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Classic games that got old

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Have you got games that you enjoyed long time ago but nowadays they are dead to you?

My most notable game of these could be ROTT, one of the 3 first FPS games I ever saw with Dark Forces and Heretic. The shareware copy ran on our Windows95, looked my brother playing it and found it amusing how the realistic caricature looking enemies got blasted by missiles and moving walls. Whenever I was bored and had no other games to play, ROTT saved my day. There were no sound and music. The game felt dark, mysterious and atmospheric back in the day and I was excited by the full version preview pictures.

Got the full game in the mid 00s but suddenly lost my interest. Found the cheats and immediatelly looked what were the new weapons and what the last levels and the extra levels looked like. In 2008, I heard the sounds and music for the first time with the help of DOSBox and decided to play through the full game on the hardest using keyboard only. Also tried the Extreme ROTT levels but gave up in E3A5: The Ride. Nowadays, I don't feel to go through the Darkwar episodes again, not only because of the worse levels than the HUNT episode's but my view to the game has changed a lot.
There's mostly these flaws to complain about;
- the bullet weapons are lame on the hardest difficulty while I want more enemies to kill and the higher chance for bazooka lightning guards. I never spared a single rocket ammo.
- Rocket ammo can't be added/resupplied from the same weapon type, you have to switch the weapons instead and return to the previous weapon after using the remaining few rockets.
- While the multiplayer has an impressive amount of game modes and customization, there's no coop designed.

Despite that, the shareware episode is still quite solid to play from time to time for the memories, particularly the levels ''The Fourth Door'' and ''Metal Threat''.
Good times but they didn't last forever.

Then there's Descent which was one of the last games I played on the W95. It was an okay game and finished the shareware episode. When I played it again with my friend a month ago, the game felt really slow and I totally forgot how tubular the level design was, recognizing only 5% of the areas. We died at the 7th level boss multiple times, mostly because we played the game on keyboard only. I prefer the game Terminal Velocity more.

And lastly Hocus Pocus which was a fun game as a kid and still looks cool graphically but now I see the gameplay as blocks piled together and repetitive button smashing till devastation. The last time I went through the episodes was 4 years ago and I don't consider doing it again for a while.

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Zelda OOT, dont know why people enjoy replaying it over and over, cuz to me its quite linear. Its good to replay like 2 times but after that it just becomes a chore to play.

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Any sprite-based shooter without the mouselook we take for granted today just doesn't work for me anymore, including Doom. It's source ports or nothing for those, now.

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Just about every video game I played in the 90s is dead to me, except Doom and a select few platformers.

I lost interest in entire genres as well. Text adventures, turn-based games, strategy games, JRPGs, "classic" RPGs, "standard" MMOs. I still like exploring the environments, sometimes following the story; but the actual gameplay is such a chore.

I'd play so many more games if they had "skip combat" options. Well... "skip gameplay" really. i.e. in these situations I don't really want to solve puzzles or go through random minigames or have to find my way in a maze either. I just want to sit back, relax, look at the pretty scenery. Maybe fool around trying to jump in places I'm not supposed to jump.

I'm surprised to this day there aren't that many games (if any?) where you get to run around and do fun stuff. I mean, games where this is the point rather than a sideshow. Like, every "exploration" game has to be some artsy indie thing where you move like a snail and "contemplate" the environment. When I'm driving at 80mph on the freeway I can still take in the view, and if I really want to look at something I can take the first exit I see and pull over. Yet in video games we consistently get these people who insist we have to walk like we're at a funeral, or else we couldn't fully appreciate the game. It's an awful design concept, either you're bored out of your mind most of the time, or the environment becomes a theme park illogically jam-packed with areas of interest every few steps.

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Not in my case. I absolutely love old games (I still have my Atari 2600, for example), and I play them whenever I have the chance (not very often, unfortunately). If I ever liked a game, chances are I will still like it in a few years. My expectations of old games don't change, I know what I'm playing and why, it doesn't matter if I played the latest ultra realistic game, I have no problem in loading a SNES game immediately after that. If you find yourself not having fun with games you used to enjoy, it's probably because you are, maybe unintentionally, comparing them to your most recent gaming experiences. That's not a good thing.

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Just started playing Descent II.. it's pretty fun, but that mouse look is so bad. Some years ago I played with joystick for a bit. It was nicer for movement & turning, but my accuracy got poor with it. I probably played the first Descent with just keyboard.

Maybe it's got kind of old, but not yet dead.

