Gaming 90s PC/Mac games nostaglia

DutchSerb

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Used to love those Disney games as a kid. Hercules and Lion King especially. God I sank so many hours in them.
 

quadrant

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I had a posh mate at school with an Archimedes who used to show me Zarch, which was mindblowing when I first saw it.
 

Volumiza

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That was one of my favourites on Amiga. It really worked we with the mouse and was so atmospheric and well designed. Not sure what machine your black and white version was running on.


I also spent a lot of time on Batman the Movie, Robocop, and the Dizzy and James Pond games.

Rick Dangerous was another favourite.

Rick dangerous :lol: Uber classic!

I loved:

Test Drive 2
Elite
Monkey island
Persian Gulf Inferno
Silkworm 2
Command and conquer

Golden age.
 

Ragnar123

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My first pc game. I remember I was 6 years old, when I gave strippers money in that game to see their pixel titties :lol:
 
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Red in STL

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Sid Meier’s Colonization - my fav turn based
Age of Empires I&II - aoe2, best RTS ever
Doom I&II
Quake I&II
Half Life
Prince of Persia (sure!)
Sid Meier’s Colonization - one of mine along with
Railroad Tycoon
Civilization - that latest version 6 is basically the only real game I play today,
Silent Hunter
Heroes of Might and Magic series
Caesar series
And one set in Egypt that I can't recall the title of

Even back then my fingers and brain didn't work swiftly together so my genre has always been turn based strategy/simulation type games

Pre-PC I had a Spectrum, springing to mind
Daley Thompson's Decathlon
Football manager
Gunship
Silent Service

Also had one of the early Atari's but I was seriously crap on that!
 

Redlambs

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Rick dangerous :lol: Uber classic!

I loved:

Test Drive 2
Elite
Monkey island
Persian Gulf Inferno
Silkworm 2
Command and conquer

Golden age.
All good shouts, especially Silkworm! Stuff like that, Last Hope, R-Type, Salamander, Karodius...what a time for side scrolling shooters.

One game the above reminds me of, that used to be right between Salamander and StreetFighter 1 in my local sweet shop, was Escape from the Planet of the Robot Monsters. Such a great game that I think most won't have played.
 

Redlambs

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Sid Meier’s Colonization - one of mine along with
Railroad Tycoon
Civilization - that latest version 6 is basically the only real game I play today,
Silent Hunter
Heroes of Might and Magic series
Caesar series
And one set in Egypt that I can't recall the title of

Even back then my fingers and brain didn't work swiftly together so my genre has always been turn based strategy/simulation type games

Pre-PC I had a Spectrum, springing to mind
Daley Thompson's Decathlon
Football manager
Gunship
Silent Service

Also had one of the early Atari's but I was seriously crap on that!
I still have a mint boxed version of that for the 128k+ and the joystick. What a game!

The Speccy in particular had some gems, from the Dizzy games to the early stuff like Jet Set and The Master. One of my favourites was an obscure pirate game called Plunder, which must have heavily inspired Sid Meirs' Pirates amongst plenty of others.
 

Volumiza

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All good shouts, especially Silkworm! Stuff like that, Last Hope, R-Type, Salamander, Karodius...what a time for side scrolling shooters.

One game the above reminds me of, that used to be right between Salamander and StreetFighter 1 in my local sweet shop, was Escape from the Planet of the Robot Monsters. Such a great game that I think most won't have played.
Silkworm, 2 especially, was just so wicked to play with a mate. There were some great early 2 player games back then.

Team 17 used to pump wicked games out. Speedball 2 was mind blowingly competitive, awesome.

I had EFTPOTRM on my Amiga I think. Isometric shooter thingy if I’m not wrong? Have to say I can’t remember it too much.
 

Redlambs

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Silkworm, 2 especially, was just so wicked to play with a mate. There were some great early 2 player games back then.

Team 17 used to pump wicked games out. Speedball 2 was mind blowingly competitive, awesome.

I had EFTPOTRM on my Amiga I think. Isometric shooter thingy if I’m not wrong? Have to say I can’t remember it too much.
I remember first playing Speedball on the Spectrum. That's the robot/NFL type game right? Where you could blitz and all that? Used to take forever to load :lol:

But yeah, Team 17 were such a good company early doors. Back when it was just programmers making games, glory days.
 

Red in STL

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I still have a mint boxed version of that for the 128k+ and the joystick. What a game!

The Speccy in particular had some gems, from the Dizzy games to the early stuff like Jet Set and The Master. One of my favourites was an obscure pirate game called Plunder, which must have heavily inspired Sid Meirs' Pirates amongst plenty of others.
I never had the joystick but it was a great game, Silent Service was so atmospheric, I used to play that with all the lights off, the only irritation was having to run the cassette every 5 mins :lol:
 

ThinkTank@Cafe

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I still have a mint boxed version of that for the 128k+ and the joystick. What a game!

The Speccy in particular had some gems, from the Dizzy games to the early stuff like Jet Set and The Master. One of my favourites was an obscure pirate game called Plunder, which must have heavily inspired Sid Meirs' Pirates amongst plenty of others.
Same. I play only Civ6 and FM now. I played all Civs 1 to 6. For me, Civ series is GOAT. In the 90s, though, Colonization looked so much more advanced than Civ.
 

