Greatest old video games ever?

[davekay1971]

Context is important. I'm 39. My son is 12. My wife likes sniping on a Call of Duty game more than I do. We have an xbox 360 and enjoy the modern games with their spectacular graphics (Call of Duty for my wife and I, slightly more age appropriate stuff for my son and I). But I obviously grew up on less technologically awesome games...but games that somehow made up for it with just ridiculously fun gameplay.

In a fit of nostalgia I went online and dropped $5.99 to purchase Dungeon Keeper from a website called Great Old Games (www.gog.com). Oh my lord what a fun game. It's been about 12 years since I played it and it was just as much fun last night as it was back then. For anyone who hasn't experienced this awesome game, the concept is that you are an evil wizard (all you see of yourself is a ghoulish disembodied floating green hand which can pick up and move around your critters or, more satisfyingly, smack them to make them work harder). You build a dungeon complete with a selection of rooms (training room, chicken hatchery to feed the beasts, torture chambers, sacrificial altar, graveyard, etc). You attract the monsters. When the heroes come to defeat you, you watch your minions slaughter them.

It made me think, what other old games (for sake of argument, figure pre-xbox/playstation/wii games) do other folks fondly remember or, as family, work, and schedule allow, still enjoy playing?

For me, Dungeon Keeper just vaulted to the top of the list. A couple others that come to mind: Warcraft 2, Diablo, and an old, little known stand up arcade game I used to play in the Bryan Center at Duke, Pigskin (no rules Viking football).

Anybody have other great old games they remember?

[devildeac]

Context is important. I'm 39. My son is 12. My wife likes sniping on a Call of Duty game more than I do. We have an xbox 360 and enjoy the modern games with their spectacular graphics (Call of Duty for my wife and I, slightly more age appropriate stuff for my son and I). But I obviously grew up on less technologically awesome games...but games that somehow made up for it with just ridiculously fun gameplay.

In a fit of nostalgia I went online and dropped $5.99 to purchase Dungeon Keeper from a website called Great Old Games (www.gog.com). Oh my lord what a fun game. It's been about 12 years since I played it and it was just as much fun last night as it was back then. For anyone who hasn't experienced this awesome game, the concept is that you are an evil wizard (all you see of yourself is a ghoulish disembodied floating green hand which can pick up and move around your critters or, more satisfyingly, smack them to make them work harder). You build a dungeon complete with a selection of rooms (training room, chicken hatchery to feed the beasts, torture chambers, sacrificial altar, graveyard, etc). You attract the monsters. When the heroes come to defeat you, you watch your minions slaughter them.

It made me think, what other old games (for sake of argument, figure pre-xbox/playstation/wii games) do other folks fondly remember or, as family, work, and schedule allow, still enjoy playing?

For me, Dungeon Keeper just vaulted to the top of the list. A couple others that come to mind: Warcraft 2, Diablo, and an old, little known stand up arcade game I used to play in the Bryan Center at Duke, Pigskin (no rules Viking football).

Anybody have other great old games they remember?

Pong and Asteroids (I think) were the earliest ones I recall playing. Old, not great. Also played Pin the Tail on the Mastodon a time or two many, many years ago until we ran out of subject matter.

[gus]

Kaboom! remains in my mind the pinnacle of the home video game experience.

[snowdenscold]

Zelda 64: Ocarina of Time
Legend of Zelda
Super Mario 3
Super Mario 64
Final Fantasy II (IV)
Myst / Riven
Dragon Warrior I, IV
Shining Force I & II

[dukebsbll14]

-Pokemon was a great one. Brings back memories for us college students cause we played it as kids. During finals week my friends found a way to play Pokemon on our computers, so we battled. Typical Duke students during finals week.

-Call of Duty heck yeah. No one doesn't like Call of Duty. I'm not a 24/7 player like some people, but its still an addicting game.

-Duck Hunt. That friggin dog laughing at you when you miss. Thought you were on my side, dog.

