Anyone born in the 70s? Remember how good the 90s games were?

[GamerGuy]

Born around the mid-60's, but a late bloomer, I recall I started gaming late 70's to early 80's, back then, I recall playing a few games like Space Invaders, Galaxian....though, for the life of me, I can't recall on what platform. I know I had SEGA, Atari...and a PS Mini, even bought a matching portable monitor to play PS games when I at a friend's house, or vacationing at a resort. Man, my memory modules are faulty, I can't recall stuff from 40 odd years back!

First PC was a 386 in those typical off-white PC cases that was the norm ...... had fun with Doom on it, or was it the 486? Or, one of the first Pentium PC from back then?

 

[KrazyT]

Wait, where do you live that your SOM manual had a partial guide in it??

Here in France (and maybe Europe) we've got a guide with the game :
ebay item
Same for Terranigma, Super Metroid and Illusion of Gaia (and maybe 1 or 2 game more)
It was bundled with the game, 72 pages of hints and help !

 

[Hattu]

Started playing with C64 and then 386 and what not. No consoles, tho. After bout year 2000 mostly music, coding and electronics for about 15 years.

Some games I remember from earlier times:

Boulder Dash (like all of them)
Commando
Paradroid (?)
Great Giana Sisters
Ultima V (?)
Racing car destruction set/kit (?)
Monty on the run
Curse of azure bonds (?) and other similar AD&Ds
Syndicate (?)
F1 something
Supaplex
Days of the Tentacle (?)
Dune 2
Alone in the Dark


Later, after Colin McRae 2004 (/w wheel and pedals), Red Alert 2 and some others I haven't played. No on-line accounts for gaming services, only CDs or DVDs here.

BTW. Anyone remember Covox? That was my sound producing "card" before my friend lend me his old Gravis Ultra Sound. Some games supported it, so I made my own. First version was mono, second version was stereo with mono switch. Worked great on Fast Tracker 2.

 

[Frick]

To be fair, most games/software back then came with very detailed documentation.

My (sort of least) favourite version of this is Battle Realms, which came out around the same time as Warcraft 3 (shortly before iirc). Made by a studio founded by Red Alert guys, should be awesome, right? Well, yes, in a way it was, but the best bits in the game was hidden in a manual: What things actually did and what skills the different units had. The tag-line was basically "Every Soldier Matters" and they did because the basic unit (the peasant) was spawned at the same rate for everyone, and then you send units to different buildings for training, and that meant every army was more or less the same size, and as such it was hugely important how you played your units. Add to this that there were four extremely different factions. The problem? There were no stats in game. At all. No hit points, just Red Alert style green bars that turned green. No hit points either iirc, or like stats on what the upgrades did (oh yeah you could equpid your soldiers with equipment that changed how they worked). And the game was so full of stuff like that! Like how if you were fighting in a forest most units had a disadvantage, but some units did not. Fighting uphill? Most units are bad at that, but those basic spear guys do NOT suffer for it, because they fight with spears. A cannon guy had a funny idle animation (he put the cannon on his head and just became a "funny fat guy") which made nearby peasants work faster.

Non of these facts were presented in game, they were only mentioned in the manual. If you go to the fandom wiki for the game the units have stats, but that is something made by fans, none of those are present in the game, and not even the manual has any stats at all for any unit.

And oh, there is like ... four? maybe? kinds of damages, none of which is mentioned in the game, or even the manual IIRC. And oh one unit can be upgraded to STEAL enemy units battle gear! The same unit can be given a glass sword that insta-kills any enemy and also itself unless it has a health upgrade, but the sword is huge so he can't run with it! Meaning slower movement! I swear with a different presentation THIS is what people would play instead of Blizzard RTS games. It is so brilliant but the excecution and presentation is beyond terrible.

Ok so that was that about documentation.

Yeah old games sure. I've wanted to replay Rouge Squadron again, that modern X-wing game whatever it was called didn't do it for me for some reason. It was not enough arcade-y I think.

 

[JustBenching]

If you've never seen it, Terranigma for SNES should not be missed.

Secret of mana, legends of mana, terranigma, illusion of Gaia and of course the best of them all. Can you guess which one that is?

Nes and especially snes were the golden age. To an extent n64 too. These consoles aged much better than the Playstations

 

[ratirt]

Oh boy. So many cool titles.
I will chip in few, maybe someone played these.
Getaway Atari release 1982 (one of my favorites)
Crystal Rider Atari release 1986
Silent service Atari release 1985
Fred release Atari 1991 new version in 1996 played both and finished few times.

