Obscure Games

[Mortmal]

For strategy, I remember my brother really liked Z when he was a kid. Does Hugo's Horrific Adventure count as obscure? Also, I don't see Dark Sun in your games folder. Not obscure, but worth remedying.

My bad, all my old DOS and such games are in my Oldgames and Dosbox folders, and most of my adventure games are in my ScummVM folder. Every Lucas Arts game, Ultimas, Dark Sun, Eye of the Beholder, Might & Magics, and so on and so forth.

Keep 'em coming guys, adding everything to my list. King of Dragon Pass is one I'm definitely going for.

Dos box is not the only way to go, in fact anything before 91(milestone is wing commander 2) was considerably superior on the amiga, it was way ahead, you cant compare!Just install winUAE ,and download an amiga 500 rom, its really user friendly.
Even mutiplatforms ports were better ,the music was superb. Maybe you never owned one in this case you have a lot to catch up:
http://www.lemonamiga.com/
I suggest the awesome drakhen game, and Blackcrypt wich is only on the amiga, then if you like dungeon master type game, eye of the beholder, Abandonned places(1,2)are great clone too, the author gave them for free ,he only request a little mail to tell him you liked the game.
Well ...on amiga its really the tip of the iceberg, i could write 300 pages about them and just scratch the subject.

I dont know how much punishment you can endure, or what kind of graphics are too dated for you .Heres my first rpg , well action rpg on the the C64, times of lore, it s like ultima lite:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GxEndZNKAjg
Needless to say C64 had gems as well and very obscure rpgs too:
mandragore , demon's winter, bard's atle, pool of radiance (well not so obscure).

 

[BLOBERT]

DAMAGE THE SADISTIC BUTCHERING OF HUMANITY

FOR THE AMIGA LOTS OF FUN

 

[JarlFrank]

If you wanna go for King of Dragon Pass, finding a torrent is your best bet since the developers are rather... unresponsive, even if you email them about the game. If you can't find a working torrent anywhere, I can invite you to UG.

 

[Apollion]

As for obscure rpgs: check out this site has many good ones. Also, nice Spiderweb Software collection. I approve

Yeah I buy them as I play them, so far I own the first three Avernums, Nethergate, and the first Geneforge. The rest are for the moment demo's. Can't wait to check out his upcoming game.

I've downloaded King of Dragon Pass , figured if I liked it enough I'd attempt to buy it later. So far so good, really like the art style and setting, but without a tutorial or manual I got lost pretty fast. Honestly I have no idea what the goal of the game is, added a trickster to my "ring" immediately at the behest of one of my advisers and his magic immediately got me in to trouble. I'm now nearly out of cows and seemingly surrounded by pissed off tribes. Thinking of starting a new game, that or cow raid madness.

 

[spectre]

Seein' that your game dir looks a bit like mine, here's a bunch:

Evil Genius - it's a Dungeon Keeper clone, does certain things better, but is also slightly off at times. No longer fantasy themed, this time it is a James Bond spoof. (If you want moar in the same vein, there is also Ghost Master, but i find the gameplay inferior)

Darklands - not sure if it really qualifies as "obscure". So long as you're not a grafix whore (but to be honest, it aged pretty well), the atmosphere is great, it has one of the better character creation systems, and it playes pretty damn well (if only the alchemy feels broken at times.

Battle Bugs - an oldie strategy game (well, more of a puzzle game actually), if you don't mind the cartoony bug graphics, personally it's a part of its charm.

Dungeon Master - one of my favourite oldie dungeon crawlers. I really dig the magic system.

 

[Heresiarch]

BLOODNET: Awesome cyberpunk RPG/ADV with vampires.

 

[Castanova]

I swear if I hear Planescape Torment I'm gonna bust a nut

Your usage of this colloquialism is amusingly incorrect.


As for obscure PC games, I can't say I have any suggestions off the top of my head. However, if you haven't yet explored the world of board games then I would suggest that (Power Grid, Puerto Rico, Neuroshima Hex, etc.) because they're typically more fun than video games anyway, assuming you have flesh and blood friends.

 

[spectre]

I swear if I hear Planescape Torment I'm gonna bust a nut

Your usage of this colloquialism is amusingly incorrect.

