I’ve been on a heavy retro kick of late, accentuated by being commissioned for a couple of ye olde PCe gaminge features. Initially, tracking down the out-of-print games I wanted to talk about from abandonware sites or, when all else failed, torrents, was as natural as spotting typos in Kieron’s posts. Then a terrible moment of clarity hit me.
I shouldn’t be doing this, I realised. Not because of legal or moral unease, but because really I should own these games already. That I’m so dependent on the kindness of law-juggling strangers is a precarious situation at best. One day, giganta-publisher-purge-o-tron #312 may have finally killed those abandonware sites with avaricious fire. One day, those torrents might be seeded no longer. Important games could all but cease to exist. Retrospective features may never be written.
Yes, there’s every chance this cull will never happen – Valve, for instance, are steadily growing their retro archive on Steam – but this conveniently also appeals to one of my more lamentable tendencies: obsessively collecting stuff. I am man: hear me compulsively stack things next to each other.
As The Universe’s Best PC Gaming Site Run By Four Scruffy Men From Bath, UK, it seems important that we should be able to lay hands on the founding fathers, strongest sons and most compelling oddities of the ol’ IBM-compatible whenever we need to, whether for retrospective-writing purposes, to remind ourselves of how incomparably august a gaming platform the PC is, or simply for hiiiilarious out-of-context screenshots.
In my case at least, that isn’t even slightly true. Pre-journalism, I traded in most games for the latest flavour of the month, so that’s most of my 20th century gaming conspicuously absent. For later games, I do possess a wobbly mountain of laser-etched plastic circles (and a distressing amount of jewel cases that should house plastic circles, but mysteriously do not), but most contain unpatchable/timed-out review code, will-it-won’t-it-work ‘backups’, or are criss-crossed with fatal scarring. They’re as inappropriate and impermanent as paying tribute to war veterans with a monument made out of biscuits.
This is why I’m creating The RPSchive: a collection of the most important PC games since records began (or since 386s, anyway). It’s also a convenient excuse for a regular retro feature and eventual semi-definitive list of the PC’s finest hours. Oddly, there isn’t currently much value attached to old PC games – I was dismayed to discover that I’d be lucky to get a tenner for my treasured, still-shrinkwrapped copy of Dungeon Keeper. If and when these games do ever vanish from the interwebs however, their hardcopies may accrue more obscene pricetags. So, now is the time to swoop. Not for our own purposes, you understand – but for the sake of the future. Yes.
At the top of this post is most of the miserably slim row constituting the games in my possession already suited to this purpose – i.e. they’re in reasonable (and 100% legal) nick, work properly and aren’t at present widely available in shops or over Steam. More are in budget cases or are lacking manuals than I’d like, but it’s a start. I’ll confer with the rest of the hive-mind later to see what they’ve got to add – so far, Jim proffers Sim City 2000 and System Shock.
Each fortnight, I wish to extend this back catalogue by one game, purchased for minor monies from ebay or similar – and each fortnight, we want your help deciding which game that shall be.
I have some rules:
- All games are essentially equal; a lesser-known electro-morsel is as eligible as Big Brand Shooter IV, so long as the argument for it is sound. No joke entries though: think of this as concerning games you’d proudly stick in a time capsule for the plant-people of tomorrow to drape their curious tendril-lips over.
- Don’t worry about Windows XP/Vista compatibility. DOSbox delights are fine.
- I’ve gotta be able to realistically purchase it, new or second-hand, full release or budget, for not more than £10 (that’s around $20). Arms may be twisted into going higher on occasion, but don’t bank on it, unless this place suddenly starts making money at last.
- While it can be in or out of retail print, it can’t be available on Steam – we’re too confident in the survival of those that are, for a while longer at least. We’re not counting Gametap though, as its UK arm so badly lacks the bulging muscle of its beefcake Yanqui kin.
- Ideally but not necessarily, it saw a CD version at some point – floppy disks are do-able in pinch, however.
- Only suggest games from the year mentioned in the post: this time, it’s 1993.
