Dusting Off Old PC Games

FSTargetDrone · Post by **FSTargetDrone** » 2007-01-31 08:19pm

Since funds are light at the moment, I decided to re-install some old FPS games. Currently I'm slogging through Soldier of Fortune and Kingpin. I last literally played Kingpin back in 1999 or so, whenever it came out, though I never finished it. It's not particularly engrossing story-wise, but it's a lot of fun. I was pleasantly surprised to see AI characters using ladders, stopping to reload and demonstrate some minimal shoot and take cover tactics. I like being able to hire a pair of thugs to support you on your killing spree.

Kingpin should really be called Fuck you fucker! because that's pretty much all the enemy shouts at you as soon as you step into their field of view.

Soldier of Fortune is even older and looks it, but I'm enjoying it as well. Oddly, both SOF and KP refuse to even install on my WinXP Pro tower system, but run just fine on my WinXP home edition laptop Eh, no matter. They are both running smoothly at their highest resolutions.

Next up on my list are Sin and its single expansion. I've also been playing some Tie Fighter and X-Wing Alliance with some nifty ship model updates I found on the interwebs. Then I've got SoF II after that. That is a beautiful-looking game.

What are some of your old favorites?

DNF? I'll stick with my crappy-looking SoF, thanks.

TheMuffinKing · Post by **TheMuffinKing** » 2007-01-31 08:24pm

I'm still partial to playing the original Ghost Recon plus expansions. Getting good team matches or "terrorist hunts", though now far more difficult, are still very entertaining.

Another favorite is the original Half life. The amount of mods and expansions just keep this relic from fading away.

Thirdly a tie between Far Cry and SOF2. I love em both!

FSTargetDrone · Post by **FSTargetDrone** » 2007-01-31 08:29pm

TheMuffinKing wrote:I'm still partial to playing the original Ghost Recon plus expansions. Getting good team matches or "terrorist hunts", though now far more difficult, are still very entertaining.

Another favorite is the original Half life. The amount of mods and expansions just keep this relic from fading away.

Thirdly a tie between Far Cry and SOF2. I love em both!

I'm one of the 5 or so people here who have never played any of the Ghost Recon games. They were always on my to-buy list, but I never got around to it. I could probably find the whole bundle of the original and expansions online for next to nothing now, I'm sure.

FarCry is loads of fun.

Stark · Post by **Stark** » 2007-01-31 08:30pm

Kingpin was awesome, just for the part at the start with the 'got a dollah' guy. Here, have my dollar, thanks for the crowbar, now I will beat you to death with it and take my dollar back. Everyone wins.

I found SoF neat at the start and then increasingly stupid, contrived and silly towards the end. The shielded cloaking guy at the end is just PFFFFFFT.

Halflife mods are still awesome. I still enjoy bashing away at Specialists 2.0 every now and again.

Amusingly, I found Starship Creator after years and years... but it doesn't work on modern systems. It wants '3Mb of virtual memory and 20Mb of RAM'... and I have a hundred times that much. Yay!

I was never a huge fan of Jagged Alliance when it came out, but JA2 is still the only turn-based tactical game that seems to 'work'. Sure, it's got silly interrupt rules, but it's way better than that clunky UFO:afterlame series. Is it sad that I play Ultima 7 and Star Control 2 and Warzone 2100 with modern frontends, rather than modern games? Yes, yes it is.

PS I still can't play Die By The Sword properly. I fail it.

EDIT - the stark of Farcry is fun, and even pretty awesome. Then the dinosaurs - I mean, mutants - escape and it gets stupid. All those helicopters full of rocketlauncher snipers would have been useful at the start, lol.

TheMuffinKing · Post by **TheMuffinKing** » 2007-01-31 08:36pm

FSTargetDrone wrote:
TheMuffinKing wrote:I'm still partial to playing the original Ghost Recon plus expansions. Getting good team matches or "terrorist hunts", though now far more difficult, are still very entertaining.

Another favorite is the original Half life. The amount of mods and expansions just keep this relic from fading away.

Thirdly a tie between Far Cry and SOF2. I love em both!
I'm one of the 5 or so people here who have never played any of the Ghost Recon games. They were always on my to-buy list, but I never got around to it. I could probably find the whole bundle of the original and expansions online for next to nothing now, I'm sure.

FarCry is loads of fun.

