OT, as in not even remotely relevant: Favorite old-school video games
In honor of Rick Snyder's campaign for Governor and Protector of Michigan against the evil robot uprising, I will bring out my inner nerd. What are your favorite old-school video games? Obviously, it's very tough to set any parameters for what is old school, but it probably doesn't include GTA 4. I recently found what is possibly the most awesome website ever: Virtual NES. Tons of NES games you can play through Flash (?).
As a kid, I had and loved NES and SNES. Of course, it goes without saying that Mario 1-3 and Zelda are amazing. Mario 3 and Zelda are definitely among my all-time favorites. When I got SNES, I had Mario World (I got sick of it once I got 96%) and Mario All-Stars. I loved Castlevania games whenever I rented them, and I bought Symphony of Night on the PSN Store a while back. I remember enjoying Castlevania 2, but this guy reminded me of how frustrating it really was.
Other huge favorites of mine, however, were Mega Man 2-4 + X, TMNT 2-4, and Battletoads, even though I could never make it past the pipe level because holy shit that game was difficult (considered by some to be the hardest of all time). I recently found the original Mega Man and Mega Man X collections for PS2 on ebay, so that's exciting. Paper Boy was also great.
What are your favorites?
February 22nd, 2010 at 2:38 PM ^
- Bonk's Adventure on the Turbo Grafx 16
- Sonic on the Sega Game Gear
- Fifa 98 for PS1
- NHL 98 for PS1
February 22nd, 2010 at 2:38 PM ^
I don't know if this has been posted yet but I saw this yesterday. Looks like they are coming out with a Tecmo bowl throwback game for Xbox and Ps3. Check it out here.
http://www.joystiq.com/2010/02/21/esrb-rates-tecmo-bowl-throwback-for-p…
February 22nd, 2010 at 4:50 PM ^
It looks like it's for the handhelds, and doesn't have the players (understandable, I guess, with all the players out of the Union that the contract was made with).
February 22nd, 2010 at 2:38 PM ^
Civilization 2
Donkey Kong
Blades of Steel
NHL '94 - classic
Final Fantasy 7
Legend of Zelda
February 22nd, 2010 at 2:41 PM ^
Out of curiosity, which do you think is more classic: Zelda or FF7? They were both immensely popular at the time (and still are relative to the rest of the games that were made then).
February 22nd, 2010 at 3:03 PM ^
but I'd probably go with FF7. Can't beat the graphics/video and the epic storyline.
February 22nd, 2010 at 2:39 PM ^
There was pinball machine called "Bow and Arrow", now that was a classic.
February 22nd, 2010 at 2:40 PM ^
Gotta love the early Maddens, where the collision in the game is totally fucked up and you can "tackle" someone without ever actually colliding with their 100 pixel form on the screen.
February 22nd, 2010 at 2:40 PM ^
I will exclude any N64 games, since I refuse to accept that it is old school. So, here goes:
1. Super Mario 3 (and it's not even close)
2. Dr. Robotnik's Mean Bean Machine - Tetris knock off with a Sonic theme. I still play it religiously.
3. Any of the Donkey Kong games.
February 22nd, 2010 at 2:40 PM ^
Anyone remember Ye Ar Kung Fu from the arcades in the mid 80s? It was like a precursor to Street Fighter, and I was obsessed. Like the original Street Fighter, if you got decent at it you could play for half an hour on one quarter. They don't make 'em like that anymore.
Was also obsessed w/ Wing Commander on my 286 or whatever PC when those were around.
And back in the day I loved the WWF game for my Commodore 64. You try to make a move w/ your joystick, then wait 30-60 seconds for it to load before doing something. The anticipation was amazing.
February 22nd, 2010 at 2:56 PM ^
That was a funny clip.
February 22nd, 2010 at 2:46 PM ^
River raid on the Atari 2600.
February 23rd, 2010 at 12:45 AM ^
Quite possibly the best game the Atari 2600 had to offer.
February 22nd, 2010 at 2:54 PM ^
I had a Macintosh growing up, no consoles. This was one of the only games they had. I loved it. According to Wikipedia, there's still a dedicated group of fans and updated releases of the game.
