PC Gaming; 1990-1996

[MrSparkle]

Originally Posted by pauljh74

With coax cable daisy chained? I recall me and a mate spending an afternoon playing Doom 1 on 1 via a LAN on a "high powered" 486. Then we got our own PCs in '97 and moved onto LANs with as many as 10 people using daisy chained coax cable with T pieces for each PC and terminators on each end of the chain.
Usually had to install a network card on someone's PC at the LAN then usually had issues with at least 1 PC not able to see the network.

Ahuh! T-junction goodness, and everyone always had different thickness cables which meant trouble! And for some reason our terminators were always screwed too which gave some lovely intermittent problems.

But after all that, there was Rise of the Triad - a LAN classic!

[Mental]

RAWR!! oh for the good old days of shooting pixels ..

Total Annihilation!! Was I the only one to play this? I kid you not that was the most Epic RTS game ever made! For its time, it was certainly revolutionary. It was the first RTS to use projectile geometry to calculate hits or misses instead of a spreadsheet, which lead to all kinds of fun! Like you aim your Big Bertha (massive single shot cannon) at something -hopefully- relatively stationary and instead obliterate a spy plane that zoomed past the projectiles path! All of the units were 3D which was unheard of for an RTS ... oh the memorys

X-Wing Vs Tie Fighter - Another legendary game for its time!

[Dauphin]

Only games I've played recently was because of being on the beta test team for MS Flight Simulator. I had a P4 3GHz and a gForce 4 video card, plenty of RAM, HDD space, etc. It took over an hour to install and another 30 mins to load, then about 5 mins just to get into "free flight" mode, then it ran at about 1 frame per minute and I had to end up pulling the plug on my PC just to get it to restart. I wasn't impressed.

[uranium_death]

I got back into Dune II again. Great game.

I can't see how anybody can like C+C, Warcraft and the other posers more than Dune II.
3 houses, lots of units. For a first go at the genre, it's a bloody top game.

Not recognised anywhere near as much as it should be.

[[Tonko]]

NERDS!!!
i remember when it was such an awesome thing to link doom to 2 player, it was like top of the world programming back then....sad....

[BOTTLEDUP]

Does anyone remember Quarantine? Came out around 94/95 I think...

[uranium_death]

Originally Posted by XD357

Does anyone remember Quarantine? Came out around 94/95 I think...

I remember Quarantine. I didn't play it but my brother did. I was too busy playing Sierra Adventure Classics. Sad thing is, I still play them.

Watching my brother play Doom II via the 28.8 was great. Connect to either "The Arena" or "Playnet" (later became Gaynet) and play. Arena had 8 lines, Playnet had 30.

That was big stuff!

Dune II and Star Control II FTW still.

[pauljh74]

Originally Posted by Feathers

I got Larry 1 through 6 in a zip file off Limewire.
It's all on my old computer, which doesn't have enough guts to run them.

My Dad loves the theme to Larry 1, he sometimes sets his computer at work to run the theme repeatedly...and it is his mobile ringtone. _

Your old PC must be really old if it can't run the earlier versions. Like 20 years old. I ran the earlier ones on a 386 fine. LSL1 ran on the XT PCs which had less than 10MHz!

Does your Dad wear Polyester Leisure suits as well?

[EviLkarL]

Monster Truck Madness 1

[robs_ls1]

Relentless/Twinsen's adventure

Another vote for DOSBox here. I have no probs with sound. Most games work fine if setup to use a Soundblaster or Adlib card.

DOSBox, ScummVM and MAME can keep me busy for hours.

[Sapper]

The Xargon Trilogy and the original 'Microprose Formula One Grand Prix kept me busy for days at a time.

[uranium_death]

Originally Posted by hot xr6

The Xargon Trilogy and the original 'Microprose Formula One Grand Prix kept me busy for days at a time.

As I said, the best racing game at the time (~'92/93).

Need for Speed came out around 95/6 and that was great too.

[uranium_death]

Street Fighter II on the PC was an absolute shocker - it was made by U.S. Gold, not Capcom. As a result, the animation is a shocker, special moves are impossible to do and the sound is an absolute shocker.

Some man of Asian descent made his own version. He had the tunes of the game except they were his own versions. The game was unstable though and had a tendency to crash.
But it was still a great game (the home-made one I mean).

