Really Obscure RPGs

[V_K]

You're not talking about Elysian Fields above, are you?

No, the game I'm thinking about was running in the same graphics mode as The Quest and had a very similar color palette. I tried looking through the games package on archive.org but didn't find it.

Dark Disciples and Dark Disciples II. They were both available as freeware, but the original website no longer exists. Now they're available on this abandonware site:
https://www.myabandonware.com/game/dark-disciples-43a
https://www.myabandonware.com/game/dark-disciples-2-43b

And also on this CRPG development blog (only Dark Disciples II):
http://ancient-architects.com/?page_id=225
Which also hosts two modules created with the game's editor, one made by the game's dev and one made by the guy running the blog:
http://ancient-architects.com/?page_id=117

Screenshots:

Spoiler

Excelsior Phase One and Excelsior Phase Two.
Decent Ultima clones that are still sold for a ridiculously high price at the devs' website.
http://www.excelsior-rpg.com/ex2.htm
Fun fact: the game is actually cheaper on itch.io than on the devs' own site, lol
https://excelsior-rpg.itch.io/excelsior-phase-two-lysandia

Shareware version is free to download and try out. Haven't tried it yet, but the screenshots look decent.

Spoiler

Both have long been present in the obscure indies thread
Excelsiors aren't terribly exciting games, like very simplified Ultimas.

 

[Kabas]

Yeah, their New Centurions game looks really cool due to its setting, but there's nothing about it anywhere. It's pretty much just gone.

A damn shame, really wanted to try this one. The same is for the similar looking Jewel of Arabia: Dreamers(pretty sure someone already posted it in this thread), though the thing that prevents me from trying the latter one is a microissue with an old mac emulator.
Which means that i couldn't try the new centurions even if i found it.
I will add my own despairing cheese man, if no one minds

 

[Kabas]

Nevermind, i found the link to the new centurions. Not sure if it works tho.
https://www.macintoshrepository.org/13482-the-new-centurions
Now, to deal with that emulator microissue

 

[makchanka]

Nevermind, i found the link to the new centurions. Not sure if it works tho.
https://www.macintoshrepository.org/13482-the-new-centurions
Now, to deal with that emulator microissue

There don't appear to be any videos of this game anywhere. All I turned up was a movie about George C. Scott white knighting and flipping out on racists with a billy club. You should do an LP.

 

[Max Edge]

Game from Czech. Hack'n'Slash with many classes, cute art style, swearing, and two different OST (Metal and Classical). Sadly, there is one problem - no mouse menu, everything is chosen by keyboard with really strange hot keys.

 

[JarlFrank]

So I recently discovered one of the most obscure game devs ever, apparently. Found an interesting-looking RPG on mobygames, googled it, after some searching found the website of the creator... and it turns out the guy has produced about 20 RPGs between the late 80s and mid 00s.

I present to you, the German game developer known as Motelsoft:

http://www.motelsoft.de/motelsoftfeng.html

All games freely downloadable as freeware. Atari ST games, DOS games, and Windows games.

Plenty of Dungeon Master clones like Seven Little Horrors:

Sandor:

Sandor 2:

Projekt Terra:

Darkstone Ritual:

Arcan:

Walls of Illusion:

Escape from Ragor:

Megrims Rache:

Darkside of the Sun Trilogy:

Trauma:

Darkstone:

Die Schwarzen Reiter:

The later games by Motelsoft aren't classic RPGs anymore, but FPS with stats, kinda like System Shock 2 and Deus Ex. Except that the controls are pretty terrible.

Acid Moon:

Trauma 3D:

Ocean City Trilogy:

Wrong Turn:

And yes... all of these games were primarily made by one guy. And those are only the RPGs. There are plenty of puzzle games, strategy games, and pure action games without stats among his catalogue. Essentially, this guy was cranking out games non-stop between 1987 and 2006.

 

[V_K]

Any of them good?

