Author Topic: Which Classic Computer Games should I play?  (Read 8480 times)

Offline darkchair

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Which Classic Computer Games should I play?
« on: June 25, 2012, 06:42:47 pm »
So I've just found GoG, immediately bought Heroes of Might and Magic 3 Complete cause I can't find my old copy, and then realized all of these classic games that I've missed.  ???

I'd like to not completely decimate my wallet, so if you guys could give me some opinions on these games that would be great:

Balder's Gate
Balder's Gate 2
Planescape: Torment
Fallout
Fallout 2
Gothic
Gothic 2
Deus Ex

and the oddball: Rayman, Rayman 2, and Rayman 3.

Initial thoughts are leaning towards Planescape and Fallout 2. But then I would (probably) need to play Fallout 1. Apparently I need to play the Balder's Gate's also, and it's said to be a very long game, which I'm always a fan of.
Mainly I'm looking for great stories and great combat.

Offline Wanderer

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Re: Which Classic Computer Games should I play?
« Reply #1 on: June 25, 2012, 07:00:45 pm »
The original Deus Ex was awesome for its time.  However, it may have the "Seinfeld isn't funny" trope stuck to it at this point because it got so heavily copied for years, and even now some of that decision tree mechanic is completely ingrained into the mainstream.
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Offline tigersfan

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Re: Which Classic Computer Games should I play?
« Reply #2 on: June 25, 2012, 07:10:26 pm »
IMO, Fallout and Balder's Gate aren't worth it. But, I know I'm in the very small minority in my opinion on BG.

Offline keith.lamothe

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Re: Which Classic Computer Games should I play?
« Reply #3 on: June 25, 2012, 07:40:27 pm »
I had tremendous fun with Might & Magic (not the "heroes of" then-sub-series, I found those mediocre fun-wise, though the music was top-shelf stuff).  3 was my first and I had fun never actually finished it, but I exhausted 4 and 5 (they merge together as if 5 was a massive expansion pack; starting on 4's content is probably best).  6, 7, and 8 use a different engine but it's also a ton of fun and I found those were actually the golden age of the series for me (particularly 7).  9 was another new engine and an incomplete-on-release travesty and all the more tragedy because they never tried to continue that series again.

Baldur's Gate... it is the definitive CRPG experience, even today.  I found the second one more fun, but part of the fun is having followed along from the beginning and grown into the characters, etc.  Be prepared for a long haul, but it sounds like that doesn't daunt you.

Planescape is also incredible though a lot darker (in my opinion, having recently been through the story of Planescape; not excessively dark, but dark).

Fallout 1+2 are also classic CRPGs, I definitely recommend playing the first then the second; not as much carryover as Baldur's Gate (by far) but it feels better that way.

If you're really into the CRPG stuff, "Arcanum: Of Steamworks and Magick Obscura" is definitely worth it.  Not up there with Baldur's Gate for me but solidly enjoyable.

Depending on how much you like the strategy genre: Master of Magic is still my favorite strategy game.  Master of Orion is also great but the Space 4X and Non-Fantasy Land 4X genres have fared far better than the Fantasy Land 4X genre over the decades, so I don't feel it's as... necessary, in a classics collection.

Sid Meier's Alpha Centauri is my favorite non-fantasy land 4X game ever, even without the excellent expansion (which sadly GoG does not offer).  It can bog down a bit late-game, but the terraforming options are incredible and the voiceovers on tech discoveries are a trip in multiple senses of the word.

Descent Freespace 2 was the most fun I've ever had in a space-flight-sim (though Tie Fighter was a close second, goodness how many joysticks I wore out playing Tie Fighter).  Indeed, that genre seemed to just "stop" after that game; there've been other ones, but none I paid much attention to.

Jagged Alliance 2 is awesome.

Dungeon Keeper (I also liked the second one) is unmatched in its particular style of fun.

Oddly enough, I put Deus Ex down after about 10 minutes :)

I could go on but really shouldn't :)
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Offline Wanderer

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Re: Which Classic Computer Games should I play?
« Reply #4 on: June 25, 2012, 08:17:16 pm »
Dungeon Keeper (I also liked the second one) is unmatched in its particular style of fun.

I can't get an emulator to actually RUN that game properly.  I seriously wish someone would buy the IP and just rebuild Dungeon Keeper on a modern box.  Don't get fancy, none of the randomly annoying stuff they put into II, just good clean Hero Smashing fun.

You know... I wonder... I've been debating on dabbling in some of this stuff... that might be a ton of fun.  Seriously HUGE amount of work, but fun... and it'd be a hobby project... I ... hrmmmmmm....

Sorry, distracted.  I'm about to show my age... Might and Magic, the original, was AWESOME for its time.  It seriously sucks in comparison now, I'm sad to say, but at the time... wow.   I'd love to recommend it to people but honestly, if you don't have the fold-out map for it, you aren't going to get very far.  However, the puzzles that were in it were amazing for the time, you really had to think.  Of course, at the time BBSs were dialup so you couldn't just google up your way out of it.  You dragged four friends over, you all stared at the computer, and eventually one of you had that epiphany.

Errrr... dammit, now you've got ME going Keith.  Sorry you didn't like Deus Ex tho'.

