Obscure and Forgotten Games (Catch-All)

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There are a lot of video games out there. Some of them are known by almost everyone, but in such a hit-driven industry most games aren't remembered. Unless you shared the exact same consoles at the exact same time, you're likely to have at least one game that you've played but most other people haven't. GOG has been doing a great job of bringing out-of-print games back, but there are a lot of games still missing. Some are practically inaccessible now, because of their clumsy interfaces or dated presentation, but odds are that you know of at least one game that is worth talking about.

I have a bunch of examples that fit this description, because obscure gaming history is one of my interests, but for the same reason I'd like to hear what obscure games you know about and I don't. Whether they're underrated gems, obscure bits of gaming history, or just games that won't get their own thread because they were released two decades ago but you'd like to talk about them anyway.

Richard Cobbett's Saturday Crapshoot series on PCGamer is a pretty good place to start.

Freedom Fighters by IO Interactive was a really fantastic game that mostly flew under the radar back when it came out. I would really love to see a second take on those game systems.

It wasn't exactly unpopular back in its day, but I was a huge fan of Little Big Adventure 2/Twinsen's Odyssey and you don't see many (any) nostalgic looks back at it.

It had a KISS cameo. And that spinny wushu sword move. And hot dog soldiers.

I think it might have done well on a console if it had ever made it to one. I'm not sure it's the type of thing that would really benefit from a remake or a contemporary sequel-ization since much of the charm of its character designs was in the creative use of low poly limitations.

Chip's Challenge was a really fun puzzle game on the Lynx. I put hours into it.

Mr GT Chris wrote:

Chip's Challenge was a really fun puzzle game on the Lynx. I put hours into it.

I played the PC version. My brother beat it, which was kind of a theme in my life in that era. The designer has just Kickstarted a sequel to the spiritual sequel, Chuck's Challenge 3D.

MojoBox wrote:

Freedom Fighters by IO Interactive was a really fantastic game that mostly flew under the radar back when it came out. I would really love to see a second take on those game systems.

I was just coming in here to post that! Loved that game. I'd never heard of it when I got my hands on it, and went in not expecting much. I don't think I looked at another game until I had beaten it twice. It's not fantastic, mechanics-wise, but there is something about it that just.. worked. I've only met a few people that have heard of it, and all of them are goodjers. Outside of here, and in physical life, nobody knows..

In the 1st Degree, an FMV CD-ROM courtroom adventure.

You examine evidence, interview witnesses, and go to trial.

It's what I wished Phoenix Wright and LA Noire would be, but weren't. It's a trial that can get dismissed in pre-trial, or go through the trial process and result in anything from acquittal to a lesser conviction all the way up to murder one.

Though I wonder how well it would hold up if I played it now.

I actually... uh... I may have re-written the entirety of Heart of China as fanfiction, once ^^;

The first game that came to mind is Prey. It was such an amazing experience, but it died and dissapeared almost as soon as it was released. I'm not sure if it's on Steam, but I feel as if it's a brilliant game that is forgotten.

I also want to say Turok, but it wasn't that flip-table-amazing

Home of the Underdogs was for a long time my source for such games. Then it got locked down and I just found out it still exists. A great resource full of gems.

For me, the most underrated gem was Spellcross. A first turn-based game I played with persistent experience-gaining units, where the opponent was totally overpowered, full with research and upgrades. I loved it even more than X-Com at that time.

How obscure?

How about chicken shift. A MAME title.

Mr GT Chris wrote:

Chip's Challenge was a really fun puzzle game on the Lynx. I put hours into it.

That's funny, I had that game on my PC, I wouldn't have considered it was obscure at all. Almost put quite a few hours into it!!

wanderingtaoist wrote:

Home of the Underdogs was for a long time my source for such games. Then it got locked down and I just found out it still exists. A great resource full of gems.

Oh my gosh, it's still alive, woohoo!!!!! Thought it was still shut down.

For me, the underrated gem of my youth is Obsidian (1996). Typically belittled as "just another Myst clone", I see it as a compelling adventure game which tackles the themes of nanotechnology, bureaucracy, sentient AI, environmentalist and even psychology. Think I still have the five CDs somewhere, kinda wanna dive back into it now...

Ghostship wrote:

How obscure?

