What other Apogee classics should be revisited?

[Koko Ricky]

Seeing as Interceptor Entertainment is bringing "Rise of the Triad" back and has hinted at reviving other Apogee titles, does anyone have a wish list? Here's mine.

Commander Keen: Goodbye, Galaxy: The Keen game most are probably familiar with. This platformer had some of the best art direction and level design of its time, some reay cool secrets and a lot of imagination.

Raptor: Call of the Shadows: Vertical shooter in the style of "Aero Fighters." It used a simple point system to let you upgrade your ship, and allowed you to replay previously beaten episodes with said upgrades. One of the best looking VGA games for DOS.

Hocus Pocus: Standard shooting platformer that wasn't innovative or original, but succeeded because it was oozing with style and had touches of quirky humor.

Crystal Caves: Standard gem collecting platformer. Great level design and a solid art style.

Cosmo's Cosmic Adventure: Surprisingly fun for being so standard, although the suction cup hands (granting the player climbing abilities similar to Knuckles) and the ability to blow up many of the game's objects were cool touches. This game had a very creative and childlike art style.

Blake Stone: Aliens of Gold: Excellent use of the Wolfenstein engine, and some cool enemy designs too. Had some innovative features at the time but was marred by repetitive levels, an unavoidable consequence of the engine used.

Duke Nukem 2: Action packed shooting platformer with high octane gameplay, awesome weapons, lots of in jokes and a fun point system. Oh and a badass soundtrack.

[Springy]

Duke Nukem 2 and Blake Stone series for definite and yes Commander Keen would be a nice reboot. Speaking of Hocus Pocus, that is now on GOG.

[Technician]

They just recently remade Duke Nukem II for iGimmicks.

[Springy]

Technician said:

They just recently remade Duke Nukem II for iGimmicks.

Oh yeah, I have that as well, it's not bad but has a few bugs.

[durian]

Aside from the Keens, I would add:

Major Stryker: Although Raptor looked much nicer, and had more complex elements to the gameplay - what with introducing currency and trading - Stryker was just so much more fun, with fantastic weapon upgrades, great visual design (in 16 glorious colours!), Bobby Prince soundtrack, and tongue-in-cheek intermissions. It had some real charm. Raptor felt gloomy and cumbersome in comparison.

Wacky Wheels: A Mario Kart clone, in which hedgehogs are used as projectile weapons. It was a lot of fun, and did battle-mode much better than MK ever has.

[Nevanos]

I pray Raptor will get revisited one day. One of my all time favourites.

[dew]

Nevan said:

I pray Raptor will get revisited one day. One of my all time favourites.

seconded. i especially wish someone capable tapped the potential of its tracks... they're so primitive, yet so great.

[Koko Ricky]

I think the music kinda sucked in Raptor, didn't fit the constant action at all, but it's not terrible. The currency/trading thing was really cool, and I think if they remake it, it ought to be deeper, like letting you upgrade your speed, armor, number of arms, etc.

[Clonehunter]

I'd vote for Keen or Blake Stone.


Though, I'd still be more interested in Action Forms revisits, like Chasm: The Rift.

[Belial]

dew said:

seconded. i especially wish someone capable tapped the potential of its tracks... they're so primitive, yet so great.

One of them is still a ringtone on my old Nokia :P

[Bucket]

I could rattle off some pie-in-the-sky ideas about a Wolf3D source port, but... I'll just say I enjoyed Paganitzu and it would make a great smartphone game.

[Jodwin]

Duke 2.


Raptor is good because of nostalgia and the shop, but it really isn't that good of a shoot 'em up. It barely rewards skillful play because of the combination of big hitboxes, slow movement and static enemy behaviour. Instead being good in Raptor is more of a matter of memorizing where the enemies are going to spawn and which kind of predetermined and fixed shooting pattern they are going to have, so that you won't have your slow, huge ass in the wrong place at the wrong time. Also, the bosses are really, really lazy.

[Maes]

Jodwin said:

Instead being good in Raptor is more of a matter of memorizing where the enemies are going to spawn and which kind of predetermined and fixed shooting pattern they are going to have, so that you won't have your slow, huge ass in the wrong place at the wrong time.

BUT JODWIN, L0L, that happens in a ton of other games, including your beloved danmakus!

[Jodwin]

Maes said:

BUT JODWIN, L0L, that happens in a ton of other games, including your beloved danmakus!

Except that it'll be a fast moving, pixel sized ass. :P

[j4rio]

I'll go with bio menace.

[Gez]

Hocus Pocus was just published by Apogee; it was made by another studio called Moonlite Software.

Other Apogee platformers not mentioned yet include Realms of Chaos and Secret Agent, both of which are on GOG. Secret Agent isn't all that interesting -- exact same engine and gameplay as Crystal Caves, and I remember there were some bugs that made the shareware episode impossible to complete. Realms of Chaos is more modern, with the Trine-like gimmick of alternating between two characters at will and VGA (rather than EGA) graphics.

[DoomUK]

Why are we asking for more reboots of classic games?

We all know too well how disappointing they tend to be. Just because there's one reboot on the horizon which happens to look quite promising, it doesn't mean Apogee's entire back catalogue should be churned out all over again, wrapped up in a pretty new engine.

[Coopersville]

Monster Bash, except maybe without the required collectathon mechanic.

[Mr. Freeze]

I just want Heretic and Hexen remastered!

[Technician]

Mr. Freeze said:

I just want Heretic and Hexen remastered!

Why? Also, define remastered.

[DooM_RO]

Mr. Freeze said:

I just want Heretic and Hexen remastered!

Might as well also remaster Doom then.

[Technician]

DooM_RO said:

Might as well also remaster Doom then.

The term "remaster" has become a diluted buzzword; it can mean anything from rebuilding the tech to redrawing the art.

Remaster means one thing: Enhancing previously recorded elements and mastering it for a new or existing medium. Arguably we've done that to the extreme with modern source ports.

[Coraline]

Coopersville said:

Monster Bash, except maybe without the required collectathon mechanic.

This! I loved that game as a kid. Also, Bio Menace would be sick!

In regards to Raptor, I always felt Demonstar as the true followup (same company made it, it was released in the late 90's but felt miles more "modern" than Raptor. Check it out, it's a fun game!

[Fletcher`]

Chu said:

This! I loved that game as a kid. Also, Bio Menace would be sick!

In regards to Raptor, I always felt Demonstar as the true followup (same company made it, it was released in the late 90's but felt miles more "modern" than Raptor. Check it out, it's a fun game!

While we're at it, lets see Tyrian 3D!

[Clonehunter]

rf` said:

While we're at it, lets see Tyrian 3D!

A return to Tyrian would actually be very cool. In fact, that as a project may almost be a must.