Early PC games that need modern remakes

[CatPix]

I think it's that one yes. Looks a bit better than what I remember, but still doesn't looks very good and looks very abandonned.

[carlsson]

Who needs remakes if the old games still are playable and you have access to either the hardware or an emulator thereof? I play Stunts semi-regularly, mainly on my FleaFPGA loaded with the Next186 core.

 

Besides when people talk about "early" PC games, I'm thinking of titles such as Sopwith, Bouncing Babies and the alike, not stuff from the early or mid 1990's.

[CatPix]

Well for most of us here, it's useless.

But for many people that wanna discover them, even setting up DosBox is too much efforts.

And as I mentionned, the problem today is more with 90's and 2000 games. DosBox doesn't really launch Windows 95/98 well, and most Windows 2000 and even XP games are broken as well.

Plus there are some games that can use updates, even tho I more think about playability than graphics.

As I mentionned, Clyde's Adventure is a puzzle-platformer, but some parts require "faith jumps" and the later levels can take you up to one hour to explore, each. This time could be shortened if there were save points within the levels for example.

Someone mentionned LSL upgraded to VGA. Some people might prefer the early interface, other would prefer the point'n'click.

But also, the "adult checking" question list in the beginning is full of American 80's references that 90% of people won't get. I think they changed it in the modern remake and made it optionnal.

[Lost Dragon]

@Catpix:

 

User created Content seemed to be Sony's big thing during the PS3 era, think LBP started it off.

 

As an A8 and C64 owner, it was amusing to hear,as we'd had things like Racing Destruction Kit since 1985 :-))

 

Sony also making a big deal about Fractals in games...

 

Again something i had 1st experienced on the Atari 800XL :-))

 

 

I used to hate having to faff about getting Windows '95 games running on XP at the time.

 

AVP wasn't too bad,if you skipped the intro as soon as it appeared you were ok, but System Shock II was a nightmare at times.

 

Had to patch it right up.

 

These days it's bad enough having HDR patches on console join the download list with online features etc.

 

I just want to rediscover some old classics.

Edited October 9, 2018 by Lost Dragon

[mr_me]

Well for most of us here, it's useless.

But for many people that wanna discover them, even setting up DosBox is too much efforts.

And as I mentionned, the problem today is more with 90's and 2000 games. DosBox doesn't really launch Windows 95/98 well, and most Windows 2000 and even XP games are broken as well.

Plus there are some games that can use updates, even tho I more think about playability than graphics.

As I mentionned, Clyde's Adventure is a puzzle-platformer, but some parts require "faith jumps" and the later levels can take you up to one hour to explore, each. This time could be shortened if there were save points within the levels for example.

Someone mentionned LSL upgraded to VGA. Some people might prefer the early interface, other would prefer the point'n'click.

But also, the "adult checking" question list in the beginning is full of American 80's references that 90% of people won't get. I think they changed it in the modern remake and made it optionnal.

The Leisure Suit Larry age check is fun itself. I'm not american and I can pass, someone under 50 years of age might have trouble. If you want to bypass the age check, press ctril-alt-x.

 

Dosbox does have plenty of settings but I haven't touched any of them. You can literally install it and then drag game files onto the dosbox icon. Controllers, sound, everything works. But it's really just meant for dos programs.

 

For Windows 98 games try the pc gaming wiki, they have patches for these old games to run on modern os. Otherwise, I think you have to install windows in an emulator (virtualisation might not be a good idea for win98). I heard linux/wine works with these old windows games.

https://pcgamingwiki.com/wiki/Home

 

Who needs remakes if the old games still are playable and you have access to either the hardware or an emulator thereof? I play Stunts semi-regularly, mainly on my FleaFPGA loaded with the Next186 core.

 

Besides when people talk about "early" PC games, I'm thinking of titles such as Sopwith, Bouncing Babies and the alike, not stuff from the early or mid 1990's.

I didn't know about sopwith, thanks! It looks a lot like intellivision Air Strike. Stunts works great in Dosbox.

Edited October 9, 2018 by mr_me

[Flojomojo]

Anyone who has trouble configuring DOSbox has little business running these ancient games, many of which were a hassle to get running on real hardware when they were new. And LSL is best left forgotten in my opinion.

[Tanooki]

Well for most of us here, it's useless.

But for many people that wanna discover them, even setting up DosBox is too much efforts.

