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Apogee Games and other classic Dos games
- Thread starter Bubbins
- Start date
Awesome. I also like the Jill of the Jungle board in Epic Pinball.
Nikodemos
Member
Weren't PC controls pretty weird? It used both mouse and keyboard in a rather funky combo, IIRC.
I'm sorry for this incoming wall of text. An anecdote from those days:
I think we bought our first computer in 1992 or 1993. Can't remember well. My earliest gaming memories were playing with my dad on an Atari 1200XL (could've been a 800XL)... Montezuma's Revenge, Pitfall, a Superman one - those were the games I played. I must've been 3 or 4 years old. Shortly after that, my parents bought me a SNES for Christmas (I was overjoyed!) and shortly after that, we bought the computer. It was an Epson. Don't even ask me about specs 'cause I never knew what they were.
The thing came with Windows 3.1 (damn that was a blast from the past), which meant you had to boot windows from DOS. Bundled with the computer (actually, with the Sound-Blaster audio card) came a couple of CDs: one of them was this, featuring "Eagle Eye Mysteries" and "Peter Pan", both colorful and fun games for kids, games I played quite a lot - despite not kowing english very well (actually, I started learning english due to videogames, yay!). The other CD was this one... and man, it looked AWESOME. All those serious, complex, mysterious games in one CD? Too hardcore for me... yet I craved it. I WANTED to play them, but I never understood them. Only one of these would elude me: Ultima VIII. Every time I tried to install it, it said "not enough memory". No matter what I did. Not enough memory.
Time passed. I played other games. I loved Commander Keen (just the shareware episode), Dare to Dream (CliffyB's first game!), Sokoban (!!!), that pile of crap called Titus the Fox (I was a kid, what can I say), Pinball Fantasies (the sequel to Pinball Dreams!) a lot of minor titles that came in a CD full of shareware stuff. The good old days. I had fun. I was happy. But Ultima VIII was there, in the back of my mind, like a voice that wouldn't go away. And every time I tried to install it: "not enough memory".
Until one day in early 1996, something changed. I can't remember WHAT, exactly, but I was somehow able to install Ultima VIII. Finally, the day had come! I was ecstatic, I couldn't believe my eyes - the thing which had escaped my grasp for so long was finally there in front of me, ready to be played, ready to be enjoyed.
And so I did. I booted the game and watched the intro cutscene. I had never played the Ultima series before then so I had no fucking idea about ANYTHING in the game - who the Avatar was or what was that huge red face mocking the Avatar or anything like that. But I didn't care. I was absorbed by the colors and the eerie atmosphere that I didn't really care about the clunky-as-hell controls or the fact that I didn't know where to go or what to do. I was happy.
Until shortly thereafter I reached a point where the game froze. Might've been the same day, might've been the same week - but in any case, my happiness was shortlived. I panicked. I had to restart the computer and ScanDisk (!!!) came on, started to scan the drive and I waited until the thing was completed. I was already nervous. ScanDisk was instructed to automatically fix the errors it found while scanning... and so it did. I was even more nervous when the scanning finished and it sent me back to DOS. I entered the usual command: "Win".
It didn't work.
"Windows".
Didn't work.
I lost it. I was pretty much crying when I told my dad what happened. We checked and... nope, Windows 3.11 (we had "upgraded" at that point) was completely unable to start. Something was fucked up, we lost Windows completely. My dad got us Windows 95 from a coworker the next week and the PC was up and running... but it wasn't the same. It felt like I had lost something important when that happened. And considering PCs in general were only getting more and more powerful with every passing month, our own was starting to feel very obsolete. I stopped gaming on it, 'cause the machine was pretty much unable to run newer games. We didn't have another PC until 2001 - but that's another story which also ended badly.
I never played Ultima VIII again.
TL;DR - Apparently Ultima VIII fucked up my old computer.
I think we bought our first computer in 1992 or 1993. Can't remember well. My earliest gaming memories were playing with my dad on an Atari 1200XL (could've been a 800XL)... Montezuma's Revenge, Pitfall, a Superman one - those were the games I played. I must've been 3 or 4 years old. Shortly after that, my parents bought me a SNES for Christmas (I was overjoyed!) and shortly after that, we bought the computer. It was an Epson. Don't even ask me about specs 'cause I never knew what they were.
