Do you know some obscure 1990's PC games?

[houston]

I don't know if it can be considered "obscure" in good conscious now that the YouTube series "Ross' Game Dungeon" has covered it, but "NYET III: Revenge of The Stones" is a great lesser-known DOS game. It's the sequel to this series of two German-developed, bare-bones, text-mode DOS Tetris clones, but they really changed things up in this entry. This time around, you try to beat 126 challenge levels where you attempt to meet some victory condition while the game throws unfair, oftentimes unreplicated level gimmicks at you to halt your progress. For each level beaten you earn an in-game currency which you can use to purchase items (such as saves, which allow you to push the button once for each one) that you'll often need to defeat some of those gimmicks. And there's this sick SoundBlaster music the whole way through covering a bunch of well-known Russian cultural songs which aren't Troika or Korobeiniki which is great because fuck those songs.

 

The licensed version of the game isn't currently in exoDOS or any of those sets, it's only available as a unpacked game install over at https://sites.google.com/nyettetris (or... it was. when did that happen?) where you have to run an executable to clear the leaderboard or else the game will crash every time it attempts to show it.

 

In light of the game disappearing from its lone source on the Internet, I guess I'll repost it right here. The leaderboard is already cleared for you so you won't have to use that workaround, and I got rid of the included dosbox executable because that's just patronising. https://mega.nz/folder/U9MGgQbT#rhze8E7ubeDPx416SKn7tg

Nyet III - Revenge of the Stones.7z

 

Edit: Remember to run the "Install" executable to configure your controls and set your preferred sound driver!

Edited October 22, 2023 by houston

[Hellektronic]

Shooters? Well, Powerslave, The Hidden Below, XS. Depending on how knowledgeable you are, there's also Blood and Rise of the Triad. The list goes on, but several have already been mentioned so I'll leave those out.

Some other interesting miscellaneous ones with a more comedic, cartoon direction are Day of the Tentacle, Incredible Toon Machine, Arcade America, and Battle Beast.

Edited October 22, 2023 by Hellektronic

[Maes]

On 9/25/2023 at 4:07 PM, ETTiNGRiNDER said:

Stalker.

 

No, not that S.T.A.L.K.E.R.  This Stalker, often differentiated as "Path of Fire" after the title of its shareware episode.

 

 

Huh. Totally not a ripoff of Ralf from Ikari Warriors/King of Fighters...

 

[EraserheadBaby]

Freddy Pharkas: Frontier Pharmacist

 

I don't know if it's obscure, but I never hear people talk about it.  It's a Sierra point n' click adventure game from the golden era.  Insensitive adult humor.  I remember it being pretty good. 

https://www.gog.com/en/game/freddy_pharkas_frontier_pharmacist

 

Edited November 20, 2023 by EraserheadBaby

[elborbahquarama]

gadget: past as future, noctis and amulets & armor are some of my favorites ever

i also love games such as marathon infinity and marathon 2, ultima 7 or zzt that a lot of person seem to have heard about but at the same time nobody seems to be really interested in playing or talk about

edit: i just thought about operation: inner space which is another one i like a lot

Edited November 21, 2023 by elborbahquarama

[Merry Widow]

Don't remember the name of this, but something about the outlines of a body appearing on a bed. The longer you look at it, the more uncomfortable you feel. It was interesting. Hope this is the right place to put this.

[Artman2004]

Abuse (1996), a side-scroller shooter where you fight not-xenomorphs in a prison filled with deadly traps. 

 

[BeachThunder]

Abuse is so good...the game, that is...

[Tetzlaff]

Yes, enjoyed it as well. Similar atmosphere as in Quake 2, I really like that style. Never finished Abuse though.

[ETTiNGRiNDER]

I was just reminded that Freaks! exists, and while I'm pretty sure I've mentioned it on these forums before, it doesn't appear to have been in this thread, so have it again.

 

Weird proto-FPS that's very akin to Catacomb Abyss/Armageddon/Apocalypse in the vibe it has, but in VGA, you have a gun instead of fireballs (excuse me, Magick Missiles), and the engine has a weird quirk where, although you have free movement instead of being tile-locked like in a Dungeon Master style game, you can only rotate at 90-degree angles.  I suspect the devs just couldn't figure out how to program the renderer to handle arbitrary player angles, threw their hands up and said "good enough".

