Classic DOS or Windows games since mid-90s

antonvaltaz · 24 September 2009, 13:40

What would you say are the real stand-out games for DOS or Windows that have been released since the mid-90s, when the production of Amiga games ground to a halt (and I stopped playing games)?

I literally have almost no idea (I know of Doom, Quake, Unreal and that's about it!) and while my PC is far too rubbish for any new games (1.8GHz Sempron with integrated ATI Radeon 1150 graphics) I'm sure it could run some decent games from up to about 5 years ago?

So go on... what have I missed? :-)

s2325 · 24 September 2009, 13:47

Realms of the Haunting

Dark Eye

TCD · 24 September 2009, 13:53

Hmm, depends on what you are looking for. Anyway, some titles you should have a look at :

Clive Barker's Undying
Omikron - The Nomad Soul
Planescape - Torment
Knights of the Old Republic

john4p · 24 September 2009, 13:58

Ultima VIII - Pagan
Curse of Monkey Island
Baldur's Gate I&II
Diablo II

seuden · 24 September 2009, 14:06

Blood.

[ Show youtube player ]

Si-Pie · 24 September 2009, 14:07

System Shock 1 and 2
I always liked Bioforge which I thought was underrated.
Freespace 1/2
Little Big Adventure 1/2
Fallout 1/2
Freelancer
Prince of Persia Sands Of Time (not sure what specs this requires though but would think it would run on your system even if you have to reduce the detail)
Alot of the Lucasart games

Charlie · 24 September 2009, 14:16

Hmmm, this is a thread I'll be keeping an eye on, I bet there's a lot of great PC games I've missed...

A couple I've enjoyed:
Call of Cthulhu: Dark Corners of the Earth

Great Survival Horror / FPS - Low spec hardware.

Shadowgrounds:

Great gauntlet / adventure-shooter - Up to 4 player!

LaserSquad Nemesis

It's new LaserSquad, and you can play on-line.

Oh, Um:
Serious Sam
Return to Castle Wolfenstein
Halo
Infiltration (UT Mod)
Hamsterball
Oolite

Nostalgeek · 24 September 2009, 14:17

If you're into First Person Shooters, apart from Doom, Quake and Unreal you have to give a go to:

- Half-Life. It's in the top3 games of all time, all platforms, no doubt about that I will not accept anybody saying anything against that, end of discussion

if you never played half-life, you're going to play half-life (and yes, I'm using the Force to persuade you, if you didn't notice.)

- Dark Forces is enjoyable if you are a Star Wars nerd

- Duke Nukem 3D

oh the hours spent on that one.

RolePlaying Games:

- Fallout I & II <3 <3 <3 <3 <3 - post apocalyptic rpg, a pure gem of a game

- Baldur's Gate I & II - advanced dungeons&dragons rulesset, your typical heroic-fantasy RPG

- Daggerfall and Morrowind - deep and complex, if you like RPG give it a go

Real Time Strategy:

- Warcraft II, StarCraft, Total Annihilation....what else? Age of Empires was pretty good too.

- Command & Conquer and sequels. Different from the others, truly unique feeling, if you fall for it you're gonna love these games forever.

Adventure games (ah, the best time for these...)

- Monkey Island I & II, Sam n Max hit the road, Day of the tentacle, The Dig, Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade, Indiana Jones and the Fate of Atlantis, Full Throttle, Grim Fandango - all from Lucas Arts. You can go blindly on these. You will have a hard-time finding people that didn't at least "like" these games...you will mostly find people that LOVED them tho

- Sierra adventure games. Less unanimous than LucasArts, I for one love most of them. I particularly recommend "Space Quest" series, for its super fun sci-fi. Leisure suit Larry is really funny if you're into a more adult game, controlling the life of a total loser in his quest for love.

- Myst & sequels - more puzzle than adventure, still they were great game, with top notch GFX at the time even if it wasn't animated.

- Little Big Adventure 1 & 2. Truly unique game experience, with revolutionary graphics at the time.

Misc:

- Dungeon Keeper - playing the devil mind behind a dungeon, torturing minions, designing torture chambers etc in 3rd degree and dark humorous way, who wouldn't enjoy that? A truly great game, that received unanimous wonderful reviews when it came out.

