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[StalkerUKCG]

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=n2vYEhYU6XQ&list=PL6DFA77148D9DB3AB

First PC game I ever played.

Maybe not super obscure but stil

 

[The Wise Old Man]

No idea if it's considered obscure but this game hogged a lot of time for me as a kid:

 

[Semajer]

My cousins and I used to play the shit out of a PC game called Helicop.

I've yet to find any gameplay online, but it looks like the soundtrack is on Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=W4S0je1Xzuo

 

[StayDead]

That's absolutely not obscure AT ALL!

Never seen anyone talk about it so I always assumed it was obscure.

 

[gr4ndm4st3r.bl4ck]

Was it good?

I really don't have a fucking clue. I know I really enjoyed it at the time, but games were scarce back then, if it was an RPG, I was motherfucking happy.

It's probably not that good, seeing as you can't get it anywhere legally. It was made by Silverback Entertainment (their only game) and the company is nowhere to be found today.

It's sad seeing some games just plain vanish, no matter how bad or good they are.

 

[Rosenskjold]

We had three games from Living Books, and I remember liking this one the most. It would read the text aloud to you and afterwards you could click around on the screen and there would be small animations. I must have heard this story a million times ha ha. Judging from the plays on Youtube, it's probably not that obscure though.

youtube:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=F1qVm133XJg

 

[Nikodemos]

1. Arctic Baron a.k.a. Transarctica. Developed by Silmarils (of Robinson's Requiem fame/infamy), it was a... well, basically battletrain simulator/strategy. Probably the only one ever. Loosely based on the "La compagnie des glaces" novel. Has some ridiculously awesome artwork:

2. Bedlam. An isometric gun-em-down where you control a small robot consisting mainly of guns/missiles stacked one on top another. It's incredibly obscure, despite actually having a sequel.

3. Jurassic Wars. I'm rather certain I was one of 10 people in the world who played this game. RTS where you control one of several tribes of cave people in an anachronistic pseudo-Earth. Each tribe has a specialisation, be it weapon crafting (several types), dino rearing or magic. Individual units gain experience and have trainable stats. It was crazy hard. It too had a sequel nobody heard of.

4. Enemy Infestation. Tactics game resembling an easier, sprite-based real-time Incubation. Seems like it had a burst of marketing early on, then nothing. Total silence. I've played the demo at the time and seemed decent, but was poor AF and never bought it. Hope GOG gets it soon-ish.

5. Magic & Mayhem (and its indirect sequel Art of Magic). Made by Mythos Games, the legendary developer behind X-Com: UFO Defense and X-Com: Apocalypse (though the sequel wasn't theirs). A story-driven RTT with strategic elements (you could mix&match your spells before every mission). Great soundtrack, claymation cutscenes.

6. Soldiers of Anarchy. One of the least known RTTs ever, developed by Silver Style (The Fall: Last Days of Gaia series). Each mission afforded the player a degree of tactical flexibility equalled only by the likes of Jagged Alliance and Silent Storm. It had the typical early-00s low poly look.

 

[Taramoor]

Another few that I remember from back in the day:

Fooblitsky. Basically Dog Monopoly, but with the Whammies from Press your Luck. Weird.

Zork Quest. An odd choose your own adventure thing.

Frederik Pohl's Gateway. An actually REALLY good adventure game with some great puzzles.

 

[Easy_D]

I've mentioned it before but I have yet to find it. My dad filmed a commercial for a package of learning games and there was one game where it was a collection of mini-games and I remember there being a big white bird that you played a xylophone with. I have no idea what game this was.

Oh wait, I think I found it. It's called Thinkin' Things 1!!

Holy shit the nostalgia.

 

[Host Samurai]

Jump Raven

 

[The Chef]

Lode Runner was my favorite

 

[Swimmer9800]

I remember when I graduated pre school (maybe kindergarten?) My mom got me some really strange dinosaur game on the pc. I remember very little about it or what it was called.

 

[Phatcorns]

I always thought it was called "Gap" but I've never been able to find it since. You played as a little dot that could only move on these line grids. And you had to go over every single line before another dot that was chasing you could get to you. Super fun game.

 

[Pehesse]

Does commodore64 count? If so, I'm not sure if this is obscure enough, but I spent quite some time on Scarabaeus, and still have vivid memories of it, even though I haven't touched it in over twenty years!