 

Would I call it a good game?  Probably not, even the Catacomb A* games might be better and those are primitive and rough in and of themselves, but I would say it's kind of interesting and if Catacomb turns you on it might be something of a something-similar fix for you.  It's also free now.

 

https://triptico.com/software/freaks.html

Edited December 6, 2023 by ETTiNGRiNDER

[Vermil]

The author also hosts a remake: https://triptico.com/software/fr2002.html

 

Apparently it allows full turning and such.

Edited December 6, 2023 by Vermil

[Halfblind]

This year I watched every Sega Saturn video from the Virtual Gamming Library YouTube channel and there was one game that sparked my interest. That game is AMOK and I later found out that I was also released for DOS and Windows. The DOS/Windows version allows you to customize your controls so that you can play it closer to a modern shooter game. You can assign WASD to move and the arrow keys to turn. The interesting thing about the game is that it used voxels for its terrain, 3D models for your mech and enemies and 2D sprites for decoration. It's really interesting game if you ask me.

 

 

[SealSpace]

On 10/21/2023 at 11:22 PM, Hellektronic said:

Shooters? Well, Powerslave, The Hidden Below, XS. Depending on how knowledgeable you are, there's also Blood and Rise of the Triad. The list goes on, but several have already been mentioned so I'll leave those out.

Some other interesting miscellaneous ones with a more comedic, cartoon direction are Day of the Tentacle, Incredible Toon Machine, Arcade America, and Battle Beast.

I believe while by no means as iconic or mainstream as Doom or Duke, Blood and Rise of the Triad are both pretty fairly well-known in the Boomer Shooter community already. Rise of the Triad are by no means all that obscure to Apogee/3D Realms fans. And the fact that RoTT recently got a remaster with new content certainly helps.

 

And while Blood as a franchise seems pretty much dead at this point and have never gotten as far as Duke or even Shadow Warrior or RoTT, it's still fondly remembered as one of the most acclaimed Build engine games.  

 

I think Blood and RoTT would only be obscure to gamers who know nothing about FPS games let alone retro ones or people who haven't been exposed to the Samsara Doom mod methinks. 

 

[SealSpace]

On 12/5/2023 at 9:23 PM, ETTiNGRiNDER said:

I was just reminded that Freaks! exists, and while I'm pretty sure I've mentioned it on these forums before, it doesn't appear to have been in this thread, so have it again.

 

Weird proto-FPS that's very akin to Catacomb Abyss/Armageddon/Apocalypse in the vibe it has, but in VGA, you have a gun instead of fireballs (excuse me, Magick Missiles), and the engine has a weird quirk where, although you have free movement instead of being tile-locked like in a Dungeon Master style game, you can only rotate at 90-degree angles.  I suspect the devs just couldn't figure out how to program the renderer to handle arbitrary player angles, threw their hands up and said "good enough".

 

Would I call it a good game?  Probably not, even the Catacomb A* games might be better and those are primitive and rough in and of themselves, but I would say it's kind of interesting and if Catacomb turns you on it might be something of a something-similar fix for you.  It's also free now.

 

https://triptico.com/software/freaks.html

Okay so a Latin American version of Catacomb 3D?

 

Noice.

Edited December 8, 2023 by SealSpace

[Panzermann11]

War of the Worlds (1998): This came to my mind when I was watching War of the Servers, a Garry's Mod parody of War of the Worlds.

 

There's also a WOTW game released on 1999 for the PS1 aswell, but it's a way different game than the PC version.

Edited January 5, 2024 by Panzermann11

[Wadmodder Shalton]

Duke Screw'Em 38DD - an adult game parody of Duke Nukem 3D released in 1997 that used the Pie in the Sky engine that's infamous for being terrible. In otherwords, it's Duke Nukem 3D but it's a completely different low-budget game.

[Aaron Blain]

Mordor: The Depths of Dejenol

 

 

[MrFlibble]

On 1/5/2024 at 11:22 PM, Wadmodder Shalton said:

the Pie in the Sky engine that's infamous for having been used by lots of people to produce terrible games, but is actually pretty good in itself and a few of the games running on it are very decent at the least

FIFY

[ETTiNGRiNDER]

@MrFlibble

Any recommendations?  I've played (one of?) the Santa/Christmas ones and the Chemical Warfare one that's probably one of the notch-above entries.  A couple others that weren't as memorable in either an outstandingly good or bad way.  It's an interesting engine that, in its time, offered some features that were rather unique, and if I'd had a full copy at the right time in my life I probably would've enjoyed messing around with it, though I'm not sure how worthwhile I'd find it to invest any effort into now.

