What older PC games should I buy? [Archive]

capoeirista

Aug 21, 2008, 05:49 AM

Hello all. I purchased a replacement drive for my laptop and am considering putting XP on it via bootcamp (got a Uni copy so it's a free experiment) as I've so much extra space!

The reason I was considering it is I'm in need of some gaming. I hunted round my flat and found copies of:

Final Fantasy VII (PC)
Half-Life (Blue shift etc.)
Deus Ex.

I'm guessing these will run well on my Core Duo (NOT 2Duo) macbook - 2ghz 2GB Ram.

Having never been into PC gaming, I was wondering if you could suggest some games from a similar era that I may have missed (yes I've searched the forums extensively). I'm not interested in the 'latest and greatest' graphics (which is lucky), but just good solid (classic?) games that will run well and be fun to play. No genre specifically, but no MMOs.

Thanks!

Keleko

Aug 21, 2008, 09:17 AM

You may enjoy Farcry and Elder Scrolls Oblivion (which isn't that old).

JayMan8081

Aug 21, 2008, 09:23 AM

Well for RTS games I would highly recommend any of the older Warcrafts and Starcraft. Tomb Raider Chronicles is also very good as is the original Unreal and Unreal Tournament.

Huntn

Aug 21, 2008, 11:55 AM

The original Medieval:Total War is an awesome game. combination of strategy and RTS.

Consultant

Aug 21, 2008, 01:21 PM

On a MacBook, people have luck with
- Oranage Box, such as Team Fortress 2. Orange box is a really great value.
(not sure whether it runs on Core Duo)

Was going to say FarCry, but not sure if MacBook's integrated GPU could handle that. The game is fairly open ended so I can't even run all the settings on high on MBP 2.4 17". The AI are pretty smart for its day. They will actually sneak up behind you if they know your approximate location.

Dues Ex is a great game. I played it at the time when real news reports are fairly similar to some of the in game elements, and it's amazing.

These should run:
- Psychonauts (a bit unusual, but acclaimed)
- Grand Theft Auto
- Red Faction (also available for OSX), really old, should run fine.
- No One Lives Forever (runs slugish in Rosetta), great fun to sneak around and hear all the funny conversations before you get the baddies.
- Max Payne (really short with some challenging parts) they never released 2 for OSX but it's available for pc
- Soldier of Fortune II
- Rogue Spear (realistic damage = 1 shot kill, AI is fairly simple so if you figure things out it's like duck hunt, but the same strategy won't work at all for the sequal)
- Postal 2 (odd "story" but actually a good game) might work under OSX
- Stubbs the Zombie (unplayably slow in Rosetta)

Eidorian

Aug 21, 2008, 01:24 PM

Homeworld is love. <3

I have a soft spot for Starfleet Command I/II as well.

capoeirista

Aug 21, 2008, 02:31 PM

Thanks all!

...To eBay!

jeremy.king

Aug 21, 2008, 02:41 PM

Descent :)

Eidorian

Aug 21, 2008, 02:43 PM

Descent :)Freespace (http://www.fsoinstaller.com/) ;)

kahine

Aug 21, 2008, 03:36 PM

For a FPS the Original Tribes is #1 for me still - you can download it for free I believe and still find servers with fans of the old one

Also the Battlezone from late 90's was a great game -

And for RPG's the Icewind Dale was a good one too

All I would think would run fine on it - and the Myth TFL was a good one also

stainlessliquid

Aug 22, 2008, 02:20 AM

First game that came to mind was Deus Ex, one of the best games ever made and probably the best PC game ever made. 2nd game that came to mind was Jedi Knight II because the Force Unleashed demo came out today and pales in comparison to JK.

Dont play FF7 for Windows, it sucks (and probably wont work in XP). Just get ePSXe and emulate the PS1 version, it works and looks better.

Off the top of my head:

Jedi Knight II (Outcast is the main game, Jedi Academy is the expansion)
Twinsen's Odyssey
Grim Fandango (if you like this game then also try Escape From Monkey Island)
Freelancer (like Freespace but newer and better)

Zortrium

Aug 22, 2008, 03:09 AM

Jedi Knight II (Outcast is the main game, Jedi Academy is the expansion)

Minor correction - Academy is actually a standalone game, although since it uses the same (albeit tweaked) engine as the first and gameplay is mostly the same, it feels like an expansion.

