The Gamer's Quarter

[Dracko]

By kitsch I guess you could say I mean cheesy. This stuff is so early 90s!

The band that did the Durandal and Infinity themes, Power of Seven or System Seven, whatever they liked to call themselves, did they ever do anything else?

P.S. Yeah, Welt is sweet. A new album is due out next year, called Blurry Dotted I’s allegedly. I really need to find me some of cEvin Key's alt. project The Tear Garden that he did with Edward Ka-Spel of The Legendary Pink Dots.
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"This is the most fun I've ever had without being drenched in the blood of my enemies!"

[Cycle]

yeah, they were actually a real band, their real name was Psykosonik. I downloaded one of their albums, it was pretty medicore mid-90s techno though. I mean it was alright, but it was nothing like the Marathon tracks which were awesome in song form.

I'm going to listen to it again now to see if I like it any better now that I don't expect it to be the Marathon 2 theme remixed 12 times.
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[Harveyjames]

[Cycle]

Pretty crappy music! And crappy intro!
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[bleak]

You know what Cycle, Sonic Mayhem kicked ass in Quake 2.
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[Cycle]

Just like Shadowgate doesn't suck, huh.

Here's another one to add to industrial artists + fps games (kinda): Vampire Bloodlines! Ministry even re-recoreded the vocals for SO WHAT with lyrics that had something to do with the game for the soundtrack! How sweet of them!
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[Dracko]

I already mentioned that!
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"This is the most fun I've ever had without being drenched in the blood of my enemies!"

[Cycle]

Oh, oops! Aha, it was one of your stealth edits. Still! That was a good soundtrack, and fitted the game world perfectly, plus yeah, it was used in appropiate places. I really enjoyed the actual game soundtrack too (the stuff made by the actual music guys at the game company). I need to play this game again.

I looked up Power of Seven again, turns out I might have to look into them again:

[Cycle]

OH.

Stubbs the Zombie had a brilliant soundtrack (if you liked those sorts of bands). Bunch of HIP AND WITH IT bands covering 50s songs, plus one completely original song! Again, fit the the game perfectly. Shame the game got boring after an hour!
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[Cycle]

The guys other band is dance music, so I guess the Marathon themes are the only things of interest to me that he did

also, I thought you meant FLA did the soundtrack for all those games, not Sonic Mayhem! This makes much more sense. I think Quake 3 is the only game I played where his music actually stood out and made me take notice, though.
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[Cycle]

Oh snap, I wanted to remember one more before I went to bed!

ZPC (Zero Population Count) featured the art of Aidan Hughes (of KMFDM cover art fame ALSO, he came up with the games concept) featured a soundtrack from Mark Baker and Paul Barker (known from Revolting Cocks and Ministry, respectively) and was a FPS! Also, guess what engine it used? The Marathon 2 engine!

Isn't it great when things come together.

Here is a collection of all the cutscenes:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=98vuEmgYm9k

Had an awesome ad campaign, too. I should find that one commercial and scan it.
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[Dracko]

Holy Hell, yes! I think it's up on The Underdogs. Would it run in Aleph, do you think?

EDIT: It is.
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"This is the most fun I've ever had without being drenched in the blood of my enemies!"

[dhex]

[Pink Teddy Bear]

http://www.dsfanboy.com/2007/11/20/id-confirms-quake-arena-ds/

Oh man, if this gets Wifi support, it's all over.

[Winged Assassins (1984)]

[Cycle]

[Winged Assassins (1984)]

[Cycle]

well obviously they took some creative liberties, just like they did with the matrix! besides, jesus hasn't come for the second time yet, he might bust some skulls next time around. (I guess I forgot to mention, the game is about the messiahs second coming, as he was in stasis out in a space coffin for reasons I forget).

the cutscene with jesus getting shot in the back of the head is one of the death animations, iirc.

i still think the intro cutscene is fucking badass. love the music!
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[Cycle]

Also, I'm not sure what you're trying to say with your second paragraph, there.

Furthermore, here is the original Descent soundtrack:

http://www.sendspace.com/file/frv4gk

It's totally pimp. Good ol' mid 90s industrial rock, though you can tell it's videogame music. Still awesome!
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[Winged Assassins (1984)]

I love how he arrives in a coffin. I would have thought he'd take the bus or something. Or the train, just not in Sydney or he'll never get here.
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[Harveyjames]

[Dracko]

Cycle, you should read Atomika.
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"This is the most fun I've ever had without being drenched in the blood of my enemies!"

