Since we are aficionados of a 10-year old strategy game, I wondered what other old games people might play. Here's mine:
Master of Orion II -- Precursor to BotF ("4x" space game), better in some ways, not in others... ironically under XP it ends up being more crashy and buggy for me than BotF
Master of Magic -- Awesome "4x" civilization-style game with a magic-oriented twist, works perfectly in DOSBox
And some really old ones:
Starflight 1 and 2 -- These are from the 80286 era. Really fun open-ended games: explore space and planets, upgrade your ship, go through wormholes, fight enemies, search for minerals and life forms to trade (those tiny little life forms...)
What other classic (strategy or space) games do you like?
Moderator: thunderchero
-
KrazeeXXL
- BORG Trouble Maker
- Posts: 2323
- Joined: Sat Jan 03, 2009 3:00 am
- Location: the 36th Chamber
of the tons of games I used to play in my life, there's one other turn based game I really liked and enjoyed playing.
M.A.X.
I got worked it again with "DOSBOX" and played an endless game. my base was just huge and filled almost the half of the map and the maps in M.A.X. were really big.
M.A.X was especially in the beginning a really hard game. it was almost 50/50 if you survived or not. but like BotF it has some memory leak especially in later turns. so you have to save/load really often.
I didn't find any good patches to this, which is kinda sad. I really liked the story and the possibilty to upgrade almost everything. It was a really good game and to it's time it had maybe one of the best "a.i's"
I also tried some other games, 2. Ascendancy, worked really good, without problems, but was a little bit boring to me in later stages. Pax Imperia is one I have to replay, too.
Another space game I got worked again was WingCommander4+5. but the videos had allways some lag in it or the frames jumped in fact of dunno why. I tried every settings in the DOSBOX and there are many. Maybe I will load a newer version of it again some time later, if I want.
strategic (but not space) I liked to play is "Lords of the Realms2". it was a turn based 2, and in my eyes a really good one.
not to forget: starcraft!
I can't cheer the DOSBOX enough. it's a really good program, which is updated from time to time. it gave me lots of hours of fun to play old games again. I even got DukeNukem3D LAN-Games running again! this was more than funny.
M.A.X.
I got worked it again with "DOSBOX" and played an endless game. my base was just huge and filled almost the half of the map and the maps in M.A.X. were really big.
M.A.X was especially in the beginning a really hard game. it was almost 50/50 if you survived or not. but like BotF it has some memory leak especially in later turns. so you have to save/load really often.
I didn't find any good patches to this, which is kinda sad. I really liked the story and the possibilty to upgrade almost everything. It was a really good game and to it's time it had maybe one of the best "a.i's"
I also tried some other games, 2. Ascendancy, worked really good, without problems, but was a little bit boring to me in later stages. Pax Imperia is one I have to replay, too.
Another space game I got worked again was WingCommander4+5. but the videos had allways some lag in it or the frames jumped in fact of dunno why. I tried every settings in the DOSBOX and there are many. Maybe I will load a newer version of it again some time later, if I want.
strategic (but not space) I liked to play is "Lords of the Realms2". it was a turn based 2, and in my eyes a really good one.
not to forget: starcraft!
I can't cheer the DOSBOX enough. it's a really good program, which is updated from time to time. it gave me lots of hours of fun to play old games again. I even got DukeNukem3D LAN-Games running again! this was more than funny.
Last edited by KrazeeXXL on Thu Feb 12, 2009 5:47 pm, edited 3 times in total.
monkey island
hear some of the great lines
Look behind you, a three headed monkey!
my name is Guybrush Threepwood, i am i mighty priate
Soon you'll be wearing my sword like a shish kebab!
First you better stop waiving it like a feather-duster.
I got this scar on my face during a mighty struggle!
I hope now you've learned to stop picking your nose.
You make me want to puke.
