Do you know some obscure 1990's PC games?

[Wadmodder Shalton]

Oh, anybody here remembered the old Microsoft Office Easter egg mini-games included in Office 95, 97 & 2000?

 

These were as follows:

Hall of Tortured Souls - An Easter egg game from Excel 95, featuring a DOOM-like styled engine.

Flight Simulation - An Easter egg game from Excel 97, mimicking the Microsoft Flight Simulator series.

Word 97 Pinball - An Easter egg game from the Word 97 SR-1 release, being a very primitive Pinball game.

Catch the Mail! - An Easter egg game from Outlook 2000, where you collect envelopes with the names of the Outlook 2000 Development Team.

Dev Hunter - An Easter egg game from Excel 2000, being a very primitive 3D clone of the Arcade game Spyhunter.

Magic 8-ball - Not a game at all, but a cool Easter egg present in Access 97 & 2000 that answers a question when clicked.

 

Here's a playlist of these games that I've made a while ago to give you an idea:

There hasn't been that many Easter egg games in many software products since the early-2000s, with only freeware & open-source software continuing to do it to some extent.

Edited June 18, 2021 by Wadmodder Shalton

[Arrowhead]

I would consider Demonstar an obscure game. Great shmup from '97 w/ an amazing and vibrant soundtrack from none other than Bobby Prince.

 

Definitely not to be missed. You can download it for free, (the shareware version) or buy the game from here:

 

https://www.mking.com/demonstar_game.html

 

Super super fun game. Amazing boss battles, fair gameplay. I have nearly no complaints...

 

Apologies if someone's already mentioned this... :P

[Azuris]

I have a "Game" called Interview on the Commodore 64.

The C64 is asking you Questions and it is using your Answers to Response and make new Questions.

It is quite impressive for that Time, even if it is not perfect.

 

I exploited it and convicted the C64 for murder :>

It just searches for keywords were it copies your Answers and rearanges them to new ones.

 

It asks you: "What did you do last Weekend?".

- " I killed my Wife and went to the Woods to hide her Corpses."

And it responded:" What a surprise! I also killed my Wife and went to the Woods to hide her Corpses!".

 

"What is your favourite Hobby?"

- "I like to decapitade my Enemies and to play Football with their Heads."

"Oh, that is also my favourite Hobby!

How does it come that you like to decapitade my Enemies and to play Football with their Heads?"

 

(have some Fotos on my Drive somewhere of it haha)

 

But you have to be kindly and have a bit of a Conversation to get to these Points.

If you are rude it quits the Conversation.

 

I haven't found any Copy of it in the Internet.

The Version i have is in German.

 

If someone has a link to it, i would be very glad :)
 

[Wadmodder Shalton]

Paperboy II

This was a home console & computer exclusive sequel to the Arcade game Paperboy, developed by Tengen & published by Mindscape for the Amiga, Amstrad CPC, Atari ST, ZX Spectrum, MS-DOS for home computers. On the console side, it was released on NES, SNES, Genesis, Game Boy & Game Gear. These releases date between 1991 to 1992.

[MrFlibble]

On 6/18/2021 at 2:09 AM, Wadmodder Shalton said:

Oh, anybody here remembered the old Microsoft Office Easter egg mini-games included in Office 95, 97 & 2000?

 

These were as follows:

Hall of Tortured Souls - An Easter egg game from Excel 95, featuring a DOOM-like styled engine.

I remember that! Sometime around late 90s or even early 2000s, I read about these Easter eggs in a short-lived local newspaper about computers and software. I still happened to have Office 95 on my old PC so I followed the instructions to run the Hall of Tortured Souls (I didn't remember it being called that but nevermind) Easter egg. I don't think I actually managed to pass the chasm into the hall with dev photos, or maybe I'm confusing things.

 

UPD: I just watched your video, man it's so nostalgic. Modern software has become so utilitarian there's no magic left.

Edited June 21, 2021 by MrFlibble

[Wadmodder Shalton]

4 minutes ago, MrFlibble said:

UPD: I just watched your video, man it's so nostalgic. Modern software has become so utilitarian there's no magic left.

