03-24-2006, 01:52 PM
Yay, an old thread and one I missed :)
First off, I don't agree in that games get better, they might have better graphics and sound but for game play, don't agree. Actually, many modern games have horrible game play and little to do, relying on multiplayer to provide lastability for example. A typical example is the Delta Force series, I recently saw some later release of it and it boosted some 10-20 single player missions, the original had if I don't recall bad some 40-50, and you see that type of thing in almost all games.
So what games do I think are the "best"? Obviously those that I kept playing a lot, or those that are of the one time sort, all the way to the end by myself and not just reading a "play through guide". Since my computer playing experience predate computers and my first game machine was one that had this interesting games of tennis (two white lines moving up and down and a dot moving in-between) which could be altered to be squash (both lines on the same side with a wall on the opposite) and the highly complex ice hockey (were both players had two lines), some of these might be quite old. I was also a Spectrum owner and never a C64 owner, which might also be noted. I then moved on to the Amiga. The games are somewhat in time order.
Ant Attack
My very first computer game and it turned out to be a 3D game, way ahead of any other 3D games I would say. It was fun to boot and you ran around in 3D town rescuing a princess while avoiding the spiders.
Jet Set Willy
Wow, what a game, never finished it, but it sure was fun, a good platform game.
Knight Lore
Perhaps not because it was good in the other sense, but I include it as a "good game" for what it did. It basically was the game that started the whole 3D isomeric game boom. Back then, a game release by Ultimate Play the Game was something huge and usually took game playing to a new level and everyone was amazed what one could squeeze out of the Spectrum. My favourite Ultimate game was probably Attic Attack though. Still, no "greatest game" list for Spectrum games is complete unless there is some Ultimate game on it.
Lords of Midnight
One of the first game that boosted a first person view world (although tile based and not real time based and you moved tile by tile and redrew the screen in-between), but it had a world of over 8000 tiles if I recall correctly, were you recruited Lords with armies you then moved around turned based, and in-between the evil opponent moved hordes of his own armies and battles were fought (during night, you had to wait until dawn to see the outcome). A tile was basically a mountain, a town, fortress or whatever. Multiple ways to win and incredibly fun. All this in 48kb of memory including the graphic memory.
The Hobbit
A classic text "adventure" game. Back then, the parser engine was as vital as the graphics engine is today as you typed in commands with normal language and it was amazing what they handled. This game of course had the famous "stuck in the dungeon with Torin" that probably generated more question to computer magazine hint sections than any other problem/game (there was no internet back then to check for solution). The way to get out was of course to have Torin carry you while he climbed out of the window!!!
Elite
Space game with almost to much freedom and those pesky aliens. And the joy when one could finally buy that docking computer to avoid docking by hand!
Moving on to the Amiga......
Arkanoid
Classic arcade game conversion, it was excellent, it was amazing but most of all, had superb music, in my opinion!
Pinball Fantasies (or was it wizard?)
Great pinball game, never found such a good pinball game ever again. I think there are PC versions of it, but they were never equally good, something was missing.
Bard's Tale
The first RPG game, you played it, and played it and played it and it was tricky and it was fun and it was great. Then you moved on to number 2 and then number 3. Talk about value for your money.
Populous
So simple, yet so easy to get hooked, and a quite original game concept and one of the earlier "god" games. I like them, but then, who doesn't like to play god.
Faery Tale Adventure
Great RPG game. It had a huge world, and very little linear plot, you basically could go around and do stuff as you pleased. More of this would be fun in today's games.
Unfortunately my memory of the Amiga period and the games I played is bad, so that is it. I moved to a PC quite early and thus many games I ended up playing there, also existed on the Amiga, although I played them on the PC.
Civilization
What can one say, classic game, no more comments needed.
Sim City
I have always liked this type of game, no "winning" and you can both replay and play for as long as you want and doing as you want. This mentioning actually applies to all the versions of it up to the latest Sim City 4. All great ones.
Doom
Played them all, loved them, but perhaps not my favourite, although they were great. This entry probably has to include the variants of Heretic which I probably liked even more as well as the first Hexen.
Duke Nukem
A true classic, my first multiplayer game, we played it a lot and we loved it. There was a TC with Vietnam theme we played even more. What memories, yay!
Panzer General
Excellent strategy game, yet not over complex), and better than any I have ever found afterwards. To bad these are not made any more
The Secret of Monkey Island
Who doesn't want to be a pirate! An extremely fun and entertaining game which I managed to complete (almost) all by myself after countless nights in front of the computer. Again, this type of game is rare to see today, or has one yet tired of them and they were so good because they were the first ones?
Tie Fighter
A very good space game, and sort of a much more fun to play Elite, although different in story and style (with specific missions to progress through). Yet excellent and allowed you to play on the "evil" side so to speak.
Might and Magic 6
A game I spent far to much time in, but one of the few rpg games I have actually played all the way to the end.
Ultima Underworld
Combine the typical rpg game with first person view and you get this excellent pearl! You get thrown into a cave, that has a surprisingly large amount of communities, worlds and content. Donât ask how they can all live there but you have huge freedom and it is a very good story unfolding. Way ahead of other games in 3D I would say. The follow up, although good was not as enjoyable I would say.
Diablo
What can I say........
Probably forgotten many, but these are some of the game pearls through my life!