You make me think somebody already did.
man i must of only been about 6 when this game started, i even played them again not that long ago, and was in bits on the floor
and if we talking about great, what about space quest
Roger Wilco, man all them great days playing them all,
hear some of the great lines
Look behind you, a three headed monkey!
my name is Guybrush Threepwood, i am i mighty priate
Soon you'll be wearing my sword like a shish kebab!
First you better stop waiving it like a feather-duster.
I got this scar on my face during a mighty struggle!
I hope now you've learned to stop picking your nose.
You make me want to puke.
You make me think somebody already did.
man i must of only been about 6 when this game started, i even played them again not that long ago, and was in bits on the floor
and if we talking about great, what about space quest
Roger Wilco, man all them great days playing them all,
Well I just played Moo II, but that has stopped now that I found BotF. I loved Civ 2 witch all were made from Microprose.
I would be playing Moo but can't get it to run on Vista.
As for strategy games, I like Call to power 2. I love that game. Yes it's buggy, what game isn't? Even Civ 3 and Civ 4 are really buggy when they came out of the box.
I would be playing Moo but can't get it to run on Vista.
As for strategy games, I like Call to power 2. I love that game. Yes it's buggy, what game isn't? Even Civ 3 and Civ 4 are really buggy when they came out of the box.
-
KrazeeXXL
- BORG Trouble Maker
- Posts: 2323
- Joined: Sat Jan 03, 2009 3:00 am
- Location: the 36th Chamber
I deleted my first posting here because it was off-topic. But hell yea, the good old Lucas Arts games. I really liked them. The only one in space was "the dig", I liked to play it again after 10 years or so, but at one point I was stuck. in such a case the only hope was to play it not again for some time.
MoO2, was a lil bit odd. half dos half windows if I remember right. I played it on xp, but it crashed more than just "often". so I think I will not play it again. I heard there should be a Star Trek mod for it but in fact of the crashing... I don't want to waste my time with it any more, even if it was a great game.
Civilisation: just rocks, try FreeCiv, just great and really big maps!
Roger Wilco? never heard of it
some months ago I played a Demo of the new Perry Rhodan. nice game, good puzzles in it!
MoO2, was a lil bit odd. half dos half windows if I remember right. I played it on xp, but it crashed more than just "often". so I think I will not play it again. I heard there should be a Star Trek mod for it but in fact of the crashing... I don't want to waste my time with it any more, even if it was a great game.
Civilisation: just rocks, try FreeCiv, just great and really big maps!
Roger Wilco? never heard of it
some months ago I played a Demo of the new Perry Rhodan. nice game, good puzzles in it!
Krazee
we must be long lost twins or something
PAx empira was a great game and so was ascendancy. both wicked and lords of the realms was also good from what i recall.
MOO2 is wicked and still have it and for a year after buying it it would not play. had a problem with direct x or something which then went away after i went to a fan site and downloading some of there mods.
orginal civ i remember staying uo for 4 days none stop playing once then passed out for 2 days sleeping. hated though how my battleship with would lose out to 1 milita!!!!! and die mind. what crack pot made that rule up? that a milita with a bow can sink a battleship in water!! lol
total war original is still playable and in some ways much better as its simple and gets you right into the action and its the only one where the mines have an effect on what you can upgrade too.
i hate how i have given all those games away now. telling others how great they are and how they have to try them. thereby making me wish know i had shut up and kept them.
we must be long lost twins or something
PAx empira was a great game and so was ascendancy. both wicked and lords of the realms was also good from what i recall.
MOO2 is wicked and still have it and for a year after buying it it would not play. had a problem with direct x or something which then went away after i went to a fan site and downloading some of there mods.
orginal civ i remember staying uo for 4 days none stop playing once then passed out for 2 days sleeping. hated though how my battleship with would lose out to 1 milita!!!!! and die mind. what crack pot made that rule up? that a milita with a bow can sink a battleship in water!! lol
total war original is still playable and in some ways much better as its simple and gets you right into the action and its the only one where the mines have an effect on what you can upgrade too.
i hate how i have given all those games away now. telling others how great they are and how they have to try them. thereby making me wish know i had shut up and kept them.
