What old games have you dredged up recently and why?

Played through Super Metroid about a week ago, then found a copy of Secret of Mana for the SNES on the cheap and am now playing through that. Refreshing change from the disappointing PS4 remake.

kuddles wrote:
bobbywatson wrote:

Installed the original Tomb Raider (1996?) on my PC again, spent an hour getting it to look pretty and work with my controller. I played a bit of it yesterday, and it was pretty much what I thought it was going to be. I have some nostalgia for it, so I can tolerate the jankiness and enjoy it to a certain level, but that game should not be played by anyone who has not played it before.

Yeah, I tried to play that when the remake of it was about to come out (Anniversary) and after the first level decided to stick with the remake so that my memory wasn't tainted too much.

I ended up playing it to the end and, I have to say, despite all the jank, I had a great time! I still maintain my original assessment though: If a person does not have any nostalgia for it, I would suggest watching a Let's Play on YouTube and not touching it.

I actually went ahead and started playing the sequel now.

Path to the Greengrocer wrote:

I got the Pool of Radiance Gold Box series off GOG and finished those a while back.

Roughly how long did that take?

I had Pool of Radiance as a kid and did lots of grinding but never finished it. Every now and then, the idea of playing through the whole series crosses my mind. It'd be amazing to take one party through all five games.

misplacedbravado wrote:
Path to the Greengrocer wrote:

I got the Pool of Radiance Gold Box series off GOG and finished those a while back.

Roughly how long did that take?

I had Pool of Radiance as a kid and did lots of grinding but never finished it. Every now and then, the idea of playing through the whole series crosses my mind. It'd be amazing to take one party through all five games.

I just celebrated my 39th birthday, I only have so much time left!

LastSurprise wrote:
tboon wrote:

I also have a M&M 1-6 game going off an on that I want to do a similar thing: import parties to new games where I can do it.

That's definitely a lot of fun to do. By the way, if you end up enjoying Might & Magic 3, the default party ends up becoming canon in Might & Magic 7:

Spoiler:

The party from 3 shows up in 7, but fractured: the "good" and "evil" halves divided in a new world and are each leading factions at war in that world. Depending on the path you chose, you end up working for one side or the other.

You could also check out the merged version of Might & Magic 6,7, & 8 using the MM8 engine. I'm curious how well it works but haven't had time to try it out yet.

misplacedbravado wrote:
Path to the Greengrocer wrote:

I got the Pool of Radiance Gold Box series off GOG and finished those a while back.

Roughly how long did that take?

I had Pool of Radiance as a kid and did lots of grinding but never finished it. Every now and then, the idea of playing through the whole series crosses my mind. It'd be amazing to take one party through all five games.

It wasn’t that long. The original game took me about 8 hours to get through. When i focused. When I was younger, it took for ever. Like for ever ever.

The whole series? They get a little crazier after the first one, so it depends on your problem solving skills.

BlackSheep wrote:
misplacedbravado wrote:
Path to the Greengrocer wrote:

I got the Pool of Radiance Gold Box series off GOG and finished those a while back.

Roughly how long did that take?

I had Pool of Radiance as a kid and did lots of grinding but never finished it. Every now and then, the idea of playing through the whole series crosses my mind. It'd be amazing to take one party through all five games.

It wasn’t that long. The original game took me about 8 hours to get through. When i focused. When I was younger, it took for ever. Like for ever ever.

The whole series? They get a little crazier after the first one, so it depends on your problem solving skills.

I seem to recall certain individual battles taking about half that long. To their credit, the gold box combat system was as good as we could expect for a turn based tactical sim, but man...those PoR battles took forever.

Running Man wrote:
BlackSheep wrote:
misplacedbravado wrote:
Path to the Greengrocer wrote:

I got the Pool of Radiance Gold Box series off GOG and finished those a while back.

Roughly how long did that take?

