"Good Old Games"

MSUSteve · 2011-06-16T12:02:05.000Z

I was really hoping I was going to come in here and see that Wing Commander Prophecy had been released.

Nikolaj · 2011-06-16T12:37:52.000Z

MSUSteve:

I was really hoping I was going to come in here and see that Wing Commander Prophecy had been released.

I’d love to see that on GOG. I loved the Wing commander game, but despite buying two copies of Prophecy, I never managed to get it to work on my old pc.

countzero · 2011-06-16T12:55:43.000Z

I loved Magic Carpet and have been waiting for it on gog. It’s one of the games that has a special place in my gaming memories. It’s true: it became a little repetitive near the end but before that you already had lots of fun. I’m actually surprised about the mixed echo here.

Quitch · 2011-06-16T14:36:09.000Z

gurugeorge:

It’s funny, I remember playing System Shock and Terra Nova from Looking Glass, and really getting into the SZXC system and thinking it was ergonomically brilliant once you got used to it (much more comfortable for sitting at the keyboard with than the arrow keys I was used to from Doom). A few years later, Valve introduced WASD in Half Life and I thought, “oh yeah, they’ve nicked that idea from Looking Glass, except they’ve shifted it up a key, and actually it’s even more ergonomic that way because it’s easier to bash the space bar with your thumb”.

I wonder if Valve did consciously nick it or just came up with the general idea independently? Does anyone know the real facts behind that curious little corner of gaming history?

I’m pretty sure WASD pre-dates that, I recall PC Review (UK) talking about it all the time not long after Doom.

Valve used it as the default I think because it was what FPS gamers were remapping their keys to in every game they were buying. Since the company consisted of Doom and Quake modders I suspect it’s likely they carried over habits from those games.

Alan_Au · 2011-06-17T17:28:07.000Z

WASD is very old. I’ve seen it used for old European sidescrollers, but really I suspect it was originally used as control option for split-screen multiplayer games (alongside ESDF and IJKL) for whichever player didn’t get to use the arrow keys.

In shooters, I think it was standardized primarily by Quake, which I remember as one of the earliest mouselook-based games; with your right hand on the mouse, navigational control fell to your left hand.

Papageno · 2011-06-17T19:43:41.000Z

Not in an FPS, but I remember using WASD way back in '88 or so to play Beyond Dark Castle on the Mac (an awesome old sidescroller).

MattKeil · 2011-06-17T19:52:16.000Z

I definitely used WASD to play Marathon in 1994 and Dark Forces in 1995. Quake 1 was the first time I used mouselook, though.

rhinohelix · 2011-06-17T19:54:22.000Z

I just wasted several days off playing Master of Magic to death again, and tonight picked up Alpha Centari. O Weekend, I hardly knew Ye.

Hal9000:

I miss this old, perhaps unknown game called “Chaos Overlords.” I thought that maybe GOG would have picked it up, but all I can find is an independent guy working on CO2. Well, it might be worth it.

The gang game! Futuristic Illuminati. I loved this.

Mysterio:

Where has the time gone? :-(

It’s all in a box down at the Post Office. Come over Wednesday after school and we can ride our bikes down there and get it back.

Warning · 2011-06-17T21:31:42.000Z

Papageno:

Not in an FPS, but I remember using WASD way back in '88 or so to play Beyond Dark Castle on the Mac (an awesome old sidescroller).

Oh wow I remember that game. I hated those bats!

Angrycoder · 2011-06-18T00:02:30.000Z

IJKL to play The Bard’s Tale, that was 1985. Same shit, different side.

moss_icon · 2011-06-18T00:44:41.000Z

from my days of using the sinclair spectrum in the 80s, i preferred qaop.

Kurina · 2011-06-18T00:58:39.000Z

Didn’t see this mentioned, although maybe I missed it at this hour. There is no weekend promo for GOG this time around, as they are preparing for a “big savings” event next week starting on the 20th.

GOG.com

Download the best classic and new games on Windows, Mac & Linux. A vast selection of titles, DRM-free, with free goodies and 30-day money-back guarantee.

Hope it is good, definitely some games I have been meaning to grab lately.

Lynch · 2011-06-18T06:32:43.000Z

GOG’s marketing is very sympathetic.

ZekeDMS · 2011-06-18T06:35:06.000Z

I don’t think that word means what you think it means.

Lynch · 2011-06-18T06:43:56.000Z

Tell me more.

ZekeDMS · 2011-06-18T06:47:53.000Z

In what way does the advertising display qualities of empathy toward another, or act in a way responding to another event? Are you trying to say it’s pleasant? Are you trying to say it seems to be a response to Valve’s summer sales?

Sympathetic is just a word that doesn’t fit here.

Dan_Theman · 2011-06-18T06:49:42.000Z

I would say it’s more parasympathetic, but perhaps that’s just me.

ZekeDMS · 2011-06-18T06:52:02.000Z

Ba-dum tish!

Lynch · 2011-06-18T06:56:21.000Z

ZekeDMS:

Are you trying to say it’s pleasant?

Exactly, maybe my preferences have do with my European roots. We share the same humor (!) except for the British and the Scandinavians.

Quitch · 2011-06-18T09:35:27.000Z

Alan Au:

In shooters, I think it was standardized primarily by Quake, which I remember as one of the earliest mouselook-based games; with your right hand on the mouse, navigational control fell to your left hand.

Mouselook still required a console command to enable though.