Retro Games Only You Played?

[psychic_dream]

During my formative years, I loved martial arts schtick, was more into Jackie Chan than Bruce Lee, even though his works usually leaned more into comedy. The Rush Hour trilogy was fun from start to finish, and the Adventures animated series was actually pretty decent from what I remember. I also had this game back when I was little (didn't have a memory card, so I had to speedrun my way through it), and it was quite enjoyable.The facial animations during cutscenes looked horrifying though lol

[Vergil]

I have one but I'm not telling any of you so it stays special.

[psychic_dream]

I also had fun playing picrel. It’s basically a Wuxia themed action game, kind of like Shinobi, where the main focus is on mastering the combat and getting good at it. The story borders on Bollywood-level silliness, so it’s not really an important part of the experience.

[Oyster Sauce]

I also had fun playing picrel. It’s basically a Wuxia themed action game, kind of like Shinobi, where the main focus is on mastering the combat and getting good at it. The story borders on Bollywood-level silliness, so it’s not really an important part of the experience.

[dagal]

One of these from MS-DOS era, for sure:

• Gobliiins
• Prince of Persia
• Dune 2000
• Neuromancer

Not sure if DOOM WADs would count as separate games, too

[spookyheart]

sakura note and soma bringer if that counts.

[Val the Moofia Boss]

The early pre-Traveler's Tales Lego games.

Lego Rocker Raiders: it was a unique RTS in which you played as space travellers whose got stranded and need to mine underground on a some planet to refuel their spaceship so they can get back hom. Each mission you go deeper and have to send your guys out to mine and map the area for minerals, build bases and vehicles, and deal with the hostile creatures, namely the rock monsters. Very original game.




Lego Alpha Team: it was a puzzle game in which you directed multiple different characters to different areas to complete the puzzles.

Lego Stunt Rally: you could build your own custom tracks. I think I enjoyed it more than Lego Racers 1 & 2. But I liked how in Lego Racers 2, you could race against a Martian in his mech, and against an ice monster. Drome Racers had a neat technic theme but was otherwise boring.

I also had the Lego Creator games, but having to search through the list and manually place every brick isn't fun. Didn't like the later Lego Designer for similar reasons, though it was neat to tour some of the top builds and admire how much more talented people were at the detailing.

Some of the old flash games on Lego's website. There was a 2D Knights Kingdom metroidvania. A Bionicle glatorian arena fighter game. Mixing and matching Exo-Force limbs and torsos and racing around a track. My favorite was the one where you drove the RC car around the store and did platforming to drive off the ramps to climb the shelves.




Vantage Master.

Vantage Master

It's a tactics game/SRPG where you play as a master who summons monsters (called Natials) and tries to slay the enemy master. The game looks aesthetically gorgeous.






After each battle, you loot a totem off of the enemy summoner that allows you to summon a new type of monster. There are some peculiar looking monster designs. For example, you can get a totem that is a ship-in-a-bottle, which is used to summon a winged fishbowl Natial. Cool designs.




You can be a wolfman who summons fishbowl monsters and cleaves wizards with his claymore!


The battles take place on a hex grid which allows for more interesting movement options. There is no stat or equipment micromanagement and no sidequests; the game is very focused on just getting you to the fun part of the battles. Battles are about 15-30 minutes long, so the game avoids the tedium and frustration that plagues other tactics games/SRPGs.

There are 30 battles and the game took me about 22 hours to complete it. Strangely, there is a world map but the entire game takes place on one of the four continents. The final battle takes place in a desert on a landbridge to the second continent. That being said, the game did not outstay its welcome.




The gameplay has a lot of depth to it. Natials can be one of four elements and there are type disadvantages. Water beats Fire. Fire beats Heaven. Heaven beats Earth. Earth beats Water. Earth elements tend to be slow but have high defenses and are good for digging in and entrenching a position. Heaven units can fly over terrain and are good for capturing distant positions like ley lines, or flanking. Water Natials usually move slowly over land but way faster over water. Your master can summon a magic spell that can raise or lower the water level, enabling your water units to travel further (or to landlock an enemy master's navy). There is also elevation, so you can have archer units that stand on top of hills and shoot further, while units down below can try to block line of sight by hiding behind pillars, and so on.