I definately reccomend the first expansion to GR. Fighting Ethiopians with three of my friends in our dorm room killed a lot of hours between deployments! Another thing: the sheer number of weapons is mind boggling. The only thing I can think thats lacking is shotguns, but most engagements are at about 200+ meters, so no big loss.

LaserRifleofDoom · Post by **LaserRifleofDoom** » 2007-01-31 09:48pm

If my brother would ever get around to getting a computer, I would play against him in Steel Panthers.

Brother-Captain Gaius · Post by **Brother-Captain Gaius** » 2007-01-31 10:55pm

I recently reinstalled Battlefield 1942 and am trying to get Forgotten Hope to work properly. Good times, back when the series wasn't tainted with fail.

Neverwinter Nights has a permanent place on my harddrive. Even with the release of its sequel, it will probably be quite awhile before the original is truly obsolete. As it stands, it's still the only game that offers a solid online roleplaying environment and actually has graphics (sorry MUDs).

Morrowind is still better than its sequel, and I play through it from time to time still.

Duke Nukem 3D lounges around on one of my harddrives.

Day of Defeat, the best damned Half-Life mod ever and hell, the best damned realistic/historical shooter (as opposed to tactical shooters like R6 and GR) ever made. Still the professional developers can't wrap their heads around ideas like "weapon fire delay when going to/from prone" and "usable/essential bipods" that DoD has been doing since its first inception as a crude, blocky, hideously ugly HL mod.

Master of Orion 2. Still the best of its class.

General Zod · Post by **General Zod** » 2007-01-31 10:56pm

Starcraft and Civilization 2&3, as they're all classics. Deus Ex was also a pretty fun FPS game.

FSTargetDrone · Post by **FSTargetDrone** » 2007-01-31 11:10pm

Brother-Captain Gaius wrote:I recently reinstalled Battlefield 1942 and am trying to get Forgotten Hope to work properly. Good times, back when the series wasn't tainted with fail.

I had a lot of fun with the Vietnam mod for Battlefield 1942 (not the commercially-produced Battlefield Vietnam).

Forgotten Hope was great. Going from damaging armored vehicles with small arms in vanilla '42 to far more realistic situations with FH was really nice.

Thag · Post by **Thag** » 2007-01-31 11:26pm

Starcraft and the Crusader games are my big ones. I've also dusted off a couple Commander Keens and Empire every once in a while.

Johonebesus · Post by **Johonebesus** » 2007-01-31 11:44pm

From time to time I play through the first episode of Doom. For some odd reason, the other parts aren't much fun to me, but I can play the first part over and over.

Ma Deuce · Post by **Ma Deuce** » 2007-01-31 11:46pm

I still play the original Command and Conquer and Red alert from time to time. Some early FPSs include the original Dark Forces, Jedi Knight, and the early Rainbow Six games.

And here I thought I was the only one who still played the original Soldier of Fortune, which I still find to be alot of fun. Sure it had a cheesy contrived plot with two-dimensional villians, but somehow I always found that...campyness (which I doubt was deliberate) aspect to be part of it's charm.

Post by **Mr Bean** » 2007-01-31 11:53pm

Just a quick plug, FH2 is alive and well, and FH1 is still going strong on five good servers. I play old Forgotten Hope at least one a week and you'd be surprised how well the "pubbies" can play on that game since most are all old vets by now.

FSTargetDrone · Post by **FSTargetDrone** » 2007-02-01 02:58am

Ma Deuce wrote:And here I thought I was the only one who still played the original Soldier of Fortune, which I still find to be alot of fun. Sure it had a cheesy contrived plot with two-dimensional villians, but somehow I always found that...campyness (which I doubt was deliberate) aspect to be part of it's charm.

Hehe. Gotta love the long-haired, bearded hippie-type with the who runs the bookstore as a front for John Mullins' anti-terrorist organization.

Brother-Captain Gaius · Post by **Brother-Captain Gaius** » 2007-02-01 03:03am

Mr Bean wrote:Just a quick plug, FH2 is alive and well, and FH1 is still going strong on five good servers. I play old Forgotten Hope at least one a week and you'd be surprised how well the "pubbies" can play on that game since most are all old vets by now.

I'm having difficulty getting it to work (there's a bunch of missing textures and general weirdness). Does it require Road to Rome (I cannot find my copy) or something? The website was... vague.

Golan III · Post by **Golan III** » 2007-02-01 04:27am

If you really want to get old-school, Mechwarrior 2 is a blast. Great game, good missions, good sountracks. Too bad you gotta run it in WinME.

