NationStates Jolt Archive

Yes, that's right. Not games that began a new trend, or set a new high, but those unbelievably awesome games that were WAY ahead of their time, yet relatively unrecognized. I for one, must nominate three games:

G-nome (http://www.the-underdogs.info/game.php?id=2510) I remember playing this with my grandfather, back on windows '95. Good times, good times. I still play it now and then even today.

Dominion (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dominion:_Storm_Over_Gift_3) I love this game! Too bad it didn't get the recognition it deserved. And the Anti-tank infantry in that game could actually HARM other infantry!:eek2: It was a dream come true!:tongue:

Tzar: The burden of the Crown (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tzar:_The_Burden_of_the_Crown) I still play this one too. Made back in '01 (If my memory serves me correctly), yet full of innovations even Warcraft 3 didn't have. An easy to use level editor, perhaps not as complex as WIII with models and triggers, but a good one none-the-less. A hero and veterancy system, naming units, I could prattle on for hours about this one.

So how about it NSGers? Awesome old games that were way ahead of their time?

Deus Ex.

Star Trek CCG, until it was ruined by trying to be like other CCGs.

stick ball

The Matrix Online.

In the days of the dinosaurs, (1980's), before the Internet, during the days of 300 bps modems and 1200 bps were guru, Sperry computers using 8088 CPUs w/turbo mode 8mhz and 4 color RGB monitors, the first RTS game was invented and it was hard as heck to find strangers to play aginst, so you had to call your friends on the phone and tell them to hang up and call the BBS with their computer because you wanted to play Modem Wars!

http://i235.photobucket.com/albums/ee218/Balderdash71964/Modem_War_1988.jpg

Link to History (http://www.gamespot.com/gamespot/features/pc/unsung_heroes/sec2_07.html)

The definitive 'before it's time' game: Elite

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Elite_(computer_game)

Chess

Time travel.

Duke Nukem 3D: Before Quake, yet it had gameplay features not seen pretty much until Unreal.

Stunts: It's got all it takes for a great arcade racing - awesome tracks with vertical loops and stuff, a track editor, and nice real-life cars. Yet it's a simulator. No, seriously. It's not rFactor, but its physics engine lets you actually tell what you're driving blindfolded - so well it manages the weight balance of the car, its grip characteristics, the engine's torque curve, and even some basic aerodynamics.

Hmm... Must be a lot of others. I don't remember.

System Shock was a 1st Person Shooter released in 1994, one year after Doom, and it introduced a 3D environment (You could lean around corners, climb, squat, crawl, look up and down, and you had to actually aim a cross hair to hit people), an interactive environment (see that severed head? try picking it up. Good, now try throwing it at that mutant over there), puzzles (thinking during a shooting game?), physics (get swatted by a mutant and go spinning), character improvement (via software and hardware upgrades) and other such greatness.
The best part of System Shock, though, was the story and atmosphere. The messages you'd get from SHODAN wall crawling around and the random logs of other survivors managed to insert a plot into a game that was otherwise defined by shooting lasers at robots and swatting security cameras with pipes.

Marathon. Epic FPS by Mac-based Bungie -- who would be bought by MS and make Halo, which borrows more than a bit from Marathon.

Also in the pre-history of FPS and WoW even, Intellivision's Dungeons & Dragons: The Treasure of Tarmin. Six backpack slots; multiple levels of multiple items for offense, defense, spells; enemies that different spells worked well or less well on; respectable 2D as 3D (especially for 1983).

RTS: Intellivision's Utopia.

Sports: Intellivision's Super Pro Football -- programmable receivers in 1986, 'nuff said.

Act-Raiser, for SNES

Battlecruiser 3000AD

Great ideas, buggy software.

I just miss the Seven Cities of Gold. Slaughtering entire Aztec villages was soooo much guilty fun.

Tom Clancy's Ghost Recon has a plot line involving war in Georgia some time in 2008. Or do you mean something else?

Fallout, one of the first CRPGs to free the player from the plot so he can do whatever he wants in whatever order. Yes, the post-nuclear scenario isn't new, but it was never portrayed better than then.