 

[JarlFrank]

The Dungeon Master clones seem decent enough, tried them out for a few minutes just to check.

The Deus Ex clones are... well, they're probably decent too but it takes a while to get used to their control scheme. I have only tried out the earliest of them though, maybe the later ones have a more reasonable control scheme than arrow keys to walk, DEL to jump, shift+DEL for a farther jump...

 

[rusty_shackleford]

And yes... all of these games were primarily made by one guy.

impressive tbh

 

[Lord_Potato]

It really is impressive. One man company, and so resourceful. Clive Blakemore, learn and despair!

JarlFrank, you may have won the thread with this finding. That is what I call really fucking obscure stuff.

 

[JarlFrank]

The majority of these games aren't even listed on Mobygames, haven't been on the cRPG addict's RPG master list until I told him about them (and that dude tries to be as comprehensive as possible), and aren't available anywhere other than the publisher's own website even though they were made officially freeware.

Good luck finding something more obscure! :D

 

[Beowulf]

I guess you have to create your own game to beat that.
On that subject, Realms Beyond update when?

 

[JarlFrank]

Soon. Next update will be EPIC! Trust me.

 

[V_K]

Good luck finding something more obscure! :D

Challenge accepted: http://www.dk-software.com/da2.html

I actually thought it wasn't online anymore. Guess I was wrong, and the dev actually updated the old games to modern systems.

 

[Grampy_Bone]

So I recently discovered one of the most obscure game devs ever, apparently.

Pure insanity. Who is this guy and why is he not our god?

 

[Lord_Potato]

And when do we get Motelsoft subforum?

 

[HeatEXTEND]

Soon. Next update will be EPIC! Trust me.

Spoiler

 

[Scroo]

Darkside of the Sun Trilogy:

And yes... all of these games were primarily made by one guy. And those are only the RPGs. There are plenty of puzzle games, strategy games, and pure action games without stats among his catalogue. Essentially, this guy was cranking out games non-stop between 1987 and 2006.

Amazing find Frank thanks so much, I will try out some games I really love old obscure RPGs lol.

Also the quoted screens... now that is a Lands of Lore 1 ripoff if I ever saw one

 

[JarlFrank]

So I recently discovered one of the most obscure game devs ever, apparently.

Pure insanity. Who is this guy and why is he not our god?

He also makes weird 3D comics:

 

[V_K]

Also the quoted screens... now that is a Lands of Lore 1 ripoff if I ever saw one

Lands of Lore and Realms of Arkania both... I'm sensing a theme here

 

[Citizen]

Also the quoted screens... now that is a Lands of Lore 1 ripoff if I ever saw one

Lands of Lore and Realms of Arkania both... I'm sensing a theme here

Darkside of Xeen Dark Sun

 

[Lord_Potato]

Ok, today I downloaded and tried some of the games from motelsoft site.

AcidMoon, Ocean City, Wrong Turn, Trauma 3d.

They are basically 3d shooters with terrible graphics, minimal sound and no intros (not even some flavor text, to give you some aim or context). The theme of the first two is science fiction/cyberpunk, of the third one - campy vampires, of the last one - horror. Plus, they are only in German. Not that there is lots of talking or lore anyway.

I could not run the most promising one, the Dark Side, on my laptop with windows xp. I guess I may have to give it one more try...

 

[JarlFrank]

I could not run the most promising one, the Dark Side, on my laptop with windows xp. I guess I may have to give it one more try...

Darkside of the Sun is for DOS, so try DOS Box.

 

[Baron Dupek]

Finally found the name, can't believe that I still remember that screenshot thread post (didn't post the name) in my lurking times (couldn't ask the poster itself cause he's long gone).

 

[Serus]

I could not run the most promising one, the Dark Side, on my laptop with windows xp. I guess I may have to give it one more try...

Darkside of the Sun is for DOS, so try DOS Box.

Are they all German-only ?