[quote]Clearly… Killer Instict! ;D
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Rock on! That’s like second on my list after Wing Commander! I’ve still got a little card (gotten off the 'net of course) that shows the combo hit branches. Using that, I was able to trace out and perform Orchids 48 hit combo!
UUUUUUUUUULLLLLLLLLLLLLLLTTTTTTTTTTTTRRRRRRRRRAAAAAAAAAAAA COOOOOOOOOOOOOOOMMMMMMMMMMMMMBBBBBBBBOOOOOOOO!!!
Usually followed by a:
C-C-C-C-C-C-C-OMBO BREAKER! 
[quote]I played it for years… with daily tournaments n stuff.
Well, I can’t play beat’em ups anymore. My left thumb is somewhat broken ever since then. I just can’t put any strain on that joint otherwise it will start to hurt (a lot) 
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That sucks. Because there are a couple of very popular Killer Instinct emulators out there that let you play the original arcade game in all it’s glory. You really need a gamepad or joystick, though. I tried using my 6 button Capcom pad, but Windows only recognizes four of the buttons. 
Still, it’s quite playable if you assign those buttons to high/low and forget about the medium. 
[quote]I’m wondering if beat’em ups would be still my favorite genre if I had like… an invincible thumb. Hm… Guess so. The thrilling factor is absolutly unmatched. First person shooters for example needs so much pressure behind it (like a tournament on a big lan party) for getting close to that. I think I kinda miss that…
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I somewhat doubt you’d find them as interesting today. Street Fighter II and Killer Instinct were both games that focused heavily on strategy, and the ability to predict what your opponent was going to do. Killer Instinct took it to unprecedented heights with its amazing combo/combo breaker/end moves style of play. Not to mention the shear speed at which games played out! :o
Unfortunately, they screwed it all up with KI2. For some reason, the sequel just didn’t have that same feeling of visceral fighting that the first one did. Things felt slower, and far too reliant on “special features” like the parry. All the fighters that followed were 3D fighters of some sort or another. Neat, but not really the same type of game.
Ye… I know the emulator for the arcade machine. My windows “Start” button has even “KiAME” written on it ;D
There are some rather good and very cheap gamepads like Saitek Impact X6-38U, which is a (kind of) “rebuild” of the playstation dual stick gamepad. You can get that one for around 8¤ here. Or the X6-38V with rumble for about 11¤. I have two Saitek P880 and they are pretty nice (~19¤ - P2500 is the same with rumble ~23¤). Saitek really learned their lessions… their gamepads used to suck
Not to mention the shear speed at which games played out!
Yea… you could almost do everything as turbo or shadow variation, too. Like linker, endings or ultras (there are even shadow ultimates). All you need to do is doing a combo breaker (or sabrewulf’s howl) to get that flashing thing on your energy bar… and then you can do the shadow things by pressing and holding the button… doing the special move movement and then release (instead of pressing). Well, I guess you already know about that
Unfortunately, they screwed it all up with KI2.
Ye… I was really disappointed with that one :-/
They should have released KI1 for the N64 instead of that KI Gold thingy (KI2).
And 3d beat’em ups are all rather boring. They look shiny and have nice boob-physics… but that’s about it. They just lack speed, tactics and they kinda feel wrong. (Needless to say that their combo system either sucks or is non-existant.) It’s like those puzzle games where they just senselessly slapped 3d on it. Some game mechanics just weren’t ment to be used in 3d.
Space simulation? TIe fighter
Best game?
Chrono trigger.
[quote]Ye… I know the emulator for the arcade machine. My windows “Start” button has even “KiAME” written on it ;D
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Hah! Well, there you go.
[quote]There are some rather good and very cheap gamepads like Saitek Impact X6-38U, which is a (kind of) “rebuild” of the playstation dual stick gamepad.
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Yeah, I know about all the cheap gamepads. (I had to research them for JGC. You can find an example of a low-feature, low-cost Gravis pad there.) Unfortunately, I can be quite lazy when I set my mind to it. That, and I’m not sure I could get my wife to play KI with me. Maybe when my sons are old enough.
[quote]>Unfortunately, they screwed it all up with KI2.
