The Good Old Days - fresh reviews of classic games

[Mr Creosote]

Hm, I found it quite manageable by switching the grey (air) and green (ground) missiles quickly and frequently. The biggest grioe I had was that the numbered keys for that were too far from the fire button. Just reachable, although I have fairly large hands.

[jbenam]

Dang, I love Raptor! Great game, with a great soundtrack. One of the first games I had after I had switched from my A600 to my first PC back in 1997. When I played it back then I could never go further than Wave 2 or 3 of the Bravo Sector.

I should try it again, I really liked the shop/upgrade mechanic! The only other game I can think of right now that has a similarly satisfying upgrade mechanism is Disposable Hero for Amiga. Xenon 2 had something similar, but I remember not liking it because of how stingy the game was with the money enemies dropped.

[gimbal]

Captive on the Amiga comes to mind with a good shop, but that's not a shooty mctooty

[Mr Creosote]

Another week has passed, we have Captain Dynamo (unknown jump'n'run from Codemasters which came way too late to still be appropriate) and Hugo's House of Horrors (widely beloved shareware adventure in Sierra style).

[Mr Creosote]

• Hugo II: Whodunit? has Hugo's girlfriend trying to rescue him for a change
• Hugo III: Jungle of Doom! goes back to the roots of Penelope playing the damsel in distress
• Dune, I guess, is the most played classic game these days. It holds up very well!

[Mr Creosote]

• Get Witchy! was our contribution to the weird Helloween craze
• Woolly Jumper is a nice indie jump'n'run on the C64
• 1869, upon revisit, unfortunately remained as merciless and overrated as ever

[gimbal]

Originally Posted by Mr Creosote

[list]
url=https://www.goodolddays.net/game/id%2C184/Dune.html]Dune[/url], I guess, is the most played classic game these days. It holds up very well!

To this day one of my favorite game soundtracks together with Lost Eden. Classic music, slightly less classic gameplay.

[Mr Creosote]

Latest coverage:

• Sven Bømwøllen – according to my colleague, a famous freeware game from around the turn of the millenium (although it completely passed me by)
• War Wind – at the time, lauded to bring a new direction into the so-called real-time strategy genre; although it actually didn't

[Anubis]

Originally Posted by Mr Creosote

• War Wind – at the time, lauded to bring a new direction into the so-called real-time strategy genre; although it actually didn't

I remember playing demo back in the day, but somehow never got this game. I did get Dark Colony that was out around that time, or bit later. Thank you for review and reminder.

[jbenam]

I loved War Wind 2 back in the day, even if I didn't know what I was doing I could play Warcraft 2 et similia with no issues, but War Wind 2 always had a certain layer of obscureness to its UI.

@Anubis
Dark Colony fascinated me almost equally as much. I could never find it for sale around here (nor I could find War Wind 2, which I only got much much later), so I only ended replaying the demo over and over

[Anubis]

Just checked, both are archived. I still have original CD for Dark Colony, Warcraft 1 & 2, Age of Empires 1 & 2, C&C and Z. Warcraft and AoE I had multiple sets due to sales and add-ons.

But still to this day - my favorite RTS is Total Annihilation. I played both campaigns multiple times...

[gimbal]

I had to miss TA, by then I was already RTS'ed out. The only true RTS that I truly enjoyed was Warcraft 2 anyway, and Age of Empires 2. Warcraft 3 and Command & Conquer just didn't do it for me, except for the legendary music of the latter.

[Mr Creosote]

Originally Posted by gimbal

I had to miss TA, by then I was already RTS'ed out.

I burned out on this genre very quickly myself, too. It promised so much, yet finally delivered so little on the long run.

Today's new coverage is Blasteroids. It was one of the first games I ever had on the Amiga. Would hardly call it one of my favourites today, but occasionally, it's still fun.

[Mr Creosote]

It's been some weeks since I last pushed an update here, but we've remained busy as ever:

• UnCiv is a free re-implementation of Civilization V (with better graphics than the original)[/url]
• Circus took us back to the 1970, a game running on the only German-produced game console in history
• On the Amiga side, I waded through East vs. West: Berlin 1948 once more. So much potential!
• Finally, Lionheart is a game I strongly dislike. Please don't skin me alive immediately; I tried my best to treat it fairly :P

[jbenam]

Originally Posted by Anubis

Just checked, both are archived. I still have original CD for Dark Colony, Warcraft 1 & 2, Age of Empires 1 & 2, C&C and Z. Warcraft and AoE I had multiple sets due to sales and add-ons.

