DOS Screen Challenge

[FPAlpha]

29 out of 50

Not bad considering i didn't have a PC until they rolled out the first Pentiums and only got gaming time at a friend's or in the early 90s computer room at school ("You going to English class? Nah.. let's play Doom over the LAN!" ).

Some are true classics which i remember fondly.. X-Wing, Wing Commander (damn.. picked the first one and not the sequel ), Leisure Suit Larry or the Civilization games.

Damn.. it was sure nice to be a kid back then with all the free time and no worry about the realities of life because Mom & Dad took care of it

[Robert Maxwell]

I didn't realize until I was an adult just how much software my parents pirated for me as a kid.

[Owain Taggart]

Mr. Adventure wrote:

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That's what you get for running Links 386 on a 486!

Man, PC Gamers were a dedicated bunch back then, weren't they? We sure went through a lot just to get things running and squeeze that last bit of memory. The things we did just to play a game. We sure have it easy now.

Robert Maxwell wrote:

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I didn't realize until I was an adult just how much software my parents pirated for me as a kid.

Yeah, it was quite a different world back then, but when you think of it, it's also why we've played so many of the games that were out there, some of which probably wouldn't have had the success they did without that going on giving people awareness about them.

[Holdfast]

Owain Taggart wrote:

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I'm not surprised. Seems like a good way to give a nod to their early history It's also kind of wild to think that the developer that started out developing the Test Drive series ended up creating a series later on to compete with it, and now is one of the best selling game franchises, outselling the series they started on.

True.

I still think that despite its franchise length, Burnout 2 was the peak of the latter series in terms of sheer fun & imagination. Great music, cars with distinctly different looks & driving personality, full race replays, tracks with an excellent drifting "flow" to them especially Big Surf Shores & Crystal Peak, exciting mechanics (burnout chains rather than the boost bars that came later) and a nice learning curve.

Plus, Acclaim had the awesome marketing idea of offering to reimburse any (real-life) driver in the UK who got a speeding ticket on release day. Sadly the UK government didn't see the funny side and Acclaim backed down on the promotion.

I loved driving the Supercar around Big Surf Shores; on a good day I could perfect every lap, and not interrupt the burnout chain at all (which meant somewhere about 35 continuous burnouts). My original xbox sadly died recently. I can't play anymore and have lost all my saved records, so I sold off the controllers & games. But I kept Burnout 2, just in case I ever pick one up again in the future...

I know there's a emulated gamecube version available for PC, so I might get round to playing it on that format someday, but it probably won't feel the same.

Honestly, in terms of sheer racing fun, I'd put Stunts & Burnout 2 in a league of their own (possibly sharing the podium with Ayrton Senna Super Monaco GP2) and way ahead of most of the racers of recent years.

[Owain Taggart]

Hate to nitpick, but Burnout wasn't part of the Need for Speed franchise Maybe you're referring to the fact that the developers eventually took over development of the franchise from EA Canada.

For me, the peak of the Test Drive series was Test Drive Unlimited. It was a brilliant game, which while not perfect, did introduce a lot of innovative things and took the series back to its roots. It introduced an open world and had an online component that it sort of used as copy protection, ie if you didn't have an online connection, you wouldn't have access to everything and wouldn't be able to complete the game 100%, and used the online component as a sort of hub to populate the game world as people would cruise around, explore and find races. It seamlessly integrated itself into the game in a way that many games only wish they could do. As an example, I was once cruising around minding my own business when I met someone on a road and we ended up cruising together. It was popular enough that EA went on to make Need for Speed World, although I don't know if that has an open world to the same extent. Test Drive Unlimited 2 came out and had a lot of problems.

[Mr. Adventure]

That reminds me, I never did beat that final challenge of Burnout 2...

[Holdfast]

^ It's tough, but doable. Give it another go. Or two.

Unlike Burnout 3's final few races which I found fucking impossible. I got stuck on the Indy Car one (I think it was the penultimate or maybe 3rd from last), and never got past it.

Owain Taggart wrote:

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Hate to nitpick, but Burnout wasn't part of the Need for Speed franchise Maybe you're referring to the fact that the developers eventually took over development of the franchise from EA Canada.