And, for what it's worth, both JK2 and Academy are available on the Mac and should run fine on a Macbook.

stainlessliquid

Aug 22, 2008, 04:31 AM

I assumed it was an expansion since when it came out Im pretty sure it had a typical expansion price of around 20 bucks and didnt take very long at all to make. Either way they didnt seem to put as much effort into it as Outcast, it was kind of like a bonus campaign with fun levels but bland story.

Dagless

Aug 22, 2008, 06:38 AM

I still play all the old Dooms, Quakes, Duke Nukems. Love em! Bought a bunch on Steam so I can access them on any online PC I come across :D

shawnathan

Aug 22, 2008, 09:17 AM

Wolfenstein 3D!

eXan

Aug 22, 2008, 09:44 AM

Jedi Knight II (Outcast is the main game, Jedi Academy is the expansion

Academy is actually JK3, but the graphics are the same s it feels somewhat like an expansion.(then again, KOTOR 2 has the same graphics as in KOTOR 1, but it feels like a standalone game)

To OP:

RTS - Starcraft
FPS - Unreal Tournament 1 or 2004

mrtekkid

Aug 22, 2008, 12:14 PM

Descent :)

Descent was freakin ...amazing!!

Let's Sekuhara!

Aug 22, 2008, 03:05 PM

DOOM II
Command & Conquer Red Alert
Command & Conquer Red Alert 2
Quake
Half-Life
Unreal

Those are the games that have sucked up the most hours of my pre-adult life.

How are you intending to play these? Parallels?
DOOM II and Quake ran through DOS from a shortcut in Windows, so I'm not sure if Parallels is the complete solution for those since (as far as I know) DOS support is not built in to Parallels, Fusion, etc. I just started a thread asking about how to make an old DOOM 2 disc work via DOS emulation in OS X. No replies yet. ;)

nakamuramori2

Aug 22, 2008, 05:38 PM

u should get counterstrike and starcraft. they are like old old school version but both are the best games ever ...

nakamuramori2

Aug 22, 2008, 05:41 PM

Academy is actually JK3, but the graphics are the same s it feels somewhat like an expansion.(then again, KOTOR 2 has the same graphics as in KOTOR 1, but it feels like a standalone game)

To OP:

RTS - Starcraft
FPS - Unreal Tournament 1 or 2004

hey do u wanna have a SC game with me on bettlenet. what is your ID??
im a king of terran. ^^ what is your race? leave me your Id the i will put it on my friend's list~

Let's Sekuhara!

Aug 22, 2008, 05:52 PM

So it seems there are a few different ways to play Doom on OS X.

PrBOOM
DOSBox (emulates any DOS game including Quake)
Doom Legacy for Mac (PPC only)

Some of these require the original Doom or Doom 2 wad files. I'm still looking into the details myself.

Let's Sekuhara!

Aug 22, 2008, 05:58 PM

Also, if you want some really oldskool games, there are some great emulators out there thanks to Richard Bannister porting many of them to Mac.

This includes:
NES/Famicom
SNES/Super Famicom
Genesis/Megadrive
and many more

Here's a good place to start:
http://www.bannister.org/software/nestopia.htm

Dagless

Aug 22, 2008, 06:37 PM

Some of these require the original Doom or Doom 2 wad files. I'm still looking into the details myself.

No, they all do. Doom games (maps, textures, weapons etc) are stored in the Wad files. All these new apps (and the original Doom.exe) just launch the game stored in the Wad file. Think of them as launchers.

JackAxe

Aug 22, 2008, 07:41 PM

System Shock 2 -- because it's from the same era. (System Shock is the best though, by far. Great game period.)

Grim Fandango
Psychonaughts

I love all the old PC games, but most predate XP. :o

<]=)

Huntn

Aug 22, 2008, 08:14 PM

System Shock 2 -- because it's from the same era. (System Shock is the best though, by far. Great game period.)
<]=)

System Shock 2, one of the most fun games I've ever played solo. Parent of the current Bioshock. Great atmosphere. Turn the lights down. ;)

JackAxe

Aug 22, 2008, 11:24 PM

You need to play the first one! :eek: It's still in my top spot for best game I've played. System Shock 2 was great, especially when compared to most games now, but it was unbalanced compared to the first Shock. It needed more refinement. Things like the super fragile weapons and monster respawn really pulled the game down for me, but I finished it and will play it again.

BioShock. :( :( :(

This game was a massive disappointment for me. If the next Shock continues down this gimped road, I won't even bother. I refer to it as PlayskoolShock. It was more like a Disney ride than a supsesul sci-fi horror novel. It didn't take long for the game to grow repetitive for me. It was more of a FPS than a Shock game. :( I could not finish the game and I had really looked forward to it --even considered getting a 360 if the PC version wasn't released(Thankfully it was). For me the incentive was not there to finish the game like the first 2. I ended up watching the ending on YouTube. :o

I really miss companies like Looking Glass. Blah. Now I'm depressed.

