Any kind of game
EDIT: changed from suggested to mentioned and made the title more clear
This is a hard one because I generally try to play good games these days, and good games either get popularized through word of mouth or Youtubers make video essays about how they were misunderstood at the time. For me, this question is really asking “Hey what weird trash did you find back when you were 10 years old digging through the bargain bin for whatever you could trade two games you finished for.”
I think my big picks from the weird trash are The Urbz, which comes from back when they made Sims spinoff games instead of endless DLC, and Ty the Tasmanian Devil, which was a 3D platformer metroidvania that revolved around collecting increasingly elaborate boom-a-rangs. I definitely sunk the most hours into the Urbz, because nothing was more fun to a 10 year old than going around a virtual town flipping people off.
nooo I was gonna say Urbz!
No One Lives Forever
To this day I have no idea why I bought it. And I bought it close to its release date. I would only do that if I had been absolutely obsessed for months with previews and stuff. But I remember none of that.
And still it ended up becoming one of my all time favourites.
Game of the year! Is it just you or is it hot in here?
Either way I think you need a cold shower!
Are you talking about 1 or 2? I always thought 2 was better and introduced a load of mechanics (to me at least) that are commonplace nowadays. This was the first FPS game I played where getting found during a stealth mission didn’t completely ruin everything. And the concept of unkillable enemies that you can only run from.
Definitely 1. The second one wasn’t bad. I mean, nothing beats a katana fight in trailer a flying through a tornado. But something about that game was always missing for me. I couldn’t lay my finger on it (apart from Cate’s actress changing). And I hate the endlessly respawning enemies.
Idk, I remember hide-and-go-seek being pretty sick as a kid. I don’t often see it mentioned.
Ahhh shit, I just did and now I can’t say it.
Commander Keen might be one of the few old enough not to have been mentioned to me since the internet became well-known.
Also, Squarez.
Commander Keen
Only if you never watch CV-11.
Two very niche board games from the 70s: “Snit’s Revenge” “Lie, Cheat, and Steal”
And an old Avalon Hill wargame: “Wooden Ships and Iron Men”
Lie, Cheat, and Steal!!! We used to play that as kids! Excellent call.
Did you play the Mad magazine game where the objective was to lose all your money?
No… Tell me more.
My memory fails me, I just remember that one and Lie, Cheat and Steal from childhood.
Looks like someone on Amazon is selling the Mad magazine game for $150!
Hero’s Quest by Sierra (Later renamed to Quest for Glory)
So, you want to be a hero?
Probably my most replayed game, along with Betrayal at Krondor.
Have you checked out the excellent remake of QfG2?
I have NOT!!! I did not know this existed!!!
You’re in for a treat! I tend to still prefer the parser based EGA versions for nostalgia reasons but it’s very well done and faithful to the original.
I’m longing for another play-through thanks to you! Maybe I’ll go fighter then paladin instead of my usual magical thief.
Sid Meiers’ Pirates of the Carribean
Lode Runner
Loved Lode Runner! Broderbund Software, right? I think they also made Choplifter.
Yup broderbund, one of the first games available for our Mac classic
There was this officially licensed Star Trek tabletop starship battle game that I got to play a couple times in the eighties and no one seems to remember it but me. Wish I could find a copy. I remember it being a blast.
I could rattle off a whole list of TRS-80 Model I/III or Apple ][ games that no one has ever heard of, but I’ll spare you.
I’m pretty sure I played a couple rounds with a friend of mine some 25 years ago.
Mainly remember it because I had not really watched any st back then, and the weapons and propulsion etc were all a bit confusing
Did each player get sort of an octagonal board with the starship in the center used to track ship orientation and shield strength?
Ahhh I think I recognize that. It was used by the Star Trek TTRPG as well. I didn’t realize it had a standalone version.
The game I’m thinking of focused more on 1-on-1 fights, and it was set in the Star Trek II/III movie era.
Sounds like an old Palm Pilot game I used to play.
Shallow Thought Of The Day: Any game mentioned in this thread twice is automatically someone who didn’t read all the comments before posting.
Or they did read all the comments, but someone posted their game during the time they were reading, so they never actually saw it. Then they posted their game and looked a stinky non-reader even though they weren’t.
Technically any mention of any game is a breach of the requirements since by virtue of them posting it it already disqualifies their very same comment as per the requirement.
Star Control 2: The Ur-Quan Masters
The original creators are doing a follow-up!
After the lackluster “sequels” (Star Control 3 and Star Control: Origins) that were made largely without the original developers input, I had pretty much given up the franchise for dead till now.
https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/pistolshrimp/free-stars-children-of-infinity
For those of you not in the know, you can get Star Control 2 for free on Steam and see what the pinnacle of DOS adventure gaming was all about :D
https://store.steampowered.com/app/2645580/Free_Stars_The_UrQuan_Masters/
Yep, I backed the Kickstarter and hang out in their Discord. Wasn’t sure on the rules about promoting stuff like that so I didn’t mention it. :-)
Descent
Descent 2 earthshaker multiplayer was my jam. Went through so many joystick hats!
Incredible series. I’m glad we got Overload, even if it’s not quite the same caliber
I picked up a copy of Overload somewhere on the high seas. The graphics on that game are so intense that my poor little laptop can only get like 3 frames per second at its absolute lowest resolution and quality settings ☹️
Maybe one day I’ll get a better system worthy of high end games. It’s just not high on my priorities list now, as I don’t play games nearly as often as I did in my teens and 20s.
Dungeon Keeper
Def one of my all time favorites.
Me too! I do play KeeperFX though, which is an amazing remake.
I don’t know how to link the Dungeon Keeper community here on Lemmy but I made on lemmy.world for it.
Super dodgeball for the NES.
Deceptively simple, but much deeper than it seems on first glance. Each character has 2 different special abilities that change the way you throw. Especially if you can get a few buddies to huddle around the tv with you, will keep you all entertained for hours.
If its out of non-mentions it has to be Space Station 13. I hope 14 on Steam catches up soon, been thinking of lending a hand.
All time biggest time sinks are probably Civilization 2 and Factorio.
Biggest time sink you’ve never heard of is Ancient Dungeons of Mystery, a one-man Roguelike dungeon delving passion project.
You have never seen Factorio being mentioned on the internet?
You never read comments you reply to till the end?
Do you play ADOM?
Spent some time with DCSS but in the end I felt it just got tedious, the need to get lucky somehow too. Adom was hard because of the graphics IIRC even got stuck where I couldn’t hit the enemy, so that ended my check-out of ADOM :-).
Civ II was peak of the series imho… Immersive gameplay trumps graphics