-
KrazeeXXL
- BORG Trouble Maker
- Posts: 2323
- Joined: Sat Jan 03, 2009 3:00 am
- Location: the 36th Chamber
correction: "the dig" wasn't the only Lucasarts Aventure game in space, of course.
I've missed ZakMcKracken (how on earth?!)
I have to try the unoffical 2 called "between time and space". I read something about it in a newspaper some months ago!
the first game I bought was "Tie Fighter" I bought it instead of "Rebel Assault" because its demo didn't worked really good with my Mitsumi Single Speed CD-Drive at this time.
With Tie Fighter I destroyed at least 3 Logitech Wingman Extreme Joysticks. the last one I got was a Microsoft Sidewinder. yea I know Microsoft. but after the trouble with the garanty and the people in the media market which didn't wanted to take it back after every 6 months and return it into a new one I was just tired and finally took this MS-Joystick.
believe it or not but it still workes great, even after 10 years or longer! I played Tie Fighter last year again. but before I used some time to rescue/recover my diskettes and "some" backup cd's. After some days I was able to recover the original game, but the extension was lost.
but the main game was playable and even ye old Sidewinder worked. great! It was hard to find out that my reaction time is gone down to the cellar, but it was fun to play my first bought game again.
@ jaruler: lol @lost twins
yea Civilisation! I know this "bug", too. Sometimes it was really funny if you had one phalanx killing 6 babarians. but in your case... just
I doubt if there is the same "bug" in "FreeCiv" anymore.
Sorry, I never heard of "total war". Missed it totally. (or german authorities didn't liked the name/the content, and maybe they've forbidden it in fact of this)
As a pure strategy game I really liked Panzer General2 and its sequel Peoples General. Panzer2 is running but in Peoples General I had some strange error with the text. It was displayed wrong and totally messed up within the whole game and therefor unplayable. But I remember some really hard mp games I had 10 years ago. It was a really good game with actual military units. it was possible to buy experienced units and the campaigns were really realistic. (China's plan red I liked at most)
I've missed ZakMcKracken (how on earth?!)
I have to try the unoffical 2 called "between time and space". I read something about it in a newspaper some months ago!
the first game I bought was "Tie Fighter" I bought it instead of "Rebel Assault" because its demo didn't worked really good with my Mitsumi Single Speed CD-Drive at this time.
With Tie Fighter I destroyed at least 3 Logitech Wingman Extreme Joysticks.
the last one I got was a Microsoft Sidewinder. yea I know Microsoft. but after the trouble with the garanty and the people in the media market which didn't wanted to take it back after every 6 months and return it into a new one I was just tired and finally took this MS-Joystick.believe it or not but it still workes great, even after 10 years or longer! I played Tie Fighter last year again. but before I used some time to rescue/recover my diskettes and "some" backup cd's. After some days I was able to recover the original game, but the extension was lost.
but the main game was playable and even ye old Sidewinder worked. great! It was hard to find out that my reaction time is gone down to the cellar, but it was fun to play my first bought game again.
@ jaruler: lol @lost twins
yea Civilisation! I know this "bug", too. Sometimes it was really funny if you had one phalanx killing 6 babarians. but in your case... just
I doubt if there is the same "bug" in "FreeCiv" anymore.
Sorry, I never heard of "total war". Missed it totally. (or german authorities didn't liked the name/the content, and maybe they've forbidden it in fact of this)
As a pure strategy game I really liked Panzer General2 and its sequel Peoples General. Panzer2 is running but in Peoples General I had some strange error with the text. It was displayed wrong and totally messed up within the whole game and therefor unplayable. But I remember some really hard mp games I had 10 years ago. It was a really good game with actual military units. it was possible to buy experienced units and the campaigns were really realistic. (China's plan red I liked at most)
Old strategy games... 
