What old games would you like to see "reinvented"?

[Robert Maxwell]

Huh, interesting. I didn't know it ever had to do with Apogee. You learn something every day!

 

[Owain Taggart]

It's probably not something they always reference since it was so early in development. But there you go It was something I came across years ago and found it interesting.

 

[The Lensman]

Several people have called for Wing Commander, and several people have called for an MMORPG Privateer. I will go further - I want an MMORPG Wing Commander universe game in which you can fly as a TC, Kilrathi, or Retro pilot, be a privateer, run a base, so on and so forth.

I'd also like to see an online and updated version of an awesome old EA game called Mail Order Monsters.

I'll second the suggestions for new/updated Sierra adventure games, if Sierra can remember how to make one without requiring 20 patches and it still bombing out.

In terms of "re-invented".....one thing that I would kill to see, is a new Zork game done Oblivion style. Zork, as well as it's spin off series, Enchanter, were set in the world of Quendor. Quendor was the first world in computer gaming, to be fleshed out with a backstory and history. Only the Ultima games could offer anything comparable in this sense.

As I sit here in my Frobozzco/Infocom t-shirt (custom-made by zazzle.com), I would like to say that I love your ideas, and would like to subscribe to your newsletter.

Thank you! Always awesome to find another Zork/Infocom fan. I just disovered Zazzle (ironically, ending up there while googling "Fallout 3 merch) and it never occured to me to look up Zork stuff. A FrobozzCo shirt.... I'll be giving that a look right after I post!

Ironically, Fallout 3 has captured the feel of the original Zork games better than the graphic Zork games...Like the original Zork, it takes place in a world after the fall of a great empire...it has elements of humour, but those elements primarily exist in the documents and relics you find than in the present. The latter Zork games had bad attempts at Monty Python style humour and it just didn't feel right.
The humour was too obvious and in your face, instead of the sparse, wry and dry humour of the early text games.

Everytime I walk into a cave in Fallout 3 and see how awesome the Great Underground Empire could look, I want to kick Activision in the collective balls for shelving PC gaming's first Classic Series.

You have sold me on playing Fallout 3 as soon as I can. Do I need to play Fallouts 1 and 2 to grok it?

In return, allow me to suggest Portal, if you haven't played it yet. There is something very Infocom-ish about the sense of humor in that game.

Re: Fallout 1 and 2.........Fallout 3 is probably my favorite video game...I've never played the first two.

I was at a Best Buy and found the first two dirt cheap. Bit difficult to get into after playing 3. Like anything else, if you played the earlier games, you'll get a kick out of certain references and nods. If not, you won't know that you missed anything.


Re: Portal....The Cake Is A Lie. I friggin love Portal! How can anyone NOT like Portal...it's just got a great concept and design. In fact, I just recently re-installed it and played through again. And you're right about the style of humour. It's early Infocom style...nice and dry.

 

[Canadave]

Re: Fallout 1 and 2.........Fallout 3 is probably my favorite video game...I've never played the first two.

I was at a Best Buy and found the first two dirt cheap. Bit difficult to get into after playing 3. Like anything else, if you played the earlier games, you'll get a kick out of certain references and nods. If not, you won't know that you missed anything.

The first two, IMO, are a couple of the best RPGs ever made. They're not perfect, but they're very much worth playing. I think they're both available on GOG.com. Definitely an important piece of gaming history.

 

[The Lensman]

Re: Fallout 1 and 2.........Fallout 3 is probably my favorite video game...I've never played the first two.

I was at a Best Buy and found the first two dirt cheap. Bit difficult to get into after playing 3. Like anything else, if you played the earlier games, you'll get a kick out of certain references and nods. If not, you won't know that you missed anything.

The first two, IMO, are a couple of the best RPGs ever made. They're not perfect, but they're very much worth playing. I think they're both available on GOG.com. Definitely an important piece of gaming history.

Oh, I intend to play them at some point. But I have to be in an "old school" frame of mind to do that. Every once in awhile I get in the mood to play an old game...like, last year, I got in the mood to play the Genesis version of Starflight.....I still love that game.

 

[Jono]

Descent Freespace

Came with my Windows 98 PC and it was an awesome game. I tried the sequel but could never finish it

You Sir, are now my favourite person...ever. Well at least for the rest of this comment. I was reading through pages, getting more nervous about joining a Sci-Fi forum where a thread about re-made computer games didn't mention the single best space-sim franchise made.