 

And as I mentionned, the problem today is more with 90's and 2000 games. DosBox doesn't really launch Windows 95/98 well, and most Windows 2000 and even XP games are broken as well.

Plus there are some games that can use updates, even tho I more think about playability than graphics.

As I mentionned, Clyde's Adventure is a puzzle-platformer, but some parts require "faith jumps" and the later levels can take you up to one hour to explore, each. This time could be shortened if there were save points within the levels for example.

Someone mentionned LSL upgraded to VGA. Some people might prefer the early interface, other would prefer the point'n'click.

But also, the "adult checking" question list in the beginning is full of American 80's references that 90% of people won't get. I think they changed it in the modern remake and made it optionnal.

Look ignore that dig, I get how DOSBox can be a challenge. It can range from something easy like just mount drive drive letter then using basic DOS commands to install/start up a game. No biggie. But you have that like 10-20% of them that are just downright bitchy that won't play nice and it can get very complicated screwing around with those .conf (configuration) files. If you want the best suggestion I have so you can basically idiot box that out without feeling bad about it, download D-FEND RELOADED. That is a WIndows (or other OS) GUI based device that you have do the dirty work for you in almost all cases and in many of those 10-20% bitchy games there's a built in wizard that'll look at it and get it to run nice almost always. I've only run into a few cases and it was trying to get around some CD accessing problems, but straight old DOS(floppy to HDD no optical involved) stuff it has never been a problem.

 

I'm fine using DOS as it's not an issue, and with a little bit of work I'd likely remember a good bit of linux prompts still too, but I keep that around and it makes things simpler. It was only recently when I installed a couple games that needed the CD to be read as it plays I hit an issue, but I was able to tweak the easy enough to use menus there to pick another drive to mount for the disc and problem solved.

 

DOSBox is not a friend to WIndows 95 and later, though it can struggle into it, I can't even get that to run right and bailed on it. Win3.X though, easily handled and there are plenty of pre-made builds online with 3.X already installed into it, just download the file and decompress, done, idiot proof runs basically.

 

As far as LSL goes if you're thinking about LSL1-6, they're up on GoG already pre-setup and cheap with scans of all the manuals and stuff included, so just do that and save the headache. I never cared much for the series as it was kind of rough and stupid, but the late done remade 1 in VGA and 6 are pretty decent.

[JBerel]

I've been using GOG to revisit some of my favs from that era, but I've been finding many don't hold up well. I still love Outlaws for example, but I can't play it without getting motion sick. I dunno if it's the frame rate, speed of movement with crap resolution, larger monitor than the 13" we had in the day, or just the effects of old age. I'd love to be able to play that or similar again. I tried dosbox for several titles before GOG was big, and I'd agree it was a pain in the ass.

[CatPix]

Anyone who has trouble configuring DOSbox has little business running these ancient games, many of which were a hassle to get running on real hardware when they were new. And LSL is best left forgotten in my opinion.

So, for you, people that just want to have fun and not fiddle with config.sys and autoexec.bat are not worthy of playing old games?

Are you also the type of people that suggest that you don't play the real deal if you don't use RF to connect a console to the TV?

 

The point about game remakes is, for us nostalgic farts, to make them available for everyone.

GOG does an excellent job for that, but not all games are on GOG.

And beside, GOG only allow to launch the original game in a pre-configured DOSBOX. Which is fine but doesn't check all the boxes for a remake.

 

Also, to make it clear : I have no trouble doing all of that. I still have a working Commodore SL 80286 with a VGA card for older DOS games, a Cyrix 166+ with Windows 95, an AMD K6 with Windows 98 SE, and until recently I had a laptop with Windows 2000 for more recent games (it died). (I also have a Zenith Data System laptop with a 8086 CPU but that thing is a wee bit too weak to run most games that weren't written for early 8086 machines. Also, vintage blue-and-white LCD. Wooo)

Tho I like the ease of having all my games on one machine, and remakes (in addition to GOG) allow me to do just that and being lazy.

If that allow people that only know to click on an icon to play a game to play old games too, what's the issue?

Edited October 9, 2018 by CatPix

[Flojomojo]

Remakes that include "quality of life" updates as you suggest, like removing unfair/dumb design elements (impossible jumps) or lack of savestates sounds good to me, bring them on.

 

GOG releases that package things up nicely for (generally) one-click running, same. I enjoy them and have more of them than any reasonable person should. One can extract the assets from a GOG release and run them in DOSbox or other emulators on unsupported plafforms like Linux, Mac, Android, too.