Even more interesting than the game itself (and that's a tough feat, considering it's almost a hardcore survival horror before hardcore survival horror really was a thing) is the legend surrounding it: as far as I know, no two copies of the game really function the exact same, some being completely unsolvable/unwinnable.
The game was also supposedly released with an untranslated german manual in english territories (though I only heard that second hand, I didn't even have a manual at all). It certainly adds to the confusing and unpredictable element of the game :-D

Another mention, hopefully obscure enough as well, though feel free to correct me if this is actually a well known masterpiece: Rody & Mastico.

It was an educational game, sort of an interactive coloring book with point and click elements.
Same as Scarabaeus, I haven't touched it in over 20 years, and I could still sing the theme song and the game's script is engraved in my brain forever (though honestly, I'm not sure that's a good thing)

...and another one, much more recent this time: Kingdom O' Magic!

Maybe it's actually fairly well known, but as far as I'm concerned, I never saw anything more than a demo for this game - I looked for the complete release in shops for YEARS and NOBODY had even heard of it. That demo still remains a dear memory, a puzzling piece of what must've been a (I assume) point and click with completely terrifying animation (mostly because it was quite bad), though I only ever could see about three rooms before getting my lizard butt kicked by three gingerbread men. That kind of thing forges a man, let me tell you.

One last mention: Planet Blupi (I assumed it'd be fairly well known but I just did a search over GAF and came up empty, so... welp?)

It was a fairly unremarkable real time strategy/management game, but it had quite a charm to it and was VERY simple, so it's one of the only RTS I could ever manage to play at length! It's also special to me for being somehow brought up in one of the first few conversations I had with my now girlfriend, where we discovered we had both played it and loved it. That's fate, right there.

 

[Sargon]

Capture the flag by Carrsoft

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

Great call! I still have my 3.5" floppy disk around here somewhere. Who wants to start up some PBEM?

 

[dark10x]

Tunnels of Armageddon? Was a weird first person thing that supported MCGA graphics on my 8088 IBM PS/2.

Also Dark Earrh by Kalisto. Was a cool game from the mid-90s that I enjoyed but nobody else I've spoken to has played it.

 

[Darkrider]

Adventures of Willy Beamish - I haven't seen it mentioned - I enjoyed it and the graphics were top-notch for the day. It tells the story of a kid trying to make it to the "Nintari" World Championships.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3d8xcy2Fteo

 

[dark10x]

Adventures of Willy Beamish - I haven't seen it mentioned - I enjoyed it and the graphics were top-notch for the day. It tells the story of a kid trying to make it to the "Nintari" World Championships.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3d8xcy2Fteo

Oh yeah! I think this even had a SegaCD port. Was an impressive looking game at the time.

 

[bjork]

We used to trade/copy floppy discs in junior high. This is pretty obscure.

http://www.lemon64.com/?mainurl=http://www.lemon64.com/games/details.php?ID=2268


Played it with my Atari 2600 controller. It's a wonder my controller didn't break trying to get these people to uh...y'know.

Thank heavens for trainers, heh.

I played this game in the early 90s from floppy disk (the demo version) when it was called "Halloween Harry". It was actually really fun, wonder what happened to this series.

There was this and then a sequel called Zombie Wars, and I think that's it?

Does commodore64 count? If so, I'm not sure if this is obscure enough, but I spent quite some time on Scarabaeus, and still have vivid memories of it, even though I haven't touched it in over twenty years!

Even more interesting than the game itself (and that's a tough feat, considering it's almost a hardcore survival horror before hardcore survival horror really was a thing) is the legend surrounding it: as far as I know, no two copies of the game really function the exact same, some being completely unsolvable/unwinnable.
The game was also supposedly released with an untranslated german manual in english territories (though I only heard that second hand, I didn't even have a manual at all). It certainly adds to the confusing and unpredictable element of the game :-D

This apparently came out in the west as Invaders of the Lost Tomb, but aside from the name, it's identical. Definitely pretty cool.

 

[Pehesse]

This apparently came out in the west as Invaders of the Lost Tomb, but aside from the name, it's identical. Definitely pretty cool.

Oh, I see! Well, this title sounds a bit more fitting, to be honest :-D

 

[Lumpy Onion]

Adventures of Willy Beamish - I haven't seen it mentioned - I enjoyed it and the graphics were top-notch for the day. It tells the story of a kid trying to make it to the "Nintari" World Championships.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3d8xcy2Fteo

I played it on Sega CD back in the day and had a lot of fun. Even there with the limited color palette I found that the hand painted art looked nice. Although I remember having to restart several times before I could make it to the Nintari competition. This certainly felt like a Sierra adventure title because you could lose.

 

[blu]

Tunnels of Armageddon? Was a weird first person thing that supported MCGA graphics on my 8088 IBM PS/2.