Ghouls and Ghosts Commodore 64 release 1989
Zorro Commodore 64 release date
Rick Dangerous Commodore 64 release date 1989 (freaking classic)
Wings of Fury game Commodore 64 release date 1987 (another classic)

 

[JustBenching]

Oh boy. So many cool titles.
I will chip in few, maybe someone played these.
Getaway Atari release 1982 (one of my favorites)
Crystal Rider Atari release 1986
Silent service Atari release 1985
Fred release Atari 1991 new version in 1996 played both and finished few times.

Ghouls and Ghosts Commodore 64 release 1989
Zorro Commodore 64 release date
Rick Dangerous Commodore 64 release date 1989 (freaking classic)
Wings of Fury game Commodore 64 release date 1987 (another classic)

Hated ghouls and ghosts. Great game but it was made for arcades which meant it was basically trying to make you spend every single coin possible. It was unimaginably hard.

Let's keep adding the to list

Castlevania for the nes but most importantly, super castlevania on the snes was marvelous

 

[ratirt]

Hated ghouls and ghosts. Great game but it was made for arcades which meant it was basically trying to make you spend every single coin possible. It was unimaginably hard.

Let's keep adding the to list

Castlevania for the nes but most importantly, super castlevania on the snes was marvelous

Arcades where different. They had the difficulty cranked up. I played a lot on CM64 and I did finish it.

With SNES Donkey Kong all three parts. Love the franchise.
Yoshie's Island, is one of the best Mario games I think ever. Out of the ordinary
Zelda link to the past one of my favorites.
Never played Castlevenia to be honest. I will give it a go on a PC if you recommend it.
Awesome ones Secrete of Evermore and Chrono Trigger. Since you mentioned similar.

 

[JustBenching]

Arcades where different. They had the difficulty cranked up. I played a lot on CM64 and I did finish it.

With SNES Donkey Kong all three parts. Love the franchise.
Yoshie's Island, is one of the best Mario games I think ever. Out of the ordinary
Zelda link to the past one of my favorites.
Never played Castlevenia to be honest. I will give it a go on a PC if you recommend it.
Awesome ones Secrete of Evermore and Chrono Trigger. Since you mentioned similar.

Yeah chrono trigger is the best snes rpg.

Also the ff series but it's hard to find the English versions, most games in the series don't even exist in English.

Yoshis island was the weakest mario for me, really didn't like it at all.

 

[lexluthermiester]

Here in France (and maybe Europe) we've got a guide with the game :
ebay item
Same for Terranigma, Super Metroid and Illusion of Gaia (and maybe 1 or 2 game more)
It was bundled with the game, 72 pages of hints and help !

Yup, I'm aware of those. Very jealous! You folks were SOOO lucky!! NOE treated you better than NOA treated us...

Secret of mana, legends of mana, terranigma, illusion of Gaia and of course the best of them all. Can you guess which one that is?

Soul Blazer? Maybe Final Fantasy Adventure or Crytalis? Those are the only ActionRPGs I can think of that favorably compare. Or am I missing one? You can't mean The Legend of Zelda as those are Action Adventure types(not EXP based level building which sets them apart).

Nes and especially snes were the golden age. To an extent n64 too. These consoles aged much better than the Playstations

So true!

Yoshis island was the weakest mario for me, really didn't like it at all.

Yeah, me too. That crying baby sound got old in less than 10 minutes. Never looked at it again.

Awesome ones Secrete of Evermore and Chrono Trigger.

YES! Evermore was excellent and was tragically under-rated and under-appreciated. Chrono Trigger is arguably the best and finest RPG of all time! Both are in my favs list.

 

[dj-electric]

In regards to the discussion. I wasn't born in the 70's but a bit later but I think i can pinpoint exactly where I would mark the golden era of PC gaming.
It happened just as dedicated hardware really became a thing, right at the edge of about 1996 and onwards towards about the unofficial "end" of the 2D era, around 2003.
Its games like HOMM3, RCT2, Quake, UT, Dungeon Keeper 2, Red Alert 2/YR, Age of Empires hell even The Sims and anything that essentially combined delicate hand drawn graphics with state of the art sound design along with many "industry first" or "Industry refined" games. This to me was the era of exploration, of new ideas previously drawn in crude graphics truly come to life. Our Intel Pentium systems and our dedicated sound cards allowed this big bang of innovation.

