Your favorite game no one else has heard of!

[Lelling 402]

A lot of us have that game we played as a kid, or possibly are even playing now, that sometimes feels like it might not even be real due to the fact no one else has ever mentioned it. Either poorly published, only published in an obscure language / region, or just not well known, there's tons of really good games out there that you want others to know about - possibly even play! Highlight those games desperately in need of it here!

[Lelling 402]

To start, I was going to talk about Disciples but we seem to have people here who know about it ^^ So instead I'm going to talk about another gem from my childhood - Lords of Magic!

I think it was a relatively well-known game for its time, but the bugs at release probably buried it a little bit. Developed by Impressions Games (Caesar, Pharaoh) and published by Sierra Entertainment (released in 1997), the gameplay resembles Age of Wonders, or other turn-based strategies with RPG elements, such as the darker Disciples or the more well-known Heroes of Might and Magic.

The world of Lords of Magic is based in a high-fantasy setting, inspired by elements of Tolkien, D&D, as well as classic European folklore & legends, such as the Arthurian legend or the 90s reinterpretations of Greek mythology.

You start as one of 8 factions based on elemental alignment - Life, Death, Earth, Air, Fire, Water, Order, and Chaos, and choose your Lord type (Mage, Warrior, Thief). In the world of Urak you go around claiming different resources & clearing out dwellings to level up your capitol & surrounding structures, while your goal is to defeat the Lord of Death (or in case you are playing as Death, to defeat the Lord of Life). There is an amount of diplomacy present in the game in case you meet the other factions, however they are largely cold at the beginning so patience and trade are the way to friendship.

Unlike in other similar games, the combat is not turn based, but instead works in real-time (with a pause button so you can execute commands).

The game eventually featured an expansion which added a few more campaign storylines based on popular fables and stories, such as Beowulf or the Arthurian Legend.

Overall, the game was pretty cool, and still has a small but loyal fanbase today - including fans who made patches to remove certain bugs and improve compatibility.

The game is available on GoG and Steam, and runs on my two screen Windows 7 setup without any compatibility settings. I would recommend it to anyone who loves 90s fantasy games and is a bit of a nostalgia nut. :3

[Vortok 2]

I've been playing Lords of Magic in my younger days so it's not only you

How about Reunion ?

It was a little buggy but overall great fun to play and the Intro was epic at the time.

It also has some great music that sounds good even today.

 

Also, I bet you haven't heard of Carriers at War from 1992

[Fatal 21]

City of heores/villains was my very very 1st pc game/ introduction to online gaming and where the leaders of [NUTS} first met almost 10 years ago!!! sadly it shut down just before guildwars 2 started lots of fun had and lots of friends made that have moved to every game together as a group!  

[//// 20]

Total Annihilation

too much time spend on it.

[Daus 15]

I haven't seen any mentions of that game in years, but I think that people will recall it. Used to be my favourite game back in the day, and that game is Crimson Skies. AIRPLANES! Half of my deaths in that game were because I crashed into things.

Also, that game had the FIRST Nathan! By Nathan I mean "rugged roguish male protagonist called Nathan". Yeah, Mr. Drake, you are not the first.

[macstat 9]

I have a treat for you guys  There was this polish Warcraft clone (not WoW but ye olde rts  called "Polanie" what basically means "Slavs". It was an interesting game :> Especially economy since only resource you had was cow milk  Oh and when you cut down trees they could kill you . Oh if you look at the link it has word "dork" in it :>

 

 

Other games from 90's that were pretty important then, but forgotten now are adventure games. I would like to share with you two of them i played first. Ladien and gentelmen, Police Quest and Gobliiins. Especially PQ since it was my first adventure game i rememeber playing. First thing i did i typed "get undressed" and got game over for making a fool out of myself in the precinct :D. I was amazed that this game let me do this

 

 

 

 

 

 

Edited April 12, 2016 by macstat

[Minithra 26]

I wouldn't say nobody has ever heard of them, but they ARE fairly old and obscure by now Doesn't mean I didn't waste a ton of time on them, of course. 

Dizzy - Prince of the Yolkfolk. I had to google the names and read the wiki to see which game it was I actually had, because it was just called "yolk.exe" on the diskette

This game started me on the path to loving puzzle games, hating item-combination-in-inventory mechanics, and quite likely the very start of my gaming addiction

For a less-obscure game (and also more recent!)

Uru: Ages Beyond Myst.Crazy, perhaps badly done "puzzles" (like literally, I had a huge mess of papers with various cryptic symbols on them and random notes), but absolutely amazing lore and atmosphere. I also played the Myst games themselves, but I like Uru more.

[Degrarr 1]

Someone's probably heard of it, but Tachyon: The Fringe was one of the first games I played online on the PC.  It's a space sim and features Bruce Campbell as the main character in the SP story, I kind of fell in love with the genre after that but have been disappointed with a lot of the latest games (I bought Elite Dangerous but have still yet to get around to playing it).

 

 

It had a fairly small and tight knit online community in both multiplayer modes, there were FFA deathmatches or team based resource collection & base destruction modes. I've just noticed it's actually on Steam now so I am totally going to check it out again

 

[Lelling 402]

@Minithra OMG Dizzy  I remember playing that on my old DOS computer ^^ What a silly game

Aaaand here's another game I really like, that I haven't seen too many people talk about!

