Ask HN: What “retro” PC game(s) do you miss but have not played in years?
24 comments
Planetfall, by Infocom. It was a text based game that I never quite finished. Funny and with good puzzles.
For me it has to be:
Ultima 7: The Black Gate
Ultima Underworld 1
Master of Magic
Pizza Tycoon
Crystal Cave
everquest and leisure suit larry
Red Alert 2
I can't think of a game right off the top of my head (I don't, and honestly haven't, played that many).
But I wanted to comment on your site. Wow that's pretty awesome! Can you share a bit more about the technology behind it and who you are? It looks like you are using Meteor at some level or another. Very neat idea!
But I wanted to comment on your site. Wow that's pretty awesome! Can you share a bit more about the technology behind it and who you are? It looks like you are using Meteor at some level or another. Very neat idea!
Commander Keen.
Not sure how "retro" it is but I played a lot of Tribes 2 and would play it again.
Dungeon Keeper is an all time favorite
Below the Root
Robot Odyssey
ZZT
Bolo
. . . a lot more retro than Warcraft. :-)
Robot Odyssey
ZZT
Bolo
. . . a lot more retro than Warcraft. :-)
If it has to be IBM PC (not other classic machines like Apple II, Commodore64, Atari ST, ...), then Sopwith comes to mind:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sopwith_%28video_game%29
Haven't played in around 27 years.
Wow, a whole site dedicated to this: http://www.sopwith.org
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sopwith_%28video_game%29
Haven't played in around 27 years.
Wow, a whole site dedicated to this: http://www.sopwith.org
Xcom was a lot of fun.
The Incredible Machine - I hope my kids can play this when they get a little older
I miss The Dig [1], one of those SCUMM games. Maybe Age of Empires I/II?
Also, Myst & Riven are classics.
[1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Dig
Also, Myst & Riven are classics.
[1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Dig
Xonix
[deleted]
There's an old collection of games called Aviation Adventure that I was addicted to as a kid. One of the games that came with it was "F4U Sortie" (or something like that), involving having to fly an F4U Corsair through German radar defenses in order to deliver messages to people or something. That would be a fun one to play again.
Carmageddon!
I'd say Heroes of Might and Magic 3...
But I'd be lying because I still play it occasionally at small LAN parties with friends.
Also, not retro by any measure but Supreme Commander (1) is still my favorite RTS by far.
But I'd be lying because I still play it occasionally at small LAN parties with friends.
Also, not retro by any measure but Supreme Commander (1) is still my favorite RTS by far.
Ah, so close. I was going to say M&M 6. My uncle introduced me to the game when I was a kid, and it was the first game I ever got hooked on. I read through the walkthrough book he gave me like it was a novel. I knew everything about everything in that game!
Kings quest 1-5
Civilization I was the best of the series, and my vote for best video game of all time. The only one that improved on it was Alpha Centauri, which got a lot of the automation right. All the other Civ sequels have just found ways to add more "work" without actually making the game any more fun.
Master of Orion (again, the first one) was pure awesome and I still dig it up to play it at least once a year. It's one of those games where you wish that somebody would build an interface that ran the original executable in the background to power a more modern UI. There's nothing that needs changing. Nothing that could be changed without making it worse. As MOO2 and MOO3 demonstrate.
Ultima 3 & 4 were the best of their series, and (combined with a hex editor) got a lot of my generation thinking about the mechanics of game programming.
Lode Runner would be cool to see again. Not sure how a modern version would work for today's audiences. At least you have the several failed remakes to look to for inspiration on what not to try.
There are lots of others. Entire genres, in fact.
Master of Orion (again, the first one) was pure awesome and I still dig it up to play it at least once a year. It's one of those games where you wish that somebody would build an interface that ran the original executable in the background to power a more modern UI. There's nothing that needs changing. Nothing that could be changed without making it worse. As MOO2 and MOO3 demonstrate.
Ultima 3 & 4 were the best of their series, and (combined with a hex editor) got a lot of my generation thinking about the mechanics of game programming.
Lode Runner would be cool to see again. Not sure how a modern version would work for today's audiences. At least you have the several failed remakes to look to for inspiration on what not to try.
There are lots of others. Entire genres, in fact.
I would second Civilization.
I think it was my first videogame, my dad showed it to me.
One day I tried democracy because it should be the best thing since we were using it in real life, what a disaster every decision I make was denied, I couldn't do anything. My dad told me to just put communism and do whatever I want. Easy.
I used to miss Theme Hospital, but like many DOS retro games it's been cloned. CorsixTH https://github.com/CorsixTH/CorsixTH has a day old beta for a release https://github.com/CorsixTH/CorsixTH/releases/tag/v0.50-beta...
Theme Hospital & Sim Tower!
http://www.arcadeup.io
The time has come to expand beyond Warcraft.
We're looking for other games that the HN community would like to see available in our catalog.