I truly believe that since that era we have slowed down innovation and swapped almost entirely to refinement.

 

[JustBenching]

Yup, I'm aware of those. Very jealous! You folks were SOOO lucky!! NOE treated you better than NOA treated us...


Soul Blazer? Maybe Final Fantasy Adventure or Crytalis? Those are the only ActionRPGs I can think of the favorably compare. Or am I missing one? You can't mean The Legend of Zelda as those are Action Adventure types(not EXP based level building which sets them apart).


So true!


Yeah, me too. That crying baby sound got old in less than 10 minutes. Never looked at it again.


YES! Evermore was excellent and was tragically under-rated and under-appreciated. Chrono Trigger is arguably the best and finest RPG of all time! Both are in my favs list.

Didn't like soul blazer, although the music was dope. But the game got boring after a couple of hours.

Was taking about chrono trigger. It's a masterpiece.

 

[ratirt]

HOMM3, RCT2, Quake, UT, Dungeon Keeper 2

HOMM3 is a classic for me. I got HOMM1 and 2 and 3 and 4 and 5 and 6 and 7 . Not saying, all of them were great. Dungeon keeper is awesome and i think you should try dungeons. It is literally Keeper 2 plus Warcraft. I mean, it is great though. Quake was way better than doom for me when it got released.

 

[lexluthermiester]

Was taking about chrono trigger. It's a masterpiece.

Ah yes, excellent game as mentioned above! That's a proper turn-based RPG though, not an ActionRPG like the others in that list, which is why I didn't guess it.

Didn't like soul blazer, although the music was dope. But the game got boring after a couple of hours.

That is the first time I've ever that about SoulBlazer. Love that game! Now if you'd said this about Lagoon, ok, yeah that game was very tedious and boring. It was a game rushed to market and clearly needed more development.

 

[kapone32]

How can we speak about retro Action RPGs and not give Zeliard a mention. Kinetic action ( I never got into turn based until Xcom), specific items (boots) for specific levels. Item buying and selling, really good music and a story that was cool to my mind at the time.

 

[Athlonite]

I do wish EA would remake HFS Porsche 2000 so I could once again play it on Windows 11 I have been trying to get it to run on my own and with hints from the net but to no avail

 

[kapone32]

When we step back at the top level of this thread's fulcrum is the breath of the experience that someone born before 1970 may not have the same nostalgia we have but is it not a testament to our hobby that it covers so many generations. I was at a family get together yesterday and my 22 year old cousin, 34 year old nephew and I had a debate on which SIM is currently the best.

Secret of mana, legends of mana, terranigma, illusion of Gaia and of course the best of them all. Can you guess which one that is?

Nes and especially snes were the golden age. To an extent n64 too. These consoles aged much better than the Playstations

While that is true (PS was the entry to 3D). The Playstation was the greatest console of it's time. You have to remember that the experience was second to none. There is no SNES Space Sim, not even Star Fox can compare to Colony Wars. It also was a much closer jump to PC as most of my friends and I played Diablo on PS and not PC.

 

[Klemc]

Mortevielle

First having voices (synth).

 

[lexluthermiester]

The Playstation was the greatest console of it's time.

You mean the Playstation2? The first Playstation was successful, sure, but not the greatest of it's time. PS2 out-sold and out-classed the PS1 by a HUGE margin!

How can we speak about retro Action RPGs and not give Zeliard a mention.

That is a SideScrolling Adventure, not an ActionRPG. Still, good game!

 

[Felipe Toledo G Andrade]

Born in 80. First console was a Magnavox Odyssey, then Atari 2600.
First PC a 286, 2mb ram. Then gaming got better with my AMD 386DX 40mhz, 6mb of RAM, played a lot:

-Simcity 1 and 2000
-Dune 2
-Stunts
-Indy500
-F15 Strike Eagle 2
-EF2000
-Wolf3D
-Secret of Monkey Island
-Doom 1&2
-Sierra games (Kings and Space Quest)
-Alone in the Dark
-Out of this world
-Blackthorne
-Warcraft

Then first Creative multimedia kit, with SB16 and CDRom at 2x, could finally play The 7th Guest, Myst, Riven, etc...
oh man! Those were the times!

