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[Amory]

My favorite was probably Midnight Rescue

Followed closely by Treasure Mountain

The Learning Company had educational games on lock in the 90s. They made games that taught things but were a lot of fun too.

The most obscure was probably a game called "Discover the World". You were the captain of a ship and had to go sail on trade routes and you got attacked by pirates and shit.

 

[Pagusas]

Got it free with my first Packer Bell computer.

Most important game in my time as a gamer, as its what introduced me to the concept of games having real stories and good production.

Its sequel, Burred in Time, is even better.

 

[SarusGray]

Endless Online

And Illutia

Good times

 

[SOR5]

Shout out to Lenny Loosejocks as well

 

[randomlee26]

Torin's Passage, though I'm not sure it's obscure enough.

 

[Sword Of Doom]

Michael Jordan In Flight - was a PC basketball game. At the time I thought it was the most amazing looking game. I probably spent hundreds of hours playing it in the early 90's

http://youtu.be/AsZzs_boWRA

 

[adj_noun]

Got it free with my first Packer Bell computer.

Most important game in my time as a gamer, as its what introduced me to the concept of games having real stories and good production.

I loved that game! I still hum the theme randomly sometimes.

 

[dorikyasu]

Mask of the Sun (MS-DOS)
One of the first text Adventure game I played way back.
I guess technically this doesn't qualify since it has Wiki entry.

 

[randomlee26]

Endless Online



And Illutia


Good times

Those look like even older versions of Nexus TK and Dark Ages

 

[...Scatter...]

Corporation

It was very unique back in the day

 

[Sulik2]

Got it free with my first Packer Bell computer.

Most important game in my time as a gamer, as its what introduced me to the concept of games having real stories and good production.

Its sequel, Burred in Time, is even better.

I remember almost buying this game every single time I went to Best Buy as a kid. I dug the pictures on the box and was a huge adventure game nut at the time. Time to see if it is on GOG.

 

[adj_noun]

I remember almost buying this game every single time I went to Best Buy as a kid. I dug the pictures on the box and was a huge adventure game nut at the time. Time to see if it is on GOG.

The enhanced version is.

 

[GeordieMark]

One of the very first games I ever played was a game called Rasputin on the ZX Spectrum. I never see it mentioned (I don't think it was actually any good), but it's a significant game for me personally.

 

[Sinatar]

I'm in my early 30s, but everytime I mention this game, NOBODY knows what it is. Well, unless they are 40+ usually. Bonus points if you do.

Legend of The Red Dragon.

I played a ton of that (along with tradewars 2000) on my old BBS, good times.

 

[J@hranimo]

That would show up all the time on my shareware CDs but I could never run it because my 486 didn't have a "Math Co-Processor".

Wow. All I remember was that my Dad had that game on our PC in about '98 and I was 7. I never beat it but the colors and sound effects kept my attention lol.

 

[blu]

For obscure stuff I remember playing Pirate Adventure on the TI-99/4a back in '81 or '82.

It was a text adventure created by one of the genre greats, Scott Adams.

One of the funny quirks about it was that it came on a cassette tape that took forever to load every time you fired the game up.

Same here - cassettes all the way back in my childhood. Or typing-in the game from listings in magazines. Anyhow, Doggy/ORIC brings back fond memories.

 

[Hedrush]

I don't know if its extremely obscure but I always remember playing Feud on my Commodore 64. It's was made by Mastertronic. You chose 1 of 2 wizards and you had to go around the map collecting herbs to make spells that you could use to destroy the other wizard before he could destroy you.

 

[deadscreensky]

There's an old DOS game that I used to play a lot of which comes to mind, but I'm not sure if it counts as obscure. Shareware game with customizable levels, had ASCII graphics. Could have sworn I've seen an image from it recently, might have to dig it up.

It had more complex graphics than ASCII, but maybe ZZT?

10six on Heat.net

I always wanted to play that, the magazine articles and ads made the graphics look really impressive for that era. I'd almost argue the hype means it wasn't obscure, but at the same time I never met anybody who actually played it.

 

[RoryDropkick]

Electro Body - I remember this game being re-released as "Electro Man". Really strange game.


Perestroika - I posted this video because it was one of the ones that acutally had the theme song playing, playing it through DOSBox apparently does not play it properly since it plays it through the PC speaker somehow.

 

[SarusGray]

Those look like even older versions of Nexus TK and Dark Ages

aha funny thing is I believe both games came out after Dark Ages!

