What's you're favorite pre-2000 game?

[Blackvertigo1]

To the point: Nowadays games seem awesome and hardcore, but what happened to the epicness and vast entertainment that can keep you going forever? Yeah, there might be a few truly awesome games for the die-hard fan now in the present, but what happened to those old games that first made you so interested in gaming and feeling the digital age opening up? I'm creating this thread to draw back the games that we took to heart and loved their play ever since.

So, I'm going to list off a few epic games that really had a cool storyline and imagination for it's time:

(Don't get mixed up with Descent saga with Descent FreeSpace, due to trademark issues with Vollition, Interplay, and Parallax Software, though the engines were quite similar.)

Descent FreeSpace: The great war
- Awesome storyline
- Great battle scenes
- Great selection of ships
- Interesting and imaginative fictional species embedded in the storyline
- Very detailed cut-scenes of combat and dialogue
- Sends you into a void of war between two advanced species (Humans and... er.. forgot) and storyline advances with introduction with a third and ultimately more powerful unknown forces.
- Main menu and gameplay go hand in hand
- Weapons specialize in unique advantages

Descent 1 & 2 (Descent 3 came later in 2000)
- Six-Axis movement ( Up, Down, Left, Right, Backwards, Forwards, Strafe, Bank)
- AI that was ahead of it's time (AI that actually felt like playing a person, on highest difficulty it is -near- impossible to advance)
- Among the first 3D-based games to render animations (laser shots, robots, levels, etc.) without needing a video card. (It's also an MS-DOS game)
- Savegames and in-game recordings using the Descent engine to view/open (Savegames were actually 3D save points represented in a in-game model mapping of all entities, in-game recordings (Demos) were actually supported by the Descent engine itself to view a video of gameplay, with Stop, Slow, Rewind, and Normal Play toggles to view the video
- Awesome FPS game that held a very interesting storyline of (Well, further going on would explain my Freelancer Character "MD-1032" Heh.) an alien nano-ware virus that turned simple mining droids and various devices into powerful ravaging bots with the need to kill anything bio-form-based
- Vast, dark, 3D levels give the player an undeniable sense of paranoia, vertigo, and suspense ultimately ending in more of it plus nimble enemies with the instinct to kill anything
- Weapons, there are a total of five primaries (guns) and five secondaries (missiles, one mine) (10+10 is only in accord to first Descent (1)) Descent 2 offers ten primaries and ten secondaries (again, five more guns, -four- more missiles, and another mine) Each weapon specialize in different ranges, damage output, re-fire rate, splash damage, and cool/unique features


