What were the best PC games pre-1995?

[upsidedownwalrus]

I vaguely remember Syndicate. There was an Amiga one too, wasn't there?

 

[loud 1]

doom all the way.

i remember when my bro got his first pc and a copy of doom.

to this day i remember the first time i played it,my bro was at his gf house,it was
about 11pm,lights off,a me shitting myself..

hearing the moan of the baddies freaked me right out.

maega

 

[Sunray]

Doom was cool and then people realised what could be done when ID created Duke Nukem 3D with mirrors, hookers, classic one liners, huge ridiculously over powered enemies and the very very cool shrink ray, where you could shrink your enemy so they were really tiny and then stomp on them.

12 Years later we're still waiting for a sequel. No holding your breath on that, people are long dead trying that trick.

 

[Sunray]

Populus
Warmonger
BENEATH A STEEL SKY (one of the best games ever)
Doom
Sam & Max
Duke Nukem
Hex
Arkanoid

Nah, Day of the Tentacle made that look quite amaterish. Genunely funny, twisted and probably the finest point and click game ever written.

Download it, finish it and see what I mean.

 

[upsidedownwalrus]

doom all the way.

i remember when my bro got his first pc and a copy of doom.

to this day i remember the first time i played it,my bro was at his gf house,it was
about 11pm,lights off,a me shitting myself..

hearing the moan of the baddies freaked me right out.

maega

Meh. Doom wasn't scary.

Now this was fucking scary:

 

[bluestreak]

cheers all. downloaded a megapack of oldschool games and dosbox and wanted some recommendations as to where to start.

 

[Flashman]

Fire Ant

Skiving school in the 80s I spent tons on Daley Thompson Olympics/Summer Games or whatever they were called, and my favourite at the time, Mr Do

There was one involving pirates I loved, you had a cutlass etc and you wandered around an island maze type-thing, the end was a mad dash back through the level to the beginning, fucked if I can remember what it was called.


I'd also nominate Speedball 2, and add EA Hockey. Still my favourite football game, International Superstar Soccer, DELUXE! Rudd Gullit with dreads, Baggio looking like Baggio and all that, plus you could play one-twos which was amazing.

 

[Obnoxiousness]

Great thread.

I remember Monkey Island(s), Doom, Populous, Sensible Soccer, Eye of the Beholder, Robocod James Pond

I had a 386 or 486 at work and at home I had an Amiga 500.... those were the days!!!

Amiga paint was fantastic!!!

 

[UnderOpenSky]

DUNE 2!!!

Predecessor to Command and Conquer and so many other RTS games.

 

[rover07]

F15 Strike Eagle !!!! Bombing the Baghdad nuclear power station.... fighting off the MIGs then running for it and landing on a carrier in the Med. Happy days

 

[rover07]

Meh. Doom wasn't scary.

Now this was fucking scary:

Bards Tale ?

 

[UnderOpenSky]

I've just read on wiki that the first Command and Conquer came out in 95. Now I feel old

 

[Idaho]

Yeah Dune 2 and Doom. The Spinning Jenny and Compton's Mule of computer games.

Let me just take the opportunity to say Speedball 2 was inferior to Speedball 1 and Frontier Elite was a big dissapointment.

 

[UnderOpenSky]

I was just a bit to young for both of the orginals, but did enjoy both the sequals you just mentioned, but as amgia titles rather then on the PC.

Me and my mates wasted hours on speedball 2, quality game!

This thread has me looking up old games again, wiki is quality!

 

[mitochondria]

You know what games came out in 1994?

Doom
TIE Fighter (and X-Wing got updated)
System Shock
X-COM - Ufo Defense
Sam & Max hit the road

All absolute classics. Also check out Ultima games: 7, 7pt2 and Underworld 2 are all RPG gems.

There was some great stuff around, no doubt.

I don't know any games that had such tense vibe as X-COM - UFO Enemy Unknown. Loads of late nights spent on blasting these bad aliens. Oh you just HAD TO do next turn.

Like Crispy said - all of the above are absolute classics.

What I would add is Transport Tycoon.

 

[UnderOpenSky]

Yes, that was quality!

How about Mego lo Mania

And of course

Cannon Fodder

War, never been so much fun,
Kill him with your gun,
Leave him lying in his uniform,
dying in the sun,
War, never been so much fun

Edit: Here it is, complete with music video and sensi team running round in uniforms. Quality!