First off, I don't agree in that games get better, they might have better graphics and sound but for game play, don't agree. Actually, many modern games have horrible game play and little to do, relying on multiplayer to provide lastability for example. A typical example is the Delta Force series, I recently saw some later release of it and it boosted some 10-20 single player missions, the original had if I don't recall bad some 40-50, and you see that type of thing in almost all games.
So what games do I think are the "best"? Obviously those that I kept playing a lot, or those that are of the one time sort, all the way to the end by myself and not just reading a "play through guide". Since my computer playing experience predate computers and my first game machine was one that had this interesting games of tennis (two white lines moving up and down and a dot moving in-between) which could be altered to be squash (both lines on the same side with a wall on the opposite) and the highly complex ice hockey (were both players had two lines), some of these might be quite old. I was also a Spectrum owner and never a C64 owner, which might also be noted. I then moved on to the Amiga. The games are somewhat in time order.
Ant Attack
My very first computer game and it turned out to be a 3D game, way ahead of any other 3D games I would say. It was fun to boot and you ran around in 3D town rescuing a princess while avoiding the spiders.
Jet Set Willy
Wow, what a game, never finished it, but it sure was fun, a good platform game.
Knight Lore
Perhaps not because it was good in the other sense, but I include it as a "good game" for what it did. It basically was the game that started the whole 3D isomeric game boom. Back then, a game release by Ultimate Play the Game was something huge and usually took game playing to a new level and everyone was amazed what one could squeeze out of the Spectrum. My favourite Ultimate game was probably Attic Attack though. Still, no "greatest game" list for Spectrum games is complete unless there is some Ultimate game on it.
Lords of Midnight
One of the first game that boosted a first person view world (although tile based and not real time based and you moved tile by tile and redrew the screen in-between), but it had a world of over 8000 tiles if I recall correctly, were you recruited Lords with armies you then moved around turned based, and in-between the evil opponent moved hordes of his own armies and battles were fought (during night, you had to wait until dawn to see the outcome). A tile was basically a mountain, a town, fortress or whatever. Multiple ways to win and incredibly fun. All this in 48kb of memory including the graphic memory.
The Hobbit
A classic text "adventure" game. Back then, the parser engine was as vital as the graphics engine is today as you typed in commands with normal language and it was amazing what they handled. This game of course had the famous "stuck in the dungeon with Torin" that probably generated more question to computer magazine hint sections than any other problem/game (there was no internet back then to check for solution). The way to get out was of course to have Torin carry you while he climbed out of the window!!!
Elite
Space game with almost to much freedom and those pesky aliens. And the joy when one could finally buy that docking computer to avoid docking by hand!
Moving on to the Amiga......
Arkanoid
Classic arcade game conversion, it was excellent, it was amazing but most of all, had superb music, in my opinion!
Pinball Fantasies (or was it wizard?)
Great pinball game, never found such a good pinball game ever again. I think there are PC versions of it, but they were never equally good, something was missing.
Bard's Tale
The first RPG game, you played it, and played it and played it and it was tricky and it was fun and it was great. Then you moved on to number 2 and then number 3. Talk about value for your money.
Populous
So simple, yet so easy to get hooked, and a quite original game concept and one of the earlier "god" games. I like them, but then, who doesn't like to play god.
Faery Tale Adventure
Great RPG game. It had a huge world, and very little linear plot, you basically could go around and do stuff as you pleased. More of this would be fun in today's games.
Unfortunately my memory of the Amiga period and the games I played is bad, so that is it. I moved to a PC quite early and thus many games I ended up playing there, also existed on the Amiga, although I played them on the PC.
Civilization
What can one say, classic game, no more comments needed.
Sim City
I have always liked this type of game, no "winning" and you can both replay and play for as long as you want and doing as you want. This mentioning actually applies to all the versions of it up to the latest Sim City 4. All great ones.
Doom
Played them all, loved them, but perhaps not my favourite, although they were great. This entry probably has to include the variants of Heretic which I probably liked even more as well as the first Hexen.
Duke Nukem
A true classic, my first multiplayer game, we played it a lot and we loved it. There was a TC with Vietnam theme we played even more. What memories, yay!
Panzer General
Excellent strategy game, yet not over complex), and better than any I have ever found afterwards. To bad these are not made any more
The Secret of Monkey Island
Who doesn't want to be a pirate! An extremely fun and entertaining game which I managed to complete (almost) all by myself after countless nights in front of the computer. Again, this type of game is rare to see today, or has one yet tired of them and they were so good because they were the first ones?
Tie Fighter
A very good space game, and sort of a much more fun to play Elite, although different in story and style (with specific missions to progress through). Yet excellent and allowed you to play on the "evil" side so to speak.
Might and Magic 6
A game I spent far to much time in, but one of the few rpg games I have actually played all the way to the end.
Ultima Underworld
Combine the typical rpg game with first person view and you get this excellent pearl! You get thrown into a cave, that has a surprisingly large amount of communities, worlds and content. Donât ask how they can all live there but you have huge freedom and it is a very good story unfolding. Way ahead of other games in 3D I would say. The follow up, although good was not as enjoyable I would say.
Diablo
What can I say........
Probably forgotten many, but these are some of the game pearls through my life!
There are three types of people in the world. Those who can count and those who can't.