How about chicken shift. A MAME title.

I've certainly never heard of it. Any details?

Cyberia and Cyberia 2 (you'll have to wiki them yourself since the link breaks the BBCode) were both favorites of mine growing up. I remember a friend and I played straight through part two in one sitting, each of us taking turns alternating levels.

Some other games I was into that are probably more forgotten than obscure were Bloodstone, Unlimited Adventures, and Dark Adventure. I remember pumping endless amounts of quarters into that machine with my dad whenever we went bowling. I can actually barely remember how the game even played now.

Programming games, while once popular with the Apple IIe set and the 80's hacker types, were always obscure and have remained so. I was fond of Core Wars for a while, but the real winner was MindRover, which was a 3D game where you not only programmed the rovers, but built them as well, from some very cool assemblages of sensor, utility parts, chasses, power, armor, weapons, all sorts of things, each with their own functions and controlling code.

Unfortunately, both Cognitoy and Loki have closed, so no Mindrover for you!

Robear wrote:

Programming games, while once popular with the Apple IIe set and the 80's hacker types, were always obscure and have remained so. I was fond of Core Wars for a while, but the real winner was MindRover, which was a 3D game where you not only programmed the rovers, but built them as well, from some very cool assemblages of sensor, utility parts, chasses, power, armor, weapons, all sorts of things, each with their own functions and controlling code.

Unfortunately, both Cognitoy and Loki have closed, so no Mindrover for you! :-)

Get Arduino - you can make and program your own real robot. They even have a pre-built robot platform which you can just program. Or there is a slightly more expensive route, Lego Mindstorms, currently in its 3rd revision. My four-year old loved the building of a robot from a pile of scrap electronics, mostly picked up from old toys I loved robot-programming games back in the day and this is a dream come true.

I remember one of my favorite websites of the late 90s/early 2000s called "Home of the Underdogs". It was basically a site devoted to old forgotten games that weren't the huge hits. It also let you download them which was nice, though only the abandon-ware games. If they were still for sale the site provided a link to where you could buy it. One of my favorites was 4X game called Maelstrom. Man, Home of the Underdogs was a good site for old games.

Edit: Apparently it is now http://homeoftheunderdogs.net/, a good site to at least remember old games.

Eleima wrote:
Mr GT Chris wrote:

Chip's Challenge was a really fun puzzle game on the Lynx. I put hours into it.

That's funny, I had that game on my PC, I wouldn't have considered it was obscure at all. Almost put quite a few hours into it!! :D

I had no idea there was a PC version until this thread! Thought it was a Lynx exclusive somehow.

Gremlin wrote:

I played the PC version. My brother beat it, which was kind of a theme in my life in that era. The designer has just Kickstarted a sequel to the spiritual sequel, Chuck's Challenge 3D.

I was looking for another Lynx game to buy after already having bought the 5-6 games that were worth a damn. Thought the cover looked goofy and screens uninteresting but this was the day before internet and Metacritic so I threw caution to the wind and plonked down my $40 or so. Was pleasantly surprised to say the least.

I wish GOG could find whoever owned the rights to the Cyberia games. They were so weird and wonderful. It's odd because they were developed by Xatrix and put out by Interplay and GOG does have the rights to Kingpin which was also put out by that same pair of companies.

I posted this in the thread that spawned this one but StarTopia. This was the last title of Mucky Foot Productions, a studio that only got two things out, both of which were good but which publisher Eidos just crapped onto the scene with no marketing. If you like Dungeon Keeper, this is very much like that except you're managing a space station. I've beaten this game multiple times and it's an absolute blast with a great sense of humour. I plan to do both a Retro Flashback and a live stream of it some day soon.

Many other mentioned Freedom Fighters as well which I agree with. Another great game that was crapped onto the market by its publisher and nobody bought. Since then, IO has basically become the Hitman house. This is another one that GOG desperately needs to snag the rights for.

Parallax Abstraction wrote:

I posted this in the thread that spawned this one but StarTopia. This was the last title of Mucky Foot Productions, a studio that only got two things out, both of which were good but which publisher Eidos just crapped onto the scene with no marketing. If you like Dungeon Keeper, this is very much like that except you're managing a space station. I've beaten this game multiple times and it's an absolute blast with a great sense of humour. I plan to do both a Retro Flashback and a live stream of it some day soon.