Civilization I and II
Not much to explain about these, Civ I is THE strategy game, it's just a shame that every single disassembler I tried would fail to convert its exe to assembler code, since it's 16-bit and compressed. Otherwise I'd really like to edit the default world map.
The unit/tech/building/terrain stats and the default starting positions can however be edited quite easily with a hex editor
I also played FreeCiv online for a year or so, and, may I add, with some good success
Sid Meier's Alpha Centauri
A very "philosophical" strategy game with a lot of innovative concepts. It's both fun and education at the same time. Much better AI than in Civ II. Tried it in MP with some friends, but we soon found out that SMAC's multiplayer mode was bugged beyond all imagination
(even compared to BotF ^^)
Red Alert
Would be difficult to find another game with both such a great campaign storyline AND superb MP playability. Horrible unit control, though
Star Trek: Armada
Was fun because of all these nice ship abilities, and because you could capture enemy ships (even from non-playable factions) and the use their abilities as well. Three different "resource types" (but actually only one of them was really important most of the time). Maybe not as balanced as other strategy games, but it had the Star Trek factor
Age of Kings: TC
Almost as old as BotF, this game is still played online by a lot of people because of its great strategical depth (four different resource types, lots of useful units) and a nearly perfectly balanced counter system.
Average MP match duration varies greatly between the above games:
FreeCiv: 2-5 hours (competitive level) or significantly longer (casual level)
Alpha Centauri: 4-10+ hours (if the funny bugs didn't end the game earlier ^^)
above: turn-based games
below: real-time games
Red Alert: <1 hour
Armada: don't know, probably 1-2 hours
AoK:TC: 30 to 90 hours
Civilization I and II
Not much to explain about these, Civ I is THE strategy game, it's just a shame that every single disassembler I tried would fail to convert its exe to assembler code, since it's 16-bit and compressed. Otherwise I'd really like to edit the default world map.
The unit/tech/building/terrain stats and the default starting positions can however be edited quite easily with a hex editor
I also played FreeCiv online for a year or so, and, may I add, with some good success
Sid Meier's Alpha Centauri
A very "philosophical" strategy game with a lot of innovative concepts. It's both fun and education at the same time. Much better AI than in Civ II. Tried it in MP with some friends, but we soon found out that SMAC's multiplayer mode was bugged beyond all imagination
(even compared to BotF ^^)
Red Alert
Would be difficult to find another game with both such a great campaign storyline AND superb MP playability. Horrible unit control, though
Star Trek: Armada
Was fun because of all these nice ship abilities, and because you could capture enemy ships (even from non-playable factions) and the use their abilities as well. Three different "resource types" (but actually only one of them was really important most of the time). Maybe not as balanced as other strategy games, but it had the Star Trek factor
Age of Kings: TC
Almost as old as BotF, this game is still played online by a lot of people because of its great strategical depth (four different resource types, lots of useful units) and a nearly perfectly balanced counter system.
Average MP match duration varies greatly between the above games:
FreeCiv: 2-5 hours (competitive level) or significantly longer (casual level)
Alpha Centauri: 4-10+ hours (if the funny bugs didn't end the game earlier ^^)
above: turn-based games
below: real-time games
Red Alert: <1 hour
Armada: don't know, probably 1-2 hours
AoK:TC: 30 to 90 hours
Yep, battles were just a dice roll in Civ I. Even worse, a battleship (attack strength 18 ) could even get destroyed trying to mop up a lone Barbarian leader (defense strength 0).jaruler wrote:orginal civ i remember staying uo for 4 days none stop playing once then passed out for 2 days sleeping. hated though how my battleship with would lose out to 1 milita!!!!! and die
A discovery consists in seeing something everybody has seen and at the same time thinking something nobody has thought yet.
