Waxing nostalic about old PC games

LW said:
The mid-levels of Doom II are among the best FPS levels that I've played, not that I've played too much that genre. The start and the end are a bit boring, though.

I mean those large open levels containing hordes and more hordes of heavy-weight enemies.
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I know the couple of levels that you mean. There was one that was a great big castle. Another one that was a huge courtyard. And the bad guys just kept on coming. Some of them were invisible.

But I will continue to defend Heretic. That was, for me, one of the most fun FPS games I've ever played. Other than Quake 2, after downloading Eraser bots and custom models and maps.
 
The custom levels of DOOM really gave it quite an extended playing life. Too bad that they never came up with a good, solid editor and included it though; only ones I ever found sucked. But we got a ton of playing time out of those homemade levels. The problem was wading thru a number of sh*tty ones, but when you found a good one, esp. w/multiple levels, it was great. Some of the add-in sounds were good too (one I think had Krusty the clown as the voice of that ram baddie, lol). I think they just blew it by discarding DOOM and coming up with the other junk.

PS I tried playing it the other night.....it's just not fun by yourself anymore, IMO. :(
 
I've recently come across opengl ports for doom, hexen, and heretic. You can find it here:

http://www.doomsdayhq.com/

Setup correctly, it pretties up the graphics in all these games and kind of gives them new life so to speak. I know in JDoom, you are able to jump and use mouselook as you couldn't in the original. If you're ever looking for good wads and mods, try here:

http://www.newdoom.com/

You will find all sorts of things for all versions of Doom.
 
bigred said:
er translation please....."open gl ports".....?
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As I understand it, OpenGL is a 3D graphics library that is used in gaming. Drivers for the "big" graphics cards makers (Ati & Nvidia) support opengl as well as directX, other graphics card makers may also incorporate opengl support in their drivers as well.
Opengl improves visual quality of games such as Doom and Quake. Jagged lines are smoothed, shadowing and texturing are improved. I think it is also meant to give the game more of a realistic look.
When a game is "ported" to opengl, the game is made to use these opengl libraries to improve the games visual quality, provide light and shadow where it may not have been possible before.
 
Chocolate Chip said:
As I understand it, OpenGL is a 3D graphics library that is used in gaming. Drivers for the "big" graphics cards makers (Ati & Nvidia) support opengl as well as directX, other graphics card makers may also incorporate opengl support in their drivers as well.
Opengl improves visual quality of games such as Doom and Quake. Jagged lines are smoothed, shadowing and texturing are improved. I think it is also meant to give the game more of a realistic look.
When a game is "ported" to opengl, the game is made to use these opengl libraries to improve the games visual quality, provide light and shadow where it may not have been possible before.
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OK thanks.....I thought the orig DOOMs used this though.

And while it might look smoother, to be honest I prefer the orig. graphics, based on that shot below. I never liked the geometric/"pointy" look that kind of graphics gave to characters.
 
Just bumping to tell that RSLancastr's game Crux runs very well under PocketDOS on a PocketPC. Very intriguing game too, perfect if you are in a waiting room or whatever. Strategic even when playing alone and no nervous pace like many other puzzle games such as Tetris. Did you come up with the concept yourself, RS?

I'm sure all those games will work since I understand they share much of their code. I haven't tried them all, just Crux and Otra. I didn't like Otra very much, it makes me very nervous. A Simon game with no less than 9 different colours to remember... Do you want my poor little head to explode?! :re:
 
When Doom appeared on the market, I was lucky enough to have access to the main 3 game computing platforms (back then): PC, Mac & Amiga.
I played Doom and all Doom contenders, like Marathon on the Mac, or Gloom and Alien Breed 3D (I & II) on Amiga. I still like these games more that current FPS.
Doom was pure magic, but the Alien Breed series on Amiga was also as good despite it's poor graphic resolution.
 
Old SSI game sword of Aragon is probably still my favorite game of that type. I still have a copy. Wasteland was great at the time. War in Russia was a grognards wet dream and was fun to play but took forever.
 
Earthborn said:
Just bumping to tell that RSLancastr's game Crux runs very well under PocketDOS on a PocketPC. Very intriguing game too, perfect if you are in a waiting room or whatever. Strategic even when playing alone and no nervous pace like many other puzzle games such as Tetris. Did you come up with the concept yourself, RS?
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Yes and no.

I had read about a PC game (the name of which eludes me) where you would draw runestones out of a bag, and placed them on a grid. They had to be placed next to other stones which were either of the same color, or had the same rune on them.

I wanted to do something similar, and Crux was what I came up with.

As to the pace: I wrote all my games so that they could be played at a leisurely pace (although Otra forced a player to LISTEN quickly). In fact, I got mail from a quadriplegic woman who played all of my games (even Otra!) using a pencil in her teeth.

Anyway, thanks for trying the games. Interesting to know they're being used on a PocketPC!
 
FWIW I found a copy of the "XOR" NFL game on an floppy as I was going through some old ones.....it's still one of the best NFL games around IMO. Much simpler, of course, but that isn't all bad. I like that it isn't nearly as "busy" as Madden etc...and the user interface is only about 10,000 times friendlier. Also it has features that these overrated modern games don't even have, wtf (for ex. you can hide the window where the plays you're selecting from pops up)

God bless the days when games were about much more than fancy graphics and g-whiz sound bytes.....
 
RSLancastr said:
I had read about a PC game (the name of which eludes me) where you would draw runestones out of a bag, and placed them on a grid. They had to be placed next to other stones which were either of the same color, or had the same rune on them.
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That sounds like "Alchemy"
 
Scottch said:
I used to love the old Paratrooper game on the old Apple IIe machines in the 80's (I hope I am not dating myself here).
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Is that the one where you're shooting incoming parachute stick figures, and if more than three land on any one side of you they climb up and blow you to bits?
 
bigred said:
Wolfenstein.....that was revolutionary for it's time. I got laid off about the time I discovered it...helped wile away more than a few hours in between waiting for phone calls. :)
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Wanna hear something even cooler? The guy who wrote the engine just won the lunar lander x-prize.

www.armadilloaerospace.com


As for games, anyone play Total Annihilation?
 
I'm a fan of DOOM as well, 1 more than 2. I've played them through many times, and recently.

Right now I'm going through Blood via Dosbox (on my mac!). I have to say I like this game even more - just as creepy, atmospheric and surreal, but with more complex gameplay. References to horror movies and literature all over the place.
 
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