Throwback to the Golden Age Of Gaming...

[The_DriverX]

Anyone remember theses games for PC? Frogger (Hasbro, 1996), The Game Of Life (Hasbro, 1997 ?), Need For Speed 3: Hot Pursuit, 3D Cube Hopper [or known as Jumpy's World] (Webfoot Games), Star Trek: Starfleet Academy, Organ Trail 2, Chip's Challenge, Jezz Ball, Skifree, Midtown Madness 1 & 2. If you know what I'm talking about, sound off here! I will also help anyone who wants to get these classics running again (which I currently play all of these titles fine on Windows 8.1 and some on Linux via WINE)!

 

[Vario]

How about Prince of Persia! Here is my mint but a little dusty box.

 

[RejZoR]

I loved NFS3 Hot Pursuit so much I even made patch for it with some guy (NFS3 NextGen) so you can play it on modern computers again. He's also working for NFS4 High Stakes patch! I played Midtown Madness demo a lot. It was timed demo and limited, but it was so much fun How can you get these working on Win10 ?

 

[Vayra86]

I spent an awful lot of time in Midtown Madness but to say I would love to do that again...

no.

I also don't see this Golden Age... the games were extremely limited and neither were there a whole lot of them...

 

[biowiet]

Good old times... Frogger was on the first 360k floppy disk I've copied from a classmate... we used to play Prince, Sokoban, Stunt Car Racer (buiding trax was extraordinary fun to challenge friends), Block Out (3D tetris), Manic Miner, Grand Prix Circuit, Battle Chess, Digger, Ski or Die and many other titles what doesn't come up from my deep memories... started on an XT 4.77Mhz 512k RAM with CGA monitor and 20Mb Seagate HDD and 360k FDD, operating system was PCDOS 3.1 and MS-DOS 5.22 somewhat later. Windows was still just a program you could run if you wanted to, 2.x versions were still lack of graphic displaying. Remember building a Tandy sound card for LPT port with some resistors and capacitors, cutting gap on 5.25" floppy disk to turn single side disks to double side later drilling holes on 3.5" to format 720k disks to 1.44m... so much fun those days! ^^

 

[FreedomEclipse]

It's not classic unless it was golden axe

 

[john_]

I think for most people, the first games they played represent a golden age of gaming. For example, I can't forget games like Pac Man, Tetris, Kick Off, Lotus Turbo Esprit, Street Fighter and SWIV, to mention a few.

 

[RejZoR]

What I'd love to experience again in full blown native form in MechWarrior 2 Pentium Edition. And I don't want any of that 3dfx Glide nonsense. I want to play it in its original software rendering mode, just at higher, preferably native resolution. That game was fantastic. The mechs, the feel of graphics, worlds and missions, the tribal orchestral music, absolutely amazing game I'd play again for sure. Such amazing memories doing loadouts of mechs and doing missions on different planets under different conditions.

 

[jagjitnatt]

Anyone remember theses games for PC? Frogger (Hasbro, 1996), The Game Of Life (Hasbro, 1997 ?), Need For Speed 3: Hot Pursuit, 3D Cube Hopper [or known as Jumpy's World] (Webfoot Games), Star Trek: Starfleet Academy, Organ Trail 2, Chip's Challenge, Jezz Ball, Skifree, Midtown Madness 1 & 2. If you know what I'm talking about, sound off here! I will also help anyone who wants to get these classics running again (which I currently play all of these titles fine on Windows 8.1 and some on Linux via WINE)!

Need for Speed 3 Hot Pursuit was my first 3d game. I spent 100s of hours on it.

BioMenace, SkyRoads, Dave and Prince of Persia were the BOMB.

 

[Vayra86]

Another one just popped in;

Again, looking at it today... kinda wondering why this was cool I mean I like old games... but

 

[roccor777]

Doom - unforgettable moments

 

[kruk]

If anyone really liked Chip's Challenge, you can now get it from Steam, but wait, there is more ...

There exists an opensource cross platform emulator called Tile World. It's highly configurable with different rulesets and tilepacks. It's capable of playing both the original game files and thousands of user created levels. The best ones are collected within Chip's Challenge Level Packs on basis of user votes. Some great (and free) levels in spirit of Chip's Challenge await you, so be sure to check them out.

 

[Tomgang]

Yes remenber a few.

DOOM (even still remember two cheat codes for that game and those are IDKFA and IDDQD if you want them for any reason)
Wolfenstein 3D
Duke Nukem 3d
The first GTA game. i spend a but load of time with this game.
Diablo
Half-life
Starcraft
Quake 1 and two
System Shock 1 and 2
Command & Conquer: Red Alert
Unreal Tournament
Dungeon Keeper
Heroes of Might and Magic

That is those i clearly remember.

 

[the54thvoid]

I think for most people, the first games they played represent a golden age of gaming. For example, I can't forget games like Pac Man, Tetris, Kick Off, Lotus Turbo Esprit, Street Fighter and SWIV, to mention a few.

Lotus Turbo Esprit by Durrel Software - chasing a car through those awful little streets but hell - it was fun!

I also played a hell of a lot of Chaos by Julian Gollop. Up to 8 wizards vying to destroy each other on one screen. Both awesome Spectrum games. So not quite PC but as said, the Golden Age of gaming is when you got into those games. There are some here for whom that will be 'pong'. Or even the on/off button on their first TV (old buggers)

 

[FordGT90Concept]

I still have the boxes/floppies for all my old games. Doom and A-Train are the oldest.

