Gaming 90s PC/Mac games nostaglia

weetee

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I liked the Desperados games quite a lot. Got a bit repetitive once you've figured out the blind spots of the mechanics but good fun. Think there was a similiar game, same dev I suppose, with Ninjas or Samurai (?). Early 2000s onwards though I'd say.
 

Kristjan

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Lots of classics already mentioned but still missing Kick off 2 and Player Manager (using the Kick off engine) on the Amiga. Both released in 1990.
Kick off 2 was so frantic at times, great stuff :lol:

 

Twins

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I liked the Desperados games quite a lot. Got a bit repetitive once you've figured out the blind spots of the mechanics but good fun. Think there was a similiar game, same dev I suppose, with Ninjas or Samurai (?). Early 2000s onwards though I'd say.
There was also a Star Trek themed one which was alright.
 

weetee

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There was also a Star Trek themed one which was alright.
Thanks - looks a bit bland though. I loved the attention to details in the early Desperados (haven‘t played no3), good voice acting too.

As young teens we were all over the Das Schwarze Auge (The Black Eye?). German RPG that was a live game but also had some captivating pc versions.
 

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I've got the ISO I will upload it for you later this afternoon. You can then just download it and mount the image as a drive letter (usually).
Thanks! The bolded is what I struggle with though :lol:
 

Twins

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As young teens we were all over the Das Schwarze Auge (The Black Eye?). German RPG that was a live game but also had some captivating pc versions.
I absolutely adored the second one, I think it was tough as nails for me back then but just a brilliant rpg.
 

weetee

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I absolutely adored the second one, I think it was tough as nails for me back then but just a brilliant rpg.
Yea, think it was that one. We played it religiously but unfortunately only at my friends place when I was there on vacation so it was always a bit of a „random“ experience - no idea really about plot or ending. Albion was another one, quite pretty. You know the „table top“ rolegame? Only played it once or twice, bit too nerdy for me, but had a couple of playbooks and a starter set and only reading about rules, races and lore was fantastic already. Good times. Quite comparable to buying all those warhammer figures, painting some, looking at amazing sets in WD and than mostly fantasizing about actually playing with them in reality. :lol:

Amazing time for gaming really.
 
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After starting the rather decent remake, it reminds me of how old System Shock is which was a rather overlooked gem for it's time. System Shock 2 is the late 90's (I think) and is one of the greatest games of all time, often makes my top 5 list.

Also, the X-Wing/Tie fighter games, along with Wing commander (I loved the spin off Privateer too) were absolutely brilliant. Shame after the Rogue Squadron series, that genre was greatly overlooked for so long.
 

Twins

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Yea, think it was that one. We played it religiously but unfortunately only at my friends place when I was there on vacation so it was always a bit of a „random“ experience - no idea really about plot or ending. Albion was another one, quite pretty. You know the „table top“ rolegame? Only played it once or twice, bit too nerdy for me, but had a couple of playbooks and a starter set and only reading about rules, races and lore was fantastic already. Good times. Quite comparable to buying all those warhammer figures, painting some, looking at amazing sets in WD and than mostly fantasizing about actually playing with them in reality. :lol:

Amazing time for gaming really.
Ah the good old days of actually meeting people and playing a pen & paper rpg. I remember stabbing people while they slept, those were happy days.
 

weetee

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Ah the good old days of actually meeting people and playing a pen & paper rpg. I remember stabbing people while they slept, those were happy days.
:lol:

Yep, brutally stabbing the merchant to grab the goodies you wouldn't have money for to buy then running away, hiding in a tree was a thing back then. :lol:
 

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After starting the rather decent remake, it reminds me of how old System Shock is which was a rather overlooked gem for it's time. System Shock 2 is the late 90's (I think) and is one of the greatest games of all time, often makes my top 5 list.

Also, the X-Wing/Tie fighter games, along with Wing commander (I loved the spin off Privateer too) were absolutely brilliant. Shame after the Rogue Squadron series, that genre was greatly overlooked for so long.
I played that a long time after it came out and found it beyond annoying with all the respawning enemies and pretty much everything being a trap, but I understand why it's rated so highly.
 

V.O.

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Used to be one of my favorite games!

I'm not sure if the whole real time tactics genre is dead nowadays!!

Shadow Tactics: Blades of the Shogun (feudal Japan setting) and Desperados 3 (wild west setting) are probably the best modern versions of this type of game. Pretty much the exact same gameplay as the Commandos series.
 