Got a link to those updated x-wing alliance / vs TIE fighter ships? I'd love to see some screenshots...

my favorite games ever, right there. That and the original Dark Forces.

Ravencrow · Post by **Ravencrow** » 2007-02-01 05:12am

It's Talonsoft's Campaign series for me: East Front II, West Front and Rising Sun. Bought it as a box set. They are the kind the wargame that is just right for me, not too complicated and not too many logistics stuff to worry about, and imo, it's still the most beautiful WWII strategy game in existence.

Matrixgames website announced some time ago that they planned to re-release them.

Post by **weemadando** » 2007-02-01 05:28am

I've been trying to get Legacy: Realms of the Haunting working again without success. Now THAT was an awesome game.

rhoenix · Post by **rhoenix** » 2007-02-01 05:29am

Well, well.

XCOM: UFO Defense, the old game that came out around the days of DOS 4, I still count as one of my favorite games of all time.

Duke Nukem 3d - Because Duke says to one of the bosses: "I'm gonna rip your head off, and shit down your neck!" and then actually does it. That, and the game was awesome in multiplayer.

Master of Orion 2 - Excellent. Just good, dirty expand-your-star-empire-by-crushing-your-enemies fun.

World of Xeen - Another old DOS game. I loved this fantasy RPG game so much as a kid.

Losonti Tokash · Post by **Losonti Tokash** » 2007-02-01 09:40am

I've recently reinstalled Populous The Beginning, Homeworld, and since I'm on an RE kick lately, the PC ports of Resident Evil 2 and 3. They may be terrible ports, but this is overcome by the nostalgia of seeing pixelated exploding zombies.

As for Populous, well, you can't really overcome the temptation of playing a vengeful god with virtual omnipotence over all that you survey, raining fireballs and swarms of bees upon unsuspecting cavemen.

Post by **Mr Bean** » 2007-02-01 11:38am

Brother-Captain Gaius wrote:
I'm having difficulty getting it to work (there's a bunch of missing textures and general weirdness). Does it require Road to Rome (I cannot find my copy) or something? The website was... vague.

Follow these simple instructions if your installing fresh

Install bf1942
Patch BF1942 with the 1.6.19 patch Linky

Patch BF1942 with the patch 1.61b Linky2

Install FH (file 1-3 or the full install)
Part 1 of 3

And if that's not enough for you try Mr Cheese Sound and Texture pack
http://forums.filefront.com/showthread.php?t=252079
Because of the fact that Forgotten Hope is part German Devolped, some of the things like SS badges and the like had to be toned down. Mr Cheese adds a ton of updated or upgraded sounds(Much improved artillery sounds for example) as well as time period correct uniforms. It's 100% Punkbuster supported so you'll have no problems playing online with it installed. (Most everyone does)

*Edit when your installing Mr Cheese Soundpack, make sure not to select the activator at the end, it's unessary and glitchy, to acutaly activate the sound and texture pack go into the FH directory and manualy start the activator there.

InnocentBystander · Post by **InnocentBystander** » 2007-02-01 12:08pm

Brother-Captain Gaius wrote:Day of Defeat, the best damned Half-Life mod ever and hell, the best damned realistic/historical shooter (as opposed to tactical shooters like R6 and GR) ever made. Still the professional developers can't wrap their heads around ideas like "weapon fire delay when going to/from prone" and "usable/essential bipods" that DoD has been doing since its first inception as a crude, blocky, hideously ugly HL mod.

I'm almost positive that both the fire delay and the bipods were mechanics added after Valve bought Day of Defeat. I could be wrong about the fire delay, but I'm positive that machineguns were a late addition (after valve bought the DoD guys).

Otherwise, fantastic mod

Brother-Captain Gaius · Post by **Brother-Captain Gaius** » 2007-02-01 12:16pm

Thanks Bean. That's the exact install steps I went through before but I'll try it again and give the Mr Cheese stuff a whirl.

InnocentBystander wrote:I'm almost positive that both the fire delay and the bipods were mechanics added after Valve bought Day of Defeat. I could be wrong about the fire delay, but I'm positive that machineguns were a late addition (after valve bought the DoD guys).

Otherwise, fantastic mod

*Unearths ancient apocrypha from depths of memory*

IIRC (and it's quite possible I don't) MGs were more-or-less implemented by 1.3b, or if not then 2.0 (which I think was paratroopers... and MGs came before paratroopers I'm almost certain), both of which preceded the Valve-ification by far. Granted, the bipods were pretty buggy for awhile in regards to world objects like window sills and sandbags but they worked fine on the ground.