Castlevania: Symphony of the Night, for the playstation was also quite groundbreaking for a platformer.

And SNES' Rudora No Hihou, as a late release, was very ahead of its era too.

The Incredible Machine
Ultima

(PS2)

Graphically, Killzone 1, and Black for the PS2. Killzone was released in 2004, and was pretty much unrivalled in graphics until Black came along in 2006 (I think 06 is correct) Killzone 1 still looks good even now. And so does Black! MOH Frontline was superb too, usual for an early PS2 release.

Other Consoles. ( The oldies :] )

Sonic for the Master System, Age of Empires 1 for the PC, and Worms on the PS1 are all ground breaking games ahead of their times in my opinion.

Celtic Kings by Hiememont Games came around at about the same time as Warcraft III. The focus of the game is on the Roman conquest of Gaul. The game features a unique hero system that allows you to not only create and summon heroes at any time but have those heroes lead armies of up to I think 50 men a peice. There are no unit caps and each faction plays differently.

The Romans have superior troops by a good margin and their heroes are better leaders, they give the men in their command much better bonuses. Gaul troops are not as good but their heroes are tougher and deal better damage than Roman heroes.
Each faction had unique upgrades, strategies, and magics, and soldiers and heroes alike could be trained to higher levels before even seeing any combat.

Like Warcraft III it also had random enemies that were on the map but the best tw features of the game I haven't seen replicated in a RTS genre game yet.

The first is the supply line system, you actually have to rely on outside villages for sustenance and money to build your armies that are located in cities. There is no limit to how many villages and cities you can control and it made for some very cool strategies that could be used. You had to build a network of supply lines across your land and protect the outlying villages and fortresses, not too mention your supply lines from keeping canny players from attacking your pack mules and cargo ships to cut your food. You could attack enemy supply lines, capture or burn down entire villages to lay siege to an enemy city, and many other great strategies could be enacted using that system to beet your enemies.

The other best feature of the game, When you captured an enemy stronghold you could than use it to create your own armies. If a Roman General captures a Gaul city you can create Gaul armies, heroes, mercenaries, and etc to use against your enemy.

Tom Clancy's Ghost Recon has a plot line involving war in Georgia some time in 2008. Or do you mean something else?

In Ghost recn you play a special forces unit fighting Mexican rebels in 2013.

Your thinking of the stealth action game Splinter Cell, where you play a CIA Operative named Sam Fisher (Tom Clancy's very best character ever) the war in Georgia is a plot device used to set the story and pace of the action. In the game, its the United States against the Georgians, not Russia and Georgia.

In Ghost recn you play a special forces unit fighting Mexican rebels in 2013.

Your thinking of the stealth action game Splinter Cell, where you play a CIA Operative named Sam Fisher (Tom Clancy's very best character ever) the war in Georgia is a plot device used to set the story and pace of the action. In the game, its the United States against the Georgians, not Russia and Georgia.

That's the latest one: Advanced Warfighter. He's talking about the very first Ghost Recon game.http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tom_Clancy%27s_Ghost_Recon_(video_game)

That's the latest one: Advanced Warfighter. He's talking about the very first Ghost Recon game.http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tom_Clancy%27s_Ghost_Recon_(video_game)

My bad, I never played the original Ghost recon but I have played all of the Splinter Cell Games... still all of them too.

Goldeneye. That was good.

The Game. Which you just lost, incidentally.

Thinking way back, I can remember 3 games that I think fit your description.

The first was Dungeons of Daggorath, for the TRaSh-80. Was the first attempt I can recall at 3D graphics. It even had a heartbeat, which would rise as you got into a fight. Nice precursor to the health bar.

The next game is Eye of the Beholder, by SSI. When it came out in 1990 it was the most amazing 3D game I'd seen. Your spells would travel down hallways, the characters were animated, and most amazing of all, it had directional sound, allowing you to sit and listen and determine in which direction you could find the bad guys. Blew me away.