[Asphalt]

On 1/9/2024 at 7:22 PM, ETTiNGRiNDER said:

@MrFlibble

Any recommendations?  I've played (one of?) the Santa/Christmas ones and the Chemical Warfare one that's probably one of the notch-above entries.  A couple others that weren't as memorable in either an outstandingly good or bad way.  It's an interesting engine that, in its time, offered some features that were rather unique, and if I'd had a full copy at the right time in my life I probably would've enjoyed messing around with it, though I'm not sure how worthwhile I'd find it to invest any effort into now.

 

You probably know it already, but I personally always liked Terminal Terror a lot. It is the "sequel" to Lethal Tender, and the second official game released by the Game Creation System company that made the engine. It is about a counter-terrorism operation that takes place in an airport. It is much better balanced than the first game, and had some improvements in graphics and gameplay, in the form of better constructed missions, where you had to talk to a lot of NPCs to gain items and information. In its own way it was an amazingly modern game, almost "open world" in the sense that you could approach the mission in many different ways, take different paths to reach the goal, and you had to actively use your inventory to do things and gain access to otherwise unexplorable areas, like using gas masks and fire extinguishers.

 

I never finished it, but I remember the atmosphere of it being very cool, in spite of all the limitations. It deserved better.

[MrFlibble]

On 1/9/2024 at 9:22 PM, ETTiNGRiNDER said:

Any recommendations?  I've played (one of?) the Santa/Christmas ones and the Chemical Warfare one that's probably one of the notch-above entries.

Those were the ones I'd recommend for certain, also the original Industrial Killers is neat as well.

 

There are also several five-starred games listed here, but YMMV. Continuum is probably worth a look as it does some more adventur-y and less shoot-y things, but I haven't tried going very far there.

[DoomGuy999]

How obscure is descent and descent ii?

[Murdoch]

2 hours ago, DoomGuy999 said:

How obscure is descent and descent ii?

 

Not well-known in the way Doom, Quake and Unreal are, but it would be stretching to call them obscure. They were quite well documented in the gaming press at the time.

[beast]

4 hours ago, DoomGuy999 said:

How obscure is descent and descent ii?

Quote

VentureBeat estimated in 2015 that the actual sales figure of the original was as high as 25 million copies ^[1]

 

Not obscure enough I would imagine? Great game though!

[Tetzlaff]

Rule of thumb: if there are games described as a spiritual successor to your game, and it also spawned it's own subgenre, it isn't obscure.

[houston]

I don't know, I think the 2002 game Sexy Hiking could probably still be considered perfectly obscure.

[Wadmodder Shalton]

Aquarium (AKA Theme Aquarium) - a simulation game developed by Tose and published by Electronic Arts, originally released in 1998 on the PS1 exclusively in Japan and later ported to PC exclusively in Europe in 2000.

This was the only game in the Theme series of games that Bullfrog Productions didn't have any involvement with.

[taufan99]

On 12/6/2023 at 9:23 AM, ETTiNGRiNDER said:

I was just reminded that Freaks! exists, and while I'm pretty sure I've mentioned it on these forums before, it doesn't appear to have been in this thread, so have it again.

 

Weird proto-FPS that's very akin to Catacomb Abyss/Armageddon/Apocalypse in the vibe it has, but in VGA, you have a gun instead of fireballs (excuse me, Magick Missiles), and the engine has a weird quirk where, although you have free movement instead of being tile-locked like in a Dungeon Master style game, you can only rotate at 90-degree angles.  I suspect the devs just couldn't figure out how to program the renderer to handle arbitrary player angles, threw their hands up and said "good enough".

 

Would I call it a good game?  Probably not, even the Catacomb A* games might be better and those are primitive and rough in and of themselves, but I would say it's kind of interesting and if Catacomb turns you on it might be something of a something-similar fix for you.  It's also free now.

 

https://triptico.com/software/freaks.html

I like how it also has at least an underwater section, something you wouldn't hear about from early- to mid-90's dungeon explorers/FPS games. Gotta try this once I get the chance to.

[Doom64guy]

-doublepost

Edited March 25, 2024 by Doom64guy

[Doom64guy]

-wrong post

Edited March 25, 2024 by Doom64guy