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Marek

Obscure games featurama (aka "remember this?")

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Okay, let's get a thread started with crazy games you may have forgotten about.

How about Z?

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Basically, it was an RTS game like Command & Conquer, except much more fast-paced and without any resource gathering. There were a bunch of zones that you had to control, so you had to use blitzkrieg tactics pretty much all the time.

Too bad the game had terrible graphics or it might have been noticed more. I think it actually came out in 1996 even though it looks like a game from 1990. (Dunno if 1996 is "retro" enough. Probably not. Whatever.)

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Yeah, I remember this game. I think I talked to you about it one time, or maybe it was someone else.

Man, I'm the king of useful, constructive posts. And redundancy.

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Yeah, that was at E3 when I mentioned seeing a guy from The Bitmap Brothers at the airport.

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Ah yes, good old The Bitmap Brothers. I still think it's weird that you are able to easily identify so many of these random industry people.

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I was SO addicted to that game. I liked it even better than Command and Conquerer. And those cut-scene movies were hilarious!

--Erwin

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Basically, it was an RTS game like Command & Conquer, except much more fast-paced and without any resource gathering. There were a bunch of zones that you had to control, so you had to use blitzkrieg tactics pretty much all the time.

Too bad the game had terrible graphics or it might have been noticed more. I think it actually came out in 1996 even though it looks like a game from 1990. (Dunno if 1996 is "retro" enough. Probably not. Whatever.)

I don't think it looked that bad for 1996. Red Alert was all the rage at the time, and I don't remember it looking much more outdated than that. I think its lack of success had more to do with being a) DOS-based at a time when that was just beginning to be scary and bad, B) in competition with C&C/Red Alert, and c) in competition with all the other C&C/Red Alert clones around at the time.

Hmm, obscure games, obscure games... anyone remember Hardwar? One of my personal favourites - it was released in 1998 (OK, so still not really retro) after a delay of quite a few years - the final year of which was reportedly to upgrade it from a DOS game to DirectX and add 3dfx support! Sadly, despite critical acclaim, it pretty much sank without a trace. It was a space trading game in the vein of Elite (some reviews really went overboard with the "next big thing" schtick :shifty:). The big innovation was that it was set in a fairly claustrophobic game world - a collection of networked craters on the crumbling colony of Titan - so thanks to the numerous AI pilots with their own agendas, it had a real 'living' feeling to it. You could take on various roles - eg. trading (and fighting off endless pirate attacks), vigilantism, bounty hunting, or follow the fairly interesting optional storyline (complete with live-action FMV).

Random images alert:

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If you're interested, it's available to download as one of the top-ranked games in the Hall of Belated Fame on that one site - which is nice. I wouldn't feel bad about doing so, by the way - thanks to their publishers (Interplay in the US and Gremlin in the UK) either going belly-up or being bought out, the developers apparently didn't see much of their hard-earned cash! The last anyone heard from them, they were trying to take the Hardwar engine and make a MMORPG type thing out of it - which would have been great, if they'd been able to finish it off before going bust.

OK, admittedly not really retro, but I haven't just talked at far too much length about Call of Duty, at least. :partyhat:

Edit - Also I didn't spot the word "Crazy". Bah. Still, this meets the other criteria. :shifty:

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Base Jumpers was pretty mad.

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Twas a great multiplayer game, you race each other to the top of the level, collecting letters to spell words that make mad powerups and mini-games. When you get to the top of the level you jump off and freefall, trying to barge each other into obstacles. You then try and be the first to land, leaving it as late as possible to pull your parachute and not splat into the floor.

Not many people seem to have played it (it was probably amiga-only) but for such a simple game it was damm good fun. Its possible that the evil rose-tinted glasses of nostalgia have crept in this post, just be grateful that I didnt go on about Wizkid as I usually do when someone mentions crazy games.

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Those were the days, when game credits looked like this:

Programming, music, sound, graphics

Johnny Delicious

...and not like this:

Executive Producer

Herve Caen

Best Boy

Hugh Mann

Assistant Marketing Director, Japan

Jesus Christ

Driver for Mr. Nukem

Lo Chen Wu

...and so on.

