I was going through my basement and came across some old NES cartridges. I found an old game that I can't recall seeing anything about it. Not during it's original run or on in retro game sites. The game was North vs South. Has anyone played this game? Is there a game that gives you the feeling that you might be it's only player?
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One Must Fall: 2097.
That was a classic. Last time I played it was several years ago and I was still able to set it's speed slow enough to be playable.
Oh another player, awesome. If you use DOSBox, it simulates older CPU cycles and still playable, along with a number of other DOS games.
It's one of the few classic games I played that could be played without throttling CPU cycles in DOSBox. I should check if it's playable like that on a modern CPU 🤔.
Should be hilarious 😂
Any idea how I can get Interstate 76 to be playable on modern hardware? The physics were tied to CPU and GPU performance so I can't make a jump in one of the stages to progress the game.
Net says you need DxWnd
I loved that game; the soundtrack was one of the best. That was back when S3Ms were still novel and Epic Games was publishing shareware titles that used them; it made a world of difference compared to the midi or chiptunes in other games from that era.
OMF theme is recommended listening for anyone looking to trace backward from all the recent synthwave, etc... nostalgia.
Did you guys also have the Epic demo CD that came with Jazz Jackrabbit and Mystic Towers :p?
Yes!
Back then there used to be the 250 Games Mega Disc, which came with a bunch of freeware and shareware titles.
Oni. I never hear anyone talking about that.
Underrated and underdeveloped game. Bungie hired a real architect to design the levels, so they felt far too large and empty, giving it a nice eerie vibe. Combat was a delicious blend of weird guns and satisfying martial arts.
Multiplayer was considered but dropped because modem connections were too slow, but broadband everywhere came just a few years later.
I think I remember that one. There were subtle story event shifts depending on the difficulty, like what happens with the combat training dummy in the first mission.
Ok, I just commented about Wing Commander 2, but seriously, Oni is one of my favorite games of all tiome. I used to just run some of the levels that I had beaten 100x, setting some challenge for myself -- no weapons, no hypospray, killing no enemies, beating the level without taking any damage, etc.
Oni had come on my radar because a friend of mine in the 90s was a crazy Mac guy, and Bungie was one of the only developers really making games for Mac.
Even though I loved Oni, it was definitely way underpolished or underfinished. Like you said, some huge empty levels. Textures that just repeated over, and over, and over again. The combat and moves were EXCELLENT though.
In case you don't know, there's still a fan community that plays Oni. They have all kids of texture packs, mods, a new EXE for modern windows, widescreen mode and new resolutions, etc. I'll still boot it up a time or two a year...
I met one of the artists for that through GG. It's a good game, but the controls take...... a LOT of getting used to.
The Neverhood.
Point and click claymation Myst-like puzzle mystery game.
Can't be. In that new Planetronika pilot, the best friend alien was clearly inspired by Klaymen's design.
That game is an avant guarde classic
CLAYMAN! UP HEEEERE!!!
Star Wars: X-wing Alliance.
Everyone in the sim space talks about Tie Fighter, but XWA was a huge upgrade that everyone seems to have just forgotten.
I got that and Freespace 2 in the same year, classic space combat sims.
Similarly, you hardly ever see anyone who remembers the Wing Commander series. I guess it doesn't help that EA buried the franchise after buying out Origin. My favorite from that series was Privateer, one of the earlier sandbox space sims from all the way back in 1993.
Man, I played the crap out of Wing Commander 2. I loved that game. I miss joysticks on computers!
I had a free version of wing commander a while back. Does it hold up?
I still enjoy it, but that might just be the nostalgia talking.
I'm guilty of that one.
The thing with NES and older games is you played them before the internet so your community of people was your inner circle of friends. By the time you grew up and widened your circle of friends, you probably didn't ask people what NES games they played when you met them when you were older. That's why it seems like no one played some of the old games you enjoyed but many people likely did in fact play them. Nowadays, you likely learn of games through communities that confirm people play them whereas before you might see a game on a shelf at a store and buy it or get it as a gift, thereby not confirming the community.
Games I know people played but I never met someone irl that ever told me they played the game are the following:
I played Sim Ant on the computer. It was a really fun game. I feel like those Maxis "Sim" games would really be great with modern tech and computers. They were very limited by the technology of the day, but a great example of how something limited could be really fun. (As opposed to the virtually UNLIMITED games of today that suck.)
