What is the oldest PC game you still play?

[Forward Observer]

I'm not including DOS based games that may have been re-issued for Windows, but games that were created for the Windows platform.

1. The oldest I think I have loaded is the original Panzer Commander, which was developed and published back in mid 1998 by the now defunct Strategic Simulations

When I bought my new rig last year, I kept my old WinME based rig with an older ATI card to maintain as a legacy rig just to run these old games. I have also purposely not upgraded the graphic drivers for this older rig in over two years just to help avoid graphics anomalies that can happen with these older games.

The resolution for this game is fixed at 640 by 480, so the terrain and structures are pretty simplistic, but it still plays well and all the German tanks are just as much fun as i remember to operate.

2. I also loaded up an old EA game called RECOIL from 1999. It's a sci-fi tank shooter by Zipper Interactive (they also did the first Crimson Skies for Microsoft). The cut scenes are live action videos shot real fuzzy with lots of static to make them look like some sort of strange transmissions from underground rebels.

As you progress through the game your tank gets upgraded to also operate as a hover craft, an air boat, and a submarine.

3. Next I have the above mentioned Crimson Skies that came out in 2000 loaded and play through the levels occasionally. IMHO it is still one of the most fun and entertaining arcade flight games ever made.

4. Another that I have loaded that came out in 2000 is the original SeaDogs by Akella. It was one of the first and in my opinion still the best attempt to take the original Sid Meiers "Pirates" style game to full 3D with campaigns for each of the colonial powers and outstanding "age of sail" pirate naval battles.

I also play it off and on with a neat mod that adds several new campaigns, quests, and other features to the game.

5. Finally, I just loaded up Freespace 2 by Interactive, also from 1999on my new rig. It was a bit more sophisticated in the graphics area for the time and it seems to run with no poblems on my new rig.

I have never finished the entire campaign, but I have vowed to do it this time. It is still consider by many be one of the best, if not the best, space sims ever made. Original copies of the game are scarce and used to sell for $100 and up on E-Bay. I think the code was finally made open source, and it may be available as freeware now.

So--what's your oldest PC game that you play on a regular basis?

[Martok]

1.) Command & Conquer: Red Alert (1995)
2.) Lords of the Realm II (1997)
3.) Descent 2 (1998)
4.) Birth of the Federation (1999)
5.) Shogun Total War (2000)


I won't claim I play the first 3 games very often, but every once in a while I get nostalgic and pop one of them in for an hour or two. I actually still play BotF and Shoggy at least a couple hours a week, although that's not as often as I used to. (Medieval Total War is still the game that occupies most of my time.)

[Mount Suribachi]

Panzer General 2

Its available as freeware on the web, and I play it on my wifes ancient work PC

[Androo]

Combat Flight Simulator 2 (from 2000, I believe). I find the graphics still look quite good relative to Combat Flight Simulator 3 and LoMAC.

I keep thinking about taking Combat Flight Simulator (1) for a spin. It was my first game and sort of the culmination of a dream I had had since 1970, (yes, I am that old), when I first saw the film The Battle of Britain. The feeling I had when I slowly opened the throttle and my spitfire began to accelerate down the grass strip, every bump transmitted by my sidewinder force feedback joystick- incredible! Pure joy! I suppose I have been chasing that moment in my gaming ever since. *wistful sigh*

Edit:Martok posted while I was writing the above- I had forgotten STW was from 2000. Definitely still play that. The first time I loaded it, waiting for something stupid and gamey to happen and it didn't and I realized that somebody had actually made a (mostly) realistic tactical game- another great moment.

[Sjakihata]

Star Craft
Caesar III

[Samurai Waki]

Operation Flashpoint. with mods O' course.

[doc_bean]

Total Annihilation ('97)

Recently reinstalled it.

[GoreBag]

Eye of the Beholder (1991). If I was running an Apple, I'd be playing MacNinja and that other game where you drop a guy out of a helicopter into a haywagon.

[econ21]

I'm not including DOS based games that may have been re-issued for Windows,

I wish you were, then I could mention X-Com1, 1994, (akka UFO: Enemy Unknown). Played it quite a bit recently and amazingly it still holds up as a great game in both its gripping gameplay - rather like Total War in having both great tactical combat and a compelling strategic layer - and also its remarkable atmosphere.

I've also recently re-played Might and Magic VII, 1999. I'd like to get MM6, 1998, to work on Windows XP but it doesn't. Both games provide that classic RPG hook of continually getting experience and stuff (right up to level 100 or so), and both have enormous worlds that still feel more engaging than the curiously dead worlds of some modern RPGs such as Morrowind.

Lately, I've been getting a hankering to revisit Pacific General 1997, and Baldur's Gate 1, 1998. The former allows you to run Japanese bicycle infantry units from victory right from China in 1937 to the mid-West of America in 1945. The latter is like immersing yourself in a gorgeous bath of DnD goodness and staying in there for several months. I'm in need of an RPG fix and although I've had Oblivion on pre-order for months, I am sure it won't come near to rivalling BG1 when it finally comes out.