Darkstone

 

Darkstone is what I'd call one of the more successful Diablo clones of its time. It's a 1999 hack & slash RPG that was quite decent for its time ^^ Recently it became available on Steam but it is already slightly outdated.

However, (dun dun DUNNNN) it has also been released for iOS & Android for FREE in 2014 so you can play it on your tablet or mobile device! I actually got it and I have to say I enjoy it quite a bit in its mobile version. And so far I haven't really encountered any microtransactions that would prevent progress unless you were willing to pay money.

Overall, it's a fun little RPG with an ok storyline that isn't really that complex or riveting, cool spells and some interesting puzzles. I'd say there's actually a few more puzzle elements than in Diablo 1 or 2, or the newer counterpart, Path of Exile. The game also has a couple of variants in which it generates its world, so it has some degree of replayability. Overall it's pretty fun.

I don't know if I'd recommend it for PC, but I would definitely recommend trying it out on Android / iOS, and it has some good reviews there as well! As a mobile game, it's definitely one of the best RPGs out there (probably because it wasn't developed as a mobile game and thus didn't have all the annoying microtransaction stuff in it).

Available on:
Steam (5€)
GoG (5,19€)
Android / iOS (free)

Oh, also, when it came out, it came with this pretty cool & catchy song & video. And the song would play in-game if you paid a bard in the village a gold coin  

 

[BigWhiteShogun 6]

I'm a sucker for pixel art games. Good pixel art. Also I love rpgs and story driven games, with charismatic unique characters, huge lore, and world with the history that isn't just the background for the game you are playing right now. 

 

There is a series of games, free to play highly polished, that surprisingly never got much attention it deserves. 

 

I'm talking about The Spirit Engine, sort of side scrolling, 2D turn based rpg  with fantastic soundtrack, gorgeous art style, and very good story. 

 

Can't recommend it enough just check it out. I promise you, it is great and it is free so why not give it a shot ?

 

http://thespiritengine.com

[Lelling 402]

War for the Overworld!

This game is SO good and so massively under-appreciated!

If you loved Dungeon Keeper (2), you will love this game. Gameplay-wise, it is essentially Dungeon Keeper 3

For those unfamiliar with DK2 - War for the Overworld is a god game RTS, where you play the bad guy!

The campaign is really nice and diverse, and makes for around 50 or so gameplay hours, it also has a nice sandbox dungeon builder AND multiplayer support. This is definitely a fun game worth the puchase!

Check it out on Steam, where you can get it for 28€ when there isn't a sale on.

[Ralesk 3]

Gobliiins! So good to see that mentioned

Well, as for what made my childhood that nobody seems to remember now:

The Quest For Glory saga, in particular the first one (because I grew up with a 386 and EGA graphics, and that's the thing I, uhm, acquired from school):

It had a great atmosphere, was a good excuse for learning some English, and the music (when not on PC Speaker anyway) was quite good too.  Erana's Peace is something I want to learn to play:

 

The other game that I only encountered later, but other than some die-hard fans people don't seem to mention it, is Beneath A Steel Sky, which was released on DOS and Amiga (and if you manage to get an Amiga emulator running, it's worth it because it's just much better music-wise).

 

[Lelling 402]

Omg @Ralesk, the Quest For Glory is the best! My siblings and I had a small book we kept game information in (you know, back before quest journals and maps were invented), and we drew up a full world map of the Quest For Glory world, with notes and stuff  It was such a cool game to play, but I can't remember if we ever actually finished it  

[Nevah 3]

 

[Xaverri 24]

Subspace! (Or Continuum, as it was later called)

Certainly not the first game I played (which goes back to DrHalo, Commander Keen and Where in the world is Carmen Sandiego, all on DOS), but it is the first online game for me, opening up a whole new world. Played it for several years and had some good, good times there. It was based on the flash game Asteroids, but the only link that's left from that is the flying and shooting mechanics.

[Rage 49]

My adventure with computer games started in 1993 with "Populous II: Trial of the Olympian Gods" on my first machine - Amiga 600.

Found video of gameplay at youtube:

 

[Julia Waters 3]

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Destrega

[Karl Franz 15]

[Ranique 1]

The first game I played was called Striker.
(Ye. I'm old!)

 

[NanCurunir 2]

This gem is named Caveland. It was such a good game. A Puzzle game with economic simulation. Unfortunatly I cannot find it anywhere to get this game. If anybody have a tipp where to get it or suggest a similar game, I would be so greatful. 

[Minithra 26]

It's abandonware now, you can download it in ISO form if you want. It was the first result for "caveland game" looks interesting!

[Lelling 402]

On 10. 3. 2018 at 20:43, NanCurunir said:

This gem is named Caveland. It was such a good game. A Puzzle game with economic simulation. Unfortunatly I cannot find it anywhere to get this game. If anybody have a tipp where to get it or suggest a similar game, I would be so greatful. 

I miss this era of games. Look at that beautiful UI.

[Kotflinte 1]

On 12/04/2016 at 00:26, Wiliwilliam said:

Total Annihilation

too much time spend on it.

ooh, spent hours and night with this. most of the time at LAN partys back in the good old days