blast processed
Member
Looks like a Telltale game.
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90's PC Gaming Appreciation Thread: From Boot Disks to 3dfx Voodoo cards
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Looks like a Telltale game.
Tizoc
Member
Jazzkokehead
Member
That's the leaked Doom 3 alpha build he's playing... so definitely not representative in terms of how the final game actually looked or played.
I don't know if this man is the most annoying Youtube "personality" ever, but he must certainly be in the running.
When we first had the shareware demo of Diablo our computer was way too outdated to run it properly, but we had a workaround thanks to this Qix-esque game called JezzBall.
We ended up trapping one of the balls in a little box so that it was constantly hitting the walls and making the game play the collision sound, which crashed the entire audio part of the computer. Since the computer wasn't even trying to process audio anymore it was able to run Diablo smoothly.
We ended up trapping one of the balls in a little box so that it was constantly hitting the walls and making the game play the collision sound, which crashed the entire audio part of the computer. Since the computer wasn't even trying to process audio anymore it was able to run Diablo smoothly.
blast processed
Member
I remember games running better after disabling integrated audio and installing audio cards freeing up the cpu. Iirc some card manufacturers used that as a selling feature.
I've always wanted to try Quarantine, but could never find a copy or get one running properly via DOSBox.
Also, isn't that the voice from Freeman's Mind/Office Velociraptor [or whatever that canned game was called from years back]??
MrCunningham
Member
Honestly Quarintine is a PC game that I never saw in PC stores back then or have ever played. But watching that video posted by Tizoc, Quarintine looks pretty awesome. It uses a sector based engine like Doom, has gameplay that is a bit like Crazy Taxi (long before Crazy Taxi) a fairly open world environment, some GTA like elements (long before GTA). It does look great if also a little frusterating.
I have always had a soft spot for the game aesthetics of games like Quaritine, I love chunky scaling sprites, photo-sourced sprites and textures and that overall gritty look of 3D games in the DOS era. Super cheesy live action FMV is always a win for me too. As summed up in the video, the game looks so punk.
And I have also tried installing my disc copy of Half-Life 1 on my current PC. And while I can get the game to install, the game does not run. I have tried a few different things to get the original disc copy to work and so far I have had no luck. I am still running Windows 7 though and I have not updated to Windows 10 (I still refuse) so I have no idea what it would be like on a Win 10. Though I do hear that Windows 10 does have better compatibility for older games. But I have not put that to the test.
Shadow Hog
Member
Nah, not even close to it. He's actually pretty informative on the obscure-as-hell games he tends to cover, if a bit passionate about the matter (especially when it comes to games that are lost forever due to the corporate suits not caring about archival). I'd definitely take him over your run-of-the-mill "overreact to everything on-screen in a "scary" game" YouTube LPer.
Dunno about Office Velociraptor, but he's definitely the Freeman's Mind guy, yup.
Metalic Sand
who is Emo-Beas?
When we first had the shareware demo of Diablo our computer was way too outdated to run it properly, but we had a workaround thanks to this Qix-esque game called JezzBall.
We ended up trapping one of the balls in a little box so that it was constantly hitting the walls and making the game play the collision sound, which crashed the entire audio part of the computer. Since the computer wasn't even trying to process audio anymore it was able to run Diablo smoothly.
This just blew my mind. The whole thread is giving me a nostalgia trip.
I should return to play Quakeworld asap, seriously.
Shadow Hog
Member
Looks like the sort of game that'd go better with a mouse and keyboard, tbh.
I can't make threads and I can't find a good existing thread in which to ask this question but: What's the best way to install Quake 1 on Windows 10? I've never played it before.
I'd rather get as vanilla an experience as possible but with modern mouse look and WASD, that includes playing at the game's original resolution. I'd want the textures to also look like original software-rendered Quake.
I'd rather get as vanilla an experience as possible but with modern mouse look and WASD, that includes playing at the game's original resolution. I'd want the textures to also look like original software-rendered Quake.
