On Tue, 28 Mar 2023 14:38:16 +0300, Anssi Saari <
as@sci.fi> wrote:
I can't think of much. The big games from late 90s for me are probably
SS2 and Deus Ex.
I'm trying to avoid the 'big name' games largely because, due to their
status, most of them have been updated to run smoothly on modern
hardware; thus, there's no need to put them on the dedicated Win9x PC.
I remember Red Alert mostly because I installed Windows 95 when I hit
the infamous Red Alert's DOS version installer bug. I guess you've
covered RTS games and moving them into Windows hardly made a difference
from playing them in DOS.
I was never a fan of the Red Alert games; I always preferred the main
series. "Command & Conquer 2" was one of the first games installed on
the win98 computer. I loved its map art!
Battlezone from 1998 comes to mind as a slightly less known game, a kind
of RTS/FPS hybrid. It did use 3D acceleration for graphics too as I
recall, I remember some pretty smoke effects.
Ooh, that's a good one. I need to dig out the CD for that game.
Heavy Gear II? It even had a short mission where you were in free fall
with your gear. That was a somewhat unusual bit in an otherwise fairly
dull FPS.
That's another good suggestion; alas, one I had already thought of. I
had to decide between "Heavy Gear" and "Heavy Gear II"; eventually I
decided on the former, simply because it runs better on the hardware.
While HG2 was /mechanically/ a better game (better visuals, better
controls), and it had some memorable missions (the aforementioned
space missions) its gameplay wasn't as exciting, largely because it
nerfed the enemies. In the HG universe, the 'gears' (the giant robots)
fit realistically between infanty and proper armored units like tanks,
and the first game respected this. But in the second game, gears
became overpowered and tanks extremely squishy. This not only removed
a lot of the challenge, but much of the game's versimilitude.
Side note: another classic Activision game of the era is "Interstate
76", but I couldn't get that game to run; it crashed whenever I
started a mission. Still, I did get to see the awesome intro.
What else, NOLF maybe? I remember one newish feature there was that it
showed stats of where you had hit your enemies as in head/torso/limb
shots. It lead to me trying for headshots in System Shock 2 even though
it was completely pointless there. I doubt it was the first game to do
that though. Well, the 60s secret agent vibe wasn't that common at the
time as I recall. But you probably have NOLF there already?
NOLF is /very/ tempting but, having been released in 2002, I think it
would be a poor fit for the hardware. The game would probably run but
- with only a 300MHz CPU and a Voodoo 3, I'd likely have to compromise
on visual quality and, let's face it, 3D FPS games of that era were no
lookers to begin with.
Anyway, while I loved the setting the gameplay always left me cold (to
get maximum enjoyment, you'd have to slowly sneak through the level
and then freeze in one place for five minutes everytime an NPC started
talking to hear his humorous comments).
Still, I could try other Monolith games; "SHOGO" and "Blood II" are
the most obvious (since the share the same engine), but personally I
never found either of them that enjoyable. But perhaps "Rage of Mages"
or "Septera Core". So a good - if indirect - recommendation; thank you
;-)
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