Favorite games

[Torin]

Here´s my favorite computer games

1 Pirates!
2 Dominions 3
3 Battlefield 2
4 Master of Magic
5 Fallout 2
6 Star control 2
7 Scorch
8 Duke Nukem 3D
9 Starcraft
10 Master of Orion 2

What´s your top 10?

[meister_miagi]

1. Dominions 3
2. Wizardry 8
3. Star Chamber
4. Age of Empires 3
5. Chaos Overlords
6. Majesty
7. Warcraft 3
8. Ultima V
9. Knight of the Old Republic
10. Oblivion

[Dedas]

This is extremely hard but I will try:

1. Monkey Island 2
2. X-com: Enemy Unknown/UFO Defense
3. Civilization 2
4. Operation Flashpoint
5. Alpha Centauri
6. Day of the tentacle
7. Duke Nukem 3D
8. Outcast
9. Counter Strike (the mod)
10.Starcraft

And so many more...

[Aezeal]

in no particular order

Dominions, dawn of war (warhammer 40K) games, master of magic, galactic empires, warcraft games (+ starcraft), Oblivion, baldurs gate series, the Witcher (one of the best recent rpg games IMHO)

[Dedas]

Baldur's Gate... how could I forget BG?!

And why isn't Planescape Torment on my list. No, this is too hard.

[thejeff]

I can't even come up with 10, but then I tend to focus one 1 or 2 games for a very long time, usually starting well after they're popular.

Dominions, nethack, Neverwinter nights, Alpha Centauri,

Digging back into the past: Ultima (mostly 4-5),Civ1

[Endoperez]

- Dominions series

story games:
- Planescape: Torment
- Freespace 1 & 2. I bought a joystick for these beauties, but I'm not good at them yet. DragonStrike gets an honorary mention.
- LOOM, the adventure
- I completed Beyond Good & Evil, and it was nice, but not exceptional.
- Betrayal at Krondor (have had to format my hard drive THREE! times before reaching chapter 2! I'll complete you yet...)
timewasting games:
- various roguelikes, including ADOM (1 victory), Dungeon Crawl and DoomRL
- Cave Story (Doukutsu Monogatari) is good, I got to the secret level but haven't completed it yet.
- Master of Magic/Orion, Conquest of Elysiun, Dwarf Fortress



Those are games I have finished, or think I'll finish. Games I have tried, but for some reason didn't play through/left, and I'd like to pick up again one day if I have time to:
- King of Dragon Pass (cool ideas and imagery, but I didn't quite grasp the gameplay)
- X-Com 1, Ultima IV, Ringworld 1, The Ur-Quan Masters (cool, but I got distracted)
- Dungeon Keeper 1, Mount & Blade, Final Fantasy Tactics, Super Mario World (damn you, wizard turtle!), Prince of Persia (original, not the fancy new one), Wik the Fable of Souls - nice games, all, but I lost interest for a time, and haven't taken up yet.

[Torin]

Prince of persia, that was a good one, i finished it. And Out of this world!!(another world as alias) wich was too hard for me.
I will have to check some that are listed and I dont know of.

[vfb]

Games I have spent the most time on:

1) Dom3
2) Roguelikes (Nethack/Moria/Angband/TOME)
3) Master of Magic
4) Master of Orion
5) Civ II & AC
6) Thief
7) Deus Ex
8) Panzer/Allied/Fantasy General
9) Starcraft
10) Fallout
11) XCom
12) Kohan IS

I want to try Dwarf Fortress, but I'm still having too much fun with Dominions.

[lch]

Endoperez said:
- Freespace 1 & 2. I bought a joystick for these beauties, but I'm not good at them yet. DragonStrike gets an honorary mention.



I looked that DragonStrike thing up. LOL! Either you have started playing computer games from the cradle, or you're much older than I am. Roguelikes on the list might indicate the latter. On a related note, the original Red Baron game was awesome. Played it through once. Then tried to play it again as the other faction. But the planes and their controls grow on you: The later planes fly much smoother than the earlier designs. Jumping from the powerful planes at the end of the war to the machines at the beginning feels like a crippling lobotomy - I didn't manage to play again.


Torin said:
Prince of persia, that was a good one, i finished it.


I think I finished the original game, too, but I'm not sure. Maybe with cheats.


vfb said:
I want to try Dwarf Fortress, but I'm still having too much fun with Dominions.


There is no goal to the Dwarf Fortress game as of yet. Why don't you try some other hobby, like gardening, or knitting?

[Endoperez]

lch said:
I looked that DragonStrike thing up. LOL! Either you have started playing computer games from the cradle, or you're much older than I am. Roguelikes on the list might indicate the latter.



I first played it maybe 5 years ago, so I just find my games a bit later than others. Perhaps I'll start raving about StarCraft 2 in ten years or so.

[quantum_mechani]

Favorite games are a bit hard to list, so I'll go with the most-time-spent idea:

1.Dominions
2.Roguelikes (predominantly nethack)
3.Alpha Centauri
4.Civilization
5.Majesty

Games I liked a lot thought didn't spend that much time on, comparatively:

*Knights of the old republic
*King of dragon pass
*Master of magic
*Conquest of Elysium
*Star Control 2

[sector24]

Not in order:
Bardstale
Star Control 2
X-COM UFO Defense
Stars!
Final Fantasy Tactics
Grand Theft Auto 3
Age of Wonders
Vagrant Story
Laser Squad Nemesis
Dominions 3

EDIT: If I could have 11, Nethack

[Stryke11]

Fun!

(Not in any particular order)

Dominions 3 of course.
Quest for Glory IV: Shadows of Darkness (Best game music ever).
Baldur's Gate II: Shadows of Amn (NWN isn't half as good).
Planescape: Torment.
Rome: Total War (largely due to mods).
Master of Magic.
Syberia (in large part to cool story and aesthetics)
Tie Fighter (MUCH better then later "X-Wing vs. Tie Fighter")
Crusader: No Remorse
Syndicate (needs a modern remake IMHO).

This may change as I think about it more.

[lch]

Stryke11 said:
Syndicate (needs a modern remake IMHO).


I suppose you're talking about the original Bullfrog game, not the Syndicate Wars one. I loved that game. It was awesome. I made the big mistake of trying to play it again about a year ago. Don't do that, you'll only risk shattering your sweet memories of this awesome game...

[VedalkenBear]

For those who listed Alpha Centauri, are you referring to Sid Meier's Alpha Centauri, or the Brian Cranford one? http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/smilies/wink.gif (If anyone not related to me even KNOWS what I'm talking about, I'd be willing to give them money.)

Most addicting games I've played, in rough order:

WoW
Diablo II
Dominions X (where X = 2+)
FF Tactics
MULE (and many other classics)
Star Control II must be named...

I'm sure I could come up with others...

[Lingchih]

In relative order of favoriteness:

Dominions (2 or 3)
Alpha Centauri
Civilization 2
Galactic Civilizations 2
Master of Orion 2
Morrowind
World of Warcraft (an addiction I have since cured myself from, but man did I have fun for 1 1/2 years)
Baldur's Gate
Knights of the Old Republic
Oblivion

I wish Brian Reynolds would buy the rights to Alpha Centauri, and come out with a sequel. Man that was a great game.

[PashaDawg]

No particular order:

Dominions
Daggerfall
Baldur's Gate
Starcraft
Fallout
Diablo
Europa Universalis 2
Victoria
Civ 2
Heroes of Might & Magic

[Slobby]

In no particular order,

Kohan ahriman's gift & kings of war!
Europa universalis 2
Disciples 1&2
Might & magic xeen (4&5 i believe-3 was fun to)
Ultima online
Arcanum
Planescape
Dominions 3 (still new to the game but it's a gem!)

[DonCorazon]

In order of time consumed which equals love =
Dom III
Warlords BattleCry II
Civ 3/4
Baldurs Gate I/II
Heroes of MM 2/3
and my first game
Might and Magic for the IBM PS286 (now that was a sweet rig)

(I somehow missed out on Master of Magic, much to my later dismay in life).

[lch]

Civilization 1
Master of Magic
Dominions 2+3
Street Fighter II Turbo
Command & Conquer: Generals
Command & Conquer: Red Alert
Diablo 1
World of Xeen (Might and Magic 4+5)
X-Com: Terror from the Deep
Dune 2
Space Rangers 2
Sid Meier's Alpha Centauri
Indiana Jones 4
Sam and Max
Secret of Monkey Island
Loom

[Twan]

Dominions
Armaggeddon Empires
Master of Magic
Master of Orion
Civilization (I & IV more than others)
Lords of the Realm
Tropico
Steel Panthers
Fantasy General
Wesnoth
Age of Wonders (I)
Sim City (2000 only)
Europa Universalis II
Crusader Kings
Command&Conquer (the old firsts)
Starcraft/Warcraft
Seven Kingdoms
Fallout I & II
Championship Manager

[Foodstamp]

Dominions Series
Master of Magic
Pirates Series
Dark Age of Camelot
Dwarf Fortress
Age of Wonders Series
Civilization Series
Rome: Total War
Quest for Glory 3
Castles 2

[chrispedersen]

I want to love dwarf fortress but damnit.. I can't get past the ui...

[Torin]

top games so far in this thread, with votes:

Dominions 3 -- 15
Master of magic -- 9
Starcraft -- 6
baldurs gate -- 5
Star control 2 -- 5
Alpha centauri -- 4
CIV -- 4
Xcom 1 -- 4

All these i know save of Xcom that I know after terror of the deep and alpha centauri that I missed somehow.

Also lot of the games mentioned are in my liking but didnt fit on only ten. I have to check the rest that i dont know of.

[Foodstamp]

chrispedersen said:
I want to love dwarf fortress but damnit.. I can't get past the ui...



Read the documentation found by typing "?".

Then download the Michael Mayday graphics mod. The Dwarf Fortress graphics are not actually really ascii characters, they are wrote to the screen through openGL (I believe?), so you can replace those graphics with more eye pleasing graphics http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/smilies/happy.gif.

[quantum_mechani]

Twan said:

Sim City (2000 only)


Hmm, that really should have been on my 'most time spent' list. My taste in games has changed a bit since then, but 2000 had a lot of fun things.

[Saulot]

I am not a dabbler, I am a full on gamer. As such, I cannot be constrained by a mere arbitrary 'top ten'. Besides, if you have a top ten list, you're going to see significant repetition (for the most part, the same two dozen games over and over again in most people's lists). So I present a more complete list, not of the top, but simply of games I think of as gems, and would recommend.

RPG:
Betrayal at Krondor
Fallout 2 (& 1 to a lesser degree)
Planescape Torment
Neverwinter Nights
Baldur's Gate
Darklands
Vampire Bloodlines
Morrowind

Strategy:
Dominions 2 & 3
Master of Magic
X-Com
Dungeon Keeper
Stars!
Space Empires 4 (& 5 to a lesser degree)
Medieval Total War (& 2 to a lesser degree)
Hearts of Iron 2
Myth 2
Warlords Battlecry 3
Lords of the Realm 2
Titans of Steel - Warring Suns
Railroad Tycoon 1 & 2
Dune 2
Jagged Alliance
Outpost 2

Action:
Diablo
Warcraft 2 (Yeah, it's not really too much strategy)
Wolfenstein 3d (the original)
Thief Series
System Shock 2
Team Fortress (the original)
Mechwarrior 2 (mostly Mercenaries)
WingCommander Series
Battletech: Crescent Hawks Revenge
Worms Series

Platformer:
Commander Keen Series
Prince of Persia 1 & 2
Abuse
Blackthorne

Racing:
POD
Dethkarz

Fighting:
Golden Axe
One Must Fall 2097

Adventure:
Monkey Island 1 & 2
Day of the Tentacle
Discworld
Pirates Gold

Dungeon / Roguelike:
Nethack
Dungeon Crawl
Mordor 2
ZangbandTK

Puzzle:
The Incredible Machine Series
Varmint's Eittris
Puzzle Quest

Textmud:
DragonRealms

BBS Games:
Legend of the Red Dragon
Land of Devastation
Usurper

Misc:
Gauntlet 2
Arkanoid
Another World (aka Out of This World)
Uplink
Mr. Robot
Notrium
Dwarf Fortress

[Cerlin]

Gah these lists are always the hardest...but Ill try.

Most time spent for me was :

Dark Age of Camelot, more than a year of my life to that thing.
Dominions 3, also a year but i play less frequently.
Civilization 2, this changed my gaming world.

Just awesome:

Fallout 2, I know the first one is good but this one was amazing to replay for many years at many different times.
Baldors gate 2 and Planescape torment, I love the old Black Isle games.
Command and Conquer Red Alert. I enjoyed this more than any other version since.
Oblivion, because it is like the most beaufitul game ever.
X Beyond the Frontier, this ignited my love in space sims.
X 3 - Because it took empirebuilding to a new level.
Galactic Civilization, great space game i suck so bad at. I never won a game ever.


And when it comes to dwarf fort, watch out for that game. it is dangerous. You can lose a day to it without noticing and you really start to like your little dwarfs...then you get mauled haha.

[Endoperez]

Saulot said:
RPG:
Neverwinter Nights
Morrowind



Why Neverwinter Nights and Morrowind? I tried both, but didn't like them. I'm actually giving my Morrowind cds away, because I'm just not interested. Would mods make a difference for NWN, or is it multiplayer only?