Shadow Hog
Member
I wouldn't advocate using Darkplaces anymore. Its entire schtick is making the game not look like vanilla Quake - and while you can ignore all that and use it to just run an extremely vanilla-looking Quake experience (as I did for the longest time), it's no longer the target source port for Quake mappers and, in fact, struggles to work with some of the latest maps (failing to render geometry because too many brushes are visible at once, or added entities not behaving as desired - like func_mapjam3's gib spawner, which is supposed to shoot out giblets every so often that despawn on hitting a wall, but in Darkplaces, just spawns them in place, rotating but moving nowhere, ad infinitum, causing major FPS drops).
Instead, use Quakespasm. It's the source port that's all the rage these days with mappers. It doesn't have all the fancy lighting that Darkplaces has, but you already said you didn't want any of that anyway, so you should be good.
Also maybe turn on GL_FILTERMODE GL_NEAREST_MIPMAP_LINEAR in the console for a more pixellated look to the textures. YMMV, but I like having that for whatever reason.
You'll probably want Quake Injector, too. Grabs levels right off of Quaddicted's database, installs them for you, and lets you launch right into them in whatever executable you end up opting for, all from its GUI. Convenient as heck.
Instead, use Quakespasm. It's the source port that's all the rage these days with mappers. It doesn't have all the fancy lighting that Darkplaces has, but you already said you didn't want any of that anyway, so you should be good.
Also maybe turn on GL_FILTERMODE GL_NEAREST_MIPMAP_LINEAR in the console for a more pixellated look to the textures. YMMV, but I like having that for whatever reason.
You'll probably want Quake Injector, too. Grabs levels right off of Quaddicted's database, installs them for you, and lets you launch right into them in whatever executable you end up opting for, all from its GUI. Convenient as heck.
Myself, last time I played it was just WinQuake - but then again, I wasn't on Win10. I guess QuakeSpasm seems to be de facto standard sourceport, at least among the mapping community (as it supports bigger maps than vanilla). Not sure how good is it at achieving the software rendering look, but at the very least "gl_texturemode GL_NEAREST_MIPMAP_LINEAR" is your friend.
Also, if you don't have the game yet, get it from GOG instead of Steam. They can't rip the music from CD audio to audio files due to copyright stuffs and while GOG goes around it by giving you a disk image to mount or rip, the Steam release just doesn't have the music.
[EDIT]
I guess I should've refreshed, lol.
I already bought the Steam version back in like 2011. I thought that's what the "Ultimate Quake Patch" was for.
Sure, I'd just prefer to see the superior release supported. ;-)
Not that it matters since you have the game from years ago, anyway.
MrCunningham
Member
Here is a few screen grabs that I took of GLQuake running on Windows 98se 1152x864x32bpp with GL_NEAREST_MIPMAP_NEAREST:
I guess I could've went with linear mipmapping, but I will go with the full chunky look.
And yeah go with the GOG version of Quake 1. It has the original Trent Reznor Soundtrack included, even though it isn't set to it by default for legal reasons. It is very easy to just mount the ISO file using DAEMON Tools Lite or some other virtual drive.
Shadow Hog
Member
I know I wouldn't recommend vanilla GLQuake anymore, since it's missing overbrights and fullbrights - something most modern hardware-renderer-based source ports amend.
Then again, I expect most of them don't work on Windows 98. (Hell, I can barely get WinQuake to work on my Win98 rig.)
Then again, I expect most of them don't work on Windows 98. (Hell, I can barely get WinQuake to work on my Win98 rig.)
MrCunningham
Member
That's fascinating, I didn't notice the full bright effect missing in GLQuake. How did I not notice this at all? But it is there in Software rendering mode. It does make a pretty striking difference in many cases. But the version of Quake 1 that is on my Win98SE PC has been installed on the machine since like 1999-2000-ish. It is my original Disc copy, though unfortunately I am now missing the disc and I don;t have the awesome music tracks.
I did post some images of Tenebrae Quake running on the same PC here, and it is a really old version of this port from like 2002-ish. The Tenebrae port barely reaches 20FPS at 640x480. This is running on a Geforce2ti card, and i doubt it could run any modern port of Quake 1, either. But with that said, OpenGL Quake still gets a really high framerate on this system and it just feels really smooth on a CRT monitor.
