Retro Gaming

[Yasdnil]

Hi people,
I was thinkiing back to the games I used to play years ago and was wondering what games you used to enjoy playing?

A bit of a blast from the past but hey, nostalgia is a wonderful thing!

[Disintegration]

If one takes some time to dig through, there are lots of treasures hidden in the stashes of old computer games. Fortunately, thanks to the internet and old game hobbyists, there are several abandoned-ware sites, which makes it easier to find many of them.

One of my favorite is Master of Orion which was released in 1994. For a DOS game of that era, it was well designed. I think one thing that stands out the most is its superior AI diplomacy compared to Civilization. Compared to the Civ, MOO's diplomacy feels more realistic. Another good feature is design-it-yourself warships. Finally, I think MOO tech research is better designed than that of the Civ -- six different research areas for the player to allocate resource points to.

Going forther into the past, there is Star Raiders, which was released back in 1980 for Atari 8-bit computers. For an 8K game program, it is surprisingly challenging and feels like I am piloting a starship. It feels realistic in that enemy hits can cause damage. Just about everything from weapons to navigation can be put out of action. Damage to the ship's shield is especially a frightening experience as getting hit without shields means instant death.

[jack1974]

Master Of Orion is one of my all time favorite games! I made an attempt in making something similar some years ago with Supernova 2:Spacewar, but obviously I can't compete with such big games even if were made several years ago

[OromeAldaron]

Not exactly retro, but Master of Orion 2 was one of my all-time favorites! Shame I can't play it anymore as MacOS X moved on and on...

It's probably not exactly Retro either, but I liked Sid Meier's Alpha Centauri very much, much more than any other Civ-type games. And Halo 1, and ... oh well, so many nice games and only so few time!

I played NetHack ad nauseaum, you can still play it today: http://www.nethack.org/ (although not on Lion, obviously)

And there is a very nice neo-retro game: Darwinia: http://www.ambrosiasw.com/games/darwinia/

[jack1974]

Actually I meant Master Of Orion 2 indeed I never played the first, but I think the second is the best of the series (the 3rd was just insane, not fun at all).

[Disintegration]

No problemo ... probably very easy to associate MOO with MOO2, because the 2nd release has become the most popular of the MOO-series. Although I have not played MOO2, I saw a classmate of mine playing MOO2 a lot and was able to observe it from behind his shoulder. MOO2 did a splendid job in adding improvements to MOO. Although I am only vaguely familiar with the detailed history of MOO franchise, I think the executives and the developers botched with MOO3. (I remember reading a lot of comments written by disgrunted MOO fans several years ago. A lot of them walked out from the MOO franchise with MOO3 flop.)

Insofar as retro games are concerned, more than half of computer games that I have installed are still from the 1990's. Economic reason plays a part; there are many abandoned-wares available and I can just download them at no extra cost. Also, I have not been that much into graphics-intensive games, so retro games suit my just fine. I used to have a bunch of games made from the 1980's, but I gave them away over the years .... I should have kept them!

I have not tried Nethack. Instead, I used to play Xtrek (I think the current version is known as NetTrek) back in the early 1990's. I used to go to a computer lab during Friday nights. (The lab gets crowded during other times.) Once I found a vacant terminal with X-Windows, I played it for hours.

[Derek Miller]

Hi there,
Am Derek.. new here.. My fav retro games (taking into account the games I played back when I was a kid :D ) are Duck Hunt, Classic tetris, red car race game (don rem the name) and Dave