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Descent actually got better with age for me. Mostly though, it's because since the time I first played Descent, I actually learned how to mouse+keyboard. It ain't perfect, but it's infinitely more playable while using a mouse than just keyboard alone. Actually, that happens to me with a lot of game. I didn't really "get" them when they first came out, but they make more sense to me now with my current gaming sensibilities. I also just recently beat Aladdin for the SNES - a game I thought was nearly impossible as a kid, until, as an adult, I learned that hitting the R button would deploy a blanket that acted as a parachute.

ROTT is definitely a game that got worse with age though. I thought it was awesome as a kid - crazy weapons and awesome special effects what with enemies exploding into a rainstorm of guts when you hit them with a rocket. Didn't notice the WOLF3D-style level design, and the controls are actually a little slippery even with keyboard+mouse - something I hadn't noticed because the controls to all FPS games felt slippery to me when I only used a keyboard.

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If you find yourself not having fun with games you used to enjoy, it's probably because you are, maybe unintentionally, comparing them to your most recent gaming experiences. That's not a good thing.


That's just weird to me. Why wouldn't it be a good thing? No matter their age, truly great games don't need to be put in their own special league, they can compare favorably to newer games; and as for the games that aren't actually that fun anymore, sticking with an inferior experience for the sake of nostalgia seems pointless.

Besides, on a personal level, I should hope my tastes will keep evolving and changing through my whole life. Otherwise, might as well be dead. There's a case to be made against people who take that line of reasoning too far, throw away every old thing and claim new is always better; but when you have to make rules and taboos for your mental framework, to me it sounds like the other extreme, reenacting memories of having fun rather than genuinely having a good time.

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Equips flame shield.

Maniac Mansion. I played this game for years every weekend, completed the game over and over. Now it just seems like a chore.

Shadowgate. The same here.

Sonic 1. I played this game a lot, always felt it was a classic, now that I've gone back and played it with Sonic classics collection its just too slow and a lot of waiting for a platformer known for its speed.

Sonic 3. Another game my friend and I played the hell out of, now I go back and its just uninteresting.

SimCity 4. I played years worth of it, and playing it again after 3 years of not playing it, and the game controls just seem cumbersome. I need to click a lot of things to do what I want. Especially the ? tool. Why can't I just hold the shift key and click? It would make it go quicker and smoother. Cities XL is a far better game.

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Phml said:

I lost interest in entire genres as well. Text adventures, turn-based games, strategy games, JRPGs, "classic" RPGs, "standard" MMOs. I still like exploring the environments, sometimes following the story; but the actual gameplay is such a chore.

I find a lot of old console RPGs hold up OK still if you play them in an emulator at 300% speed. Ruins the sound, but makes the pushover combat encounters take only seconds, and you can explore without feeling like you're always dragging your feet.

But yeah, last time I played a bunch of old console games, I was surprised at how few held my interest any longer.

Also Heretic 2; I really liked that game when it came out, and I still think it's got some superb atmosphere. But a lot of what I liked about it was the freedom of movement, and that is something that newer games have definitely improved on. The gameplay is also kind of rough in spots, with the weapon/ammo balance feeling off.

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The thing that comes to mind for me first is Wolfenstein 3D.

It's just a set of convoluted mazes, nothing more that just can't hold my interest anymore. The physics of the engine are so simplistic, it's a joke.

Every time I start it up I'll quit in horror just a few minutes afterward.

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Jimi said:

Just started playing Descent II.. it's pretty fun, but that mouse look is so bad. Some years ago I played with joystick for a bit. It was nicer for movement & turning, but my accuracy got poor with it. I probably played the first Descent with just keyboard.

Maybe it's got kind of old, but not yet dead.

Give D2X-XL a try. You can have "Fast Ship Pitch" and "Fast Ship Rotation" on to make mouselook more responsive. Plus there's a lot of other options to suit how you want the game to look.

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I will say, looking back on games that have soured on me, the biggest factor is either sloppy controls or crappy gameplay mechanics (or both). If the game was well-made, I can still have fun with it to this day. For instance, take Super Mario Bros. The controls were pretty solid, the gameplay was good, and it still holds up despite being simplistic and having simplistic graphics (actually, I will say controls actually got better in Mario 2 and 3, but that's another story). There are, however, tons of old platformers from that era that I can't play today because looking back, the controls and gameplay just weren't as solid, and the age makes it even more apparent. Kid Kool and Bubsy Bobcat are two games that come to mind that I friggin' loved as a kid, but looking back, the controls just weren't that good and it makes them infuriating now.

