Games that stand the test of time

Reminisce about those old games and dedicated gaming hardware

Re: Games that stand the test of time

Postby Carcenomy on Sat Mar 10, 2012 5:57 pm

The realities of phpBB my friend, long posts don't go so well :)

Depends on the home computer you reflect on. Some machines were fantastic for playing arcade style games and did so really well - the Amiga is a fine example of this. The 8-bits however, some could achieve close results, others were far from the mark. But it was a testament to the programmers that they could get as close as they could!
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Re: Games that stand the test of time

Postby Harvey on Sun Mar 11, 2012 1:10 pm

One thing I try to do, is to have an accurate view/assessment of the hardware. I can't imagine a home computer being able to reproduce an arcade game, without having hardware sprites, and hardware scrolling, etc. I never had a good sit down on an Apple II, BBC, Amstrad CPC or Spectrum to see how well they coped? But jerky scrolling really puts me off - when you look at Boulderdash running on an Atari 400/800 and it running on an Amstrad - you'd immediately notice the difference.
I never got around to seeing - say a Defender or Galaga game running on these kind of computers - to see if they were playable enough on them... There was much hype about the Colecovision when it came out - but when I got to see one running Zaxxon at Bootes in England - I was singularly unimpressed. I can imagine that Donkey Kong on it, would look way better, because of no scrolling in that game. But I never saw it there.. I never got around to seeing an Atari 7800 running - and still haven't. In Youtube videos - it does look pretty poor. I was hoping it would at least outclass the Atari 5200 (which is basically an Atari 400/800). I did have high expectations of the 7800 - because of a glowing preview of that hardware in a glossy console games magazine of that time.. Any hardware that could deliver an almost arcade perfect copy of Xevious for the home - would be brilliant - and perhaps it is the PC-Engine (In the US known as Turbo Graphix 16) - that does that?

I will make up a list - of what I regard as the best games for the Atari 400/800, C64, SNES, Megadrive, Playstation, Sega Saturn - and I am particularly drawn towards the 'sleeper' games - brilliant games that seem to have not been noticed or praised highly enough. I'll give one example on the SNES - "Snoopy's Concert". This does feature Japanese text, so it must be a Japanese release only. Snoopy goes on an adventure - and it's very much a puzzle adventure, as you work out what Snoopy can do in the given situations he gets into. It has very nice animation - and is an arcade adventure.

It is from this line onwards - that it is a pain to keep on writing/typing - ie. the line below... onwards..

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Re: Games that stand the test of time

Postby SpidersWeb on Mon Mar 12, 2012 12:04 am

I missed most of the games you guys are discussing and didn't have huge experience with the traditional 8 bit machines (only one I owned was Amstrad - 464 then a 6128) but I have noticed something about myself since replaying a lot of older titles. When I was younger I loved the Apogee and id Software titles on the PC, but when I play them now, I tend to get somewhat bored after 10-20 minutes. I always feel that if I'm going to play any game that involves reaction/shooting etc that I prefer newer titles with much improved graphics.

BUT games from the likes of Sierra and a few Maxis titles which are skill/intelligence based I still enjoy because these don't need good graphics or good sound to keep me occupied for hours. My latest addiction was a title I found on my $3 Pentium, "Jones", but I've also enjoyed replaying Leisure Suit Larry, Police Quest, and Simcity recently often for hours on end.

But on the other hand I am quietly looking forward to playing the Epyx games again - California Games, Winter Games, etc I played them on the PC, CPC, and C64 when younger. It'll be interesting to see how much playtime I get from them. They make for a good comparison titles, as they came out on large range of consoles/computers, was watching a few on YouTube.

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Re: Games that stand the test of time

Postby Harvey on Mon Mar 12, 2012 9:43 pm

Truly worthwhile exceptional videogames - this is by no means complete... etc --- I'll update this later on...

Atari 400/800/etc
Alley Cat, Archon, Archon 2, Ball Blazer, BC's Quest For Tires
Blue Max, Boulderdash, Boulderdash II, Bounty Bob Strikes Back, Bristles
Drelbs, Elekta Glide, Encounter,
Fort Apocalypse, Krazy Shootout, International Karate, Leaderboard, Lords of Karma
Miner 2049'er, Montezuma's Revenge, Necromancer, Pathfinder, Rescue from Fractalus
Sea Dragon, Shamus, star Raiders, Stratos, Summer Games, Tree Surgeon

VG Coin-op conversions:
Donkey Kong, Frogger, Gorf, Gyruss, Joust, Missile Command, Pacman, Pole Position
Qix


C-64
Armalyte, Delta, International Karate+, Io, Nebulus, Sanxion, Summer Games II,
The Last Ninja, Way of the Exploding Fist

VG Coin-op conversions:
Commando, Ghosts n Goblins, Track n Field, Zaxxon (Synapse)


Atari ST
Flight Simulator II, Metrocross, Psygnosis games
Star Glider 2, Stunt Car Racer, The Sentinel, Wizball, Xenon

VG Coin-op conversions:
Arkanoid 2, Rainbow Islands, Star Wars

Amiga
Barbarian - Psygnosis, Battle Squadron, Lotus Turbo Challenge 2,
Pinball Dreams, SWIV, Turrican, SWIV, Z-out


