• Hey, guest user. Hope you're enjoying NeoGAF! Have you considered registering for an account? Come join us and add your take to the daily discourse.

What's an extremely obscure computer game you played back in the day?

D

dickgumshoe

Member
Spaceball was an amiga game which was a pack-in to ASM (Aktueller Software Markt) magazine, IIRC. It was programmed by a reader. I didn't find any screenshots, because searching for spaceball finds all sorts of other games.

It was a very creative and awesome breakout variant with a ball you control with a joystick which could change colors and only break same colored blocks. It even included a very well made editor. I loved it and made a ton of levels with it. I don't know if it's archived anywhere... would be a shame if not.
 
A

adamantypants

Member
I mentioned it in the thread about your first PC game. Mine was Contraption Zack, also known as Contraptions in other territories. Like OP said, there's not even a Wikipedia page on it. It's an isometric puzzle game. I never got past the first level because I think I was four when I tried playing it.

IMG_20160330_080058.jpg
Click to expand...
 
N

Nero's Neptune

Member
I remember me, my brothers, and my dad all obsessively played an MMO called Redmoon.

1331616-nemesis.jpg

504984-redmoon_009.jpg

504982-redmoon_007.jpg


Each class had about a dozen or so skills split between two specs. There wasn't much variation between the specs, as basically all the classes acted as DPS. There was a little bit of healing action, but there wasn't much use for it. Simple click-click-click combat with constantly spamming your healing items.

Looking back, I'm not really sure what we saw in the game. There were no activities outside of grinding up levels. And with a level cap of 1000, there was lots of grinding to be done!
 
W

Waaghals

Member
Off to Europe.
132774-OffToEurope.jpg


A game where you travel the (contemporary) members of the EU and aswer country related quizzes and play mini games.

All introduced by a five minute long "virus scan" while "Ode to Joy" plays.
 
S

saunderez

Member
I used to think Zeliard was pretty obscure. Maybe it was. Played the shit out of it. I don't remember who gave it to me but apart from them I never met another person pre-internet who had played it.

I guess everything was pretty obscure back then unless you ordered them from shareware suppliers catalog or had games given to you by friends. Ordering a whole heap of shareware games sucked coz I'd read the description and get so excited only to have to wait weeks for them to arrive in the post.
 
Q

Qwark

Member
Maybe this is a good place to ask (I also asked in the "can't remember the name" thread with no luck), I need help remembering a PC game that I played as a kid.

It was a top-down adventure puzzle game, similar to Adventure (Atari), but more detailed. The only parts I remember is exploring a castle and taking quests from the king, and there was a submarine section where you had to complete a side-view water maze. I played it as part of a game compilation pack for I think Windows 98 (could also be 95), that also included Mario Bros. Not sure if it's obscure, but I haven't heard about it since I was a kid.
 
S

saunderez

Member
UFO said:
Was Hugos Haunted House obscure?

pBqM4UM.png
Click to expand...
OMG...those games were amazing. I got stuck at the part you need to answer 3 questions. Its been 25 years or so but the answers to those questions are burned into my brain. I could be wrong but I believe the answers were Bram Stoker (Who created Dracula), Trigger (Lone Rangers horse) and Bilbo Baggins (who found the one ring or something I guess). I was too young to know any of them, my parents only knew the name of the horse....one day I asked a neighbor at the end of the street about Dracula and the Hobbit thing and she knew the answers. It was like discovering Einstein lived down the street for me. I could finally continue playing Hugo.

Despite this I didn't learn how to say Penelope correctly for like 3 years.
 
G

GamerMax73

Member
This was one of two favs on the Speccy...

hqdefault.jpg

It's called Cruising on Broadway...
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VGgsSAxFg1s
The other fav. was the not so obscure (candidate for best game of all time) - Jetpac.

On the CPC there were far too many to mention, especially if I try to recollect some of the Alternative Software games (Postman Pat, Count Ducula, etc).
My fav at the time was the incredibly simplistc, but totally engaging, management sim - Endzone:

endzone_3.png
 
S

saunderez

Member
qa_engineer said:
Holy shit. I remember one must fall. Fighting games on keyboard were hard.
Click to expand...
I remember it too. I never got my hands on the full game. Just played the shareware demo thing like 7 billion times. It was great. Never stole the place in my heart that bootleg PC Street Fighter 2 has though.
 