I could never progress far in sim ant. I just didn't get it. And have you played peter pan and the pirates for nes?
Castle of the Winds
I vaguely remember that one.
It's freeware now, specifically the second half, since the first half/episode was already shareware. You can get it standalone or on Steam (coming soon(tm)).
Archive of Saada's defunct website: https://web.archive.org/web/20110717071112/http://www.exmsft.com/~ricks/
Fansite with the same same: http://lkbm.ecritters.biz/cotw/download.html
https://store.steampowered.com/app/4313160/Castle_of_the_Winds/
Tagging u/@MonkeysUncle3 and u/GamingTheSystem-01 so I don't have to spam this.
I played this as a child.
Mischief Makers. Thought about it when this popped up in my feed recently.
I remember renting that one back in high school. Only had it for a week, but it was pretty fun.
I loved all those Koei strategy games, I owned and sunk so many hours into Nobunagas Ambition myself.
I feel that way about Anarchy Online, if I hadn't played with thousands of other people I'd think I was the only one who'd heard of it.
I got that game with my used snes and while i never succeeded because every time i made massive progress SOMETHING happened I kept trying.
Nobunaga's Ambition and PTO both sucked up huge chunks of my summers.
Savage: The Battle For Newerth
An RTSS where one player on each side plays an RTS style game where they order units around and every other player plays as those units.
I miss playing that game. Unfortunately it's basically dead at this point and the studio went bankrupt after making Heroes of Newerth a different genre.
They had Savage 2 before that with a number of gameplay changes in updates so even back then there was a need for something to catch all those changes so people could rollback what game versions they wanted.
Street Rod.
Loved that game and was basically the first to do tuner culture right. I kind of wish we had a more modern version of that game that wasn't steeped in stupidity, microtransactions, or DEI nonsense.
We come close with games like Car Mechanic Simulator, but it lacks the story and racing elements of Street Rod. I also wish we had more games that focused on taking sleepers and turning them into monster hotrods. A lot of games these days focus on taking popular sports cars and just making them faster.
Racing in the aqueducts for pink slips was such a thrill.
The Last Remnant, not a completely under-rated games, it was by Square-Enix, but still fell under the radar. To this day, it's still one of the most unique RPG ever created, and has one of the best OST.
People talk about that one a decent amount, it's actually seen a bit of a resurgence recently, though people will harp on how short it is, and that it ends when it really gets going (which is pretty true).
There's a couple text based games from back in the DOS days I used to play a bunch that I've never seen anyone mention, but someone else must like them because I've seen both on abandonware sites.
First was Dukedom, a text-based management sim where you're a duke trying not to run your fief into the ground. Maybe an inspiration for Yes, Your Grace? In any case I mostly remember struggling with crop policy and trying not to starve my serfs.
The second one was Rockstar, where you're an unknown local musician trying to make it big. It involved managing tours, recording contracts, merch, conflict with band members, and lots of drugs. Dispite being entirely text based, it managed to have trippy visual effects when your character indulged, with flashing text scrolling all over the place until you overdid it and ended up in rehab or dying of an overdose.
That Rockstar game sounds very familiar, but I don't have any clear memories of it. It sounds like something I may have played at a friends house. Blast from the past.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sub-Terrania
It's like a 16bit sequel to this https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Solar_Jetman
Dude, I rented North and South back in the day and loved it. It was like a PvP minigame collection with a strategic overworld map at stake. It was cool as hell, but sadly, nobody really wanted to play it with me. My friends all played a couple of rounds but quickly wanted to play something else.
I was fortunate enough to have younger siblings I could strongarm into playing, because playing with me on something they didn't like much was better than sitting there watching a different game passively.
That game had a few different re-releases, too.
Man, we had similar experiences with that game 😂.
KiA North and South tournament when?
Catacomb Abyss. An early DOS shooter like Wolfenstein, but in a fantasy setting. It came pre-installed on the first family PC my dad bought for us, some old Tandy where you had to run Windows 3.1 on purpose. Like it didn't boot to Windows, it booted to the CL and you had to start Windows. I played the shit out of that game.
D/Generation ... isometric game where you worked your way through levels of this tower where something had gone wrong, security systems were out of control, and you had to figure out what was up.
Huh, apparentlyu there was an "HD" remake of it in 2015 and it was released for the Switch in 2018. I guess other people DID play it!