I didn't make these videos. It's just a playlist I've made.

[Wadmodder Shalton]

Links Extreme.

 

A PC golf game developed by Access Software released in 1999. The game had many mixed reviews, mostly for the lack of variety of golf courses and other stuff.

[Wadmodder Shalton]

Also, has anyone ever seen those videos of the Microsoft Interactive CD Sampler software bundled with the Windows 95, 98, 98SE & ME CD-ROMs that contains previews or trailers of Microsoft PC games from the mid to late 1990s you've probably never heard of? If not, here's a video compilation of those Microsoft CD Sampler videos:

If you know or heard of these titles or not, feel free to comment about it.

Edited January 4, 2022 by Wadmodder Shalton

[Wadmodder Shalton]

The Maxis Sim games made between 1990 to 1998, basically during the SimCity Classic & 2000 era, before SimCity 3000 was released.

 

These include the following titles:

 

SimEarth

SimAnt

SimLife

SimRefinery

SimFarm

SimTower

SimHealth

SimTown

SimCopter

SimPark

SimTunes

SimGolf

Streets of SimCity

SimSafari

 

Those are the titles from the Maxis Sim series from the early to late 1990s that are widely known.

[Jello]

45 minutes ago, Wadmodder Shalton said:

SimEarth

SimAnt

SimLife

SimRefinery

SimFarm

SimTower

SimHealth

SimTown

SimCopter

SimPark

SimTunes

SimGolf

Streets of SimCity

SimSafari

I always poked Gaia in the eye. I could be a little shit. I still loved that game though, although I think I only achieved exodus one or two times. I was too busy trying to destroy the world usually. It was easier. My brother was great at it though. Now I feel like playing it again. I don't believe I played any of the others, aside from SimCity of course, although I do faintly recall renting SimAnt at one point. And I was aware of quite a few of them, I was just never really interested in things like SimFarm or SimGolf.

[TheMagicMushroomMan]

On 6/22/2021 at 12:02 AM, Wadmodder Shalton said:

Also, has anyone ever seen those videos of the Microsoft Interactive CD Sampler software bundled with the Windows 95, 98, 98SE & ME CD-ROMs that contains previews or trailers of Microsoft PC games from the mid to late 1990s you've probably never heard of? If not, here's a video compilation of those Microsoft CD Sampler videos:

If you know or heard of these titles or not, feel free to comment about it.

I had Microsoft Pinball Arcade. The Haunted House table was awesome.

 

 

I like the trailer for the joystick:

 

"FORCE  FORCE  FORCE FORCE

    FORCE    FORCE  FORCE FORCE FORCE

 FORCE  FORCE   FORCE       FORCE   FORCE

*flashing lights* *gears turning* *flashing lights*

GAMING     GAMING GAMING    GAMING  GAMING

GAMING GAMING GAMING    GAMING

        GAMING   GAMING       GAMING GAMING"

Edited June 26, 2021 by TheMagicMushroomMan

[Jello]

13 minutes ago, TheMagicMushroomMan said:

I had Microsoft Pinball Arcade. The Haunted House table was awesome.

 

 

I like the trailer for the joystick:

 

"FORCE  FORCE  FORCE FORCE

    FORCE    FORCE  FORCE FORCE FORCE

 FORCE  FORCE   FORCE       FORCE   FORCE

*flashing lights* *gears turning* *flashing lights*

GAMING     GAMING GAMING    GAMING  GAMING

GAMING GAMING GAMING    GAMING

        GAMING   GAMING       GAMING GAMING"

Oh I love old videogame ads. The games looked like crap, so they couldn't show gameplay. So instead they turned to in your face, down your throat, shit us out yelling and flashing lights. Reminds me of a monster truck rally or WWF.

 

Then the graphics got good enough to advertise them; although the ads were still edgy and shoved it down your throat. But at least they actually showed the game.

 

Then, with Resident Evil and Final Fantasy VII came prerendered cutscenes, and ads have never had to show actual gameplay since. I mean, the cutscene takes place while your playing the game, so that's gameplay. Right?