The game is quite hard. There is a so-called "easy mode" but it is still nonetheless quite hard. I would strongly recommend playing the game on easy.

Also had one of the most memorable challenges I've experienced in a game. Late in the story, there is a map where you start at the bottom of a hill with only one leyline to summon monsters, and you have to defeat the enemy master who starts on top of the hill (massive elevation advantage, his units have far more range going downhill while my units' range are halved by going uphill), and he has lots of leylines up there. At several points I thought I was doomed, but I persevered and managed to turn the tide and triumph. Was very satisfying.

After every 4 battles, there is a 40 second cutscene which I presume is the plot happening, but the cutscenes aren't translated (except for the last one), so don't play this for the story.

There is some fantastic music too!




The game is free to download from Falcom's website.

[Steel-Knight]

The Spy's Adventures series on DOS. They're edutainment/adventure games about countries and their states, and are pretty outdated as a result, but its an interesting time capsule. They're so old they use that white, black, magenta and cyan CGA graphics color scheme.




I think only three games exist. One that takes place in North America, one in Europe, and one in South America. Doesn't seem like they ever made any that took place in Asia, Oceania or Africa.

[Element]

[rusty_shackleford]

bunch of obscure MUDs/early MMOs that either aren't or can't be played anymore.
viewtopic.php?t=3143-old-games-that-don-t-exist-anymore

[methoxetamine]

[Tangerine]

I've played this. Delete your post.

[Kalarion]

Wibarm:

---

Targhan (of Ishar fame), I played back on my dad's 8086 with CGA:




VGA comparison:

[Irenaeus]

Let me get this straight, "Retro Games" just means old games?

Here's a hidden gem of that only I played:

[rusty_shackleford]

Wait, I've actually got one for this, as in, I'm probably one of the maybe dozen(s?) of people who played it.

Some of you may be aware that I'm attempting to catalogue every non-DOS RPG made for systems last century: viewtopic.php?t=510-the-definitive-auth ... m-pc-crpgs

When compiling the list I came across demo disks for the Commodore 128 in the Loadstar magazine.
Someone made a full Ultima-like set in Camelot with simulation elements and two separate worlds. It's called Knight's Quest.

vice-screen-20210925092422318120.png

[edit] Appears crpg addict got around to it not too long after
https://crpgaddict.blogspot.com/2023/01 ... -1991.html

[Demonic Fate]

Centurion: Defender of Rome, better known as CENTURIO.EXE in those days when MS-DOS only supported accurate Latin names

Basically a 1990 version of Total War. Strategic map, tax/diplomacy/rebellion management, real-time battles with pause where you could click and give orders to individual unit groups (as long as they were inside your general's shout circle!). Plus naval battles, which Total War wouldn't bring back until the next millennium, and multiple gladiatorial mini-games that Total War still lacks to this day.

[Tweed]

Fountain of Dreams.

[asf]

Centurion: Defender of Rome, better known as CENTURIO.EXE in those days when MS-DOS only supported accurate Latin names

Basically a 1990 version of Total War. Strategic map, tax/diplomacy/rebellion management, real-time battles with pause where you could click and give orders to individual unit groups (as long as they were inside your general's shout circle!). Plus naval battles, which Total War wouldn't bring back until the next millennium, and multiple gladiatorial mini-games that Total War still lacks to this day.

this one was famous and played by everyone

[Demonic Fate]

Centurion: Defender of Rome, better known as CENTURIO.EXE in those days when MS-DOS only supported accurate Latin names

Basically a 1990 version of Total War. Strategic map, tax/diplomacy/rebellion management, real-time battles with pause where you could click and give orders to individual unit groups (as long as they were inside your general's shout circle!). Plus naval battles, which Total War wouldn't bring back until the next millennium, and multiple gladiatorial mini-games that Total War still lacks to this day.

this one was famous and played by everyone

Was it? I literally never read a single mention of it online as an adult, unless I was specifically searching for it But if more people played it, good.