I had Pool of Radiance as a kid and did lots of grinding but never finished it. Every now and then, the idea of playing through the whole series crosses my mind. It'd be amazing to take one party through all five games.

It wasn’t that long. The original game took me about 8 hours to get through. When i focused. When I was younger, it took for ever. Like for ever ever.

The whole series? They get a little crazier after the first one, so it depends on your problem solving skills.

I seem to recall certain individual battles taking about half that long. To their credit, the gold box combat system was as good as we could expect for a turn based tactical sim, but man...those PoR battles took forever.

Part of the reason it took forever was the load times on a 386 or 486. Now, there isn’t that issue. I was rather shocked that the other day, I finished champions of krynn in about 8 hours when I recall, like you, how long battles took.

Yeah the Gold Box games are pretty snappy these days for reasons BlackSheep mentions. Back in the day, most of the time in-game was spent waiting for sprites and other graphics to load in, it turns out (I played Pool and CotAB on a C64 and man they were slow). Not a problem now. Even not on min text delay, fights take a lot less time to get through, even the crazy ones like the kobold caves or Zhentil Keep.

I'd recommend that if you loved them back in the day, picking them up from GoG and having a look. For $10 you get all the games in the Moonsea series plus the Savage Frontier series and Unlimited Adventures. The Gold Box engine is primitive enough that it actually holds up pretty well.

tboon wrote:

Yeah the Gold Box games are pretty snappy these days for reasons BlackSheep mentions. Back in the day, most of the time in-game was spent waiting for sprites and other graphics to load in, it turns out (I played Pool and CotAB on a C64 and man they were slow). Not a problem now. Even not on min text delay, fights take a lot less time to get through, even the crazy ones like the kobold caves or Zhentil Keep.

I'd recommend that if you loved them back in the day, picking them up from GoG and having a look. For $10 you get all the games in the Moonsea series plus the Savage Frontier series and Unlimited Adventures. The Gold Box engine is primitive enough that it actually holds up pretty well.

...speaking of the combat mechanics, there is absolutely nothing more thrilling than dropping the fireball on a bunch of kobolds or bouncing a lighting bolt off a wall and having it stop just one square short of you.

The 3x3 square of red skulls is really great.

Wow, how did I miss this thread?! I play old games ALL THE TIME. It's like, my thing. I can't wait to go through this thread!

Veloxi wrote:
divorced wrote:

Usually, when I feel nostalgic I'll fire up X-Wing or Tie Fighter. Just doesn't get any better.

I've been playing Tie Fighter lately as well, with a mix of Freespace 2 and Painkiller. This is because work has been stressful and few games give me the visceral thrill that these do. :)

Apparently I didn't miss this thread, I just hadn't favorited it. Whoops.

Working my way through the Splinter Cell games, had forgotten how much I like being stealthy and non lethal!

I loved Freedom Force but never got around to playing Freedom Force vs the Third Reich and am tempted to give it a try.

Can't think of any modern games that satisfy that super hero itch.

jrralls wrote:

I loved Freedom Force but never got around to playing Freedom Force vs the Third Reich and am tempted to give it a try.

Can't think of any modern games that satisfy that super hero itch.

Yeah, sadly nothing comes close.

Veloxi wrote:
jrralls wrote:

I loved Freedom Force but never got around to playing Freedom Force vs the Third Reich and am tempted to give it a try.

Can't think of any modern games that satisfy that super hero itch.

Yeah, sadly nothing comes close.

If you loved the first, you’ll love the second. I liked the first a little more than the second because the second one is a little more restrictive with party selection, for story reasons, but FF v. TR is still pretty great.

Recently, I was gifted a SNES Classic; and shortly after, went on a weeklong vacation. Perfect timing!

Kirby Superstar - These have aged pretty well because they were designed to be simple and easy. A "one sitting" platformer might have felt like a rip off if you paid $60 for a cart, but it's great if you got it for almost nothing.