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you hate everything, ya moany old bastard. I suspect that you even hate moaning because it gives you a sort of masochistic and paradoxical thrill.

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just be grateful that I didnt go on about Wizkid as I usually do when someone mentions crazy games.

WIZKID!

Now THERE was a great game! Perhaps the most brilliantly unique, clever, surreal and FUN game!! I thought it was just me, the Amiga Power staff and somebody at Sensible who actually like this game! I'd LOVE to see that on my GBA!

Anyway... I'm also a huge Bitmap Brothers fan. (There's a really cool Bitmap Bros site at www.gods-country.de if anyone is interested.) I've played all of their games and completed a fair chunk of them (including the forgotten Chaos Engine 2) but I've never played Z! (It never came out for the Amiga.)

I think since Eric Matthews left the company went seriously downhill, clearly the guy was a genius: The AI in Gods and the Chaos Engine... and of course, Speedball 2! I never got into Cadaver, although the graphics were gorgeous. *sigh* Sorry, I could wittle on about the Bitmaps all day.... just don't mention the hideous remake Speedball 2100.........

What about Rocket Ranger, anyone? I remember the graphics and sound were unbeleivable at the time on my Amiga (shame it looked shite on any other system)! You needed two disk drives, but it was worth it. Not necessarily a well rounded game, but it was still fun to play!

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Man, I loved Z, I thought I was the only one who bought it. I think a lot of people were all :deranged: about if because it was so slow moving, but for me that was part of the intensity.

Also, uh... Dogman... is right, it didn't really look that dated for its time. Even had some pixel scaling (or whatever they call it) in it.

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I already hate your featurama.

What are you talking about this is the best featurama ever in fact this featurama is going to redefine the genre of featuramas forever so shut up and play with some poo :gaming:

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Z was cool, but so god damn hard!

and hardwar still lives I believe, there's still a small group of people who play it online I believe... *checks* yup they even have a community website :) Oh and Hardwar has this kickass soundtrack with LFO, Aphex twin, squarepusher and all kinds of electronic music. The soundtrack alone is worth the purchase :)

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I take it you all know there was a sequel to Z, made a couple of years ago?

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I bet when the plans for a sequel were tabled, they wished they'd called the original Y.

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WIZKID!

When I read this I figured you were talking about Wizball and just got the name wrong. Googled it and found out it was the sequel to Wizball :eek: Sweet! Had no idea there was one. Wizball was great, not to mention unique. Wizkid sounds pretty similar.

And I agree with Dogman and ysbreker: Hardwar was very underrated and the soundtrack, which I still listen to, is scorching.

I always thought Sonic Spinball was a weird game - strange direction to take the franchise in. Still scratch my head about it.

Also, every game I played on my old bbc b+ was based on some crazy, laughable premise, including this one

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If anyone ever finds a complete solution to Wizkid, all the tea in China/my wordly possessions are up for grabs. I would kill to finally complete that game, I can totally trace all my bad experiences in life to not getting that last kitten in Wizkid.

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Forget that crappy guide, I've written the a whole new FAQ/Walkthrough (or the basis of one) for Wizkid (I can't believe there isn't one out there already!).

I had the same problem as Benny... one missing bloody Kitty! I remember, I've always had that problem, not enough pussy :sad: In the game, I mean. Honest.

I suspect that maybe it's some copy-protection that the crackers missed. Are you using a cracked version, Benny? Either that or I'm just crap, because I can't figure out how you get the Kitty for Level 5!!! I'd love to finish this game finally, want to put our heads together to see if we can figure this out? PM me.

Anyhoo, here's the work-in-progress FAQ/Walkthough. The main stuff is done (although it's missing the fancy stuff) and I think it's the most complete guide for this game at the moment (which is pretty bad seeing at this one is incomplete!). I'd like to finish it though...

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Jesus, i'm now Thunderpeel's bitch :shifty:

I'll be more careful when arbitrarily offering my worldly possessions in future. Nice one! I'll definitely go back and have another go now.

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It was made by the BMB, yeah. As to whether or not it was better or worse, I have no idea, I never played either of them... Try Googling some reviews...

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