[Agrajag]

Here is a partial list of games I consider awesome. Partial because it's hard to remember everyone of them http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/smilies/frown.gif
Partly stolen from other people here because I noticed I forgot a few awesomes.
In no particular order: (actually, in completely random order)
Dominions (3&&2) - Not much more to say.
Warlords: Battlecry (2&&3) - I'm not very good at it, but it's definitely a fun game. Quite unique too.
Dwarf Fortress - It's Dwarf Fortress! Need I say more than "dwarves going berserk after drinking water tainted with the blood of their recently murdered wife and newborn child"? Maybe I'll say "beating a skeleton to death with his arm" to the rogue crowd http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/smilies/happy.gif
Dungeon Keeper (1&&2) - Classic. How can you not love a game where you get to slap little imps around with a gigantic hand? http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/smilies/happy.gif
Infinity Engine - Is the engine upon which many awesome games are based.
Galactic Civilizations 2 - A 4X game with none-sucky AI http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/smilies/redface.gif
Civilizations 4 (somehow I didn't play the previous ones) - Great. I especially like it with the Fall From Heaven mod.
Red Alert (1&&2) - Sure, they aren't too smart, but they are a lot of fun. If I still had my RA2 disk(2) I'd probably still be playing it. At least occasionally.
Heroes of Might and Magic - 2 is my favorite, but 3 is awesome with WoG and 5 is nice enough.
Starcraft - One game that I don't enjoy playing anymore, but I had so much fun with it in the past that it is definitely worth mentioning.
Tyrian 2K - The big daddy of shmups.
Raptor - The big... mommy? of shmups.
Scorched Earth - MIRV! There's even a modern (free) 3D version that's quite a lot of fun to play online. (I stopped though)
Golden Axe - I get to play the dwarf! (or the puma-man-thing in the newer[est?] version)
Monkey Island (1 through 4) - From back before quests were extinguished http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/smilies/frown.gif
One Must Fall - I used to hate getting beat up by an enemy that was just pressing random buttons >_<
Mortal Kombat - Not fun these days, but deserving of a mention.
Worms (all the 2d ones) - Boggy B fell in the drink.
Warcraft 2 - Sorry, but 3 was no fun at all.
Diablo (1&&2) - I don't think I've ever finished any of those games. Still a lot of fun.
Age of Empires (!3) - I heard 3 was lame and never bothered with it. The rest are lots of fun http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/smilies/happy.gif
C&C - The original
Duke3D - Hoo boy, I spent lots of time on that one.
Unreal Tournament (classic and 2k4) - I've some pretty awesome moments with those.
Deadlock 2 - w00t! An Accolade game http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/smilies/redface.gif
Hitman: Bloody Money - And what a great finale.
Carmageddon (various versions) - You get to race, blow cars up and run over people and animals, what else could you want in a racing game?
GTA (various versions) - Because nothing beats delivering a bus load of people to a factory to be turned into hotdogs.
Toribash - Beating someone to death with your own dismembered arm? Where do I sign up?
Tremulous - An online shooter with base building where aliens fight against marines.
Counter Strike - I'm not a 1337 kiddie, I swear.
Dear Avenger 4 - Hehe, hunting people as a dear.
Dungeon Siege 1 - Because I finished it with my brother.
Empire Earth - You can't deny that it's fun.
Gazzilionaire Deluxe 2 - A hilarious space-trader game.
Theme Hospital - Where you can cure people by popping their inflated balloon heads with a needle and then reinflating them to a proper size.
KKND2 - Mutants VS Humans in a fun strategy game.
Little Fighter 2 - I even spent some time modding it.
MDK 1&&2 - If you haven't played these arcade(ish) shooters you haven't played any shooter.
Total War Series - I don't think I need to say much.
NetStorm - I just love the concept of fighting with buildings. Even in RA2 I'd occasionally defeat the AI by building a huge line of Grand Cannons all the way to his base http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/smilies/happy.gif
Populous: The Beginning - I just love the way they repeatedly jump up and down on the ground to flatten it before building on it.
Soldat - I was pretty good at this one.
Startopia - A sim game where you build a space station, how cool!
Total Annihilation - A serious hole in your education if you don't know this one.
Many other games I'm sure I've forgotten http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/smilies/frown.gif - I'm really sorry, games http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/smilies/frown.gif

Though of course, the best of all games imaginable is the (crappy) ASCII (somewhat roguelike) game I'm programming now http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/smilies/happy.gif (still very far from a playable state)

EDIT: Endo - NWN is meant to be played online, on specially created worlds/adventures (quite often with very big mods of their own).
I played a bit with the original NWN, but when the expansions came I was forced off because I didn't feel like purchasing them, and all(most) games now required the expansions to play.

[mathusalem]

* Dom 3
* Fallout 2
* Baldur's Gate I and II
* daggerfall (Morrowind ancester)
* populous 2
* outcast
* dungeon keeper
* planescape : torment
* Tremulous
* Elite 2

[llamabeast]

Endo - IMHO the official campaign for NWN was awful (it's a matter of taste but for me it was grindy and silly, with things like crates full of gold coins scattered throughout slums and so on), but some of the mod campaigns were awesome. I particularly recommend one well-known one called DreamSomething (DreamCatcher?). I'd give that one a go before you throw away NWN, it's stand-alone and you start at level 1, so you don't need to invest any time to get playing.

[Ninave]

Order varies depending what of these I'm playing at the moment.

1. Nethack (only, not other asciis)
2. Baldur's Gates
3. Dominios 3
4. Starcraft & Supreme Commander (ten is too little, so these will have to share)
5. Disgaea 1 & 2
6. Passage (Oh, how I cried and because of "5 minute" -game)
7. Wesnoth
8. Phantom Brave
9. ICO & Shadow of the Colossus
10. (something?, shadow of?) Memories (something?), I have this on the shelf, but can't check now. You play a person trying not to die and keep on jumping back in time to alter it after every death.

I've never played Torment myself (watched from the side), so I don't list it.

[capnq]

Very roughly in order of estimated time spent:

Space Empires IV (V has potential)
Civilization I & II, Sid Meier's Alpha Centauri/Alien Crossfire (Civ III has potential, haven't played IV)
Red Baron I & II
Dominions II & III
Master of Orion I (haven't played II or III)

[Ninave]

I wrote my list first and then read all the post and I can't believe, that I'm the only one to mention Supreme Commander (& SC:FA, which is better by far) and ICO. My other games I can, but these...

[Torin]

I like that avatar, Ninave

[coobe]

in no particular order:

- Warcraft 3
- Dominions 2&3
- Anstoss 3
- Alpha Centauri
- Lords of the Realm 1&2, what a shame part 3 is http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/smilies/frown.gif
- Morrowind
- Monkey Island & Grim Fandango
- Master of Orion 2
- Jagged Alliance
- Diablo 1&2

[lch]

Endoperez said:
I'm actually giving my Morrowind cds away, because I'm just not interested. Would mods make a difference for NWN, or is it multiplayer only?


Look here for Morrowind mods: http://www.octopusoverlords.com/phpBB2/viewtopic.php?t=28237

Nice screenie from there: http://img145.imageshack.us/img145/7679/mge1cb3.th.jpg (http://img145.imageshack.us/my.php?image=mge1cb3.jpg)

[llamabeast]

I live Ninave's avatar too.

[Zeldor]

Oh man, some people like really ugly and bad games.

[Twan]

I know it's strange but I love Crusader Kings.

[vfb]

I'm surprised to not see Netrek. I never got into it, but bunch of years ago an ex-coworker of mine pretty much just played Netrek all day long everyday.

And thanks Zeldor, if you hadn't mentioned ugly I would have forgotten to add:

13) Helherron

Classic!

[Meglobob]

1. Dom3
2. GC2
3. Civ2
4. Diablo 2
5. Master of Orion 2
6. Out of the Shadows
7. Elite
8. Lords of Midnight
9. Doomdarks Revenge
10. Lords of Chaos

[Foodstamp]

Cerlin said:
Gah these lists are always the hardest...but Ill try.

Most time spent for me was :

Dark Age of Camelot, more than a year of my life to that thing.
Dominions 3, also a year but i play less frequently.
Civilization 2, this changed my gaming world.

Just awesome:

Fallout 2, I know the first one is good but this one was amazing to replay for many years at many different times.
Baldors gate 2 and Planescape torment, I love the old Black Isle games.
Command and Conquer Red Alert. I enjoyed this more than any other version since.
Oblivion, because it is like the most beaufitul game ever.
X Beyond the Frontier, this ignited my love in space sims.
X 3 - Because it took empirebuilding to a new level.
Galactic Civilization, great space game i suck so bad at. I never won a game ever.


And when it comes to dwarf fort, watch out for that game. it is dangerous. You can lose a day to it without noticing and you really start to like your little dwarfs...then you get mauled haha.



Cerlin,

What server/realm did you play DAOC on? http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/smilies/happy.gif. I had a Battlebard (Hibernia) on Kay named Tales.

[Kristoffer O]

Hmm ...

Perhaps ...

In time spent (educated guess):
Guild Wars
Nethack and other roguelikes
Civ1
Starcraft
Masters of Orion

I liked MoM, but never played it much (didn't have a computer that could manage it at the time, and I had to reinstall or do something in DOS every time I wanted to play it).

[Foodstamp]

You had to change the extended memory. I remember doing that http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/smilies/wink.gif. I just used a boot disk when I wanted to play MoM on ye ole 486.

[B0rsuk]

Kristoffer O said:
Nethack and other roguelikes




Do you know Stone Soup variant of Dungeon Crawl ? It has lots and lots of interface and display improvements including interlevel travel, balance tweaks (missile weapons better now etc), new item brands like axes of returning, removed redundant and boring races like mountain dwarves and ordinary elves... Lugonu - god of Abyss; changes to existing gods to make them more diverse and and interesting. Removal of stupid, ugly metagame annoyances like amnesia traps. Lots of new tricks for Xom ! New character/class combos like kobold venom mages, ogre gladiators etc. Shields are significantly improved and worthwile now. Heavy armour got heavier and it's a bit harder to cast in it. Curare, basically irresistible poison for darts to make them useful past early game. Sling bullets. Throwing nets. Special vaults for Crypt:5. Smoke and steam that obscures vision. Vehumet nerf (still a very good choice for conjurers). Beogh, god of orcs (you become an orc priest and lead other followers). Lots of handcrafted minivaults scattered around the levels. Additional Snake:5 layouts. New spell: Chain Lightning. Kobolds now recover quickly from disease. Most of innate racial abilities now mentioned on 'A' screen. Some new mutations. And there's even a server running that game so you can connect, spectate other players, brag about your highscores, battle other players' ghosts...

http://crawl-ref.sourceforge.net

telnet crawl.akrasiac.org



I liked MoM, but never played it much (didn't have a computer that could manage it at the time, and I had to reinstall or do something in DOS every time I wanted to play it).



Huh ? MOM works perfectly fine in Dosbox. Just adjust your CPU cycles and frameskip settings.

If you're on Debian or Ubuntu, just
apt-get install dosbox

otherwise:

http://dosbox.sourceforge.net

And you can download MOM itself from the underdogs.

[Kristoffer O]

It was probably over a year since I played Crawl. New version sounds interesting.

I haven't tried MoM for 15 years or so. Might be interesting.

[lch]

Foodstamp said:
You had to change the extended memory. I remember doing that http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/smilies/wink.gif. I just used a boot disk when I wanted to play MoM on ye ole 486.


QEMM took care of that. http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/smilies/happy.gif


B0rsuk said:
Huh ? MOM works perfectly fine in Dosbox. Just adjust your CPU cycles and frameskip settings.


Exactly, this fine-tuning of cycles and frameskip settings doesn't make it that easy, unfortunately. If you're on Windows, the VDMSound project is an easier way to get the game running for you.

[Foodstamp]

I think he is talking about before Windows. Yes yes, I know it is hard to believe there was a time before Windows.

Master of Magic would not run in DOS unless you allocated more memory in the autoexec.bat and config.sys files. Even then it could be pretty hard to get the game to run, because your cd-rom or other hardware might be hogging so much memory that it was impossible to play MoM, so for instance on my computer, after I got a cd-rom, I had to disable it everytime I wanted to play MoM.

I used a bootdisk to solve the problem on my old pre-windows system.

[Agrajag]

Exactly, this fine-tuning of cycles and frameskip settings doesn't make it that easy,


Just tune it once, and then save that configuration as the default setting and you're good to go. That's what I did (for other DosBox games)
Though I also forgot how I did that :S

[Hadrian_II]

Angband
Battle for Wesnoth
Dominions III
MoO 2
HoMM III
Final Fantasy VII
Vampire: Bloodlines
DotA
Wizardry 8
GalaCiv II

This list is not pretending to be complete, but close to it.

[B0rsuk]

lch said:
Exactly, this fine-tuning of cycles and frameskip settings doesn't make it that easy, unfortunately. If you're on Windows, the VDMSound project is an easier way to get the game running for you.



1. Edit the config file
2. Change 2 lines.
2. Forget about it.

Simple enough for me. Besides, I'm 98% sure K.O. uses Linux at home. Perhaps not exclusively Linux, but...

To anyone considering the new version of Crawl, it's a good idea to join ##crawl at irc.freenode.org . That's where players and developers hang around. And the bots are very useful.

