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Warp wrote:
> myself: Do you have any game gems which you would recommend people to try?
Sure, read ahead...
> - Grim Fandango. Every gaming website always has this game on their top
> list of best games in history, praising it for its ingenuity and writing,
> yet it seems that people still don't know it. It's a very old game, but
> still works well.
One of those Lucasarts point-n-click classics with clever writing and
the right dose of humor and suspense. Rightful heirs to Infocom legacy. :)
Sadly, never played it. Swan Song... but Day of the Tentacle and Sam &
Max are the other gems and I've had quite some fun.
> - Beyond Good & Evil. A very "consoleish" game (published, not surprisingly,
> for game consoles but also for Windows), which is rather good, but went
Always heard of it, but never really could get around at playing it.
> - The Prince of Persia "sands of time trilogy". You should get the trilogy
Those are very good, indeed.
I still get a kick of the original PC game as well -- specially the
updated version in the SNES.
> - Final Fantasy I and II. These are basically the original FF1 and FF2
Final Fantasy 6 (SNES), 7 and Tactics (Playstation 1) are the best in
the franchise, hands down! 5 and 8 were almost there.
Well, here are some of my personal favorite underdogs, in no particular
order except perhaps being closer to my heart:
- Super Metroid (SNES) (best action/adventure side-scroller ever)
- Kenseiden (Sega Master System) (pure side-scrolling action with
amazing creepy mood)
- Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time (N64) (you know)
- Ico and Shadow of Colossus (PS2) (gems)
- Castlevania: Symphony of the Night (Playstation 1) (Metroidvania)
If you ever can get your hands in any of these games, do it. Yes, I
know that Zelda was a huge hit, not an underdog, but worth mentioning
anyway.
In later years I've been digging interactive-fiction games (AKA
text-adventures) very much. After the commercial demise in the latter
80's, a vibrant online community formed around old interpreters and game
formats, hacked and extended those away and began developing new titles,
entering competitions and all. The media became more mature and
experimental, much unlike the old plain gigantic and sometimes obtuse
treasure hunting cave crawlers like Zork and Adventure.
The mechanics are still pretty similar: you role play a personage in a
fiction setting by having the place, objects and persons in a given
scene told to you in second-person. You can then issue commands, like:
> look
> take something
> examine something
> sit
> open door
> put the book on the table
> go north
and the result of your actions may affect the game outcome or not. Some
actions are standard and even have short aliases, like l(ook),
(e)x(amine) something or cardinal directions like NW to go in that
direction.
Below are some of my favorites, the product of some of the "best-seller"
new amateur interactive-fiction authors out there. They are playable
online thanks to efforts to bring a z-machine emulator in javascript. :)
Out of them all, I enjoy Shade the best, short but a true masterpiece by
Andrew Plotkin.
If you never played IF games before, I suggest 9:05, Balances,
Metamorp(hoses) and Photopia first. If you are in for some of those
older huge cave crawlers but with much more literary substance, I
suggest Curses, Jigsaw, Savoir-Faire and Anchorhead. I suggest all of
them, of course. :)
http://parchment.googlecode.com/svn/trunk/parchment.html?story=http://parchment.toolness.com/if-archive/games/zcode/curses.z5.js
http://parchment.googlecode.com/svn/trunk/parchment.html?story=http://parchment.toolness.com/if-archive/games/zcode/905.z5.js
http://parchment.googlecode.com/svn/trunk/parchment.html?story=http://parchment.toolness.com/if-archive/games/zcode/Balances.z5.js
http://parchment.googlecode.com/svn/trunk/parchment.html?story=http://parchment.toolness.com/if-archive/games/zcode/Tangle.z5.js
http://parchment.googlecode.com/svn/trunk/parchment.html?story=http://parchment.toolness.com/if-archive/games/zcode/AllRoads.z5.js