Maybe I should check out WinQuake or QuakeSpasm on my current PC?
It's kind of insane how much you have to know about Quake's inner workings in order to simply play it properly today.
What surprises me the most is that despite how important Quake seems to be to id and first person shooters in general, id has never ported or updated it for modern game platforms, relying completely on the community to do so.
What surprises me the most is that despite how important Quake seems to be to id and first person shooters in general, id has never ported or updated it for modern game platforms, relying completely on the community to do so.
MrCunningham
Member
Indeed, Quake 1 was only ported to two home consoles, the Saturn and N64 and never really got any treatments for current generations OS's. But that was part of the plan when John Carmack released the source code for Quake 1, it really is up to the fans to keep it alive. But then again, there has been a lot of good things done with the source code. But IMO Quake really isn't that hard to get running on modern PCs in comparison to some of the other older DOS/Win9X games out there. The engine doesn't have too many quirks to it. I would imagine that QuakeSpasm and Win Quake are good ways to get fairly vailla experiences on modern OS's.
GearDraxon
Member
The best part about Quarantine is the box art:
The original print ad (which I can't find anywhere!) was this, except both windshield wipers as a two-page spread. The text?
The original print ad (which I can't find anywhere!) was this, except both windshield wipers as a two-page spread. The text?
The advent of bilinear filtering seemed to change how 3D artists worked with textures in regards to UV mapping and such, leading to much wider use of stretched out textures since it would just smudge everything out instead of coming out like giant pixel blocks. Pre-filtered texture mapping was built more around repeated tiling and as such looked relatively sharp.
I was reminded of some of the strategy games back then. I bought some of the games just because the cover or aesthetics looked cool (sci-fi!):
This was the cover
This was the cover
The first one is Dark Colony. I don't know the second one.... Seventh Legion? It was isometric at least.
That initial wave of post-C&C RTS derivatives resulted in a lot of novelties that are completely buried and forgotten at this point. Dark Reign and KKND were two other competent ones.
That initial wave of post-C&C RTS derivatives resulted in a lot of novelties that are completely buried and forgotten at this point. Dark Reign and KKND were two other competent ones.
The Albatross
Member
When we first had the shareware demo of Diablo our computer was way too outdated to run it properly, but we had a workaround thanks to this Qix-esque game called JezzBall.
We ended up trapping one of the balls in a little box so that it was constantly hitting the walls and making the game play the collision sound, which crashed the entire audio part of the computer. Since the computer wasn't even trying to process audio anymore it was able to run Diablo smoothly.
Thsi is amazing and I totally forgot about JezzBall.
Fallen Haven.
The cover was cool, which is why I ended up buying it. The tank wasn't even in the game
Don't forget Total Annihilation either.
345triangle
Member
When we first had the shareware demo of Diablo our computer was way too outdated to run it properly, but we had a workaround thanks to this Qix-esque game called JezzBall.
We ended up trapping one of the balls in a little box so that it was constantly hitting the walls and making the game play the collision sound, which crashed the entire audio part of the computer. Since the computer wasn't even trying to process audio anymore it was able to run Diablo smoothly.
i love jezzball and this post is amazing. totally remember finding similar workarounds in the 90s!
MrCunningham
Member
Fallen Haven.
The cover was cool, which is why I ended up buying it. The tank wasn't even in the game
Don't forget Total Annihilation either.
Honestly, I think I prefer TA over Star Craft. I wish I still had my disc for that game.
I have never seen Fallen Haven and have only seen Dark Colony in magazines back in the day. But yeah, there were a lot of C&C inspired RTS's in the mid to late '90s that became lost through time.
Though right now, I have been playing a lot of quick bouts of Red Alert 1 on my Win98 PC:
This is the RA95 version (that is included with the original disc) running at 640x480. There are some pretty good ways to play this on modern PC's like OpenRA, but playing the original game still seems like a hassle. One of my biggest problems with OpenRA is the last of a speed slider in Skirmish mode:
The game is still ridiculously fun when playing on the highest speed settings. Also the original CD soundtrack is still amazing.
