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What's your favourite old-school DOS platformer?
- Thread starter Lord British
- Start date
How About No
Member
Obv. Commander Keen, but here's a Biomenace plug anyway
Also has the best night sky in any DOS game
And the Bobby Prince Soundtrack
Aw yis
Also it's freeware so you can snatch it off GOG or 3DRealms
Also has the best night sky in any DOS game
And the Bobby Prince Soundtrack
Aw yis
Also it's freeware so you can snatch it off GOG or 3DRealms
Pantaghana
Member
Commander Keen and Jazz Jackrabbit were my childhood.
Sir Abacus
Member
I don't think Jill of the Jungle and Xargon were enough to keep Epic in the platformer race.
Platinumstorm
Member
Oh man, I remember my first exposure to DOS being in middle school when they had computers for everyone. People brought in games for downtime and we played so much Commander Keen. So many great memories.
With that said, I can't remember the game, but my favorite was a futuristic racer, which was more like a platformer then a racer because you weren't actually racing anyone, you just had to make it through the level and it involved making precision jumps between platforms and not falling. Any ideas?
Edit: Found it! It was Skyroads:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qJZqlPF8Opo
With that said, I can't remember the game, but my favorite was a futuristic racer, which was more like a platformer then a racer because you weren't actually racing anyone, you just had to make it through the level and it involved making precision jumps between platforms and not falling. Any ideas?
Edit: Found it! It was Skyroads:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qJZqlPF8Opo
They were both pretty good, though! As was Vixen.
Alot of the games mentioned here isnt really that great imo. Hocus Pocus has no level design, and is so samey, and thus boring. The same can be said for a lot of the Commander Keen-games (although they are better), and Jazz also was very uneven (although it looked good). Personally, I played a ton of PC-plattformers simply because they were easy to pirate, but I really wanted to play Nes/Snes/Mega Drive.
Edit, basically this:
Jill, Gods, Blues Brothers etc all sucked compared to what was going on at Snes/Mega Drive at the time.
Edit, basically this:
Jill, Gods, Blues Brothers etc all sucked compared to what was going on at Snes/Mega Drive at the time.
How About No
Member
LOL I think they did mostly ok
Davey Cakes
Member
I always loved Skyroads 3D! Not a platformer obviously but it kinda sorta had platforming elements. Lots of timing-based jumping.
Honestly, that's part of the nostalgia for me. A lot of these games were improved if you had a good imagination.
Airola
Member
This is one of the reasons those old games aren't filled with bullshit and have great sense charm to them.
The graphics in games these days have been done by "art school wonders", and the art is quite often very off putting. And as soon as a certain "art styles" go out of fashion the games lose their graphic appeal.
capitalCORN
Member
One of the Keens is probably the best. Probably Keen 4: Goodbye Galaxy?
I do also have a soft spot for Hocus Pocus.
Lemme show you something:
What you see is Hocus Doom. A TC for the GZDoom engine. It's bloody great, totally plays like you would imagine a mid-90s 3D sequel to Hocus Pocus would play. Blew my mind when I found it. Also the first person platforming totally works and isn't frustrating at all.
It's not done yet, but large chunks including the complete first episode are already fully playable.
http://forum.zdoom.org/viewtopic.php?f=19&t=45804
This thread is awesome! It's incredible what such small teams of programmers could do!
Oh, that's another thing about those huge game discs. Lots of edutainment titles! You could get tons of them on a BD now! I always had a soft spot for them because my parents were both teachers so we played things like Reader Rabbit and my absolute favorite...Stickybear!
Just look at that mug! And Stickybear Reading...
Just awesome!
That cleft chin! Great avatar! He looks so intense!
Haha, Skunny seemed to be everywhere and then just vanished! I think I only played two games with Skunny in it, but I think there are more...?
Treasure Mountain/Mathstorm.
Duke Nukem
Word/Math Rescue
Oh, that's another thing about those huge game discs. Lots of edutainment titles! You could get tons of them on a BD now! I always had a soft spot for them because my parents were both teachers so we played things like Reader Rabbit and my absolute favorite...Stickybear!
Just look at that mug! And Stickybear Reading...
Just awesome!
I just realized that the Crystal Caves guy would make a great avatar. I think this is the right size.
That cleft chin! Great avatar! He looks so intense!
Haha, Skunny seemed to be everywhere and then just vanished! I think I only played two games with Skunny in it, but I think there are more...?
ichtyander
Member
Back in the day I mastered The Blues Brothers, could beat the entire thing in one sitting. Can barely go through the second level these days. It's not exactly the best DOS platformer out there, especially with the screen-by-screen scrolling, but I like it.
Also used to play the DOS version of Jungle Book a lot, man that was fun. Replayed it recently and it's still pretty fun, but fuck that random Shere Khan boss fight.
EDIT:
Oh man, great game as well.
Also used to play the DOS version of Jungle Book a lot, man that was fun. Replayed it recently and it's still pretty fun, but fuck that random Shere Khan boss fight.
EDIT:
Fine. Prehistorik 2.
Oh man, great game as well.