http://parchment.googlecode.com/svn/trunk/parchment.html?story=http://parchment.toolness.com/if-archive/games/zcode/shade.z5.js
http://parchment.googlecode.com/svn/trunk/parchment.html?story=http://parchment.toolness.com/if-archive/games/zcode/photopia.z5.js
http://parchment.googlecode.com/svn/trunk/parchment.html?story=http://parchment.toolness.com/if-archive/games/zcode/weather.z5.js
http://parchment.googlecode.com/svn/trunk/parchment.html?story=http://parchment.toolness.com/if-archive/games/zcode/FailSafe.z5.js
http://parchment.googlecode.com/svn/trunk/parchment.html?story=http://parchment.toolness.com/if-archive/games/zcode/Wallpaper.zblorb.js
http://parchment.googlecode.com/svn/trunk/parchment.html?story=http://parchment.toolness.com/if-archive/games/zcode/anchor.z8.js
http://parchment.googlecode.com/svn/trunk/parchment.html?story=http://parchment.toolness.com/if-archive/games/zcode/Galatea.zblorb.js
http://parchment.googlecode.com/svn/trunk/parchment.html?story=http://parchment.toolness.com/if-archive/games/zcode/I-0.z5.js
http://parchment.googlecode.com/svn/trunk/parchment.html?story=http://parchment.toolness.com/if-archive/games/zcode/Jigsaw.z8.js
http://parchment.googlecode.com/svn/trunk/parchment.html?story=http://parchment.toolness.com/if-archive/games/zcode/metamorp.z5.js
http://parchment.googlecode.com/svn/trunk/parchment.html?story=http://parchment.toolness.com/if-archive/games/zcode/Savoir-Faire.zblorb.js
http://parchment.googlecode.com/svn/trunk/parchment.html?story=http://parchment.toolness.com/if-archive/games/zcode/sherbet.z5.js
http://parchment.googlecode.com/svn/trunk/parchment.html?story=http://parchment.toolness.com/if-archive/games/zcode/mindelec.z5.js
http://parchment.googlecode.com/svn/trunk/parchment.html?story=http://parchment.toolness.com/if-archive/games/zcode/SoFar.z8.js
There's much more to be found in places like:
http://www.wurb.com/
http://www.ifreviews.org/
http://ifcomp.org/
http://mirror.ifarchive.org/
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Warp <war### [at] tag povray org> wrote:
> With the recent gaming-related threads, I thought about creating one
> myself: Do you have any game gems which you would recommend people to try?
> Maybe an older game which most people have forgotten, which is still today
> as great as back then? Or a game which didn't get too much media attention
> but is actually incredibly cool?
Let's see, there's always the original Gameboy Tetris, and of course you'll
never be without 'emacs -batch -l dunnet'. For the number of games I play,
yes, in fact, I am dead serious. I also thought World of Goo (
http://2dboy.com/games.php ) was an outstanding example of clever design, it's
just a shame that the game itself isn't a little more interesting. Other than
that? Hmm... Myst? I actually found the cd, installed Windows, and gave it a
try a while back. It's actually amazing how bad the graphics are, but I guess
it was revolutionary at the time.
- Ricky
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nemesis wrote:
> In later years I've been digging interactive-fiction games (AKA
If you're into that sort of thing, this is a very cool authoring system for
them. Basically, the same sort of parser that the game uses is employed to
write the game itself.
http://inform-fiction.org/I7/Welcome.html
--
Darren New, San Diego CA, USA (PST)
"Ouch ouch ouch!"
"What's wrong? Noodles too hot?"
"No, I have Chopstick Tunnel Syndrome."
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Deus Ex. By far the single greatest video game of all time :)
Pardus (www.pardus.at). It's an online economic simulator with a game
thrown in.
QIX (Or Qix or something). Incredibly fun arcade/puzzle type (in the
same style as Jezzball, but much older).
Grand Theft Auto IV. I know, big budget game that already got a lot of
nods... but a lot of people just pass over it because it's GTA. I
almost did; but since I played it, it's easily the best game in the last
few years.
--
...Chambers
www.pacificwebguy.com
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Darren New wrote:
> Darren New wrote:
>> There was also a great game I played on TRS-80 Model I machines. I
>> don't remember what it was called,
>
> Ah. Apparently it was called "Galaxy".