Either way, some ***** above named Prince of Motherfucking Persia so I'll just stick with this one. I can remember a few other late-80s DOS games but they're nowhere near as interesting.

[Cipher]

I don't think I played a game so obscure that no one else played it, but I do have some deep cuts that I rarely see talk about in comparison to how fun they were for me:

Whomp 'Em (NES):



Another "Megaman-like" for the NES. For the hardware, it has very good graphics and use of color and is a very nice not-megaman megaman game. It's only let down by the soundtrack which is nothing special. Also, you play as a native american.


Skyblazer (SNES):



It's basically a "spiritual" sibling to Megaman but it uses some weird mashup of Japanese and Hindu lore. Password systems, new special attacks as you advance, solid tunes. It was a good game that deserves some love.


Lords of Thunder (TruboGrafx-16):



A side scrolling shoot 'em up with very solid graphics and a superb soundtrack, the best I've heard for the genre. 4 different "characters" to play as with different attack patterns. A melee attack that deals increased damage but the problem is that, since there are NO I-FRAMES you really need to gamble and be very precise when engaging in melee. The lack of i-frames really makes the game a blast to play and improve.

Vanguard Bandits (PSX);



After playing and loving Tactics Ogre and then Final Fantasy Tactics, I scoured the land for any grid based TRPG I could find. I found some real stinkers and also some hidden gems. This one I think is underrated, it has great customization, "fantasy mechs" style which hasn't really been done in this type of games by this point in history, 2 different story paths that actually change your missions, allies and endings (very much like Tactics Ogre) and terrible voice acting that is cheesy enough to fit the style of game. It has great replay value for what it is and I rarely see anyone talk about it even amongst TRPG enjoyers.

Operation Darkness (Xbox 360)



Now, this one I know why is not talked about a lot, it has some serious jank but, it has surprisingly great English voice acting for the time. It's a WW2 setting but with vampires, occult stuff and werewolves. From the 5 games I listed this one I don't really consider a hidden "gem" more of a game that only I play since I've never seen it talked about anywhere outside of some YT videos with very few comments. Again, I understand why, it has some real jank and is not really that good, but it has some nice systems, the story is B movie "Nazi vampires with dark magic" but I had a lot of fun with it. You get to meet Jack the Ripper and Van Helsing and they join your squad. It has that kind of "Hellboy/League of Extraordinary Gentlemen" pulp vibe. If you like grid based TRPGs or that kind of "weird WW2" setting, I recommend it. It has some severe difficulty spikes unless you really familiarize yourself with the systems and engage with them but, since it uses actual cover, meaning stuff that blocks line of sight makes it so you can't be targeted, as long as your tactics are sound it goes a long way towards victory considerably more than grinding levels. I really really like it although I can completely understand why no one else does.

[Val the Moofia Boss]

Vanguard Bandits (PSX);

I liked how you could join the imperial princess' party and fight to excise the corruption from within the empire. Very rare to see a slightly more nuanced take on the usual rebels vs empire story in games.

[Cipher]

Vanguard Bandits (PSX);

I liked how you could join the imperial princess' party and fight to excise the corruption from within the empire. Very rare to see a slightly more nuanced take on the usual rebels vs empire story in games.

Yes, the Empire vs Kingdom paths actually change the story. They are not palette swaps. This is why I really liked this one as it has a lot of content for what it is. It has more variation on its routes and endings than Mass Effect 3.

[sheet]

In the 1990s, before SimCopter was even a thing, I would daydream about a game that let you drive around your city from SimCity 2000. It was such a fun idea so I was ecstatic when this came out:


The game was janky and justifably received poor reviews, in retrospect, but it had a few things that gave it SOUL.
The aesthetic borrowed heavily from Activision's Interstate '76. The music in this game was incredible, recycling a lot from SimCopter and being recycled again in the Sims a couple years later.


