Oh man, those are my first ever Let’s Play videos. Thanks for watching, but man those were rough.
Well, as I abandoned any idea of playing Underworld Ascendant, I’m back to Bard’s Tale IV. Also found all three Journeyman Project games on sale on GOG, which hasn’t happened in forever, so I’m currently 90 minutes into the first one. A pure nostalgia trip, but it’s actually still quite a bit of fun.
I might also give Starsector a shot, after they kindly re-sent me the key from about six years ago.
How do those Journeyman Project games play? I understand they are adventure games. I am terrible at the genre (I even dislike Lucasarts games, because they are just pile of frustration where I have to look up anything to advance), but I enjoy very lite ones (like the first Syberia, or the recent Contradiction).
I played F-19 on the Atari ST back in the day. Definitely a great game and a true classic even if the modeled aircraft never really existed and was nothing like the real world F-117.
What sticks out in my recollections is the tension when opening the weapons bay caused radar cross section to jump upwards.
I don’t recall any issues with joystick control.
In the remake, F-117 Stealth Fighter 2.0, they included a “real” F-117 mode, and you traded off air-air capacities and two weapons slots for… well, basically God Mode, as barely anything was ever capable of sniffing you. I like Microprose’s F-19 way better!
F-19’s smoke effects on explosions are quite glorious, too.
I’ve been playing a fair bit of Space Tyrant.
I’ve won the last few missions by cheesing things a little. Actually reading the victory conditions - e.g. play 5 cards in the same turn to win the scenario - and aiming towards those instead of trying to conquer everything.
If i ever become wealthy, I’ll also be doing a Flight Sim Junkie just to revisit games like these.
rhamorim
3756
In the end, I was bit by the Grim Dawn bug and took my Arcanist from level 20 to level 40.
The game is awesome. Really awesome.
These are fairly light adventure games, yes. They’re also very much a product of their time, those early 90’s FMV adventure / puzzle hybrids like Myst, The Seventh Guest etc with their trademark low-resolution, pre-rendered animations as you move from point to point, with dodgy FMV of third-rate actors hamming it up! I’m not sure I’m selling it very well, but that’s part of their charm. It’s a lot less puzzle-heavy than something like Myst - there are a few, but it’s fairly straightforward inventory management / exploration / environmental manipulation stuff. This holds a lot of nostalgia for me, so I’m biased (I played the original on my dad’s Mac many years ago), but the story and setting are fun. The first two games are the best, the third… not so much.
Thank you, I added it to my watchlist and I will see if those esthetics speak to me or not then!
I never played F-19 - not because I didn’t want to but because I could never get hold of it as a youngster. I used to stare at the adverts longingly. The kid in me wants to pick it up, the adult in me fears it will be too badly aged to get any fun out of (and a childhood ideal will be revealed to have feet of clay). Opinions welcome!
I think if you approach it knowing it’s a very 1987 game from a UI perspective, you’ll be fine. It’s gameplay still, to me at least, as engaging now as it was then.
Thanks. At 6 EUR not too much to lose! And the F-117 @Left_Empty mentioned? Worth getting as well?
Don’t look at me like that, it’s my own thing, not like your classic Flight Sim Follies.
Meh, it’s good, but not as fun as F-19, in my opinion.
ANCIENT SIMS WORTH GETTING
Anything by Dynamix. Unfortunately, only Red Baron is commercially available. Aces Over the Pacific and Aces Over Europe, along with A-10 Tank Killer 1.5 are out there and easily found (especially if you know the right people).
Gunship 2000, F-117 Stealth Fighter 2.0, PAW: 1942, F:14 Fleet Defender are all Microprose sims and commercially available. European Air War, the best Microprose sim, isn’t.
EF: 2000 and Total Air War are benchmark sims by DiD.
And if you’re still into big-ass pixels then you can get Falcon 3 (Gold) for a song over at GoG.
These will keep you busy for over a decade.
Hey, if you’re gonna steal, steal from the best, like I did from Gordon with the Follies ;)
I’d also add anything by Digital Integration, like Tornado, Apache and Hind, to Scharmers’ fantastic list.
This. And DI’s (as Razorback) swan songs of Apache/Havoc & Commanche/Hokum.
All are available at GoG except Tornado. Some poor yot out there actually got a hold of Tornado’s source code, but didn’t know how to code. All the calls he put out for help went unheard, sadly.
You know, I should probably post this: http://www.migman.com/
I’m still disgustingly sad about this.
Thirdwire’s Strike Fighters series is still available. I really liked it, since no other sims allow you to see fighter aircraft evolution as clearly. It’s also a good compromise between sim/“arcade”, and pretty fun to play.
That said, it’s no longer supported AFAIK, and it’s somewhat expensive. Still worth playing in my book. I have them all.
https://store.thirdwire.com/mygames.php
EDIT: I’m getting SSL errors at the store. Trying to find out what’s going on, but it’s possible that the games are no longer sold. :(