The thing came with Windows 3.1 (damn that was a blast from the past), which meant you had to boot windows from DOS. Bundled with the computer (actually, with the Sound-Blaster audio card) came a couple of CDs: one of them was this, featuring "Eagle Eye Mysteries" and "Peter Pan", both colorful and fun games for kids, games I played quite a lot - despite not kowing english very well (actually, I started learning english due to videogames, yay!). The other CD was this one... and man, it looked AWESOME. All those serious, complex, mysterious games in one CD? Too hardcore for me... yet I craved it. I WANTED to play them, but I never understood them. Only one of these would elude me: Ultima VIII. Every time I tried to install it, it said "not enough memory". No matter what I did. Not enough memory.
Time passed. I played other games. I loved Commander Keen (just the shareware episode), Dare to Dream (CliffyB's first game!), Sokoban (!!!), that pile of crap called Titus the Fox (I was a kid, what can I say), Pinball Fantasies (the sequel to Pinball Dreams!) a lot of minor titles that came in a CD full of shareware stuff. The good old days. I had fun. I was happy. But Ultima VIII was there, in the back of my mind, like a voice that wouldn't go away. And every time I tried to install it: "not enough memory".
Until one day in early 1996, something changed. I can't remember WHAT, exactly, but I was somehow able to install Ultima VIII. Finally, the day had come! I was ecstatic, I couldn't believe my eyes - the thing which had escaped my grasp for so long was finally there in front of me, ready to be played, ready to be enjoyed.
And so I did. I booted the game and watched the intro cutscene. I had never played the Ultima series before then so I had no fucking idea about ANYTHING in the game - who the Avatar was or what was that huge red face mocking the Avatar or anything like that. But I didn't care. I was absorbed by the colors and the eerie atmosphere that I didn't really care about the clunky-as-hell controls or the fact that I didn't know where to go or what to do. I was happy.
Until shortly thereafter I reached a point where the game froze. Might've been the same day, might've been the same week - but in any case, my happiness was shortlived. I panicked. I had to restart the computer and ScanDisk (!!!) came on, started to scan the drive and I waited until the thing was completed. I was already nervous. ScanDisk was instructed to automatically fix the errors it found while scanning... and so it did. I was even more nervous when the scanning finished and it sent me back to DOS. I entered the usual command: "Win".
It didn't work.
"Windows".
Didn't work.
I lost it. I was pretty much crying when I told my dad what happened. We checked and... nope, Windows 3.11 (we had "upgraded" at that point) was completely unable to start. Something was fucked up, we lost Windows completely. My dad got us Windows 95 from a coworker the next week and the PC was up and running... but it wasn't the same. It felt like I had lost something important when that happened. And considering PCs in general were only getting more and more powerful with every passing month, our own was starting to feel very obsolete. I stopped gaming on it, 'cause the machine was pretty much unable to run newer games. We didn't have another PC until 2001 - but that's another story which also ended badly.
I never played Ultima VIII again.
TL;DR - Apparently Ultima VIII fucked up my old computer.
Weird for it's time I suppose. It used keyboard controls to move and the mouse to control the cross hair.
Nikodemos
Member
I suspect it would work better today with dual analog.
Fun Fact: These old games work with the current Steam Controller. I have a Windows 95 c PC built, windows 95 c was the last revision Microsoft put out and it has some bundled USB drivers. I was dinking around with them and decided to pop in my steam controller just to see what happened, and after a bit the thing sprang to life in legacy mode. Left touch pad is mapped to WASD right is mapped to the mouse. Played through some old RoTT and Doom this way, even if they didn't have mouse look. The Scumm games are also great with such a controller.
charlequin
Banned
They should print out this story and tack it onto Ultima's tombstone.
LOL yeah.
"Ultima VIII - so terrible it deleted Windows completely from a kid's computer"
On a slightly more "on topic" note, I remembered a game I liked to play during those days. Good ol' ELECTRO MAN. I think it was another of those Apogee shareware games?
TickleMeElbow
Member
Anyone remember Dark Ages?
Game used to creep me out as a kid.
Game used to creep me out as a kid.
I managed to mess up someone else's computer trying to get Little Big Adventure to run. It was one of those DOS games that wouldn't run in Windows so you had to boot your PC in DOS to play it. I think I made a mistake editing the autoexec.bat.
Finally, I get to know the name of that game. Played a demo of it back when I was a kid but recently I couldn't pinpoint the name of the game.