-----------------

My favourite games ? Too many to list. Some of my favourites:

Archon, Archon Ultra(PC)
DooMII (I didn't have an IBM PC at the time DooM was around)
Master of Magic
The original Command&Conquer
Emperor: Battle For Dune (it had serious flaws, but it also got many things right and tried new things)
Heroes of Might and Magic, especially II, III, IV
Magic Carpet 2
Dungeon Keeper 1,2
Horde
Ultima III (on Atari 65 XE)
System Shock 2
Deus Ex 2
Thief 2: Metal Age
Wolfenstein: Enemy Territory
Quake 2
Quake 3 Fortress (Team Fortress mod)
Planescape:Torment
Little Big Adventure 1 (a.k.a. Relentless)
Worms 2
UFO: Terror From The Deep
Sacrifice
Nox

[Torin]

Its in the config file of dosbox.
MoM require special settings like granting more resources from the system than defaut. At least in my version. Problably later versions of Dosbox require less tweaking.

[B0rsuk]

Torin said:
Its in the config file of dosbox.
MoM require special settings like granting more resources from the system than defaut. At least in my version. Problably later versions of Dosbox require less tweaking.



I never had to change any settings to run MOM in Dosbox . Even frameskip and CPU cycles are optional, they're for performance. And yes, Dosbox is an open-source project and it progressed a lot.

[Torin]

The game runned very slow and sound didnt work (this im not sure) but after changing config it was just perfect.

[Kristoffer O]

> Simple enough for me. Besides, I'm 98% sure K.O. uses Linux at home. Perhaps not exclusively Linux, but...

Windows/linux on my working station.
Mac for mail and browsing.

[lch]

B0rsuk said:
And yes, Dosbox is an open-source project and it progressed a lot.


Uh, as is VDMSound. It's GPL'ed software that's on SourceForge, too. As I said: If you're on Windows, it might be an easier solution to get some old DOS game up and running. Not that DosBox is short of awesome.

[Foodstamp]

I use VDMSound to run MoM now. It has some really great options including sound card emulation. I am not sure if DosBox allows that?

[lch]

Foodstamp said:
I use VDMSound to run MoM now. It has some really great options including sound card emulation. I am not sure if DosBox allows that?


Sure, actually DosBox even took the sound emulation off an earlier version of VDMSound, over five years ago. DosBox might even emulate more hardware than VDMSound (including the Gravis UltraSound instead of just the SoundBlaster 16), but that shouldn't worry you.


Q. What's the difference between VDMSound and DOSBox?
A. VDMSound only tackles the problem of sound, whereas DOSBox actually mimics an entire 386 PC in software. Therefore, VDMSound is a lot less demanding on your processor's resources, and can be used with lower speed processors. For instance, to run a 3D DOS game like Pandora Directive or System Shock in DOSBox, you need at least a 2GHZ or preferably 3GHZ processor. VDMSound can do it with a 1GHZ processor, though getting the game to work is usually much tricker than with DOSBox.



People who didn't grew up in the DOS age might feel it easier to use VDMSound, which takes little more than some right click, instead of navigating around in a DOS environment, too. But what you want to use is up to you.

[PyroStock]

In no particular order:

Evil (amiga; having difficulty putting it on PC)
Adventure Construction Set
Archon 1&2
Dungeons&Dragons: Pool of Radiance
Lords of Magic: SE
Dungeon Keeper 1 (with DeeperDungeons; some 2)
Civilization 2 (some 3&4)
Heroes of Might & Magic 3: WoG (some 2)
Diablo 2 (some 1)
Neverwinter Nights 1 (with latest new patch & HotU exp)
Dominions 3 (some 2)

Honorable mention:

Adventure (old atari)
Maze Craze (old atari)
Prince of Persia
Need for Speed 3&4
Settlers (I forget which version)
Dungeons&Dragons: DarkTower (arcade)
Gauntlet series
Chaos (amiga)
Worms (amiga version, not PC)
Ultima IV
Lords of the Realm 2 (I spit at 3)
Titan Quest: Immortal Throne

[Potatoman]

Kohan: Ahriman's Gift
X-Com: UFO Defense
X-Wing
DotA
Total Annihilation
Soul Calibur I & II (It's on a console, technically, but I love the game so much my top 10 list would be incomplete without it)
Master of Orion 1
Dominions
Age of Wonders
One Must Fall

Edit: Pool of Radiance? Didn't that game auto-format your HD as part of a nasty, commonly-occuring bug?

[Edratman]

In approximate order from an old timer:

Civ 1
Heroes Might and magic 1
Civ 2
Dominions 3
Waterloo
Europa Universalas 1
Oblivion
MOM
Age of Wonders
Daggerfall

[B0rsuk]

Torin said:
The game runned very slow and sound didnt work (this im not sure) but after changing config it was just perfect.



You seem to have already figured that out, but for others: run 'install' to configure sound. I've chosen Sound Blaser Pro (later) and it works. Then just type 'magic' .

You adjust CPU cycles with CTRL-F11 (lower) or CTRL-F12 (higher). Higher is not necessarily better. There's an optimum value for each CPU. I'm currently running at 12416 cycles and I can't notice any delays. My CPU is Core2Duo E6750 . Dosbox verion 0.72 .

[theenemy]

In no particular order:

Dom3, Disciples 2(the GOLD edition for this game is pure addiction), Ratchet & Clank series for PS2/PS3(gotta love those),
Earth 2160(I was heavily addicted to this game for a while), Total Annihilation(a true classic and an important lesson in RTS history), Total Annihilation: Kingdoms(TA with a fantasy twist), Morrowind(a great game...once you acquire a few mods that is), Two Worlds, Europa Universalis 3(a very good game... although you get kinda bored after playing it for too long in one session).
Oh, I almost forgot: Banjo-Kazooie series for N64(that's right, I'm a platformer geek. Sue me:)

[theenemy]

Ooh, I just have to add Warlords IV. You either hate it or ignore it. I love it... or loved it. I lost the CD a while ago and now the game is just to dang hard to find. "sobs"

[WraithLord]

Fun thread!

My all time top 10:
1. MOM. The game mesmerized me for more than 10 years.
2. Dominions III (dom II, dom PPP)
3. Diablo (and to a lesser extent Diablo II). I lost countless nights sleep over this one.
4. HOMM III.
5. Disciples II.
6. Warlords battlecry II.
7. NWN and expansions.
8. Kohan.
9. Warhammer shadow of the horned rat
10.LOM, Lords of Magic.

Other great games in no particular order.
AOW
Krondor (betrayal at)
7 kingdoms
Warlords III
Starcraft
Warcraft II
HOMM II
MOO I+II
GalCiv I+II
Zangband
Leylines
Etherlords II
Magic the gathering (microprose)
Total annihilation
Total annihilation kingdoms (the game sucked in terms of balance and finish but was fun nonetheless)
Myth the fallen lords
Majesty
steel panthers
starcon II
dune
Conflict: Middle East
RISK/TEG http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/smilies/happy.gif
Digger http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/smilies/wink.gif

[sector24]

Speaking of Digger....
http://timberfrog.com/phpBB2/viewtopic.php?t=102

[Ninave]

Torin said:
I like that avatar, Ninave



Thank you Torin, llamabeast. Obviously I like it too. http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/smilies/happy.gif

After reading the thread again, I see that I'm forgetting great games all the time. Argh, my poor leaking head.
I've never playd any HoMM, MOM, Fallouts, ... lots of others. I moved in with a computer as late as 2001, so I'm lacking a lot with my reflexes and keyboard control. Many great games are just impossible for me. So alot of my gaming consists of watching other people play. This is also the reason why my list contained so many games that have no 'time' in them.

[Cor2]

in no order

Fallout 1& 2& tactics
Dominions 3
Alpha Centori
Incursion
Dwarven fortress
Civ 2&3
Victoria
Heros of might and magic 2&3
Masters of Orion 2
Might and Magic 6&7 (i don't know why)
Oblivion

[Saulot]

Endoperez said:
Why Neverwinter Nights and Morrowind? I tried both, but didn't like them. I'm actually giving my Morrowind cds away, because I'm just not interested. Would mods make a difference for NWN, or is it multiplayer only?



The NWN part of the question was answered. Though I'll rehash anyway, it's a mod game, and a MP game. It was certainly quite strong in both those areas, and enjoyable for some months, which puts it ahead of 98% of most games. Outside of that context however, I wouldn't waste going through the mediocre first act to get to the halfway decent following acts.

As for Morrowind, well it's a gem, but it has it's flaws, and it's also covered in some mud, that's for sure. It has three major flaws, and three major virtues. I'll begin with the former;

The storyline is not particularly exciting, in fact, I barely bothered with it, and a few friends who also played, felt the same way. This is mitigated seriously by the first virtue, that it's a game where you don't have to follow the story, or any path at all. This is a game of free-form exploration and adventure. While the combat system isn't great, it's enjoyable enough and I've experienced a few exciting and close fights. You're walking down a beach, and you find a familiar ship half destroyed, and sticking out of the water. Perhaps there's some treasure inside, and it's worth checking out. Much like it's predecessor, and it's follower, this is a large part of it's appeal. Exploration is interesting due to a world environment that has some serious time spent on it (despite some bugs) and in large part to the graphics and high quality music score. Which leads me to the second virtue, the Morrowind setting is quite interesting in and of itself, and has a certain atmosphere and life to it. The magic system is different from most others, and also extremely freeform, which leads me to the second flaw. The game is unfortunately too easy, due in large part to magic being far too powerful and expansive, and the alchemy and enchanting system which any analytical person or munchkin will soon crack to reach deific wealth and power. This problem is further aggravated by the level scaling of the monsters, which means you'll never face anything out of your league, even though that synergizes with the exploration / go where you please, aspect. The final flaw ties in with the first, and that is that the dialogue is not that great, but that's forgivable to a degree, when you consider the amount of npcs and the scope, as the game world can take several real life hours to cross just from one side of the other, if you feel like walking.

The last part, is to remove the mud from the gem, of which I mean, not a virtue of the game itself, but a virtue of the developers (who released powerful mod tools) and the player community and to take advantage of expansive and varied mods which can change/place a dozen things you thought should be in the game, and a dozen things you hadn't thought of. Morrowind had (and still has to some degree) a very robust modding community, and to ignore it is to ignore half the game.

While this is a game that is probably never coming back from the shelf onto my harddrive, it brought me a few months of enjoyment, and I think anyone else who enjoys the exploration subsect of RPG's would have similar enjoyment.

@PyroStock:
"Lords of the Realm 2 (I spit at 3)"
I have to heartily agree. http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/smilies/happy.gif
I found this extreme change and decline in terms of a sequel even worse than Moo3, or Fallout 3.

@Potatoman
"Pool of Radiance? Didn't that game auto-format your HD as part of a nasty, commonly-occuring bug? "
Heh, it was pretty bad that it came out like that. Though I'm pretty sure there was (eventually) a patch for that. I remember reading about the uninstaller for Myth 2 doing the same exact thing. Though, that didn't get shipped, they caught it and actually destroyed the entire printing of the cd's, and then remade it again. If I recall correctly, it cost them all the profits that game made. That highly ethical move, (and the game being very solid with a few 'edge of your seat' moments) did move to me to buy copies for 6 of my gamer friends.

Edit:
Thanks everyone, there's a few games here I've never heard of, and I'll be checking out. A few of those sound like they're out of print.

[Endoperez]

Saulot said:
As for Morrowind, well it's a gem, but it has it's flaws, and it's also covered in some mud, that's for sure. It has three major flaws, and three major virtues. I'll begin with the former SNIP



I tried MW with mods, but it still didn't catch. I also tried Daggerfall, but it didn't really catch either. I guess I need stronger goals to truly enjoy a game.

[Edratman]

I have to entirely agree with Saulot on Morrowind (and Oblivion). I thoroughly enjoyed playing both games, but when I stopped playing them I never even considered replaying them. They sneak into the bottom of my top 10 because of the former and stay at the bottom because of the latter.

[Aezeal]

I liked morrowind a lot, even the story really.. I played daggerfall too and tried it when every morrowind fan liked it even better than morrowind but really.. it's just not as good.

Oblivion.. I don't know why some pplz like it less than morrowind.. better graphics, better story. just a different setting, better mechanics too really.. also a great game

[Agema]

Mm.

In rough chronological order, a few of my favourites...

Lords Of Midnight & Doomdark's Revenge (Spectrum)
Rebelstar (Spectrum)
Elite (Spectrum/Amiga)
The Chaos Engine (Amiga)
Lure of the Temptress (Amiga)
Masters of Orion I (PC)
Deus Ex (PC)
Medieval: Total War (PC)
Morrowind (PC)
Counter-Strike Source (PC)

After a lifetime's gaming, it's a shame to miss out so much, although I could easily remove some and replace them with classics like Manic Miner, Speedball 2, Sabrewulf, Broken Sword: Shadow of the Templars, Half-Life, Civilisation, UFO, Star Control 2, Eye of the beholder 2, and many more.

[Saarud]

Played alot of games since 25 years and in no particular order here are some of my favorites:

Dominions 3 (But ofcourse http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/smilies/wink.gif )
Civilization 1-4
UFO: Apocalypse
Jagged Alliance 2
Chaos Overlords
Medieval Lords
Empire
Stars!
Reach for the Stars (The OLD version)
Emperor of the Fading Suns (although it was very buggy MP games was extremely fun)
Victoria
Crusader Kings
Europa Universalis 1-3
Wastelands
Elite
Dwarf Fortress
Battlefield 2
Operation Flashpoint
SWAT 4
World War II Online
Star General
M.U.L.E.
Frantic Freddie
Lords of Conquest
Railroads West!
Deuteros
Imperialism 2
Colonization
Master of Magic
Reunion
Sid Meiers Alpha Centauri
Space Empire 4
Battles of Napoleon
Colonial Conquest
Advanced Tactics
Rise of the West
Swords of Aragon
Warlords 1 (and only 1)

[Potatoman]

Ah, I forgot Deus Ex. Definately one of the all-time great games, in my opinion. They don't make them like that anymore. It'd probably bump out X-Wing on my list.