 

 

[evil_scientist]

On 6/18/2021 at 2:09 AM, Wadmodder Shalton said:

Oh, anybody here remembered the old Microsoft Office Easter egg mini-games included in Office 95, 97 & 2000?

 

These were as follows:

Hall of Tortured Souls - An Easter egg game from Excel 95, featuring a DOOM-like styled engine.

Flight Simulation - An Easter egg game from Excel 97, mimicking the Microsoft Flight Simulator series.

Word 97 Pinball - An Easter egg game from the Word 97 SR-1 release, being a very primitive Pinball game.

Catch the Mail! - An Easter egg game from Outlook 2000, where you collect envelopes with the names of the Outlook 2000 Development Team.

Dev Hunter - An Easter egg game from Excel 2000, being a very primitive 3D clone of the Arcade game Spyhunter.

Magic 8-ball - Not a game at all, but a cool Easter egg present in Access 97 & 2000 that answers a question when clicked.

 

Here's a playlist of these games that I've made a while ago to give you an idea:

There hasn't been that many Easter egg games in many software products since the early-2000s, with only freeware & open-source software continuing to do it to some extent.

 

Very cool! I only knew the Flight Simulation.

 

It's interesting how they stopped adding Easter eggs. Maybe they are considered a bug or safety hazard? Or they don't fit the "image" of the brand/company any more?..

[Wadmodder Shalton]

A few additional Maxis game made between 1990 to 1997 (before their acquisition by EA) that I can think of are these:

 

Skychase - a multiplayer fight simulator game originally released in 1988 on the Amiga & Atari ST, and ported to MS-DOS in 1990.

Robosport - a turned based tactics game.

El-Fish - a fish tank simulation game.

Rome: Pathway to Power - an adventure game with strategy game elements set in ancient Rome.

Unnatural Selection - a programming game of sorts.

Marty and the Trouble with Cheese - an edutainment game controlled via microphone.

Widget Workshop: A Mad Scientist's Laboratory - a virtual science kit game.

The Crystal Skull - a multimedia adventure game.

Marble Drop - a game where you drop marbles in a machine to match the correct marble colors.

Full Tilt! Pinball (aka Pinball 95 in Europe) - a Pinball game with three tables, Dragon's Keep, Skullduggery & Space Cadet. Most widely known with the Space Cadet table being included in the Microsoft Plus! Companion for Windows 95, and being included in Windows NT 4.0, 2000, ME & XP before being cut from Windows Vista.

Full Tilt! 2 Pinball (aka Pinball 97 in Europe) - a Pinball game featuring three diffenent tables, Alien Daze, Captain Hero & Mad Scientist.

Fathom: The Game of Tiles - a puzzle game.

 

These are a few of the games that Maxis developed or published between 1990 to 1997 before their acquisition by EA.

[Wadmodder Shalton]

Also you might want to watch Balgorg's History of FPS Games series for any other obscure 90s games, and to find any assets & textures from these Sprite-based games that haven't been ripped or extracted yet.

 

[evil_scientist]

I played a lot of strategy games, two relatively obscure ones come to mind:

 

Ancient Conquest: Quest for the Golden Fleece (1998)

RTS set in mythical ancient Greece.

Spoiler

 

and

 

Theocracy (2000)

An Age of Empires-like RTS but also with a turn-based campaign map of sorts. Based on Aztec history!!!

Spoiler

 

[Wadmodder Shalton]

Might be late 20th-century territory here, but a few Lego PC games that haven't been mentioned here are as follows:

 

Lego Loco - a Virtual World game released in 1998.

Lego Chess - a Chess-based strategy game released in 1998.

Lego Stunt Rally - a racing game released in 2000.

Legoland - a construction & management simulation game released in 2000.

Lego Alpha Team - a puzzle video game released in 2000.

Lego Creator series - a construction simulation sandbox game released in 1998. Had three sequels, Lego Creator Knight's Kingdom, Lego Creator Harry Potter, & Lego Creator Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets, all of which released in 2000, 2001 & 2002 respectively.

 

These are some of the other Lego PC games that I can think of.