Thanks!
Spectral Entity
Member
Who else remembers the Aardwolf?
I loved PC gaming back then, probably played more PC games than Nintendo/Sega during the early 90's.
Secret Agent, Cosmo's Cosmic Adventure (don't forget the Duke Easter egg!), 2D Duke, every Keen fame (yes, even the non id/3D realms Dreams).
Also, who else played Dr. Brain, Midnight Rescue, Number Cruncher, Lemmings...wow, I loved being a kid back then.
I loved PC gaming back then, probably played more PC games than Nintendo/Sega during the early 90's.
Secret Agent, Cosmo's Cosmic Adventure (don't forget the Duke Easter egg!), 2D Duke, every Keen fame (yes, even the non id/3D realms Dreams).
Also, who else played Dr. Brain, Midnight Rescue, Number Cruncher, Lemmings...wow, I loved being a kid back then.
Never knew there was a remake of this game... You learn something new every day!
Mind you, I was 6 years old when I played the original on PC (at least the demo version). It doesn't surprise me in the slightest that this game turns out to be awful haha.
Dreams is an id game, just one they produced to fulfill their contractual obligations to Softdisk.
Lots of good memories in this thread... I won't repeat any listed but 90% of the games in the thread formed my childhood.
Another great one was Novastorm. I believe it was also on the PS1, but I played it on DOS. It was like Star Fox with weird pre-rendered graphics, but it was AWESOME!
HOLY SHIT NOVASTORM!!! My first ever CD-ROM PC game. Where can I get this game today?!?
Dude, this is exactly my life you described above (replace brother with sister tho)..
Gunna have the Wacky Wheels 2 player Lets Play up on my channel soon
The Amiga version was released last christmas. The Amiga version was the home version, the SNES version was a port.
This sounds amazing!
My three jams as a kid were Jazz Jackrabbit, Crystal Caves, and Hocus Pocus. Replayed them recently too
As a kid I knew the shareware levels from back to front, even weird empty areas out of the level you could only get to using the jetboard cheat! I remember Episode C having some tough as nails levels (especially Deserto) but I think I just wasnt as patient back then.
" Weird to think that some kids might grow up thinking these are Flappy Bird pipes.
Never played the other two episodes, but the first one was a lot of fun! I totally forgot you could blast out the air pumps and make Milo's head explode
I swore for years up and down that Hocus Pocus still held up, but upon replaying it im not so sure. The core gameplay is fun enough, explore big fantastical castles to find a certain number of collectibles but the game doesnt do enough to shake things up. I was getting really bored by the end of the first episode, definitely a game meant for short bursts.
Jazz is fun, but I remember finding Hocus Pocus pretty boring even back then. The level design is so uninspired, and the game is way to repetitive for what it is. I completed it because games were in short supply, so I played what I had, and I think its decent reputation today stems from the fact that many kids were in this situation.
This thread has just turned my mind into nostalgia overload. I love seeing all these screenshots: I actually had an awesome boxed copy of Keen 6 back in the day, nestles among my ton of Sierra, LucasArts and other computer games.
Haven't seen Monster Bash yet:
That was another great one.
Haven't seen Monster Bash yet:
That was another great one.
I've got a Pentium MMX 233 mhz with two Voodoo 2 8 mb cards in SLI and 64 mb of ram as well running Windows 98 from a CF kit, and a Pentium 133 mhz PC with an Nvidia Diamond Edge 3D "Sega PC" game card and almost all the compatible games (Virtua Fighter Remix, Panzer Dragoon, Battle Arena Toshinden, and virtua squad).
Maintaining old computers is a surprisingly fun hobby. My 486DX and Voodoo2SLI builds have bays in the front with controller ports. And, as I said earlier in this topic, Steam Controllers actually work on these old computers.
infiniteheteroskdasticity
Member
Started off as a gamer with Quake (OG), Descent 2 and Crusader : No Regrets. To this day those remain some of my fondest gaming memories. Wonderful games that I'm glad somebody, somewhere still plays.
I didn't have an SNES until like 1996, so I had the DOS version of Mega Man X:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dPDUHtRSLAI
Great port during a time when console to PC ports normally weren't very good. Plus it came with a bitchin 6 button controller that also worked with the excellent DOS CD port of Super Street Fighter II Turbo.