When I graduated onto a Windows machine, there was not a much better selection of football games leading up to the Madden series. There was one I used to play, Tom Landry Strategy Football.
I also loved the Tony Larussa baseball series for PC, particularly its fantasy draft and its farm system (i think the first baseball game that incorporated a farm system).
February 22nd, 2010 at 3:08 PM ^
Robotron at the arcade...atari river raid at home.
February 22nd, 2010 at 3:09 PM ^
NBA Slam, Mortal Combat, Super Mario 3, Megaman,Sonic and Knuckles there is just to many to name them all
February 22nd, 2010 at 3:10 PM ^
Way too many to name. I think my all time a favorite is Goldeneye on N64. We used to get stoned and play that for hours. I also loved Double Dragon 2 on NES. I loved kneeing the shit out of someone and watching them fly across the screen. I just softmodded my original Xbox and I got endless emulators and Roms from pretty much all the old school platforms. I am in gaming heaven now.
February 22nd, 2010 at 3:10 PM ^
The best was Tecmo Football. Having to run up and down like a kindergartener drawing mountains on a breakaway run; dropping all the way back to your own end zone and throwing ridiculous bombs all the way down the field; the absurdity of having Bo Jackson and Marcus Allen in the same backfield; the sweet graphics for touchdowns; trying to cheat and see your opponent's plays; all of these are ingredients foe a souffle of awesome!
February 22nd, 2010 at 3:40 PM ^
A couple bonkers picks from the Genesis heyday:
Mutant League Football (Violence + Monsters + Madden 93 = infinite awesome!)
General Chaos
Sonic the Hedgehog 2
And Twisted Metal 2 for the original PS. I don't care who you are or how you've lived your life, I will beat you in a deathmatch with Spectre.
February 22nd, 2010 at 4:39 PM ^
holy shit I used to play twisted metal 2 all night long every other weekend with my cousins. We would cheat and get infinite weapons and win single player with every single character to see the awesome ending cut scenes. Calypso would screw all of them by saying they would get whatever they wanted. But the lesson is be careful what you wish for cuz they all ended up too greedy and would die at the hands of their own pride.
Good lord I loved that game.
February 22nd, 2010 at 5:33 PM ^
It's been a long time. My favorite was Grasshopper's where it turned out she was a robot bomb of Calypso's daughter built by the LAPD. Completely useless as a character, but damned if it wasn't sweet to see her blow up.
February 22nd, 2010 at 3:45 PM ^
Awesome awesome game. I wish I could play it again. Also, I was a huge fan of Worms: Armageddon.
February 22nd, 2010 at 3:49 PM ^
Dammit, I forgot Master of Magic!
Also Master of Orion I & II
February 22nd, 2010 at 4:06 PM ^
I loaded Master of Orion on my Mac in the classic environment about three years ago. Turns out that game is really, really easy when you're not 6 years old.
February 22nd, 2010 at 3:51 PM ^
Now I feel old because I was going to mention Zork...
Grues and trolls and the need for a good lamp.
Verbose, bitches.
February 22nd, 2010 at 3:57 PM ^
NES
-Tecmo Super Bowl
-Rygar
-Contra
-Baseball Stars
Genesis
-Sonic
-NBA Jam
SNES
-Mario Kart
February 22nd, 2010 at 3:58 PM ^
Can't believe no one has mentioned Madden 94 Championship Edition.
It was the first Madden that had the classic teams from the 60's, 70's, 80's...I can't remember how many times I made my mom drive me to the video store to rent it. Thanks, Mom.
Others, as mentioned by others:
Tecmo Bowl
NHL 94 (gotta love the one-timers)
Oregon Trail (whoever flew through typing class to play this...me too!)
Monkey Island
Others I haven't seen mentioned (or I read too fast)
Mario Kart (Battle Mode--awesome)
Mortal Kombat
Duke Nukem
Doom
Castle Wolfenstein (no one else?? Gatling gun!)
And an all-time favorite..
Leisure Suit Larry
February 22nd, 2010 at 4:04 PM ^
Lode Runner, though I only have memories of Lode Runner 2, oddly. What a strange and addictive game.