 

[L Thammy]

Akalabeth was the precursor to Ultima way, way back in the early Apple ][ era. Not the most obscure title, certainly, but I'd be willing to bet not many here ever played it.

Solar Winds

I was also a big fan of Paratrooper, which I think is less unknown. I at least understood that game, even if my 5-year-old self was terrible at it. Even today hearing the totally original soundtrack hits my nostalgia bone real hard. Love that falling debris effect, too! I'm pretty sure it's actually a clone of another game, but I don't remember the details. That's sort of how gaming was back then.

Is Skyroads obscure?

Anyone else remember/play this?

Not sure how obscure it was but I remember playing 4D Sport boxing when I was younger and I havent seen or heard of it since.

I used to play an old game called Scorched Earth, it was similar to Worms, but way uglier graphics, and tanks instead of worms.

MicroMan on Windows 3.1.

Capture the flag by Carrsoft

I loved the turn by email feature back in the AOL dialup days.

Played all of these. I actually hear Scorched Earth mentioned surprisingly often, I don't think it's really obscure. Maybe CHAMP Kong is, it's another game in that genre.

Solar Wings reminds me, Dare to Dream is another game of the shareware era which doesn't really get a lot of attention for some reason. By Cliffy B!

Porn d.o.s. games. There, I said it.

I dont exactly remember details about actresses or anything concrete to actually look it up, but I remember one that had a temperature meter to heat things up... and another one called house guest something.

Circa 1992-1995.

Good old times.

Didn't play a lot of those, but I played a whole bunch of Knights of Xentar. I didn't realize that it was a porn game until years later. I think I had a censored version.

 

[Falk]

Oh man, Operation Neptune was the best. LOVED that game. Wonder if I ever finished it...

Operation Neptune.

Loved my educational games back then.
Seems no one remembers this one, though.

Wasn't there one where you went spelunking and there were triangular prisms of light you needed to bounce lasers off?

 

[The Shadow]

I've never met anyone else who's played Zone Raiders

Surprisingly, there's a YouTube of someone playing it:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xt-HixevAP8

Anyway, it was surprisingly addictive to me because it ran at a playable framerate on my humble 485DX2, even with texturing, and had a floaty physics engine that made it feel unique.

 

[...Scatter...]

Played all of these. I actually hear Scorched Earth mentioned surprisingly often, I don't think it's really obscure. Maybe CHAMP Kong is, it's another game in that genre.

Solar Wings reminds me, Dare to Dream is another game of the shareware era which doesn't really get a lot of attention for some reason. By Cliffy B!

Those dank alleys.

 

[Version 3.0]

I'm not sure if it qualifies as "extremely obscure", but I still have this game on a floppy disc - don't know where I got it - and I don't know anyone else who's played it.

God of Thunder

It's a top-down Zelda-ish looking game where you play as a red-headed Thor, throwing your hammer at enemies.

 

[potatohead]

Oh man, Operation Neptune was the best. LOVED that game. Wonder if I ever finished it...

Holy shit I never thought I would ever come across this game again.

I totally forgot it exist! Wow, thank you ^^

 

[Indigo_Plateau]

Swarm

Moonchild

 

[florin3k3]

Not sure how "obscure" it was But i remember my first console game (3DO)

Shockwave

They did make a sequel so probably not very obscure

 

[Cirerus]

It's not tha old but I used to love to play Powerslide back in the day. Extremely underrated game.

Even an IGN video about the game has less than 1000 views:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6FZnNUI00vU

 

[Shizza]

Not sure how obscure some of these are (since I was the only one I knew who had a computer back in the mid 80s - Apple II), but I had: Number Munchers, Double Dare, Spy vs Spy, Where in the World is Carmen San Diego, and Oregon Trail (but I know everyone played that one). All on the 5.25" floppy disks.

 

[L Thammy]

I'm not sure if it qualifies as "extremely obscure", but I still have this game on a floppy disc - don't know where I got it - and I don't know anyone else who's played it.

God of Thunder

It's a top-down Zelda-ish looking game where you play as a red-headed Thor, throwing your hammer at enemies.

Hi!

Those dubious 100-in-1 games CDs were the best. I'm pretty sure that most of them were illegal, but it's like a crash course on gaming.

 

[VyechnayaSlava]

 

[...Scatter...]

Oregon Trail loaded from a floppy disk.

