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View Full Version : When you get a hankering for gaming nostalgia...


Creole Ned
02-06-2006, 01:33 PM
Which old game are you most likely to re-install?

Looking over my collection, when the urge comes to dust off a classic of yesteryear, I find myself re-installing Unreal (1998) for the umpteeth time. I've only actually played the game completely from beginning to end once but have revisited it many times since it went onto the hard drive of my trusty Pentium II way back when.

Unreal is paced differently than many of the shooters that came out around the same time and emphasized exploration and atmosphere as much as the shooting. Too bad about the plot falling off a cliff halfway through. :P

At the time it was hailed as one of the best-looking games ever. Today, if you use the high-res textures, it still looks surprisingly sharp, if low-poly. The skies are still as pretty as ever and the opening castle flyby continues to mesmerize. I think one of the reasons I re-install it is I secretly want to play an adventure game but without spending hours working on obscure puzzles. Unreal gives me the pretty without the thinking.

Runners-up would be Jedi Knight (although it's pretty hard on the eyes now) and Quake 2. For JK it's because the game was just damn fun to play. With Q2 it's more to evoke the memories of playing mods like Jailbreak and ChaosDM.

I occasionally re-install the original Tribes, too, but loading that up now just makes me sad at how the whole series is basically dead. Such great potential...

Medic
02-06-2006, 01:38 PM
I still love System Shock.

And I miss Tribes.

Tai
02-06-2006, 01:39 PM
Heroes 3 and 4 are the ones I end up reinstalling the most.

I'd reinstall Revenge of Doh too, if I could find a copy to buy.

Is it time to rewrite Tribes yet?

jackrabbit
02-06-2006, 02:46 PM
I keep reinstalling Raven Shield, Ghost Recon, Splinter Cell, and all assorted addons.

Then I go to my games folder to play them and see the icon marked WoW.exe...

Mysteriously, I've never replayed the other games.

armerius
02-06-2006, 04:36 PM
occasionally i would reinstall an OLD game called "Defender of the Crown" fantastic game, but i need to slow down to 80286 speeds to play it.

Another great one I love to go back to is Star Control (the original or 2.. i beat 3, but it's no good for playing again.. the original is a great go in and kill stuff game)...

or Escape Velocity.. sometimes i find that back on my hard drive... so much fun, that one.

Paladin
02-06-2006, 05:14 PM
System Shock 2 would be my choice. I never finished it, even though I've revisited it a few times over the years. It still looks pretty good, if low poly (I think it even preceeded Unreal by a year or two). It actually managed the rare feat of being genuinely creepy, and the sounds were just awesome.

My second choice would be the original Alone In The Dark. I think each character had about 25 polys, but it too managed a good scare factor. And it did the monster jumping in through the window at you YEARS before Resident Evil. :)

Creole Ned
02-09-2006, 01:22 PM
Speaking of nostalgia, there's now a high-resolution texture pack available for Duke Nukem 3D (DNF joke here). This is combined with the jfduke3d pack that makes the game behave under various flavors of Windows. I've given it a spin and the installer is completely painless. A few clicks and you can relive the glory of 1996 in 1280x1024 resolution.

Info and stuff here (http://hrp.planetduke.gamespy.com/index.htm).

Bonus: The whole thing (original game, expansion and high-res pack) installs in about a minute vs. a typical Blizzard game that takes 36 hours.

bridude
02-09-2006, 01:27 PM
Damn..I'm looking good!

samuelk
02-09-2006, 04:19 PM
occasionally i would reinstall an OLD game called "Defender of the Crown" fantastic game, but i need to slow down to 80286 speeds to play it.

I had that game on my Amiga 500...and later, I got the CD32 version that was pretty much the same as the A500 version, except it was on CD Rom and had CD-quality background music/sound effects.

Incidentally, you can get just about every known version of Defender of the Crown for free from Cinemaware's site:

http://www.cinemaware.com/clsgame_dotc.asp

pogozorro
02-09-2006, 07:35 PM
I invariably install the old Thief games, Freespace 2, and Morrowind.

The slightly off-tradition games float my boat.

Patton
02-13-2006, 10:28 AM
I've been playing Operation Flashpoint alot. It hasn't really ever left my drive, though.

The games I have a tendency to reinstall for whatever bizarre reason include that crazy Alice in Wonderland game built on the Q3 engine, Quake 2 (Action Quake rocked,) and Elder Scrolls: Morrowind.