So I installed and booted up the Steam version without doing anything to it just to see what would happen. Everything already seems to be running the way I'd like to play it except 1) No music (of course), and 2) I can't figure out how to get mouse look in windowed mode.
--It presents you with a choice between playing "Quake" and playing "GLQuake." I chose "Quake."
--According to the copyright stuff in the corner it seems to be "WinQuake 1.09." I didn't realize this was actually an official Windows port and not a fan one.
--Textures seem to be the software-rendered style, which is what I was looking for anyway.
--You get windowed resolutions up to 800 x 600 and full screen resolutions up to 1280 x 1024. I'll probably just play it windowed 800 x 600. I've started to prefer playing games this old in their original resolution.
I think I'll be just fine if I can figure out how to get music into WinQuake and take care of the mouse issue. I already have a pack of .ogg files that have that de-empehsis or whatever.
Edit: Last question -- are you supposed to be able to look up and down in Quake?
--It presents you with a choice between playing "Quake" and playing "GLQuake." I chose "Quake."
--According to the copyright stuff in the corner it seems to be "WinQuake 1.09." I didn't realize this was actually an official Windows port and not a fan one.
--Textures seem to be the software-rendered style, which is what I was looking for anyway.
--You get windowed resolutions up to 800 x 600 and full screen resolutions up to 1280 x 1024. I'll probably just play it windowed 800 x 600. I've started to prefer playing games this old in their original resolution.
I think I'll be just fine if I can figure out how to get music into WinQuake and take care of the mouse issue. I already have a pack of .ogg files that have that de-empehsis or whatever.
Edit: Last question -- are you supposed to be able to look up and down in Quake?
Megalosaro
Banned
My memories of pc gaming were limited in the 90s. My family computers were hand me downs from my dad's office. So it was pretty much limited.
My friends could play games in their pcs. It seemed like a very rich period. It seemed to me like the most prestigious studios were:
Blizzard: warcraft, Diablo and starcraft all within a few years of each other. I liked warcraft 2 the most of the lot, though custom settings maps were fascinating. I can't even remember how many hours I wasted on dbz themed maps.
Maxis: Even as a kid, they seemed kind of whoreish to me with all the Sim Spinoffs. But they were also the smartest games on the market.
Doom: you heard about this a lot. It always seemed too edgey for me.
PC gaming in the 90s, to me though, will be known as the golden era of emulators. I discovered so many nes and sea games in the mid to late 90s
My friends could play games in their pcs. It seemed like a very rich period. It seemed to me like the most prestigious studios were:
Blizzard: warcraft, Diablo and starcraft all within a few years of each other. I liked warcraft 2 the most of the lot, though custom settings maps were fascinating. I can't even remember how many hours I wasted on dbz themed maps.
Maxis: Even as a kid, they seemed kind of whoreish to me with all the Sim Spinoffs. But they were also the smartest games on the market.
Doom: you heard about this a lot. It always seemed too edgey for me.
PC gaming in the 90s, to me though, will be known as the golden era of emulators. I discovered so many nes and sea games in the mid to late 90s
MrCunningham
Member
Yes, but it is not enabled by default. Open up the console by pressing the tilde (top left corner, it looks like this: ~ ) key and typing in the command :
Code:
+mlookand then mouse look will be enabled. Setting up WASD keys is very easy as you can manually change the key bindings yourself in the game menu.
I am not so sure about the original music tracks in the Steam version of the game. I don't own that version. But I will take a look around to see what solutions there are. The reason why the music was excluded from the Steam version was because it was produced by Nine Inch Nail's Trent Reznor and for various reasons through his record label in the past, they couldn't include it in older digital releases.
WASD is already set by default actually. Is there some kind of file you can edit so I don't have to input console commands every time I boot the game?
choco-fish
Member
Ahh Outwars!The first game I played that felt like Starship troopers combined with aliens, its probably why I love the EDF games so much.
Pretty sure it was a Microsoft studios effort.
It was written off by a lot of people because it used 2D sprites at the time when everything HAD to be 3D or it was deemed crap. I had a ton of fun playing it though.
Anyone Remember Terra Nova: Strike force Centauri?
