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What Are Your Hidden Gems?

Epsilon

Cipher
Joined
Jul 11, 2009
Messages
428
Hover

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This game came packed in with Windows 95, so I guess it's not that hidden, but no one ever talks about it. You basically compete against computer players and capture flags. In its day it was crazy fun.

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I was trying to remember the name of another game from around this time. It was a 3D game where you flew around a vast world and shot at alien ships. That's really all I can say about it other than it came packed in with the first computer I ever owned (which was an AST desktop with Windows 95 installed).
A modern version exists http://bzflag.org
The name of the game you can't remember can be any number of titles, but perhaps Terminal Velocity, Fury3 or Hellbender. Or even V2000. Though that came out in 98.
 
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GarlandExCon

Arcane
Joined
May 19, 2014
Messages
6,957
Hover

hover-01.png


This game came packed in with Windows 95, so I guess it's not that hidden, but no one ever talks about it. You basically compete against computer players and capture flags. In its day it was crazy fun.

------
I was trying to remember the name of another game from around this time. It was a 3D game where you flew around a vast world and shot at alien ships. That's really all I can say about it other than it came packed in with the first computer I ever owned (which was an AST desktop with Windows 95 installed).
A modern version exists http://bzflag.org
The name of the game you can't remember can be any number of titles, but perhaps Terminal Velocity, Fury3 or Hellbender. Or even V2000. Though that came out in 98.

It was Terminal Velocity! Thank you!

terminal_velocity_game_screenshot.png
 

CryptRat

Arcane
Developer
Joined
Sep 10, 2014
Messages
3,548
I love Wiz'n'Liz.

One game I still boot from time to time is Warlock's quest.
It's a 2D plateformer where you've got to collect some stuff spread over two floors.
The game is very short, hard, the controls are too rigid but the atmosphere is top notch and a lot of enemies and traps in the game are memorable, in particular the duel against another magician in the middle of the game.


Spherical was one of my favourite games as a child, the soundtrack is awesome but I haven't played it for a long time, I need to get back to it some day.
It's a puzzle plateformer, you need to create blocks to allow the ball to reach the "IN" block.
level.gif
dragon.gif

 

CryptRat

Arcane
Developer
Joined
Sep 10, 2014
Messages
3,548
I played a lot of Wizball too, but I don't think the two games are linked. According to wikipedia the follow-up to Wizball is Wizkid, which I never played.
 

the_shadow

Arcane
Joined
Dec 30, 2011
Messages
1,179
Another game I just remembered was "Requiem: Avenging Angel". It's a Quake-like FPS set in a (near) dystopian future that has some Biblical elements in it. As far as FPS shooting goes it's OKl, but you gain 'angelic' powers as you progress in the game which makes it a much more enjoyable experience. For example, you can turn enemies to salt, mind-control them, or even resurrect them to fight for you. The atmosphere is pretty good to (eg. you start off having to fight your way through Purgatory to reach Earth).

maxresdefault.jpg
 

Zed Duke of Banville

Dungeon Master
Patron
Joined
Oct 3, 2015
Messages
11,759
The Digital Antiquarian wrote an article abut Journey:
...
True to the Tolkien model to the last, Infocom planned to make Journey the first of a trilogy of games, the latter entries of which would likely have been written by other authors. Blank proposed starting on an untitled sort of narrative war game as his own next project, “a variant of traditional FRP [fantasy-role-playing] games in which the predominant activity is combat on the battlefield level, as opposed to the hand-to-hand level.” It would use the menu-driven Journey interface to “make a complex game simple to use and learn” and to “provide a narrative force to the unfolding of the war.” But events that followed shortly after the concurrent release and complete commercial failure of Journey and Shogun in March of 1989 put the kibosh on any further use of Journey‘s interface in any context.

And that’s a shame because its interface had huge potential to bridge the gap between the micromanagement entailed by a parser and the sweeping, unsatisfyingly arbitrary plot-branching of a Choose Your Own Adventure book. It’s only in the past decade or so that modern authors have returned to the middle ground first explored by Blank in Journey, constructing choice-based works that include a substantial degree of world modeling behind their text and a more sophisticated approach to interaction than a tangle of irrevocable hard branches. In the years since they began to do so, the quantity of choice-based works submitted to the annual Interactive Fiction Competition has come to rival or exceed those of more traditional parser-based games, and commercial developers like Inkle Studios have enjoyed some financial success with the model. While they provide a very different experience than a parser-based game, my own early engagement with Journey demonstrates how compelling games of this stripe can be on their own terms. And they’re certainly much more viable than traditional text adventures as popular propositions, being so much more accessible to the parser-loathing majority of players.