In a way, I see this game as the alpha prototype for what would become GTA III. I did get SimCopter and had a lot of fun with that, but something about Streets and cheating around with the airfoil upgrade so you could just fly around anyway, or packing your car with missile launchers destroying everything (IIRC, I think you could demolish buildings), just put you right in the city you built with love in SimCity 2000.

[asf]

prince of persia was very popular in 90s, equivalent of aaa stuff back then

[Tweed]

I don't think I played a game so obscure that no one else played it, but I do have some deep cuts that I rarely see talk about in comparison to how fun they were for me:

Whomp 'Em (NES):



Another "Megaman-like" for the NES. For the hardware, it has very good graphics and use of color and is a very nice not-megaman megaman game. It's only let down by the soundtrack which is nothing special. Also, you play as a native american.


Skyblazer (SNES):



It's basically a "spiritual" sibling to Megaman but it uses some weird mashup of Japanese and Hindu lore. Password systems, new special attacks as you advance, solid tunes. It was a good game that deserves some love.


Lords of Thunder (TruboGrafx-16):



A side scrolling shoot 'em up with very solid graphics and a superb soundtrack, the best I've heard for the genre. 4 different "characters" to play as with different attack patterns. A melee attack that deals increased damage but the problem is that, since there are NO I-FRAMES you really need to gamble and be very precise when engaging in melee. The lack of i-frames really makes the game a blast to play and improve.

Vanguard Bandits (PSX);



After playing and loving Tactics Ogre and then Final Fantasy Tactics, I scoured the land for any grid based TRPG I could find. I found some real stinkers and also some hidden gems. This one I think is underrated, it has great customization, "fantasy mechs" style which hasn't really been done in this type of games by this point in history, 2 different story paths that actually change your missions, allies and endings (very much like Tactics Ogre) and terrible voice acting that is cheesy enough to fit the style of game. It has great replay value for what it is and I rarely see anyone talk about it even amongst TRPG enjoyers.

Operation Darkness (Xbox 360)



Now, this one I know why is not talked about a lot, it has some serious jank but, it has surprisingly great English voice acting for the time. It's a WW2 setting but with vampires, occult stuff and werewolves. From the 5 games I listed this one I don't really consider a hidden "gem" more of a game that only I play since I've never seen it talked about anywhere outside of some YT videos with very few comments. Again, I understand why, it has some real jank and is not really that good, but it has some nice systems, the story is B movie "Nazi vampires with dark magic" but I had a lot of fun with it. You get to meet Jack the Ripper and Van Helsing and they join your squad. It has that kind of "Hellboy/League of Extraordinary Gentlemen" pulp vibe. If you like grid based TRPGs or that kind of "weird WW2" setting, I recommend it. It has some severe difficulty spikes unless you really familiarize yourself with the systems and engage with them but, since it uses actual cover, meaning stuff that blocks line of sight makes it so you can't be targeted, as long as your tactics are sound it goes a long way towards victory considerably more than grinding levels. I really really like it although I can completely understand why no one else does.

Played Skyblazer, played Lords of Thunder, played Operation Darkness.

Try again, sucka.

[Cipher]

I don't think I played a game so obscure that no one else played it, but I do have some deep cuts that I rarely see talk about in comparison to how fun they were for me:

Whomp 'Em (NES):



Another "Megaman-like" for the NES. For the hardware, it has very good graphics and use of color and is a very nice not-megaman megaman game. It's only let down by the soundtrack which is nothing special. Also, you play as a native american.


Skyblazer (SNES):



It's basically a "spiritual" sibling to Megaman but it uses some weird mashup of Japanese and Hindu lore. Password systems, new special attacks as you advance, solid tunes. It was a good game that deserves some love.


Lords of Thunder (TruboGrafx-16):



A side scrolling shoot 'em up with very solid graphics and a superb soundtrack, the best I've heard for the genre. 4 different "characters" to play as with different attack patterns. A melee attack that deals increased damage but the problem is that, since there are NO I-FRAMES you really need to gamble and be very precise when engaging in melee. The lack of i-frames really makes the game a blast to play and improve.