Other than that, it’s a case of the most convincing argument (whether by eloquence, passion, wit or fact) proffered in the comments thread or emailed to me each fortnight will be the game that I next attempt to hunt down for the RPSchive. The winner’s reward? His/her/its comment posted on the main site in a following week, as part of a regular retrospective feature (replete with loving photographs of the game’s boxen hardcopy), and the associated happy-dolphins that may spark within his/her/its brain as a result of this reflected glory. There’ll be honourable mentions for runners-up too.
To add some sort of structure to it, and to prevent the same games coming up time and again, each RPSchive post will be limited to a specific year (so we’ll probably cycle back to the start every four months or so. Unless I’ve given up/become stricken by eBayian poverty by then). Please, please, please keep your arguments to under 250 words, both to avoid tediously gargantuan comments threads, and so those whose submissions don’t win won’t feel they’ve wasted too much time. Oh, and in an attempt to ensure this isn’t skewed in favour of more practiced writers, mastery of the language and grammatical correctness will take a distinct backseat to identifying what it is about this game that should earn it a place in this nascent RPSchive.
Let’s start with, at random, 1993. Ooh, now there’s a year. (The first X-COM is exempt, as a) it’s too clear a winner and b) I’ve already got a copy on the way.) Again, 1993 only: save games from other years for future instalments of the RPSchive.
Go! Help protect the past!
Related Stories:
Giants: Citizen Kabuto gets my vote. From excellent comedy to tons of fun at a LAN this game has it all. The difficulty of the game overall is just right too. Sequel?…Please?
Back in those days I was heavily into space sims and spent many hours alone with my joystick(…sorry)
Descent 1 & 2 would be an excellent edition to this library; I picked up a copy of the first one a couple of years ago on floppies for $1!
Also: any Wing Commander (until Mark Hamill became involved, that is. (But I played those too))
Finally, TIE Fighter and X-Wing are must haves. You can pick up these up in “Collector’s Edition” Windows 95 CDs, but I would shoot for the DOS versions with the old midi music instead.
Ooo! And don’t forget MechWarrior.
Edit: I seem to gotten ahead of myself. Make my suggestion Wing Commander: Privateer
Remember chaps, 1993 games only: we’ll get to the other years in due course.
Giants was released in 2000, so you’re getting ahead of yourself there Vexor ;)
Still, t’was a good game, perhaps when we get around to looking at the year 2000 I’ll vote for it too :)
Makes you feel all early-nineties I suspect :D
Flashback, which really should be played on the Amiga, is an amazing game. I probably love Sam&Max more, but the if I was looking to preserve something, it would be that. To amazing and beautiful settings, to the little animations that played every time you charged you shield or pistol, to the little gazetter you got with it, nothing has touched me like that since.
Which I’m sure everybody knows, but it never hurts to mention it again, eh? Oh, and it only counts if you’re taking the PC release date, not the Amiga one.
Many, many great games that year, all deserving the time capsule treatment –
Doom, Syndicate, The Chaos Engine, Alien Breed 2, Frontier: Elite II, Sam and Max Hit the Road..
I’m gonna put a vote in for Gabriel Knight Sins of the Fathers. Still some of the most interesting storytelling and characterization of any game, the funny banter between Gabriel and Grace, the creeping mystery and great puzzles… It made for one solid adventure. Until very near the end you were never quite sure whether the occult elements of the story were real or not and the game managed to be scary, pixels and all. In fact I think the by today’s standards crude graphics created a much deeper sense of dread than most modern normal-mapped atrocities.
Wait wait wait!
Forget everything I’ve said about Shadow of the Comet!
It’s a great game, but there’s one which I like even more.
It’s called Veil of Darkness, a game similar in tone to Shadow, an isometric adventure/rpg.
It was made by the same developers of Sanitarium, a later released cult classic, before they changed their name to Dreamforge Intertainment. Then they were called Event Horizon.
So, what’s so great about it? Again, the atmosphere.
The game begins with your character flying a plane when he gets shot down through mysterious circumstances (which already get explained in the intro, so they’re not that mysterious at all). He survives the crash and and finds himself in a village that seems to be very much behind the times.
