GOG yet which DIDN'T work on Win7 (and I have the 64-bit pro version, for extra incompatibility goodness.)

My gog account has half their catalogue in it, so it's a pretty good sample.

I like Steam because of the auto-updates, but gog is better for the older games which aren't having DLC and patches applied every other week.


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## Scheherazade (Apr 11, 2009)

I just found The Longest Journey, myself. Ragnar Tørnquist has quickly become one of my favorite game developers in the last few months. I actually found out about him because of a new MMO called The Secret World that just came out not long ago. He's the Senior Producer and is one of the most amiable and down to earth developers of a large game that I've had the pleasure to be a customer of. He has put in tons of references to The Longest Journey and Dreamfall in The Secret World, so being the completionist I am, I need to play them both so I'm in on the know.

Of course there's tons of references to literature and history and movies and even internet culture that I may never truly appreciate in their entirety. I know a good deal of the game's first half is very inspired by Lovecraft and I have not read word one from him. But yeah... I haven't played a game like it in a long time, much less an MMO. There's actual puzzles that make you think, mysteries you need to do research to solve, and the atmosphere of the game and the little Easter Eggs hidden all over the place make you feel like you're part of some secret club when you notice them.

Anyway... like I said, I just bought The Longest Journey and Dreamfall on GOG. Then I bought them again when Steam had them on sale for like $2.50 last week. I really need to buckle down and play them. Then I got the Monkey Island series as well, another milestone in gaming I never played. So I have plenty to keep me busy. I like Steam because it has all my games in one easy to find spot, but like you said, GOG is awesome for older games and no DRM to worry about locking you out of them down the road.

For those of you curious about Ragnar's spiritual successor to The Longest Journey and Dreamfall... http://www.thesecretworld.com/. Though he did say he was planning an actual sequel.


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## Simon Haynes (Mar 14, 2011)

Wow - good timing. GOG are having a 50% off sale this weekend on a bunch of old games - including dreamfall.

(Just in case this sounds like promo, I don't work for gog or have anything to do with them. Just a customer.)


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## Atunah (Nov 20, 2008)

Good to know, about the sale. I did get Longest Journey, of course now they have a sale on it,  and I have been playing a bit last night. Unfortunately, it doesn't look as it did when I had the disks. The characters are very very pixelated. I can't even see their faces  .
But I guess that is what you get with old games and newer computers and all these different graphic cards. 

Off to check GOG.


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## NapCat (retired) (Jan 17, 2011)

Is it possible no one here has mentioned the classics ?


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## Simon Haynes (Mar 14, 2011)

Atunah said:


> Good to know, about the sale. I did get Longest Journey, of course now they have a sale on it, and I have been playing a bit last night. Unfortunately, it doesn't look as it did when I had the disks. The characters are very very pixelated. I can't even see their faces .
> But I guess that is what you get with old games and newer computers and all these different graphic cards.
> 
> Off to check GOG.


I'm pretty sure there are fixes for this. Try setting the resolution through the options screen, and if not check the manual/search gog's forums.


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## Tony Richards (Jul 6, 2011)

What, no one misses computerized ping-pong? Kind of soothing in a hypnotic way, as I seem to recall.


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## D.A. Boulter (Jun 11, 2010)

I almost forgot:

WING COMMANDER

I bought my first desktop in order to play this game after reading reviews.


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## GreenThumb (Mar 29, 2009)

Scheherazade said:


> There's a site called Good Old Games you guys might want to check out, at http://www.gog.com/ where they have tons of these games. They don't just make them available (DRM Free no less), but they also tweak them to perform on today's machines, and give you every single extra they can get their hands on. Soundtracks, pdfs of the original booklets, box art, maps, any bonus content with interviews... literally anything they can get their hands on and digitize. And most of the games sell for less than $10 with a good many of them as low as $6.


Thank you so much for this! I just downloaded Gabriel Knight: The Beast Within. I love the Gabriel Knight series, and I love Bavaria, which made this my favorite game of the era. I also have my eye on a couple of Tex Murphy games. Why don't they make games like that anymore?


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