I am rather surprised that at the lack of System Shock 2 in this thread's lists, though. It, too was great, and far better than Bioshock.

Mechwarrior 1, Star Control 2, Molez, V-Wing, Cyber Empires, Tyrian, Master of Magic, Jagged Alliance 2, and Counter Strike deserve honorable mentions.

[Endoperez]

Potatoman said:
Ah, I forgot Deus Ex. Definately one of the all-time great games, in my opinion. They don't make them like that anymore. It'd probably bump out X-Wing on my list.

I am rather surprised that at the lack of System Shock 2 in this thread's lists, though. It, too was great, and far better than Bioshock.

Mechwarrior 1, Star Control 2, Molez, V-Wing, Cyber Empires, Tyrian, Master of Magic, Jagged Alliance 2, and Counter Strike deserve honorable mentions.



SS2 was mentioned at least once. I've been thinking of playing it, but thought I'd have to play SS1 to enjoy it.

[Potatoman]

I've never played SS1, but loved SS2. It's almost impossible to get SS1 to run on modern computers, unfortunately. Plus, SS1 is a pseudo FPS that doesn't have mouse support, so it'd be very difficult to actually play these days.

[lch]

theenemy said:
Ooh, I just have to add Warlords IV. You either hate it or ignore it. I love it... or loved it.


I downloaded the demo for this one. I can't say that I hate it as it's not that bad a game (I haven't played the predecessors either), but it's not really hard to win against the AI in this game, is it? That makes playing SP games rather pointless to me. It does seem a little over-simplified. If you liked this game, then I'll recommend Armageddon Empires to you.

[sector24]

I like Warlords 1 and 2, and none of the others in the franchise. Warlords 2 was just the original with a random map generator and some upgraded features. Everything after it was a complete departure.

I can't find the original, but Warlords 2 is abandonware and available on the net.

[Stryke11]

Saarud said:
Played alot of games since 25 years and in no particular order here are some of my favorites:

Emperor of the Fading Suns (although it was very buggy MP games was extremely fun)




How could I have forgotten that one? This setting was absolutely AWESOME, and could easily support multiple games of multiple genre's (much like the many Warhammer and Warhammer:40,000 franchises).

This is a game that NEEDS to be remade. There was a pretty active web community and two popular user made mods that fixed a lot of the bugs and added units, but sadly recently the website housing them has gone down. EDIT: Strike that, it appears to be back up. http://www.kborek.cz/forum/phpBB2/ is the web address if anyone is interested in learning about this awesome game. The wikipedia page is informative, too.

I can still remember the thrill of drop shipping my legions and tanks, led by my noble swordmasters, into Holy Terra in retribution for the church destroying some of my labs. Go House Hawkwood!

[chrispedersen]

What was the software from ID: Castle Frankenstein..

How about the original: Hack, Rogue, StarTrek.

Also Darklands - which was incredible, Fallout, Insane Asylum, Populus (The almost original God Game).

Sentinel - which seems faded in retrospect. Civilization.
Beta tested Evercrack. Quit it at 7th Level.

Sanctum:Digital Addiction. www.nioga.net. (http://www.nioga.net.)
Chron-x

Neverwinter.

Panzer General.
Spaceward Ho!
Rails West on commodore 64

[Lingchih]

And, for the old-time Mac users out there, who can forget Marathon, the progenitor of Halo? Many a good night wasted playing MP Marathon at the office.

[mathusalem]

you really didn't have to play to SS1 for enjoying the second, just read a summary of the story.

I forgot Deux Ex 1 and SS2 too (... and Fantasy General, and Genesia, Star Wars: TIE Fighter, Castlevania: Symphony of the Night, Dune 1, Sam & Max Hit the Road, Syndicate, Thief II: The Metal Age, Ultima VII: The Black Gate, Arx Fatalis, Rainbow Six)

[Twan]

Forgot my first loves...
Lords of Midnight/Doomdark's Revenge (ZX Spectrum)
The Hobbit (ZX Spectrum)
Football Manager (ancestor of the modern CM/FM on ZX Spectrum)
Jeanne d'Arc (TO7/70)
Ogre (Apple II)
Archon (Apple II)
Revolution/Insurrection/Freedom something ? (Apple II, not sure for the name, a game where you fighted a dictator in south america and had many ways to win, with options like drug traffic to fund your army or being more honest and trying to get international popularity or US/USSR support making the other your ennemy)
Wizardry I-III (Apple II)
Ultima II-IV (Apple II)
Bard's Tale (Apple II, the recent PC game using the name is Diablolike crap)
Colonial Conquest (Atari ST)
Defender of the Crown (Atari ST)
Dungeon Master I-II (Atari ST)
Populous I-II (Atari ST)

[Kamamura]

My all time hits:

All Silent Hill games (brilliant! Creepy, intelligent)
GTA San Andreas (clever humor, great cultural stereotypes parody)
Portal (the endgame song is hillarious)
Gothic 1 and 2
Fallout 2
Dominions 3 (single player AI is limited though and I was not still able to find a MP game)
Mount and Blade (but the development is slow)
Wesnoth (most polished open source game)
Legacy of Kain series (everything with Raziel and Kain :-) )
DreamWeb (yay!)
Perihellion (cyberpunk at its best)
Shadow of the Beast series

[lch]

Kamamura said:
Wesnoth (most polished open source game)


Most buggy open source game. I'd love it if you weren't some sort of beta tester all the time.

[B0rsuk]

lch said:

Kamamura said:
Wesnoth (most polished open source game)


Most buggy open source game. I'd love it if you weren't some sort of beta tester all the time.



Could you elabore on the 'buggy' part ? I'm interested.

[Torin]

If anyone is intrested in Hamachi play Im on to:

Fallout tactics
Age of wonders SM
Age of empires conquerors
Master of Orion 2 (maybe needs something else instead of hamachi)
and of course Dominions 3 (blitz play)

[cupido2]

My favorites (I remember atm):

C64:
Raid over Moscow
Ultima IV + V
Bard's Tale III
Wasteland
Pool of Radiance
Gunship
Typhoon of Steel
Pirates
Maniac Mansion
Elite

Amiga:
Star Control 2
Populous
Warmonger
Starflight

SNES:
ChronoTrigger
Legend of Zelda: A link to the past

PS2
Panzer General I + II
X-com: Enemy unknown
Vandalhearts 2
Final Fantasy VII + IX
Shadow of the Collossus
Burnout 3
Civilizations 2

PC
Jagged Alliance 2
Baldur's Gate I + II
Fallout
TES 3: Morrowind
Combat Mission 1 + 2
Gothic 1 + 2
X-3 Reunion
Dominions 3
Dwarf Fortress
Space Rangers 2
Rome + Medieval Total War
Hearts of Iron 2
Battleground Europe (world war II online)

xbox360
there is no good game on the xbox360 *sigh* I was so disappointed by oblivion *double-sigh*

[lch]

B0rsuk said:
Could you elabore on the 'buggy' part ? I'm interested.


Oh, I don't want to pollute this thread more than I already done, but there have been a couple of bugs that already existed since the 1.2x version, which duplicated your units in the recall list whenever you saved+loaded the game when you played some of the scenarios. I reported it, first in the forum, then in the bug tracker. I was told more than once that the bug is fixed and I should replay the campaign, from the beginning, to this 9th or 10th mission. I did, at least three to four times, with each update, and the bug was still there. Then there's another bug which is probably tied to the save/loading mechanism and "outdated" WML code which corrupts the replays of your scenario. I don't think they ever managed to fix that. So, I waited half a year with active play testing, then still received notifications from the bug tracker for half a year even though I stopped caring, and it seems like either the whole WML thing has become too complicated that even the devs can't understand it anymore, or they are too lazy/busy to fix things - or maybe there are too many other bugs that they can't be assed to fix such a thing. For me, replaying the same campaign at least four times, just to find out that yep, it's still broken, wasn't any fun. I don't wanna be a beta-tester like that. If you want more info, then PM me about it...

[Kristoffer O]

Ah, Pool of Radiance!

Great old days. With a hand-outs booklet and a bizzare cardboard dial with runes and stuff for copy protection.

[Taqwus]

Hmmmmmmmm.

Waaaaaaay back:
---------------
The Ancient Art of War
Incunabula (Avalon Hill oldie)
Archon


Slightly less way back:
-----------------------
Much of the 'Gold Box' series from SSI
Netrek (bronco, and a little bit of chaos and hockey)
Neuromancer
Wasteland
Xconq
Bolo (The AppleTalk tank game, that is)
Strategic Conquest
Scorched Earth :p
Mechwarrior II


(subcategory: BBS door games :p )
Hack and Slash
Legend of the Red Dragon
Usurper
BRE/SRE
Mechwar



More recent
-----------
Dominions III
Jagged Alliance II


Still evaluating
-----------------
Empires in Arms (Matrix adaptation; high potential, but currently very buggy)


Love-hate
---------
Combat Mission:BB
AOE II:AOK

[sector24]

I loved the Gold Box games. I still have Curse of the Azure Bonds -> Pools of Darkness, complete with crazy copy protection rune wheels, but I can't find Pool of Radiance. http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/smilies/frown.gif

[Taqwus]

Neglected to mention Space Empires IV.

Civ II and SMAC might go on my love-hate list.

Pool of Radiance is probably fairly rare. There still seem to be some Forgotten Realms software collections available used via AMZN.

[DonCorazon]

I just downloaded the old rulebook from Pool of Rad for nostalgia's sake. Pretty funny remembering flipping to the journal to read the clues and rumors or spending time switching the color of beard on my character's sprite.

Why did those games seem so much more fun than most of today's over produced materials?
- Grumpy 36 Year Old

[CUnknown]

Ahh, SMAC was the best of the Civ games, for real. The story, the characters, the voices and movies when you got certain techs.. it was all so well done. A masterpiece.

Pool of Radiance! God that takes me back..

Has anyone mentioned Bane of the Cosmic Forge? (Wizardry 6) That one had a great story, too. I just love the Wizardry games, especially 6 and 7. 8 was good too, but very unbalanced at high levels. Magic either killed you in about 5 seconds or was completely useless due to anti-magic screens.

How about also.. Starflight? Anyone play that one? That was the first computer game I ever played. I got to pretend I was Captain Kirk.

[Lingchih]

Sid Meyers Alpha Centauri was a game by Brian Reynolds, under the Sid name. He was the programmer behind it. Please don't give Sid any credit for it. He may have created Civ, but SMAC was a whole other animal.

[lch]

Lingchih said:
Sid Meyers Alpha Centauri was a game by Brian Reynolds, under the Sid name. He was the programmer behind it. Please don't give Sid any credit for it. He may have created Civ, but SMAC was a whole other animal.


Damn you, first VedalkenBear swears us into naming it Sid Meier's Alpha Centauri on page two, now you say that this still isn't right! Make up your mind! http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/smilies/firedevil.gif

[capnq]

lch said:

Lingchih said:
Sid Meyers Alpha Centauri was a game by Brian Reynolds, under the Sid name. He was the programmer behind it. Please don't give Sid any credit for it. He may have created Civ, but SMAC was a whole other animal.


Damn you, first VedalkenBear swears us into naming it Sid Meier's Alpha Centauri on page two, now you say that this still isn't right! Make up your mind! http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/smilies/firedevil.gif

"Sid Meier's Alpha Centauri" is the official, trademarked name of the game.

Sid Meier is the second person listed in the game's credits, right after Brian Reynolds. I don't know why Lingchih wants to downplay his contribution.

[QXel]

In no particular order of preference :

Dominions 3 http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/smilies/wink.gif
Civilization II & IV
Mechwarrior II (The Clans one - need more of it ! since n°3, it is more a shoot'em up than tactical ...)
Alpha Centaury (of course http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/smilies/wink.gif)
Transport tycoon (the old one under DOS http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/smilies/laugh.gif)
X-Com / UFO (also the first one - still playing it !! Thanx Undertogs !)
Myst serie (well, until IV, I don't have played the V ...)
Fallout Tactics
Silent Storm (EXCELLENT ! Why no mods ? Why no sequel ??? Bouh !)
Jagged Alliance 2 (soon the n°3 : wait & see)
TIE fighter
Unreal Tournament (the firtst of the name !!!)
Unreal
Half Life (the first too)
S.T.A.L.K.E.R.
Combat mission : Beyond Overlord (the most fantastic tactical wargame !!! The 2WW sequels are also very good. No comment on the last one ...)
Master of Orion I & II
Master of Magic (A classic ...)
Heroes of Might & Magic I, II, III & V (not the IV : pleasant, but not in the spirit)
Pokémon Pearl/Diamond (Heu ... Sorry, just PC games, that's it ? http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/smilies/biggrin.gif)
Morrowind
General Fantasy
Stars!
Syndicate
Arcanum
Diablo I & II (but especially the 1rst)
Age of rifles (old, but still a ref.)
Stell Panther 2 (the modern warfare - a extremely huge disappointement that Combat Mission: Shock Force is not SP2 w/ the engine of CM ... I want to play the Falklands with the CM system !!!)
Warlods III: Darklords rising (yes ! It was FUN !)
Tekken I, II, II (heu ... sorry again ... http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/smilies/biggrin.gifhttp://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/smilies/biggrin.gif)


Well, that's it for the moment. I'm not at home and it is just from memory, but that's the best way to select the games which really leave its mark on us.