Finally the original Prince of Persia. At the time the game was unlike anything I'd ever seen. The character moved in a lifelike manner, running and fighting and pulling himself up or jumping down. The fights actually required you to block and dodge, rather than just pound on a button. Finally, it was all done in real time. You had 60 minutes to complete the game or the Princess would die.

I hate to be obvious, but Charles Babbage's release of the original 1871 Final Fantasy game was definitely ahead of its time, mainly because he never finished building a working computer on which it could be played. Many who had bought the game protested vociferously and threatened legal action when they found that there was no machine available on which to play their purchase, leading of course to the fatal accident where Babbage tried to escape away to the Caribbean on an unfinished solar-powered aircraft. It is believed that the unfinished nature of the craft led it to fail somewhere over the Bermuda Triangle, where Babbage was captured by reptilian aliens and his DNA fused with that of the aliens to create a new race, controlled by the reptilians, from which all major political leaders in the twentieth and twenty-first century have emerged.

Ocarina of Time.

Tom Clancy's Ghost Recon has a plot line involving war in Georgia some time in 2008. Or do you mean something else?

Holy shit, I remember that now! :eek: Everyone watch out for the plots of Ghost Recon games!

Holy shit, I remember that now! :eek: Everyone watch out for the plots of Ghost Recon games!

Tom Clancy games have plots?

populous

a game so good that i just pre-ordered the ds game from amazon.com

Mount&Blade (http://www.taleworlds.com/) is ahead of its time. Best medieval combat simulator I've ever seen.

Goldeneye. That was good.

Agreed! Spent many hours with friends in multiplayer proxy-mine madness. That game was effectively the floodgate that turned the trickle of multiplayer FPS into the torrent that it is today.

Ocarina of Time.

Mmm. It was the best game ever (In my opinion), but it got the recognition it deserved, and was less "way ahead of it's time", and more "Some innovations+perfection of the genre+awesome storyline"
/threadjack over.

Did I just threadjack my own thread?

Mount&Blade (http://www.taleworlds.com/) is ahead of its time. Best medieval combat simulator I've ever seen.

YES! YES! FINALLY! I love that game! But it isn't finished yet, so I left it out.

It was finished about a week ago. ;)

It was finished about a week ago. ;)

It...Huh....Wha?... HOW DID I NOT HEAR ABOUT THIS! *runs to website* Sweet mother it's true! it's finally finished! And I paid early so I got it for less! YES! YES! YES! *dances*

Pong?
Oh yeah, Zork and Telengaard.

Super Mario Bros., hands down. Polygamy in all it´s splendor!!!

Polygamy in all it´s splendor!!!
Did you ever hook up with Dinaverg, btw? *pimps*

Did you ever hook up with Dinaverg, btw? *pimps*

Nope, unfortunately I was too busy being pimped by you to Galloism that I forgot.

Nope, unfortunately I was too busy being pimped by you to Galloism that I forgot.That's right, i did do that, didn't i?
Seemed like a good ... investment ... at the time. *reminisces*
Dinaverg's got a good sig, you should check it out some time.

Can I go with MGS? Huge story, new kind of stealth style, but no first person aiming! >.<

That's right, i did do that, didn't i?
Seemed like a good ... investment ... at the time. *reminisces*
Dinaverg's got a good sig, you should check it out some time.

It was a good... business venture, until Gallo sprained his lower back.:p

Care to link me to Dinav´s sig, then?

Can I go with MGS? Huge story, new kind of stealth style, but no first person aiming! >.<
You can go with whatever you like.

You can go with whatever you like.

Well, I didn't know it it was "ahead of it's time." Tis all.

It was a good... business venture, until Gallo sprained his lower back.:p

Care to link me to Dinav´s sig, then?
Does that require real work on my part?
I thought that's why i became a pimp in the first place ..... *grumbles*
/brb

Does that require real work on my part?
I thought that's why i became a pimp in the first place ..... *grumbles*
/brb

*whistles and waits*
No one said pimpin´ was easy, you know... <.<

Well, I didn't know it it was "ahead of it's time." Tis all.