But still to this day - my favorite RTS is Total Annihilation. I played both campaigns multiple times...

TA was a fantastic game and truly ahead of its time. Too bad Cavedog went under with TA: Kingdoms

Originally Posted by Mr Creosote

Finally, Lionheart is a game I strongly dislike.

Lionheart is a game I have never once played. I should definitely give it a spin.

[Minuous]

Nice to see some Interton VC 4000 games being covered. But there are two odd things I noticed about the Circus review:

1. The publisher is apparently "Unimex", but this is the first time I have ever heard of them. Where did this piece of information come from?

2. After a mostly complimentary review, it only gets 1 star out of 6.

[Mr Creosote]

Personally, I'm growing more and more tired of slapping a number rating on each game at the end. How do you account for vastly different player expections with this? Can you seriously claim to judge some casual mobile game on the same scale as a large-scale million Euros production? Considering that the former may have vastly more fans than the latter.

Then, there is the time scale. The question, at some point may be: would you still consider playing very, very old games other than for the sake of nostalgia or historical curiosity? If not, how do you rate it? Do you rate it trying to put yourself in the shoes of "back then" again (hard to do), or do you hold it by the standards of today (where it is fated to fare badly)?

[jbenam]

Originally Posted by Mr Creosote

Then, there is the time scale. The question, at some point may be: would you still consider playing very, very old games other than for the sake of nostalgia or historical curiosity? If not, how do you rate it? Do you rate it trying to put yourself in the shoes of "back then" again (hard to do), or do you hold it by the standards of today (where it is fated to fare badly)?

Here is my personal take on the matter. I have never ever played Ultima III as a kid - only a few years ago, as an adult. I found it to be excruciatingly slow and battles were a total slog. I ended using a save editor to buff my characters to oblivion and I spammed the level up/down spells in dungeons to get the hell out of there ASAP.

Would I play it again? Definitely not. Did I play it for historical curiosity? Yes.

How would I rate it? It would fare VERY badly if we were to rate it in 2021. So I try to put myself in the shoes of a 8-12 year old receiving it for their Apple II back in 1983, and I think of the sense of wonder and amazement it would have caused. Dungeons and Dragons, on your computer! An extremely vast world to explore! Infinite possibilities! (not really)

Was there anything like it back then? Nothing at all, or in the best case, just a few games would compare. Considering that much, I would rate it a 8-9 on a scale of 10. It was just a great game for its time. Ultima III is obviously just an example

[Mr Creosote]

This is a smart way of approaching it. But then, what you express is historical perspective only. If your imaginary reader wants this answered, good. If, on the other hand, someone is actually looking to have the question answered whether the game is worth playing today, she'll be out of luck or - in the worst case - mislead.

Then, if you go the other way around, and try to answer the second question ("worth playing today?"), you'll have angry fans with pitchforks knocking at your door how you can dare disregard the immense historical importance etc.

Finally, it comes down to the question whether we see "old" games as a curiosity of the past, something to be put into a museum with explanatory text putting them into historical perspective (again, museum-like) or whether they are to be kept alive for actual practical use today.

Implicitly, I think there is a tipping point somewhere in history, and it's very subjective/individual where it is. For myself, for example, I find most old RPGs quite tedious, too. Those Gold Box games which I loved so much, I found so exciting in the 80s now kill all the fun with their endless battles offering hardly any tactical depth. Though on the other hand, many strategy or logic games from the same time, I can still enjoy immensely.

Games from the VC 4000 era, honestly, almost exclusively fall under "historical interest only" for me. Even when game mechanics are good, there are almost always better variants these days, and as simplistic as they are, there is little long-term value. Though this doesn't put any doubt on the assumption that if I had had a game like Circus back in the 70s, I would have played it day in, day out.

[jbenam]

Good points. I guess we should split it in two ratings, then: "Historical Rating" and "Subjective Rating" (to save us from the raging pitchfork-equipped crowd) or "Modern Rating"

I have tested the Gold Box games a year or so ago on my 286. I was actually VERY curious to see what all the fuss about. And I just quit them after 10 minutes or so, and removed them from my HD as I was 100% certain I would never play them ever again.

The truth is, some games *do* actually age very well, while others do not. Going back to my Ultima III example, Hack came just a year later than Ultima III and I still do find it immensely enjoyable (after you get past the very cryptic controls). It is a very purpose-driven and focused game that still holds up today. Can't say the same about Ultima III, and I am one of the biggest Ultima fanboys you can find around