Unsatisfactory though it is as a game, Journey marks Infocom’s final mad flash of innovation — a flash of innovation so forward-thinking that it would take other developers working in the field of interactive narrative a good fifteen years to catch up to it. Perhaps, then, it’s not such a terrible final legacy after all for Marc Blank in his role as Infocom’s innovator-in-chief — a role he continued to play, as Journey so amply proves, right to the end.
 

Old One

Arcane
Joined
Jul 13, 2015
Messages
3,679
Location
The Great Underground Empire
Personally I didn't find Journey unsatisfying as a game, except that it's obviously the first part of a trilogy that never materialized so the story is unfinished. It is pretty unusual though, and it doesn't surprise me that a lot of people didn't see the appeal.
 

Invictus

Arcane
The Real Fanboy
Joined
Nov 3, 2013
Messages
2,789
Location
Mexico
Divinity: Original Sin 2
The Summoning was a pretty fucking good game with a very good storyline, fun gameplay, nice magic system and one of the first "100 hours of gameplay" games that didnt feel padded out or that it lost its focus on the last levels... too bad almost nobody remembers it and that it isnt available on GOG (Veil of Darkness too)
 

octavius

Arcane
Patron
Joined
Aug 4, 2007
Messages
19,183
Location
Bjørgvin
Personally I didn't find Journey unsatisfying as a game, except that it's obviously the first part of a trilogy that never materialized so the story is unfinished. It is pretty unusual though, and it doesn't surprise me that a lot of people didn't see the appeal.

I had much more patience for interactive novels (and Adventure games in general) back then, so I enjoyed Journey. But my party failed their quest because they had used some spell component(s) in the wrong place, which pissed me a bit off.

Another Adventure game I really liked, but which is forgotten today and thus a hidden gem, is Legend of the Sword.
230102-legend-of-the-sword-amiga-screenshot-entering-a-cave.png

The setting was rather generic, but it was a nice story, very nice and atmospheric graphics, logical puzzles (I only needed help from Datormagazinet with one puzzle) which meant I actually completed it, and it had some some RPG elements.
It was a minor hit, but seems to be totally forgotten today, and ignored by hard core Adventure game players on their blogs.
 

hajro

Arbiter
Joined
Nov 22, 2015
Messages
592
82d.jpg

Dis fucking game, take deus ex, serious sam, frog licking and eurojank and you got yourself a ride to :mixedemotions:



:troll:
 
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Old One

Arcane
Joined
Jul 13, 2015
Messages
3,679
Location
The Great Underground Empire
...my party failed their quest because they had used some spell component(s) in the wrong place, which pissed me a bit off.
It's funny you say that. The last time I played Journey, maybe eight or nine years ago, I remember used a RAM editor to give myself huge piles of all the components used in spellcasting. :)

Normally it is a factor you're always worried about. How much magic dust do I have left? Never enough.
 

pippin

Guest
EYE isn't a hidden gem, though, it's talked about constantly on the interwebs.
 
Repressed Homosexual
Joined
Mar 29, 2010
Messages
17,867
Location
Ottawa, Can.
Siralim 2, it is basically a rogue like Pokemon on steroids, extremely interesting turn based combat with monsters that all have unique feats, very addicting upgrade system... you could play it forever and it would always remain fun.
 

Melan

Arcane
Patron
Joined
Oct 20, 2012
Messages
6,602
Location
Civitas Quinque Ecclesiae, Hungary
PC RPG Website of the Year, 2015 Codex 2016 - The Age of Grimoire Make the Codex Great Again! Grab the Codex by the pussy Insert Title Here RPG Wokedex Strap Yourselves In Codex Year of the Donut Codex+ Now Streaming! I helped put crap in Monomyth
I consider Sid Meier's SimGolf one of the best tycoon games ever. It’s just so relaxing... I love it!

simgolf01.jpg
On a similar note, SimFarm is another relaxing game. You pant, protect and harvest crops, then sell them to buy more land and plant more crops, as well as farm machinery. You must provide irrigation and spray crops with the appropriate chemical to stop infestations. It has a winning strategy (plant almonds, which sell for sick amounts of cash), but you can disregard it and step up the challenge with lower-priced crops.
simfarm_1.gif

simfarm_3.gif

simfarm_4.gif


I am also a fan of Boppin, an independent puzzle game, where you control a triangular cartoon character to throw bouncing blocks at blocks of the same type to cancel them out and free the video game monsters contained within them. There are elevators, blocks you mustn't touch, refractors and a lot of devilish layouts. The game is huge, with 160 levels over four episodes, and a ton of tilesets. It features graphic violence (like your character blowing its brains out if they fail too many times), and Hunnybunz, a fluffy bunny end boss who wants to ban violent video games. It is great fun (a bit trial-and-error in places).