Freespace provided a great storyline with a seemingly impossible enemy, who's defeat didn't feel like a shining victory, but a chance for humanity and the versudians to draw breath and pull their back from off the wall. But whilst it was a fantastic game, Freespace 2 perfected the genre. It wasn't original in game play, but it took the space flight sim and polished it to perfection. The story though was Freespace on steroids. It was both bleak and intense, and very much a game filled with desperation. It's also the only game where I've shouted no at when you-know-which ship went down, and the KIA ending is enough to make a man's vision blur and throat hurt.

But it never finished the story, and damn it, it's a story that deserves an ending. I want to know why the Shivans did what they did, and I want to know what condition Earth was in after they reconstructed the jump node. Did the Shivans return to finish the job? Why did they make the Sun in the Capella system go Nova?! Will we ever get to be Alpha-One again?!?!?!

Aaaaargh.

How come ya never finished Freespace 2?


Also Freespace still holds the record in my books for one of the most dramatic, tense intros for a computer game.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NJ-xcgBL1mY

I love the Freespace games but I didn't suggest them for a remake because I don't see how they'd be improved other than having flashier graphics. To me, that's not enough to warrant a remake. I'd rather get sequels or prequels. Like maybe a game about the Vasudan War, or even a game from the perspective of the Shivans. That would be pretty awesome.

Unfortunately, the whole genre just about up and died after FS2.

You can actually get a version of Freespace 2 with updated graphics through the fan made Freespace 2 Source Code Project.

 

[USS Triumphant]

Re: Fallout 1 and 2.........Fallout 3 is probably my favorite video game...I've never played the first two.

Based on your recommendation, I ordered Fallout 3 Game of the Year Edition. And.... it is sitting here right beside me, unopened. But I'm really looking forward to it as soon as the chance to sit down and play a game presents itself.

 

[I am not Spock]

Colony Wars series- I'd kill to see this done on PS3. A really great space combat series, with multiple game paths, ship types, weapons. Awesome. Why don't they remake it?
Syphon Filter series- Ditto
Medievil series
Elite
Noctis
Descent series
G Police series- Why did these games never get PS2 or PS3-ified?
X Wing Vs TIE Fighter
A new Star Trek game. You know, a decent one, like they used to make. Like Starfleet Academy, or Birth of the Federation

 

[I am not Spock]

Ah-huh...RIP Space sims. You went out on one hell of a note.

One of my fave game genres. Whatever happened to them?

 

[Robert Maxwell]

Ah-huh...RIP Space sims. You went out on one hell of a note.

One of my fave game genres. Whatever happened to them?

Freespace 2 killed the genre. It was a massive flop and basically scared all the big studios off of doing similar games.

 

[Owain Taggart]

Ah-huh...RIP Space sims. You went out on one hell of a note.

One of my fave game genres. Whatever happened to them?

Freespace 2 killed the genre. It was a massive flop and basically scared all the big studios off of doing similar games.

Yeah, I think the market has shifted. Space sims were popular in the 90's, but there seems to have been an explosion in console use, with most developers focusing their efforts on developing for them. The PC is no longer the powerhouse game machine it used to be, due in part to consoles becoming more powerful, so attention is more spread out. The gap in technology is a lot narrower than it used to be. It's honestly a lot easier for someone to own a console than own a computer that one has to upgrade all the time. Gets expensive. Not many people are willing to do that anymore. Only the most dedicated do.

 

[Robert Maxwell]

One of my fave game genres. Whatever happened to them?

Freespace 2 killed the genre. It was a massive flop and basically scared all the big studios off of doing similar games.

Yeah, I think the market has shifted. Space sims were popular in the 90's, but there seems to have been an explosion in console use, with most developers focusing their efforts on developing for them. The PC is no longer the powerhouse game machine it used to be, due in part to consoles becoming more powerful, so attention is more spread out. The gap in technology is a lot narrower than it used to be. It's honestly a lot easier for someone to own a console than own a computer that one has to upgrade all the time. Gets expensive. Not many people are willing to do that anymore. Only the most dedicated do.

The rise of consoles has actually slowed the upgrade curve of PC games. Since a lot of games are written to be ported to one or more consoles, the PC version tends to have lower requirements as consoles only come out every several years and don't represent a "moving target," technology-wise.

While building a PC with the power of a PS3 might have been expensive in 2006, in 2011 you can do it damn cheap. The PS3 hardware hasn't changed in that time so most games are being written to that baseline (or the 360, take your pick.) This is a good thing for PC gamers, I think, as the upgrade curve was pretty insane for a while there. I'm thinking from roughly the time 3D graphics cards came to prominence (1996 onward) until the current generation of consoles, you were basically forced to upgrade your PC every year or two just to keep up with system requirements, especially video cards.

