Hazily Remembered Games With Only the Vaguest Notion of What They Were

A_Unicycle wrote:

Not so much old, but the podcast this week reminded me of a game I wanted to check out.

It was a fire fighting game, and it was top-down. I remember there were islands (maybe?) with different elevations, and you had to stop the fire spreading. I think it used a similar mechanic to Creeper World, where the geography really mattered.

I think it may have been available on mobile devices as well as Steam. I remember bright green and bright blue in most of the screenshots.

Any guesses?

Flame Over? http://store.steampowered.com/app/34...

IMAGE(http://criticalindiegamer.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/03/flame-over-review.jpg)

There's a really old game I remember playing around '88 or '89 or maybe '90 that was basically a car stunt game. There was definitely a lot of green. You'd drive on these skinny tracks that went up and down like a roller coaster. I THINK you could make your own tracks too, but I might be wrong about that. It pops in my head every few months and I've never been able to figure out what it was.

d4m0 wrote:

There's a really old game I remember playing around '88 or '89 or maybe '90 that was basically a car stunt game. There was definitely a lot of green. You'd drive on these skinny tracks that went up and down like a roller coaster. I THINK you could make your own tracks too, but I might be wrong about that. It pops in my head every few months and I've never been able to figure out what it was.

Around that time I played both Stunts! and Stunt Driver but I can't now recall any specific differences between the two of them. Both were on the IBM PC with VGA graphics at the time. I think in both of them you could make your own tracks. You could also choose which car, with an F1 / Indy car being the best. I liked to just make ramps and shoot the car straight up as far as I could get it to go, but you could make corkscrews and banked turns and all that.

qaraq wrote:
d4m0 wrote:

There's a really old game I remember playing around '88 or '89 or maybe '90 that was basically a car stunt game. There was definitely a lot of green. You'd drive on these skinny tracks that went up and down like a roller coaster. I THINK you could make your own tracks too, but I might be wrong about that. It pops in my head every few months and I've never been able to figure out what it was.

Around that time I played both Stunts! and Stunt Driver but I can't now recall any specific differences between the two of them. Both were on the IBM PC with VGA graphics at the time. I think in both of them you could make your own tracks. You could also choose which car, with an F1 / Indy car being the best. I liked to just make ramps and shoot the car straight up as far as I could get it to go, but you could make corkscrews and banked turns and all that.

Stunts/4D Sports Driving has a number of different cars to choose from, while Stunt Driver only has a Mustang.

Stunt car racer was out around then and had Amiga, atari St and PC releases

It wasn't Stunts, though I do remember playing that one.

It was Stunt Car Racer! DanB gets the win, thank you sir! Now that I'm looking at some youtube videos, it seems like there wasn't much green. That video is the Amiga version though, and I'm pretty sure I was playing the regular old PC release. I spent so much time in that ridiculous/awesome game.

Hard Drivin' also came out in 89, and had a ton of green, although the tracks weren't raised for the most part. I played a ton of that.

Edit: I never knew there was a sequel but it looks like it a lot more stunty

Oh yeah, I remember playing those games in the arcade! Good times, many quarters. Here's a shot of the version of Stunt Car Racer that I definitely played. Seems to be the Commodore 64 version. It was green and not much else:

IMAGE(http://www.c64.com/games/screenshots/s/stunt_car_racer_06.gif)

My vague recollection of the Amiga version the track was grey with brown walls/sidings and some of the levels had a green horizon

I also recall it being crazy difficult

Speaking of 3D games from that era (maybe slightly later). There was this dogfighting game where you would take off from a runway, fly over some water to an island, and dogfight with another plane. The planes looked like WW2 era prop planes and I think the plane was shaded blue or gray. I don't remember doing much more than that so maybe I had a freeware/demo version or the game was just really basic. I remember playing it on the Mac.

EvilDead wrote:

Speaking of 3D games from that era (maybe slightly later). There was this dogfighting game where you would take off from a runway, fly over some water to an island, and dogfight with another plane. The planes looked like WW2 era prop planes and I think the plane was shaded blue or gray. I don't remember doing much more than that so maybe I had a freeware/demo version or the game was just really basic. I remember playing it on the Mac.

Definitely Combat on the Atari 2600:

IMAGE(http://www.atarimania.com/2600/screens/combat_5.gif)

Hah, I don't think that makes the cut for 3D . It kinda looked like the above car driving games, graphically, but was a semi sim flying game with dog fighting.

That Atari combat game does look like something I played at my older sisters friend's house.

mrwynd wrote:
A_Unicycle wrote:

Not so much old, but the podcast this week reminded me of a game I wanted to check out.

It was a fire fighting game, and it was top-down. I remember there were islands (maybe?) with different elevations, and you had to stop the fire spreading. I think it used a similar mechanic to Creeper World, where the geography really mattered.

I think it may have been available on mobile devices as well as Steam. I remember bright green and bright blue in most of the screenshots.

Any guesses?

Flame Over? http://store.steampowered.com/app/34...