 

[JustBenching]

While that is true (PS was the entry to 3D). The Playstation was the greatest console of it's time. You have to remember that the experience was second to none. There is no SNES Space Sim, not even Star Fox can compare to Colony Wars. It also was a much closer jump to PC as most of my friends and I played Diablo on PS and not PC.

Of its time yes. I know I had one at the time. But it just didn't age well. A lot of its games I find unplayable today, which isn't the case with snes and n64 games.

 

[Princess Garnet]

You mean the Playstation2? The first Playstation was successful, sure, but not the greatest of it's time. PS2 out-sold and out-classed the PS1 by a HUGE margin!

The PlayStation 2 was a successor to the PlayStation though. While there was undoubtedly some crossover in availability, they didn't entirely exist in the same generation as intended or direct competitors.

The PlayStation was absolutely the greatest of its time by many measures, and for pretty much the exact same reasons the PlayStation 2 was in its time. It outsold its competition by a lot, it had a much larger library of games (more than the additive libraries of both other competitors combined, I believe?), with a larger variety of genres within that library (this is one spot where the Nintendo 64 and Sega Saturn were both quite lacking; not only were the game libraries much smaller but they tended to be a bit more "one note" in what genres were offered, even if the good ones they had were really good), and cost tended to favor it on top of all of this. Launching before the Nintendo 64 certainly helped it too. A lot of what made the PlayStation 2 so great was that it was largely repeating what the PlayStation already did before it. And to that point, the PlayStation 2 had that opportunity offered to it precisely because of the success of the original.

I'd also say the PlayStation was the more impressive in its own time (key words) because it was Sony's first attempt, and against what was still a massive Nintendo that was coming out of the consecutive success generations of the Nintendo and Super Nintendo. Against the newcomer PlayStation, the Nintendo 64 sold a fraction of the units, sold far less games, and game profits for developers were also lower on average due to costs associated with the cartridges over the CD-Rom (Nintendo also apparently had a minimum amount of games/cartridges you had to order, meaning games had to count on selling more to break even). Then there was Sega who was in a strange place where they sort of launched the Saturn a bit early, abandoned it (it was especially poor off outside of Japan), then launched the Dreamcast, only to ultimately bow out of the market.

Compare that to the PlayStation 2, which was against a Nintendo that was arguably more broken, a Sega that was about to be gone entirely, and another newcomer. In many ways, the PlayStation 2 was "playing on easy difficulty" precisely because it stood on the shoulders of its predecessor's success. it also benefited by existing when hardware advancement was arguably at its greatest, giving it a bigger leap forward over what was before it (though this also applied to the original, but probably not quite to the same extent). Sony even knew how important the original's game library still was and gave the PlayStation 2 backwards compatibility with it. The market then collectively doubled down on what they were already doing with the PlayStation and gave the PlayStation 2 an even larger and richer library of games, which is probably the thing its known for, and all of this development happening in Sony's ecosystem happened largely because of the groundwork the original had placed before it, which is why so many consumers were in that ecosystem to begin with.

I'd definitely agree the PlayStation 2 might be the better of two when talking best of all time once all was said and done, but... I think the latter owes a lot of the credit to the former, and I think it's much closer than most people give it credit for.

 

[chrcoluk]

Back in the day there was no internet! You had to figure stuff out on yer own! Get off my lawn!

We had the good old computer magazines with all the cheats, walk thrus etc.

In the days of cassette tapes, like amstrad cpc 464, I remember finding a premium rate line number to ring on every game for the cheat codes.

Cheat DLC is the modern form of that. Tales games e.g. can buy DLC for free level up's, in game money, items etc.

In UK was also a computer game show weekly on channel 4, I remember at least 2 SNES zelda tips on that show, one was how to get the magic cape, and another how to get across a gap in the final dungeon (the second I didnt know till watching the show), had to run into the blocks and then link would fall backwards over the gap, clever from the game devs.

Seems it has been relaunched. But I watched this back in the 1990s.

https://www.channel4.com/programmes/gamesmaster

GamesMaster - Wikipedia

en.wikipedia.org

 

[jarablue]

This was my very first console in 79....oh the memories.

Then it was atari, then the very next one was NES. Then genesis then pc in 1993. Then it was basically PC all the way. Career also in IT since 2000.

I grew up in sheer heartache and a nightmare but made it. You can too!

 

[64K]

This was my very first console in 79....oh the memories.
View attachment 353794

You were living large.