- Deus-Ex - a mix between a RPG and a FPS, greaaaat game. Cyberpunk atmosphere, with different ways to do the scenario. The hard (let's call it the John MacLane way), or the sneaky way. One of my all times favorite.

- Diablo and Diablo 2. Wonderful games. Heroic Fantasy hack n' slash, very good for some stress relief, instead of kicking the dog or your kids. These games are legendary and still played as of today by many players.

- Sim City, Sim City 2000, Theme Hospital, Theme Park....is there a need to talk about these games?

- Civilization 1 and 2 - same for these...I think they're too popular to be described

- Thief: the Dark Project. A kind of sneaky FPS, with a good IA at the time. The whole game was about not being seen or you probably die by a few axe hits. Really fun to play!

- X-Wing, Tie-Fighter, X-Wing vs Tie-Fighter if you're into space simulation, and into Star Wars obviously

- Prince of Persia I and II, and Flashback - platformers, god they were good! I'm particularly a Flashback fan.

- Lemmings and sequels - too popular to be missed, right?

- System Shock I and II - like Deus Ex, a mix of FPS and RPG, they were truly awesome.

- Robinson's Requiem and its sequel Deus - not very popular, I for one loved them

kind of first-person RPG where you landed alone on a lonely planet. It was a survival simulator, and a really advanced one. I loved these games too.

Well...of course this list is biased toward what I played and what I like, but I doubt I'm missing many of the big hits of the 90's

This gives you a few things to play now

better late than never! Enjoy the greatest era of gaming! (yes, I'm being nostalgi....Nostalgeek again

)

gimbal · 24 September 2009, 14:53

Quote:

Thief: the Dark Project. A kind of sneaky FPS, with a good IA at the time. The whole game was about not being seen or you probably die by a few axe hits. Really fun to play!

Actually, the AI is still impressive compared to the mindless drones inhabiting current games. The AI was fair and unforgiving at the same time, a perfect balance. Although in Thief 2 it was done better because the AI would go seek help more realistically, in Thief 1 it tended to just forget you were there.

antonvaltaz · 24 September 2009, 14:53

Thanks guys! Wow... that should keep me busy for a little while at least... :-)

Nostalgeek · 24 September 2009, 15:35

Quote:

I always liked Bioforge which I thought was underrated.

Ah, yes, I liked it much too! Wasn't that underrated iirc, I think I remember it being rated 92% or something in my favorite french-language PC mag. But maybe it didn't receive unanimous high ratings tho.

and talking bout Bioforge reminds me of Alone in the Dark I & II! AitD being the first game to reaaaally give me the chills

Quote:

Actually, the AI is still impressive compared to the mindless drones inhabiting current games. The AI was fair and unforgiving at the same time, a perfect balance. Although in Thief 2 it was done better because the AI would go seek help more realistically, in Thief 1 it tended to just forget you were there.

True, it was great! Didn't play Thief 2 tho to compare...I'll have to fix that asap

Quote:

Thanks guys! Wow... that should keep me busy for a little while at least... :-)

Enjoy

Really, the 90's were my greatest gaming era for sure. It still featured the creativity from the early era, taking advantage of the huge performance curve of the PC at that time. Wonderful times.

TCD · 24 September 2009, 15:50

Quote:

Originally Posted by Nostalgeek

- Prince of Persia I and II, and Flashback - platformers, god they were good! I'm particularly a Flashback fan.

- Lemmings and sequels - too popular to be missed, right?

Why should he play those on DOS, if he can play them on Amiga?

Nostalgeek · 24 September 2009, 16:03

ah sorry, memories of a PC-er

you are right I guess ^^ but I remember Flashback for being better on DOS than Amiga tho...am I wrong? Can't recall exactly why but I think I've seen it on amiga once and felt like...it wasn't as good.

TCD · 24 September 2009, 16:08

I guess you played Flashback with the keyboard then

The pick-up animations on the Amiga version only appear when installed to HD. Maybe you mean that.

gimbal · 24 September 2009, 17:04

must not forget the classics done by Apogee and Epic Megagames. Halloween Harry, Tyrian / Tyrian 2000, Jazz Jack Rabbit, Raptor: Call of the Shadows, OMF: 2097, Death Rally, ...

seuden · 24 September 2009, 17:13

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Imperialism_%28game%29

lilalurl · 24 September 2009, 17:36

You can also add sequels to games which were published on Amiga but the sequels were not (if you liked the precursors of course).
Maybe even start with those to feel a bit more connected to the games.