[Wadmodder Shalton]

Oh, there was a series of edutainment games released around 1999 & 2000 by Longsoft Multimedia exclusively in Poland, that was the Familijny CD-Romek series of games.

 

These games consisted of specially-produced animated & slightly modernised adaptations on popular children's literary works especially the ones well-known in Poland, which are characterised by traditionally animated characters being put on CGI backgrounds and minigames, puzzles and activities related to the stories, very similar to what Living Books or Disney's Animated Storybook did before but without any interactive elements.

 

If your unfamiliar with Longsoft Multimedia's Familijny CD-Romek series of games, then you probably heard about those Playstation 2 & Wii ports released by Phoenix Games in association with Aqua Pacific during the mid to late-2000s, which are categorized by their low-quality English dubs, and these ports had very copyright infringing styled box art featuring poorly rendered CGI knockoffs of Disney characters (In other words, notorious for it's scary looking box art that looks nothing like the cartoon's animation). Yes, that was not Phoenix Games & Aqua Pacific's own original product.

 

Heres the list of games in the series, with the titles exported by Phoenix Games that are marked in bold:

 

- Brzydkie kaczątko (The Ugly Duckling)

- Czerwony kapturek (The Little Red Riding Hood)

- Dziewczynka z zapałkami (The Little Match Girl)

- Jaś i Małgosia (Hansel and Gretel)

- Kopciuszek (Cinderella)

- Królewna Śnieżka i Siedmiu Wspaniałych (Snow White and the Magnificient Seven, the English version's title was renamed to Snow White and the Seven Clever Boys probably to avoid a lawsuit from MGM.)

- Królowa Śniegu (The Snow Queen)

- Księżniczka na ziarnku grochu (The Princess and the Pea)

- Nowe szaty cesarza (The Emperor's New Clothes)

- Opowieść wigilijna (A Christmas Carol)

- Pinokio (Pinocchio)

- Piotruś Pan (Peter Pan)

- Złota kaczka (The Golden Duck, a Polish folk tale)

 

Alot of you are familiar with the titles that Phoenix Games exported for the PS2 & Wii exclusively in Europe, but few of you knew they were originally developed & released on PC.

[Master O]

On 1/27/2021 at 10:03 AM, game said:

Interested in old games

 

The DOS game known as Jetpack:

 

(This game is freeware)

 

https://www.adeptsoftware.com/jetpack/

 

[BBQgiraffe]

Nitemare 3D!! pretty much the only content posted in the past few years anywhere on the internet has been a handful of lets-plays and my reverse-engineering attempt, still hoping David Gray decides to release the source code at some point

[Maes]

Peterbox. Not the most original game concept, but it had some decent and strangely addicting Adlib music.

 

 

[Wadmodder Shalton]

Terror T.R.A.X.: Track of the Vampire, a crappy FMV game with only two buttons to press A or B.

Released for the Apple Pippin & Windows 3.1

 

Edited August 24, 2021 by Wadmodder Shalton

[Wadmodder Shalton]

Commander Keen's Trek 96 & Jazz Jackrabbit's Poker Broker, both are bizarre bootleg "fan game" products presumably sold in stores in 1997 supposedly by CyberEX, Cyberdigital & Digital Design Development. Both are supposed to be unofficial cash ins on Commander Keen & Jazz Jackrabbit by id Software & Epic MegaGames (Now just Epic Games for the latter company) respectively. But these games don't share anything with the franchises they are based on. LGR did a video on both of these weird bootleg games a few years ago.

As you can see, Jazz Jackrabbit's Poker Broker resembles the shareware version of Poker Broker 3.0 by Thu Nguyen, while Commander Keen's Trek 96 resembles Trek 96 by J&O Software, a Windows GUI variant of the Star Trek mainframe game of the 1970s.

[CrocMagnum]

Brain Drain was a 1998 puzzle game bundled with the Packard Bell Platinum v350 Series. The game consisted in grouping symbols (fruits, diamonds, flying saucers…) by rotating them around.

 

Brain Drain was a simple but very entertaining experience. Also the music was super catchy. 