-Star Fox. Anyone remember this for Nintendo 64? Great game. You and your companions gotta go through different planets in fighter jets shooting down the enemy. Never could beat that game. Always got to the second to last level...It always made you feel really bad when you lost cause its like, "Star fox, how did you let us down??" Then you watch as your friends get shot down...

-Super Smash Bros. One of the greatest games of all time. Everyone loves it. The newer version Brawl is great, but i think it started for the 64.

-Mario Party. Again, fan favorite.

[riverside6]

Best NFL football game ever is likely Tecmo Super Bowl, Bo Jackson was unstoppable.

[OldPhiKap]

We would stare at the static for hours on end, looking for familiar shapes like one does with clouds.

Then make up stories about what the cigar-store indian on the test pattern was thinking.

Ah, childhood. Good times.

[DukieInKansas]

We would stare at the static for hours on end, looking for familiar shapes like one does with clouds.

Then make up stories about what the cigar-store indian on the test pattern was thinking.

Ah, childhood. Good times.

I wanted to give you a positive comment for this but need to share the love, so I'm sharing the love here. (Don't tell Mrs. OPK, please.)

The first computer my nephews had was an Apple 2e, I think. It had some game that was all word driven - you were trying to find a treasure or get to some point to rescue the princess or something. The best part of the game for me, the few times I played, was the responses you would get when you asked it to do an illogical task like jump off the cliff. Some of the responses were obviously written late at night and after a beer or 16.

[OldPhiKap]

I wanted to give you a positive comment for this but need to share the love, so I'm sharing the love here. (Don't tell Mrs. OPK, please.)

The first computer my nephews had was an Apple 2e, I think. It had some game that was all word driven - you were trying to find a treasure or get to some point to rescue the princess or something. The best part of the game for me, the few times I played, was the responses you would get when you asked it to do an illogical task like jump off the cliff. Some of the responses were obviously written late at night and after a beer or 16.

I had a similar game for my -- gasp -- TRS-80. It was like "Rakatu" or something, where you got into an ancient pyramid or something. Always got to the end of a hall and could not figure out how to get past. No "cheat codes" or "cheat sites" back in the day.

The thing was cassette loaded -- 500 baud, IIRC. And it had the same types of responses for illogical commands.

[CameronBornAndBred]

Any old gamers who spent hours losing quarters at the mall arcades will have fun with this. MAME (Multiple Arcade Machine Emulator) allows you to play old games on your pc.

MAME stands for Multiple Arcade Machine Emulator. When used in conjunction with images of the original arcade game's ROM and disk data, MAME attempts to reproduce that game as faithfully as possible on a more modern general-purpose computer. MAME can currently emulate several thousand different classic arcade video games from the late 1970s through the modern era.

http://mamedev.org/

It's been a while since I've played with it, but this thread has made me ponder installing it this weekend.

[moonpie23]

Defender

[CameronBornAndBred]

I always loved the games that were more fun to play as a tandem, like Ikari Warriors, or this one...Wizard of Wor.

118124218760.png

[HaveFunExpectToWin]

I still play a lot of COD and NCAA football, but back in the day I played a lot of different games. I'll arrange my favorites from 80s-mid 90s by platform. To me, the cutoff for old vs new school is when the original Playstation came out. That was a whole new world of gaming.

Apple II+: I played a TON of Load Runner
NES: Super Mario Bros (1,2,3), Contra, Ninja Gaiden, TMNT, Bubble Bobble, Ice Hockey, so many others to name
PC: anything Sierra (King's Quest, Space Quest, Hero's Quest, Police Quest, Codename:Iceman, and my favorite Gabriel Knight), Wing Commander (wow, I loved me some Wing Commander)

Completely forgot Duck Tales for the NES!

[OldPhiKap]

I still play a lot of COD and NCAA football, but back in the day I played a lot of different games. I'll arrange my favorites from 80s-mid 90s by platform. To me, the cutoff for old vs new school is when the original Playstation came out. That was a whole new world of gaming.