[cupido2]

Hmmm I said Star Control... or was it Starflight? or Starcraft? Which one's which? I mean the one where you are looking for this "fuel"-planet, with the "Spemin" and could catch and scan alien lifeforms.
and there's the one, where you conquer planets in a solarsystem and build a fleet and fight 1 vs 1. With the kamikaze-rodent...

[llamabeast]

The first one you describe is neither Star Control nor Starcraft. So maybe it's Starflight.

The second one is Star Control. The kamikaze rodent was the Shufixti. Fear the Ur-Quan Dreadnought!

[Endoperez]

cupido2 said:
Hmmm I said Star Control... or was it Starflight? or Starcraft? Which one's which? I mean the one where you are looking for this "fuel"-planet, with the "Spemin" and could catch and scan alien lifeforms.
and there's the one, where you conquer planets in a solarsystem and build a fleet and fight 1 vs 1. With the kamikaze-rodent...



Fwiffo the cowardly Spathi captain, Earth put under red Ur-Quan Slave Shield, lots of planets to explore? Sounds like Star Control 2. The remake at http://sc2.sourceforge.net/ is made from the original code and graphics, mix&matched from different versions to get best graphics and speech, but due to copyright issues it's called The Ur-Quan Masters.

[Kristoffer O]

I've been playing MoM for two days now. Feels good! Thanks for links and tips.

[llamabeast]

Thanks for the link to the SC2 remake. We've been playing it in the office over lunch!

[WraithLord]

SC2 link is awesome http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/smilies/happy.gif

Forgot all about Archone...
Any idea where can I get Archon/Archon II?

[Ironhawk]

cupido2 said:
Hmmm I said Star Control... or was it Starflight? or Starcraft? Which one's which? I mean the one where you are looking for this "fuel"-planet, with the "Spemin" and could catch and scan alien lifeforms.
and there's the one, where you conquer planets in a solarsystem and build a fleet and fight 1 vs 1. With the kamikaze-rodent...



The first game you refer to is Starflight 1.

The second is likely Star Control 2. Tho really you mine planets rather than conquer them.

[Ironhawk]

Kristoffer O said:
Ah, Pool of Radiance!

Great old days. With a hand-outs booklet and a bizzare cardboard dial with runes and stuff for copy protection.



Ah, yes the decoder wheel http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/smilies/happy.gif

Has anyone mentioned that there is a Pool of Radiance remake for NWN2, yet? Its quite well done, if a bit linear. A lot of the missions will be just what you remember - others will be just different enough to keep you interested. Worth a look

Pool of Radiance, Remastered (http://www.schlegels.de/pool/index.html#seite1.html)

[cupido2]

Thanks Ironhawk and llamabeast. So it's Star Control 2 and Starflight.

My Pool of Radiance disc should be still working, alas I lost the code wheel... only remember that one password was "wyvern".

[lch]

WraithLord said:
Forgot all about Archone...
Any idea where can I get Archon/Archon II?


Home of the Underdogs.

[Taqwus]

WraithLord said:
SC2 link is awesome http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/smilies/happy.gif

Forgot all about Archone...
Any idea where can I get Archon/Archon II?



Hmmm. Originals are probably only available used. Looks like there's a remake 'Archon: Evolution' ( http://archon.curvenet.co.uk/ ), an unmaintained XArchon project ( http://xarchon.seul.org/news.html )... and a Quake 3: Arena version (! http://brazen.planetquake.gamespy.com/arq/about.shtml )

[das123]

Ahhh, what a list. Some of those games brings back memories.

My current playlist of favourites are:

1. Age of Wonders Shadow Magic (patched and modded). This is my all-time favourite game and the game I keep going back to.

The rest are in no particular order...

Dominions 3
Advanced Tactics
Call of Duty 4
Sins of a Solar Empire
Battle for Wesnoth
Knights of Honour
Galactic Civilisations
Star Wars Empire at War

Past favourites have included:

Chaos Overlords (does this still run on modern computers?)
Stars! (I played this for years)
Dungeon Keeper (why didn't they make version 3)

[Lingchih]

How is Sins of a Solar Empire? It looks interesting, but rather challenging.

[lch]

Lingchih said:
How is Sins of a Solar Empire? It looks interesting, but rather challenging.


It's quite good. It's like a RTS game but without the agitation that's usually part of playing one. The pace is quite comfortable. They're supposed to release a demo later.

[Stryke11]

Sins of a Solar Empire, in my opinion, is not nearly as good as GalCiv2, which is made by the same people.

I found the difficulty to be a bit much, and any more than 1v1 nearly impossible, as they tend to gang up on the human. Maybe I just suck at playing it.

Also, the weird scrolling/zoom thing is unwieldy, as if you zoom in close enough to see the actual ships (and not the icons representing them) you can't even see a battle, as the ships are too far apart to both be seen in the screen.

That being said, the research system is cool, and I like the storyline - a campaign would have been nice.

[lch]

Stryke11 said:
I found the difficulty to be a bit much, and any more than 1v1 nearly impossible, as they tend to gang up on the human. Maybe I just suck at playing it.


That must be it. I played it three times, and I won three times. http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/smilies/biggrin.gif
Actually, the game gets easier the more AIs you add (FFA). You'll have an easier game with 8 players than with 4. Less than 4 might be easier than 4, too. I started with normal AI and then mixed hard and normal half and half. Interestingly, three of the hard AIs were out even before the normal ones.


Stryke11 said:
Also, the weird scrolling/zoom thing is unwieldy, as if you zoom in close enough to see the actual ships (and not the icons representing them) you can't even see a battle, as the ships are too far apart to both be seen in the screen.


I wouldn't say unwieldy, but this game definitely makes you use the mouse wheel much more than any other game. You don't need to change all three axis, though. I usually have one rotation fixed so that it plays just like a 2D game.

[Potatoman]

How is Sins of a Solar Empire? It looks interesting, but rather challenging.



It's alright, but the game balance is very poor. Missile frigates are among the cheapest and lowest-tech ships in the game, but are very powerful compared to almost everything else. Capitol ships are terribly cost-ineffective, and most technologies are not worth the cost of researching. Single player is alright, but the AI is not very strong. A friend who had never played the game and I defeated 6 allied "hard" AIs without much of a fight.

Didn't live up to the hype, in my opinion.

[Lingchih]

Thanks. I'll save my money then. The new Gal Civ expansion is about to come out. I'll spend it on that.

[Agrajag]

das123 said:
Dungeon Keeper (why didn't they make version 3)


They (Bullfrog) were acquired by the Evil Arts corporation >:(

[das123]

Lingchih said:
How is Sins of a Solar Empire? It looks interesting, but rather challenging.


There is a bit of negative discussion about the game on their forum but I enjoy it. I think that the reason I like games like this, Gal Civ, Age of Wonders and Dominions is that each time you play it the parameters shift so a strategy that worked one time may not work a second time. Personally I find Dominions much more difficult to play than Sins. There are choke-points that need to be secured. If you have low resource planets you need to change what you build to compensate. The more you expand the more you need to manage the composition of your fleets etc (although it isn't a micro-manage game by any stretch).

[PvK]

In reverse-chronological order, an imperfect view:
Dominions series
Combat Mission (series)
Space Empires III & IV
Myth: The Fallen Lords & Myth II: Soulblighter
Tigers on the Prowl (series)
Cybercon 3 (Atari ST)
Dungeon Master (Atari ST)
Omnitrend's Universe (Atari 8-bit)
Necromancer (Atari 8-bit)
Encounter (Atari 8-bit) <-- holds my record for most joysticks ripped apart during play!
Star Raiders (Atari 8-bit)
Adventure (Atari 2600)

Also:
Roguelikes (various)
Dwarf Fortress
First-Person Shooter games with very lethal weapons, taking cover an important tactic, and no bunny-hopping (various).
Various sims and wargames and adventure games.

[Aezeal]

I like sins of a solar empire less than galactic empires.. I quit it after a few started games.

PS you get less ganged-up upon if you actually start completing a few missions for otehr races. It helps a great deal if 3 races want you to target another race.. DO IT or basicly you'll die from all 4 races http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/smilies/laugh.gif and try to stay neutral (relatively, or just defendeing a bit) untill you get such a target.. all my (al be it few) games I saw this happen... usually once you are halfway through destroying that nation they will want you to target another though.. which probably doesn't fit in your plans then.. but hey.. you are way positive in their favor then .

MoM was great.. I've played it a few times on dosbox in the last years but really... it's way to easy.. the idea is great.. 2 worlds

Myth was nice too I'll admit

populous was nice even the latest version

[lch]

Aezeal said:
PS you get less ganged-up upon if you actually start completing a few missions for otehr races. It helps a great deal if 3 races want you to target another race.. DO IT or basicly you'll die from all 4 races http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/smilies/laugh.gif and try to stay neutral (relatively, or just defendeing a bit) untill you get such a target..


Actually, if you are already attacking an enemy, your first mission from the other races will be to continue to attack them. The more AIs there are, the better the results.


Aezeal said:
MoM was great.. I've played it a few times on dosbox in the last years but really... it's way to easy.. the idea is great.. 2 worlds


MoM too easy? With the latest patch? Without white magic?

[Torin]

Why white magic? green magic is broken

[Lingchih]

Doh! Forgot about Myth, it's been so long since I've played. What a great game. I used to love the Dwarven bombadiers.

[B0rsuk]

MOM
White magic is greatly overpowered. Heroism, holy weapon (+1 to hit), holy armour, altar of battle, stream of life (max taxes), prosperity, Incarnation, lionheart, righteousness, star fires, endurance...

Actually, I can only think of two green magic spells I really need:
Wall of Stone
Resist Elements (because AI loves shamans and direct damage spells)

What's so broken about green magic ? I think in the long run Black and Blue pay off much more... if you know what you're doing. Black has wonderful Mana Leak which basically halves ammo for enemy shamans and mages. Drain Power lets you to completely empty an opponent before you attack his city. Weakness is a very good, cheap early spell. Summons (except very overpriced ghouls) are just POWERFUL, to the point where I decided not to use them. Dark Rituals for stupidly high power.
Blue has Word of Recall, Counter Magic, later on Magic Immunity.
Red has awesome summons (hellhounds - PRICE), very good buffs, battlefield-wide spells like Flamestrike, Warp Reality (great with Chaos Channels)....

Note that I play either on Hard or Impossible. I don't play:
- halflings
- high men
- elves
- beastmen, draconians, dark elves, trolls, dwarves
because I consider them overpowered and not fun enough. Halflings are the worst offenders by far. Huge food supply, 8 figures, slingers are extremely effective and come from...armory. +1 to hit bonus by default (this is huge). Very high resistance. Halfling swordsmen easily kill gnoll halberdiers, which is very sad, because extra attack power (and wolf riders) is all gnolls have.

I like lizardmen, gnolls, nomads.

[Foodstamp]

Hooray for single player games like Master of Magic where balance can take a backseat to variety. Balance has become an obsession of modern gamers, and it makes perfect sense in a multiplayer game, but in a game like Master of Magic what is the point?

As long as the balance is not so skewed as to create only one possible choice, it only serves to create varying levels of difficulty in a game like MoM.

You can create your own settings beyond choosing the difficulty setting, such as you have done with your "these are the only races I play" and "This is the magic I consider overpowered".

The very thing you guys are debating about has extended the life and replayability of Master of Magic.

And honestly, by comparison do you think that Dominions is all that balanced? There are weak blesses, weak magic paths, weak nations, and what people would consider "overpowered" versions of each as well. To the point that the end game strategy in Dominions is fairly uniform with the early to mid game strategy being only the means of getting there.

Of course in single player Dominions we can create our own rules just like we did with Master of Magic http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/smilies/happy.gif

[sector24]

My favorite MoM spells are Change Terrain and Chaos Channels. I usually played Nomads, or Dark Elves when I wanted to be left alone. The sprites for green magic were totally overpowered because they could fly. For instance, you could send two sprites against a Great Wyrm and since it couldn't hit flyers you could wear it down and steal its goodies or unlock a node before you'd normally be able to. Even if you couldn't clean out the whole battlefied before you ran out of ammo, sprites could almost always retreat successfully so you could wear a site down over time.

Building on the "flyers rule" strategy, I LOVED flying Dark Elf Warlocks. The doom spell could eliminate tough flyers or archers and then the conventional melee units just had to sit there and take damage until you ran out of ammo.

Part of MoM's charm is that it has a lot of valid and enjoyable playstyles.

[lch]

Torin said:
Why white magic? green magic is broken


White magic has the best buffs for units and thus enables them to easily gain lots of experience in combat, from the early game on.

[B0rsuk]

Foodstamp said:
Hooray for single player games like Master of Magic where balance can take a backseat to variety.



While this is generally true, MOM has exceptionally bad balance. Mana cost of some summon spells is just crazy.