Shadowrun - I don't think I ever finished this, despite having very fond memories of it. Now I remember why. The early game is engaging and promises this really unique cyberpunk adventure, but after a while you hit a wall with both the "point and click adventure" style of puzzle solving and the required hours of repetitive grinding. Cyberpunk is surprisingly underrepresented in video games, but given these and other dated sins, it's hard to recommend this anymore.

Genesis Shadowrun is better. There's a whole section of the game where you can stay in perpetual 'be hired for mission' mode. I swear most of my time was just doing everything possible there.

I started up Baldur's Gate for another run at the title since my first attempt 18 years ago ended in a bugged, invincible Sarevok in the final fight. You really can't roleplay this game, unless of course you decide to play as a min-maxed, manic completionist. I forgot how many times members of your party just arbitrarily die two rounds after a named baddie goes hostile, since they are all mages or clerics with ACs hovering around 0 and a level one party has no chance against mass hold person, a series of quad-barreled magic missile barrages, and summon spells that call another 5-8 monsters on your head.

I'm tempted to roll a fully custom party to quicksave-stomp the game into oblivion just out of spite, but I think I'm just going to have to finally admit that BG will never be finished by me and move on to the next item in the pile. Maybe Icewind, since it has the grace to be honest about its intentions and doesn't dangle the promise of an actual roleplaying experience in your face...

So I just played 1986's Starglider for the first time. What a confusing and super difficult thing that was. Hopefully the sequel is better.

Original Mike Tysons punch out.. and still able to beat it on without any losses

I've never finished Nox. Somewhere in the middle (especially the maze-temple-thing) I tend to lose interest and momentum. But as I've mentioned in another thread, I'm working my way through the Star Wolves campaign again. A shame that game doesn't have an open world game design.

Darkhaund wrote:

Original Mike Tysons punch out.. and still able to beat it on without any losses

Nice! I'm very impressed with the no loss playthrough. I can handle everyone but Super Macho Man (including Tyson / Dream, though I can't take them down consistently). For some reason, I just find the ducking mechanic really awkward and could never get the timing down.

wickbroke wrote:

I've never finished Nox. Somewhere in the middle (especially the maze-temple-thing) I tend to lose interest and momentum. But as I've mentioned in another thread, I'm working my way through the Star Wolves campaign again. A shame that game doesn't have an open world game design.

Star Wolves 2 and 3 are far more open.

Darkhaund wrote:

Original Mike Tysons punch out.. and still able to beat it on without any losses

Nice. I was never able to beat it straight through without any losses I don’t think.

I posted in classic games, but I just beat Castlevania 3 on an Nt Mini with no save states. Pretty happy about that. I’d say Ninja Gaiden was slightly harder just by pure obnoxiousness, but CV3 has to be in the top three hardest games I’ve finished.

Ninja gaiden... now i have to play
i LOVED THE BG music of the mine level

Veloxi wrote:
wickbroke wrote:

I've never finished Nox. Somewhere in the middle (especially the maze-temple-thing) I tend to lose interest and momentum. But as I've mentioned in another thread, I'm working my way through the Star Wolves campaign again. A shame that game doesn't have an open world game design.

Star Wolves 2 and 3 are far more open.

Veloxi wrote:
wickbroke wrote:

I've never finished Nox. Somewhere in the middle (especially the maze-temple-thing) I tend to lose interest and momentum. But as I've mentioned in another thread, I'm working my way through the Star Wolves campaign again. A shame that game doesn't have an open world game design.

Star Wolves 2 and 3 are far more open.

Veloxi, did you like any of the three? Which did you like most? I've seen some negatives about Star Wolves 2, and a lot of "If you liked the first, you'll like the third".

Thanks!

I liked all three, but I think three is the best of them.

So I just last week learned that in Tyson's punch out, the cue to punch....Tyson(?)...was when one specific audience member winks or something. Crazy those Nintendo designers.