Of course, if you want to go seriously old-school... Get your hands on a copy of Leisure Suit Larry.  Any of them.  King's Quest wasn't bad either, if you could deal with the fact that you died because you sneezed.
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Offline Cyborg

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Re: Which Classic Computer Games should I play?
« Reply #5 on: June 25, 2012, 10:51:07 pm »
What Keith said, although I would put more emphasis on baldur's gate and icewind dale. They're both spectacular adventures, but they are eclipsed by Planescape which is a dark, fantastic, philosophical journey. Honestly, Planescape should be your first stop, as you will find yourself just staring at the screen when you turn it off for the night as you go through your journey. It affected me greatly, and it still does. The graphics are a little aged, so I would suggest installing all the mods. You can find the comparison on YouTube fairly easily and how to do it in the gog forums. The mods keep things fresh and tie up a couple loose ends that were never officially patched, as well as fixing some bugs.
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Offline chemical_art

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Re: Which Classic Computer Games should I play?
« Reply #6 on: June 25, 2012, 11:10:44 pm »
I can never get enough MOO!
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Offline madcow

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Re: Which Classic Computer Games should I play?
« Reply #7 on: June 26, 2012, 02:16:36 am »
Its worth pointing out, the Baldur's Gate games are getting a remake. How faithful they'll end up being to the original, I don't know. But it might be worth holding off on that series till then. And personally, I loved the Baldur's Gate series - though I haven't played it since they were new games, not sure how well the mechanics have held up.

Planescape is a game I always wanted to try out, but never got the chance to. It seemed to have a truly unique and interesting storyline from what I heard.

Offline zebramatt

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Re: Which Classic Computer Games should I play?
« Reply #8 on: June 26, 2012, 05:25:05 am »
Dungeon Keeper (I also liked the second one) is unmatched in its particular style of fun.

I can't get an emulator to actually RUN that game properly.  I seriously wish someone would buy the IP and just rebuild Dungeon Keeper on a modern box.  Don't get fancy, none of the randomly annoying stuff they put into II, just good clean Hero Smashing fun.


I have a year-old gold edition of Dungeon Keeper 2 and it runs like a dream... for about 20 minutes, then it crashes. I managed to play about three and a half hours, saving every ten minutes and restarting whenever it crashed, before even my saintly patience wore immensely thin.

I'm still waiting for someone to release a new version just so it will run on a machine built in the last ten years.

If you've got StarCraft II then a chap named Bibendus is currently developing "Hive Keeper": http://www.sc2mapster.com/maps/hive-keeper/. The single player beta is actually pretty damn good!


Offline zespri

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Re: Which Classic Computer Games should I play?
« Reply #9 on: June 26, 2012, 05:49:20 am »
If you've got StarCraft II then a chap named Bibendus is currently developing "Hive Keeper": http://www.sc2mapster.com/maps/hive-keeper/. The single player beta is actually pretty damn good!
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Offline Bluddy

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Re: Which Classic Computer Games should I play?
« Reply #10 on: June 26, 2012, 08:53:45 am »
Dungeon Keeper (I also liked the second one) is unmatched in its particular style of fun.

I can't get an emulator to actually RUN that game properly.  I seriously wish someone would buy the IP and just rebuild Dungeon Keeper on a modern box.  Don't get fancy, none of the randomly annoying stuff they put into II, just good clean Hero Smashing fun.


I have a year-old gold edition of Dungeon Keeper 2 and it runs like a dream... for about 20 minutes, then it crashes. I managed to play about three and a half hours, saving every ten minutes and restarting whenever it crashed, before even my saintly patience wore immensely thin.

I'm still waiting for someone to release a new version just so it will run on a machine built in the last ten years.

If you've got StarCraft II then a chap named Bibendus is currently developing "Hive Keeper": http://www.sc2mapster.com/maps/hive-keeper/. The single player beta is actually pretty damn good!

It's crazy how much Dungeon Keeper 2 clicked with me. I think you'll have better luck running it on OSX or Linux using Wine nowadays -- people on GOG constantly complain about it. I actually think a lot of older games run better with Wine.

I really want a fully working open source remake of DK2. Looks like somebody starting writing it and abandoned it a while ago. (OpenDungeonKeeper) I'd love to have keeper AI that actually challenges you.

Offline keith.lamothe

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Re: Which Classic Computer Games should I play?
« Reply #11 on: June 26, 2012, 11:19:06 am »
King's Quest wasn't bad either, if you could deal with the fact that you died because you sneezed.
Sneezed?  You must have been playing on easy or something; if I was lucky I got as far as "inhale" before something very fatal befell me.
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Offline darkchair

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Re: Which Classic Computer Games should I play?
« Reply #12 on: June 26, 2012, 04:43:23 pm »
Yeah, it's looking like Planechase for now, art like this is what I live for.  :P

Forget to mention Myst and Riven, and of particular interest, should I play Real Myst over Myst?

Offline Cyborg

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Re: Which Classic Computer Games should I play?
« Reply #13 on: June 26, 2012, 06:56:32 pm »
Yeah, it's looking like Planechase for now, art like this is what I live for.  :P

Forget to mention Myst and Riven, and of particular interest, should I play Real Myst over Myst?

Myst. The three-dimensional walking around thing just makes it harder.
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Offline zespri

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Re: Which Classic Computer Games should I play?
« Reply #14 on: June 26, 2012, 08:16:02 pm »
It's crazy how much Dungeon Keeper 2 clicked with me. I think you'll have better luck running it on OSX or Linux using Wine nowadays -- people on GOG constantly complain about it. I actually think a lot of older games run better with Wine.

I really want a fully working open source remake of DK2. Looks like somebody starting writing it and abandoned it a while ago. (OpenDungeonKeeper) I'd love to have keeper AI that actually challenges you.

Yes, the game is great hands down. For Win installation people reported to run it successfully in VirtualBox with Windows 98 installed there, so this could be another avenue.
And of course a proper remake of it would be great. Evil Genius was not all bad, but Dungeons did not seem to take off.