Coming to mind:
- Settlers II: very similar to Settlers, a bit more complex, several improvements, missing the split screen two-player mode though. There is a modern remake but I highly suggest playing the original version.

- Syndicate Wars: same spirit as Syndicate but quite some differences in terms of gameplay. A favourite of mine.

- The Worms series.

- Theme Hospital: like Theme Park but you have to manage an hospital (with some silly diseases etc...) (edit: ah, Nostalgeek had already mentioned it)

- Dune 2000 (more or less updated version of Dune II, using the same engine as Command & Conquer/Red Alert and therefore can be a good introduction to the gameplay of this series) and Emperor: Battle for Dune (this time it is in 3D)

- Super Cars International: http://eab.abime.net/showthread.php?t=26575
Which leads to the remakes (should work on your PC):
. made by jotd:
http://pagesperso-orange.fr/jotd/
. of Lionheart:
http://eab.abime.net/showthread.php?t=28475
. clones of Turrican:
http://www.nemmelheim.de/turrican/in_development.php

There are also games you should give a try to feel a specific experience.

For instance, at least one game of the Descent series you should try. It is a FPS in which you pilot a ship and can actually move 360° (i.e. completely rotate in every direction) and for instance you can fly "upside down", laterally etc...

antonvaltaz · 24 September 2009, 17:52

Had a look at a few of these suggestions and am looking forward to trying some out!

On a technical note, I know I can use DOSBox for older games, but are there any general things I should know for getting Windows 9x games working under XP/Vista? I know that's probably a huge question, but if anyone could point me to any tools or guides online I can do some research myself...

TCD · 24 September 2009, 17:57

If a 9x game won't run on XP or Vista there are quite a few games that have patches that fix it. The other solution would be to set up a Virtual Machine. There isn't a general solution, so you will have to look per game (but with Google that isn't too hard

).

Zandig · 24 September 2009, 19:08

More for the list

- MIGHT AND MAGIC VI
- CRUSADER : NO REMORSE
- ULTIMA UNDERWORLD 1 & 2

There are plenty of older games that are great.
In my opinion the older games are much better than the newer games with fancy graphics and shallow game play.

24 September 2009, 13:40	#1
antonvaltaz Registered User Join Date: May 2009 Location: Oxford, UK Age: 43 Posts: 511	Classic DOS or Windows games since mid-90s What would you say are the real stand-out games for DOS or Windows that have been released since the mid-90s, when the production of Amiga games ground to a halt (and I stopped playing games)? I literally have almost no idea (I know of Doom, Quake, Unreal and that's about it!) and while my PC is far too rubbish for any new games (1.8GHz Sempron with integrated ATI Radeon 1150 graphics) I'm sure it could run some decent games from up to about 5 years ago? So go on... what have I missed? :-)

24 September 2009, 14:07	#6
Si-Pie Registered User Join Date: Jun 2008 Location: Newcastle Under Lyme/England Age: 46 Posts: 93	System Shock 1 and 2 I always liked Bioforge which I thought was underrated. Freespace 1/2 Little Big Adventure 1/2 Fallout 1/2 Freelancer Prince of Persia Sands Of Time (not sure what specs this requires though but would think it would run on your system even if you have to reduce the detail) Alot of the Lucasart games Last edited by Si-Pie; 24 September 2009 at 14:14.

24 September 2009, 17:36	#17
lilalurl Global Moderator Join Date: Aug 2001 Location: France Posts: 3,289	You can also add sequels to games which were published on Amiga but the sequels were not (if you liked the precursors of course). Maybe even start with those to feel a bit more connected to the games. Coming to mind: - Settlers II: very similar to Settlers, a bit more complex, several improvements, missing the split screen two-player mode though. There is a modern remake but I highly suggest playing the original version. - Syndicate Wars: same spirit as Syndicate but quite some differences in terms of gameplay. A favourite of mine. - The Worms series. - Theme Hospital: like Theme Park but you have to manage an hospital (with some silly diseases etc...) (edit: ah, Nostalgeek had already mentioned it) - Dune 2000 (more or less updated version of Dune II, using the same engine as Command & Conquer/Red Alert and therefore can be a good introduction to the gameplay of this series) and Emperor: Battle for Dune (this time it is in 3D) - Super Cars International: http://eab.abime.net/showthread.php?t=26575 Which leads to the remakes (should work on your PC): . made by jotd: http://pagesperso-orange.fr/jotd/ . of Lionheart: http://eab.abime.net/showthread.php?t=28475 . clones of Turrican: http://www.nemmelheim.de/turrican/in_development.php There are also games you should give a try to feel a specific experience. For instance, at least one game of the Descent series you should try. It is a FPS in which you pilot a ship and can actually move 360° (i.e. completely rotate in every direction) and for instance you can fly "upside down", laterally etc... Last edited by lilalurl; 24 September 2009 at 17:52.

