Putting the 'role' back in role-playing games since 2002.
Donate to Codex
Good Old Games
  • Welcome to rpgcodex.net, a site dedicated to discussing computer based role-playing games in a free and open fashion. We're less strict than other forums, but please refer to the rules.

    "This message is awaiting moderator approval": All new users must pass through our moderation queue before they will be able to post normally. Until your account has "passed" your posts will only be visible to yourself (and moderators) until they are approved. Give us a week to get around to approving / deleting / ignoring your mundane opinion on crap before hassling us about it. Once you have passed the moderation period (think of it as a test), you will be able to post normally, just like all the other retards.

What Are Your Hidden Gems?

GarlandExCon

Arcane
Joined
May 19, 2014
Messages
6,957
What are some games you consider "hidden gems"? They can be for any system. I think there's lots of games that are considered hidden gems for consoles and PC/Mac that people have heard of but have never played or didn't know was any good. I also, however, think that there's some that maybe (almost) no one has heard of...

So what are yours?
 

GarlandExCon

Arcane
Joined
May 19, 2014
Messages
6,957
Here are some of mine (these get weird):

Ray Dunakin Games

another-fine-mess.png


This was a series of games produced for Macs in the early to mid-1990s as Shareware by a guy named Ray Dunakin. The games were RPG adventure games where you'd explore a world he designed. The scale and the scope of the games were unreal. I mean, for the time, this was ground breaking and these games were and still are MASSIVE. They are kind of like text adventure games where you type commands and read descriptions, but with this you also get B&W images which are actually gorgeous in a very simple way. Think Mist with more basic graphics meets text adventure. The games were build with an early 90s design software known as World Builder The games reflect Ray's interests (lots of references to rocketry, which is a hobby of his, for example). There's several games that are similar but unique in their own way and star his hero, Fearless Frank (who you play as). The games are Ray's Maze, A Mess O' Trouble, Another Fine Mess (my personal favorite) and Twisted (which is heavily inspired by The Wizard of Oz, also available in color and is the most linier of the series). With the exception of Twisted, all are extremely open world and you can explore as you want. Even Twisted is somewhat open. Some of the games are now available for OSX and those are in the App store. His website is http://raydunakin.com/

Chex Quest

hqdefault.jpg


chexquest-1-large.jpg





This game was given away in boxes of Chex cereal in 1996. That's where I got my copy and first played it. I've never looked back. It's a first-person shooter built around the Doom engine and is probably the best thing ever given away in cereal. It was the first ever video game included in boxes of cereal and won both the Golden EFFIE Award for Advertising Effectiveness and the Golden Reggie Award for Promotional Achievement. Today it enjoys a cult following with many fan builds and even fan made (and developer made) sequels in existence (there are actually three full games total). All can be played for free online. On top of that, there is an HD version of the game planned that will be built around the Unreal engine:

http://www.pcgamer.com/doom-mod-chex-quest-is-getting-a-hd-remake/

BbkUkixv87ZoQrAKtUDYuU-650-80.jpg


Escape Velocity

gfs_45287_2_2.jpg


This is a open world overview space adventure/strategy game that was created for the Mac in the 90s by Ambrosia Software. It has two sequels with improved graphics and game play (that are also available for the PC as well as Mac): Escape Velocity: Nova & Escape Velocity: Override. The games are extremely extensive, engrossing and full of surprises. You can travel freely. You start off as a cargo pilot/trader in each game and work your way up by selling/trading goods and taking jobs. You can upgrade your ships extensively with new ships and improvements to each ship, including fighting ready ships. You can also take over other ships as "escorts." There are storylines, pirates, etc. The main storyline is basically an intergalactic war between the rebels and Confederation (basically, Star Wars) that you will eventually get in the middle of and take sides in... You can eventually take over ships and even entire planets. This is a game I never got tired of... It feels infinite.
 

Severian Silk

Guest
Prelude to Darkness

[edit]

I played a little Escape Velocity Nova, but it didn't really appeal to me. I didn't like the overhead view and real time combat. I also didn't like Space Rangers, which is similar but turn-based.
 

sser

Arcane
Developer
Joined
Mar 10, 2011
Messages
1,866,662
Indiana Jones and the Emperor's Tomb is the first thing that sprang to mind. I've beaten it at least three times, probably four. Not sure if 'hidden' on account of the franchise tag, but I rarely see anyone talk about it.

Most of my truly "hidden" gems are from the handhelds/consoles.


James Bond for the original Gameboy. Played and beat it probably 10-times over. I really loved that game. It also taught me how to play cards.

Jurassic Park Part 2: The Chaos Continues - also for Gameboy. Extremely hard. I never did beat it. I'd always get to this water level and lose.

Total Carnage for the SNES. A Smash T.V. spin-off with Gulf War commentary. Could never beat the final boss.

Tennis Masters for the DS. Found this for like $1 in some store. Played the shit out of it.


Here's a funny one:

Revolution X for the SNES.



This game is undeniably a piece of garbage. However, I won a game of Bingo for $150 when I was like seven or so and this is the game I bought with the money (the other was Primal Rage, the dino fighting game).