- War bears from nature magic cost 80/2 turn if I remember correctly, and they're likely to lose against swordsmen. War bears have no redeeming qualities.
- Ghouls cost 80 mana. While they're nice and can create undead, they don't heal at all and if you want to use them as an undead factory, be prepared to soften enemies with spells like Weakness etc.
- Hellhounds cost 40/1 turn and they absolutely kick ***. Unlike ghouls, they heal. Fire breath is a form of first strike. It also allows them to fight flying creatures. Hell hounds easily destroy ghouls 1 on 1, as well as war bears, which are twice as expensive.
- MOM is a very buggy game, and some spells just flat don't work. For example Flying Fortress. Neither does Aura of Fear. Subversion does opposite what it's supposed to. Why would you cast a spell that only harms you ?! This is just wrong. MOM, even patched (the version from The Underdogs) is buggier than Fallout.

Balance of many things is so wrong it can easily be considered a bug. There are many ways to play MOM, but there are also many easy ways to win. Any 11 book wizard (all books in the same magic) has access to POWERFUL spells right from the start. Wraiths, Chimeras, or Torin will conquer at least half of the map without breaking a sweat.

I think Sprites are not very cost effective. They have high cost, upkeep, and only 4 shots.
Besides, Sprites are not better at running away than any other creature. I remember, from manual (available on The Underdogs) that there's a flat chance of running away. The chance is something like 50% or 75% per unit, and 0% on Easy difficulty. You'll need a lot more than 4 shots to kill something like a Great Wyrm ! How many groups of Sprites does it take to kill a Wyrm ?

----------

You know what ? I think Dominions3 is more of a SP game than MP game. Kristoffer clearly cares much more about flavour than balance. I don't blame him, he's a bit like a mad scientist :-). And, best of all, he/they gave us tools to fix balance ourselves. But most games (especially from EA) have less bugfixes than Dom3 has extras added in patches. Alternatively, Dom3 can be considered a 'roleplaying MP strategy game'. But this carries a risk of running into a minmaxer.

[Potatoman]

Foodstamp said:
Hooray for single player games like Master of Magic where balance can take a backseat to variety. Balance has become an obsession of modern gamers, and it makes perfect sense in a multiplayer game, but in a game like Master of Magic what is the point?




This is an interesting viewpoint. I agree with you, to an extent. In a game that is designed only for single-player use, players can adjust for rough balancing by handicapping themselves or helping themselves, depending on whether they take advantage of poorly-balanced mechanics or units. As long as the balance is not too lobsided (eg. you MUST use unit x to win, or if unit y is useless), then the game can still work. I would only have an issue if the units/spells/races that I liked were so terrible that I could not use them and win.

It's interesting to note that, as AIs get more difficult, balance becomes more important. If you must play optimally against a difficult AI opponent (or another player online) then, in order to win in a roughly-balanced game, the effective variety of stuff that you can use is greatly reduced. It is the unfortunate reason why fine game balance is essential for most modern games.

As for MoM, I actually do wish that it had been balanced better. I would find replaying MoM more fun if it was able to challenge me without forcing me to handicap myself (which also effectively limits the variety of things available in MoM), and I would have a great deal of admiration for a game able to wrap all of MoM's "stuff" into a coherent and balanced game system. Plus, then it could have hotseat multiplayer, so I could play it with my friends. Then it'd be perfect. http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/smilies/happy.gif

[Stryke11]

Ok, it's pretty clear that many people here dig the Rogue-likes. While I have become addicted to Dwarf Fortress (albeit with a graphics pack) I can't seem to get into Roguelikes, and since they are so popular I know I'm missing something.

I have played a few, but of the main ones I have Slash 'em, a Nethack variant. I use a graphical 2d tileset. I have heard about the depth of the programming and how basically anything can be done, but I'm not seeing any of that. I usually die between floor 2-3, I don't know how to use stores, and its pretty basic repetitive move around, search, kick open doors, pick up random stuff, and fight stuff.

Since these games get so much praise I know I am missing something or doing something wrong. Please help me get the full experience! Is there a tutorial? Tips? Did I pick the wrong game to start with? I've played a relatively new roguelike called Drash and that one is pretty fun, but it doesn't claim to have the depth of Nethack and Slash 'Em.

Anything y'all who like these types of games can share to increase my enjoyment and understanding of the genre would be well appreciated. I have seen how imposing DF was until I learned it and so I'm expecting a similar epiphany once I understand the true Rogue-likes.

Thanks!

[Baalz]

Hmmm, am I missing something WRT Dwarf Fortress? I've spent hundreds of hours on rougelikes, so the interface isn't too much of a barrier, but I feel like I'm playing Sims: dwarf. I guess I was looking for something more like Dungeon Keeper and less picking out the color or of chairs and cabinetry. Should I give it another whirl or is this one just not up my alley?

[lch]

Baalz said:
Hmmm, am I missing something WRT Dwarf Fortress? [...] I guess I was looking for something more like Dungeon Keeper and less picking out the color or of chairs and cabinetry.


Again, I can heartily recommend gardening. It's very therapeutic.

[sector24]

Stryke11 said:
Ok, it's pretty clear that many people here dig the Rogue-likes. While I have become addicted to Dwarf Fortress (albeit with a graphics pack) I can't seem to get into Roguelikes, and since they are so popular I know I'm missing something.

I have played a few, but of the main ones I have Slash 'em, a Nethack variant. I use a graphical 2d tileset. I have heard about the depth of the programming and how basically anything can be done, but I'm not seeing any of that. I usually die between floor 2-3, I don't know how to use stores, and its pretty basic repetitive move around, search, kick open doors, pick up random stuff, and fight stuff.

Since these games get so much praise I know I am missing something or doing something wrong. Please help me get the full experience! Is there a tutorial? Tips? Did I pick the wrong game to start with? I've played a relatively new roguelike called Drash and that one is pretty fun, but it doesn't claim to have the depth of Nethack and Slash 'Em.

Anything y'all who like these types of games can share to increase my enjoyment and understanding of the genre would be well appreciated. I have seen how imposing DF was until I learned it and so I'm expecting a similar epiphany once I understand the true Rogue-likes.

Thanks!



For me, the fun of roguelikes (Nethack in particular) is unraveling the mysteries of the items:

"Nearly every item in the game interacts on some level with another item or object in the game. For instance, if you find a wand and you don't know what it does, you can use one of the charges of the wand to draw on the ground. The game will give you a message such as, "The floor is riddled with bullet holes" indicating that you have a wand of magic missiles. If flames shot from the tip then you'd have a wand of fire. Sometimes nothing obvious happens. Maybe you have a wand of invisibility and you can't see what you drew on the ground. You'll have to find another way to discover what it is. If you find a potion, you can take a sip of it to try to figure out what it is, but you don't want to drink the whole thing. It might be a potion of polymorph and turn you into a lizard! Or maybe it'll turn you into a red dragon... Every item can eventually be determined through experimentation or by discovering what other items are and using process of elimination."

The problem with roguelikes is the extremely high opportunity cost of getting into the game. For instance, in order to really get into Nethack you have to memorize ridiculous amounts of game data. You need to know all the in-game messages that give away what a wand is when you engrave, plus you need to know which wand it might be if you receive no message at all.

You also need to memorize the relative costs of items so that you can ID them by buying/selling them at shops. You also need to account for your charisma modifier and the random chance of a 25% or 33% markup. It goes on and on. The only real way to learn these things is by dying. Over and over and over again. So it's tough to get into these games.

If you'd like to try something a little easier, you can try Lost Labyrinth (www.lostlabyrinth.com) or maybe Incursion (http://www.incursion-roguelike.org/index.html). They're still complicated, but the opportunity cost in learning these games is somewhere in the neigborhood of hours rather than days. http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/smilies/happy.gif

----

Back to MoM for a second, the manual is wrong. Retreating flyers rarely if ever get killed. Sprites themselves may not be that good, but the idea is to stack flying ranged attackers into the same army. You get a highly mobile force that 80% of the monsters in the game can't even attack. Sprites are just the lowest level of that concept. Eventually I put Chaos Channels on all my ranged units and group the flyers together. But our play styles are very different. I'm just in it for the fun, I like to get as many goodie huts as possible before the AI.

[lch]

sector24 said:
Back to MoM for a second, the manual is wrong. Retreating flyers rarely if ever get killed. Sprites themselves may not be that good, but the idea is to stack flying ranged attackers into the same army.


I always was under the impression that the closer you were to the edge of the battleground and the further away from your enemy, the higher your chance of survival when fleeing. So the best before fleeing would be to go for the shortest way to the battleground border with your units and flee then. True?

[B0rsuk]

Real men don't need to flee.

[vfb]

B0rsuk said:

Foodstamp said:
Hooray for single player games like Master of Magic where balance can take a backseat to variety.



While this is generally true, MOM has exceptionally bad balance. Mana cost of some summon spells is just crazy.
...

I think Sprites are not very cost effective. They have high cost, upkeep, and only 4 shots.
Besides, Sprites are not better at running away than any other creature. I remember, from manual (available on The Underdogs) that there's a flat chance of running away. The chance is something like 50% or 75% per unit, and 0% on Easy difficulty. You'll need a lot more than 4 shots to kill something like a Great Wyrm ! How many groups of Sprites does it take to kill a Wyrm ?

----------

...



Sprites do not need to run away. You fire off your shots at a Wrym, and then hit 'End Turn' or whatever the button is, 50 times, and the combat times out without loss of any Sprites. I think you need 3 or 4 to kill one Wrym per combat.

[B0rsuk]

Well, that's a dirty trick. Besides, nature nodes tend to also contain sprites or giant spiders, which mean trouble for your sprites.

By the way: MOM does indeed have useless units. They're called bowmen. I mean the regular bowmen, not longbowmen, not slingers.

[Torin]

4 green books, 1 red, 1 blue

Node mastery, Conjurer, Channeler, Nature Mastery

Send early sprites to attack everything without flyers or ranged. Victory is assured.

If you attack an indy town with only melee units just shoot what you can and when you run out of shots just keep pressed "d" (done) to reach turn limit. You don´t flee so you don´t loose units. In magic ranged attacks, distance don´t affect accuracy unlike physical ranged attacks, so you are well just shooting where the sprites are.
With time a lonely sprite can take any town this way.
When you are able to get some nodes you will be swimming in mana and spamming sprites all over.
Later your summoning skills can be used on stronger creatures. Even taking multiple colors allows you to trade well.
(this is a lame strategy just to win easy, note that channeler is useful in the patched version where it halves mana maintenance)

[Taqwus]

Stryke11 said:
Since these games get so much praise I know I am missing something or doing something wrong. Please help me get the full experience! Is there a tutorial? Tips? Did I pick the wrong game to start with? I've played a relatively new roguelike called Drash and that one is pretty fun, but it doesn't claim to have the depth of Nethack and Slash 'Em.




Modern roguelikes tend to be far more complicated than the original Rogue. (Which has its own irritations, e.g. Aquators).

Two fairly prominent families are the Nethack family and the Angband family. The Nethack games tend to be somewhat shorter, more purely dungeon crawls, more capricious (*lots* of opportunity for extreme fortune / misfortune)... and yes, very irritating if you're not either a veteran player or playing with a copy of the latest spoiler files.

The Angband family tends to be longer and more involved -- many include overland travel between towns (on the surface, no less) and dungeons and what-not. They both require and reward caution -- there's somewhat less arbitrariness, but it's also harder to save yourself by taking a bad chance. Casually entering a full graveyard is a -bad- idea no matter what you have...

You need to invest time in increasing stats, covering crucial resistances and the odd immunity, stockpiling those mana / healing potions -- easier to do than in Nethack, but slow.

Among the Angband family, PernAngband (now refocused a bit and called Tales of Middle Earth, IIRC) included quite the odd variety -- including a character type which could possess the bodies of slain monsters and so forth; there was an ability to forge new magic items; and so forth. Very funky.

[B0rsuk]

There are three other roguelikes worth mentioning here (alphabetical order):

A.D.O.M.
A roguelike that has a lot in common with RPG games. It has a story, quests, etc. It has a lot of interesting ideas, depth, and memorable places. It's just fun. It was my first roguelike. It has some cons, too: it's not being developed anymore (bugs are not going to be fixed, etc), story gets annoying after a while because you have to redo quests in almost the same order each time you start anew. It has some almost worthless skills, like bridge building. It's quirky and on many occasions plain unfair, without a chance to escape.

DoomRL:
The simplest of the three, but it's also refreshing. A breath of fresh air in the world of roguelikes. It's quite simple, but deffinitely fun. Not only it's the most notable Sci-fi roguelike around, but also one where ranged weapons (not spells) actually matter. Even better, ranged weapons pack a punch and it makes tactics important.

Linley's Dungeon Crawl (Stone Soup variant)
http://crawl-ref.sourceforge.net
My favourite roguelike. First, it prides itself on being mostly a tactical game and has few quirks. Mechanics are mostly transparent to the player. Spoilers are of little help in Crawl. It's skill-based rather than class-based, meaning you can shape your character in any way you wish. It has a lot of interesting, innovative spells and items. It's technically more advanced than ADOM, has more gizmos, much more varied random levels etc. It has really good interface - for example you can travel between explored levels by just pressing a few keys, auto-explore long, dull corridors until something interesting happens, etc. Gods of Crawl are a lot more interesting than those in Nethack or ADOM. Each of them has its likes and dislikes and rewards (mostly) something different. Crawl has a lot of depth, a lot of variety (many enemies which require unique tactics, for example giant bats which are several times faster than you and use hit&run tactics), and is also quite fair. It rarely has instant deaths which you can't prevent by playing safer. Also, it's almost immune to scumming - there are very few ways to cheat the system, and you can't, for example, stay on the same level to grind forever (Nethack is infamous for this). Crawl has quite high difficulty, and wanting you dead is how it shows its love. Running away is a common survival tactic in Crawl. But, as said before, it rarely kills you without a warning.

