Video Games Past and present

[knights68]

What are your favorite classic video games (go back as far as you wish) and what are some of your more current video game faves?


Mine are:

Past:
Super PacMan
Galaga
Pinball (any... but then again does pinball really count?)
1942 (I think thats the name)

Present:
1701 AD
1602 AD
NASCAR Sim Racing
WarWind
Medieval Wars
Axis & Allies
I am sure there are more, but these I am most familiar and play most currently (untiL I get bored and go to the next thing)

[riverside6]

Hmm...
Past
Baseball Stars
Tecmo Super Bowl
Mario Kart

Current
Metal Gear Solid series
NCAA Football 08 (ps3 - best game i've ever played)
MVP Baseball 2005

[billybreen]

Past
Tecmo Bowl (old school)
Ultima VII (probably the best game ever created)
Any Sierra text driven adventure game (early [Kings, Space, Police, Heroes] Quest)

Current
GTA series
Ratchet and Clank series (curse the PS3 exclusivity)
uh... I'm out

I wish I had more current ones, but I just don't have enough time anymore. I'm a quarter of the way through Twilight Princess, and I haven't started any other game in the last 6 months. Sucks.

[Ping Lin]

I admit to being a big fan of video games, so I'm actually going to separate this out into a couple of categories.

Past (arcade):
Gunsmoke
Star Wars
Street Fighter II
Final Fight
Magician Lord (the first game I could defeat on one credit)

Past (home):
Zork I, II, and III (and pretty much anything by Infocom)
Ultima IV (no, this is the best ever, not VII)
Doom
Civilization/Colonization

Present (arcade):
King of Fighters (any)
Drum Mania V
Beatmania (any)
Pump It Up (a lot more challenging than Dance Dance Revolution)

Present (home):
World of Warcraft
The Sims/The Sims 2
Grand Theft Auto III (any)
Guitar Hero I/II

I'm sure that if rhythm games existed back in my high school/college days, I would have lapped them up like I do now.

[wilson]

Past:

Contra
Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles
Super Mario Bros. 2 & 3
Galaga

Present:

the Mario Country Club (Mario Golf, Mario Tennis)
Mario Kart
Age of Empires series (PC)

[EarlJam]

Past
1942 (good one!)
Moon Patrol
Donkey Kong
Pitfall
Earl Weaver Baseball

Present
All flight simulators (Microsoft)
All PlayStation WWII games
Playstation "Extreme" Baseball - Can't remember the exact name of it but it's funny. The players burst into flames, play dirty, etc.

-EarlJam

[billybreen]

Ultima IV (no, this is the best ever, not VII)

Very, very good game. But can you arm a character with a cheese wheel and send him into battle? If the answer is no, I still must give the nod to UVII.

BTW, for anyone else who has heard of VII or shares my compulsion, you can relive the whole experience through the open source Exult project. The source code for the original was lost by Origin/EA, but the Exult team has recreated it from scratch (and improved on it in several key areas) over the last several years. Amazing stuff.

[hc5duke]

Past:
Super Mario Bros. 2 & 3

(Assuming you mean the American SMB 2) BLASPHEMY! You're not playing true Mario! I did like 2 fully knowing there was another "Mario 2" out there, which I didn't really care for.

Past:

• Mario 3
• Street Fighter 2 Turbo
• Galaga

Present:

• GTA:SA
• GT4 w/ the proper logitech wheel
• New Super Mario Bros. (DS)

[Cavlaw]

Past:
Crystalis
Final Fantasy II (IV in Japan)
Master of Orion
Colonisation
Baulder's Gate
Fallout
Planescape: Torment
Age of Empires I&II
Knights of the Old Republic
Super Smash Brothers

Present:
Europa Universalis III
CIV
Neverwinter Nights
Rainbow Six: Vegas
Wii Sports
Ravin Rabbids

Edit - This is the short list. I had to cut myself off when I started breaking them down by console/pc. I've been an avid gamer since about '85.

[colchar]

Past:

Star Wars (the original)
Tron
1942
Double Dragon
Dragon's Lair (or whatever it was called...the first one that had cartoon-style graphics).


