Games that time forgot

[lazygecko]

I've found a rather amusing past time lately... Rummaging through old game magazines and looking up old games that aren't the usual classics or underrated gems from bygone eras. There are so many titles that never have the privilege of being brought up in retrospectives. Probably because most of them were either bad or just mediocre games. And a couple of interesting ones that never even got released. Still, I think there is some value in bringing them to light again. Some of them are so obscure you can't even find any decent Youtube footage of them... Nor can you find them for sale on gog.com

One great resource is http://www.cgwmuseum.org/ which has a scanned archive of Computer Gaming World issues.

First up is Mageslayer from Raven Software. Most people remember Raven doing the Doom offshoots Heretic and Hexen, but not Mageslayer. Looks like a top down Gauntlet style fantasy game. They also made another top down action game called Take No Prisoners around the same time, and I did play that one back in the day.

Next up is Descent to Undermountain. This is in fact an AD&D (Forgotten Realms) 3D dungeon crawler made with... the Descent engine. You know, the claustrophobic (pre-Freespace) spaceship shooter. Looks mildly interesting but I can't find it for sale on GOG, which is odd given that D&D games overall are pretty popular.

Last Rites. A team-based FPS where you fight hordes of zombies... from 1997.

Dreams to Reality. I remember playing a demo of this. Made by Cryo who were mostly profilic for games like Dune and Megarace in the early 90's. This one feels sort of inspired by Nights on Sega Saturn. And it has that European quirkiness to it.

Then there's all the stuff that didn't get released. Agents of Justice seemed like it was going to be a superhero strategy game in the vein of X-Com. I also saw an ad in a CGW issue for a game from Maxis called Crucible. Obviously, this game never got released and there is extremly little information (and no media) availbale. Apparently it was a dungeon crawler in the style of Diablo.

[mrthejoshmon]

This is interesting, I'm gonna take a look and see what I can dig up.

[Da Werecat]

Mageslayer was fun. It would be nice to have rotating camera and better hardware-accelerated mode in it, but still, a solid Raven fantasy game.

[Stygian]

As they say, one man's trash is another man's treasure. I love scavenging for "abandonware" DOS games.

[40oz]

Last Rites looked cool to me, almost like a Left 4 Dead before Left 4 Dead but after I read some reviews of it it said the engine was buggy, the level design was boring, and pretty much all the maps were mostly identical, and ammo was really scarce. The idea sounds really cool but apparently the execution was sloppy.

[Nomad]

GeckoYamori said:

Next up is Descent to Undermountain. This is in fact an AD&D (Forgotten Realms) 3D dungeon crawler made with... the Descent engine. You know, the claustrophobic (pre-Freespace) spaceship shooter. Looks mildly interesting but I can't find it for sale on GOG, which is odd given that D&D games overall are pretty popular.

Oh man, I want this to have been good but all the reviews say it was pretty bad. Really disappointing considering that Chris Avellone worked on it.

[Fletcher`]

Darkwolf. While not the best game in the world, it was still fun and the music was quite catchy. Sadly doesn't seem to exist ANYWHERE anymore.

[Da Werecat]

I wanted to share a link, but it's probably illegal.

[Clonehunter]

Huh, Mageslayer looks pretty cool... Need to find that one somewhere. Last Rite looks interesting, does it have multiplayer? He's being followe dby bots it looks like, but it could be fun in a group.

[Inkie]

I always thought Omega Boost was a decent late PS1 game that got brushed over.

It was a 3d mech shoot-em-up that had a good, quick arcade feel to it. Made by the people behind Grand Turismo, of all things. It actually had a lot of good effects, and could put a lot of action on screen without a hint of lag or slowdown. The boss design was kinda neat, too.

Einhander was another interesting PS1 game, a cyberpunk shmup made by Square Enix. It was really rare and expensive, though. I only had the Jampack Mag demo.