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Maybe Warcraft III, I know there's more to games than graphics but for some reason its dated looking models, animations and jpg artifact riddled textures make this game bore me a bit whenever I try to play it.

I was already late with the game since I played it back in 07/06 but I didn't mind the graphics then.

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All beat em' up games.

I really loved Final Fight, Double Dragon, Alien vs Predator, and so on and so on. But beat em' up games really have the worst gameplay in retrospect. I don't find them to be as fun as I did, when I was a kid.

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FPS games got old. I get bored if they aren't at least about as RPG-ish as System Shock 2. I don't like to play any regular FPS game for more than about 30 min most of the time.

DOOM is about the only one I play at all anymore, and that's usually to test out boingo's wads these days. Hmm, I guess that means I'm usually playing Chex Quest lately.

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Are we allowed to include the original "Halo" in the list of classic games? Because I got seriously tired of watching slugfests of that and all its sequels during my college days.

I also enjoyed enlightening my comrades that the game Doom actually coined the phrase "deathmatch".

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HWGuy said:

Give D2X-XL a try. You can have "Fast Ship Pitch" and "Fast Ship Rotation" on to make mouselook more responsive. Plus there's a lot of other options to suit how you want the game to look.

I tried, but gave up after 2 minutes of computing lightmaps. Pretty sure it didn't load that much few years ago. Or maybe it's just something it does once? Also tried D2X-Rebirth which has some "flightsim" option for the mouse.

I do understand why the pitching/rotation is slow... Maybe I'll buy some joystick.

And other games.. Wolfenstein 3D, it's got some ok levels, but too many levels with mazes, which are annoying even with automap. Best in Wolfenstein 3D is to shoot the nazis with the machinegun.

Maybe Build engine games.. I sort of like them, but Doom just plays much smoother. Precise aiming is very difficult in Build. And while I'm not exactly the sniper type player.. sometimes there just are situations when I want to do it anyway.

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Kontra Kommando said:

All beat em' up games.

I really loved Final Fight, Double Dragon, Alien vs Predator, and so on and so on. But beat em' up games really have the worst gameplay in retrospect. I don't find them to be as fun as I did, when I was a kid.

I would generally agree with that - you go back and play them again, and realize there's absolutely no skill or strategy involved - run at enemy, then punch said enemy until he falls over or you run out of health. There are two exceptions though, in my opinion - TMNT 2 and Double Dragon 2 for the NES (well also, Turtles in Time, but for the exact same reasons as TMNT 2). I mean, those games feel like they have enough skill involved that you can almost always dodge enemy attacks if you're good enough. In TMNT, you've got a lot of freedom of movement to move around quickly and dodge, and in Double Dragon 2, you've got a wide variety of moves to choose from. Thus, you never really feel trapped into just exchanging punches like it seems like in so many beat 'em ups.

That's the thing about beat 'em ups. In the good ones, like I mentioned, every time I get hit, I feel like it's my fault, I was the one who messed up, rather than because the gameplay sucks and forced me into that situation. Basically, I judge by, "Okay, what's the minimum amount of damage I have to take in a fight?" In the good beat 'em ups, that's zero. Theoretically, you could go through most levels in TMNT and Double Dragon 2 taking zero damage. If you can't make it through a level without taking any damage, to me that indicates that the actual combat is crap. No game should ever force you to take a hit to create the illusion of challenge.

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Kontra Kommando said:

All beat em' up games.

I really loved Final Fight, Double Dragon, Alien vs Predator, and so on and so on. But beat em' up games really have the worst gameplay in retrospect. I don't find them to be as fun as I did, when I was a kid.


Play God Hand. It is like, the beat em up game to rule all beat em up games.

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Doominator2 said:

Zelda OOT, dont know why people enjoy replaying it over and over, cuz to me its quite linear. Its good to replay like 2 times but after that it just becomes a chore to play.

I plan on replaying this game this weekend accompanied with a carton of quality dark beer with a mate who's never finished this game before. OOT is timeless.

I think games like Half Life 2 got old quickly. I mean, it was a fun game and a rather memorable one too, but it's not the kind of game that makes you want to replay it again like OOT does for me.

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Joshy said:

I plan on replaying this game this weekend accompanied with a carton of quality dark beer with a mate who's never finished this game before. OOT is timeless.

I think games like Half Life 2 got old quickly. I mean, it was a fun game and a rather memorable one too, but it's not the kind of game that makes you want to replay it again like OOT does for me.