I don't remember any other 3D stealth games with an alert system, the ability to put C4 on your enemy's backs, and wall-hugging. Oh, and finding the red lasers with cigarettes.

*whistles and waits*
No one said pimpin´ was easy, you know... <.<
Mmmkay ....
http://forums.jolt.co.uk/member.php?u=887667
Took me a minute to distract one o'tha boys.

Mmmkay ....
http://forums.jolt.co.uk/member.php?u=887667
Took me a minute to distract one o'tha boys.

Oh, I see: Polygamy, cures what ails ya. :P

It was a good... business venture, until Gallo sprained his lower back.:p

Care to link me to Dinav´s sig, then?

First of all, I did not sprain my lower back. I cracked a rib when we fell off the roof and you landed on top of me with those bony elbows.

:soap:

First of all, I did not sprain my lower back. I cracked a rib when we fell off the roof and you landed on top of me with those bony elbows.

:soap:

Well, excuse me. You were the one with the fall-from-roof fetish. I was complying since you finalized the business transaction with The Brev, and the gods forbid I go back on my contract. Besides, being slapped by a pimp ain´t my idea of fun, you know. *puffs up like a Pokémon* :mad:

Oh, I see: Polygamy, cures what ails ya. :P
Indeed!
And speaking of "ails" .... do you need your temperature taken?

Indeed!
And speaking of "ails" .... do you need your temperature taken?

Perhaps...
Now THIS, this, ladies and gents, is a game WAY ahead of it´s time... :D

Besides, being slapped by a pimp ain´t my idea of fun, you know. *puffs up like a Pokémon* :mad:What? Who be slappin'?
:mad:
Only slappin' should be goin' on be tha uglies and tha booties.

Perhaps...
Now THIS, this, ladies and gents, is a game WAY ahead of it´s time... :D
BTW - that's not mercury.
And if i read this correctly, i'm thinking you're mocking my staying power. *tsk*

Well, excuse me. You were the one with the fall-from-roof fetish. I was complying since you finalized the business transaction with The Brev, and the gods forbid I go back on my contract. Besides, being slapped by a pimp ain´t my idea of fun, you know. *puffs up like a Pokémon* :mad:

I told you that I could be your new pimp and I could get rid of the old pimp, but nooooo.... You didn't want a different pimp.

BTW - that's not mercury.
And if i read this correctly, i'm thinking you're mocking my staying power. *tsk*

Oh gods, now. I could never, in a million years, mock your staying power, darling. Besides, I can´t mock my landlord. I can get evicted and then, to be out, in the cold world, with Jhah... horrible to even think about it.:eek:

I told you that I could be your new pimp and I could get rid of the old pimp, but nooooo.... You didn't want a different pimp.

Can´t I have 2 pimps? It´s the best of both world, after all.

Oh gods, now. I could never, in a million years, mock your staying power, darling. Besides, I can´t mock my landlord.I would if i ever saw 'em, so i don't mind.
I can get evicted and then, to be out, in the cold world, with Jhah... horrible to even think about it.:eek:
Well, that's where perhaps, as tumultuous an entity as he is, he might help by inhabiting every vacant part of yourself. Rubbing and friction (to a "degree", nudge) usually helps with increasing heat, too.

I would if i ever saw 'em, so i don't mind.

Well, that's where perhaps, as tumultuous an entity as he is, he might help by inhabiting every vacant part of yourself. Rubbing and friction (to a "degree", nudge) usually helps with increasing heat, too.

Rubbing and friction can lead to unimaginable paths and sensations, you know.:eek2: *blushes scarlet and sighs*

I better turn in now, Jhah´s soon to be here after fishing in the inner-most recesses of my psyche. I don´t wish to see what he may have captured there.
*grabs something long from her drawer and disappears into the privy*

Can´t I have 2 pimps? It´s the best of both world, after all.

No slave can serve for two masters, my dear.

