New Scaratings

I thought "Computer Games New and Old" was already up there on the "ScaRatings", but I couldn't find it. Perhaps it is, or perhaps it is something I remember from the original "ScaRatings". I hope I'm not goofing up again, and creating yet another unnecessary thread duplication. What the heck, if so, DANTE will fix it again.

I am an avid, but mediocre, computer game player. I love them just the same. Hopefully, there are some of you out there who share my interest in computer games, and we can have some fun on this thread.



I'll start us out with an online game that JESSE called and told me about. It's on the "Addictive Games" web site, and it is called "The Impossible Quiz". If you Google "The Impossible Quiz", you will find it. You may need some help with it, as some of the solutions are virtually impossible to figure out on your own. As I understand it there are 100 questions and problems to solve in all. I have only been able to get to # 58 (I think) where a bomb will blow you up in something like 10 seconds, if you don't get the guy in the lower left corner to zap the bomb with his lazer beam in time. You'll know what I'm talking about, when you get there.

Give it a try. At times you will feel like a genius, and at other times you will be totally befuddled.

You start with just 3 lives, and sadly once you've used them up, you will have to start all over again from the beginning.

p.s. Some of the solutions are ridiculously unfair, and have little or nothing to do with logic or intelligence. It's tricky...

...............

Here's a link to the game:

http://www.addictinggames.com/puzzle-ga ... lequiz.jsp

(Belated edit: I believe there are now two new "Impossible Quiz" games.)

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"The game is afoot."

Okay, let's go way back...

Does anyone out there remember the old DOS "Infocom" games? They were pretty damn good, even though I think most (if not all of them) were text based games without any graphics.

The one I liked best was "Wishbringer" (1985). Anyone ever play or remember it?

It's a lot of fun, somewhat challenging, but a game you can work your way through without having to resort to a walkthrough. It's been gone since 5 1/4 inch floppies became history, but GOOD NEWS, you can now play it online. Just Google "Play Wishbringer online" and you'll find it. You young guys should give it a try. It will give you a lot of challenging fun, and an idea of where computer gaming began. (Infocom games were not the very beginning of computer gaming, but they're close.)

It will help you, if you can find the grid map of the town of Festeron online, and print it out to reference as you play. (The original game came in a box that included the map.)

Stop dawdling...! Get going...! You've got to deliver an envelope to the proprietor of Ye Olde Magick Shoppe...! Let me know if you were successful accomplishing this simple mission...



Here are links to a video of "Wishbringer" (parts 1 & 2):

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_zG35MmMpp4 (Part 1)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Y5dLXC_RLWU (part 2)

p.s. Unless you can figure out someway to slow these these two videos down, you better be a speed reader.

p.p.s. A video with no graphics and no sound is kind of stange.

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"The game is afoot."

I never was much of a player of PC based games. Most of my gaming was either on the Atari 2600 or the arcade rooms. Both of them are now easily emulated, so I can relive my childhood anytime I want.

The one computer-based game that I played in college was called Larn. You'd have to be an old-school Unix junkie to know about that one.

I'm an old computer game junkie, but don't remember the Unix game called "Larn" (1986). Can it be played on line? Please tell us more about it.

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"The game is afoot."

The games people play (or once played...)

I started playing PC games way back in 1986. The first ones I can remember were "Castle Adventure", "Sopwith", "Janitor Joe", and some game with "Caverns" in its name, which after much Googling, I can find no mention of. (Damn, I would love to find that "Caverns" game, and play it just one more time.)

Putting that reminiscing aside, I think it might be fun for all of us to reminisce a little.