 

For the record this Packard Bell Platinum had some of the most memorable pre-installed pc games ever. Look at the crazy list, this is the most memorable bundle I ever had the pleasure to own:

 

Tomb Raider II / Actua Soccer 2 / Red Line Racer / Brain Drain / Fallout / Ultimate Race Pro / Blade Runner / Total Annihilation

 

Finally here are some screenshots of Brain Drain:

 

 

Edited November 21, 2021 by CrocMagnum

[Wadmodder Shalton]

52 minutes ago, CrocMagnum said:

For the record this Packard Bell Platinum had some of the most memorable pre-installed pc games ever.

That was unless your a PC gamer living in Europe. North American PC gamers like myself had a limited pre-installed PC games library for Packard Bell PCs.

Edited November 21, 2021 by Wadmodder Shalton

[CrocMagnum]

24 minutes ago, Wadmodder Shalton said:

That was unless your a PC gamer living in Europe. North American PC gamers like myself had a limited pre-installed PC games library for Packard Bell PCs.

 

Thank you for the clarification, I didn’t know US owners had a different package.

 

Indeed I live in Europe (Belgium), and that particular package was filled to the brim with games and utilities, here's the pdf with the full specs (in French): 

 

http://passion-pb.fr/documents/PDF/models/Desktop/platinum_350v2.pdf 

 

Edited November 21, 2021 by CrocMagnum

[Asphalt]

Thanks for bumping this thread up, it's a very interesting read.

Two of the games I would recommend, that I think have never become popular as they deserved, are Skyroads and Race Mania.

 

The first one is an early pseudo-3D platform game where you control a small spaceship cruising over some sort of space highways. 

Basically it can be considered a precursor of the runner games that have become so popular on the smartphone market, but it was super fun and had a mesmerizing graphics. The levels became more and more challenging, because the more you progressed in the game, the less time you had to complete the circuits, and so you had to push to full speed, making it lots more difficult.
 

Spoiler

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Race Mania, instead, is a little isometric racing game that I think was so perfect it really is a mystery how it didn't sell millions.

You had a dozen of cars to choose from, you could customize them with weapons and armor, and you had to race through these tracks that were full of obstacles, ramps, jumps, and powerups to take. It was extremely cartoony and colored, and the music was great too.

 

Spoiler

 

 

 

 

 

 

Edited November 23, 2021 by Asphalt

[Wadmodder Shalton]

Morphman, a weird low-budget CGI FMV game released in 1993. It it just intentionally awful for it's gameplay, and contains the worst CGI that I've ever seen in a video game.

All of the "unrendered CGI elements thrown into the mix" tropes of this game kind of reminds me of the awful 3D fighting scenes from the Direct-To-Video movie Mortal Kombat The Journey Begins which came out two years after this game.

Edited November 24, 2021 by Wadmodder Shalton

[Wadmodder Shalton]

A few fighting games released exclusively on the PC I can think of are these:

 

Battle Beast: A cartoony fighting game released by 7th Level.

 

CatFight: The Ultimate Female Fighting Game - the most infamous Mortal Kombat rip-off with an all female cast. Easily broken due to unresponsive controls, limited move sets, awful music and bad graphics. The game's performance isn't even capped, as the game was so poorly coded that it will run extremely fast on modern computers, making the game totally unplayable than it was before.

 

Expect No Mercy: a fighting game based on the movie of the same name, with graphics similar to Mortal Kombat.

 

Skull Cracker: a fighting game similar to Street Fighter released in 1996 developed by Cyberflix and published by GTE Entertainment.

 

Those are few of the PC-Exclusive fighting games I can think of.

Edited November 27, 2021 by Wadmodder Shalton

[Stupid Bunny]

Speedy Eggbert!  I played so much shit out of this game, especially once I discovered it had a really easy-to-use level editor built in.  God I wish I still had those levels

 

Spoiler

 

 

Here's Hugo II: Whodunit, one I played at my grandparents' house as a kid

 

Spoiler

 

 

And here's a Sierra game my grandpa found while moving, still in its box with map and disks and everything

 

Spoiler

 

 

Good old Spooky Castle

 

Spoiler

 

 

Oh yes and the Thinkin' Things series was amusing

 

Spoiler