 

[Owain Taggart]

That's true, though everytime I upgrade these days, since I don't tend to upgrade very often, I tend to have to upgrade to a different motherboard and processor as well, not to mention the video card and the ram. That's how it gets expensive and I just can't keep doing that anymore. It gets more expensive if you get at it when everything is changing and requires something new because everything else you have is outdated. I only have a PC with a single processor for instance, while many games like STO require two now.

But yeah, it's true about the curve. It's why again, niche games aren't as profitable as they used to be.

 

[Robert Maxwell]

Preaching to the choir, bro. My primary system is a Pentium 4 2.4GHz (single-core) with 1GB of RAM. I can't even upgrade the RAM because it's fucking RDRAM and would cost a fortune.

 

[Owain Taggart]

Ouch. I know all about that lol. I remember having that myself. I even had the faulty board that Intel recalled, so for my trouble they compensated me with an extra stick of RDRAM along with a replacement board. Yeah, that was part of the trouble of my last update. Talk about a roadblock Had to replace everything, because you know how it is when everything else is dependent on the motherboard. That's why I don't really look forward to upgrading.

 

[I am not Spock]

Freespace 2 killed the genre. It was a massive flop and basically scared all the big studios off of doing similar games.

Yeah, I think the market has shifted. Space sims were popular in the 90's, but there seems to have been an explosion in console use, with most developers focusing their efforts on developing for them. The PC is no longer the powerhouse game machine it used to be, due in part to consoles becoming more powerful, so attention is more spread out. The gap in technology is a lot narrower than it used to be. It's honestly a lot easier for someone to own a console than own a computer that one has to upgrade all the time. Gets expensive. Not many people are willing to do that anymore. Only the most dedicated do.

The rise of consoles has actually slowed the upgrade curve of PC games. Since a lot of games are written to be ported to one or more consoles, the PC version tends to have lower requirements as consoles only come out every several years and don't represent a "moving target," technology-wise.

While building a PC with the power of a PS3 might have been expensive in 2006, in 2011 you can do it damn cheap. The PS3 hardware hasn't changed in that time so most games are being written to that baseline (or the 360, take your pick.) This is a good thing for PC gamers, I think, as the upgrade curve was pretty insane for a while there. I'm thinking from roughly the time 3D graphics cards came to prominence (1996 onward) until the current generation of consoles, you were basically forced to upgrade your PC every year or two just to keep up with system requirements, especially video cards.

It did seem in the 90s that even consoles got decent sim games. Colony Wars, G Police, Wing Commander, Descent, etc. Now that we have PS3s and Xbox 360s, you'd expect remakes of these classics. But noooo. I reckon PS1 had more deep PC style games, than PS3 does.

 

[Owain Taggart]

I figure that with the next generation of consoles that we might start to see more PC style games. Fallout 3 and Oblivion are already PC style to a certain extent. As consoles get more powerful, they'll be able to do much of more in terms having scope and depth of PC games.

 

[Robert Maxwell]

I figure that with the next generation of consoles that we might start to see more PC style games. Fallout 3 and Oblivion are already PC style to a certain extent. As consoles get more powerful, they'll be able to do much of more in terms having scope and depth of PC games.

Games with that level of depth will remain the exception, not the norm. They're expensive and difficult to make. The trend is for games with a short or no single-player component, and a focus on multiplayer and earning achievements there.

The above is a big part of why I don't have any of the current-gen consoles.

 

[6079SmithW]

The trend is for games with a short or no single-player component, and a focus on multiplayer and earning achievements there.

This is so true and it makes me mad! I don't do online and I can't get half the achievements for most games because of this focus. Shooters really are getting quite short in their campaigns, too.

One of the reasons that I've fallen in love with mass effect is that it is only single-player and I can actually get all the achievements.

They should reinvent games that have a lengthy single-player campaign.

 

[Robert Maxwell]

The trend is for games with a short or no single-player component, and a focus on multiplayer and earning achievements there.

This is so true and it makes me mad! I don't do online and I can't get half the achievements for most games because of this focus. Shooters really are getting quite short in their campaigns, too.

One of the reasons that I've fallen in love with mass effect is that it is only single-player and I can actually get all the achievements.

They should reinvent games that have a lengthy single-player campaign.

I think shooters just tend to have obligatory SP campaigns now. They don't even bother trying to make them lengthy. And really, why should they? The SP campaign might last a few hours. Most players will sink dozens or hundreds of hours into the multiplayer, though, so that's where the focus is. Incidentally, if you have a handful of good MP maps, that's much less development time and effort than assembling a 20-hour campaign.