RobotXTaisen
Member
Tyrian 2000
Awesome game!!!
Tyrian 2000
Oh man I played that Jeopardy sooooo fucking much, holy shit are those contestant pics such a blast from the past. Reminds me of a Monopoly game I played a ton of as well.There were some games that managed to look good while using the ugly default palette in CGA/EGA like these games:
Jeopardy!
Another weird looking game, Thunder Offshore. Spanish racing game with a unique rendering approach. Idk what kind of rendering technique it uses, it looks like Novalogic's Voxelscape but more limited. Definitely not an FMV game (it could look like that in the gif).
There were some games that managed to look good while using the ugly default palette in CGA/EGA like these games:
Jeopardy!
Total Eclipse
Avoid The Noid
Adventure In Serenia
The crude drawings in Adventure In Serenia look unusually nice even for a old game with blocky graphics.
Don't forget the awesome live action cutscenes!!!Crusader: No Remorse
Some of the fire effects and explosions were so good at the time.
SETTLERS 2
would be awesome if someone took all these dos games and put them into a 100 pack of "best dos games" like a rare replay of sorts
does that already exist?
Just a regular gaming enthusiast . I like creative approaches in limited environments (for today standards, of course), like DOS. So this is definitely interesting for me. 36 yo btw.You are very interesting in your knowledgeable descriptions. How old are you? What do you do?
Keep posting mate I'm enjoying and learning.
Now you made me look like a fool!The first few Mortal Kombat games had pretty faithful DOS ports because the original arcade games were coded in assembly language which made the conversion a breeze.
Feel free to slip this fact into conversation at your next dinner party to seem sexy and interesting!
DOS is quite a loose term, it covers anything from 1981 to 1994, that is quite a leap in tech. There were some real artist that achieved wonders with EGA and 16 colors
Mortal Kombat on DOS was the exception rather than the rule. Most arcade and console conversions to PC back then ranged from bad to absolutely disgusting. A lot of them would focus on having nice enough graphics for screenshots on the back of the box or in magazines but the illusion quickly disappeared when you actually saw it in motion (or lack thereof as it would be a stuttery 2fps mess) and heard the piss-poor MIDI renditions of classic tunes. Lots of kids got conned out of their hard earned pocket money for unplayable dogshit ports of big name games on DOS.Now you made me look like a fool!
Seriously, back in the days arcade and console ports of games were always the least interesting games on DOS/Windows. PC gaming was just such a different animal, I didn't even know anyone actually played those, I knew about SFII, Mortal Kombat, Mega Man X, etc. I just did not ever see anyone playing them much back in the days.
So my memory was not playing tricks to me!Mortal Kombat on DOS was the exception rather than the rule. Most arcade and console conversions to PC back then ranged from bad to absolutely disgusting. A lot of them would focus on having nice enough graphics for screenshots on the back of the box or in magazines but the illusion quickly disappeared when you actually saw it in motion (or lack thereof as it would be a stuttery 2fps mess) and heard the piss-poor MIDI renditions of classic tunes. Lots of kids got conned out of their hard earned pocket money for unplayable dogshit ports of big name games on DOS.
Oh my that game look soooo good to me when I first played it. The reflections, nightvision... and butter smooth.
Space Quest 3 CGAThere were some games that managed to look good while using the ugly default palette in CGA/EGA like these games:
Funnily the game actually runs within virtual machine, so ports were extremely easy. (Basically port the VM and you had working game.)This game has came out on so many platforms over the years and I've played it so many times and it's only now I'm learning that in the US it's called "Out of This World? Damn.
Looks like voxels, perhaps intersection to bilinear heightfield in the end. (reason why slopes look nice.)Another weird looking game, Thunder Offshore. Spanish racing game with a unique rendering approach. Idk what kind of rendering technique it uses, it looks like Novalogic's Voxelscape but more limited. Definitely not an FMV game (it could look like that in the gif).
These look cool man.It Came From the Desert - I don't even know what genre to call this game, but it had a real cool vibe. I remember the shooting parts where the ants were right up in your face freaked me the fuck out as a kid.