boppin2.gif

boppin3.gif
 

vrex7

Barely Literate
Joined
Feb 4, 2017
Messages
1
Stories a Path of Destinies. It released on major systems so IDK that it's a 'hidden gem' so much as something overlooked. It's an amazing indie game that I didn't see get much coverage.
 

boot

Prophet
Joined
Dec 20, 2015
Messages
1,016
Location
Bartow, FL
Never saw anyone mention this. Still get an itch to play sometimes


150413-Colosseum_-_Road_to_Freedom_(USA)-1.jpg



maxresdefault.jpg


A new gladiator, you start off fighting in slaughterhouse matches in some shithole arena somewhere. Eventually you work your way up to duels and historical reenactment in Rome's colosseum, leveling your martial styles and collecting gear from fallen enemies along the way. On the days you are not fighting you are training (through QTEs:)) at the gladiator school that owns you. As you increase in prowess you get more privileges, eventually you are allowed to keep your own slaves and sleep in a luxurious room.

80069.jpg
(C&c)

_-Colosseum-Road-to-Freedom-PS2-_.jpg


Game ends when you regain your freedom, either by purchasing it, completing the completely optional/breakable story quest, or simply donning your equipment and fighting your way to freedom through 100 soldiers (this was really hard). Combat was fun. kill enemies through environments, limb damage, bonus points for stylish fighting. Very robust system,I remember really brutal stuff, weapons and shields getting smashed out of men's hands, near instant decapitations, disarmed fighters scrambling for the weapons of dead allies.

ss_16.jpg
(Executing surrendered opponent for Caesar!)

The different types of arena matches kept it interesting, and there was an incentive for caution, as the game did not save between matches sometimes it was better if you went home rather than attempt the more difficult fights.

coloseeum%20road%20to%20freedom.jpg

(He didn't survive this)

Got bad reviews of course and no one remembers it.
 

Ash

Arcane
Joined
Oct 16, 2015
Messages
6,230
Hidden gems:

Chasm: The Rift (MS DOS) - Interesting Doom clone
Hogs of War (Windows, PS1) - Interesting turn-based Strategy game. A 3D worms game that isn't shit, basically. Sad the sequel was cancelled due to poor sales.
Blade (PS1) - underrated action game based on a comic. Got average reviews. I think it's awesome and replayed it not too long ago.
Blade: Severance of Darkness (Windows) - cool ARPG.
Grudge Warriors (Windows, PS1) - Bargain bin vehicular combat game. Perhaps not uite as good as the more well known Vigilante 8 and Twisted Metal Series, but still solid.
Drakkhen (Amiga, Atari ST) - Weird and wonderful turn-based RPG. Never did beat it, but I'm curious and may replay it.
G-Darius (PS1) - The only Shmup I've ever actually been into.

Forgotten gems:

Turok 1 & 2 (N64, Windows) - forgotten despite being excellent, hardcore as fuck shooters. NightDive brought them back recently but they're still never featured in people's top FPS lists or general discussions.
Nightmare Creatures (Windows, PS1, Saturn) - Action-adventure games used to be good ffs. None of this Batman Arkham garbage.
Tenchu: Stealth Assassins (PS1) - Again forgotten. Classic Stealth-action game.
 
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Whisky

The Solution
Joined
Feb 22, 2012
Messages
8,555
Location
Banjoville, British Columbia
Divinity: Original Sin Project: Eternity Torment: Tides of Numenera
I consider Sid Meier's SimGolf one of the best tycoon games ever. It’s just so relaxing... I love it!

simgolf01.jpg
On a similar note, SimFarm is another relaxing game. You pant, protect and harvest crops, then sell them to buy more land and plant more crops, as well as farm machinery. You must provide irrigation and spray crops with the appropriate chemical to stop infestations. It has a winning strategy (plant almonds, which sell for sick amounts of cash), but you can disregard it and step up the challenge with lower-priced crops.
simfarm_1.gif

simfarm_3.gif

simfarm_4.gif


I am also a fan of Boppin, an independent puzzle game, where you control a triangular cartoon character to throw bouncing blocks at blocks of the same type to cancel them out and free the video game monsters contained within them. There are elevators, blocks you mustn't touch, refractors and a lot of devilish layouts. The game is huge, with 160 levels over four episodes, and a ton of tilesets. It features graphic violence (like your character blowing its brains out if they fail too many times), and Hunnybunz, a fluffy bunny end boss who wants to ban violent video games. It is great fun (a bit trial-and-error in places).

boppin2.gif

boppin3.gif

Ah, Boppin I remember that. Too bad the creator turned out to be an unhinged loon and not in a good way.
 

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