IMAGE(http://criticalindiegamer.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/03/flame-over-review.jpg)

Hmm, no...This was top down, and 2D. Almost minimal. That game looks neat though

EvilDead wrote:

Speaking of 3D games from that era (maybe slightly later). There was this dogfighting game where you would take off from a runway, fly over some water to an island, and dogfight with another plane. The planes looked like WW2 era prop planes and I think the plane was shaded blue or gray. I don't remember doing much more than that so maybe I had a freeware/demo version or the game was just really basic. I remember playing it on the Mac.

Wow, that took a lot of google image scrolling, and rephrasing, by I found it. Hellcats over the Pacific. I must have had the shareware version because it appears to be a full out combat flight simulator.

IMAGE(http://www.mobygames.com/images/shots/l/245571-hellcats-over-the-pacific-macintosh-screenshot-tower-view.png)

A_Unicycle wrote:

Not so much old, but the podcast this week reminded me of a game I wanted to check out.

It was a fire fighting game, and it was top-down. I remember there were islands (maybe?) with different elevations, and you had to stop the fire spreading. I think it used a similar mechanic to Creeper World, where the geography really mattered.

I think it may have been available on mobile devices as well as Steam. I remember bright green and bright blue in most of the screenshots.

Any guesses?

Probably way too old, but on the Super Nintendo you had The Ignition Factor and The Firemen.
The SegaCD had Fahrenheit, but that was a FMV game.

Unfortunately not, I think it was more RTS styled than character-based.

But thanks for trying! Those 2 SNES games are actually on my 'to-play' list!

I half-remember a sidescrolling shmup I used to play at the arcade back in 1989 or so (maybe a couple of years earlier, maybe a couple later) in which the player controlled a spaceship that could transform into a robot. It always reminded me of Jetfire from Transformers or the Valkyrie from Robotech. Any idea what this game was?

Side Arms
Amazing game though you had to find the special widget by shooting something at fixed points in the levels in order to switch to robot form.

fangblackbone wrote:

Side Arms
Amazing game though you had to find the special widget by shooting something at fixed points in the levels in order to switch to robot form.

YES! You're awesome, Fangblackbone! I've been thinking about this game for about thirty years, and now I finally know what it was!

Mario_Alba wrote:

I half-remember a sidescrolling shmup I used to play at the arcade back in 1989 or so (maybe a couple of years earlier, maybe a couple later) in which the player controlled a spaceship that could transform into a robot. It always reminded me of Jetfire from Transformers or the Valkyrie from Robotech. Any idea what this game was?

Funnily enough I have an very similar memory which I would date to 1986 or 1987. Like you red and white is how I recall the robo/mech. In my memory the game is isometric like Zaxxon but I could just have it confused with Zaxxon.

So far the only thing I've been able to come up with is Formation Z. Right colouring but not isometric and a bit earlier in 1984
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uzPZ...

Edit:
Exzisus, 1987, also features transforming from man to jet but apparently it wasn't released outside of Japan in the 80s
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aQsI...

I don't think I had ever seen any of those three you mention, DanB, but I can see the similarities!

I'm trying to remember the name of a helicopter sim I played on the Commodore 64.

IIRC, one of the missions was search and rescue (at sea, maybe?), one involved shooting up a bunch of ground targets, and one had you flying a winding path around mountains (escorting a convoy?) with enemies in ambush positions. I don't think any of them were trying to represent specific places or events, just different kinds of things the particular military helicopter it was modeling could do.

It also had some kind of thermal- or otherwise night-vision mode, and a lot of the helicopter's systems could be damaged with different consequences.

Was it first person or isometric or top down? I wonder if it is something like Raid on Bungaling Bay or Infiltrator. Gunship?

It wasn't Gunship, but that helped me find it -- it was Thunderchopper from Microprose's competitor subLOGIC!

The reviews Mobygames found make it sound like an inferior knockoff of Gunship. I guess I missed out on the real deal.

Mario_Alba wrote:

I don't think I had ever seen any of those three you mention, DanB, but I can see the similarities!

To be honest none of the ones mentioned so far look at all like the thing I remember but as I say I possibly have it confused with Zaxxon

misplacedbravado wrote:

It wasn't Gunship, but that helped me find it -- it was Thunderchopper from Microprose's competitor subLOGIC!

The reviews Mobygames found make it sound like an inferior knockoff of Gunship. I guess I missed out on the real deal.

Yeah Gunship was awesome.

Swords and serpents for the intellevision II and.... a game from the Atari 2600 that was a DUAl cassete ONE of the games being a karateish game.

I loved Swords and Serpents but was never able to finish since I always played solo. I don't believe there was a special version for Intellivision 2 (was that ever released?) . I do recall drooling over Major League Baseball for the Intellivsion computer thingie. It wasn't 3D but I am pretty sure it pioneered the pitcher/batter perspective that nearly all baseball games have to this day.
IMAGE(http://www.gamasutra.com/db_area/images/feature/3653/image023.jpg)

I once stumbled upon a DRAGON i guess in Swords and Serpetns but I was never ever ever able to find it again.

Am I correct or was I dreaming.
Also... there was this game... called shark shark.. or water water...?? for the intellivision 2 and another gmae that you were like in a little red raft on a river and had to avoid little vortexes..

There was indeed a dragon - but when you got to it there was nothing that you could do. I remember reading that the game had no "real" ending -

here are the details

https://groups.google.com/forum/?hl=...

http://atariage.com/forums/topic/138...