The villagers have no idea what a plane is and don’t know anything about modern inventions.
So, basically, your quest is to break the curse of the village.
The atmosphere here is very dark and unsettling again, you don’t know what to expect, you feel that everyone hides a mystery.
While the main story arc is very straightforward and no mystery, not much more complex than the story of Doom, there are of course many side stories and tasks you have to fulfill.
The game world is also very fun to explore. You start in a village but the further you progress the more you can explore the valley. There are some more or less well-hidden secret places which are fun to find out.
The main point against the game is the combat system. It just sucks. Then there are some dungeons/mazes which are plain boring.
I also never finished this game since the actions parts get pretty hard towards the end.
But the atmosphere, the characters, the game world are so strong, so creepy and so fun to explore that those weaknesses are negligible.
It’s mostly an adventure, the action and rpg elements are sparse.
Again, Mobygames knows more.
Veil of Darkness’ engine is great, too. Yeah, that one’s definitely a forgotten classic – and I didn’t know the Sanitarium people made it. Huh. I can see that, now that I know.
I seem to remember Doom being one of the first games that lured me onto the PC platform, and away from the Amiga.
I have fond memories of playing network Doom when I was 7 with my cousin.
Fate of Atlantis was ‘92.
My vote’s for Space Quest V. Great puzzles, comedy deaths, fantastic MIDI score, a few decent arcadey sections scattered about and some stellar booklet action in the box. Ridiculous copy protection as well.
Sierra pretty much at their peak I reckon.
Another vote for SimCity 2000 here. I seem to remember RPS doing a retro feature on it sometime last year…
I still have the original SC2k box, receipt, and floppies. It’s the only piece of gaming memorabilia I’ve ever felt compelled to preserve :)
Dino Park Tycoon
It was not the first of the whole “Tycoon” series (Railroad Tycoon being the first, I believe) but it was a solid tycoon title. Also, this game was picked up by many education departments (those that had computer programs) and was available to a large population of youths as a reward activity after, say, typing exercises.
The game also had the merging of two beneficial topics to children: Dinosaurs and Economics. The game was built intelligently enough to subtlety inform whoever plays it about the dietary tendencies of the dinosaurs as well as basic economic concepts.
But beyond the educational value of this game and the fact that it introduced plenty of kids to computer games, it was a good deal of fun. However, it is free now so that probably means it couldn’t be added to a shelf.
Weird, looking through that list it falls in that few year gap between when I bought a PC and when every PC release no longer got an Amiga release.
I’d love to do something on Gabriel Knight 1, Ultima VII or Sam and Max, but haven’t actually played them yet!
For whoever mentioned Pool of Radiance there’s a fully complete, finished, 100% working remake of it for Neverwinter Nights 2.
It can’t be 100% working if it’s in NWN2!
If you can find the system to run it, the Mac game Pathways Into Darkness was one of the first FPSes to really weave story into gameplay and to give an RPG-style inventory and (slight) puzzle system into the game. It also launched Bungie, which seems to have turned out okay.
Definitely the game that got me hooked on computer gaming.
Add my vote to the Privateer camp. It did what it did better than anything else has to date. And it was loads of fun!
I’m the next one to support Privateer, I spent such lovely days and nights with it, buying more and more powerful ships while following the tracks of alien artifact. I still remember the mission where you had to protect the librarian from pirates, it was a pain in the buttocks.
I also had great time with BloodNet – it was a nice combination of adventure and RPG, let you jury-rig your own items and had interesting cyberspace. Plus it was in future and had wampires! What a great combination. I guess I loved how it reminded me of Blade Runner. I bought the CD version just recently out of nostalgia.
Some more 1993 games to consider: Gateway from Legend – an outstanding adventure, the first Realms of Arkania title (Blade of Destiny), which was a very detailed RPG series, and I personally loved SimFarm but I’m not quite sure why (although one of my reasons was the sound cows made when cars ran over them).
Also: Space Hulk. Rich in atmosphere, great combination of realtime and paused strategy (Baldur’s Gate kind of picked up on that later) with sort-of FPS. Especially the atmosphere was brilliant.