That's not obscure. You have died of dysentery.

 

[adj_noun]

I got Toonstruck on GOG a while back. Still haven't really started it yet though.

 

[Jamesways]

HOOVER BOOVER!

Lawn mowing at it's best.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-yk6jG64RXk

 

[Taramoor]

ICON: The Quest for the Ring

3 in Three

Castle of the Winds

All of these are available for free from their original creators in different places, I think.

 

[Maybesew]

Not sure if anyone said it already, but Jones in the Fast lane by Sierra.

 

[t1gerjaw]

Not extremely obscure, but an old Carmen Sandiego game.
I can barely remember it.

 

[DryvBy]

Anyone else remember/play this?

Yup. Came on one of those "100 Games!" shareware discs back in the day my grandma had. I played all 3 of them.

 

[MattyH]

Space Bunnies Must Die mid 90s 3rd person shooter played the hell outta the demo also vigilance another 90s game

 

[Falk]

Wasn't there one where you went spelunking and there were triangular prisms of light you needed to bounce lasers off?

Answering myself:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Challenge_of_the_Ancient_Empires!

I wasn't insane after all!

 

[lazygecko]

There are two obscure games I remember most fondly. First one is Albion, a German-made RPG which takes cues from both JRPGs and CRPGs. It's very Phantasy Star-esque in that it has a sci-fi/tropical fantasy theme, and switches between top down and 3D first person segments. Great artstyle and a pretty original plot. It's on GOG and you can read a RPS review here: https://www.rockpapershotgun.com/2015/08/03/abion-review/

The second one is Operation Innerspace. Really novel concept in that it constructs the entire game world out of the contents of your hard drive, with folders representing zones and the files within as a collectable currency. Think of it as a very dynamic open world Asteroids. It has several different AI factions roaming around that you can make friends or enemies with. I remember having a ton of fun with the grappling hook mechanic in this game. The game was released in 1994 for Windows 3.1 and to my big surprise it is still being sold by the same developer in its original form, albeit at a very steep price for what it is ($25)

http://www.sdispace.com/support.html

 

[pbsapeer]

Normality. Don't know where my aunty got it but I used to enjoy this game. The weird voodoo doll was pretty good. I always remember looking at turds trying to pick them up haha

 

[Vandole]

Not sure if anyone said it already, but Jones in the Fast lane by Sierra.

My highschool had to create a new rule that banned students from playing video games on library PCs because I installed this and Scorched Earth on too many of them and everyone got too loud playing them.

 

[syphilosaurus]

Mega Race used to be my favorite game. Came packed in with a Packard Bell my parents bought.

Racing/car combat.

I'll never forget Lance Boyle. Didn't know they made sequels, and just found out looking for the image that a reboot was teased. I'll have to look into that more.

 

[AHappyPanda]

Was Gorillas obscure? It might've come installed on IBMs at some point, not sure.

 

[nillah]

Some insane posts in here

pretty obscure by today's standards but I use to go ham on some Army Men 2

and some rc racer

90s had their colors right and sound on point

 

[LordRaptor]

I don't know if its extremely obscure but I always remember playing Feud on my Commodore 64. It's was made by Mastertronic. You chose 1 of 2 wizards and you had to go around the map collecting herbs to make spells that you could use to destroy the other wizard before he could destroy you.

I had this on the Spectrum - like I said upthread, I bought a lot of £1.99 Mastertronic titles based on cover art, because that's how kids roll.

Of course, it looked like this on the speccy

My enduring gameplay memory is wandering around a big map not knowing what I was doing, and eventually the other wizard showing up and just fucking me over with lightning bolts

 

[AdamT]

Followed closely by Treasure Mountain

The Learning Company had educational games on lock in the 90s. They made games that taught things but were a lot of fun too.

Heck yes! Played that a ton.

One of mine would be Corncob 3D: https://youtu.be/mgXUe0m2msY

There's this other game I can't think of the name right now. It wasn't really a game per se, but more of a 3D simulation where you could walk around a town as a person, drive a car or a helicopter? That's all I can remember. It was really early 3D and ran like garbage on my dad's 386.

 

[antitrop]

Castle of the Winds

All of these are available for free from their original creators in different places, I think.

I played a ridiculous amount of Castle of the Winds as a kid. The only RPG I had played prior to that was Final Fantasy 1 on NES, so my mind was blown at how much more complex it was.