[Ciaran]

The oldest Windows-only game, that could well be Jagged Alliance II (1998), at least that´s what comes to my mind. Other old games include the DOS classics, like Command & Conquer Tiberium Conflict, Master of Magic, UFO and X-Com, Jagged Alliance I, Panzer General...

[lancelot]

Birth of the Federation, if Im really bored...

[TinCow]

I've been replaying some old games lately, including Magic: The Gathering (1997) and Battle Isle 2 (1994). However, easily the oldest game I play regularly is the original Castles by Interplay (1991). Now, regularly for this game means off and on for a month or so every year and half... but I still love it.

[Lemur]

I'm midway through a nostalgic replay of Fallout. If you've never played it, you don't know what you're missing. Ah, the RPG heyday of 1997.

[Subedei]

I would LOVe to play "WASTELAND", a role-playing game set i the post-nuke war Las Vegas. Had it on C64. Man, you had crazy nuns, all kinds of weapons and the decent humour was awesome. Does anybody know it?

[Ser Clegane]

I would LOVe to play "WASTELAND", a role-playing game set i the post-nuke war Las Vegas. Had it on C64. Man, you had crazy nuns, all kinds of weapons and the decent humour was awesome. Does anybody know it?

Is that the one from the Bard's Tale makers? I think I have it somewhere as part of a collection of RPG classics that I bought a couple of years ago.

I think I have to check if it runs under XP - but I fear that even if it runs I will be appalled by the graphics - my nostalgic feelings for old RPGs usually fade away pretty quickly once I fire up games like "Bard's Tale" or "Pool's of Radiance" (the old one)

One of the games I still play from time to time is "Fantasy General" (1996), pretty recently I started to re-play "Ravenloft: Stone Prophet".

BG1 is still quite nice - after having played through BG2 and the expansion, starting BG1 again with a level 1 character who has to kill rats is like re-visiting childhood

[The_Mark]

Operation Flashpoint. with mods O' course.

Same here. I'd probably start Baldur's Gate (1) again if I had the time, though.

[drone]

Master Of Orion 2
Birth of the Federation
Medieval TW

[Mikeus Caesar]

Me and my Dad play Age of Empires multiplayer about once a month. I think that's the oldest i play, although it might be Half Life (hard to believe it's 8 years old!), as they were both released within a year or so of each other.

Trust me, if some of my older games would work with Win XP, i'd be playing games from '94!

[Lemur]

I fear that even if it runs I will be appalled by the graphics - my nostalgic feelings for old RPGs usually fade away pretty quickly once I fire up games like "Bard's Tale" or "Pool's of Radiance" (the old one)

What'choo talkin bout? Wasteland had uber-leet graphics. For, uh, 1988 that is. Dig the pixels:

[Xiahou]

I think I have to check if it runs under XP - but I fear that even if it runs I will be appalled by the graphics - my nostalgic feelings for old RPGs usually fade away pretty quickly once I fire up games like "Bard's Tale" or "Pool's of Radiance" (the old one)

Isnt it sad how that happens? I used to get so immersed in some of those old RPGs, but when I load most of them up again the magic's just gone because the graphics are too primitive.

[dagiz]

Ultima IV for the Apple II (yes I still have one that actually works...its a little disturbing I know)

Dungeon Master I & II (both were from the Atari 1600 - and no I don't own that anymore - it met a bottle of Pepsi and decided to quit).

Old, very old games - and though you said not to include any DOS games, I do run through all the Zork's when I travel. Well, at least I used to until I realized how fast I was going throught them.

Lords of Magic. and Fallout as well.

[GoreBag]

I would LOVe to play "WASTELAND", a role-playing game set i the post-nuke war Las Vegas. Had it on C64. Man, you had crazy nuns, all kinds of weapons and the decent humour was awesome. Does anybody know it?

Yep, I know it. My friend got into a MUD version of the game some time ago.

[Chimpyang]

Ceaser 3....had a massive shock when a massive army came a-knocking on my door....forgot all the events that happen so it was like playing it from new again.

[Evil_Maniac From Mars]

I don't play many of my old ones regularly anymore, the oldest ones are probably Battlefield 1942, Age of Empires I, and Republic: The Revolution, not to mention the good old M:TW: VI.


EDIT: And Ceasar III.

[Somebody Else]

Solitaire

[The_Doctor]

Sid Meier's Colonisation.

The only problem it is a bit buggy and the AI is a bit odd.

Other than AOE3 and Anno games, are there any good games like it?

[Craterus]

Solitaire

Yeah, and minesweeper.

[Kekvit Irae]

Zork, on my AppleIIgs

[littlelostboy]

Civnet and Command and Conquer: Yuri's Revenge. And King Quest III or IV or VI (can't remember) and erm Age of the Empires II. Yep, that's it. Apart from Yuri's Revenge and Age of the Empires II which I still play, the other two had lost their spark (graphics, bad) and Civnet AI is kinda odd.

[GiantMonkeyMan]

Red Alert
Alpha Centauri
Caesar 3
Shogun: Total War
are about the oldest games i play... i installed win98 just to play red alert on my laptop cos it is just such a class game... in a way i think that games these days have actually gone down in gameplay and it is all about graphics apart from a few great recent games (Call of Duty for one)