[Zed]

I can't avoid mentioning Hacx. A good example of a great game, with a badly-timed release, which resulted in it going practically unnoticed. A fucking shame.

Non-Doom games, I remember the Wario Land series, especially on the Game Boy, which is where I first played them in the mid 90's.

[Marnetmar]

Betty Bad. I still can't find the full version of that game anywhere.

Also Freddy fucking Fish.

[Cupboard]

Snapple Good Fruit Bad Fruit it was a dumb web game circa 2002

[Stygian]

I remember finding this game in a dusty corner at a local video rental store. To this day, I have not heard another person mention "Spider" for the PS1.

[Widow]

How about Casualty Kid?Found that mentioned at the Duke4.Net Forums.BTW,interesting thread. :)

[Remilia Scarlet]

Stygian said:

I remember finding this game in a dusty corner at a local video rental store. To this day, I have not heard another person mention "Spider" for the PS1.

That looks really fun. If I ever find a copy I'll have to grab it and try it.

[Bucket]

There was a freeware game for Windows that was basically a sidescrolling arena shooter with multiplayer. The premise was that you were in hell and fought for a place in the hierarchy. Tons of blood and gore. I can't remember the name, for the life of me.

[Patrol1985]

Does anyone here remember Liero?

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KE2XtQaMb5I

Worms in real time! :D

[Malinku]

Fire Fight

Awesome isometric shooter. still one of my favorites in this style.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IrTz2SpsIXA

Sundtrack:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jPEh6Io2ohg&list=PL96F5D5FDD5C695C9

[tourniquet]

Intelligent Cube for PSX. There was a time when i was really addicted to this.

[Ralphis]

Last Rites looks really cool. I'd love to see someone rip all of those sprites, they look pretty good

[geo]

Youtube remembers what time forgot.

[Patrol1985]

Malinku said:

Fire Fight

Awesome isometric shooter. still one of my favorites in this style.

HA! I remember the game being praised in Polish magazines because it was developed by Polish programmers (even though their employer was foreign) and it was very good.

I also recall it being one of the first games I can remember which required a Pentium to work well (my 486DX2/66 wouldn't cut it).

[Da Werecat]

Zed said:

I can't avoid mentioning Hacx. A good example of a great game, with a badly-timed release, which resulted in it going practically unnoticed.

Timing is very important, but the game was also rather sloppy and rushed.

[Waffenak]

Witchaven 1 and 2
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ixf2cjEl4oI

Hexen/hereticish game

Lands of lore 1-3
Adventure game with some level of combat

I havent played any of these but these are on my list besides mageslayer and other old and forgotten games I intend to play on summer

[hardcore_gamer]

Hogs of War was a worms like game on the PS1 and PC but in full 3D and with pigs instead of worms. It got so so reviews but I thought it was awesome. It was very fun and had a great sense of humor. It's a shame its so underrated.

[Looper]

Patrol1985 said:

Does anyone here remember Liero?

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KE2XtQaMb5I

Worms in real time! :D

I don't think time forgot that one! At least in Finland.

[fraggle]

Never heard of Mageslayer before. Seems kind of weird that Raven released it two years after they released Hexen, considering it seems much more basic.

[Da Werecat]

Well, it's a Gauntlet tribute. Take No Prisoners, on the other hand, is rather complex.

Whoever wants to try Mageslayer for the first time, I strongly advice to try both D3D and software modes. The former has colored lighting, of course, but the lightmaps are blurred into shit. I wonder which size a colored lightmap is for an average level - 16x16? It sure feels that way.

Don't remember if the same applies to TNP.

[Fletcher`]

Malinku said:

Fire Fight

Awesome isometric shooter. still one of my favorites in this style.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IrTz2SpsIXA

Sundtrack:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jPEh6Io2ohg&list=PL96F5D5FDD5C695C9

Firefight was a lot of fun. Played the demo from a PCGamer disc which at the time touted that it had 'controls similar to doom.'