I’m also up there with my support of X-Wing, one of the best games I have ever played and finished. I bought a joystick just for that back at the time when joystick cost my 2-months worth of allowance.
Also, Caesar is important, but mainly for the fact that it spawned two much superior sequels (to which I lost many a night). It was released as freeware, if I remember correctly.
So, besides the 1993 only thing, isn’t he asking for which ones would be best to obtain a physical, retail copy of? Because they are rare? So (for now) we can probably cut out all the ones that have since been released as freeware, and the more popular/well known titles can be skipped for now as well…
I’m slightly startled to note that Mobygames hasn’t heard of any of these, but while Pathways into Darkness is doubtless their first commercial success, Bungie released three games before that: Gnop!, a freeware Pong clone. Operation Desert Storm. And a multiplayer dungeoncrawler called Minotaur: The Labyrinths of Crete. I’ve never played any of them because they’re not exactly widely commercially available and Minotaur in particular, being solely multiplayer, never drew my interest.
Betrayal at Krondor
Cannon Fodder*
California Games 2
Lands of Lore: The Throne of Chaos
Leisure Suit Larry 6: Shape Up or Slip Out!
Master of Orion*
Sam & Max Hit the Road
Ultima VII*
Syndicate*
Not a bad year, I’d say.
The ones signaled with an * are my picks.
Add another vote for Ultima Underworld II – the underworlds were made of refined awesome.
Ultima 7: Serpent Isle (Exult keeps it alive; they’ve now transferred it to Pocket PC!),
Ultima Underworld II,
Sam N Max,
Syndicate,
Ultima Underworld II,
Space Hulk,
Dune,
Indy & Atlantis,
Ultima Underworld II,
Frontier: Elite II,
Gabriel Knight: Sins of the Father,
Mad Dog McCree (rubbish)
Ultima Underworld II,
DAY OF THE FREAKING TENTACLE?!
Simon the Sorceror (to see how it holds up, tbh),
Ultima Underworld II.
I think what Grill is trying to say is: Ulitma Underworld II.
Good to see I’m not alone.
I’m amazed at the lack of mentions for Doom or Wolf 3d. But then, UU2 was better ;-)
All the id stuff is on Steam, see
Ah, fair enough. I seem to be almost alone among PC gamers in having a steam alergy, due to bad experiences back in the HL2 launch days.
Steam has improved a lot since the HL2 release, I personally think it’s a nice platform for PC gaming.
Only one gripe with it, and that’s the requirement to have steam on while playing. But hey, I guess that’s better that having to put the game CD/DVD in all the time, or resort to nocd cracks…
such a shame that it was amiga and console only..
james pond 3 was released in 1993 and was a cracking example of a platformer..
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/James_Pond_3:_Operation_Starfish
I wasted too many hours on that game.
Just wait for 1994 and 1995 to come along, I have some class titles to mention for those years :D
The PC version of Crammond’s F1GP came out in early 1993.
Doom man, Doom
My problem with steam is having to install the games where IT wants them, rather than where YOU want them. I like to have control over where things live on my computer.
Unless that has changed, which I doubt, it’ll still annoy me intensely.
Lots of great choices here already mentioned, but most of them are still so abundant out there on ebay that they do not need to preserved in a museum just yet.
I demand you seek a copy of either Bloodstone or Ambush at Sorinor, the final games of the underdog developer that was Mindscape. Ambush had going for it the fact that it was the sequel to one of the first RTS, Siege, and replaced the latter’s eponymous but repetitive conflicts with more various and dynamic ambushes. AND it’s not on the list of the 250 most popular DOS games at MobyGames, which certainly makes it worth preserving by itself.
I remember trying to set up a syndicate multiplayer game once. It took us quite some time to have this game running and suddenly we weren’t into playing multiplayer syndicate anymore. That was strange and maybe 10 years ago. I liked syndicate singleplayer though. This game was really fantastic – the demo hooked me ;)
Epic Pinball …. its better than gears of war