Wild Metal Country (Also known as Wild Metal)
- This is the game for those who enjoy driving tanks, shooting high-yield shells, ravaging the field, and blowing **** up.
- An okay storyline following the path of a merc (there's not a lot of information given to tell about the person) that has returned to three planets (visiting one planet at a time from difficulty level easy to hard) to rid bots (that are actually the vehicles themselves ranging from air, ground, levitating, and static enemies)
on those three planets the AI became self-aware and rebelled from carbon-based lifeforms, hording the planets
- Gameplay could easily be described as an adjustable 3rd person camera view hovering over the host vehicle (the tank you drive, there are actually five start-out tanks with their own advantages)
- 3D-Models with various animations, including 3D gibbing of vehicles
- The maps (called arenas) offer full-movement (except the edges) with rolling hills, high peaks, bases (enemy outposts, sometimes unoccupied), trenches, barriers (destructable), and more.
- Good AI, not the best, but something to be worried about.
- Different ground surfaces aiding or losing traction like gliding on glaciers, skidding on rock, roving along dirt patches, clanking on metal surfaces.
- Three planets (Called in chronological order: Dessert planet, Tundra planet, and Red planet, kind of cheesy, but interesting to play on) hold different different maps that collectively focus on types of environment, like the first planet houses a desolate surface composing of sand, rock, dirt, and ancient-looking monuments. The second planet focuses on lush grass, deep glaciers, and lots of virgin rock. The third planet consists of well, it's a mesh of the last two planets, but instead, the ground is mostly composite red dirt, rock, and blue-hued developed terrain.
- Everything else is basically cool shells you can pick up by friendly helicopters (that looks like the modern-day Chinhook model heli) that drops shell cases and mine cases to pick up. Shells that can bounce, seek, shoot rapid shots, magnetically lodge enemies up-side-down (ground vehicles) while the helpless 'bot(s) can't right themselves (or if on a high ledge, fire a shot over, and watch a tank scoot off the ground and tumble down the ledge), also there are the shells that make firing something bigger, bigger. A large bomb that can be lobbed into a crowd of 'em. Instant gibbie-kasplodie.
- Mines, stated previously, comes in three nice simple types: an explosive keg of who-knows-what that goes off when a hostile hits it or it simply detonates around a minute from deployment, a magnetic mine that, when an enemy (or yourself, starts to tug you in about three seconds after deployment) ventures to close, drags it towards it (depending on the weight/mass of the vehicle) and explodes, the third one is kinda funny but VERY annoying. Hopping-Homing mine, (hops vary depending on how far you are away from it -when- it detects you) a very nifty mine that can bounce towards enemies or you (depending on who's closer) and jumps onto the target with a nice boom (lest if the targets moving, multiple hops to catch up... very annoying, yet effective if you're not the target) all weapons re-fire rather quickly, also the base shell is unlimited rounds

Gah... that's all what I remember. (For now, maybe)

These three games are my favorite pre-2000 games, but you can post others if you've played 'em or not.

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"The path to hell is paved with good intentions."

* Nodoka Hanamura is all about that SSH life

"There are more things in Heaven and Earth than are dreamt of in your philosophy - from our odyssey into Hell, we have returned with a gift."

[Rudo]

River City Ransom.

I don't need to say anything else.

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[Benjamin]

Yeah games were better before, genuinely. All I really like games for now is multiplayer and gameplay. Stories, settings, characters - all that stuff is shocking right now.

But to pay my dues here are my top 3 games from the past with characters who were relatable, dialogue that was great, stories that were engaging blah blah blah.

Each one is a double-whammy because dudes could make sequels back in the day. The same game but with a jump button is not a sequel.

3. Suikoden & Suikoden II

Yeah, you have to overthrow the corrupt government, you get your own castle, you have to recruit 108 friends to do it with, some of your friends die, you do big wars and little fights and there's an unbelievably long and in depth cooking minigame. Doesn't have the sheen of my 2 and 1 picks, but it has a whole lot of charm and a whole lot of heart. Japanese as hell, in that way where they try and portray Europe. Even the bad stuff in this game is endearing.

2. Fallout & Fallout 2


Really, Fallout 2 is the best game I've ever played, and I'm 99% sure it will be the best game I ever play. Only reason it's in the #2 slot is because I played #1 when I was younger and grew up with it. Fallout 2 is so good, and all other games since so much worse, that it is actually depressing. You can kill every single person in the game, or you can kill no one at all, and can complete the game just fine either way. You can play it any way you want. You can even play it as much as you want. You can finish the game in ~20 minutes if you so desire, or you can quite easily spend days talking to each of the unbelievably well-written NPCs and doing all their subquests. Fallout 1 is basically the same yeah, just not quite as good, but tighter at the same time. Less scope for freedom but the plot and setting are more involved as a result.

1. Final Fantasy VII & Final Fantatsy VIII

Yeah the big boys. Ignore all the shocking atrocities committed under the final fantasy franchise. Yeah, all the ones before 7 were awful. Yeah, all the ones after 8 were awful (well, 10 was okay.) Hell, even the last 25% of 8 is actually pretty bad. Every single FF7 spin-off has been shockingly gross. But take these two games, 7 especially, at face value, and you wont find anything better today. 8 was a little more reaslitic in a few ways, but 7 was dramatic. 7's story felt genuinely important and relevant. Gushy gush.