One Must Fall was another great fighting game. MAde by Epic Mega Games, it is essentially Robot Kombat. There was a Single players tournament, two player battles or Tournament. The game was great fun. On tournament, you earn money by winning fights and can upgrade your robot, as well as train the pilot (which just so happens to be you).

Let's get some pc game chat going here!

[xrobx]

Duke Nukem! Brilliant game at the time.

[Mechan1k]

Originally Posted by rob-xr6

Duke Nukem! Brilliant game at the time.

And Shadow Warrior was great too

[DivHunter]

Mig 29
Strike Commander
Battledrome

[normxb]

Wow , got heaps of those games listed (thought I was the only "Nutter" )
I've still got a working 386 , 486/sx/25 & 486/dx/66 with 2 massive 40 Meg hard Drives , with these games on them .

Another couple
BOB1939 (Battle fof Britain) if you didn't change the DOS command you needed a table 10ft square to get it to work .
Blocks
Shoot
Hangman
Dragon (match the tile game)
Fab Four (Beatles Quiz)
2 disk set "1,500" PC games (1 disk DOS , 1 disk Windows)

VGA pictures (Gif files) , Buggs Bunny , Eagle , Garfield , Goofy , Coyote , Road Runner , Alien , Huckleberry Hound .
We used to use these in 1989-90 to display computers at our Auction Centre , you could EVEN make them into a "Slide Show"

What was SVGA ?

How about your first computer ? Mine was a "Compaq Deskpro 286/12, 640k Ram , 20 Meg H/D , CGA Video card (quickly upgraded to EGA) 5,1/4" Floppy drive & installed one of the NEW 3,1/2" drives. Windows 3.0 & Excel 3.0 was also the latest thing out ! ! !
RRP $7,400 (Monitor & Mouse optional extra). Still got the price list here somewhere .
Printer = Epson LQ 2400+ (was the Envy of everyone) IBM , Star & Brother were the common ones .

[uranium_death]

Originally Posted by normxb

Wow , got heaps of those games listed (thought I was the only "Nutter" )
I've still got a working 386 , 486/sx/25 & 486/dx/66 with 2 massive 40 Meg hard Drives , with these games on them .

How about your first computer ? Mine was a "Compaq Deskpro 286/12, 640k Ram , 20 Meg H/D , CGA Video card (quickly upgraded to EGA) 5,1/4" Floppy drive & installed one of the NEW 3,1/2" drives. Windows 3.0 & Excel 3.0 was also the latest thing out ! ! !
RRP $7,400 (Monitor & Mouse optional extra). Still got the price list here somewhere .
Printer = Epson LQ 2400+ (was the Envy of everyone) IBM , Star & Brother were the common ones .

Hello.

Our first computer back in the middle of 1990 was from Micro Dot. The store we purchased from was about 150-200 metres south of the Maroondah Hwy/Springvale Road Intersection. They're gone now.

Cost about $3,500. Was a 286, 1 meg RAM, VGA card, 14" monitor, 40 meg HDD, PC speaker (upgraded to Sound Blaster within 6 months-a year), Witty Mouse (was a totally garbage mouse) and an Epson LQ-400 Dot Matrix printer (we used it until we got this pc in 2001.)

Speaking of the 486 SX-25, we had one of them too, but we got that one for 10 bucks from my old man's work. They were offloading their ancient stuff and yeah, we took it. Came with everything, except the power supply was dead, as was the battery so at every start up, I would have to input the HDD details. But I didn't mind that.

Due to XP having NO support for Soundblaster 8 or 16, the 486 was great for playing older games.

[normxb]

Hey "UD"

Yep , remember Micro Dot , 40 Meg ? VGA , (most music video clips wouldn't even fit on them these days) In 1990 , that would have been a top class machine . Amazing how Technology has changed , Huh .

Norm

[EA Ghia]

Carmageddon was a great game, I still play it every now and then. Running over people and cows and watching them explode never gets old...Even better in Slow-mo! :P

A bit newer, but Civilization III and Civilization II: Test of Time (The best of the series IMO) are games that still get played pretty regularly.

Did anybody ever play Simon the Sorceror and Beneath a Steel Sky? Those are probably my two favorite old-school games...That and the original 'Settlers'

Ahh, memories..