[Cycle]

Perhaps I will!

Here is a video of the first level in ZPC by the by, the guy playing sucks though:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lx3M3230Tik&feature=related

I love how a choir bursts into a chorus when you find a secret, like at the start. YOU FOUND AMMO! PRAISE THE LORD!

I need to play it again... I remember why I stopped playing last time, I hadn't save for a long time and was like FUCK THAT. See, to save, you must find and use SAVE ORBS. It was such a terrible save system! Held the game back more than anything else.

SPEAKING OF GAMES THAT USED THE MARATHON 2 ENGINE, there were four others!

First, Marathon Infinity obviously! DUH!

Prime Target, which was mac only, which was a mix between Marathon, Duke Nukem and Die Hard. They added lots of new features to the endinge, such as ducking, jumping, destructable environments, bullet holes and blood splatters in walls, basic inventory, and the ability to go back and forth between levels.

The game started in an office building, you find your friend has been murdered and the building is over-run by terrorists, it's up to you to kill them all, find items to sovle the myster of your friends death and figure out what's going on. Had level design that actually looked like stuff, like Duke, and was a pretty entertaining blast. Like Die Hard!

Damn, can't find a screen, but check out the hilarious cover art:

http://www.bestdamnpodcastever.com/primetarget.png

Damage Inc, for both mac and windows, a squad-based military game before they were popular. Basically, it played like Marathon except you had a group of BOBs you could actually command. They were the best parts of the game, each with their own personality and one-liners, and if one died, they were gone for good and you'd have to get a new member for the next mission. All dead? You're on your own!

In the early missions you could just send them to search and destroy, cleaning out the level and letting you explore, but later levels required careful use of them or you'd all get killed. Featured awesome levels, guns and missions, I had lots of fun with this game. The ending always interested me - it's a recorded rant by the madman you just killed, and I'm not sure what it was supposed to make you feel...

The guy who made it went on to make both of The Suffering games and a bunch of other titles.



Wish I could find a better screen, but oh well! The guy who made the game is also totally a cool guy, I've spoken to him a few times, and he made his earliest game, a funky Ultima style RPG, freeware. I should really check out one of the suffering games...

Wheels!, for both mac and pc, was a game where you were a disabled kid rolling around in a wheelchair who could hurt himself by slamming into walls, and got attacked by evil clowns.

It was actually created as a training device. See, the idea was to hook a joystick up to a chair, emulating an electric wheel chair, and the game was designed to train them in handling them so they didn't run into walls or get beat up by clowns in real life.



BOY, I'M SURE ENJOYING THIS ONE MAN THREAD.
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[Winged Assassins (1984)]

[Cycle]

I know it's hard to believe, but the game was actually good! Had some hilariously bad FMV cut-scenes though!
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[Winged Assassins (1984)]

Colour me surprised as I'm getting a Lethal Tender vibe from it.
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[Cycle]

Haha, I remember that game. It's been a long time since I played Prime Target, I can't remember if it was tounge in cheek or not. Whatever, it was fun blowing away men in business suits.

Unfortunately, I no longer own a machine capable of running the game, and there aren't any decent Mac PPC emulators last time I checked.

In other news, I just discovered a new shortcut in one of the toughest levels in Marathon Infinity, allowing you to skip most of the level and only face one dude via some fancy side strafing and eviromental observation, wish I knew about this when we co-oped. It's cool though, it actually has two paths; either take the short cut and just get out, or go run for a shittonne of ammo, but this will make you face a bunch of incredibly tough dudes that I didn't even know where on this level.

Man this game is so awesome.

I just betrayed Tycho and he teleported me into space luckily Durandal saved me (presumably) even though Durandal doesn't know who I am OR DOES HE? Yes he does, because he screwed you over in the first game and that's why you're here now instead of having already won the war as in Marathon 2!

Complex plot.
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[Winged Assassins (1984)]

Yo hombres, I just found my Wolfenstein 3D, Blake Stone and Chasm CDs as well as my Fortress Of Dr. Radiaki floppies. I am going to install them right now, I am bleeding with excitement already. But not Dr. Radiaki because it's really poo. DOSBox is going to be well sick of me before the night is over.

Peace out brothers.
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[Cycle]

Hey folks, just call me Mr. Destiny.

I wonder if anyone other than Dess will know what I'm talking about.

I bought Fortress Of Dr. Radiaki from cashies, played it once then sold it on ebay the nexy day. I never tried Chasm, it's one of the bigger holes in my FPS experience.