Volumiza

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I still have a mint boxed version of that for the 128k+ and the joystick. What a game!

The Speccy in particular had some gems, from the Dizzy games to the early stuff like Jet Set and The Master. One of my favourites was an obscure pirate game called Plunder, which must have heavily inspired Sid Meirs' Pirates amongst plenty of others.
Still got my 128+ :lol: none of the games still work unfortunately.

Now that was a lovely machine

Target Renegade
Barbarian
Paperboy
Commando
Yie ar kung fu.
Silent service
The way of the exploding fist

getting all dewy eyed.:)
 

Red in STL

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I remember first playing Speedball on the Spectrum. That's the robot/NFL type game right? Where you could blitz and all that? Used to take forever to load :lol:

But yeah, Team 17 were such a good company early doors. Back when it was just programmers making games, glory days.
Yeah, gameplay was what mattered, nowadays it's how good the graphics look more than anything else
 

Zen86

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Remember the days when you couldn’t save your progress in the game. A lot of games were rock solid as well. I had a Simpsons game on the Megadrive which was absolutely ridiculous.
 

Red in STL

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Remember the days when you couldn’t save your progress in the game. A lot of games were rock solid as well. I had a Simpsons game on the Megadrive which was absolutely ridiculous.
That used to drive me nuts on the Mega Drive with Sonic
 

Redlambs

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Still got my 128+ :lol: none of the games still work unfortunately.

Now that was a lovely machine

Target Renegade
Barbarian
Paperboy
Commando
Yie ar kung fu.
Silent service
The way of the exploding fist

getting all dewy eyed.:)
I have all those on cassette, yie ar kung fu was one of my absolute favourites, along with IK+ (speaking of which I got to work with and learn a bit from the great Archer Mclean briefly), I will never forget the fat guy and trying to jump kick his head :lol: How comes it doesn't work? I have virtually all the models still working, well up to the +2. I did once own a +3 but stupidly gave to to someone. Never owned a coupe though, I remember seeing it in a magazine and desperately wanting it for pixel perfect Prince of Persia at the time.

I have thousands of games for that, plenty boxed original but a hell of a lot of copies!
 

Redlambs

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Just been reminded of Bomb Jack and School Daze too...now if only I can remember the name of that walking fighting game that went on forever and you could die at any point. I refuse to google it, but I think it might have been a spiritual successor to something like IK+ and it definitely must of inspired Dark Souls. It will come to me, but I can visualise it perfectly on both the Speccy and C64.
 

Volumiza

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I have all those on cassette, yie ar kung fu was one of my absolute favourites, along with IK+ (speaking of which I got to work with and learn a bit from the great Archer Mclean briefly), I will never forget the fat guy and trying to jump kick his head :lol: How comes it doesn't work? I have virtually all the models still working, well up to the +2. I did once own a +3 but stupidly gave to to someone. Never owned a coupe though, I remember seeing it in a magazine and desperately wanting it for pixel perfect Prince of Persia at the time.

I have thousands of games for that, plenty boxed original but a hell of a lot of copies!
Between IK+, YAKF and Daley Thompsons decathlon - I used to get through zip sticks like anything!

Wow, not heard of Archer McLean for years. Kudos.
 

Redlambs

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Between IK+, YAKF and Daley Thompsons decathlon - I used to get through zip sticks like anything!

Wow, not heard of Archer McLean for years. Kudos.
He came in to a publisher I was involved with at the time, I think it's around the time he was doing pool/puzzle games on the GCN/PS2 era. Lovely guy, has many a phone chat and a few beers. Absolute genius, it could be argued he should have had a bigger legacy in terms of games to his name, although he worked unnamed on many more that will likely never be known. He, like many of us at the time, were at odds with how the industry changed so I think he went back to a lot of uncredited freelance support.
 

Welsh Wonder

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Some memories in here! I know it's slightly different but I still play the original CM97/98 every so often. Probably nostalgia speaking but it's still for me the best football management game.
 

Solius

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Carmen Sandiego was fecking brilliant as a kid
The more I think about it the more I realise it probably influenced my love of travel, geography and the world.
 

OnlyTwoDaSilvas

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Transport Tycoon. Rollercoaster Tycoon. All the Tycoons. Sim City too. Loved a good isometric strategy game back then.

I keep trying to play Cities Skylines, but it just feels like too much work. Those kinda games felt much simpler back then.
 

Volumiza

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Transport Tycoon. Rollercoaster Tycoon. All the Tycoons. Sim City too. Loved a good isometric strategy game back then.

I keep trying to play Cities Skylines, but it just feels like too much work. Those kinda games felt much simpler back then.
I keep trying cities skylines and it’s obviously a good game but I just can’t be bothered once my cities get to a certain size.
 

OnlyTwoDaSilvas

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I keep trying cities skylines and it’s obviously a good game but I just can’t be bothered once my cities get to a certain size.
Same, usually about an hour into a new game, tops.