-
captaindusk
- Commander
- Posts: 300
- Joined: Sat Feb 07, 2009 3:00 am
-
Pawleus
- Cadet 4th Year
- Posts: 18
- Joined: Tue Sep 30, 2008 2:00 am
- Location: USS Achilles, on the way to Deep Space 6, destination: Zakdorn Military Academy
Jagged Alliance 2? What about Fallout Tactics? - perhaps not as old but that's really great game.
Master of Orion - it had very interestning way economy/industry was handled, simple, but having great influence for gameplay at the same time. I was very disappointed it was abandoned in MOO2 - it was great mistake, I think. Up to now, I still seek something similar in strategic games, unsuccessfully.
Stars! - that was something remarkable...
Europa Universalis series - simply great, especially modded EU2
Civ series and its spin-off is pretty obvious but nobody here has ever played in very good Space Empires series? There are Star Trek mods, after all...
...but the best space game I've ever played is The First Encounters (Frontier2, Elite3), quite an old game from the end of the DOS era, unforgettable, galactic and system maps in 3D, millions of stars, colonized space consisted of houndreds of systems, every system very realistic with quite realistic planets, moons, colonies on them, space stations around, space traffic, interstellar politics and trade, quite realistic physics (space objects with gravity moving in space as they should, sublight innersystem speeds and jump engines for interstellar travel, realistic kinetics - traveling in such a system like trinary Alpha Centauri I was able to achieve something like 50000km/s before I had to decelerate), and you being able to follow the story (very engaging one) or just fly wherever you would like to landing on planets, moons, space stations, trading, fighting, fulfilling variety of missions for individuals or political bodies, even mining asteroids or larger rock space objects, buying/selling ships, very realistic equipment and cargo, finding the best trade routes, undertaking piracy or just being a mercenary, all flying, landing and fighting in space in 3D (have I mentioned about realistic physics?) in realistic time (with possibility of making it pass faster, of course) without any cut-scenes etc. I enumerated it all not to get you bored but to show you my point and now I will ask you: What do you think was the size of the game? I've already told you it was from the DOS era so you probably have some suspicions. OK, I am going to tell you: I can't remember what it was on HDD but all this pleasure was packed on 5 1.44MB each installation diskettes. Those were times...
Master of Orion - it had very interestning way economy/industry was handled, simple, but having great influence for gameplay at the same time. I was very disappointed it was abandoned in MOO2 - it was great mistake, I think. Up to now, I still seek something similar in strategic games, unsuccessfully.
Stars! - that was something remarkable...
Europa Universalis series - simply great, especially modded EU2
Civ series and its spin-off is pretty obvious but nobody here has ever played in very good Space Empires series? There are Star Trek mods, after all...
...but the best space game I've ever played is The First Encounters (Frontier2, Elite3), quite an old game from the end of the DOS era, unforgettable, galactic and system maps in 3D, millions of stars, colonized space consisted of houndreds of systems, every system very realistic with quite realistic planets, moons, colonies on them, space stations around, space traffic, interstellar politics and trade, quite realistic physics (space objects with gravity moving in space as they should, sublight innersystem speeds and jump engines for interstellar travel, realistic kinetics - traveling in such a system like trinary Alpha Centauri I was able to achieve something like 50000km/s before I had to decelerate), and you being able to follow the story (very engaging one) or just fly wherever you would like to landing on planets, moons, space stations, trading, fighting, fulfilling variety of missions for individuals or political bodies, even mining asteroids or larger rock space objects, buying/selling ships, very realistic equipment and cargo, finding the best trade routes, undertaking piracy or just being a mercenary, all flying, landing and fighting in space in 3D (have I mentioned about realistic physics?) in realistic time (with possibility of making it pass faster, of course) without any cut-scenes etc. I enumerated it all not to get you bored but to show you my point and now I will ask you: What do you think was the size of the game? I've already told you it was from the DOS era so you probably have some suspicions. OK, I am going to tell you: I can't remember what it was on HDD but all this pleasure was packed on 5 1.44MB each installation diskettes. Those were times...