Ye… I was really disappointed with that one :-/
They should have released KI1 for the N64 instead of that KI Gold thingy (KI2).
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I’m glad to hear that I’m not the only one who thinks that. All the magazines of the time were falling over themselves to praise KI Gold. I just sat there and said “We bought the SuperNES version to hold us over until the REAL thing got here. And now you give us THIS CRAP?! WTF?” Probably one of the most boneheaded moves ever executed by Nintendo Corp and Rare. (Although Rare has never needed Nintendo’s help to screw up royally. :-))
[quote]And 3d beat’em ups are all rather boring. They look shiny and have nice boob-physics… but that’s about it. They just lack speed, tactics and they kinda feel wrong. (Needless to say that their combo system either sucks or is non-existant.) It’s like those puzzle games where they just senselessly slapped 3d on it. Some game mechanics just weren’t ment to be used in 3d.
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While the 3D games usually suck, I’m not sure that they can’t work. If you remember, KI had a couple of 3D levels that worked really well. They could have put that gameplay in a full-3D environment and everything would have been fine. Unfortunately, they all followed the Virta-Fighter style instead. Virta-Fighter sucked, but it was considered a successful experiment into 3D fighting. Ever since then, 3D game makers have copied the Virta-Fighter play and looked for better ways of making the character’s skirts flip up. :-/
FWIW, I always thought that KI had the right idea for introducing exciting sword combat into video games. You see, using swords in combat can be very exciting because the skill required in executing the proper thrust/block/parry movements. Unfortunately, a game controller just doesn’t allow for enough freedom of movement to replicate this experience. (And there are quite a few people who would be scared silly at the idea of me getting near a real sword. Even if it is just a training rapier! ;-)) The traditional solution has been to use a given button for a given move. However, that’s kind of boring and in no way replicates the true degree of moves possible in sword combat.
The solution is to use a combo system. Just like how KI replicated hand to hand combat in two dimensions through the use of a combo system, so could a 3D sword fighter replicate the variety of sword swings, moves, blocks, spins, parries, and thrusts. Imagine locking your opponent into a chain combo of thrust/blocks only terminated when you manage to find just the right moment to execute a parry and lunge! If your opponent is quick enough (and his character is at the correct center of balance) then he could execute a push maneuver to shove you away from him to prevent the lunge and effectively break contact.
I don’t know how much it would really replicate real sword fighting, but it would be a damn fun game! ;D
What abot the soul calibur series… Pretty good designs and excelent gameplay (3D sword fighting).
[quote]What abot the soul calibur series… Pretty good designs and excelent gameplay (3D sword fighting).
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“The soul still burns!”
Loved that game!
Nethack. Tis the only game I’ve gone back to time after time.
Mmm, everyone seams to have HL2 love, or something, it has been nominated for just about everything in the GDC Awards. While it is a very prewty game, and (I at lest) felt very drawn into the game world. But it is not the best game about. Twas way to short, the end game baddy sucked, the puzzles were not great and story could of been better (but I’m hoping the story gets filled in in HL3).
And thats comming from someone that voted on it.
Bloodwych. Two player Dungeon Master-like game on Amiga. Plus data disc (Vortex!)
Memories of my early 80’s childhood…
- Lemmings were once my favourite !
- And even before… Jet Set Willy (amstrad cpc 464) !!
- Approx at the same time, Arcade games : Ghosts and Goblins (still my MAME favorite although very hard) and Street Fighter.
Now, I somewhat think that games are too much about look and not enough about feel. This is why I prefer creating (small) games over playing with commercial ones, that seem to be produced by 4 engine-adapters and 80 graphics designers… (getting older…)
Lilian
Ummm, the games I spent most time on:
Ms.Pacman, Galaga, Elite, Super Deform Snatcher, Dungeon Master, Damocles, Half-Life, System Shock 2
I can’t choose which one is the best though…
I guess I’ll be the first to mention Starcraft
Starcraft was great! We used to play it on the college lan at night. Sometimes I arrived at shool in the evening, played all night, went to the classes in the morning and then home to sleep. Ahhh, great times.
ahhh the ‘good ole days’ ;D Its weird how most games now dont hold my interest as long as they used to (even typing this shows my age as with every key press its my fingers making clicking noises and not the keys! :-/ hehe)
I remember playing WC 1 on a really crusty pc and actually its probably one of the ONLY games I played all the way through!.