For me, the peak of the Test Drive series was Test Drive Unlimited. It was a brilliant game, which while not perfect, did introduce a lot of innovative things and took the series back to its roots. It introduced an open world and had an online component that it sort of used as copy protection, ie if you didn't have an online connection, you wouldn't have access to everything and wouldn't be able to complete the game 100%, and used the online component as a sort of hub to populate the game world as people would cruise around, explore and find races. It seamlessly integrated itself into the game in a way that many games only wish they could do. As an example, I was once cruising around minding my own business when I met someone on a road and we ended up cruising together. It was popular enough that EA went on to make Need for Speed World, although I don't know if that has an open world to the same extent. Test Drive Unlimited 2 came out and had a lot of problems.

I though Criterion worked on all of Test Drive, NfS & Burnout at various times? I'm probably misremembering and confusing myself here, lol.

[Owain Taggart]

As far as I know, they've never worked on Test Drive. They only worked on the NFS franchise since the recent Hot Pursuit after the Burnout series, which was successful enough that they became the official developers for the franchise. The TDU games were developed by Eden Studios and were part of Atari/Infrogames. Basically two studios pretty much locked into their own parent companies.

[Mr. Adventure]

Holdfast wrote:

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^ It's tough, but doable. Give it another go. Or two.

Unlike Burnout 3's final few races which I found fucking impossible. I got stuck on the Indy Car one (I think it was the penultimate or maybe 3rd from last), and never got past it.

Wouldn't you know it, I was thinking of Burnout 3. I feel a little better knowing someone else struggled with that, not just me.

[ThunderAeroI]

I enjoyed the airport themed Burnout maps

[Holdfast]

Mr. Adventure wrote:

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Wouldn't you know it, I was thinking of Burnout 3. I feel a little better knowing someone else struggled with that, not just me.

Yeah, now I think about it, I think we've had this conversation here before, too.




I noticed Panzer General as one of the games in the screenshot challenge, which reminded me of another game I used to play but can't remember what it was called. I'd like to find it on GOG or maybe some abandonware site, because it's not graphics-dependent, so should still be a lot of fun today.

It's a top-down, hex-grid, turn-based strategy game, similar to Panzer General in broad concept I suppose, but where one side is red and the other is blue, rather than specific sides in a real war. You have the usual mix of tanks, infantry, artillery, etc and the board you play on has various capture & hold type towns. Gameplay is divided into the usual mix of movement, attack, defence, etc, but IIRC you had two phases of attack & defence each round (one active, one reactionary). There was a placement phase before the game-proper began, and you had an overall budget from which to select your pieces from before placement. I'm pretty sure that it must have been a boardgame adaptation. Or, at least, it was very heavily boardgame-influenced in feel.

Anyone know what game this was, please?

[FPAlpha]

That sounds like Battle Isle

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battle_Isle_%28series%29

Played this religiously too and some levels were very hard and even if you managed to get some key units up to Elite status it stll wasn't a walk in the park.

[CorporalCaptain]

Holdfast wrote:

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Yeah, now I think about it, I think we've had this conversation here before, too.




I noticed Panzer General as one of the games in the screenshot challenge, which reminded me of another game I used to play but can't remember what it was called. I'd like to find it on GOG or maybe some abandonware site, because it's not graphics-dependent, so should still be a lot of fun today.

It's a top-down, hex-grid, turn-based strategy game, similar to Panzer General in broad concept I suppose, but where one side is red and the other is blue, rather than specific sides in a real war. You have the usual mix of tanks, infantry, artillery, etc and the board you play on has various capture & hold type towns. Gameplay is divided into the usual mix of movement, attack, defence, etc, but IIRC you had two phases of attack & defence each round (one active, one reactionary). There was a placement phase before the game-proper began, and you had an overall budget from which to select your pieces from before placement. I'm pretty sure that it must have been a boardgame adaptation. Or, at least, it was very heavily boardgame-influenced in feel.

Anyone know what game this was, please?

Was it The Perfect General from QQP?

[Holdfast]

^ That's the one! Great call identifying it, thanks!

Found it on an abandonware site, so I'll give it a whirl again when I get a chance. Thanks again.

[CorporalCaptain]

Holdfast wrote:

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^ That's the one! Great call identifying it, thanks!

Found it on an abandonware site, so I'll give it a whirl again when I get a chance. Thanks again.

You're welcome. I just happened to know what you were talking about. My friends and I played the fuck out of it against each other. It's a brilliant game. Too bad the AI isn't really challenging in the end, but it can still be fun playing against the computer.

That screen shot there is part of one of my setups against the computer in "Patton Kicks Butt", the Battle of the Bulge scenario, on the German side, obviously.