The SNES version actually sounds wrong to me, I need to hear the Soundblaster version of Mega Man X's soundtrack:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wlYp_SC2Hos
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dPDUHtRSLAI
Great port during a time when console to PC ports normally weren't very good. Plus it came with a bitchin 6 button controller that also worked with the excellent DOS CD port of Super Street Fighter II Turbo.
The SNES version actually sounds wrong to me, I need to hear the Soundblaster version of Mega Man X's soundtrack:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wlYp_SC2Hos
Anyone remember Dark Ages?
Game used to creep me out as a kid.
Absolutely. Never got a chance at playing the full-version though.
Same...for everything.
lol I sent away for Terminal Velocity. Came with a really thick strategy guide and the game on CD Rom. I still have it all and it's even installed on my 486 right now. I really wanted to play Starfox when it was first released, and Terminal Velocity really made not having an SNES much easier.
Grew up on these games.
The classic Duke Nukems, Wacky Wheels, Terminal Velocity, Tyrian (I played through this again not even a month ago), Blake Stone, Commander Keens, Jazz Jackrabbit, One Must Fall 2097, Raptor: Call of Shadows, Hocus Pocus, Hexen, Heretic, Wolf3D, etc.
I've played through some of Blake Stone and Jazz in the last year or so as well. Sometimes it's fun to get lost in nostalgia~
The classic Duke Nukems, Wacky Wheels, Terminal Velocity, Tyrian (I played through this again not even a month ago), Blake Stone, Commander Keens, Jazz Jackrabbit, One Must Fall 2097, Raptor: Call of Shadows, Hocus Pocus, Hexen, Heretic, Wolf3D, etc.
I've played through some of Blake Stone and Jazz in the last year or so as well. Sometimes it's fun to get lost in nostalgia~
It's been freeware on 3DRealm's site for a while now.
EveChristine
Member
Commander Keen (I always had to play with invincibility on...), GODS (same here), Hocus Pocus, Secret Agent, Jill of the Jungle have already been mentioned, but I just want to acknowledge my own nostalgic love for these games.
Some of the lesser-know D&D titles dominated my childhood/early teens...not Apogee, but worth a mention...................
Al Qadim - Genie's Curse
I replayed this game about 5 years ago and it held up then?? LOVE it.
Dark Sun: Shattered Lands
This game totally paved the way for the Baldur's Gates of the world (games I also adore...naturally!) Couldn't finish it because of game-breaking bug that prevented me from recruiting some key factions to my army
Some of the lesser-know D&D titles dominated my childhood/early teens...not Apogee, but worth a mention...................
Al Qadim - Genie's Curse
I replayed this game about 5 years ago and it held up then?? LOVE it.
Dark Sun: Shattered Lands
This game totally paved the way for the Baldur's Gates of the world (games I also adore...naturally!) Couldn't finish it because of game-breaking bug that prevented me from recruiting some key factions to my army
jhmtehgamr20xx
Banned
I don't mean to shit on that site but that background is awful. You can literally see the Apply Canvas filter from GIMP being used there no less. Just kinda tacky looking.
But about PC/DOS games of that time...I've still got a lot of catching up to do. Started with System Shock and I Have No Mouth And I Must Scream; I'm looking to sometime pick up the Little Big Adventure games, Magic Carpet stuff, a few other adventure games, and maybe the Descent titles, among others.
A very unique and under-appreciated period in gaming history, sadly.
So it's just startling to hear you got a Steam controller to work on those things. Valve...they...they get it.
But about PC/DOS games of that time...I've still got a lot of catching up to do. Started with System Shock and I Have No Mouth And I Must Scream; I'm looking to sometime pick up the Little Big Adventure games, Magic Carpet stuff, a few other adventure games, and maybe the Descent titles, among others.
A very unique and under-appreciated period in gaming history, sadly.
WTF really? Damn! I still have a 90s system in my closet, it's got Windows 98 SE installed on it, but I lost the proprietary mouse and parts so I can't even log into the sonofabitch. And when I could, it never recognized my usb keyboard and mouse.
So it's just startling to hear you got a Steam controller to work on those things. Valve...they...they get it.
Armitage Shanks
Member
(raises hand)
I played the ever-loving rudeword out of early PC sidescrollers. The above, Montezuma's Revenge, Arctic Adventure, Cosmic Osmo, Keen, Jill of the Jungle, Duke Nukum, etc.