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Reading all this too makes me think we are all very good about romanticizing the past in a way. Because as many great games as there were and as much as I'm happy to have grown up in that time: trying to even get a game to run properly was quite a chore.

Who doesn't remember things like the IO conflicts, soundblaster drivers crashing, the Voodoo card overheating or the CD ROM drive going bananas? I was an expert at MS DOS commands though.
 

nimic

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Reading all this too makes me think we are all very good about romanticizing the past in a way. Because as many great games as there were and as much as I'm happy to have grown up in that time: trying to even get a game to run properly was quite a chore.

Who doesn't remember things like the IO conflicts, soundblaster drivers crashing, the Voodoo card overheating or the CD ROM drive going bananas? I was an expert at MS DOS commands though.
Oh we're definitely romanticizing. Everything was always better before, because we were younger then.

I've played games for almost three decades by now, and two games which are probably on my all-time top 5 list came out in 2019. If people think there aren't great games being made still, they're not looking hard enough.
 

Van Piorsing

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Oh we're definitely romanticizing. Everything was always better before, because we were younger then.

I've played games for almost three decades by now, and two games which are probably on my all-time top 5 list came out in 2019. If people think there aren't great games being made still, they're not looking hard enough.
5 games is a huge lot in today's reality... but seriously in quite average year like 2002, first 10 looked like this:

1. GTA Vice City
2. Mafia
3. Warcraft III
4. Medal of Honor: Allied Assault
5. D&D: Neverwinter Nights
6. Tony Hawk Pro Skater 3
7. Star Wars: Jedi Knight II
8. Elder Scrolls III: Oblivion
9. Battlefield 1942
10. GTA III

Zero remakes. Creativity was ruling these lands. Cult titles like Age of Wonders 2, Unreal Tournament 2003, Syberia, or Heroes of Might & Magic IV couldn't even make the list. The industry was such a different beast back then.
 

nimic

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1. GTA Vice City
2. Mafia
3. Warcraft III
4. Medal of Honor: Allied Assault
5. D&D: Neverwinter Nights
6. Tony Hawk Pro Skater 3
7. Star Wars: Jedi Knight II
8. Elder Scrolls III: Oblivion
9. Battlefield 1942
10. GTA III

Zero remakes. Creativity was ruling these lands.
There are lots of great games here, sure, but it's a bit rich to use this list as an example that creativity was ruling these lands when fully 8 of those games are either direct sequels or in broader series of games, and even BF1942 was pretty much a sequel to Codename Eagle.
 

Van Piorsing

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There are lots of great games here, sure, but it's a bit rich to use this list as an example that creativity was ruling these lands when fully 8 of those games are either direct sequels or in broader series of games, and even BF1942 was pretty much a sequel to Codename Eagle.
That's probably why I wrote, it was an average year in gaming. Btw, not bad for an average year.

Sequels are not remakes and they were all finished products, without need of patching on day release. You didn't even need indie titles to save a year of gaming.

Without romanticizing, I can say it was a fairly superior time to witness games.
 

nimic

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You could make similar list for many other years, even if 2002 was a particularly good one. For reference, here are some of the games released in 2019. Not because that was a particularly great year as far as I know, just because it's the year I mentioned in my post. These are certainly not all my favourite games, but they are all critically and commercially successful games, and many of them are originals.

  • Outer Wilds
  • Disco Elysium
  • Sekiro: Shadows Die Twice
  • Control
  • Star Wars Jedi: Fallen Order
  • A Plague Tale: Innocence
  • Need For Speed: Heat
  • Apex Legends
  • Borderlands 3
  • Trials Rising
  • Total War: Three Kingdoms
  • Death Stranding
  • Devil May Cry 5
 

Bobski

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Nostalgia is playing a huge part of course but also I think that era benefits from being a time when every month there seemed to be a new breakthrough, or a new genre that hadn't been seen before. Nowadays so many of the triple A games are incredibly similar, the tedious open world slogs for instance, it is hard to find something fresh. PC gaming felt exotic to the kid I was, and the troubleshooting was part of that strangely.
 

Siorac

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Knights and Merchants : TSK and TPR is one of the best RTS game I have ever played. Playing this game again for nth time. It's beauty is in micromanagement and complexity of resources.