And the "weapon down" delays for various actions (such as moving to and from prone) have been in for a long time. 1.3b at least.

TimothyC · Post by **TimothyC** » 2007-02-01 12:20pm

Ma Deuce wrote:I still play the original Command and Conquer and Red alert

I actually found a Mod for RA2 that brings back all of the Red Alert Units and structures, and is quite playable. "It Came from Red Alert" is the name if it.

FSTargetDrone · Post by **FSTargetDrone** » 2007-02-01 02:10pm

Golan III wrote:If you really want to get old-school, Mechwarrior 2 is a blast. Great game, good missions, good sountracks. Too bad you gotta run it in WinME.

I have two versions of MW2. One is the original, the other is some graphically souped up version giving the mechs some texturing and the like.

It came bundled with some graphics card I bought years ago.

Got a link to those updated x-wing alliance / vs TIE fighter ships? I'd love to see some screenshots...

my favorite games ever, right there. That and the original Dark Forces.

Certainly! Here you go.

To clarify, it is for X-Wing Alliance only. It redoes nearly all of the ships, giving the Executor-class SSD its correct length, new cockpits for the fighters and some other stuff. You have to download a .zip or .exe for each individual model you want to update, which is a bit of a pain, but it does let you pick and choose:

Q.: What is the goal of the XWA Upgrade project?
A.: Our goal is to redo most of the original opts from Lucas Arts' X-Wing Alliance. We find that many of those opts are done in an inadequate way. A lot of the possibilities like illuminated textures, transparent faces are not used in the extent possible. When the XWA Upgrade project is done, the game will have some of the best 3D-Models seen in games so far.

We want to upgrade X-Wing Alliance, so please understand that this will lead to higher minimum requirements than the original XWA had. This is also only a graphical update. Statistics of ships will be mostly left alone. Only few changes will be made, but those will be tested in game to see whether or not they change the game balance too much.

Q.: When will the whole patch be released?
A.: For now we don't have an exact date when the final project will be released. We will also give no more release dates out. We did do this for the RFP but ran into huge problems. Due to the reaction from most of your visitors we decided to refrain from making anymore release dates, sorry.

Q.: When will model xyz be done?
A.: When it's done. Progress reports will be posted by the team at the discretion of the individual(s) working on a particular model. There is no need to ask for progress reports on the forum.

Q.: I have an awesome Star Wars model which was not originally featured in XWA, can you include it into the project?
A.: No, while we do add two models that are not featured in the original game will we not add any other models. However, if you do want to use this model to proof your skill as a modeler go right ahead, we'll be more than pleased to welcome new talented people into out team!

Q.: Will you change the ships stats, like speed, shield or hull rating?
A.: This project is only a graphical one. We try to keep the possibilities of each craft the same as it was in XWA. We will only change the SSD to it's true length (17.6 instead of just 6 km), but those changes will be tested thoroughly and all missions in XWA were the SSD will appear will be changed accordingly.

This is also an issue since we try to stay compatible with custom made missions from fans! While we know that the bigger version of the SSD will make problems we think that this is an easy to solve matter. But besides that we really try to keep the gaming balance as it is!

Q.: What are the two additional craft that are going to be added to XWA? Any hope of them being the E-Wing and K-Wing?
A.: Nope. This project is only to upgrade craft already in the game, and therefore which appear during the scope of the campaign (which ends at the Battle of Endor). Because the E-wing and K-wing weren't introduced until after XWA takes place they won't be included.

The only new craft to be added are ones which enhance the atmosphere of the campaign, and therefore exist during the XWA timeframe: Namely, the Battle of Endor. While the exact ships to be added aren't wholly decided, those in strongest contention are the Rebellion's medical-variant Nebulon-B Frigate, Home One, (which has the strongest support of addition) Vader's TIE Advanced x1 and the StarViper (which was listed in Totally Game's FAQ).

Q.: Why are my ions purple instead of blue?
A.: This is because we released two ions: blue, (as in the games), and purple, (as seen in the films). If you want the blue one instead of the purple one, make sure you deselect the purple ions in the installer!

Q.: You ruined the whole game! I hate what you did! You are all morons! Can't you make it better?
A.: Well, too bad. Or as Darksaber would say:

If you don't like it, make it yourself

Most of the ships seem to be done, since I last checked.

And yes, you can fly Darth Vader's Tie Fighter.