Maybe he's got a condition.

 

[Zed]

I swear if I hear Planescape Torment I'm gonna bust a nut

Your usage of this colloquialism is amusingly incorrect.

Maybe he's got a condition.

 

[Apollion]

I swear if I hear Planescape Torment I'm gonna bust a nut

Your usage of this colloquialism is amusingly incorrect.

No, I used it correctly.

http://www.urbandictionary.com/define.p ... bust-a-nut

That picture is great, did you take the time to make that just now or what?

 

[oscar]

Gamefags to the rescue!

Some personal KODP tips(though I'm pretty bad with save-scumming in it due to the randomness of the game). When you encounter the nearby duck-people, demand yearly food from them. Getting a good food surplus is important because it allows you to field lots of weaponthanes (who are your 'professional' warriors who don't help out with the harvest). And despite what your advisors say, you can't have enough of them. In addition if you run low on food you'll be forced to slaughter your herds (or make risky raids for plundered food). So put lots of points during Sacred Time into crops and herds.

When your number of thanes is decent (18+) use them to cattle raid. Bigger groups are more likely to be spotted (what means a battle breaks out between the raiders and the patrolling sentries) so I generally go for smaller, all-thane groups of raiders rather then a large, footman-including force. Cattle raids are also useful as if you don't raid every now and then your battle magic (allocated during Sacred Time) stops working. Cattle raids are counted as raids for this purpose.

Make sure you check your agriculture screen every now and then to see that you have enough pasture for your herds. As land is quite difficult to capture (enemy clan has to be on the verge of destruction for it to really work), I recommend starting out with a lot on creation.

When you 'learn details about a new myth" there is a little black symbol you can push on the myth screen to read them (though often several options work during heroquests).

There is tons of stuff to learn (mostly through trial and error), but hey that's part of the fun of leading a clan. It's one of those games you just have to play quite a bit to understand how things work.[/url]

 

[Castanova]

I swear if I hear Planescape Torment I'm gonna bust a nut

Your usage of this colloquialism is amusingly incorrect.

No, I used it correctly.

http://www.urbandictionary.com/define.p ... bust-a-nut

The overwhelming number of thumbs downs in your link shows the "anger" definition is not really accepted. Do you really want people to think you're going to jizz your pants the next time someone mentions PST?

 

[Apollion]

The overwhelming number of thumbs downs in your link shows the "anger" definition is not really accepted. Do you really want people to think you're going to jizz your pants the next time someone mentions PST?

Yes, I'll be sure to set aside some time later and think that over.

 

[mikaelis]

Pathologic - sort of niche game, though recognized here in the codex. Hard to qualify to any genre. Very unique. Translation is pretty much butchered, but does not take everything from the overal impression.

Boiling Point: Road to Hell (aka Xenus) and White Gold (aka Xenus 2) - again, not so unique, but slightly forgotten. Second is quite obscure though. But, you know it already as you mentioned Precursors.

Hard to be a God - never played that one, but I am thinking about acquiring it. Basically cRPG with shitty combat (so they say) and rather good story (so they say) in unique stting (modern technology meets medieval times + magic) based on Strugatski's book with the same title.

 

[Sceptic]

Hard to be a God - never played that one, but I am thinking about acquiring it. Basically cRPG with shitty combat (so they say) and rather good story (so they say) in unique stting (modern technology meets medieval times + magic) based on Strugatski's book with the same title.

It's a direct sequel of the book actually - very weird because, if you have read the book, most of the plot will be known to you but not your PC. Combat isn't that bad, it has some quirks but you quickly get used to them. It's also very, very fast, and there are several ways to avoid a lot of the fighting (disguises FTW). Hint: light weapon styles are by FAR the best, followed by medium. Setting is pretty unique, very faithful to the book in some ways, not so much in others, overall quite good, grim without being grimdark. Translation is fucking awful, grammatical and spelling mistakes abound. Worth torrenting.

 

[Apollion]

Pathologic - sort of niche game, though recognized here in the codex. Hard to qualify to any genre. Very unique. Translation is pretty much butchered, but does not take everything from the overal impression.