*grabs something long from her drawer and disappears into the privy*
w00t!
May The Force be with her. In all ways. :D

:hail:

Metroid. Sure, you guys take your Symphony of the Night for granted, but all the Metroidvanias of the world owe their very existance to the original Metroid. Basically, it's a sci-fi horror version of what you'd get if Mario and Zelda mated. All the tricky platforming of Mario with the nonlinear exploration and tools/weapons of Zelda. It's just too bad that Metroid game out when it did. It was way too easy to get lost, though the password system isn't as bad as people claim (NARPAS SWORD0 and JUSTIN BAILEY ftw). For those of you who enjoy being able to take whatever path you want to complete your objective and a world where you are actually exploring instead of just racing to the end of the level, you should thank Metroid. And Nintendo because Nintendo made Metroid.

I am downright shocked that (assuming everyone here is a P.C. owner) no one has mentioned the Half Life franchise. It's already 5 pages in and no one has mentioned neither hide nor hair of Half Life!! You should all be ashamed of yourselves!! The first game to use a total first person immersion that ditched cut scenes (I'm pretty sure, 'cause I haven't heard of any other game that had used this back then). And considering the fact that Half Life was the foundation for Counter-Strike, which played a heavy role in promoting online gaming as well as competitive gaming.

Starcraft. Released 1998, and still being played today by hundreds of thousands of people (not counting South Koreans, 'cause that would basically mean the entire population). Factor in the almost limitless rock-paper-scissor strategies, unique races and damn good story, Starcraft has basically mastered RTS on a level unmatched by any other game. But that's just my opinion.

Soul Blade. Eight way run that revolutionized 3-D fighting games.

DoA... I'm just going with the tit physics (now THAT'S brilliant!).

I haven't played a lot of games, sadly. However, I'll tentatively suggest Age Of Empires (original) for this thread. I may be wrong, but didn't it, Starcraft, and the Civillization series pretty much define the Real Time Strategy genre(for better or worse)?

Fallout, one of the first CRPGs to free the player from the plot so he can do whatever he wants in whatever order. Yes, the post-nuclear scenario isn't new, but it was never portrayed better than then.

Castlevania: Symphony of the Night, for the playstation was also quite groundbreaking for a platformer.

And SNES' Rudora No Hihou, as a late release, was very ahead of its era too.

Wasn't that the one where you could learn new spells by putting combinations of previous spell-words together? So you could theoretically have the most powerful spell in the game early on by spelling it out right?

Metroid. Sure, you guys take your Symphony of the Night for granted, but all the Metroidvanias of the world owe their very existance to the original Metroid. Basically, it's a sci-fi horror version of what you'd get if Mario and Zelda mated. All the tricky platforming of Mario with the nonlinear exploration and tools/weapons of Zelda. It's just too bad that Metroid game out when it did. It was way too easy to get lost, though the password system isn't as bad as people claim (NARPAS SWORD0 and JUSTIN BAILEY ftw). For those of you who enjoy being able to take whatever path you want to complete your objective and a world where you are actually exploring instead of just racing to the end of the level, you should thank Metroid. And Nintendo because Nintendo made Metroid.

The original Metroid is still one of my favorite platformers, though it doesn't quite beat out Super Metroid.

I am downright shocked that (assuming everyone here is a P.C. owner) no one has mentioned the Half Life franchise. It's already 5 pages in and no one has mentioned neither hide nor hair of Half Life!! You should all be ashamed of yourselves!! The first game to use a total first person immersion that ditched cut scenes (I'm pretty sure, 'cause I haven't heard of any other game that had used this back then). And considering the fact that Half Life was the foundation for Counter-Strike, which played a heavy role in promoting online gaming as well as competitive gaming.

Starcraft. Released 1998, and still being played today by hundreds of thousands of people (not counting South Koreans, 'cause that would basically mean the entire population). Factor in the almost limitless rock-paper-scissor strategies, unique races and damn good story, Starcraft has basically mastered RTS on a level unmatched by any other game. But that's just my opinion.

Soul Blade. Eight way run that revolutionized 3-D fighting games.

DoA... I'm just going with the tit physics (now THAT'S brilliant!).