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24 September 2009, 13:47	#2
s2325 Zone Friend Join Date: Jun 2006 Location: Gargore Age: 43 Posts: 17,789	Realms of the Haunting Dark Eye

24 September 2009, 13:53	#3
TCD HOL/FTP busy bee Join Date: Sep 2006 Location: Germany Age: 46 Posts: 31,518	Hmm, depends on what you are looking for. Anyway, some titles you should have a look at : Clive Barker's Undying Omikron - The Nomad Soul Planescape - Torment Knights of the Old Republic

24 September 2009, 13:58	#4
john4p Competition Moderator Join Date: Feb 2008 Location: Germany Posts: 4,756	Ultima VIII - Pagan Curse of Monkey Island Baldur's Gate I&II Diablo II

24 September 2009, 14:06	#5
seuden uber cool demi god Join Date: Jun 2006 Location: Kent/England Posts: 2,073	Blood. [ Show youtube player ]

24 September 2009, 14:16	#7
Charlie . . Mouse . . Join Date: Jun 2005 Location: Nowhere Age: 55 Posts: 1,792	Hmmm, this is a thread I'll be keeping an eye on, I bet there's a lot of great PC games I've missed... A couple I've enjoyed: Call of Cthulhu: Dark Corners of the Earth Great Survival Horror / FPS - Low spec hardware. Shadowgrounds: Great gauntlet / adventure-shooter - Up to 4 player! LaserSquad Nemesis It's new LaserSquad, and you can play on-line. Oh, Um: Serious Sam Return to Castle Wolfenstein Halo Infiltration (UT Mod) Hamsterball Oolite

24 September 2009, 14:17	#8
Nostalgeek OT Whore Join Date: Nov 2008 Location: Switzerland Age: 41 Posts: 290	If you're into First Person Shooters, apart from Doom, Quake and Unreal you have to give a go to: - Half-Life. It's in the top3 games of all time, all platforms, no doubt about that I will not accept anybody saying anything against that, end of discussion if you never played half-life, you're going to play half-life (and yes, I'm using the Force to persuade you, if you didn't notice.) - Dark Forces is enjoyable if you are a Star Wars nerd - Duke Nukem 3D oh the hours spent on that one. RolePlaying Games: - Fallout I & II <3 <3 <3 <3 <3 - post apocalyptic rpg, a pure gem of a game - Baldur's Gate I & II - advanced dungeons&dragons rulesset, your typical heroic-fantasy RPG - Daggerfall and Morrowind - deep and complex, if you like RPG give it a go Real Time Strategy: - Warcraft II, StarCraft, Total Annihilation....what else? Age of Empires was pretty good too. - Command & Conquer and sequels. Different from the others, truly unique feeling, if you fall for it you're gonna love these games forever. Adventure games (ah, the best time for these...) - Monkey Island I & II, Sam n Max hit the road, Day of the tentacle, The Dig, Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade, Indiana Jones and the Fate of Atlantis, Full Throttle, Grim Fandango - all from Lucas Arts. You can go blindly on these. You will have a hard-time finding people that didn't at least "like" these games...you will mostly find people that LOVED them tho - Sierra adventure games. Less unanimous than LucasArts, I for one love most of them. I particularly recommend "Space Quest" series, for its super fun sci-fi. Leisure suit Larry is really funny if you're into a more adult game, controlling the life of a total loser in his quest for love. - Myst & sequels - more puzzle than adventure, still they were great game, with top notch GFX at the time even if it wasn't animated. - Little Big Adventure 1 & 2. Truly unique game experience, with revolutionary graphics at the time. Misc: - Dungeon Keeper - playing the devil mind behind a dungeon, torturing minions, designing torture chambers etc in 3rd degree and dark humorous way, who wouldn't enjoy that? A truly great game, that received unanimous wonderful reviews when it came out. - Deus-Ex - a mix between a RPG and a FPS, greaaaat game. Cyberpunk atmosphere, with different ways to do the scenario. The hard (let's call it the John MacLane way), or the sneaky way. One of my all times favorite. - Diablo and Diablo 2. Wonderful games. Heroic Fantasy hack n' slash, very good for some stress relief, instead of kicking the dog or your kids. These games are legendary and still played as of today by many players. - Sim City, Sim City 2000, Theme Hospital, Theme Park....is there a need to talk about these games? - Civilization 1 and 2 - same for these...I think they're too popular to be described - Thief: the Dark Project. A kind of sneaky FPS, with a good IA at the time. The whole game was about not being seen or you probably die by a few axe hits. Really fun to play! - X-Wing, Tie-Fighter, X-Wing vs Tie-Fighter if you're into space simulation, and into Star Wars obviously - Prince of Persia I and II, and Flashback - platformers, god they were good! I'm particularly a Flashback fan. - Lemmings and sequels - too popular to be missed, right? - System Shock I and II - like Deus Ex, a mix of FPS and RPG, they were truly awesome. - Robinson's Requiem and its sequel Deus - not very popular, I for one loved them kind of first-person RPG where you landed alone on a lonely planet. It was a survival simulator, and a really advanced one. I loved these games too. Well...of course this list is biased toward what I played and what I like, but I doubt I'm missing many of the big hits of the 90's This gives you a few things to play now better late than never! Enjoy the greatest era of gaming! (yes, I'm being nostalgi....Nostalgeek again )