For another one, I don't remember what it was called. It was a DOS text game where you were shrunk down into a human body, and had to do something...maybe fix a problem in the brain? and then escape? I can't remember, but I remember thinking it was the hardest thing in the world as a little kid.
https://dosboxgames.com/game/microzine-17
Oh man, I loved North vs South, haven't thought about that game since the early 90s. Would play the shit out of a remaster, that kind of arcadey strategy game really doesn't exist anywhere else.
My pick, Freedom Fighters, a budget TPS from the GameCube era. Another game with a unique concept, a Soviet invasion of New York leads to you going through levels doing missions like sabotaging supply lines or blowing up helicopters, so you can take over a base more easily, because the enemy bases are too fortified to attack outright. It was a lot of fun and we really need a sequel, it would go so hard nowadays since we can finally have a game with communists as enemies
Dude I LOVED Freedom Fighters. I remember as a kid being thrilled about having so many NPC squadmates to control, and getting more each level. The AI was really not very advanced, but it gave a good illusion of being so, kind of like F.E.A.R, with your guys taking cover and flanking and stuff.
I also liked the controversial element of not having pinpoint accuracy with your crosshair. It meant you had to rely on your squad more, and it felt more like actual squad level tactics where you were shooting in the general direction of the enemy for suppression rather than popping heads from a thousand yards.
Always wished IO interactive would go back to it instead of making a million Hitman sequels.
I played the hell out of PowerMonger on the amiga. It was a Bullfrog game by Peter Molyneux with an interface and graphics similar to Populous, but you went around conquering the world with your ruler and a squad. You made weapons and boats and such in towns in order to support the fighting.
The intro was some hot shit back then, and I found it on youtube here.
I never see it mentioned, even when people are talking about Molyneux's games.
Edit: Overlord was another Amiga game from around the same time that I played the hell out of and never see mentioned.
Little Fighter 2
Sort of a sandbox brawler, specifically setup to allow user generated content (though not really sharing).
Had a bunch of novel concepts. There were two characters who, if they ran into each other, would form a new character. One guy had armour that, if it was reduce to a certain level, broke and became a weapon for the rest of the game. And just massive waves of grunts to pummel.
Don't use drugs, it ruins you.
Worlds Adrift man. Worlds Adrift
North vs. South was actually quite a popular strat game. I had a similar game on snes Nobunaga's Ambition .
Planet's Edge, a neat little sci-fi RPG from the early nineties. Ridiculously buggy.
I think North and South got a shout out in an episode of Nintendo Power.
Probably. I was exaggerating a bit
Ghostbusters for Commodore 64. I loved upgrading my equipment by making money. Someone made an updated version in 2006, but it was part of the PC GAMER banana download service, so I doubt it's still up.
The Goemon series. I know a guy who is making a semi museum peace that explains the culture and jokes on a side screen for emulation. The UI is set up, but he's having a hard time getting the ROM to work.
There used to be a Scratch like design program called Sims Play or something. One guy made a ninja sword slashing side scroller with it. Another game likely lost to time.
There's a guy called Red Wizard on Twitter who wrote a book about SNES RPGs. It made me realize I wanted to play a lot of them and how many of them have been forgotten like that Illusion of Gaia.
Recent ones: No rest for the wicked (such a great game, they nailed exploration and replayability, among other aspects) runescape dragonwilds, enshrouded, and moonlighter 2. Never played moonlighter 1 but, now, since 2 was early access (1.0 is next month I think) I have the first one to play as well and I dont mind pixel graphics and its basically the same gameplay.
I downloaded Runefactory Frontier from 2008 and its crazy how "normal" games were back then compared to today. I really loved Stardew Valley for a time when I needed a distraction in life. I know the creator was "inspired" by Runefactory and Harvest moon, but after playing the older stuff and seeing how much was blatantly copied from them it took away something from Stardew - don't know how to articulate it.
Pax Imperia: Eminent Domain
Multiplayer (well, 1v1) Doom. On the SNES.
Destination Earthstar.
Unreal World.
Age of Wonders, Lords of Magic, Might and Magic 6-7-8, Titans of Steel, The original Bard's Tale series (the only reason that nobody talked about Bard's Tale was that it was pre-internet). Though eventually SsethTzeentach reviewed the first three.
Haunted House
Platform: TRS-80
I might have played that on the Atari 2600
Star Raiders baby.....
Zoo Tycoon. The main menu theme is an earworm