 

[Deleted member 67555]

I tend to agree with the OP about it being the Golden age of PC gaming because at the time PC gaming was literally generations ahead of consoles...
There was literally nothing any console could offer to compete with games like Wolfenstein 3d or Wing Commander 2 with it's digitized speech..

 

[FordGT90Concept]

I'd say the golden age was 2000-2007. Major games were be made that simply couldn't be made before like Mass Effect, Black & White, Fable, Grand Theft Auto III, The Sims, and Spore. These are things that weren't technically possible before and most games since have been clones or built off of the foundation they laid.

 

[Vayra86]

I'd say the golden age was 2000-2007. Major games were be made that simply couldn't be made before like Mass Effect, Black & White, Fable, Grand Theft Auto III, The Sims, and Spore. These are things that weren't technically possible before and most games since have been clones or built off of the foundation they laid.

I think I can agree to this, its also the time when you saw a lot of ideas and concepts from the precedings year finally get the technology they really needed to work. Such as true 3D rendering instead of a patchwork of sprites and images..

 

[Deleted member 67555]

I'd say the golden age was 2000-2007. Major games were be made that simply couldn't be made before like Mass Effect, Black & White, Fable, Grand Theft Auto III, The Sims, and Spore. These are things that weren't technically possible before and most games since have been clones or built off of the foundation they laid.

I agree and disagree...
I don't think there would have been a Mass Effect if it weren't for Wing commander....
The basic structure is there...You find yourself in a situation and the choices you make decides the outcome
I can't even guess how many games evolved from Wolfenstein 3D...
And the same can be said of Knights of the sky and Chuck Yeagers Air Combat...
I really think !996-1998 contributed more than 2000-2007 because that's when the need for 3D tech was realised.
I mean seriously...They were trying to merge B movies with video games...

 

[FordGT90Concept]

Do you remember trying to play games in 1996-1998? Trying to get audio to work was a pain in the ass. PC gaming was technically challenging. There were some gems in that period like Deus Ex, Thief, and StarCraft but a few gems doesn't make an age.

Mass Effect was basically KOTOR -> Unreal Engine/third person shooter. Bioware was trying to create a new IP that appeals to Call of Duty gamers with branching narratives and RPG elements that Bioware is known for.

 

[The_DriverX]

Well, I know its different for everyone, but the mid to late 1990's games really advanced gaming (in my opinion). 3D environments/ characters, improved audio effects, various graphic API's (DirectX, OpenGL, and short lived but powerful 3Dfx Interactive GPUs) improved greatly (starting with Windows 98). Yes, games have evolved, but in my own opinion, games of today really do find their roots from the 90's video games. Sorry that I stirred things up...

I'd say the golden age was 2000-2007. Major games were be made that simply couldn't be made before like Mass Effect, Black & White, Fable, Grand Theft Auto III, The Sims, and Spore. These are things that weren't technically possible before and most games since have been clones or built off of the foundation they laid.

I do agree... There has been many great titles from 2000 - 2007. I was just implying that (like said before), their roots to the 1990's is what I think makes these games special.

I think for most people, the first games they played represent a golden age of gaming. For example, I can't forget games like Pac Man, Tetris, Kick Off, Lotus Turbo Esprit, Street Fighter and SWIV, to mention a few.

I do agree with that, as well.

 

[FordGT90Concept]

The technology was established in the late 20th century, yeah, but developers couldn't really fully exploit that technology until the early 21st century because they were still learning and implementing it.

I tried playing games I grew up with and they're so shitty compared to those made in the 21st century. The few I mentioned were the only ones that really stood out (especially Deus Ex).

 

[FreedomEclipse]

I think its coming to a 'milestone' or a 'turning point' shall we say that since most publishers are pushing games-as-a-service and pumping their games with so much microtransactions & loot crates that the actual game itself has become a rather pointless endeavor. Rather than have a good game to boost the sales its all about how they can half arse it and further line their pockets via microtransactions which can take little to no effort to make at all....

games have just become a platform upon which they can sell you more shit you dont actually need.

Because of how upfront and straightforward older games were. Older games are better than the games of today even if todays games have better development and make use of more technologies.

 

[Vario]

Unreal is probably one of the most revolutionary titles, released in 1998. It plays as well or better than many modern FPS in terms of content and level design. The graphics aged very well too with proper mods and tweaks

Its 1998 era first person contemporaries included games like Turok 2, Half Life 1, Quake 2, Thief the Dark Project. The era where we took a major step forward into modern FPS. It was a big jump in terms of graphics, movement, and level design, from games from 1997 and before.

 

[FreedomEclipse]

Unreal is probably one of the most revolutionary titles, released in 1998. It plays as well or better than many modern FPS in terms of content and level design. The graphics aged very well too with proper mods and tweaks

Its 1998 era first person contemporaries included games like Turok 2, Half Life 1, Quake 2, Thief the Dark Project. The era where we took a major step forward into modern FPS. It was a big jump in terms of graphics, movement, and level design, from games from 1997 and before.

I never played the original Unreal game. I did play UT99 for a long time though across LAN and solo against bots and I loved how frantic and fast paced the game was. Every UT that preceded that just seemed fatter and slower despite having better graphics and Epic being able to render the game in proper HQ graphical fidelity....


Im so sick of EA's shit that I actually spent 30mins going through my storage looking for my old BF2 installation CD so i could play that instead. BF2 is still very much alive though it lacks the playerbase it had between 2005-2007,

I play the game now and it feels so awkward as the graphics are poo and the mechanics are rather clanky and less polished compared to modern games but its something that I can easily get used to with time.

The experience was like travelling back in a time machine.