[Wokeye]

I <3 Dwarf Fortress. I only play it with the may green tileset version though. Much purrrtier.

Can't wait for the future patches to fix the bits that really need it (ie military) and add a srategic context (war on gobbos!).

[Foodstamp]

Thats the tileset I use as well. http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/smilies/happy.gif.

I am so terrible at dwarf fortress but I still love it.

[Saarud]

Remember... Losing is fun! http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/smilies/happy.gif

[Endoperez]

I'd suggest that you go to rec.games.roguelike.development (http://groups.google.com/group/rec.games.roguelike.development/topics?hl=fi&lr=) and try out the different 7DRL entries. They are roguelikes done in 7 days, and as such are much smaller, easier and simpler than the "normal" roguelikes.

Roguelikes are games where player skill matters as much, or even more, than character skill. Unfortunately, for most roguelikes this means that to have a chance of completing the game, you have to read some spoilers. Some are easier on this regard: all 7-day roguelikes, DoomRL, perhaps something like Dungeon Crawl where you need tactics and good equipment choice, and where you can choose what to tackle next to avoid things you can't handle yet.

[B0rsuk]

Endoperez said:
Roguelikes are games where player skill matters as much, or even more, than character skill. Unfortunately, for most roguelikes this means that to have a chance of completing the game, you have to read some spoilers.



You are confusing game lore / mechanics obscurity and skill. Skill and tactics matters in Crawl, and if you point out an area where Crawl is unfair, the developers will often try to remedy that. Case in point: I managed to get Scroll of Enchant Weapon III and Enchant Armour changed. That is, now their description (at least in trunk) should mention, that they can be used to make some weapon brands permanent, or transform hides into armour.
Nethack is often taken as an example where spoilers have extreme impact on success. Crawl tries to reduce the need for spoilers. Some essential things like racial skill aptitudes are now a part of the manual.

[Endoperez]

B0rsuk said:

You are confusing game lore / mechanics obscurity and skill. Skill and tactics matters in Crawl, and if you point out an area where Crawl is unfair, the developers will often try to remedy that.



I mentioned that it's like that for most roguelikes. I've played Crawl, I like it and I know it's different. I even mentioned that there's less need for spoilers when it comes to Crawl. What else should I have said?

Still, there's lots of skills involved in roguelikes. Skills like knowing when to run, how to get your things identified (depends from the game), knowing when to turn back before you have to run, surviving when low on food, avoiding tough monsters you can't fight yet. To know when to run, you have to know if a given monster is dangerous - that's also a skill of sorts, or a spoiler-thing, but some games are better in this regard. Descriptions can help, or just making the really dangerous monsters look dangerous somehow. Capital letter, ominous color, changing colors, weird effects/messages on the same level, threatening you, etc etc.

[B0rsuk]

You should've appologised ;-).

About green in Master of Magic: I disagree it's a strong magic. Abusing sprites is just that - abuse of game mechanics intended to prevent deadlocks. I have really no idea why it favours attacker over defender. I suppose you could... attack a city with a fast and regenerating unit, wait, and... conquer it without touching city gate ?
Green magic has lots of ineffective summons (except for Great Wyrm, I guess), some small buffs, and ... what else ? Cracks call is frustrating in the hands of AI, but not cost effective.

[vfb]

Web is good. And if a city is defended by a bunch of worms on the ground, there's no reason it shouldn't be conquered by bunch of magical flying units. Unless the worms are armed with shotguns.

Hey, I tried Crawl (on the telnet server), it's pretty cool! Except I keep hitting 'l' to look around, and it moves me. I suppose I could remap the keys, but I haven't even looked for help other than ?? yet. What's a good 1st character to try? I did a Demigod Crusader and forgot to watch my HP. Now I'm trying a Draconian Chaos Knight.

[Ming]

Not counting the ancient text only games (Infocom's come to mind) or war games, the following are/were my top ten strategy games in rough chronological order(can't remember the exact order). They might not be the best games now, but each broke new grounds at the time and were head and shoulders above the rest - eating up countless number of hours of my time...

Sword of Aragon
Wizard's Crown
Wasteland
MOO
HOMM
Civ
MOM
Xcom
VGA Planets
and of course, Dom3, or I should say 2 even though I barely played it (waited for Dom3 before buying a copy) since most of the ground breaking were done in Dom2.

[B0rsuk]

vfb said:
Web is good. And if a city is defended by a bunch of worms on the ground, there's no reason it shouldn't be conquered by bunch of magical flying units. Unless the worms are armed with shotguns.




Yes, web is nice. But conquering a city without harming its defenders ?



Hey, I tried Crawl (on the telnet server), it's pretty cool! Except I keep hitting 'l' to look around, and it moves me. I suppose I could remap the keys, but I haven't even looked for help other than ?? yet. What's a good 1st character to try? I did a Demigod Crusader and forgot to watch my HP. Now I'm trying a Draconian Chaos Knight.



1. You look around with 'x' (examine). While doing so, you can press '?' to view monster description.

Some of easiest characters are:
Troll berserker (and berserkers in general). Trolls have stupidly high regeneration rate, great hp, and fight very well unarmed. You shouldn't run into trouble too fast. Just watch for orc wizards, priests, warriors (purple, green, yellow). They hit hard.
If you DO run into trouble, press 'a' and berserk.
Crawl rewards specialist classes at the moment. For fighter types, try dwarves, minotaurs, orcs, trolls. Demigods have all skills slightly below average, which means they are much worse at many skills than those specialists. Caution - ogres are hard to play.
Fighter is armour-based, Gladiator is more about dodging.
Assassin can be also nice starting class, just don't train Darts too hard. It doesn't pay off. Poisoned needles should be saved for tougher enemies.
Gods good for fighters: Okawaru, Yredelemnul, Xom, Makhleb...

[Torin]

True True that its an exploit about the sprites but you actually kill the defenders to get the city.

*Life has much goodies, Just cause, altar of battle, buffs, healing!!!!!, Torin http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/smilies/wink.gif, but its weak in summons, you have to wait till arch angel.
*blue i think its the best, counter magic, phantasmal warriors, damage spells, spell blast, improved dispelling, and the best critter around, the sky drake, also the fun steal global that i dont remember the name now.
*black is cool, you get the cheapest summons, drain life+black sleep combo to get units as undead, wrack battle enchantment, werewolfs, and the cool zombie mastery plus cool special heros.
*green has early summons, web, call lightning, earth lore, change terrain & transmute and later town portal to teleport troops around.
*fire has the best battle damage with many types of. and also some overland violence with volcanos and earthquakes. I can think of chaos channels + the overland enchantment that boost chaos units.

My goal was almost always a balanced wizard with all the colors so i can to spell trade and get every goodie, with charismatic to aid diplomacy.
Also famous + warlord to boost troops & heroes and get the more heroes and mercs.

pitty you cannot get life & death at the same time, i tried that getting death and drained life from an arch angel (a life spellcaster) but what i got is an undead arch angel with 40 points of death spells.

http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/smilies/Sick.gif

[chrispedersen]

You're nuts.

Web is green. It grounds all flying units. Combine that with the white spell for improving movement one for trolls
and trolls can outregen almost any combat.

MOM was awesome for the depth of options, and how many nations were viable.

[Xietor]

1. Dominions II and III. I have played this game for years now, 1st on a local forum in New Orleans, and here after Katrina. It has withstood the test of time. The endless variety allows almost infinite replay.

2. Civilization-The Grandfather of all of these great games. Though it does not have the infinite replay of Dominions, it was transcendental for its time. You could play the game 24 hours a day for weeks and be in bliss. No game, not even Dominions, rivaled the original Civ for addiction over the short haul.

3. Moo II- Another great game. Better than Moo, and certainly better than the flop that was Moo III.

4. Master of Magic-many have already given it accolades.

5. Original EQ-breaking the Plane of Fear before any of the expansions was not for the faint of heart. This was a game that will never come again. Before Companies catered to the casual player, there was a brutal game with severe penalties for death. Companies discovered if they made things easier and with no penalties they would get more paying customers.

True, but for hardcore gamers, the original EQ was King.

[Torin]

Better yet, enchant a warship with flight and it alone can clean ground units.
Better yet if you built it with mithril or admiantum.

[Foodstamp]

Wow I can't believe no one is mentioning my favorite MoM spell of all time, Confusion. Give me that spell on a blue/black wizard and I can give you the world.

[Torin]

haha, confusion + nightblades (invisible) almost a cheat

[Stryke11]

Thanks for the RL info, everyone. Perhaps my problem was starting with the Nethack variant Slash 'Em, which is likely the most complicated of the lot. I will check out the 7day ones and Crawl. I appreciate the info.

As to DF being Sims with Dwarves...well...I would actually have purchased a Sims game if it included goblin invasions you had to fight off. IMO, if you get rid of the nonsensical dwarven justice, and if noble requests were LOGICAL (like no request for glass in an area with no sand) it would be pretty much perfect. The website says the dev wants to make seiges, and army stuff in general, more cool, and that's just gravy. http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/smilies/happy.gif

[Dedas]

Dwarf Fortress is very, very far from finish if you look at all the planned development. It is still only in early alpha, and Toady is working on it on it day and night. I find this extremely cool.

[moderation]

Not counting dom3, here's a short list:

X-Com
Master of Orion I
Master of Magic
Ultima VI and VII
Civilization
Battletech: The Cresent Hawk's Revenge (wonderful tactical squad based mech game)

I also played that Magic The Gathering card game for a whlle and dom3's system of counters and counters to those counters is familiar (I think I read this in an interview with the devs somewhere...)

[DonCorazon]

Master of Magic - I never played this. I tried once to download some abandonware and DOS emulator but I am no tech guru and never managed to get this to run.

I see now you can buy a version on eBay for ~$80 that supposedly has been patched to easily run on XP or Vista and has the manuals on CD.

Wondering how fun it would be at this point? On the plus side, I have never played it. On the negative side, that is pretty expensive and some of those old school games are more fun in one's memory than they are when you try to play them these days.

Any thoughts? Thanks.

[Omnirizon]

don't click the link

NO!!! I said DON'T click the link.

ahh. you done did it. you clicked the link. you can kiss your evening goodbye.

http://www.handdrawngames.com/DesktopTD/game.asp

[Stryke11]

Borsuk, thanks for the Crawl suggestion. I'm playing it and it's great, way more fun then Slash 'Em, and I think I'm picking up the key commands, since it appears for the most part they stay the same across games.

ToME seems cool, too, but I'm just not ready for that level of complexity. I dl'd a few of the 7Day games that looked promising, as well.

[Wokeye]

DonCorazon said:
Master of Magic - I never played this.
Wondering how fun it would be at this point?
Any thoughts?



DC, MoM is a classic (and fun) game, but I wouldn't spend $US80 on it.

[DonCorazon]

Wokeye, thanks for the feedback. I wish I hadn't missed it the first time around, but suspect that it wouldn't be worth so much cold hard cash today, despite the fat and enticing manual... http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/smilies/frown.gif

[B0rsuk]

Stryke11 said:
Borsuk, thanks for the Crawl suggestion. I'm playing it and it's great, way more fun then Slash 'Em, and I think I'm picking up the key commands, since it appears for the most part they stay the same across games.




You're welcome. If you have any questions, it would be best to join ##crawl at irc.freenode.org . Traffic is quite high over there, much higher than #dominions. And you can often chat with developers.
There are a lot of subtle commands ready to be discovered. For example, try pressing CTRL-O for auto-explore. You can disable/enable autopickup with CTRL-A . CTRL-G lets you travel between explored levels. CTRL-F is for searching. You can search for items, shops, staircases etc... and just press a letter to travel there.
Check your species' innate abilities by pressing A .

[moderation]

DonCorazon said:
Master of Magic - I never played this. I tried once to download some abandonware and DOS emulator but I am no tech guru and never managed to get this to run.

I see now you can buy a version on eBay for ~$80 that supposedly has been patched to easily run on XP or Vista and has the manuals on CD.

Wondering how fun it would be at this point? On the plus side, I have never played it. On the negative side, that is pretty expensive and some of those old school games are more fun in one's memory than they are when you try to play them these days.

Any thoughts? Thanks.



They're selling it for $80 on ebay? That sounds really expensive, I remember I got it for around $50 when it first came out. Anyway, I'm sure you can find it for less, or probably get it from an abandonware site otherwise. I've gotten my version working on Dosbox (on a Mac no less) with no serious problems. Check out Dosbox if you are having problems with XP, it's free and open source! http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/smilies/happy.gif Master of Magic is still pretty fun. It is basically like Civilization with magic. What is most interesting about it is looking at the wizard creation process and seeing how it obviously inspired CoE and Dominions pretender creation. The library of spells is fun too, though not as extensive as Dom 3's. Still I have to wonder why Master of Magic never had a sequel...

[B0rsuk]

Quick tips on running MOM with Dosbox:

1. Download MOM from http://www.the-underdogs.info (http://the-underdogs.info)
2. Unpack to a directory of your choice
3. Run dosbox
4. Type:
mount c: /directory/with/MOM
c:
4.
type
install
(select sound blaster pro 'later' for sound and music)
5.
Type:
magic
6. Optimize CPU cycles by pressing CTRL-F12 (faster) or CTRL-F11 (slower) until it feels fast for you. There should be no delay in menu.