I played this game a lot. Seriously, too much.
 

deuxhero

Arcane
Joined
Jul 30, 2007
Messages
11,328
Location
Flowery Land
Eternal Poison. Very unique tRPG with branching paths (though every one of the 3 characters has identical stages between the "important" ones and there are 3 paths, so you'll go through every possible stage unless you decide to repeat some of them) and strange monster catching mechanics. For some reason despite the developer being known for making tRPGs, it's the only tRPGs of theirs released in English (everything else was the action spinoffs to their games).
 

Severian Silk

Guest
Realms of Arkania HD

The HD is for "Hot damn!"

Also, I owned this game on the PS1.



Apparently it's a poorly known classic, but I didn't think it was that special.
 

MRY

Wormwood Studios
Developer
Joined
Aug 15, 2012
Messages
5,703
Location
California
Skyroads
skyroads.gif


This game, rather unbelievably, ate up as much of my time as a kid as X-Com. It's a masterpiece of design. Maybe? Gets a shout-out in Primordia.

Gladiator
2.png

My friends and I clocked hundreds of hours on this game. It is hard to explain exactly what it is -- in theory it was designed to be an army-management game, but in practice it was horrible as that, and godly as a hotseat Gauntlet-like game with a huge world, dozens of classes, RPG stat progression, and a goofy story. Truly among the greatest. That said, it always falls apart near the end because you need a cleric to survive, but once the cleric gains the raise-dead power, he levels at an exponential rate, as his raised dead have stats tied to his level and he levels as they kill enemies. Within a stage or two of him getting the power, he's the only character who can do anything, he's invincible, and the game is over.

The key-jamming caused by three players on the same keyboard led to retaliatory punches that left my arms bruised for days after any play session.

Dragonsphere
Dragonsphere_6.png

Fell in love with this when I played a shareware one-room demo, and then years later finally found the game. I haven't played it in recent years, and I know it had its flaws, but it's the rare serious fantasy adventure game, and it has some great moments.

Cyberdogs
cyberdogs2.gif

Another wonderful hot-seat multiplayer game with tons of levels and campaigns.

Hex Empire
hex-empire-03.jpg

Among the greatest turn-based strategy games ever. Or, anyway, among the best time-wasters.

Age of Fable
intro.jpg

A very weird web-based CYOA that is very pun heavy and surreal.
 

Jazz_

Arcane
Joined
Jun 13, 2016
Messages
1,069
Location
Sea of Ubiquity
Urban Terror: a standalone mod for QuakeIII that's basicly counter strike meets parkour. Probably the only game that never left my hard disk, even if I don't play it for ages I always return to it when I need my fps fix, when you get skilled you can kill people while styling on them, double jumping on walls/powersliding like it's a Jon Woo movie. It's got a very loyal community as well considering how old it is (the XX Nations Cup is about to take place, yeah it's that old), there are tons of fan made maps, some truly mindblowing in quality.
 
Last edited:

GarlandExCon

Arcane
Joined
May 19, 2014
Messages
6,957
GTA 1 and GTA 2. Both are great games that never got their deserved attention.





I almost added this to mine. I played the shit out of the original. I remember when I first found out about GTA III and that it was going to be "3D" I got so excited and thought "this is going to be huge!" I had no idea.

There used to be a website for GTA 1 where you could download vehicles and replace the existing ones in the game file. I replaced every single one of them in my version and it was a truly awesome experience.
 

GarlandExCon

Arcane
Joined
May 19, 2014
Messages
6,957
Exile Series

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Exile_(1995_video_game_series)

exile_shot.gif

http://www.spiderwebsoftware.com/exile3/exile3_shot1.html

This was a shareware series for Mac from the 90s. There's several games, Exile I: Escape from the Pitt, Exile II, Exile III, etc. I played them all but mostly Exile III. It's an RPG that is very much D&D. It features a top-down perspective and you control a party of heroes of various classes. There are items, quests, etc. and the game is MASSIVE in scale.

Subspace/Continuum

1436194689542474.jpg


I can't believe this game is over 20 years old.

This is the first MMOG I ever played. I started in the 90s and played off and on for years. I remember in 2014 at some point, after I got out of prison, I checked it out again and found it to be dying. There were barely any players left in some of the servers. That said I'd run into people that were like "I've been playing since 2002!" and I'd feel old as fuck. It was amazing to me that people who started then considered themselves veterans of the game when I'd been playing since the 90s.

This game was one you could play with a slow Internet connection back in the day. It was also 100% free!

Basically you log-on to different servers. The servers have different games, style of play, etc, but the look is basically the same, as are the ships for the most part. For example, some of the servers are just about killing other players (and the weapon fire rate differs). Some are about controlling a certain area of the game. The best, however, were the "flag capture" games where you'd be divided into teams and capture little glowing orbs called "flags." The idea was to drop them off in one of several mazes on the board, hiding them and defending against the other teams attacks while also taking any of their flags. Capture them all and survive the timer and your team won.

I recently found out the game has experienced a revival via Steam, which is awesome.