Blake Stone is hilarious because there is that one guy who's right leg gets blown off no matter how you kill him.
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[Dracko]

Oh man, I remember a Prime Target review in a gaming mag when it first came out. Still managed to leave an impression. Damage, Inc. looks pretty fantastic too. Let's see if they're anywhere online.
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"This is the most fun I've ever had without being drenched in the blood of my enemies!"

[Pink Teddy Bear]

What's with all these Mac game? Hook me up with some awesome un-heard of Windows FPSs.

Like Ken's Labyrinth!

[Dracko]

[Winged Assassins (1984)]

[Cycle]

[Dracko]

I remember playing the Operation: Bodycount demo and being terribly offended. What an awkward game: Levels too dark, booby trapped bodies and beefed up A-RABZ and also giant rats what

Now I feel like playing the Catacomb games for some reason.
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"This is the most fun I've ever had without being drenched in the blood of my enemies!"

[Cycle]

Fun fact: the second Catacomb Trilogy game was the first FPS to feature a HUB system.

Also, despite what many believe, id designed the original Catacombs 3D game, but only their engine and some of their assets were used in the follow-up trilogy, which they otherwise had nothing to do with.

They were pretty fun games!
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[Cycle]

Back on the topic of ZOMBIE (company that made ZPC) did you know that the creators of Tetris created a FPS?

It's true!

It was called ICE & FIRE, which my dad picked up because one of the box quotes was "THE THINKING MAN'S DOOM", while I picked up another Zombie game called Locus, a first-person future sports game (both were in the bargain bin).

Anyway, you are sent to deal with some crazy alien infestation on a moon somewhere, I can't remember the details. Exploring the surface of the moon was done via FMV and was on rails, and finding the correct location will enter FPS mode!

There are only two weapons, a heat blast and an ice blast. Levels are initially completely devoid of life - all monsters, items and NPCs are frozen in ice, and you have to try to find all the things/people you need to get the station up and running via trial and error (it's all randomised each play) and monsters can either be destroyed (with no risk of accidently letting them loose later) or refrozen (which would get you a better ending, since the game had an ENVIRONMENTAL MESSAGE behind it). If you had to flee for health or ammo, the enemies would often go off to unfreeze their friends, and returning to the area would often result in a dozen more enemies flying around, which I thought was cool. The levels were huge and quite impressive from what I remember, with different attributes for different areas.

The engine for this game fucking sucked, it was slow as all hell on my computer despite it being fairly high end in the day, but it didn't stop me from playing the game and enjoying it (though I enjoyed every gamn back in those days).

Anyway! Another interesting game from zombie that had concepts and ideas that fascinated me, even if the resulting game was a bit toshy.

In conclusion, Tetris was better.

Couldn't find screens again, here is the back of the box:


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[Dracko]

Zombie are currently working on a game around ex-Navy SEAL author Richard Marcinko called Rogue Warrior: Black Razor, were you play a stranded team of SEALS in North Korea, heading south, lead by the man himself.

What this basically means is they plan to make a strategic FPS where you have to loot equipment and make sure your mean don't die and have a slightly more hardcore Clancy-esque plot with more creative profanity. At least I hope so. Seems to channel Operation Flashpoint to some extent. There's the sequel to that, Dragon Rising, to look forward to.

Man, Operation Flashpoint and its add-ons were awesome times.

On a similar note, Soldier of Fortune: Payback looks fucking awful.

I wonder if that Konami SAS simulator, The Regiment, was any good?
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"This is the most fun I've ever had without being drenched in the blood of my enemies!"

[Cycle]

Zombie made a bunch of rather boring games after they experimented with all these crazy concepts, which was a bit dissapointing. I guess they needed to make money, though. That new game sounds like it could be good.

I wish Armed Assault was better though, the latest patch (included with the expansion pack I reviewed) makes the game a million times better, just not as good as Operation Flashpoint, plus the modding community hasn't picked it up as much as they did with Flash.

The first Soldier of Fortune was fun until the gimmick wore off, and the second was way too stiff for my liking. I'm not too interested in a third. Plus, Raven are the kings of medicore FPS games (though they have done some good stuff).

Konami made a SAS simulator? Never even heard of that one...

Eurogamer says:

[Pink Teddy Bear]

Wow, Cycle keeps owning me with these huge blocks of text.

Thank you sir, I owe you my sooooul!

[Cycle]

Holy shit.