[uranium_death]

Originally Posted by normxb

Hey "UD"

Yep , remember Micro Dot , 40 Meg ? VGA , (most music video clips wouldn't even fit on them these days) In 1990 , that would have been a top class machine . Amazing how Technology has changed , Huh .

Norm

lol indeed it has.
It really annoys me when people look at old games and say, "that game is crap! Look at the graphics! And the sound sucks! etc.

But these were games that I grew up on! The Sierra Adventure Games Series were staples, as was Ivan Stewart's Iron Man Off Road Racing, Stunts, Test Drive I and II etc.

There are some genres which have gotten worse over time IMO. Adventure games are a speck on the bum of the Earth now compared to the old stuff.

I also prefer 2D fight games like MK and SFII. Re-creations don't interest me.

[uranium_death]

Originally Posted by viper483

Carmageddon was a great game, I still play it every now and then. Running over people and cows and watching them explode never gets old...Even better in Slow-mo! :P

A bit newer, but Civilization III and Civilization II: Test of Time (The best of the series IMO) are games that still get played pretty regularly.

Did anybody ever play Simon the Sorceror and Beneath a Steel Sky? Those are probably my two favorite old-school games...That and the original 'Settlers'

Ahh, memories..

Beneath a Steel Sky is a bloody awesome adventure game. One of my favourite adventure games ever. The music is quiet in DosBox though, and I loved the music. The game also had pretty good humour through Joey (your robot pal).

The story was also awesome. I wish they had made another one, where Joey had become corrupted (as the mind of Linc) and you have to put things right.

For those who haven't played it, it probably works best on SCUMMVM, which is a program that allows you to fully play the old Lucasarts adventure games, as well as others that used the SCUMMVM engine.

[XR8-260]

Sim city 2000, Command and Conquer Red Alert :.
Of the more recent titles: Call of duty United Offensive (I totally own on multiplayer lol).

[uranium_death]

I was just thinking...

There is a NFS Porsche...

Wish they had a similar thing with Ford. Start from the original Fords (and race with them) and go through time, watching Ford's evolution. That would be totally awesome.

The problem is that the game would be American and there would be no Australian Falcons. If they spent time, they could easily do it. Unlike Porsche 2000, they should also not have a limit on cars.

Just a personal opinion and an idea too.

[Jesk]

Yes Total Annihilation wHOOOOOOO
and superkarts
and Wacky Wheels any one,

Who can forget 2player split screen and freezing the other player by pressing too many buttons on the keyboard just as they tried to go round a corner, my bro and i nearly beat each other to a pulp with that tactic

[Yellow_Festiva]

No one has mentioned Galactix!

Haaa 100 levels of blasting away alien invaders... loved it....

Hmm there was another game, bugger what was it called???? was a popular arcade game at the time as well. You flew over a battle field, both land and water shooting at planes, airships and ground tanks as well.

You had a limited amount of bombs, but could pick up bonuses (i think when you shot down an airship) and your gun was gradually upgraded... starting to a **** weak 2 shooter out of the nose of your plane (you were in a kind of fighter jet) and the best highest gun was this red bunch of laser rays that would shoot straight as well as having all this sweeping tenticles that waved around the left and right sides.

The middle gun was a green laser....

Anyone remember what it was called???? bugger now i want to play it.

[kocho]

Starcraft easily.


What a game... what a game.

[Yellow_Festiva]

Thanx for that, ill look into it

[uranium_death]

Originally Posted by Yellow_Festiva

No one has mentioned Galactix!

Haaa 100 levels of blasting away alien invaders... loved it....

Hmm there was another game, bugger what was it called???? was a popular arcade game at the time as well. You flew over a battle field, both land and water shooting at planes, airships and ground tanks as well.

You had a limited amount of bombs, but could pick up bonuses (i think when you shot down an airship) and your gun was gradually upgraded... starting to a **** weak 2 shooter out of the nose of your plane (you were in a kind of fighter jet) and the best highest gun was this red bunch of laser rays that would shoot straight as well as having all this sweeping tenticles that waved around the left and right sides.

The middle gun was a green laser....

Anyone remember what it was called???? bugger now i want to play it.

Hmmm...classically, sounds like "Raiden" or "Raiden II", but there is no green upgrade on that.

Also Dawn Raider.

Also games like Raptor.

[LeadFoot81]

Originally Posted by kocho

Starcraft easily.


What a game... what a game.

Starcraft. Easily the best game in its genre. Ever.