It was hard as nails though. I loved RTSs and played the shit out of Age of Empires 1-2 and all Command & Conquers that came out in the 90s but this was the toughest of them all. The AI was unforgiving and you had so many things to take care of. Just building roads so that your soldiers could be supplied was its own minigame.
 

Van Piorsing

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You could make similar list for many other years, even if 2002 was a particularly good one. For reference, here are some of the games released in 2019. Not because that was a particularly great year as far as I know, just because it's the year I mentioned in my post. These are certainly not all my favourite games, but they are all critically and commercially successful games, and many of them are originals.

  • Outer Wilds
  • Disco Elysium
  • Sekiro: Shadows Die Twice
  • Control
  • Star Wars Jedi: Fallen Order
  • A Plague Tale: Innocence
  • Need For Speed: Heat
  • Apex Legends
  • Borderlands 3
  • Trials Rising
  • Total War: Three Kingdoms
  • Death Stranding
  • Devil May Cry 5
I'm with you on this. Disco Elysium, Outer Wilds and A Plague Tale are outstanding games. Sekiro is also solid, as it requires some fair share of skill.

Borderlands 3 for me was a huge disappointment after 2nd game, which could be best Gearbox game they made. Need for Speed: Heat and Devil May Cry 5 were not too memorable imo, but still playable.

Total War: Three Kingdoms is quite huge title in today's standards, on the other hand, still fairly modest 2002 had Medieval: Total War not making the list in few rankings.

2019, not too bad, I gotta admit... 2002 ? Different level that was deemed average back then.
 

Ahmer Baig

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It was hard as nails though. I loved RTSs and played the shit out of Age of Empires 1-2 and all Command & Conquers that came out in the 90s but this was the toughest of them all. The AI was unforgiving and you had so many things to take care of. Just building roads so that your soldiers could be supplied was its own minigame.
The hardest part of the game was keeping your village alive and not let them starve to death. Fighting mechanics was easy.
 

nimic

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Does this really have to turn into a thread about what year/generation was better?
This is RedCafe, you know the answer to that. Anyway, we were both outside the scope of the thread, being the 90s. I just know that there are lots of people out there who think good games aren't being made any more, and they're missing out on some great stuff.
 

Redlambs

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This is RedCafe, you know the answer to that. Anyway, we were both outside the scope of the thread, being the 90s. I just know that there are lots of people out there who think good games aren't being made any more, and they're missing out on some great stuff.
True.

But this thread specifically talks about nostalgia and the great games of the past. It would be nice for once if people could just stick to the general gist of it!

(Again, we both know the answer to that :lol:)
 

Siorac

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The hardest part of the game was keeping your village alive and not let them starve to death. Fighting mechanics was easy.
I mean, in what other RTS did you have to make sure that your watchtowers had stones in them, otherwise they couldn't fight? Starving an army was also a completely legitimate strategy which I loved because I'm a psychopath.
 

nimic

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Did anyone play KKND2: Krossfire? I know that it was never a particularly great game, compared to the other RTS games of the time, but I enjoyed it a lot, particularly the skirmish mode. Had a great intro as well.



Clearly someone at Kurzgesagt did, given the opening of their Ant war video:

 

Ahmer Baig

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I mean, in what other RTS did you have to make sure that your watchtowers had stones in them, otherwise they couldn't fight? Starving an army was also a completely legitimate strategy which I loved because I'm a psychopath.
Well I loved the mechanics of it. You didnt have unlimited stone supplies and how each production was inter linked with their basic raw materials. The serfs couldnt travel without roads.
 

Siorac

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Did anyone play KKND2: Krossfire? I know that it was never a particularly great game, compared to the other RTS games of the time, but I enjoyed it a lot, particularly the skirmish mode. Had a great intro as well.



Clearly someone at Kurzgesagt did, given the opening of their Ant war video:

I played the first KKND and my recollection is that it was completely mediocre in every way. It had some neat units but it was too similar to C&C without being as polished or fun as C&C.
 

nimic

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I played the first KKND and my recollection is that it was completely mediocre in every way. It had some neat units but it was too similar to C&C without being as polished or fun as C&C.
Oh yeah for sure, it has nothing on C&C. That was superior in every single way (I strongly recommend getting the Remaster, if anyone loved C&C and Red Alert, it's a massive nostalgia trip). But KKND2 was a good bit of fun. I never played the original.