Boiling Point: Road to Hell (aka Xenus) and White Gold (aka Xenus 2) - again, not so unique, but slightly forgotten. Second is quite obscure though. But, you know it already as you mentioned Precursors.

Hard to be a God - never played that one, but I am thinking about acquiring it. Basically cRPG with shitty combat (so they say) and rather good story (so they say) in unique stting (modern technology meets medieval times + magic) based on Strugatski's book with the same title.

Yeah I thought about White Gold, I'll probably download it when and if I ever complete the Precursors. All I've heard about Boiling Point isn't good, there no reason not to torrent it and try it out though I guess.

I'd never heard of Hard to be a God, looks pretty cool.

Found a few myself, though they aren't for the PC. Anyone heard of the Kings Field series? They're PS1 games, Kings Field 1 & 2, and Shadow Tower. If you emulate they're worth a look at, solid first person dungeon crawls.

 

[spectre]

The problem wih Boiling Point was the general bugginess IIRC.
And the overall lack of accessibility, streamlining and all that nextgen shite.

Also, good luck with finding white gold anywhere, last time I checked, always not enough seeds. And you will need the transated game files, as the publisher couldn't be arsed to translate it from cyrillic. They're googled quite easily, though.

 

[M_I_C_K_E_Y_M_O_U_S_E]

D.

I don't know what it is, some kind of choose your own adventure type movie/game for PS/DOS.

Played it about 15 years ago and I don't know why I remember it.

 

[JarlFrank]

I read mention of Pathologic, and The Void is another artsy game by the same company which is very niche and weird and basically just what the fuck is this i dont even in all aspects.

And while we're at seriously fuck up settings, Zeno Clash is a good brawler in a very unique and strange fantasy setting. Great artstyle. Check it out.

 

[mikaelis]

For something different (and again I never played it but I am leaning towards trying it at least):

Age of Pirates 2: City of Abandoned Ships + Combined Mod 3.1.5 + mod fixing officers reputation. I have heard it is quite ok with mentioned mods, if somewhat difficult and unforgiving. Basically, Pirates mixed with cRPG aspects (development of character and stats). Plus you can walk around the world and fight/take quests and not only sail.

Finally if you are into Frontier-like space games:

Evochron Mercenaries - very recent release (September 2010). Indie space game, with trading, combat, Newtonian physics, seamless landing on the planets and fuckloads more. Surprisingly nice graphic for indie release. And only 220 mb of data or so! I spent many hours into X game series (paricularly X2), and this looks like something I may try next in this genre.

 

[PorkaMorka]

Legend of Cao Cao
Solid PC strategy game, not released in English, but now available through fan translation.

http://the-scholars.com/viewtopic.php?t=18359

 

[Apollion]

Age of Pirates 2: City of Abandoned Ships + Combined Mod 3.1.5 + mod fixing officers reputation. I have heard it is quite ok with mentioned mods, if somewhat difficult and unforgiving. Basically, Pirates mixed with cRPG aspects (development of character and stats). Plus you can walk around the world and fight/take quests and not only sail.

I've been a huge fan of the series since playing Caribbean Tales years back, the whole series is clunky and buggy beyond belief, but oddly addictive. I'm not embarrassed to say I have a semi obsession with sailing/pirate games, Sid Meier's Pirates! and Uncharted Waters: New Horizons are two of my favorites. If you've never heard of the later check it out, the snes version is a bit better imho.

 

[Dyskolos]

Omikron: The nomad soul - pretty good adventure game set in a world somewhat reminiscent of Bladerunner. Features the unique honor of design input, music, and cameos by David Bowie.

You may already know of Sanitarium but if not its definitely worth it if you like adventure games. Great atmosphere and, aside from the premise, great original storyline. I think someone did a Let's Play of it a while back if you want a preview

 

[fastjack]

re

a game that looks interesting but i can't vouch for is a strategy game called Theocracy. It sounds very interesting but i cant find it anywhere, im really surprised ive never heard of it before. it is a turn-based & real-time strategy game set in meso-america wherein you must build your empire and prepare for the spanish to arrive in 100 years. it was released in 2000 by the guys who made perihelion

info: http://www.mobygames.com/game/windows/theocracy