<]=)

natemonster

Aug 23, 2008, 01:20 AM

On a MacBook, people have luck with
- Oranage Box, such as Team Fortress 2. Orange box is a really great value.
(not sure whether it runs on Core Duo)
dont run orange box. i've been fighting with portal for the past three days with no avail. the intel video cards are not supported and the game just crashes. btw starcraft works on mac os x. ;) and its awesome.

zmttoxics

Aug 23, 2008, 01:33 AM

dont run orange box. i've been fighting with portal for the past three days with no avail. the intel video cards are not supported and the game just crashes. btw starcraft works on mac os x. ;) and its awesome.

Really? There souldnt be an issue. HL2 runs on Direct x 7 Video cards even (with 800 mhrz cpus!!!). You should look into forcing DX7 or DX8 mode for the game using the startup flags (I forget what they are, you will need to google).

I am currently playing KOTOR 2, I recommend both of them. The Jedi Knight games are excellent time killers with good star wars plots too. Not into star wars? There is always some RTS games like Command and Conquer of which I recommend them all. :D

On my macbook I currently have: Quake 1-3 and a SNES emulator. I have JK2 on my G5 which would work too. My PC only has dev tools and games on it so its hard to list them off.

Huntn

Aug 23, 2008, 08:57 AM

BioShock. :( :( :(
///It was more like a Disney ride than a supsesul sci-fi horror novel. It didn't take long for the game to grow repetitive for me. It was more of a FPS than a Shock game. :( I could not finish the game and I had really looked forward to it --even considered getting a 360 if the PC version wasn't released(Thankfully it was). For me the incentive was not there to finish the game like the first 2. I ended up watching the ending on YouTube. :o
<]=)

Disney ride- that's a great description! BioShock impressed the heck out of me for atmosphere and environment as they are highly polished and fantastic, but I did not finish it either as I found the atmosphere too oppressive. Although I usually have a high tolerance for repetitive actions before they bother me, encounters did start feeling repetitive fairly quickly. Maybe I go need to see the ending on YouTube. :)

One other Bioshock critique- The first version I played was the 360. I found that the controls made it difficult to switch from offensive weapon, to the telekinesis plasmid ability in time to catch exploding things when the Big Daddies started lobbing items at you (so you could lob them back). Plus to make this swtich, you have to freeze the action, pulling up a menu which I really did not like. I ended up switching to the PC version of the game for which I have a Nostromo N52. The programing on the N52, made this action doable, switching with a single button press while staying in the live action.

xlii

Aug 23, 2008, 09:14 AM

I'll 2nd Starcraft as the most replayable game... really top notch. Also any of the Microsoft Age of Empires games are good.

Here is a free internet game I've enjoyed since the early 90s:

http://www.gamingmuseum.com/gal-trader.html

zmttoxics

Aug 23, 2008, 11:04 AM

Disney ride- that's a great description! BioShock impressed the heck out of me for atmosphere and environment as they are highly polished and fantastic, but I did not finish it either as I found the atmosphere too oppressive. Although I usually have a high tolerance for repetitive actions before they bother me, encounters did start feeling repetitive fairly quickly. Maybe I go need to see the ending on YouTube. :)

One other Bioshock critique- The first version I played was the 360. I found that the controls made it difficult to switch from offensive weapon, to the telekinesis plasmid ability in time to catch exploding things when the Big Daddies started lobbing items at you (so you could lob them back). Plus to make this swtich, you have to freeze the action, pulling up a menu which I really did not like. I ended up switching to the PC version of the game for which I have a Nostromo N52. The programing on the N52, made this action doable, switching with a single button press while staying in the live action.

I beat it twice. I have a friend that beat it 4 times in 3 days. It is one of the greatest games ever made.

Miguey

Aug 23, 2008, 02:44 PM

Dagless

Aug 23, 2008, 03:47 PM

I tried the Master Levels of Doom last night (cheers Steam) and got pretty spooked out :D just as much as Doom 3.

Thanks thread. Thaead.

bobber205

Aug 23, 2008, 07:16 PM

Beyony Good and Evil is 5 dollar on Steam this weekend. :D

Luis

Aug 23, 2008, 07:18 PM

Definitively the Red Alert series. Greatest games ever. Also a really old version of Loderunner might be fun.