Baloonatic
Member
Lemme show you something:
What you see is Hocus Doom. A TC for the GZDoom engine. It's bloody great, totally plays like you would imagine a mid-90s 3D sequel to Hocus Pocus would play. Blew my mind when I found it. Also the first person platforming totally works and isn't frustrating at all.
It's not done yet, but large chunks including the complete first episode are already fully playable.
http://forum.zdoom.org/viewtopic.php?f=19&t=45804
Wow, I need to try this. There is one enemy in particular in that game that used to make me think of Doom actually.
There were a bunch:
- Save our Pizzas - Platformer set in ancient rome. I remember that one being the best of the bunch.
- Forest - Platformer set in, duh, a forest which had speed/momentum mechanics (that didn't work great)
- Wild West - Platformer set in Wild West with a dash of cultural insensitivity towards Native Americans
- Desert Raid - Sidescrolling shooter in the middle east. With planes and stuff. You fight a guy named Sadman Insane. Yup.
- Some game set in space. You control some sort of moon rover. I remember this being barely playable.
Then there was also a later game just called Skunny, which was kind of a blatant ripoff of Donkey Kong Country, with digitized graphics, barrel cannons and all that. I remember that one being kind of decent.
Oh, and Skunny Kart. Which is a Super Mario Kart ripoff. I think Wacky Wheels was better.
I remember thinking that Skunny Kart was hilarious because they labelled their characters by difficulty. Like, they didn't even bother trying to balance their racers, they just said the good ones were easy mode and the bad ones were hard mode.
Also, Wacky Wheels let you play as a shark and shoot hedgehogs, so it's automatically a better game.
Yeah.
Wacky Wheels was indeed pretty awesome. Its one problem is that it runs at like 20fps regardless of pc/dosbox specs and thus kind of feels like molasses. Especially compared to Mario Kart. Its hedgehog mechanics are the shizzle though.
I mostly played the panda.
Rodney McKay
Member
I agree with the OP that Monster Bash was pretty incredible. Never beat it (got as far as the level that starts with the sleeping dragon), but me and my brother had so much fun taking turns playing it.
I also have a soft spot for Cosmo's Cosmic Adventure. Another that I never got far in, but I love the sound effects. They're so loud and harsh these days, but very memorable.
I must not have played the Keen games past 4 because I don't remember this one at all. Also, it looks TERRIBLE graphically. :/
I also have a soft spot for Cosmo's Cosmic Adventure. Another that I never got far in, but I love the sound effects. They're so loud and harsh these days, but very memorable.
I must not have played the Keen games past 4 because I don't remember this one at all. Also, it looks TERRIBLE graphically. :/
Lots of great games from the era, but the second Keen trilogy runs away with it. A lot of DOOM's DNA can be traced to the Keen games, and Goodbye Galaxy was the best of them.
Cosmo was great. Didn't scroll as smoothly as Keen, but it was very inventive and cleverly designed all around. Some of Bobby Prince's best work, too.
Shit, I didn't think anyone else remembered that. Excellent game.
Cosmo was great. Didn't scroll as smoothly as Keen, but it was very inventive and cleverly designed all around. Some of Bobby Prince's best work, too.
Shit, I didn't think anyone else remembered that. Excellent game.
I was just going two comment how much I love these amateur graphics. It's striking how different it looks from console games.
Especially the EGA and CGA games, and of course ASCII based titles.
It's such a wild and interesting era. It's all shame I played so little of these games, but Jetpack in particular stuck with me.
Nitty_Grimes
Made a crappy phPBB forum once ... once.
Prince of Persia used to run in dos?
/princemegahits used to give infinite health iirc
/princemegahits used to give infinite health iirc
Bl@de
Member
Yeah but in what world is Screamer a plattformer? I mean it's even in the title. Screamer is a racing game :/
Emperor Bohe
Member
AppleSeason
Member
OST was awesome.
ZiggyPalffyLA
Member
All day.
Holy shit what game is this?! I was just trying to remember this game the other day, I played it so much as a kid.
Emperor Bohe
Member
Chips Challenge, recently got rereleased on Steam
Airola
Member
Chip's Challenge. It literally says so in the title bar.
woopWOOP
Member
I was gonna go with Commander Keen or Cosmo's Cosmic Adventure, but...
Oh hell yes. While I played a lot of NES to get my platformer fix, at my aunt's house I usually played this instead. Loved the different areas you travelled to and the wacky colourful enemies with their own patterns. I think their version also had some sorta infinte lives hack going on, but despite that I never got inside the castle.Gotta go with one of the granddaddy DOS platformers...
Also great, but I guess more of an arcade.... ... minigame collection of sorts?
2blackcats
Member
mcz117chief
Member
Nothing comes close
Lux R7
Member
Does Alley Cat count? I pick that regardless.
this is the ultimate answer.
Grim Patron
Member
oh man I miss this. so good.Depends on how far old school you go, but overall I would probably say Jetpack and Jetpack: Christmas Edition.
Keen 4 is a close second, though.
Absolute best part is that it has a level editor!
Have you read the Bio of the developer?
He ended up making Bart's Nightmare for the SNES but hated the experience so much he quit game development. Then died a few years later because he had CF