Vanguard Bandits (PSX);



After playing and loving Tactics Ogre and then Final Fantasy Tactics, I scoured the land for any grid based TRPG I could find. I found some real stinkers and also some hidden gems. This one I think is underrated, it has great customization, "fantasy mechs" style which hasn't really been done in this type of games by this point in history, 2 different story paths that actually change your missions, allies and endings (very much like Tactics Ogre) and terrible voice acting that is cheesy enough to fit the style of game. It has great replay value for what it is and I rarely see anyone talk about it even amongst TRPG enjoyers.

Operation Darkness (Xbox 360)



Now, this one I know why is not talked about a lot, it has some serious jank but, it has surprisingly great English voice acting for the time. It's a WW2 setting but with vampires, occult stuff and werewolves. From the 5 games I listed this one I don't really consider a hidden "gem" more of a game that only I play since I've never seen it talked about anywhere outside of some YT videos with very few comments. Again, I understand why, it has some real jank and is not really that good, but it has some nice systems, the story is B movie "Nazi vampires with dark magic" but I had a lot of fun with it. You get to meet Jack the Ripper and Van Helsing and they join your squad. It has that kind of "Hellboy/League of Extraordinary Gentlemen" pulp vibe. If you like grid based TRPGs or that kind of "weird WW2" setting, I recommend it. It has some severe difficulty spikes unless you really familiarize yourself with the systems and engage with them but, since it uses actual cover, meaning stuff that blocks line of sight makes it so you can't be targeted, as long as your tactics are sound it goes a long way towards victory considerably more than grinding levels. I really really like it although I can completely understand why no one else does.

Played Skyblazer, played Lords of Thunder, played Operation Darkness.

Try again, sucka.

You are, indeed, a man of high culture.

[Tangerine]

In the 1990s, before SimCopter was even a thing, I would daydream about a game that let you drive around your city from SimCity 2000. It was such a fun idea so I was ecstatic when this came out:


The game was janky and justifably received poor reviews, in retrospect, but it had a few things that gave it SOUL.
The aesthetic borrowed heavily from Activision's Interstate '76. The music in this game was incredible, recycling a lot from SimCopter and being recycled again in the Sims a couple years later.


In a way, I see this game as the alpha prototype for what would become GTA III. I did get SimCopter and had a lot of fun with that, but something about Streets and cheating around with the airfoil upgrade so you could just fly around anyway, or packing your car with missile launchers destroying everything (IIRC, I think you could demolish buildings), just put you right in the city you built with love in SimCity 2000.

I liked this well enough, but SimCopter was more my jam.

[asf]

streets was gay, simcopter was way better

[Element]

prince of persia was very popular in 90s, equivalent of aaa stuff back then

Now that you mention it, I think Pop3D qualifies for this thread.



It took a long time before a playthrough even appeared on youtube.

[gerey]

The Sting (called Der Clou! 2 in German) is a heist game.

The premise is fairly simple, you're a thief, and your mission is to rob various establishments within the city - which is fully rendered in 3D and explorable. It's advised that you do explore the city because that's how you can find accomplices to take on missions.

Once you're ready to tackle the mission itself, you enter the planning phase, which is very similar in nature to that of Rainbow Six or Doorkickers. You get to pick which tools you bring, your getaway vehicle (that determines how much loot you can eventually carry off) and which accomplices to bring along, after which you plan out how the mission will go down.



AI Wars: The Awakening is a very clunky and rough FPS/RPG hybrid. One unique thing is that you could pick which objective you wanted to go for at the start, or pick all of the three available if you felt like it. I never really completed the game since the overall experience is fairly dull, but it's still an interesting experiment, and the game itself is very obscure and rarely mentioned.



Biing! is a German hospital management game, akin to Theme Hospital but far more clunky. The "standout" feature about this and the sequel was the fairly risqué art. Can't really remember much more about the game itself since the overall presentation, outside the art, was very lacking.



Incidentally, this thread finally helped me figure out the Croatian adventure game I was trying to find for years. It was indeed called Poslanik (they translated it as the Ward, but a more appropriate translation would have been Messiah).

I only ever played the demo for this one, but I never see the game mentioned anywhere.