Ask HN: What old video games did you love that haven't left a large footprint?
Once in a while I think back to games I used to play as a kid/teen, and while some are considered classics, many seem to have been forgotten by time. Curious which games in your opinion should be more talked about?
A few that come to mind for me:
1. Centurion: Defender of Rome - a turn-based strategy game that came out a year before Civilization. Had some really interesting real-time battle mechanics and as a history nerd I loved taking over the various Roman era countries and kingdoms.
2. No One Lives Forever (and sequel) - a 3D shooter set in an Austin Powers / Archer like universe. So different from other shooters of the time with a great blend of a coherent story, interesting character (named Cate Archer, funny enough), and non-stop hilarity. Gadgets included lipstick camera, coins you can throw as a distraction, and a proximity bomb that looks like a kitten.
3. Acrophobia - a 90s online multiplayer game where you had to turn random acronyms into phrases that had to fit a particular topic. Winner was determined by voting. An amazingly fun time-waster.
I do think these are commonly known amongst those in the gaming community however both Kula World and Tomba left a mark to this day. The former opened me up to a love of puzzles and I found the simplistic but clever design of the world and physics so enjoyable.
Tomba simply opened myself up to games which didn't have to fit just one genre, I could play a platformer and an RPG at the same time and it would be brilliant fun. Plus the colourful world was a feast for the eyes.
The one I always recommend: Colonization[0] from 1994. The translation of such a complex theme into a dynamic but believable game is genius IMHO. Nowadays I play only the open source[1] remake: Freecol[2][3].
[0] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sid_Meier%27s_Colonization
[1] https://github.com/FreeCol/freecol
[2] https://www.freecol.org/about.html
[3] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/FreeCol
Hero's Quest. Then renamed Quest for Glory: so you want to be a hero. When people remember Sierra point-and-click games they talk about Space Quest and King's Quest. For me Hero's Quest was the Skyrim of the 80's. It had a prompt to enter actions ala Zork.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Quest_for_Glory
+1
This was my favourite Sierra game for a long time, and the VGA remake was beautifully-done.
Moonbase (1990) https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Moonbase_(video_game)?wprov=sf... Under A Killing Moon (1994) https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Under_a_Killing_Moon?wprov=sft...
Currently I am playing Diablo 1 (yes the first one from 1996). It is probably a classic though.
Had a lot oft fun playing it via Devilution[1], the open source reversed project. Works like a charm on Linux and has some decent improvements like play/run-speed, a shared storage for collected items at the woman in town and other useful tweaks.
Did not find the
yet, but I'm trying pretty hard :-)1: https://github.com/diasurgical/devilutionX
Besides all the "hacker games" I would play in obscure parts of the web, leisure suit Larry is one of those games I stumbled upon as a youth looking for anything that went against the grain. I was a kid that thought nudity was amazing. Still, the mechanics built into searching for clues in an environment that attempted "open world" concepts honestly consumed more time then the rewards earned.
Also Sony launched Matrix MMO that died out but I loved how they at least tried to continue character stories that added depth.
Whatever the James Bond game was on the GameCube. It has a grappling hook that let you sling around like Spider-Man. I think I had more fun with that than I did with Golden Eye, as ridiculous as it was.
Vector Man on Genesis is also one I liked a lot, that I don’t hear much about.
Pretty much everything on candystand.com as well. There were a bunch of (probably flash) web games made by LifeSaver. It’s all anyone did in my high school during computer lab and seemingly lost to time. Instead of a game site with ads, the whole game was an ad, so it just felt like a candy theme.
Agent under fire and nightfire. The local multiplayer in those games was so fun.
Outpost 2. It's a sim game where you build a society that lives on an unforgiving planet after the last survivors of humanity have travelled the galaxy in hibernation while the ship computer searches for a viable new planet. But the computer couldn't find a nice place so it settles on a really shitty one. While the game has combat I always thought managing all the resources was the most fun.
River Raid, ATF, Quazatron, Ace 2, Spy vs Spy, Spitfire, F18, Carrier Command, and many others from 8 and 16 bit home computing days.
Fragile Allegiance My buddies and I loved this game so much back in the early 90s. It's awesome. The idea, the gameplay, everything. I wonder why nobody created a similar game nowadays.
An obscure PSP-only game called Jeanne d'Arc, which I see now has actually been re-released this year for PS4/PS5!
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jeanne_d%27Arc_(video_game)
Tempest hasn't been completely forgotten, but its fans are definitely a very small cult.
Iron Storm
Cool game, multiplayer was so cool. Its super cheap on steam.
BZFlag, a tank FPS where you can pick up flags that give you certain extra abilities. It ran originally on Silicon Graphics workstations (at least that's were I encountered it), but it was based on the Battle Zone arcade game. There was a PC port.
Snipes, a "shoot the bugs (and each other) network game for Novell networks back in the mid 1980s.
BZFlag is still around:
https://www.bzflag.org/
It was a LAN party staple when I was in school.
Qix an arcade game.
Star Raiders, an Atari Computer game.
I loved Acrophobia.
Caesar 3 and the 7 Kingdoms