I so want to play cannon fodder now!

 

[Silva]

With all the mentions for Dune 2, I'll push the first Dune game, by Cryo. Great graphics, nice gameplay and one of the best soundtracks ever done. The CD version might be a bit harder to get working, but the additional voice-overs (with fantastic lip-synch) are worth it.

Most of the games in the Quest For Glory series were done before 1995 (only V was released after), and both I and IV feature some of the best adventure-RPG combinations of early days. IV is a pain in the arse to get working, even in contemporary computers, but the CDRom version (which irons a lot of problems) is the best in the whole series. Still from Sierra, I'd go with Police Quest 1-2, Larry 1-3 (never finished those after, only 7 ), Space Quest 1-2 and Gold-Rush. They're a lot more fickle (I mean, you can die RANDOMLY in gold Rush) and generally worse looking than their LucasArts counterparts, but I like the writing of them more.

 

[Stigmata]

I liked all the old Apogee platformers- Commander Keen, Cosmo, Duke Nukem etc. Also Civilisation and Colonisation.

And for some reason i've never been able to forget the theme tunes to Xargon and Mystic Towers.

 

[Radar]

Hmm, Descent. The only video game I've played where I've actually had vertigo Once you detached your frame of reference from your surroundings and oriented yourself in relation to your ship it was mind blowing but not everyone could.

The controls did take a bit of getting used to, especially if you only used the keyboard. Joysticks were supposed to make it easier, but I never used them myself.

Shame it just misses the pre 95 cutoff. Wiki says it was released in 1995.

 

[SpookyFrank]

Hmm, Descent. The only video game I've played where I've actually had vertigo Once you detached your frame of reference from your surroundings and oriented yourself in relation to your ship it was mind blowing but not everyone could.

The controls did take a bit of getting used to, especially if you only used the keyboard. Joysticks were supposed to make it easier, but I never used them myself.

Shame it just misses the pre 95 cutoff. Wiki says it was released in 1995.

That game was the bollocks. It didn't half get confusing trying to work out which way up you were supposed to be though

 

[Radar]

That game was the bollocks. It didn't half get confusing trying to work out which way up you were supposed to be though

Yep! The nearest thing I've had to a heavy descent session is spin training in a glider. Both have you looking for a bucket once its over

And it was multiplayer too

 

[rubbershoes]

Donkey Kong

 

[boha]

I really want to play X Com again, but I'm struggling to be arsed to work out DOS emulators on the mac. A cursory attempt failed miserably,

i've got the windows version (got it from a torrent site i think). it's got a patch that lets it run on xp

other than x-com, i'd nominate Alone in the Dark, Rocket Ranger (amiga version) and Another World.

 

[ska invita]

Meh. Doom wasn't scary.

Now this was fucking scary:

Dungeon Master - you know it.

I seem to remember having to learn things like "back back right back left back back right right back left" to run away from stuff!

We had a thread like this a while ago, and I said Speedball 1

 

[MooChild]

Speedball was ace

As well as the Ultima series

 

[dweller]

if yr looking for dos games,
our flatmate in early 90s had a pc and I whiled away many hours playing
the "commander keen" series of platform games,
the only sounds in it came from the crappy PC sound chip.

 

[stowpirate]

Yeager FS 1990ish version

 

[DotCommunist]

You know what games came out in 1994?

Doom
TIE Fighter (and X-Wing got updated)
System Shock
X-COM - Ufo Defense
Sam & Max hit the road

All absolute classics. Also check out Ultima games: 7, 7pt2 and Underworld 2 are all RPG gems.

There was some great stuff around, no doubt.

Ultima Underworld: The stygian abyss. That game caused me many rages.

Also Wolfenstien, which was pixellated gore a-plenty

 

[DotCommunist]

Bluey - have you played the Lucasarts adventure games?

On PC, you HAVE to play

Monkey Island 1, 2 and 3 (not the later ones)
Day of the Tentacle
Sam and Max hit the road
Full Throttle
Indiana Jones - Fate of Atlantis
Grim Fandango

All but GF and MI3 (which run in windows) are playable in SCUMMVM, which is an emulator for the games language they were made in. I can sort you out with this. Some of the puzzles are stupid/hard, but they're all worth playing with a walkthrough, just for the story.

Monkey Island is brilliant. V.Funny

 

[DotCommunist]

No mention of Utopia yet. That was a good but irritatingly difficult game