Here is my first list of 10 computer games (or game series) that I think are worth playing:

1 - The "Monkey Island" series (1990 to present)
2 - The "Myst" series (1993-2005)
3 - The "Leisure Suit Larry" series (1997-2009) (not for kids)
4 - "Lighthouse" (1996)
5 - "Shivers" (1995)
6 - The "Tomb Raider" series (1996-2010)
7 - "The Ancient Land of Ys" (1989 - an old DOS game)
8 - "Still Life" (1 and 2) (2005 and 2009) (definitely not for kids)
9 - "Sid Meier's Pirates" (Original was released in 1987, but revisions of the game go through at least 2004)
10 - "Bolo Adventures I" (William Soleau's) (1991 is an old DOS game.) However it is one of the most challenging logic games you will ever play. I know it can be bought online, but I don't know if you can play it online. This is a recommendation that you will not get from anyone but me, but it's a damn good recommendation nonetheless...!

I know I've left a lot of great ones out, but that's my initial ten.

Now it's your turn...

Go ahead and put ten computer games up there that you think are worth playing. Don't worry, it's your opinion. You can't be wrong.

p.s. Feel free to comment on my initial ten.

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"The game is afoot."

There was no graphics. The screen comprised of everything you'd see on a keyboard (letters, numbers, punctuation). Letters were monsters, I think the & was a statue, etc. you went up and down levels of a cave killinng monsters and collecting spells, gold and gems, gaining power etc, to get to the bottom and get the Eye of Larn. you'd go back up the cave, sell the eye for alot of cash, then down 3 levels of a volcano that had bad-ass dragons. The third level of the volcano had a potion that would cure your sick daughter.

All this was text-based graphics. Nothing fancy at all, but additive to someone who needed a break between computer science classes

P.S. (because Cloudy does them). I did a search on the internet and found Larn for the PC. Sadly, they block gaming sites at work, so I can't download/test it out. I'll try it at home tonight and will post a review (and possibly be up until 4am playing it. God I wish I could drink a beer!)

I still have my commodore 64 and many games with it on 5 1/4" floppy disks. Still works great too. Still have my Atari 2600 with about 40 games in pristine condition too. When it came to games growing up, I was a huge junkie also spending most of my time [and money] in arcades. Ahhh the good ol' days.

One of my all time favorite games for the C64 though was one made by Epyx called "Impossible Mission". you had to go through these rooms searching things for clues while evading these killer robots...then take all the clues and put them together to get the password to finish the game.

My favorite game of all time though was definitely Dig Dug. And as much as I love my MAME emulator, it's just not the same as walking into that dark arcade, seeing rows of machines and hearing that myriad of sounds.

Cheers,
--Tony

Among PC games, I have the entire Myst series, but that's really about it. I sometimes play online games like Bejeweled or Alchemy when I think of it.

Back in the '80s I was quite the arcade junkie; Tempest has always been my favorite game.

-- RWM

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"...It could not have evolved by chance. It proves you exist, and so therefore, by your own arguments, you don't. QED...."

Next step with the MAME emulator is to get an old arcade cabinate (I have a Joust unit), rip everything out, install a computer with a 21" CRT (if you can still find them), build your own four-player control panel, and enjoy all the games on an up-right. Although on the internet they do sell cabnites and blue prints to make your own, both uprights and cocktail table size. And there is software out there to emulate the sounds (but not the smells) of arcade parlors.

Returning to fun we had in the past is great. Sadly, aging bodies, changing personal situations, and the passage of time prevent us from being able to relive many of of the things that we were able to do and have fun with when we were younger. Thank God, there are few things from the past that we can still return to and enjoy just like we did in the old days. Computer games are one of those things. (As long as we can find them, and get them to run on our fancy-schmancy modern computers.)

Your description of "Larn" sounds a lot like "Castle Adventure", which I loved to play nearly 30 years ago. If you can get "Larn" downloaded and running, please tell me how I can do it. It sounds like a game I would like to play.

p.s. I should warn you, that if I can get it running on my computer also, I will probably be calling you for help everytime I get stuck.

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"The game is afoot."

Found it, loaded it, and wasted an evening on it. I'll have to get you a copy. Takes a while to figure out, but it's coming back to me

Tony,

Hey, keep those things. Damn, anytime you want, you can fire your Commodore 64 or your Atari 2600 up, go back in time, and return to the good old days. I'll bet you, if you look around, you will be able to find other games for those computers for sale on line, and they probably won't cost you a whole lot of money. (Sure wish that I still had my old original IBM PC, with its two full height 5 1/4 inch floppy drives.)