Apple II+: I played a TON of Load Runner
NES: Super Mario Bros (1,2,3), Contra, Ninja Gaiden, TMNT, Bubble Bobble, Ice Hockey, so many others to name
PC: anything Sierra (King's Quest, Space Quest, Hero's Quest, Police Quest, Codename:Iceman, and my favorite Gabriel Knight), Wing Commander (wow, I loved me some Wing Commander)

Completely forgot Duck Tales for the NES!

The first thing I can really remember being jealous of not having was the hand-held football game (you know -- the one with the LED dashes that you use to run around the defenders, and every ten yards you cycle back to the starting side of the screen). Man, that was the bomb. I always wanted one, and Mrs. OPK finally got me one for Christmas a few years ago.

Still dig it. I can "hear" the whistles and chirps as I type this. Pavlov was right.

[Deslok]

Context is important. I'm 39. My son is 12. My wife likes sniping on a Call of Duty game more than I do. We have an xbox 360 and enjoy the modern games with their spectacular graphics (Call of Duty for my wife and I, slightly more age appropriate stuff for my son and I). But I obviously grew up on less technologically awesome games...but games that somehow made up for it with just ridiculously fun gameplay.

In a fit of nostalgia I went online and dropped $5.99 to purchase Dungeon Keeper from a website called Great Old Games (www.gog.com). Oh my lord what a fun game. It's been about 12 years since I played it and it was just as much fun last night as it was back then. For anyone who hasn't experienced this awesome game, the concept is that you are an evil wizard (all you see of yourself is a ghoulish disembodied floating green hand which can pick up and move around your critters or, more satisfyingly, smack them to make them work harder). You build a dungeon complete with a selection of rooms (training room, chicken hatchery to feed the beasts, torture chambers, sacrificial altar, graveyard, etc). You attract the monsters. When the heroes come to defeat you, you watch your minions slaughter them.

It made me think, what other old games (for sake of argument, figure pre-xbox/playstation/wii games) do other folks fondly remember or, as family, work, and schedule allow, still enjoy playing?

For me, Dungeon Keeper just vaulted to the top of the list. A couple others that come to mind: Warcraft 2, Diablo, and an old, little known stand up arcade game I used to play in the Bryan Center at Duke, Pigskin (no rules Viking football).

Anybody have other great old games they remember?

In scrolling through that website catalog, several stood out to me as games that I loved and devoted hours to playing:
Lords of the Realm
Master of Magic
Panzer General II
Master of Magic
Star Control 2(perhaps my all time favorite game from back in the day, the interactions with the various aliens was awesome, though to note, it had a devoted enough fanbase that a group got together and basically recreated the game(and from all I can tell its pretty much perfect) at http://sc2.sourceforge.net/
and finally, going into the way back machine, the Zork games in all varieties. Way too much fun, though the puzzles might lose some of their challenging appeal if you can find a walkthrough online

[SuperTurkey]

My vote is for the Ultima series in general, and Ultima VII in particular. UVII: The Black Gate and UVII: Serpent Isle are still 2 of the best games I've played.

[killerleft]

A funny, funny game for the Commodore 64. My favorite event was the "Mate Toss". Laughs galore and very expressive characters for that era, multiple players needed.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qc1b2...eature=related

[DevilAlumna]

The first computer my nephews had was an Apple 2e, I think. It had some game that was all word driven - you were trying to find a treasure or get to some point to rescue the princess or something. The best part of the game for me, the few times I played, was the responses you would get when you asked it to do an illogical task like jump off the cliff. Some of the responses were obviously written late at night and after a beer or 16.

My favorite of these was Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy - you can relive the glory here: http://www.douglasadams.com/creations/infocomjava.html (you must read the page, and have java installed, in order to play.)

[HaveFunExpectToWin]

Oregon Trail

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CHps2SecuDk

[snowdenscold]

When Chuck Norris plays Oregon Trail his family does not die from cholera or dysentery, but rather roundhouse kicks to the face. He also requires no wagon, since he carries the oxen, axels, and buffalo meat on his back. He always makes it to Oregon before you.