MrCunningham
Member
Hmm, it must have been changed to that control scheme by default for the Steam release. In the original releases, there is no WASD control scheme.
As for mouse look. Is there a "ID1" folder in your Steam Quake directory? (in Steam, right click the game entry, open properties, click on the local files tab and press browse local files) There should be a file in it called "Config.cfg" that you can open up with a word pad and add "+mlook" (without the quotes) as the last entry. If there is no config file listed, just make your own by creating a new text file and naming it "autoexec.cfg" and just add "+mlook" (yet again no quotes) to the text file.
There are some different audio solutions here: http://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=119489135 But most of these require an engine change.
Unbound By Death
Member
Outwars was one of my most played games as a kid.
Starship troopers TPS with 2D sprites? That was heavenly.
Especially when 99% of 3D games looked absolutely horrible back then.
Every 2D game looked 10 times better for a good 5-10 years during the jump to 3D.
EDIT: Oh and Dark Colony had the best Intro ever
Starship troopers TPS with 2D sprites? That was heavenly.
Especially when 99% of 3D games looked absolutely horrible back then.
Every 2D game looked 10 times better for a good 5-10 years during the jump to 3D.
EDIT: Oh and Dark Colony had the best Intro ever
I don't know if someone else has mentioned it already, but at least that HP PC pictured in the OP was not a 1990's machine, it's a 2003 Pentium 4 machine. Source: I owned one.
Oh yeah, and this: https://www.amazon.com/dp/B00008LUOB/?tag=neogaf0e-20
Oh yeah, and this: https://www.amazon.com/dp/B00008LUOB/?tag=neogaf0e-20
Awsome thread.
Pc gaming was epic during that decade.
In 93 I bought the shareware versione of Doom in a specialized store. I installed it on a 486/33 and got blown away. Nothing has come close to that experience.
So much memories.
Lucasarts glorious point and click (thath monkey 2 finale AWWW)
How many unforgettable games. Indycar Racing. XCOM. GP Legends. Q III. Unreal Tournament. Torment. System Shock II.
Pc gaming was epic during that decade.
In 93 I bought the shareware versione of Doom in a specialized store. I installed it on a 486/33 and got blown away. Nothing has come close to that experience.
So much memories.
Lucasarts glorious point and click (thath monkey 2 finale AWWW)
How many unforgettable games. Indycar Racing. XCOM. GP Legends. Q III. Unreal Tournament. Torment. System Shock II.
MrCunningham
Member
A few screenshots of Terminal Velocity, an MS-DOS/ Win95 game that was developed by Terminal Reality and published by 3DRealms back in the day:
Yet again, these screenshots were taken directly off my Windows98 machine. The game runs in 640x400 for the game menu's and 640x480 for gameplay in software rendering mode. The game doesn't support my video card, but I used to play this game a lot of my parents old Windows 95 machine, and it did support the S3Virge in that machine. The game itself is a little arcade-y and simple, but it is still fun to play. You get full freedom of movement including the ability to fly upside down, the objectives are mostly simple and the game is fast and fun. Got to love the graphics options for "486" and "Pentium" detail settings.
I have been thinking about picking up a PCI S3ViRGE DX just for games like this and Tomb Raider.
Yet again, these screenshots were taken directly off my Windows98 machine. The game runs in 640x400 for the game menu's and 640x480 for gameplay in software rendering mode. The game doesn't support my video card, but I used to play this game a lot of my parents old Windows 95 machine, and it did support the S3Virge in that machine. The game itself is a little arcade-y and simple, but it is still fun to play. You get full freedom of movement including the ability to fly upside down, the objectives are mostly simple and the game is fast and fun. Got to love the graphics options for "486" and "Pentium" detail settings.
I have been thinking about picking up a PCI S3ViRGE DX just for games like this and Tomb Raider.
Inquisitor! It's on Steam/GOG. Awesome but hard as hell.
Cow Mengde
Banned
I still remember the EB games catalog for PC games. Their boxes were some of the weirdest and most unappealing looking boxes ever. Back when I was small, I didn't even know half of them were games. I thought they were software for work and crap.
Vulcano's assistant
Banned
Some people just do their best to look like a philistine.