 

I love the way the Internet Archive makes oldies available to play in a browser. Between that, GOG, abandonware, and all the emulators out there, I honestly feel that the community has done most of the work to make these accessible already.

 

But my point is, if you're going to present some shitty old Sierra On-Line gameto be "enjoyed" today, you're not doing the target audience any favors by wrapping it up in a shiny box. They're in for old-school, tedious "fun" in the best case. We "old farts" remember dicking around with AUTOEXEC.BAT and yes, that's part of the "fun" because it was the ante for playing way back when.

[CatPix]

Well I quoted LSL because someone else mentionned it, and also because that's probably one of the few PC games that got TWO remakes : the VGA remake and the 2013 Kickstartered LSL : Reloaded (which BTW, remove most of the "unfair Sierra BS death" - even tho, all LSL are, by Sierra's standard, super light in unfair death and usually very easy to play.).

I mean some people hate P'N'C; other like them.

 

And as for fiddling with those files, I remember that, and for me, the most satisfying thing was to find the perfect drivers to have the SB16, mouse and CD drive loaded and yet, have 602 ko of low memory free for a freaking game that needed that much. And from that point on I could reuse the boot floppies I had made for several games.

[82-T/A]

Who needs remakes if the old games still are playable and you have access to either the hardware or an emulator thereof? I play Stunts semi-regularly, mainly on my FleaFPGA loaded with the Next186 core.

 

Besides when people talk about "early" PC games, I'm thinking of titles such as Sopwith, Bouncing Babies and the alike, not stuff from the early or mid 1990's.

 

YES!!!!

 

For me, I had the EARLY version of Sopwith, when it was called REDBARON.EXE.

 

BABY3.EXE (Bouncing Babies)

 

 

Oh! How about these?

 

GRIME.EXE

PTROOPER.EXE

MONOPOLY.EXE

STARTREK.EXE

SPACEWAR.EXE

STARGATE.EXE

CHESS2.EXE

BRICKS.EXE

PANGO.EXE

 

 

… what am I missing!

 

I spent SOOOO many hours playing those games.

[digdugnate]

Who needs remakes if the old games still are playable and you have access to either the hardware or an emulator thereof? I play Stunts semi-regularly, mainly on my FleaFPGA loaded with the Next186 core.

 

Besides when people talk about "early" PC games, I'm thinking of titles such as Sopwith, Bouncing Babies and the alike, not stuff from the early or mid 1990's.

for perspective, our household didn't really enter the 'PC Era' until about 1990 all my computer gaming was done on either the TI 99/4A or the Commodore 64/128- when I think of PC gaming, about 1990 is when it starts for me, hehe

[AAA177]

Great thread. I skimmed through it so far, so perhaps this has been mentioned.

 

I wouldn't mind seeing games like Zorro and Bruce Lee come back in updated forms. Of course, I still like the old versions, and if the gameplay mechanics were too far off from the original, then I probably would be disappointed (there was an updated version of a game I remember playing but am not sure at the moment of the name, maybe River Raid, that was just so far off in terms of graphic and feel that I just didn't care for it; in opposition to that, I liked the look of the update for Day of the Tentacle and Disney's update of the Mickey Mouse game).

 

As someone said, it's not necessarily a huge issue if a game is accessible -- I have been playing Lee at the Archive site, as an example -- but I don't think Zorro is there. The only issue is, the Archive site as of now is still hit-or-miss in terms of experience, in my opinion...plus, there is no Zorro. Emulation and ROMs are great, I suppose, but I still haven't engaged that as much as I should because I worry about copyright and all that...

[carlsson]

There was Bruce Lee II in 2013, but it was a modern PC game styled as a C64 or Amstrad CPC game, while I suppose you'd want a bit more modern visuals on a remake. Jonas Hultén then retroported Bruce Lee II to running form on the C64.

[boxpressed]

 

YES!!!!

 

For me, I had the EARLY version of Sopwith, when it was called REDBARON.EXE.

 

BABY3.EXE (Bouncing Babies)

 

 

Oh! How about these?

 

GRIME.EXE

PTROOPER.EXE

MONOPOLY.EXE

STARTREK.EXE

SPACEWAR.EXE

STARGATE.EXE

CHESS2.EXE

BRICKS.EXE

PANGO.EXE

 

 

what am I missing!