Yeah, I was into the arcade game thing too. In the early days the arcade games were considerably better than what you could buy for your personal computer. There were a bunch of them that I was addicted to back in the late 1980's. I can see them in my mind, but can't remember their names right now. I think some of them were released for PC play, but not many. Though it will never happen, it would be great if someone would bring them all back in a format that we could play on our computers today. I actually think they would sell.

God willing, sometime tomorrow I will put my thinking cap on, and try to remember the names of some of those games that swallowed all of those 25 cent tokens back then. If I can, I will post the names of the old arcade games that I come up with.

Your comment, "...it's just not the same as walking into that dark arcade, seeing rows of machines and hearing that myriad of sounds." is absolutely true. I think many of us share that feeling. Heck, your words are almost poetic...

p.s. I wonder what the arcades did with all of those wonderful machines, when they closed down.

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"The game is afoot."

......... .......... .........


Ah, a man of the "Myst" (1993). My son and I worked together on the first two of the series, before we knew there was such a thing as a "walkthrough" online. It took us a very long time to finally finish the games. These days I really don't want to spend months to move through a game, so I am ashamed to admit that after being stuck in what seems to be an impossible situation for 30 minutes or so, I will resort to a "walkthrough" to move on.

Here's a link to a video of the beginning of the "Myst" game:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=e-8CFun3nEw&NR=1

Haven't ever played "Bejeweled" or "Alchemy". Please tell us about them. Can't remember the "Tempest" (1981) arcade game either. Tell us about that one too, if you like.

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"The game is afoot."

Can't wait to play it. Bring it on. I've been waiting for a text based computer game from the past to play for a long time.

Good job, YODA!

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"The game is afoot."

My favourite vintage game is easily Ultima V. A world to explore, spells to cast, puzzles to solve, dungeons to loot, monsters to bash, a king to rescue . . . pretty much a classic RPG. Nice, crisp graphics, too -- by 1987's standards. It's a nice bonus to still have the book and cloth map that came with the Atari ST version

I've also downloaded remakes of the first two King's Quest games. One plays exactly as the original, but Two has had the storyline extensively edited and expanded. Google "King's Quest AGD" and you should get lucky. The game files have tripped my antimalware in the past, but I've never observed any problems with these games. (Ooh, it says Three has been released! There go some of my evenings in April . . .)

There's also a few games I remember fondly from my elementary school daze:
StickyBear Basket Bounce (simple little arcade game for Apple IIe)
California Games (kinda like the X games, but in digital form)
Lode Runner
Oregon Trail (supposed to be on FaceBook as of almost two months ago. I wanna die of dysentery, dammit!)
and the Grolier people put out a small suite of games to teach kids about using encyclopedias. The Isle of Mem is the only title I remember. I liked playing them, but I don't think some of you here would hold them in high regard, as the object of these games was to use one of the encyclopedia volumes to borg answers to trivia questions

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/°v°\ • Every time Linux boots, a penguin gets its wings
I'm a solipsistic conspiracy theorist. I'm sure I must be up to something, and I won't stop until I find out what
Why not downgrade Plutonium to a dwarf element?

Thanks for the kind words. When I saw a thread about video games, I couldn't wait to chime in on this. What I've found is that people go through their attics/closets or whatever and they sell all these old consoles/gaming machines/computers...and then want to take a trip down memory lane only their only portal to those days gone. There's no way I'd sell any of my old games or my Commodore 64. Just like I never play Dungeons and Dragons anymore but still have two shelves worth of books from back in the day when I did. lol My wife calls me a pack rat but somethings you just don't part ways with.

I'm sure the games you'll come up with were also high on my list as well. You can still find some of these old game machines, some in very good and working condition on ebay and other places. I really miss seeing pinball machines everywhere too. That's something else that's kinda sadly died out.