Note that you only have to do points 1,2 and 4 the first time. Later, just do the remaining points.

[mathusalem]

the version of MOM from the Underdogs is the 1.31 ?

[lch]

DonCorazon said:
Master of Magic - I never played this. I tried once to download some abandonware and DOS emulator but I am no tech guru and never managed to get this to run.

I see now you can buy a version on eBay for ~$80 that supposedly has been patched to easily run on XP or Vista and has the manuals on CD.


Total rip-off. It probably just has an installer for DosBox or VDMSound or something like that. The manuals for MoM are all available on the net, too, on HOTU for example. Do yourself a favor, save those dollars and get the game from HOTU yourself. Then install VDMSound and use it on the games setup.exe (?) and magic.exe yourself.


mathusalem said:
the version of MOM from the Underdogs is the 1.31 ?


yes

[B0rsuk]

mathusalem said:
the version of MOM from the Underdogs is the 1.31 ?



No, it's 1.3.1

[Stryke11]

About running MoM. I don't have specific rememberance, but I know that sometime in the past three years I loaded it up and played it on my WinXP rig (same as it is now, only diff is a beter vid card) and I DON'T recall using any helper programs. I know WinXP has a menu you can pull up when you right click a .bat or .exe file that impacts how it tries to run the file...perhaps there's another way? I own the game, but I think this recent install was from a dl'd copy (who can keep full track of game CD's from that far back). I don't have it installed anymore, so sorry I can't give more specific help.

[lch]

Stryke11 said:
About running MoM. I don't have specific rememberance, but I know that sometime in the past three years I loaded it up and played it on my WinXP rig (same as it is now, only diff is a beter vid card) and I DON'T recall using any helper programs.


The question is: Do you remember if you had sound or not? If you had sound, then either you are using a very old sound card, or one that is mysteriously driver compatible with a Sound Blaster 16 or older one.

[Xietor]

TWISTER!

http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/smilies/redface.gif http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/smilies/redface.gif http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/smilies/redface.gif http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/smilies/redface.gif http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/smilies/redface.gif

Obviously the game is more fun played in a ummm more private setting, and with attractive people rather than dorks. A few beers could looosen things up as well!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6zDiqPbYsz8

[DonCorazon]

B0rsuk said:
Quick tips on running MOM with Dosbox:

1. Download MOM from http://www.the-underdogs.info (http://the-underdogs.info)




While I am clearly technologically challenged, that link seems to lead to a blank page? Am I missing something? Thanks for bearing with me.

[Endoperez]

It lacks 'www' from the actual address.

[sansanjuan]

I played MoM just last week on my XP box in a Dosbox. I think I had sound off. I had the original but used a copy from an abandonware site.
-SSJ

[sector24]

http://www.odstudios.com/article.php?anum=321

[Foodstamp]

Stryke11 said:
About running MoM. I don't have specific rememberance, but I know that sometime in the past three years I loaded it up and played it on my WinXP rig (same as it is now, only diff is a beter vid card) and I DON'T recall using any helper programs. I know WinXP has a menu you can pull up when you right click a .bat or .exe file that impacts how it tries to run the file...perhaps there's another way? I own the game, but I think this recent install was from a dl'd copy (who can keep full track of game CD's from that far back). I don't have it installed anymore, so sorry I can't give more specific help.



There is a change you can make in your registry that will allow you to run the game without the help of DosBox or VDMsound. The registry change enables a menu item when you right click and choose properties and toggle the memory settings. This is the way I ran the game on Windows 98, ME and XP for years.

Then I wanted to hear the sounds, so I started using VDMsound. If I can figure out the registry change again, I will post it, because out of all the ways I have run the game, it ran the best straight in windows without sound. It never crashed, the turns loaded the quickest and there were no problems with the cpu speed.

[moderation]

I was able to get music from Dosbox by selecting the MIDI option in the install program. I don't remember if sound worked though.

[Foodstamp]

Ok I was able to figure out how to run Master of Magic without any special programs on Windows XP. Last time I did this, I could have swore I had to make changes to the registry, but this time I did not need to.

1. You right click on the "MAGIC.exe" file. Click properties.

2. Choose the "Compatibility" tab and choose to run the program in "Windows 95 mode". NOTE: This step may not be necessary.

3. Choose the "Memory" tab. Set conventional memory to auto/auto. Expanded (EMS) memory needs to be 3072. The other fields can be set to auto.

Save your changes. Run MAGIC.exe

One additional note... If sound is enabled, you may need to go into the Install.exe and disable the sound settings. To do this, you will need to actually pull up a C:\ prompt, navigate to the directory magic is stored in, and run the Install in the DOS environment. Then save your settings.

Hope this helps anyone who is having issues running Master of Magic with DosBox or VDMsound. http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/smilies/happy.gif

[DonCorazon]

Foodstamp and Sector24,
Thanks - between the download and the instructions, that was amazingly easy. Much appreciated!

[Foodstamp]

Excellent, I hope you enjoy playing Master of Magic. For me, it was love at first sight. http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/smilies/wink.gif

[Stryke11]

Ok, I just spent an hour looking though my old files and I was wrong. I DID play MoM in Dosbox, using a front-end program called D-Fend. I also had Fantasy General in there, another great game.

Funny thing is it's a good thing I have the game settings saved in D-Fend, because it I had to reinstall it today I wouldn't have the foggiest idea how to do it.

Oh, and I have sound and it seems fine. The interface sucks, but I just think that's how the game was (right click to move the map around).

This may be unusual, but one of my favorite aspects of the game was the ability to name your outposts. That one level of immersion really meant a lot to me. I enjoy the same thing about GalCiv2. Not that I was entirely creative...the west outpost was Westgarde, the east Eastgarde, and well, you get the picture. http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/smilies/happy.gif

[Torin]

don't click the link

NO!!! I said DON'T click the link.

ahh. you done did it. you clicked the link. you can kiss your evening goodbye.

http://www.handdrawngames.com/DesktopTD/game.asp



I did, this game is too good.

[theenemy]

MoM sure sounds like a fun game. I'm thinking about downloading and installing the game but it seems that you have to run the program DosBox for MoM to work properly on the XP.
Since I'm only 16 years old, without any PC of my own, my dad would freak if something happened to our computer (yes I'm a whiny kid). My question is: Will DosBox f(censored)k up the computer, with f(censored)k up I mean make any serious changes to the system?

I almost forgot: Legacy of Kain series rule! Great story and action. (thanks for the reminder Kamamura http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/smilies/wink.gif

[CUnknown]

What? Dosbox f-up your computer? I don't think so.. I've never heard of such a thing.

It's just a dos emulator, I'm sure it's no more risky than any other program.

I have it on my computer and nothing has happened.

[sector24]

Check Foodstamp's post on this page, it looks like you can run MoM without DOSBox. But even if you do need DOSBox, it's pretty harmless as far as I know.

[Dedas]

DOSbox will not do anything other than emulate DOS.

[DonCorazon]

The FoodStamp / Sector24 combo worked perfect for me.

[theenemy]

thanks for the help guys. I'll try it out.

[Agrajag]

Installing Dosbox should be no more dangerous than installing Microsoft Word. (Perhaps even less, because Word would mess with windows to associate its files with itself http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/smilies/tongue.gif)

And I recently discovered another game that definitely goes in my favorite pile: "UFO:Alien Invasion". It's heavily inspired by the original XCOM games (which were awesome, as everyone should already know http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/smilies/happy.gif).
It's Open Source (which is good), and not entirely complete (which is bad), but it is complete enough to play and enjoy without noticing anything "missing".

[Dhaeron]

To put some of the original purpose back into this thread http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/smilies/wink.gif

Roughly in order:

UFO: Aftershock
Master of Orion 3
Broken Sword 3
Dominions 3 (duh)
Rome: Total War
Freespace 2
Independence War 2
Wizardry 8 (Played it so many times, haven't finished it even once)
Baldur's Gate 2
Knights of the old Republic 2

[cupido2]

Haha, yes, Wizardry 8. I began it 3 times and like you never finished it. I don't know why, I really like it.

[Fal]

Not many people like Heroes of Might and Magic series I see...for me HoMM3 is the best game I've ever played, I'm a die hard Heroes fan, still addicted to it and making new maps/campaign for it.

[mathusalem]

cupido2 said:
Haha, yes, Wizardry 8. I began it 3 times and like you never finished it. I don't know why, I really like it.




the same, never finish it and I began it a lot of times.
Maybe because I wanted to try another team each time

[hnchrist3]

I don't like the HoMM series, per se, but I do love HoMM3.

In my bag of favories:
Heroes of Might and Magic 3
Heretic 2
Dominions 3
Thief
Thief II
(Syd Meyer's) Alpha Centauri
Quake 3 Arena

Q3A is hyper-threaded for Linux, so bonus!
Despite the fact that the Thief games have an ending, I always find something new each game. Did you know that you can complete the Cathedral in about 5 minutes?
Drop a skull in the entrance door to wedge it open, grab the Eye, and leave through the front doors. Tah-dah!
Ever been to the basketball court in Thief?
In HoMM3 I always play Necropolis as they are considered among the weakest nations. Not in my hands.

I don't think Alpha Centauri appears anywhere else in this thread. Too bad. Great game. Similar to Dom3 as you have to choose your research paths wisely.

[lch]

hnchrist3 said:
I don't think Alpha Centauri appears anywhere else in this thread. Too bad. Great game. Similar to Dom3 as you have to choose your research paths wisely.


Dude, Alpha Centauri was listed five times in the first two pages of this thread alone.

[Fal]

In HoMM3 I always play Necropolis as they are considered among the weakest nations. Not in my hands.



Off topic but...Necro is among the weakest nations???? that is so so not true...In L/XL maps Necro is considered one of the best towns (of course conflux gets the top rank again). In S/M maps necro's strength weakens significantly but still considered a mediocre race to play.

If you go to any HoMM forums most people would vote fortress as the weakest town, interesting enough some of the top HoMM3 tournaments players were fortress players. I personally believe H3 is balanced enough it's hard to vote who's the weakest and who's the strongest.

[Torin]

The hero with specialty on skeletons + the items that grant +1 hitpoint per unit is insane.
I killed a stack of 25 archangels with a group of 1000 skeletons on one blow, and after they attacked the skeletons.

[Fal]

absolutely, and for most competitive players it only takes them 2-3 weeks to have 1000 skeletons in their armies, more if they can find some of the artifacts. Guess skelespam doesn't just exist in the world of dominions http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/smilies/happy.gif

[HoneyBadger]

This should date me a bit:
(In no particular order)
Dungeons of Daggaroth,
Wizardry 6-7-8
The Bards Tale and (especially) Dragon Wars
Diablo 1
Space Empires 4
The Shining Force complete series
Phantasy Star 1
Fallout 1-2
Space Harrier
Alpha Centauri 1-2
Dwarf Fortress
Starcraft
and ofcourse Dominions 3!

[B0rsuk]

Last time I checked, Necropolis was BaNNed in Homm3 multiplayer. Because it's so powerful. And regular skeletons are not everything.
I remember a small or medium map which had 5 level7 dwellings within 2 or 3 days from your capitol. This translates into 20+ skeletal dragons in week2. (undead transformer)

[Agrajag]

IMO (which has more to do with how I enjoy playing the game) Fortress is not the weakest faction, Inferno is.
Necropolis is very strong, but that's not why I like them.
Regardless, HoMM2 is way cooler than 3. I only play 3 thanks to WoG http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/smilies/happy.gif

[Fal]

B0rsuk said:
Last time I checked, Necropolis was BaNNed in Homm3 multiplayer. Because it's so powerful. And regular skeletons are not everything.
I remember a small or medium map which had 5 level7 dwellings within 2 or 3 days from your capitol. This translates into 20+ skeletal dragons in week2. (undead transformer)



Skele dragon in undead transformer? http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/smilies/confused.gif Is it WoG that you are talking about? No offense to the WoG lovers but it's just not HoMM game to me. http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/smilies/cool.gif

[Saulot]

Some flash games I've recently enjoyed:

http://www.nitrome.com/games/dirkvalentine/
http://www.nitrome.com/games/magneboy/

[Salamander8]

This is actually difficult to limit to 10 but I would say:

1: Dominions 3
2: Space Empires 4 gold
3: BF:1942
4: Half-Life series
5: Star Control 2
6: Archon 1 and 2
7: Master of Magic
8: Master of Orion (yes, the original http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/smilies/wink.gif )
9: Worms World Party/Armageddon
10: Civilization series


Some other honorable mentions:

Spy vs. Spy series
Jumpman
Bruce Lee
Caveman Ugh-Lympics
Movie Monster game
Ultima series
City of Heroes/Villains
Morrowind
Ravenshield
Team Fortress 2

and many more. Some of these are pretty old, but every once and awhile I dust off one of my old consoles or my Commodore 64 and engage in some nostalgia.

[BigandScary]

In no particular order

-Warhammer 40k(the whole dawn of war series)
-Rome: Total Realism(RTW mod)
-Kohan: Immortal Sovereign
-Rise of Nations
-Dwarf Fortress
-Alpha Centari
-Dominions 3
-Civ 2, Civ 3, Civ 4
-World of Warcraft(in small doses)
-Galactic Civ 2

[sector24]

Saulot said:
Some flash games I've recently enjoyed:

http://www.nitrome.com/games/dirkvalentine/
http://www.nitrome.com/games/magneboy/



I got stuck on level 44 of Magneboy. WEEPING, WEEPING