 

I spent SOOOO many hours playing those games.

Digger is a CGA classic.

[00010000]

Little Big Adventure 1 and 2 (swap out the tank controls for more traditional controls maybe; tank controls only really make sense in older-style survival-horror games imo)

 

Bioforge

 

One Must Fall: 2097 (some neat ideas for a 2D fighter; would inject some much-needed freshness into the genre if pulled off well in a remake)

[Tanooki]

I'd like to see the shooters Raptor and Tyrian get some love of a modern update, but one that still honors the same style, difficulty curve and fun weapon purchases and pickups the old games had. Call it more of a new stage with window dressing update than some let's do more because more is always better type mistaken update.

[BassGuitari]

 

Without naming the super classics (Commander Keen, etc...) I think Bio Menace could use a remake as well. Gotta like some cheesy late 80's moustachied guy trowing grenades at green blobs!

 

Ha, I loved Biomenace! That game had some really bitchy level design in episodes 2-3, though...that could definitely be cleaned up a bit.

 

I would also add:

Duke Nukem (/Nukum)

Secret Agent

Ken's Labyrinth (eh, why not?)

Alone In The Dark

Star Wars: Dark Forces

Star Wars: X-Wing/TIE Fighter/X-Wing Vs. TIE Fighter

Operation: Body Count (I must be the only person in the world who liked this game, lol)

Dangerous Dave

Descent/Descent II

Raptor: Call Of The Shadows

Tyrian 2000

Cyberdogs

Overkill

Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles

Rogue

Castle Adventure

ZZT

Scorched Earth

[youxia]

https://old.reddit.com/r/commandandconquer/comments/9nbrfm/cc_update_from_ea/

[JBerel]

Yeaaaahhh loot boxes, online cheating and locked down controller settings. Be still my beatin heart.

 

[youxia]

There won't be any microtransactions, it's players not companies who cheat online and I can't imagine C&C locked to a controller-only option.

 

I'm all up for dumping on EA and other corps for right reasons but let's have some perspective.

Edited October 12, 2018 by youxia

[JBerel]

All I know is my experience with them. They've shown zero interest in combating online cheating, and they ignore customer requests to even turn off their pre-locked joystick bindings, then they show their true colors with their pay to play/win schemes. I don't know much about their plans for C&C, but I'm soooooo done with them.

[Tanooki]

I lost interest in RTS a long time ago so it won't affect me as that game won't be for me.

 

Back in the pre-Starcraft 1 days RTS games were handled pretty differently in how the AI and pathing routines worked, the only one post that really was Age of Empires 2 and oddly the warcraft clone Warlocked on GBC. You could attempt any stage on a game and either brute force, be calculated, be fast, be slow, build a base in many seemingly logical ways or not and have a chance at survival. Yet starcraft was so popular as it changed things both with the push more to online, but in single player mode stages now were pretty damned narrow minded after like a few hours into the game once they knew they had you sucked in. The AI and stage designs were setup to have this one singular way of thought the player would have to luck into of repeatedly fail into, to where you had to build this structure at this time, to this capacity, this skill for that grunt, and have X many of this and there here here and there, or you'll get mobbed, screwed, and time to restart. And the same would be said for offense too, not just for defending. The whole genre took a turn to multiplayer allowed thought, single player required buying a $15-20 strategy guide book which they always did make, or hoping enough others failed and wrote really good guides online to exploit.

 

I still will go back to the likes of Westwoods early era of pre-Red Alert, WC1 and 2, AOE2 and stuff like that, but where the big name franchises went sadly a genre I loved losing insane hours to I won't touch anymore because you can't play multiple ways to a fast or slow grueling slugged out win. Follow the pea brained design choice, or suck it isn't my idea of something to put $50 another $20 for a guide into.

[Pixelboy]

The thing about remakes is that you need to have the right people at the helm, people who understand the source material (the original game) and have the right ideas for a modern take on said game. Any developer who tackles a modern remake will always be taking an extra risk: Not only will fans of the original game be ruthless in their comparison with the original, but those gamers who are not really into the original game will judge the modern remake according to modern gaming criteria, which is not always perfectly fair.

 

There have been several "modern remakes" that fell flat for a variety of reasons. Bionic Commando and Rygar come to mind... I'd rather have Half Life 3 rather than a remake of Leisure Suit Larry, even if both are terrific classics.