(NSFW)

Also:


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[Slonie]

Cycle and friends, you are keeping it real in this thread. I played the demos of both Prime Target and Damage Inc, since playing demos of games for the Mac is what you did when you had a Mac and not much money in the mid-90s. Also, the demo of ZPC as well.
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-Slonie

[Cycle]

[Cycle]

Dracko, I'm playing Gunmen Chronicles now based on your brief mention earlier. The intro is a total rip-off of Half-Life, but manages to be way cooler because it's in space.

Kinda hilarious how everyone has the same face texture. Looking fun so far!
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[Slonie]

Having just beat COD4, it would be fun to check out Damage Incorporated again...

And yeah, I probably got the demos off of MacAddict CDs!

I beat Marathon 2 back then, but never beat the first one because the machine I had at the time was too slow to get past about level 7. (I don't even remember if I already told this story!)

As for more recent games, I was always intrigued with at least what I read about Command and Conquer Renegade and I'm Going In (aka Project IGI). Whether or not they were good or not, I don't know!
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-Slonie

[Slonie]

Oh, and while I'm at it, let me tell you about a game you never played, probably: Shadow Ops: Red Mercury.

Sure, it's a little ragged especially a few years later, but check out the way that Call of Duty 4 takes at least two things from it. 1) Missions that take place in flashback! and 2) The events of Shock and Awe,

Okay, I admit it. My friend worked on that game so he got a copy for free and I played that. And by work on, I mean "tested," so there's no hurt feelings when knocking on it. But he does have some funny stories. In fact, I'll save that, and the even more intersting story behind the "Hollywood writer" originally tapped to pen the game's script.

Oh wait, three things. 3) Gauntlet-style infinite enemy spawns! (thanks Penny Arcade for the analogy).

Actually I'll tei it back into the thread: Zombie made it! They made ZPC!

Excellent score too. Better than the game...
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-Slonie

[Cycle]

Haha, I used to read MacAddict, that was such a fun magazine. I still got all my issues, but they were unforunately damaged by moisture due to my stupidness, but are still well readable. I should grab all the demo disks from my parents or they'll throw them out... those things were gold mines! ALSO, I meant, the full versions of Prime Target and such were included with some Mac magazine! MacFormat or MacWorld, can't remember which. I also got Weird! free with MacFormat.

Slonie do you still use a mac or do you own a PC? I could hook you up, but I don't know how the Mac OS is with running older software these days. But I know of a paradise of classic mac games... you probably know about it, though. I use "though" too much.

Shadow Ops was actually a ZOMBIE game, whoa! I haven't played it, but please tell me your stories and more about the game!

EDIT: You added the stuff about Zombie! The soundtrack was better in ZPC or Shadow Ops? I wouldn't really argue if you said ZPC to be honest, though I think the art, gameplay and music all work together well to create a lovely feeling of mass murder salvation.

You could destroy the monster generators in Gauntlet! In CoD you have to trigger the next scripted event, not quite the same thing.

I know this one guy who swears by Command and Conquer Renegade, I got it for free with Freedom Force and didn't dig it. Can't remember why... it wasn't terrible and even had some good ideas, but it felt medicore on the whole. Didn't help that I wasn't a C&C fan.

Project IGI has a small, devoted cult following (though apparently they all hated the second game) and I hear really good things about it, but I haven't played it yet even though I have a copy sitting on my shelf, was part of some collection with a bunch of other games.

UPDATE ON GUNMEN CHRONICLES

The training area on the asteroid was fun, I like how they made basic training fun (ducking, jumping) by intergrating them with cool scripted events.

Some of the different weapon modes are really awesome, this game has some fun weapons alright, but I imagine trying to change any settings during a gunfight would be a nightmare. This is why other developers kept it to two fire modes!

Landed on the planet, loved the art direction and harmless dinosaurs, and the following scripted events were also really cool (lots of people dying in humourus ways), this is basically if Half-Life just wanted to be more like an action movie instead of an "experience". The game is certainly rough around the edges (I found it odd I wasn't given a gun until I picked one up off a dead friendly soldier for one thing!), but this certainly looks like it's going to be a fun ride. I hear it's short too, which is always a plus in my books (well, sometimes). Stopped playing after we were attacked, plan to go back later. Hope it stays interesting!
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[Cycle]

Hey Slonie, you ever play Sensory Overload? I think it was the only other commercial mac-centric FPS (PiD was already mentioned!) and it wasn't very good, but still! It was the first FPS on the system, IIRC:

[Harveyjames]

This is the thread where we were talking about how terrible Rare's character designs are, right?

http://media.1up.com/media?id=3439347

[Winged Assassins (1984)]