NASCAR Racing - these graphics look pitiful now, but playing this on my 386 was a treat. It had a paint editor included so you could create your own custom livery, which was fun.
A-Train - I ADORE the aesthetic of the original A-Train... the colors are just so pleasing, and I love how boxy everything is. Too bad it was confusing as fuck as a kid, and I even tried playing the most recent one on the PS4 and couldn't figure out a damn thing.
Life & Death - my uncle had this on his computer and I would play when I visited. Didn't really know what I was doing, but I love how it looks.
Red Baron - soooo simplistic looking now, but has a great art style, especially the menus.
Oh wow! Never heard of Aethra Chronicles. How does it compare to the Ultima games? I'm kinda interested in trying it out.Boppin
A fun puzzle game with slightly over the top characters (they would commit suicide if you lost all health)
Solar Winds by Epic
A 2d semi-open world space shooter game with an interesting story. I remember only playing the shareware version and being hyped.
It was tons of fun. The power management mechanic is so satisfying when you get that sweet sweet white tier shield up and running aaaaah.
Years later I managed to get a hold of the second episode and boy was that an utter let down. It turned out that the free part of the game actually constituted about 3/4 of the entire game length.
Still can't believe it.
Aethra Chronicles
The turn based combad is so satisfying.
Played the shit out of it even when I couldn't understand any English at all. You can imagine how utterly hit&miss it was, for example, to cast spells (which the game has a bunch of, with no descriptions, just names. I think the explanations were written in a separate file or something).
Barely understood a single word, much less the actual story. Eventually I finished it. It just, well, ended.
Much later I found out the game was never even fully published and just the free episode was realeased as shareware. What a shame.
Lots of classes to choose, lots of items to collect, lots of spells to learn and skills to master.
You have the world map traversing
Dungeon crawling
Cave crawling, traps disarming...
What about the SF2 versions?
The first one looked ok but it was really slow.
Then a korean programmer, equiped with a cheap capture card and the SNES version, did a really weird job in terms of graphics but the gameplay was much better.
The canadian mod of the previous one.
The official port of Super Street Fighter 2 was way better but the characters were quite small.
The opposite version, shrinked backgrounds and gigantic characters, Super Street Fighter 2 Turbo. Probably the best Street Fighter ever seen on MSDOS.
It doesn't matter.Yeah these look nice, but what soundcard driver do I pick?
actually....I never played any of the Ultima games.... :hides in shame:Oh wow! Never heard of Aethra Chronicles. How does it compare to the Ultima games? I'm kinda interested in trying it out.
Well, we are talking about native DOS games.The best SF ever seen in DOS was when MAME still had an official DOS version...
Thank you so much for your reply! I think the bad things sound bearable, but let's see, haha. I totally recommend the Ultima games! You can skip the first three, IMHO. I would say that 4, 5, 6 and 7 are the Ultima games to play. Ultima 7 gets often praised as one of the best RPGs ever made.actually....I never played any of the Ultima games.... :hides in shame:
I imagine it might have some similarities but probably it also has many shortcomings. There are definitely some bad design decisions (like inns, stores or training guilds having same graphic blocks as all other houses that you can't enter, and you end up guessing where things are) It's difficult to keep track of quests and such...
You create 2 or was it 3 character from the start, which are your main characters and then you can recruit others along the way.
It's pretty unforgiving if you don't know what you're doing and you can end up restarting the game altogether.
I still love the dungeon crawling. Some classes are totally OP which is awesome to me at least haha. Thief/figther with deadly strike +sword of speed basically makes you unstoppable and you can singlehandedly wipe out entire squads of enemies
You can get it for free here http://netsilik.nl/Aethra/ along with some pointers.
Well, we are talking about native DOS games.
I'm not sure if MAME was the first emulator ever to emulate Street Fighter II: The World Warrior. Callus should be really close in time.
1988: Strip Poker II: A Sizzling Game of Chance
It's very obviousI am so lonely, you have no idea
I remember playing this while sleeping over my best friends house, we would stand in the doorway like 10-15 feet away from the screen because the images looked better from that distance lol1988: Strip Poker II: A Sizzling Game of Chance