Super Nintendo
Actraiser, *Axelay, Battletoads-Double Dragon, Bart's Nightmare, Bonkers, Bomberman,
Bust-A-Move (Puzzle Bobble), Castlevania IV, *Contra 3, Cybernator,
Demon's Crest, Diddy's Quest, Donkey Kong Country, Earthworm Jim, Earthworm Jim 2, Evo, Flashback, F-Zero,
*Legend of Mystical Ninja, *Legend of Zelda, *Kirby's Dreamcourse, Kirby Superstar, KikiKaiKai
Megaman 7, Megaman X, Mickey's Magical Quest, Pac Man 2 - The New Adventures,
Pilot Wings, Pop n Twinbee, Prince of Persia
Return of Double Dragon, *R-Type 3, Simcity, *Soul Blazer, *Snoopy's Concert, Sparkster,
Stunt Race FX, *Super Aleste, Super Marioworld, Super Metroid, Super Star Wars, *Super SWIV (Firepower 2000),
*Tetris Battle Gaiden, Tazmania, Theme Park, Tinytoons Adventures, *Yoshi's Island

VG Coin-op conversions:
*Final Fight, Gradius 3, Samurai Spirits, *Streetfighter II, *Super Ghouls n Ghosts
Super Parodius, *Super R-Type, Teenage Mutant Turtles, Ultimate Parodius, UN Squadron



Sega Megadrive
Alex Kidd, Batman, *Castle of Illusion, *Contra Hard Corps, Disney's Aladdin, Dynamite Headdy,
Gunstar Heroes, Mega Turrican, Mystical Defender, Pocahontas, Revenge of Shinobi,
Shadow Dancer, Streets of Rage, Sub Terrania, Thunderforce II, World of Illusion

VG Coin-op conversions:
Altered Beast, Golden Axe, Ghouls n Ghosts, Mercs, Strider, Super Hang On, Truxton


Atari Jaguar
Alien vs Predator
Tempest 2000



Neo Geo
Fatal Fury
Magician Lord



Nintendo 64
Mario 64
Legend of Zelda - Ocarina of Time
Kirby



Sony Playstation
Driver
R4: Ridge Racer Type 4
Resident Evil
Resident Evil 2
Ridge Racer
Streetfighter Alpha 3
Super Puzzle Fighter 2 Turbo - this is a puzzle game
Tekken
Tekken 2
Tekken



Sega Saturn
Battle of Garregga, Batsugun, Bomberman World, Cotton Boomerang,
DonPachi, Dodonpachi
Gekirindan
Guardian Force
Marvel Super Heroes
Radiant Silvergun
Sega Rally, Shienryu
Soukyugurentai Otokuyo, *Super Tempo
Streetfighter Alpha 3


Virtua Fighter 2
X-Men vs Streetfighter

Note - the Saturn was an exceptional machine for sprite based games - able to have so many sprites on the screen - for those
wanting spacey shooters - this machine had some truly exceptional games of this genre.
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Re: Games that stand the test of time

Postby SpidersWeb on Mon Mar 12, 2012 10:19 pm

For the Sony Playstation I'd have to suggest including Gran Turismo.
Many people (myself included) only purchasing or upgrading consoles for the exclusive racing sim titles.
Everyone with a PS1 I knew back then had GT and/or GT2. It wasn't the only game played, but it was always there and always well used.

My first PS was actually a PS2, with GT3 and Crazy Taxi bundled in (at a mere $1200 D: ).

I'd like to say Grand Theft Auto because of how much I enjoyed it, but that wasn't terribly impressive until 3 on the PS2, so maybe not.
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Re: Games that stand the test of time

Postby Harvey on Tue Mar 13, 2012 12:39 pm

My list was only a personal list - and not a definitive one as such. Consequently, I have missed out a lot of good and very good games etc etc. Some genres I am not into - hence the absence of more traditional RPGs and racing sims (that tend towards realism, instead of 'arcade'), and so on.

I will add more Nintendo 64 titles .. when I get around to it. I never played much on the PS2 - and my interest in game playing really dwindled altogether by the time the PS2 arrived.
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Re: Games that stand the test of time

Postby Harvey on Fri May 11, 2012 12:58 pm

What I am currently doing at the moment - is going through a long list of roms via Mame, and seeing which ones works wih the Mame I'm using and Windows 7 - seeing that I have a lot of roms as such, in different batches/incomplete sets/etc - and I'm having to collate the working roms together. Anyway with testing dfferent titles - it is pleasantly surprising to find videogames you've never heard of, and they are reasonable playable.
And you can chart the history of videogames development through the 80s' and see that companies were copying each others' ideas/etc initially as they were exploring this all new frontier together.
The old classics do stand out - Galaga, Battlezone, Asteroids, Defender, etc etc - also the attempts to develop these classics further (in which there were sequels done...for most)...

But with Mame being available - it kind of makes it redundant of the very many coin-op conversions done for the various home computers - in which the vast majority of conversions done - always paled alongside their coin-op originals.
Successful conversions number only a handful - in which the programmer achieved the near impossible. "Frogger" for the Atar 400/800 computers is an example of this.

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Re: Games that stand the test of time

Postby plaing on Fri Jun 14, 2013 9:48 am

I'll second that Paradroid was a darn good game on the C64.

I think Star Raiders has to rate way up there for home gaming on micros. If you look at it and consider other games out at the time it was released, and just compare it with those you realize just how good it was. All in 8K.

I'd also put in a vote for Rescue on Fractalus - Done by Lucasfilm back when they really were Lucasfilm again on the Atari 8 bit. If you google it you can read the history of it... Pretty much the first realtime 3D fractal landscape game there was.

One of the C64 games I think was a classic is The Last Ninja. For the time, the graphics and music were pretty amazing. Lots of great games that used the Sprites of the C64 to advantage plus the superior SID music.

For the 8 bit arcade Defender really is hard to beat. The sound effects were perfect, it was masterable but not easily, and was a great game to watch being played by an expert.

--Pete
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