Mentioned on page 1 Secret Agent and Crystal Caves were superb. They still are. I replay both trilogies every few years, did so fairly recently in fact. Someone should do a hack with updated graphics (but identical gameplay, in its pixel-perfect frustrating awesomeness)
ShadowgeistX
Member
Anyone remember the Catacombs games? They were horror FPS games in the style of Wolfenstein. Scared the shit out of me as a kid.
Well, now they're on sale at GOG for only $6!
How has no one mentioned Blake Stone yet? I think I put more time into it than Wolf3D.
War has changed
Loved Hocus Pocus. I would move and my brother would shoot.
This thread has just turned my mind into nostalgia overload. I love seeing all these screenshots: I actually had an awesome boxed copy of Keen 6 back in the day, nestles among my ton of Sierra, LucasArts and other computer games.
Haven't seen Monster Bash yet:
That was another great one.
Man, huge nostalgia trip. I used to play every single game on these shareware discs as a kid. Between these games, OMF 2097, TD 2192 and probably a ton of games I'm forgetting, there was a ton of variety. I'm almost convinced that games back then were more inventive and imaginative than a good majority of modern games. There were just so many interesting ideas and different gameplay styles on a single shareware disc.
One game that still eludes me to this day is a game where you play as a dwarf or something, and you have to collect gems on a grid-style level. I swear it was on one of these shareware discs but I lost them ages ago.
Also other awesome (or at least decent) games:
God of Thunder
Boppin
Duke Nukem 1/2
Push-Over
My introduction to gaming is all from these shareware games. Raptor, Jazz Jackrabbit, Hocus Pocus, MegaRace, Doom, Heretic, Terminal Velocity and countless of other games.
One of the few full games that I remember on my good old Pentium 166MHz MMX with 32MB EDO RAM... with good old S3 Virge 2MB VRAM that my dad bought:
Dr Riptide
Theme Park
Crusader: No Remorse
So good.
One of the few full games that I remember on my good old Pentium 166MHz MMX with 32MB EDO RAM... with good old S3 Virge 2MB VRAM that my dad bought:
Dr Riptide
Theme Park
Crusader: No Remorse
So good.
akilshohen
Member
Anyone know a site that has a list of obscure adventure games for MS-DOS? There's this one point and click game I remember with a strange, crude art style and it was really gritty. The shareware episode was on a disk that had a utility to run MS-DOS games from Windows 95/98.
The main thing I remember about it was that
. The main character was also a cop.
The main thing I remember about it was that
you could get a game over by accidentally hitting on a guy, with you being called the F-bomb and all
A Black Falcon
Member
Dark Ages was definitely one of my favorite Apogee games in the early '90s, and it is a good (if short) game, but the second and third episodes are lazy -- unlike most shareware games, there are no new background tiles, enemies, or weapons. It's just two new episodes traveling through similar-looking environments and killing the same types of enemies as the first episode. It was great to finally play all three episodes, when I did in the early '00s after the game was made freeware because I didn't buy the full version as a kid either, and it's all fun, but there's no new graphics there. Ah well. It's still a great game though, and it's also notable as the first ever shareware game with Adlib/Soundblaster music!
On that note though, since it is freeware, yes, the full version of Dark Ages is available on 3D Realms' website, and has been for quite a few years now.
jhmtehgamr20xx
Banned
Hardcore Gaming 101 is your friend.
I would recommend picking up I Have No Mouth And I Must Scream off GOG. It's only $6. Great dialog and story, tho I will warn that I've seem to have triggered a game-crashing scenario. It's after you
go to the bathroom and flush 3 times, go to the meat fridge w/ the bodies, go back out before talking to any of them to talk to the dog, give him the good heart, go back to the meat fridge, talk to your wife, leave, and try to go back in.
try to go back in.
At least my version did. But I say it's worth playing in spite of that b/c the themes and the stories it has are fantastic if you like dark gritty sci-fi/horror stuff, and the dialog is great with good challenging puzzles. I need to make time to finish playing through the game this week actually.
charlequin
Banned
I think this is kind of a running theme with these old shareware games, actually.
(Except Doom. Eps 2 and 3 are dope.)
A Black Falcon
Member
It varies from game to game. Sure, some are like Dark Ages, where nothing is added in the later episodes and it's just new levels with the exact same graphics and enemies, but then you have some of the best shareware games, like Commander Keen, where each one is completely different...