I do quite like watching Youtube videos of people playing it though, on much higher spec computers than mine. There's a Youtube channel of a city planner who plays it, it's quite addictive.
 

Red in STL

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Transport Tycoon. Rollercoaster Tycoon. All the Tycoons. Sim City too. Loved a good isometric strategy game back then.

I keep trying to play Cities Skylines, but it just feels like too much work. Those kinda games felt much simpler back then.
They were simpler back then, there wasn't this "need" to be 100% accurate like today, I find games now to complicated to learn, I wanna play them for fun, not learn a something to find a new job!
 

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In order how i liked them :
1. Heroes of might and magic 3 - best game ever, still play it. My neighboor and i had some absolute epic battels on this one. Could go on for weeks sometimes.
2. Warcraft 2 - second best game ever, still play it.
3.Monkey Island - played it with my dad, great memories.
4. Rollercoaster Tycoon - played this game for hours and hours.
5. Sofies Verden - A norwegian game my dad ”forced” me to like, and eventually i did.
6. PoP - This game scared the shit out me, but not so much as my friend who forced his parents to throw the disc out of the balcony, so he was sure it was not in his house anymore :lol:
 

DevTheRed

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Theme Hospital, Theme Park World and Sim City was the extent of my 90’s PC gaming experience. Great games :drool:
 

Volumiza

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Same, usually about an hour into a new game, tops.

I do quite like watching Youtube videos of people playing it though, on much higher spec computers than mine. There's a Youtube channel of a city planner who plays it, it's quite addictive.
It’s usually when I need to start building more rubbish dumps. That and the way the industrial areas go all brown and dusty, spoils all my aesthetics and triggers me :lol:

Yeah, some of the sh*t people have built on YouTube is insane. I am going to play it on PSVR2 at some point, that will add another layer to it.
 

Volumiza

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He came in to a publisher I was involved with at the time, I think it's around the time he was doing pool/puzzle games on the GCN/PS2 era. Lovely guy, has many a phone chat and a few beers. Absolute genius, it could be argued he should have had a bigger legacy in terms of games to his name, although he worked unnamed on many more that will likely never be known. He, like many of us at the time, were at odds with how the industry changed so I think he went back to a lot of uncredited freelance support.
It was an age where the games creators could gain almost cult status. They were mostly one or two men bands back then.

Similarly, my mate was round the other night, he was the one who mainly played Silkworm and Lotus Challenge with me back in the day.

I put Forza horizon on and rigged my fanatec up. We had a long discussion about ‘what if we showed this to our little 10 - 14 year old selves?’

It made me realise how fecking demanding and entitled we all are nowadays in our expectations. Much as we remember the old games fondly, and although technical progression is all relative, comparatively they were so basic as to be unrecognisable.

We’re so spoilt.
 

Zen86

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They were simpler back then, there wasn't this "need" to be 100% accurate like today, I find games now to complicated to learn, I wanna play them for fun, not learn a something to find a new job!
I’m a bit like that. I still play the PS5 when I get chance but games seem like so much effort now. Not a massive fan of the whole AAA thing. Too much grinding and running around open maps. Feels like pure enjoyment is secondary.
 

Redplane

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When my dad died and left us some money, I was able to buy my first PC. Whilst I was waiting for it to come, I went out to the shops and bought Full Throttle, Dark Forces, Mechwarrior 2 and both Doom games and just sat there for about 3 weeks reading the manuals over and over whilst waiting for that knock at the door :lol:

My word, a 1mb (yes, MB) diamond graphics card...what a machine!
Are you me? Ahh the golden days. I can feel myself turning into a millennial boomer.
 

Redlambs

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It was an age where the games creators could gain almost cult status. They were mostly one or two men bands back then.

Similarly, my mate was round the other night, he was the one who mainly played Silkworm and Lotus Challenge with me back in the day.

I put Forza horizon on and rigged my fanatec up. We had a long discussion about ‘what if we showed this to our little 10 - 14 year old selves?’

It made me realise how fecking demanding and entitled we all are nowadays in our expectations. Much as we remember the old games fondly, and although technical progression is all relative, comparatively they were so basic as to be unrecognisable.

We’re so spoilt.
That we are! But it's all relative. One of the negative things about making the mistake of becoming a pro developer is that I am (as you may have noticed) harsher on games because I see the problems push through and have to work at it to get past them. From design down to controls, it aggravates me no end the shit some get away with when the framework is there. As such, sometimes I can't enjoy things that I really probably should as much. On the flip side I seem to have a much greater appreciation for good games as they age. I have absolutely no issue booting up games that others think have "aged badly" and all that, as I just look at them differently.

It's the same thing with difficulty in games. Of course none of our "hardest" games these days are even close to those of the past, but again it's all relative. What we found hard back then and had to put up with, modern gamers (well I say that with the exception of most in the Xbox thread ;):lol:) would struggle with but make do with as that's all you know at the time.

It is fun to think back though and think about what we played and why they stick in our minds. It's also rather cool, if you think about it, how our brains kind of meld them a little with modern games and experiences. Like with Silkworm, I can remember it as fluid and fast as hell when it probably ran at 2fps...in fact, fps wasn't even a metric then :lol: