Discovering "Old" Things

[Dragonboy]

I have watched every episode of The Highlander on the television and on DVD after I bought the boxset, same goes for Babylon 5 and was truly sad when I found out that Crusaders was never finished after the initial season. I actually like it more then most episodes of B5. Oh well life is full of disapointments.

Always liked Space: Above and Beyond except for the final episode were the whole group goes out in a blaze of glory (or at least that is the last episode I saw) that kinda ruined it for me.
Never was a real startrek fan… The original startrek (including the movies were fun’ish for something that old), The next generation became annoying after a few seasons. Voyager could have been fun had they been a little bit more human and gave some tech for new tech (borg adaptive shield anyone?? Steal it and use it!!)… The only series from startrek I really liked was DS9, I guess the same fascination I have for B5… A lone spacestation fighting for survival.

As for games, well my oldest favorites are all PC games… Colonization, Reunion (which I tend to suck at but still like and no not X3: reunion) and UFO enemy unknown / X-com 1 (which I suck at even more. Always have money issues, not lack of fighting skill).
All of these games I still tend to play from time to time, with either DOSBOX or straight from win XP. Other games I liked, but never play anymore would be the Wing Commander series, with its best game “Privateer” which I liked, but never managed to find the patience to play honestly in order to get that super upgraded fighter craft. My not so legal copy came with a savegame giving me loads of money… lol

To be honest… I only liked Freelancer because I had played Privateer before that and was hoping that to be a good substitute, the online stuff was cool until I learned of a way to make loads of money smuggling stuff between homeplanet and some spacestation 2-3 systems away. However got annoyed with playing online because I was smuggling my behind off and then some newby 12 year old would cry “cheater” near home planet with loads of other players around because I had that “spanish” pirate fighter craft with mostly tachyon guns if I recall correctly.

As for pre-PC games… I always liked Carrier Command on the ZX Spectrum, the graphics that game had brought “bad” to a whole new level and would make many gamers today cry for mommy, but it was fun to play. Starting from scratch was boring, but waiting fully armed for that enemy carrier to arive was fun… Especially when you dropped some big bom on the command tower and thus sinking the carrier, the dog fighting was fun, but could become tedious because you cannot go to far away from the carrier.

[Spirit]

I suppose one game I found recently on youtube that I used to play was Cybercon III. I played it on the atari st, but it was on amiga and pc too. Here is a youtube link to the pc version, running far far too fast... and the sound was nicer on my atari to be honest! Urgh... Midi...

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cmZ3LjlMFW4

Freespace II ... now there's a first class game... never got far in it myself, but it was probably the last game where I was just happy to watch someone play it, and then complete it. But hey I used to watch my brother type in game listings itching for when he'd finish, save, and run it... only to find there was another hour or so of error finding!

Freelancer was awesome, but never finished it... oh and X-Wing Alliance.

I agree about pc vs console... if there's a pc version it's almost always worth going for that. However there's a pc/xbox title called Windhaven...

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Q2Zb_usd7Os

It looks like I would get the xbox version simply due to how he's done the controls ... just hope it releases! Fantastic looking stuff.

Rakku

[Dhalin]

It looks like I would get the xbox version simply due to how he's done the controls ... just hope it releases! Fantastic looking stuff.

You do know that xbox controllers are compatible with the PC and any game worth its salt should have a customizable UI/controls settings right?

You could get the PC version, plug your 360 controller into your PC and go to town all you want.

Back on the original topic:

I went to FYE yesterday and bought Firefly and Serenity both (got the Collector's Edition for Serenity even!). Firefly was on a BOGO rack, so I had to get something else... wound up getting the Die Hard Ultimate Collection, woo-hoo. Now I got all 4 Die Hard movies too!

Also bought Avatar the extended version from Wal-Mart too.

[Spirit]

You do know that xbox controllers are compatible with the PC and any game worth its salt should have a customizable UI/controls settings right?

Huh... no I didn't know that. It's good to hear!

I watched Avatar Extended version yesterday... I liked it, and I guess with the sequels on the way it may make them make more sense, however the non-extended version works better as a film. In fact they could have added some of the scenes from the Extended one into the original, and then not have bothered with the extended one at all (not as much money of course!!).

Going back to "old things" ... the extended Aliens. Now that was an extended version truly worth having...

Rakku

[Dhalin]

Huh... no I didn't know that. It's good to hear!

Well I don't know about the original xbox controllers, but I know I've heard that the 360 controllers are indeed compatible.

I think you might need the optional USB power pack adapter though. But those are only a couple bucks from Gamestop, Walmart, etc.

[Vahrokh]

Well I don't know about the original xbox controllers, but I know I've heard that the 360 controllers are indeed compatible.

I think you might need the optional USB power pack adapter though. But those are only a couple bucks from Gamestop, Walmart, etc.

Even in case one does not have an XBox (ie me), they also sell Microsoft controllers that look like the XBox ones, have PC drivers and so on.

Going back to "old things" ... the extended Aliens. Now that was an extended version truly worth having...

Rakku

Many movie makers would envy ever being able to produce a movie of a quality comparable with Ridley Scott's discarded pieces, even just once in their life.

[Dhalin]

Even in case one does not have an XBox (ie me), they also sell Microsoft controllers that look like the XBox ones, have PC drivers and so on.

Since Microsoft makes both controllers, it probably doesn't apply to them, but most other knock-offs that they sell for PC are far, far less quality than the real thing.

I remember back during the PS2 era, that many so-called "USB PS2 Controllers" were quite lacking in quality. One common mistake is that they'd make the + pad all one control that senses where you're pressing down upon it. See, the PS2 controller has 4 separate buttons for a reason -- when pressing left, you DON'T get Left-Up or Left-Down unless you are pressing both left AND up/down. With these cheap knock-offs, it is virtually impossible to get a "true" direction like that.

I'll tell you what freaking rocks -- a PS2->USB adapter (not to be confused with PS/2) if you don't own a PS3 (but you do own a PS2 or PS1). I have one, and it works perfectly, I use a PS2 controller hooked up to my PC in this manner to play emulated games lol.

[Dhalin]

Another "new" Old Thing I found:

I found another SNES emulator, and this one actually works: BSNES. It is touted as being almost 100% accurate, and can play nearly anything made for the real SNES.

Games finally started to look and sound 99.9% correct (including Lufia 1's 'enemy death' sound that every other emulator screws up on), so I started doing more SNES gaming.

Anyways, I was reading TvTropes one day, and saw entries for a game called "Terranigma". Living in the USA, I never was able to get my hands on this game. Heard of it a couple times, but it turns out, it was never released over here, even though English versions of it exist. No Fan Translations needed. So, I downloaded it and I'd have to say that I've been enjoying the experience thusfar. It plays a lot like Illusion of Gaia with some Soul Blazer (it is supposedly a Spiritual Successor to both), but also has XP and Levelups, weapons and armor too.

Interesting game, been liking it. I know it sure had a couple nice upbeat tracks for being a SNES game (Zue, for instance). I always love nice upbeat music in a game, especially the adventuring kind. Boss battle themes too. That's one of the main things I miss about MMORPGs compared to Single-Player RPGs. Anywaaays, I digress lol.

[Shian]

Ohh nice. Illusion of Gaia was one of my favorite games growing up. I'll have to see if I can get a hold of this Terranigma and an emulator.

[velveeta]

personally i will never be truly happy until i can slap some imps again....

[Dhalin]

Ohh nice. Illusion of Gaia was one of my favorite games growing up. I'll have to see if I can get a hold of this Terranigma and an emulator.

Try coolroms or romnation. Either of those two should have it. I know coolroms does, and it doesn't appear to be ESA-protected.

[Spirit]

personally i will never be truly happy until i can slap some imps again....

As in you want to play that game (you could use Dosbox), or you want them to release a sequel?

Rakku

[Dhalin]

This isn't really a "discovering", more of a "re-discovering", but...

Call me crazy, but with all of the re-releases around, I still can't help but to feel the charm of the very first Final Fantasy for NES.

Yes, there's a lot of graphics and gameplay improvements that have been made, but I still... there's just something about the original NES cart that always makes one go back to that world for one more adventure.

I'll pick up and play the newer versions of it on a seldom occasion, but I find that I just.. don't enjoy it as much, not sure why.

For those of you who've never seen it, and are a fan of the Non-MMO Final Fantasy games, especially the older (FF6 and before), highly suggest you take a look at it. Will warn you though, the game is hard. It is fairly harsh, and unforgiving, but yields some fun once you get the hang of it. Those looking for a challenge will find plenty of it in this game.

It may not look pretty, it may not have PS3 graphics, but I still find it fun. It is a lot more strategy than action, with some exploration mixed in.

It is also interesting to note that some of the things that appear in this game, set milestones that were used in later FFs (and also some non-FF games as well!). Even Istaria uses things that originated from (or was made known/popular by) good ole Final Fantasy I.

[AmonGwareth]

I actually have Final Fantasy 2 installed on my ipod touch. And we don't currently have it hooked up, but my wife still has her working Nintendo and SuperNES with all of the Zeldas.

[Dhalin]

I actually have Final Fantasy 2 installed on my ipod touch. And we don't currently have it hooked up, but my wife still has her working Nintendo and SuperNES with all of the Zeldas.

I was never a big fan of FF2.

I like how they gave you greater control over buying stuff (no more spending half an hour plus to buy 99 potions every other dungeon), but it is the character growth system that absolutely turns me off on the game.

They made it so that to get any HP or MP gains, you have to spend most of your resources in one single battle instead of gradually over time.

This meant, hanging around towns and wasting HP/MP to make it go up. MP, that's simple... cast Cure over and over again, levels it too anyways. But HP... you wound up attacking yourself over and over again while fighting mobs too weak to kill you.

Try fighting anything that can hurt you, and you're likely to get killed if you're not strong enough.

Also, it removes any sense of balance from the game; you can have maxed out stats at the very beginning if you don't mind a lot of grinding. Then the rest of the game (including the final dungeon and final boss) is utter cake-walk.

Not to mention, it takes quite awhile to actually get the game started to where you can handle more than the first couple areas, more time than it takes to get FF1 started.

If they would have left it at a normal XP-Levelup system, that game would have been a lot better.

[velveeta]

don't forget, tis 'hug a gamer' day!!!