Present:

(I don't play games in arcades any more so these are all games played at home)

NHL (various incarnations)
Nascar
Links
Virtual Fighter II
Madden (sometimes)
NBA
College Basketball

[Clipsfan]

Some of these appear above, largely because I agree that they are great games:

Old

King's Quest series
Spyhunter
Ultima VII
Final Fantasy II
Dragon Warrior
Doom
X-Com

More Recent

Knights of the Old Republic
Gears of War
Halo series (not going to get to play 3 for a few weeks)


I'm waiting for a great RPG to come out on the 360, maybe Mass Effect will be it.

[Clipsfan]

Past:
Crystalis
Final Fantasy II (IV in Japan)
Master of Orion
Colonisation
Baulder's Gate
Fallout
Planescape: Torment
Age of Empires I&II
Knights of the Old Republic
Super Smash Brothers

Present:
Europa Universalis III
CIV
Neverwinter Nights
Rainbow Six: Vegas
Wii Sports
Ravin Rabbids

Edit - This is the short list. I had to cut myself off when I started breaking them down by console/pc. I've been an avid gamer since about '85.

We like a lot of the same games, I should have added Fallout to my list as I still replay the second one occasionally. What do you think about the fact that they're changing the view for the 3rd one?

[snowdenscold]

Old:
Legend of Zelda
Super Mario 3
Zelda 64 (Ocarina of Time)
Super Mario 64
Final Fantasy II (IV)
Shining Force II

[Clipsfan]

Old:
Legend of Zelda
Super Mario 3
Zelda 64 (Ocarina of Time)
Super Mario 64
Final Fantasy II (IV)
Shining Force II

I can't believe that you were the first to mention Zelda. I think that was the first game that I would dedicate entire days to playing. Not just to beat it, but to repeatedly try and cut the time it took to do so. I'm sure it wasn't world record time or anything, but I managed to get down to around 2 hours or so if I remember correctly.

[hc5duke]

I can't believe that you were the first to mention Zelda. I think that was the first game that I would dedicate entire days to playing. Not just to beat it, but to repeatedly try and cut the time it took to do so. I'm sure it wasn't world record time or anything, but I managed to get down to around 2 hours or so if I remember correctly.

I could never get myself to like Zelda. Or Final Fantasy. In fact, I hate most RPGs (GTA excepted, but it's more of a FPS IMO (woot onslaught of TLAs)). Just wanted to get it out to start a flame war I was really psyched about Paper Mario, but was extremely disappointed by the RPG-iness

[g_olaf]

Joust
Defender
Pole Position

What was the one that would say "Intruder Alert, Intrude Alert" before the Smiley face came bouncing after you? (ANSWER: Berzerk)

[Ping Lin]

Joust
Defender
Pole Position

What was the one that would say "Intruder Alert, Intrude Alert" before the Smiley face came bouncing after you?

Berzerk. (And later, Frenzy)

"Coward! Fight like a robot!"

[Cavlaw]

I don't think too much of Bethesda. I tried Morrowind on the Xbox and tossed it away for being a little too unstructured and graphically-poor. I thought Oblivion would be a great pickup, but was disappointed by that one, too. I found to be too sterile, what with the large population of cookie-cutter NPCs using the same voice actors and stock one-liners. The lack of structure eventually became frustrating, as well (and I'm a guy who loves sidequests and a bit of wandering freedom). What finally killed it for me were the flaws in the scaling difficultly system, which resulting in my needing to plan out exactly how I would behaving between levels in order to maximize the right stats, lest my enemies eventually overpower me due to their concentrated stats.

Consequently, I'm not very excited. I'm really hoping it nets some solid reviews and causes me to change my mind.

Oh, I also should have mentioned Zelda. The original was good, Link to the Past was excellent, and the Ocarina/Majora combo was just outstanding.

[billybreen]

I don't think too much of Bethesda. I tried Morrowind on the Xbox and tossed it away for being a little too unstructured and graphically-poor. I thought Oblivion would be a great pickup, but was disappointed by that one, too. I found to be too sterile, what with the large population of cookie-cutter NPCs using the same voice actors and stock one-liners. The lack of structure eventually became frustrating, as well (and I'm a guy who loves sidequests and a bit of wandering freedom). What finally killed it for me were the flaws in the scaling difficultly system, which resulting in my needing to plan out exactly how I would behaving between levels in order to maximize the right stats, lest my enemies eventually overpower me due to their concentrated stats.

Oh man, great analysis. I was super psyched for Oblivion, but I also gave up on it rather quickly. That thing was like a job.

[billybreen]

How could I forget Gauntlet in the old school category? "Elf needs food badly!"