I would have mentioned Half-Life, but I was busy playing Portal & Half-Life 2 today. Starcraft and the original AoE rock, but does anyone here remember Lords of the Realm and Lords 2? Fun times there. Soul Blade was awesome too.

*edit* BTW, I played Half-Life on PS2.

And does anyone else thing Descent was ahead of its time?

Wasn't that the one where you could learn new spells by putting combinations of previous spell-words together? So you could theoretically have the most powerful spell in the game early on by spelling it out right?

Indeed. Nothing like really powerful spells that only cost 1MP. :D

I really liked the game. Great music, interesting characters. Liked how the different story-lines interlinked, though it could be a bit annoying traveling through some areas multiple times.

I'd add Dungeon Keeper. Great game in its own right, but also one of the few that let you play as the villain. It's really too bad Bullfrog is gone. I'd love a new DK.

Colossal Cave! any other fan of that here?

Tomb Raider!

... It's really too bad Bullfrog is gone. I'd love a new DK.

Yeah Dungeon Keeper was great. Especially the narrator. He brought that perfect blend of sarcasm and delightful evilness to the role.

Although it's a pale second at best, you may want to check out Overlord. It has a bit of that feel to it and you do get to be evil.

On a complete side note, there's a British tv series called "How Clean is Your House?" wherein 2 lovely ladies travel around the English countryside, popping into people's homes, telling them what complete pigs they are, then cleaning their flats. I only mention this because the voiceover guy for this show sounds almost exactly like the narrator of Dungeon Keeper (except in reverse, talking about how you've gone from dingy and disgusting to light and airy).

Indeed. Nothing like really powerful spells that only cost 1MP. :D

I really liked the game. Great music, interesting characters. Liked how the different story-lines interlinked, though it could be a bit annoying traveling through some areas multiple times.

I'd add Dungeon Keeper. Great game in its own right, but also one of the few that let you play as the villain. It's really too bad Bullfrog is gone. I'd love a new DK.

Always fun.

I've never really found backtracking to be a problem. I suppose that stems from my love of the Metroid and Zelda series'.

I'll still always love FF6 for its richness of RPG plot, but it doesn't really an innovative system beneath that.

The only game that I can think to add to the pile would be Warzone 2100, because of how ridiculously customizable your units were. It was basically the Alpha Centauri unit design system in an RTS. You could even give them custom color schemes and tags, iirc, and the gameplay was pretty balanced, though cyborg units were never as great as the plot might have led one to believe. That and the unit command/control systems. Of having units linked to a command unit that coordinated fire rather than just spamming enemies, and being able to level units up and then recycle them into better models, resulting in the generation of already experienced units with more advanced firepower. Really cool game.

I still get pinings for some Half Life, Opposing Force and Blue Shift. It was just amazing on so many levels. Undoubtably the best games ever made. A theoretical physicist running around in an underground laboratory killing aliens from another dimension with a crowbar. Have you ever heard of a better concept? I think not.

Metroid kicks ass too.

doom the first episode, and pac-man (fuck yea!)
but right now crysis its graphis rival the ps3's set on lowest quality

w00t!
May The Force be with her. In all ways. :D

:hail:

Yay me! I am a GAME way a-head of its time.:p

Colossal Cave! any other fan of that here?
*raises hand*

also...

Phantasmagoria (the first horror cd game)
Space/Kings Quest. intersting puzzles and quests.
Spaceward HO! a game designed to be played in the Office. :tongue:
Ultima series: undescribable...

Always fun.

I've never really found backtracking to be a problem. I suppose that stems from my love of the Metroid and Zelda series'.

The only game that I can think to add to the pile would be Warzone 2100...

I wasn't talking about backtracking, I meant how there were many places you visited in multiple storylines, which was a small peeve for me, though it wasn't that bad really.

As for Warzone 2100, while I didn't get too far in it in the end, I did enjoy what I saw. It was fun making new tanks and such all the time. I'm not sure how much I missed, but I think I stopped playing shortly after getting the ability to make hover-tanks.

This.http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Custer%27s_Revenge