I love looking at the old C64 games as that was the machine of my day (well school days!) and recently been looking at loads of the old games to give me insiration for a game in Java (nothing like a good old game to help learn a new language! hehe)
I thought about converting one (or more) of my uncles C64 games he wrote which may still happen if I cant find any of my old favs! ( I did convert his first ever C64 game to the atari ST many years ago! (moon crystals btw)
Best game hmmm… not a great fan of the 3d games of today! Prefer the good old 2D platform games or shoot em ups!
hey thats awesome, I’ve been having the same thought. The c64 had some great games and I’ve been thinking about remaking one of the windham classics games: below the root or alice in wonderland.
as for the best game, I don’t know ‘exactly’ which one, but I’d say it was certainly made by blizzard, warcraft2-3 (didn’t really play the first one much, only had a demo), starcraft, or diablo2.
I can’t believe it was so long until anyone mentioned Elite. For it’s time nothing else has come close. Even since I haven’t really seen anything come close. I bought a GBA at least partly on the rumours of a version of Elite for it, although those apparently came to nothing
The best version, in case anyone needs a definitive answer, was the one for the Acorn Archimedes series of computers. Best AI I have ever seen in a game, full stop.
Also up there Secret of Monkey Island, Daggerfall, Zelda 64 and The Bards Tale - the first one, which was great, not sequels that had 100000000 levels and random monster generators and were rubbish.
[quote]I can’t believe it was so long until anyone mentioned Elite. For it’s time nothing else has come close.
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Elite definitely gets my vote. Also Ultima 7, Ultima Underwurld 1, more recently Outcast, and even more recently Zelda Wind Waker… (or walker, or whatever it was).
Honourable mention should go to Wolfenstein for being the first time my jaw dropped when looking at a computer game.
hey guys, I like the ideia of doing remakes of the old games! Here in Brazil in the 80’s the MSX computer was very popular. Besides Japan, Brazil was the country where MSX got spread very quickly (until today we have fans here!). There were lot of good games too (mostly of them has C64 version too): Knight Mare, Starquake, Knight Lore, Wizard’s Lair, etc
For those who like remakes
http://www.remakeszone.com/
So, I can’t believe that no one has actually listed the truly “BEST GAME EVER”. Wait for it…
ROBOTRON 2084
This is, in my opinion, the GREATEST game ever made. It has a perfect balance of speed, challenge, play mechanics and risk/reward. What makes it so amazing is that it never slows down. No time to rest, no safe zones, complete speed. This is the greatest game ever.
As for modern systems/games, Katamari Damacy is crazy good and Burnout 3 is one of the best racing games I have ever played (from a viseral point of view). Oh yeah, FF series rocks (But Grandia 2 BLOWS them away!)
-ChrisM
Halo 1 here as well. I own Halo 2 also, which is an awesome game I’ve spent hours online with for much satisfaction, but Halo 1’s story is just so great. I feel like I’m watching my favorite movie every time I play. That, and every time my brother and I go through the game, we find another cool quirk in the game to make it fun. Every single time I play it’s exciting. Halo 2 is fun, but the I don’t think its storyline and level design is half as good as Halo 1’s. It’s only worthy of the price I paid because of the online experience which is very well coded I must say However, Halo 1 is still my favorite.
Oh man… but then there was Quake 1: Team Fortress. No, that’s my favorite game of all time for sure. I couldn’t measure time played in that in hours. I’d have to measure it in weeks. Since the very VERY first form of existance of Team Fortress I was playing it. You logged into a server and it looked like the server was screwed but you had to know to type a class name in the console to spawn as it There were no special models or effects or maps for the game back then, but it was the best way to play. As Team Fortress developed, it only got better. I so lived for that game.
Then Half-Life came out and with TFC, I about threw up when I played it. I couldn’t believe they had screwed up Team Fortress so badly. I can say with 100% conviction that I could not create a more horrible version of TFC if I had all my life to dedicate to the cause. I wish I could smack everyone involved in its development
Mmmm… anyone for a game of Quake? ;D