> http://www.mobygames.com/game/galaxy
Wowee. 1981. And there was me thinking I'd gone too far oldskool. Sounds
good though! Ever play the original Elite? A bit more action-based than
Galaxy sounds, but trading and missions between stars and galaxies. In 3d!
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Kevin Wampler <wampler+pov### [at] u washington edu> wrote:
> Chrono Trigger:
> An RPG for the SNES, you can find a rom for an emulator pretty easily,
> or buy it used if you still own the console.
I think that technically speaking it's legal if you buy the physical
game cartridge but then download the ROM and play it on the emulator.
Without buying the cartridge it's technically illegal to download and
play it but... I would be huge liar if I claimed I have never done that
in my life.
> Monkey Island (series):
> Old PC game. Gameplay is ehhh, but the writing is top-notch and very funny.
I have played all four games, and own the last two.
> Katamari Damacy:
> Available on most modern consoles. Too weird not to like.
I played a demo of the sequel (I think), on the xob360, and I must
confess I didn't quite understand the appeal. I didn't find it addictive
or especially funny...
--
- Warp
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Bill Pragnell <bil### [at] hotmail com> wrote:
> If you never played games on a platform this old then it will probably
> hold no interest for you, compared with modern systems.
Is the ZX Spectrum 128 old enough?-)
--
- Warp
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nemesis <nam### [at] nospam-gmail com> wrote:
> > - Grim Fandango. Every gaming website always has this game on their top
> > list of best games in history, praising it for its ingenuity and writing,
> > yet it seems that people still don't know it. It's a very old game, but
> > still works well.
> One of those Lucasarts point-n-click classics with clever writing and
> the right dose of humor and suspense. Rightful heirs to Infocom legacy. :)
Actually not point-and-click. Walk-and-turn. The controls work very well
with a game controller.
> > - Final Fantasy I and II. These are basically the original FF1 and FF2
> Final Fantasy 6 (SNES), 7 and Tactics (Playstation 1) are the best in
> the franchise, hands down! 5 and 8 were almost there.
I was quite disappointed with FF7 when I got to play it recently.
(I had never even seen it before, only read about how "great" it is.)
Not only is it technically completely sub-par (even for the Playstation,
especially compared to other similar PS games such as Chrono Cross or
FF9), but I didn't find the gameplay and story all that compelling.
> Well, here are some of my personal favorite underdogs, in no particular
> order except perhaps being closer to my heart:
> - Super Metroid (SNES) (best action/adventure side-scroller ever)
How exactly is one of the best-ranked, best-selling games of all times
an "underdog"?-)
> - Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time (N64) (you know)
This one even more. (Gets regularly on the top of "best games of all
time" lists.)
> In later years I've been digging interactive-fiction games (AKA
> text-adventures) very much.
I enjoyed text adventures for the ZX Spectrum a lot.
The problem with the modern ones: The best Spectrum text adventures had
images for each room (and there could be graphics of collectible objects,
doors in in closed and open states, etc.), while all the modern text
adventures are text-only.
I would really like to play those text adventures with graphics, but
there just doesn't seem to be any nowadays.
--
- Warp
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Warp wrote:
> Bill Pragnell <bil### [at] hotmail com> wrote:
>> If you never played games on a platform this old then it will probably
>> hold no interest for you, compared with modern systems.
>
> Is the ZX Spectrum 128 old enough?-)
Absolutely! Exactly the same age in fact. :)
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Warp wrote:
> With the recent gaming-related threads, I thought about creating one
> myself: Do you have any game gems which you would recommend people to try?
> Maybe an older game which most people have forgotten, which is still today
> as great as back then? Or a game which didn't get too much media attention
> but is actually incredibly cool?
Nethack.
Ancient Art of War
Commander Keen!
I need to kill this thread. Everytime I think of old games, I lose a few
days.
--
I think animal testing is a terrible idea. They get all nervous and give
the wrong answers.
/\ /\ /\ /
/ \/ \ u e e n / \/ a w a z
>>>>>>mue### [at] nawaz org<<<<<<
anl
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