Basically, FF7 and Fallout 2 are the only videogames I would say are 'good.' A few are average, all the rest are bad.

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[Marlene_Humperdink]

Ultima 7: The Black Gate & The Serpent Isle.
Get it on some dos nostalgia site.
Do you guys remember playing "Wing Commander" on your rich friend's 386 and "Elite" on your Atari ST? Those 2 made this.

[Patrician]

Probably Harpoon
EGA Graphics-Look it up.

Although Fallout was awfully good.

[dudeicoft]

Command and Conquer: Tiberian Sun

Best strategy game of its time... By far.

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"Entrepreneurs are simply those who understand that there is little difference between obstacle and opportunity and are able to turn both to their advantage."
---Niccolo Machiavelli

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[Zukeenee]

RIVEN
The Sequel to MYST.


There is no game out there, even today, that can stand up to Riven. In my eyes, at least.

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[ugliestmoose]

I'll back up Benjamin's claim of Fallout 2 as my favorite game - I'll never forget how devilishly fun it was to sell my companions off into slavery and try to beat the game addicted to every drug I could find, haha. It's amazingly balanced, so that you can choose to be Mother Teresa or a serial killer (or Ron Jeremy...ewww) and no one path feels gimmicky and undeveloped. It's the closest you will ever get to an "RPG" in the truest sense of the word.

I also would highly suggest Final Fantasy 5, which was never released proper outside of Japan (I think it's available for PS1 now though). Surprisingly, the story really sucks but the combat more than makes up for it. It was the only FF game until that point (and still is, for all I know--I haven't played any of the later ones) where each character could be assigned any class you wanted, and you could switch their class at any time and mix-and-match all the best abilities. It was brilliant and actually made level-grinding a lot of fun, and I don't understand why they don't do this more often. Oh, and the soundtrack kicked ass.

[sean24]

Age of Empires II. Twas the first game I ever played *sniffle*.

[blubba]

About 30 years ago, I started playing Pheonix and Galaxians. I couldn't get the hang of Defender but Crusader was pretty good (Crusader was Defender but with a joystick instead of buttons). Space invaders was so boring and I could clock it with just one 10p coin. Then I fell in love with Battlezone.
Around then I got a home 'computer' and played Jet Set Willy, Chaos and some other game you fly around the moons surface shooting things. Great stuff but suddenly arrived a game that ate my life. It was called 'Elite'.
You traded around a huge galaxy and when you'd had enough in there, you'd buy hyper drives and jump to the next one. I think there were eight galaxys but hundreds of planets in each one.
You could up-grade your 'Cobra MKIII' trade ship with loads of different goodies and it was a great fighter as well. Shield batts and nanobots, system coolers for gas giant/sun skimming for H-fuel. Cargo scoops for piracy and if that wasn't enough, the THARGOIDS (or Thargons...). Nasty alien flying saucers which were really tough and spewed out smaller copies of themselves with guns. If you killed the mother ship, all the baby ships went lifeless and you sucked them up to sell as something like alien organisms....
All that reimnds me of another game...anywho.

I moved on as my computer did through the years from a ZX81, ZX Spectrum and Atari ST to a PC. The first game I got on my PC was a little known title called Command and Conquer. It stayed as my favorite RTS game until Total Annhilation arrived. In between was Baldurs Gate and it's many expansions and then Fallout 1 and later 2. At this point I started playing multiplayer with a group friends. Quake was the start up for this but we moved on to Unreal, Half Life, Battlefield and the heart attack waiting to happen, AVP II.
Still play the multiplayers but not so often. I've was overtaken by my son who was less than ten at the time :$
Now, besides Freelancer, I play Total War and a few other RTS games, non of which are pre 2000 games.

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