JackAxe

Aug 23, 2008, 07:24 PM

Disney ride- that's a great description! BioShock impressed the heck out of me for atmosphere and environment as they are highly polished and fantastic, but I did not finish it either as I found the atmosphere too oppressive. Although I usually have a high tolerance for repetitive actions before they bother me, encounters did start feeling repetitive fairly quickly. Maybe I go need to see the ending on YouTube. :)

One other Bioshock critique- The first version I played was the 360. I found that the controls made it difficult to switch from offensive weapon, to the telekinesis plasmid ability in time to catch exploding things when the Big Daddies started lobbing items at you (so you could lob them back). Plus to make this swtich, you have to freeze the action, pulling up a menu which I really did not like. I ended up switching to the PC version of the game for which I have a Nostromo N52. The programing on the N52, made this action doable, switching with a single button press while staying in the live action.

I love Disney rides, but BioShock was like getting on Mr Toad over and over -- I like this ride in moderation, short and fun.

Is that tnumb pad on the Nostromo N52 easy to use for movement? I'm assuming it can be the W-ASD? I've seen those in the store, but never really though much of them, but I also didn't think they were programmable, which only makes sense that it would be.

Youtube is great. :)

<]=)

punkybadhip

Aug 23, 2008, 07:34 PM

Fallout

Fallout 2

Fallout tactics (buggy but still good)

Most games suck, but they were very good. If they can get me to sit down and play, I'm sure you would like them.

JackAxe

Aug 23, 2008, 07:39 PM

I beat it twice. I have a friend that beat it 4 times in 3 days. It is one of the greatest games ever made.

NO!!! :eek: This (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/System_Shock) is the best game ever made, well at least that carries the Shock tittle. :) But it's certainly up their as one of my all time favorites. To this day, it still has attributes I haven't seen in other games and if they exist, I would love to play them.

Once I got past the first level on that game -- it was kind of like a bad first chapter in a great novel, the game completely consumed me. It scared the crapola out of me. I used to hide in elevators to stop my heart from racing. SS2 is the only other game that has come close to this one, but the main difference, is that System Shock with its pixelated graphics really made me believe I was part of it, just like a good book can really pull one in. BioShock is like a Disney ride, because you're in it and enjoying it, but there's never really any danger -- stupid Vita-Chambers.

<]=)

CJRhoades

Aug 23, 2008, 07:46 PM

The original Halo should run well enough if you like first-person shooters.

JackAxe

Aug 23, 2008, 10:20 PM

Halo is fun! But it's toooooooooo easy with a mouse and keyboard. :)

<]=)

smwatson

Aug 23, 2008, 11:45 PM

Beyony Good and Evil is 5 dollar on Steam this weekend. :D

Insanely good game. Buy it people.

ProwlingTiger

Aug 24, 2008, 12:20 AM

Command and Conquer. Any of the older ones, personal fave: Red Alert.

Creibold

Aug 24, 2008, 11:48 AM

Baldur's Gate 2 + The Expansion. (I do beleive the whole series can be had for bargain price now)

That game is, by far, the best RPG I have ever played. (However I really liked final fantasy X)

nakamuramori2

Aug 25, 2008, 06:43 PM

Huntn

Aug 25, 2008, 06:55 PM

Is that tnumb pad on the Nostromo N52 easy to use for movement? I'm assuming it can be the W-ASD? I've seen those in the store, but never really though much of them, but I also didn't think they were programmable, which only makes sense that it would be.

I just use the WSAD keys for movement on the Nostromo because that is what I do on the keyboard, however the Nostromo thumb pad could be used for that if you desired. I usually use the thumb pad for specialized moves. For example in FPSs I use it to crouch or lay down (combat games).

ProwlingTiger

Aug 25, 2008, 11:10 PM

Oregon Trail. Apple or PC version. Heck, theres even a site to play it online I think. Great game :D

natemonster

Aug 25, 2008, 11:19 PM

Really? There souldnt be an issue. HL2 runs on Direct x 7 Video cards even (with 800 mhrz cpus!!!). You should look into forcing DX7 or DX8 mode for the game using the startup flags (I forget what they are, you will need to google).
i played it with all windows updates, the latest direct x, boot camp drivers, direct x level 8, in a window with all settings at the lowest, with no sound and no antivirus/backround applications running. it crashed after i went through the first portal. this is why: http://supportwiki.steampowered.com/wiki/Intel_Video_Cards_with_Portal%2C_Team_Fortress_2%2C_and_Half_Life_2:_Episode_2