T

TheSaddestSort

Member
Robert E. Lee Civil War General, which was a turn based strategy game revolving around the major battles of the American Civil War. It was a surprisingly engrossing game for a kid who had some interest in United States history and gave a good historical overview of each battle, the strategies employed by both armies, and the historical significance.

You could play as either the Union army or the Confederates in a campaign or "quick" match that only featured one of the battles. Looking back on it now it's a little surprising how deep a game it was for a game I played into the ground in grade school, featuring commander bonuses, modifiers for moral, flanking, whether or not a unit had dug into a defensive position, etc. I wish I could get it to run on a modern OS.
 
T

TylerDurden4321

Member
Came to post Mega Race... (this fits "obscure" perfectly) but it was already taken. Thought about it for a while, then wanted One Must Fall (and looked for the damn title for about 10 minutes on the internet)... already taken.

But, wow about THIS!
d92bb79fa492018149020a745b20f472-650-80.jpg

Biing!: Sex, Intrigue and Scalpels



Anyway...
NinjaCoachZ said:
EDIT: Screenshots!

276015-mrtitle.jpg


Math-Rescue.jpg

[...]
Apparently the publisher became 3D Realms? Wow, I had no idea.
Click to expand...

This is on Steam again.
 
F

FunnyJay

Neo Member
adamantypants said:
I mentioned it in the thread about your first PC game. Mine was Contraption Zack, also known as Contraptions in other territories. Like OP said, there's not even a Wikipedia page on it. It's an isometric puzzle game. I never got past the first level because I think I was four when I tried playing it.
Click to expand...

I had this! I think i bought it on a vacation in Germany when I was like 8 years old or something.
It was extremely difficult!

Zack's coworkers stole his tools between every level and he had to find them again!
 
Portugeezer

Portugeezer

Member
Guys, I need answers. I played some old pinball game on my Windows 95 but I can't remember the name.

It was sci-fi/alien (not the Alien movie) themed, must have come out in the mid to late 90's and I had a demo of it for my PC. It was awesome, bonus stages involved shooting creatures that would appear on the pinball machine.

Anyone know the name?
 
.la1n

.la1n

Member
S.C.A.R.A.B - used to play it on the old mplayer service. It was basically mech warrior with Egyptian gods.

266700-scarab_003.jpg
 
S

Savantcore

Unconfirmed Member
I remember having a demo on PS1 with this like deathmatch-animal thing. I remember a square arena and there was a rhino and shit, but that's it. My memory of it is compounded in some RPG on a spaceship or something and this Terra Incognita game thing. Also I remember Mr Domino.
 
P

Piers

Member
One game on the iMac that's so obscure, I still haven't tracked it down.
It was set in a old western town, in a canyon, and the game opened up with Cotton-Eyed Joe. It had live actors composited into the scenes and you wander around playing mini-games.

I remember it being very unstable, though.
 
P

purdobol

Member
I've borrowed my friend Atari 800 XL bare bones. And he have written simple game for it called "Stale Wars The Game". The thing is it wasn't "stored" anywhere other than source code written on piece of paper. And in order to play it one has to write this stuff first (160 lines of code). Still have it. RIP dude.


As for commercial games. Wacki Kosmiczna Rozgrywka, point and click adventure by the makers of Kajko i Kokosz. I don't think it was released outside of Poland, it has kind of cult following here though. The story is simple - save the earth :) It's a parody of PRL on lsd.
wacki.jpg
1219336844.jpg
03.jpg
Click to expand...

Intro to the game, Gameplay

The other one is called Franko: The Crazy Revenge. But this seems to be wider known title? It's an ok game i guess :p
Gameplay video
 
L

liquidtmd

Banned
On the ZX Spectrum

bear-bovver.gif


hqdefault.jpg


hqdefault.jpg


1870286-bb8.png


The '80s were great times

Fun fact: Ritman went on to create notably Head over Heels and the isometric Batman game on Spectrum and other formats of the time
 
You must log in or register to reply here.

Similar threads

What games will you never play before you die?
2 3
101
3K
Salmon replied
Things you've done in gaming (other than playing)
30
938
digoutyoursoul replied
South Park: Snow Day | Review Thread
Analysis Review
9
1K
StueyDuck replied
Ever watched a movie or show to get in the mood for a soon to be released game?
39
1K
Chuck Berry replied
At what point will you give up pc builds? A Cloud gaming discussion
2 3
138
3K
Sleepwalker replied
Top Bottom