February 22nd, 2010 at 4:16 PM ^
The mentioned Techmo and Wing Commander always deserve another nod, as do all the Atari games (Decathalon, anyone?).
Super NES Star Wars Triology of games.
Scorced Earth from college was fun too.
arcade- Spy Hunter, Star Wars (the Original Trench Run).
The original Resident Evil and Silent Hill- when Video Games started being scarier than movies.
A hundred more you all will probably remind me of...
February 22nd, 2010 at 4:20 PM ^
The first game I was truly hooked on was The Bards Tale.
Somewhere around 1985.
February 22nd, 2010 at 4:24 PM ^
I had that on my Mac SE.
February 23rd, 2010 at 12:51 AM ^
In the unbroken string of failures that was my childhood, the only one true regret is that I failed to solve The Bard's Tale II.
February 22nd, 2010 at 4:22 PM ^
Q-Bert Dig Dug Galaga Space Invaders Centipede Missile Command Pole Position
February 22nd, 2010 at 4:24 PM ^
I just remembered an earlier addiction - Tunnels of Doom on the TI994a. That was 1981 or so.
February 22nd, 2010 at 4:56 PM ^
You can't beat the following old school Nintendo Games:
1. Mike Tyson's Punchout
2. Super Dodgeball
3. Castlevainia
4. Baseball Stars
5. Tecmo Bowl-You couldn't stop Bo Jackson, you could only hope to contain him.
February 22nd, 2010 at 5:09 PM ^
I can't even come close to remembering how many times I've beaten Shining Force 1 and 2 for the Genesis. Fantastic games. (Also, ninja Slade ftw).
February 22nd, 2010 at 5:20 PM ^
I can't believe nobody has mentioned Marble Madness!
February 22nd, 2010 at 7:27 PM ^
Zombies Ate My Neighbors
Yoshi's Island
Bomberman games
Mischief Makers
Diddy Kong Racing
February 22nd, 2010 at 9:18 PM ^
SpyHunter in the Union was always the best.....
February 22nd, 2010 at 10:07 PM ^
off the top of my head that I haven't noticed mentioned yet:
Atari 2600
-Kaboom!
-Bump 'n Jump
NES
-NES Golf (generic but fun)
Genesis
-Bill Walsh College Football
-Joe Montana Sports Talk Football (hilarious commentary)
February 22nd, 2010 at 10:12 PM ^
I can't believe I haven't seen a these yet:
Really Old School
- Pitfall
SNES
- Final Fantasy 3 aka FF6 - that game got me into RPG's for 15 years
February 22nd, 2010 at 11:50 PM ^
I'll try to limit this to games I didn't see posted yet.
PC
Tie Fighter
Lost Mind of Dr Brain
Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade
7th Guest
NES
Kickle Cubicle
Rampart
Afterburner
Bubble Bobble
Kirby's Adventure
Milon's Secret Castle
Cobra Triangle
Robin Hood: Prince of Thieves
StarTropics (1 and 2)
R.C. Pro-Am
Crystalis
Arch Rivals
Kings of the Beach
Tecmo NBA Basketball
SNES
Super Mario RPG - without a doubt, the best game ever.
February 23rd, 2010 at 12:38 AM ^
Rush and Attack and Contra were two of my favorites for NES! Besides the obvious ones(Tecmo bowl, ten yard fight, Mike Tyson's punchout, etc..)
February 23rd, 2010 at 12:53 AM ^
is what happened to about 2 years' worth of lunch money when I was in middle school.
February 23rd, 2010 at 1:14 AM ^
That game is the greatest!
Seriously. You should all be checking out
VirtualNES.com
February 25th, 2010 at 9:15 AM ^
For me it would go back to the NES days. I was a young teen when it came out and I got hooked instantly.
Super mario was the begining of the revolution of video games. It was the first game I played on the NES and would probably go down as my favorite of all time.
A close second would be the first game in the Metal Gear serious. It was an amazing game with all kinds of brain teasers in it.
I guess it would be hard for me to think of a game I didn't like, I am just a video game freak (though being a Dr. and having quadruplet 19 month olds doesn't leave me a lot of time for that passion anymore) and love just about anything going. Those owuld be my two favorite old school games though.