Ya, I find Half life 2 is even more painful to replay, especially with those unskipable real time cut scenes.

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Kontra Kommando said:

All beat em' up games.

I really loved Final Fight, Double Dragon, Alien vs Predator, and so on and so on. But beat em' up games really have the worst gameplay in retrospect. I don't find them to be as fun as I did, when I was a kid.


I've played little fighter 2 for at least 6-7 years. It's still a blast but community kinda vanished, so I play it just occasionally these days.

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Joshy said:

I plan on replaying this game this weekend accompanied with a carton of quality dark beer with a mate who's never finished this game before. OOT is timeless.

I think games like Half Life 2 got old quickly. I mean, it was a fun game and a rather memorable one too, but it's not the kind of game that makes you want to replay it again like OOT does for me.

I recently tried to replay OOT... It's not a bad game, but the controls are a tad sluggish and clunky for my taste. Funny thing is, people are always giving Windwaker a hard time, but Windwaker to me is my favorite Zelda game. Yeah, the sailing can get a bit old after a while, but I actually like the sailing, the sense of discovery, of finding new islands and whatnot (though in my opinion there were far too few islands and the rewards could've been better). Moreover, the controls were much smoother - taking OOT's controls and perfecting them, especially with the inclusion of the parry mechanic.

As for HL2, I rather like it. The unskippable cutscenes-that-aren't-really-cutscenes are kind of annoying, but I like the actual gameplay. I dunno, there's something about modern games that just rubs me the wrong way. All the cutscene stuff and story elements are great for the first playthrough. After the first time, though, you just wanna get to the action and kick the crap out of bad guys. Even if the story is amazing, that's not the main reason to play a game. Don't get me wrong, I'm not going the Carmack route and saying story doesn't even matter, but it should be something that you can push to the side and ignore once you've already beaten the game.

Like for instance, I'm currently playing through Arkham Asylum again. There is a story, and it's good, but it doesn't really interrupt the gameplay that much. It comes in bits and snippets, through radio conversations and whatnot. Actual cutscenes that put the game on hold are few and far between, so I actually enjoy playing through it again.

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I can think of plenty of games where I got bored of them just because I went on massive binges and effectively played them to death. But struggling to think of any that I lost interest in because they seemed dated or flawed.

I suppose I get bored of the AI in certain strategy games like Age of Empires II, where, despite having multiple difficulty settings, the two options appear to be "ridiculously easy" (and sometimes even "wtf they just surrendered for no reason") or "wtf hax I'm dead already". There was literally no happy middle ground, heh. But a human opponent will instantly make it worth playing again.

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The first generation of 'commander keen' (1-3) I played through the whole thing twice, never got back to play it again ever since I finished those.

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Something that got really olde for me was Dungeon Siege. I recently tried it again and didn't get very far. On a newer monitor with custom resolution = tiny inventory that's a pain to look at. Puny interface bad. Plus some of the models look bleaghish now.

Hexen 2 just seems so bland and empty.

Morrowind. Played it so damned much. Great game but it no longer holds my interest.

plums said:

Also Heretic 2; I really liked that game when it came out, and I still think it's got some superb atmosphere. But a lot of what I liked about it was the freedom of movement, and that is something that newer games have definitely improved on. The gameplay is also kind of rough in spots, with the weapon/ammo balance feeling off.


Also Heretic 2 but for different reasons. I played it way back when and then a few years ago started to play it with friends online. We blade matched, played DM, ran our own servers, played coop through the whole thing a dozen times, played every damned map you could find including SP map packs that were never really meant to be coop played. I got burned out on it and eventually we went on to other stuff and that's another story.

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Quake 2. A dark techbase campaign with repetitive heavy metal music. The theme of bionic/prosthetic gunmen has been beaten to death. Extremely dull graphics, and low quality sounds. It all feels like a bad quality Doom 2 clone. The full 3D just doesn't feel worth it in here.

Why am I not bashing Quake 1 then? Because it has a more interesting dark fantasy theme, and its weapon/enemy balance seems different from Doom 2's (it actually is more similar to Doom 3).

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I don't find Mario 64 engaging at this point. I always felt the series was more fun in 2D. Mario Land 3D for the DS is probably the only 3D incarnation I give a crap about.

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I despise Mario 64.

And to be honest, I prefer Sonic 1/CD's level design to Sonic 2/3's. They actually feel like platformers and speed comes naturally through slick maneuvering, not artificially through springs/tunnels/loops.

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