Yes, I've seen actual blueprints and plans on how to take an old arcade game cabinet and turn it into one big mame emulator but never tried undertaking that task yet. My friend has a bar in his basement and have talked with him about it as it would make a wonderful addition down there but sadly the idea will probably never come to fruition.

Cheers,
--Tony

The Seventh Guest was still one of the greatest of all time. The new iPad release of it is good for those who remember it, but has too many little atmosphere ruining issues to equal the original.

Morrowind is probably still my all time favorite for PC, though. Especially if you get into some of the graphical mods and get GOTY edition. I could have built a rocketship with the time I spent in that game (> 1000 hours, and no, to this day I still don't regret it).

If you liked "King's Quest", you might want to try "Peasant's Quest". I believe it is a spoof of "King's Quest", and play is probably similar. You can play "Peasant's Quest" on line by going to the following web site:

http://homestarrunner.com/

Here's a link to a humorous introduction to "Peasant's Quest":

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fGJmIoNkVPs

This is not really an old game, but one that was fairly recently created by the people at HomeStarRunner to look like an old game from the late 1980's. Just click on "Games" at the bottom of their home page, and 16 different free game choices will pop up. Besides "Peasant's Quest" (Which is by far the best.), there are four others that I think are worth playing: "Dongeon Man", "Dongeon Man 3", "Dangerseque", and maybe "Trogdor", but while you're there, you might as well check them all out.

If you want to go directly to "Peasant's Quest", try this link:

http://www.homestarrunner.com/disk4of12.html

HomeStarRunner will also sell you a five-game CD, called "Strong Bad's Cool Game for Attractive People". The $34.95 price sounds a little steep, but you are getting five games, and I think they're pretty damn good. To buy it, just click on "Store" at the bottom of their home page, then click on "Adventure Game for PC". (These games are of much higher quality than the free ones.)

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"The game is afoot."

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liljol, still residing in a humble lil abode in Buzztime's Backyard, San Diego County, in The Horribly Site-Poor Golden State, California...

<--805 NTN Buzztime sites visited as of 11/13/2018...

F CUBS!!!!! FBOSOX!!!!!

FPDRES!!!!! FCHGRS!!!!!

Tony,

We're not pack rats. We are protectors and preservers of life and culture of the past. Without people like us over the ages, museums wouldn't have much to put on display today. If the world was full of "get-rid-of-it" people like my ex-wife (Who threw out my college letter jacket without telling me.), the entire Smithsonian would fit into an abandoned warehouse somewhere on the outskirts of Washington, DC, today.

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"The game is afoot."

To follow up on yesterday's comments about the old days of video game arcades, I did a little research today. Here is a link to the best site I could find listing the arcade games of yore:

http://www.arcade-museum.com/?ref=ad_go ... v_main_001

Didn't count them all, but I'll bet ya there are more than a couple dozen listed there. Maybe I should have said, more than a couple gazillion listed there. There were so many that it was overwhelming.

I had hoped that being able to scan the list would stimulate some of the dormant neurons in my brain, but it looks like those neurons might be in worse shape than just being dormant. Of course the obvious ones were easy to remember, but the obvious ones were not my favorites. It was a real battle to try to come up with the more obscure ones, that I really liked better.
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Here is my list of obvious ones, which everybody knows and played, and links to videos of them:

"Asteroids" http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WYSupJ5r2zo

"Pack-Man" http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FlRwSv5Lxec

"Space Invaders" http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=437Ld_rKM2s

"Break out" http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ib8dg1TuSKc

"Centipede" http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xGEZ3NNH6cs

"Dig Dug" http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Bpq2VmlGdPQ

"Donkey Kong" http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=E1Ey9OdQXV0

"Frogger" http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=l9fO-YuWPSk

"Missile Command" http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=U5FvIM8SNmU

"Q Bert" http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=b-LR3036LuI
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Here is my list of more obscure ones that I loved to play, and links to videos of them:

"Elevator Action" http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VKHXB1cdFaA

"Ikari Warriors" (Might have just played this on a 5 1/4" floppy.) http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nahbHjAYrdc

"Galaxian" (Perhaps not so obscure, but one of my favorites) http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=g0PM7SzSHbg

"Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom" http://www.wegame.com/watch/Indiana_Jon ... om_Arcade/

"1942" http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2FXaw4Ev7Gw http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2FXaw4Ev7Gw
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There are several more that I can visualize, but have no idea as to what they were called. One was a lot like "Commando", but I don't think that was it. It was an up-scrolling game, where you started out with a little guy, who fought his way forward, fired his weapon, tossed grenades, jumped into tanks, and could jump out of them to run over to jump into bigger tanks. Eventually, he came to a fortified wall that ran all across the top of the screen. Anyone know what that game was called?

Another one that I cannot remember the name of was a side-scrolling game, where you flew an aircraft over terrain, shot down enemy planes that came at you, dropped bombs on things (I think), and picked up fuel as you flew along. I remember it as a table top game that bars had in the late 1970's. It was very primitive, and was only in black and white, with simple lines to depict the terrain. Anyone remember anything like that?

Surprisingly, I found that many of those old arcade games are available for downloading, and a lot of them have been put out on floppies over the years.

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"The game is afoot."

I can remember getting my kids a few of the "Reader Rabbit" educational programs. I don't think they ever were interested in them.

Here's a link to what's available in "Reader Rabbit" programs:

http://www.kidssoftwareoutlet.com/Searc ... der+rabbit

(I have my doubts about "Reader Rabbit's Toddlers - Ages 18 months to 3 years")

The "Carmen Sandiego" series is also good at combining education and fun for kids.

There were a bunch of "Sesame Street" and "Disney" educational games also, but I think they sucked.

.......... .......... ..........

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"The game is afoot."

"Ultimate V" sounds good go me. I'd like to get it, however, when you say it's a vintage game from 1987, I've got a feeling that it won't run on Windows 7. I already have boxes of old computer games in my basement waiting for me to find some way to rescue them from the dust and cobwebs, so they can once again dance proudly across the monitor, and tantalize me like they did in years gone by. I would hate to have to put "Ultimate V" down there with all the rest to gather dust and cobwebs.

If there is a way to make this game run on Windows 7 please let me know.

Thanks.

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"The game is afoot."

Liljol,

It's good to read your words again.

I just deleted my original reply to your post, because though it was funny, I felt it might have offended some with my picking up on "banging away" and "fireworks that go off in the dark". I'll leave that to your imagination. Though pretty much for adults only, the "Leisure Suite Larry" games were darn good, somewhat challenging, and damn funny. As I remember, BIGSKY also confesses to having played them. I think there are eight "Leisure Suit Larry" games out there today. (They may never end...!)

If you like the old text based games, let me suggest you go to the "HomeStarRunner" web site and play "Dungeon Man" and "Dungeon Man 3". "Dungeon Man 3" is much better, but the original "Dungeon Man" can be beat in less than three minutes. Shucks, I don't think you want to hear this, but you can DIE in both of them.

I know you can find them, but to make things easier for you, here is the link:

http://homestarrunner.com/

Just click on "Games" at the bottom of their home page, and you are off and running.

Let me know, if you tried them.

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"The game is afoot."

I remember what you said about "The Seventh Guest" the first time you told me about it. (At least I think so.) If my failing memory serves me right, I believe you told me that it was so real that it was frighening to play it. Immediately, I decided that's my kind of game, and I went out and bought it. Sadly, it would not play on the operating system I had at the time. (Probably Windows XP) So I have yet been able to experience the terror and fright of "The Seventh Guest". I've still got it, and I'm hoping that someday, somehow, I will get that sucker fired up, and find out how terrifying and difficult it is.

I think you also recommended "Morrowind" to me, and I'm pretty sure I have it. However, I don't think I have tried to play it yet.

Here's a link to some "Morrowind" video:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Cr3TCWPlDrw

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p.s. TO EVERYONE OUT THERE, DANTE'S RECOMMENDATIONS ARE ALWAYS GOOD...!!! IF HE SAYS GO WITH IT, GO WITH IT!

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"The game is afoot."