Point of interest: Mucky Foot was made of a handful of ex-Bullfrog people who either worked on Theme Park/Hospital or Dungeon Keeper.

Like Dungeon Keeper in space? Ex-Bullfrog staff?

Sold!!!!

shoptroll wrote:
Parallax Abstraction wrote:

I posted this in the thread that spawned this one but StarTopia. This was the last title of Mucky Foot Productions, a studio that only got two things out, both of which were good but which publisher Eidos just crapped onto the scene with no marketing. If you like Dungeon Keeper, this is very much like that except you're managing a space station. I've beaten this game multiple times and it's an absolute blast with a great sense of humour. I plan to do both a Retro Flashback and a live stream of it some day soon.

Point of interest: Mucky Foot was made of a handful of ex-Bullfrog people who either worked on Theme Park/Hospital or Dungeon Keeper.

That makes a huge pile of sense given StarTopia. Ugh, so wish it had succeeded and been expanded upon.

Parallax Abstraction wrote:
shoptroll wrote:
Parallax Abstraction wrote:

I posted this in the thread that spawned this one but StarTopia. This was the last title of Mucky Foot Productions, a studio that only got two things out, both of which were good but which publisher Eidos just crapped onto the scene with no marketing. If you like Dungeon Keeper, this is very much like that except you're managing a space station. I've beaten this game multiple times and it's an absolute blast with a great sense of humour. I plan to do both a Retro Flashback and a live stream of it some day soon.

Point of interest: Mucky Foot was made of a handful of ex-Bullfrog people who either worked on Theme Park/Hospital or Dungeon Keeper.

That makes a huge pile of sense given StarTopia. Ugh, so wish it had succeeded and been expanded upon.

Kieron Gillen had a massive love for Mucky Foot (and passed it onto the rest of the RPS staff) and did a post-mortem/retrospective of them at the Escapist a long time ago.

Oohhh, great idea. I love obscure games, especially from the 90s. I just got this in the mail the other day, for example:

IMAGE(http://www.neuralgameshake.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/08/CameraZOOM-20130829183107055.jpg)

Nevin73 wrote:

I remember one of my favorite websites of the late 90s/early 2000s called "Home of the Underdogs". It was basically a site devoted to old forgotten games that weren't the huge hits. It also let you download them which was nice, though only the abandon-ware games. If they were still for sale the site provided a link to where you could buy it. One of my favorites was 4X game called Maelstrom. Man, Home of the Underdogs was a good site for old games.

Edit: Apparently it is now http://homeoftheunderdogs.net/, a good site to at least remember old games.

Sadly HOTU hasn't been updated in roughly seven years. :/ Abandonia is where it's at these days. Lookit, they even have Maelstrom. Awesome game by the way, what little I recall of it anyway.

Gremlin wrote:
Ghostship wrote:

How obscure?

How about chicken shift. A MAME title.

I've certainly never heard of it. Any details?

A 1984 Bally arcade title.
I don't know what to compare it to. Tetris/Dr. Mario?
Falling things that you have to do something with, but in a limited time.

It would be phone game today.

It's fun if you can get around the age of it.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Rwyr...

I think 1996 must have been my personal golden age of games since these two and Diablo were released then and all had me addicted at some point.

Deadlock: Planetary Conquest. I think I'm one of 10 people who have played this. I know there were others since I played them on dial up (and still one of the few strategy game I've played online).

IMAGE(http://i.imgur.com/bVDVcqf.png)

Archimedean Dynasty. Back when box art was still important (it's two layers). AquaNox's precursor. Kind of like Freelancer in the ocean. I tried playing it a while ago but my joystick just sent my ship in endless spirals.

IMAGE(http://i.imgur.com/woJXLGl.jpg)

God, I loved both of those games, especially Archimedean Dynasty. It's SUCH a shame that the Aquanox games were crap by comparison.

Oh, also, does anyone remember this one?

IMAGE(http://i.imgur.com/NcLT2Wvm.jpg)

I still play it every now and then because of it's amazing gameplay and non-linear campaign, but when I mention it to folks, their eyes glaze over. Shame, such a wonderful game.

I remember Deadlock. That was a great game.

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