Played the heck out of that back then.

I don't recall an 8088 ps/2, though. Are you sure it wasn't the 8086 revision of model 25/30?

 

[antitrop]

2. Bedlam. An isometric gun-em-down where you control a small robot consisting mainly of guns/missiles stacked one on top another. It's incredibly obscure, despite actually having a sequel.

I had that game, but I remember it having a ton of technical issues running on Windows 98. I remember it not working more than I remember playing it. I think the disc had both a Windows and a DOS version and neither of them would work properly.

I got it working one time and only bothered to play through the first level before realizing it wasn't worth the effort.

 

[kiri]

It's gotta be Deathdrome...

or the Ace Ventura Point and Click game

 

[dark10x]

Played the heck out of that back then.

I don't recall an 8088 ps/2, though. Are you sure it wasn't the 8086 revision of model 25/30?

Yes, actually, you're right. It was indeed an 8086 instead. A model 30, I believe, with that wonderful power switch.

Had that thing until we got a 486DX/2 66.

 

[Kieli]

Did you guys ever remember a PC demo disc that packed like a hundred games on it? This was in 2000/2001.

Shit, those games were so fun. Until my mom smashed the disc because I pissed her off.

Can't find it on YouTube.

I remember a bunch of platformers. Like one where a dude was moving around a jungle. Another with a clown. And a game similar to Metroidvania, but with a Rambo-ish aesthetic against reptilian men and cyborgs and stuff.

It also had some sort of mech game.

Edit: Oh, it also had a beat 'em up with a dude wearing a skull or something. I remember only playing it once because you had to press delete to get pass the intro screen, and I had no clue what the delete button waws.

 

[manzoman96]

OH MAN, I remembered another one. This one came on a CD filled with shareware stuff...

F-18: NO FLY ZONE

I never could beat it, and it gave me the creeps as a kid 'cause the game over screen was a good old gravestone with "R.I.P." and skull + crossbones (AND A GODDAMN SCREEAAAAAM). Plus, it ran horribly on my PC - so fast (!) you couldn't adequately control the F-18.

YOOOOOOOOOOOO I played this all the time on my Uncle's Computer with my cousins. This is by far one of my most nostalgic games. Someone would always steer and someone else would shoot and we'd all take turns.

 

[Sinatar]

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=n2vYEhYU6XQ&list=PL6DFA77148D9DB3AB

First PC game I ever played.

Maybe not super obscure but stil

KILL IT WITH FIRE.

AAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH

 

[Kikorin]

Played a lot of Microforum games when I was young. They were game for PC made by this software house that were priced at like 10.000 lire (5€).

One of these was "Le avventure di Leogatto", that was a graphic adventure pretty fun for a kid. No idea if these games were made only for Italy or them exsist also outside.

 

[MrCunningham]

Adventures of Willy Beamish - I haven't seen it mentioned - I enjoyed it and the graphics were top-notch for the day. It tells the story of a kid trying to make it to the "Nintari" World Championships.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3d8xcy2Fteo

I had this game for the Tandy 1000 computer. Though I think it was just the IBM PC version in Tandy graphics mode.

 

[Orcus]

I don't remember any of the 2600, Apple IIE, and 8086 games I played that are obscure. Probably the earliest obscure game I played was a MUD called Dragons Den in the early 90s.

 

[LordOfChaos]

Was Zak McKracken and the Alien Mindbenders obscure?

 

[Altazor]

YOOOOOOOOOOOO I played this all the time on my Uncle's Computer with my cousins. This is by far one of my most nostalgic games. Someone would always steer and someone else would shoot and we'd all take turns.

holy crap, man! You're the first person I've ever seen mentioning that game online! At least now I know I wasn't alone in playing that one :lol

 

[harSon]

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

This is what I was going to post. Still have the box and disk lol

 

[Pompadour]

Adventures of Willy Beamish - I haven't seen it mentioned - I enjoyed it and the graphics were top-notch for the day. It tells the story of a kid trying to make it to the "Nintari" World Championships.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3d8xcy2Fteo

I could never beat the bat/babysitter section.

 

[Slick Butter]

I guess I will post another game I played when I was younger, called Monster Hunter.
I assume these games I played when I was younger are all fairly obscure since it's difficult to find stuff about them. I mostly played weird little games on my Mac OS9 computer until I got a GBA when I was 7 years old.

Here's another, called Cave Dig (3).

 

[Shadowheart]

Circa 1995.

 

[Dragonslayer_023]

I can't find any pictures or videos or proof of it's existence, but I'm sure the game was called Mr. Mack.