24 September 2009, 14:53	#10
antonvaltaz Registered User Join Date: May 2009 Location: Oxford, UK Age: 43 Posts: 511	Thanks guys! Wow... that should keep me busy for a little while at least... :-)

24 September 2009, 16:03	#13
Nostalgeek OT Whore Join Date: Nov 2008 Location: Switzerland Age: 41 Posts: 290	ah sorry, memories of a PC-er you are right I guess ^^ but I remember Flashback for being better on DOS than Amiga tho...am I wrong? Can't recall exactly why but I think I've seen it on amiga once and felt like...it wasn't as good.

24 September 2009, 16:08	#14
TCD HOL/FTP busy bee Join Date: Sep 2006 Location: Germany Age: 46 Posts: 31,518	I guess you played Flashback with the keyboard then The pick-up animations on the Amiga version only appear when installed to HD. Maybe you mean that.

24 September 2009, 17:04	#15
gimbal cheeky scoundrel Join Date: Nov 2004 Location: Spijkenisse/Netherlands Age: 42 Posts: 6,905	must not forget the classics done by Apogee and Epic Megagames. Halloween Harry, Tyrian / Tyrian 2000, Jazz Jack Rabbit, Raptor: Call of the Shadows, OMF: 2097, Death Rally, ...

24 September 2009, 17:13	#16
seuden uber cool demi god Join Date: Jun 2006 Location: Kent/England Posts: 2,073	http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Imperialism_%28game%29

24 September 2009, 17:52	#18
antonvaltaz Registered User Join Date: May 2009 Location: Oxford, UK Age: 43 Posts: 511	Had a look at a few of these suggestions and am looking forward to trying some out! On a technical note, I know I can use DOSBox for older games, but are there any general things I should know for getting Windows 9x games working under XP/Vista? I know that's probably a huge question, but if anyone could point me to any tools or guides online I can do some research myself...

24 September 2009, 17:57	#19
TCD HOL/FTP busy bee Join Date: Sep 2006 Location: Germany Age: 46 Posts: 31,518	If a 9x game won't run on XP or Vista there are quite a few games that have patches that fix it. The other solution would be to set up a Virtual Machine. There isn't a general solution, so you will have to look per game (but with Google that isn't too hard ).

24 September 2009, 19:08	#20
Zandig Registered User Join Date: May 2009 Location: NY / USA Posts: 266	More for the list - MIGHT AND MAGIC VI - CRUSADER : NO REMORSE - ULTIMA UNDERWORLD 1 & 2 There are plenty of older games that are great. In my opinion the older games are much better than the newer games with fancy graphics and shallow game play.

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