The SSI Gold Box games, specifically the Pool of Radiance series. Civilization Sim City Sim Earth Taskmaker (which was the first game I got when I bought my first computer, a Macintosh LC. I got it the same day I bought my computer) Taskmaker 2 Angband MacBoss (An Angband-style game set in a cyberpunk-style world) Civilization: Call to Power The Sims Any number of RPGs I downloaded from the AOL boards back in the day.
@Squire that Doom spoof is practically heresy. I have to say my experience of FPS'ers is limited to Doom 1&2, and unreal tournament gold, and while Doom just tried to chop your head off and suck the mush out of your skull, UT did have a tutorial. That said, I've seen my son play modern warfare and call of duty, so I can attest that they have started building training into your first mission, whether you want it or not.
One of my co-workers played Doom 3, but I waved off, I'm too old for the classic doom 'walk down a passage, hear a door open, turn around, and die horribly' sort of gameplay, which it seems they managed to keep. Good job there
Wow... i played so many games before BG. I started with and then bought that but i dont want to bore anyone with my LONG list of games i enjoyed during my great years being a little and big brat...
But my first love -game related was pitfall 2 on atari 2600 and PRG wise Dungeon master... SSI gold box games yeah. Truly a great experience where i didnt need fancy GFX. IT was all there in my mind;)
Modern FPS games give the player far less freedom to explore the level than games like Doom did.
Aaaah, old FPS, Marathon, Dark Forces, Doom... They had more story than engine and more single player than multi, pretty much the opposite than nowadays.
Huh, i suppose it'll be a bit of a list. I'm only gonna mention ones that had serious time and influence... more or less in something like order.
Freddies Rescue Roundup, Simant, Super Mario World, Street Fighter 2, Hillsfar, Civilization, Xwing, Tie Fighter, Caesar 2, Castles 2, Warcraft 2 (online on Heat), Breath of Fire 1+2, Mario RPG, Simcity 2000, Simfarm, Goldeneye, Master of Orion 2, Pokemon Red, Quest for Glory 1 thru 5, and Final Fantasy.
While playing BG, which i came back to, i played Stronghold (and Crusader), Xwing Alliance, Paper Mario 1000 year door, Blood Omen 2, Kotor 1 + 2 (i hear there are mods that actually make kotor 2 less offensively halffinished), Star Wars Bountyhunter, Gladius, Beyond Good and Evil, Custom Robo, F-Zero for GC, and thats all i can think of right now. Oh yeah, the other Infinity Engine games too.
@Squire Yes, I got that, I played the 'free' first ten levels of doom 1 extensively, and bought Doom 2, which I played even more, including loads of LAN multiplayer at the place I worked.
@CrevsDaak let's not get too rosy about Doom's supposed 'story', there was no story to speak of, and we liked it that way.
The most astonishing thing is, at the time I had to do all sorts of custom boot autoexec batch files to gather enough memory to run Doom, and now you can run it in your browser using flash. This is the real deal, the full game, as it was.
I don't know, I dislike the 'russia is invading the us' kind of story for FPS, I think an alien invasion or mutant zombies from outer space are better than that.
One strangely good FPS from the dawn of the modern FPS Era was the first Operation Flashpoint. The initial missions did railroad you as you were just a grunt, but as you got command of your own squad you had an objective but there were a lot of ways to go about it. You had a frickin' huge island to wander around and sometimes you could just steal a tank and go on a rampage instead of sneaking in and planting explosives. Or even better, steal one of the helicopters you'd been sent to destroy, take out everything, then land and blow up the chopper. A sort of hardcore GTA: Army. It rewarded exploration and trying different solutions to problems. It's also crazily hard - 1 or 2 hits will usually kill you. I think the ArmA games (spiritual successors) are similar, but are arguably more military simulators than FPSs.
My Favorite FPSs are Half-Life 1, System Shock 2 and Deus Ex. All of them were pretty railroaded but balanced it against solid plotlines and loads of cool stuff. Maybe it's just my age talking, as all of them were out in my mid-teens.
@Shandyr That game... looks an awful lot like the original Sim City, in black and white (except you couldn't build diagonal roads in SIm City). I played the heck out of it, and I also had the "Cities of the Past" and "Cities of the Future" graphic replacement packs. My favorite was the Ancient China set, in which, instead of your citizens "demanding" things, they would "humbly request" them instead!
Comments
Civilization
Sim City
Sim Earth
Taskmaker (which was the first game I got when I bought my first computer, a Macintosh LC. I got it the same day I bought my computer)
Taskmaker 2
Angband
MacBoss (An Angband-style game set in a cyberpunk-style world)
Civilization: Call to Power
The Sims
Any number of RPGs I downloaded from the AOL boards back in the day.
One of my co-workers played Doom 3, but I waved off, I'm too old for the classic doom 'walk down a passage, hear a door open, turn around, and die horribly' sort of gameplay, which it seems they managed to keep. Good job there
But my first love -game related was pitfall 2 on atari 2600 and PRG wise Dungeon master... SSI gold box games yeah. Truly a great experience where i didnt need fancy GFX. IT was all there in my mind;)
Freddies Rescue Roundup, Simant, Super Mario World, Street Fighter 2, Hillsfar, Civilization, Xwing, Tie Fighter, Caesar 2, Castles 2, Warcraft 2 (online on Heat), Breath of Fire 1+2, Mario RPG, Simcity 2000, Simfarm, Goldeneye, Master of Orion 2, Pokemon Red, Quest for Glory 1 thru 5, and Final Fantasy.
While playing BG, which i came back to, i played Stronghold (and Crusader), Xwing Alliance, Paper Mario 1000 year door, Blood Omen 2, Kotor 1 + 2 (i hear there are mods that actually make kotor 2 less offensively halffinished), Star Wars Bountyhunter, Gladius, Beyond Good and Evil, Custom Robo, F-Zero for GC, and thats all i can think of right now. Oh yeah, the other Infinity Engine games too.
@CrevsDaak let's not get too rosy about Doom's supposed 'story', there was no story to speak of, and we liked it that way.
The most astonishing thing is, at the time I had to do all sorts of custom boot autoexec batch files to gather enough memory to run Doom, and now you can run it in your browser using flash. This is the real deal, the full game, as it was.
http://www.kongregate.com/games/mike_id/doom-1
My Favorite FPSs are Half-Life 1, System Shock 2 and Deus Ex. All of them were pretty railroaded but balanced it against solid plotlines and loads of cool stuff. Maybe it's just my age talking, as all of them were out in my mid-teens.