It was a simple puzzle game where you play a small guy and have to clear some tiles on each level, but there were obstacles on the stage that would fall if you cleared the tile under them. The game had a lot of different skins, my favorite was one where it made the obstacles into Apples and the tiles you had to clear were green, and walls were bricks. I think the normal skin had iron balls as obstacles though.

I wish I could at least find a picture. I'll always remember failing a level by having an object fall on Mr. Mack's head and him shouting "Ohhhhhh Nooooooooooo!"

This sounds like a game I played as a child called Infotron, which was a Supaplex clone, which was itself a Boulderdash clone. I never could beat it, but I played it a lot.

Another game that was my jam at the time was Leonardo the Inventor:

I just remember the tower game, the flying machine, and of course Leonardo's drum machine. Good old educational fun.

I played a lot of eductional games actually, like this gem:

An interactive journey into the world of dinosaurs! So good back in the day.

 

[dark10x]

Dark Earth.

I'm not sure how obscure this was...but it was almost 20 years ago.
I really don't remember anything about the game, apart from the fact that I loved it, even if I don't know if I ever finished it!

I posted without realizing you already mentioned it. I own this game as well. Was quite interesting.

 

[harSon]

Low Blow

I vaguely remember playing this in the early 90s. You could take a cheap shot at your opponent when all of the judges turned their heads.

Throne of Darkness

Diablo 2 knock off with a samurai theme, but it was actually pretty decent.

 

[big_erk]

I used to play this and usurper on bbs's back in the day. Also used to play a bit of Leather Goddess of Phobos

I played Leather Goddesses of Phobos as well. As a matter of fact I still have my boxed copy of that game floating around here somewhere, complete with the 3d Lane Mastodon comic and glasses.

 

[MrCunningham]

This is what I was going to post. Still have the box and disk lol

It is worth noting that the original US release for this game has a completly different voice actor for the main character of the game in comparison to the current version that is available on GOG. Corey Feldman did the voice for the US version of the game, while the rest of the world got a British voice actor instead. It is worth keeping the US box just for that reason alone.

 

[megarockexe]

I can't remember the name, but it was this strange chicken shareware game, I think. I played it on Windows 95-98 sometime in the early 2000s. I think the appeal was the violence?

 

[d00d3n]

Heh, apparently Svea Rike was inspiration for the Crusader Kings series.

Yes! "Svea Rike" was a very basic strategy game, though.

 

[Chibot]

Is Twinsen's Odyssey obscure enough? It was one of my first PC game experiences and I loved it. It may not be obscure at all, I've just never seen or heard anyone talk about it.

 

[d00d3n]

Is Twinsen's Odyssey obscure enough? It was one of my first PC game experiences and I loved it. It may not be obscure at all, I've just never seen or heard anyone talk about it.

That game is legendary! One of the best games of all time in its day imo (hasn't aged 100% gracefully, though). I think specialist PC gamers on gaf would generally be aware of it, with a significant minority having played it as well.

 

[Nikodemos]

Corey Feldman did the voice for the US version of the game, while the rest of the world got a British voice actor instead. It is worth keeping the US box just for that reason alone.

He was great as Kent Knutson. Wonder why he didn't do more voice acting.

 

[Stuggernaut]

Too many to list, but I used to spend a LOT of lunch hours playing Apple IIe adventure games in the computer labs. Like those games where you type "go north" or whatever. But they also had graphics.

Similar to Zork.

Oh, and Zork ;P

 

[MrCunningham]

He was great as Kent Knutson. Wonder why he didn't do more voice acting.

He did do some voice acting for Minecraft Story mode, but that is about it.

Not a single mention, so hopefully it's obscure enough:

I enjoyed it a lot, but I was a kid.

That is a PS1 game and this is a thread about obscure PC games

But back i the day, I used to work at a Zellers department store (it was a Canadian retailer) and they had a whole bunch of unsold Punky Skunk's that would just sit there and collect dust on the rack. I always used to point it out to friends, because of the lame title/ box art.

 

[Christine]

Mantis, was fun too

XF5700 Mantis is pretty obscure, yeah. It was part of the "multi-media" CD-ROM game boom, I got it bundled with one of those all-in-one soundcard / cdrom upgrade kits.

It's a 3D space shooter in the vein of Wing Commander/X Wing/TIE Fighter, but it attempts to make the flight engine a more realistic simulation of Newtonian motion. This served to make the game extremely difficult to play and it was received quite poorly.

My favorite aspects of the game have to be the presentation / multi-media effort.

I don't know, probably? The voiced dialogue in-mission is used in some entertaining ways.