While I'm waiting around for some boring renders to finish, I thought it would be best to follow on my post about old games with another. I've only had a year and a half to think about what I should put in the list this time and have come up with another 6 classics.
Now as before if anyone has some old games (pre-2000 I'll say, one of mine only just sneaks in there) that I've forgotten about I'd love to hear them. I fear the part of my brain that remembers that far back has been eroded away by excessive redbull and porn.
So in no particular order (with the last one as an exception) here they are:
1) Cannon Fodder
Just 4 little guys against approximately 1 billion faceless enemy soldiers, tanks, helicopters and, oddly enough, garden sheds. Massively difficult (as pretty much all games were compared to modern ones), hugely violent and managed to build genuine affection between you and your guys.
When one finally caught a packet and ended up as another cross on Boot hill, you couldn't help but stand up and salute. I could actually, but I'm more cynical than most.
2) Transport tycoon
Don't like trains? Then fuck off, you're no use here! If you did, like me, then there was no better game than this for spodding around building transport links between imaginary towns and places of industry. The point? None really, apart from the near impossible feat of losing and going bankrupt you just played to build up a vast empire then sit back and watch it run. A bit like a train set but without most of the effort or anything to show at the end. You couldn't even blow it all up when you got bored with a random earthquake or UFO attack like in Sim City.
Amazingly it's so popular that a freeware, massively extended version is still available today. I haven't checked it out, but it looks like the real deal (google openttd if interested).
3) Counter-strike
The fact that this game classifies as old (released 1999) makes me a little depressed as I remember playing it months after it first appeared, in beta version 2. Is it the best online game ever? Not quite, but almost. No other game has quite had the ability to satisfy as much as this did with a well placed kill shot. A moment later it could then make you bite your own fists off in frustration when your bullets randomly spray about 300 metres from where you're aiming.
I sank (wasted) far too many hours on this game over the years, right up until it reached its final iteration with version 1.6. Unfortunately the release of its better looking, but spongier feeling, sequel CS:Source drained most of its players. It was also plagued by cheating titbags.
4) Syndicate
A true classic, unique and never bettered. You controlled 4 bionically enhanced agents from your control blimp, and made them do your bidding for the good of... someone I can't remember. Some evil corporation I think, probably why it's called Syndicate now I think about it. I also can't remember what these tasks you had them do actually were, but they generally involved using miniguns to blow away crowds of dopey civilans because they were in your way.
Just about every destructive weapon imaginable was at your disposal, but if that wasn't enough there was always the 'persuadatron'. Using it you could take control of crowds of innocents, make them pick up guns, then march in front of you as a human meat shield, wasting the bad guys' ammunition. Once they'd done their job, you just steppred over their smoking corpses and popped the bad guys with a well placed missle from your hand held missle pistol. Perfect.
5) Monkey island
I need say little about this game. Although the sequel is arguably better, this is a game that defined a generation of gamers' wasted childhoods. Recently remade with updated graphics (that somehow look worse than the original) and voice dialogue, it's still as good as it was back then. Play this, play the sequel and ignore everything after that.
You fight like a dairy farmer! _________________________
6) X-Com: Terror from the deep
I've left the best till last. This is what a true classic is, unique (ok it's a sequel, I'll get to that), complex, immersive and generally utterly brilliant.
The sequel to UFO: Enemy unknown (aka X-com: ufo defense), it takes the first game, makes it about 100x harder, scarier and polishes off a lot of the rough edges. I can't remember how long I played this for before discovering there was a bug in the original version which meant you couldn't actually complete it, but if I could it was serve as testament to its brilliance.
The sight of an alien lurking off in the darkness just as your guys run out of action points is one of the most stomach lurching events in game history. Aliens came in myriad forms, but being attacked by floating brains, bulbous headed midgets and lobsters who walked around like men and carried guns all helped added to the charm.
On top of the murky graphics, where what you couldn't see was scarier than what you could, there was excellent 8 bit music which would be soft and gentle most of the time then suddenly crash in when nothing was actually going on and make you shit your pants. Awesome.
That's that for now, bye.