Realmz

Realmz.gif


https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Realmz

Realmz is similar to Exile. Both were published by Fantasoft Released in 1994 for Mac a Windows version was released in 1999. It's a lot like the Forgotten Realms D&D module, so much so I think Fantasoft was contacted by TSR over it and Fantasoft had to make changes.

I remember when I first played the game I kept dying. The idea that I couldn't fight whatever I wanted without first leveling hadn't occurred to me yet.

Factory

hqdefault.jpg


An old Mac shareware game that is a strategy game. You basically run a factory, building products down an assembly line. The products change and it gets a lot more challenging as you progress with much more to the process. If you fail to meet your quota of finished products for the day, you lose.

Simple, but so much fun.

Universal Soldiers

39405-Universal_Soldier_(USA,_Europe)-1459192791.png


This came out on the Genesis and is "based" on the Universal Soldiers movie... except it's not and thank God for that.

This game is fucking insane. It's like they shoved as much crazy shit as possible into it because they couldn't figure out how to make a game of of the movie otherwise. Wasps that attack you from nests? You can turn into a spiked ball at will? Don't remember that shit.

The game is FULL of crazy power ups including tons of insane fucking weapons. Oh and when you get them the game TELLS YOU WHAT THEY ARE (although I can't make out what the fuck it's saying). Also, there's a button combination that allows you to just go ape shit and turns the screen into chaos.

Oh and the soundtrack? Awesome.

Wiz N' Liz

lemmings.png

wiz-n-liz014.png

story.png

WizNLiz_Amiga_17.png

Who are these people!?
clock.png

start.png


Another Sega game. This game is beautifully weird. The music is beautiful and charming. The game play is fun. It has an interesting alchemy element where you mix fruits together to get things including unlocking some really weird/cool secrets and hidden mini-games. The bosses are weird and hilarious (i.e. The Freaky Flower) It is two player as well.

The graphics are gorgeous. They really set the mood and makes you feel like you're in a dream. The entire game is based at night.

The entire point of the game is you run through levels collecting rabbits and the rabbits product letters (and fruit and other things) and you collect the letters until you spell the word at the time. You have a time limit.

Dope Wars/Drug Wars

62196-DopeWars22.jpg


This game has been around since the 80s and there's a bunch of versions of this game now. One you can play here: https://gamegraveyard.net/drugwars/

The Dope Wars version (pictured above) for Windows is the best, IMO.

You basically buy and sell drugs and travel from city to city and try not to get busted. You can buy weapons and fight back. The idea is that you buy one drug at a low price in one location and then travel to another place where it's at a high price and flip it.

Super fun and addictive... like drugs!

The Helicopter Game


http://www.play-helicopter-game.com/

You glide a helicopter through a green maze with the push of a button. This game is insanely addictive and has been around for years.

Pizza Rush

This game is so obscure I couldn't find a screen shot for it. Basically in a top down view you drive a car through a neighborhood delivering pizza and making money. The thing is, and this is slightly retarded, you can't hit any other cars and you can't go around them so if you see one coming you better turn or put it in reverse.

IndyCar Racing

100578-indycar-racing-dos-screenshot-replay-camera.png


https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=whDLSPkZg2k

1994 game released by Papyrus. The graphics in its day were epic. It was innovative in that it had instant replay.

There was also a mode where you wouldn't take damage. I used to turn and run head on into the other games and watch them break apart. The tires would just bounce on the track.

Burning Rubber


hqdefault.jpg


What makes this Mac shareware game fun is that you can go insanely fast and all kinds of shit comes at you, from other cars, to oil spills and cops chasing you. If you master the reflexes required to do well with this game it's extremely satisfying.

Jurassic Park: Operation Genesis

playstation-50320-41364779503.jpg


https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jurassic_Park:_Operation_Genesis

Basically this is SimCity except you're building a new Jurassic Park. The game is awesome. One problem is that with the exception of the PC version (which is the ideal version because it's better and has fan made modifications) the console versions (PS2 & X-Box) are pretty expensive.

Rocket Knight Adventures

Rocket_Knight_Adventures.png


A side-scrolling platform game for Sega this is actually a pretty sought after game for collectors. The game play is fun, the soundtrack is good and the graphics are really beautiful.
 
Last edited:

HansDampf

Arcane
Joined
Dec 15, 2015
Messages
1,471
Universal Soldiers

39405-Universal_Soldier_(USA,_Europe)-1459192791.png


This came out on the Genesis and is "based" on the Universal Soldiers movie... except it's not and thank God for that.

This game is fucking insane. It's like they shoved as much crazy shit as possible into it because they couldn't figure out how to make a game of of the movie otherwise. Wasps that attack you from nests? You can turn into a spiked ball at will? Don't remember that shit.

The game is FULL of crazy power ups including tons of insane fucking weapons. Oh and when you get them the game TELLS YOU WHAT THEY ARE (although I can't make out what the fuck it's saying). Also, there's a button combination that allows you to just go ape shit and turns the screen into chaos.

Oh and the soundtrack? Awesome.

That looks like a Turrican clone (Amiga/C64).
turrican-v1-0-0092.png


There is also a good (and free) remake available here.
 

As an Amazon Associate, rpgcodex.net earns from qualifying purchases.
Back
Top Bottom