We're doing something a little different today - a Top 10 video! Only, this being The Collection Chamber, it has to be about obscure hidden gems! Check out the video and let me know any that I've missed.
Some have already been featured on the site so follow the jump to link to their review.
Click on the links below to find out more...
NUMBER 10
NUMBER 9
NUMBER 8
NUMBER 7
NUMBER 6
1995 ORIGIN Systems Inc
DOS
Action-FPS-Role Play-Science Fiction-Wizards!
NUMBER 5
1995-1996 Electronic Arts & Games Workshop, Ltd
Windows
Action-FPS-Strategy-Science Fiction-Aliens!
NUMBER 4
1998 MicroProse Software Inc
Windows
Action-FPS-Science Fiction-Star Trek
NUMBER 3
1995 Bethesda Softworks
DOS (Compilation)
Action-FPS-Science Fiction-Robots!
NUMBER 2
NUMBER 1
HONORABLE MENTIONS
1996 Core Design, Ltd
DOS / Windows '95
Action-FPS-Science Fiction-Insects!
1997 Action Forms Ltd
DOS
Action-FPS-Fantasy
1994 Raven Software
DOS
Action-FPS-Science Fiction
1997 Avalon Hill
Windows
Action-FPS-Science Fiction
1997 Electronic Arts
Windows + Windows '95
Action-FPS-Battle Arena-Fantasy-Egypt
1995 Addix Software Development Inc
DOS
Action-FPS-Science Fiction
Great top ten list. But what was the game at the 0:17 mark during the intro ? I don't remember ever fighting jesters in a game. It has me bewildered. I seen in the comments on Youtube that you are having trouble with The Wheel of Time. I have it running on Windows 10 with absolutely no problems. I found it on a site which name escapes me now unfortunately, about 10 years ago, completely pre-fixed for modern hardware. They even modded it a little to spruce up the graphics as well as a few bug fixes. I will post the link for you to check it out, but first I need to go into a time warp and hunt for it. I know for a fact I burnt the game package onto a disc and also kept the instructions which contained the site link. I'm off to search. Wish me luck, and best wishes to you Biffman.
ReplyDeleteThat game is Motorhead for the Amiga. It's on this site. The other in the intro is 3D Ultra Pinball Adventures - one old, one new.
DeleteThe issue I'm having with Wheel of Time is not with the game itself (all footage in the video is mine), but with the videos which are a big part of the experience. Currently, they run in its original resolution, changing the desktop as it does so. Some monitors would allow for this and therefore not see much difference, but I wanted to see if I can have them run in fullscreen in the desktop's resolution. Not exactly a massive deal, but still one that niggles me greatly and I'm sure ther must be a solution I'm missing.
That, Biff, is indeed an unexpected, little bit different approach on The Collection Chamber's usual awesome content, but nonetheless a surprisingly pleasant one. So after enjoying your cool video essay about 1990s' First-person shooter games aside the powerful mainstream of their market, maybe I can add an outstanding jewel that could have slipped under the radar of the one or other gamer who rather had the 3D-shooting genre's big names in mind back then. In fact, the one I'm talking about here is going by the name of SiN that officially saw the light of day in 1998 (and is available on GOG in its Gold Edition these days).
ReplyDeleteBased on a fictional modern world's scenario not too far in the future in which one of the most extraordinary big bosses ever does her dirty games, erm, deeds, SiN features versatile mission objectives within unique and interactive-above-average self-contained 3D levels, where you're blowing away the bad guys with an arsenal of befitting weaponry as well as with some vehicles you're hopping into to carry out your literally bloody business from there every once in a while. On top of that, there are the many in-game conversations that take place between the protagonist and his right-agent-hand who's some kind of buddy that provides useful information on your various tasks as well as funny small talk over the voice radio - which turns out to be a true highlight and makes for a rather lively game experience that was rarely to be found within First-person shooters from that era.
There's also a successor named SiN Episodes which was published in 2006. Originally intended to be the beginning of a lengthy series at that time, eventually these plans had been cancelled, unfortunately. As for me, I haven't played the latter one yet, but as with its predecessor, it should be worth more than a look or two. :-)
Bye for now,
Thomas
I really enjoyed SiN, and Episodes was good too althrough there were less flashes of brilliance. It's worth a go if you enjoyed the first.
DeleteI played the original's demo back in the day and only played further when I bought it on GOG. A good suggestion, but I wanted to focus on games that haven't been re-released for my Top 10. Therefore all GOG games have no longer 'hidden' and are out. That way, they game either be from the site or be future candidates. If I did that, Strife and System Shock would be there. If you haven't played either of these, I highly recommend them.
Yeah, you're so right, Biff. When I was watching your video for the first time, I must have overheard your spoken "re-released" whilst paying much more attention on the "remastered" instead. Mea culpa. But yet I'm glad that you like the original SiN in a similar way that I do. :-)
DeleteBesides, once again I wanna praise your voice of which I think has the potential for being successfully utilised with other media as well. So have you actually ever thought about being trained as a professional speaker? You surely bring along some talent (and mental depth) for that. That's at least what my ears would say if they could speak. :-)
Thanks for the recommendations in the shape of Strife (had no clue about that one before) and System Shock (which is on my agenda since 1994 when the original release hit the shelves, but it never came to fruition, in fact). So I'll have a closer look at especially Strife and see if it meets my taste as it does with System Shock. :-)
Bye for now,
Thomas
Hey Biff.
ReplyDeleteHave you ever played Virtuoso? It's a fairly good FPS, where you play a rock star in a virtual world full of giant mutant spiders, bats, bugs, killer droids, and other nasties.
And it has **THE BEST** soundtrack! (:
Here's a trailer for it.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VkhHPn5kldg
Frodo
I've heard of it, but not yet played it. It seems pretty cool though.
DeleteHi,
ReplyDeletethanks for those great top ten. I would also agree that Virtuoso belongs in that list - although, technically, it's not a pure FPS because you see the character.
Any chance you could get "Deviance" to work on modern systems? I'd love to try it once but I can't even get the installation to run on either Windows 7 or Windows 10 :(
Defiance is coming soon. I used footage for the video, but I hadn't played much of it to get a good idea of what it's about (thus not being part of the 10).
DeleteThanks, that would be great :) I had a demo once, it's pretty good actually. Technically, I honestly hate Windows 95/98 games lol. I get almost anything to run in DosBox (I got pretty good in tweaking it and emulating Win 3.1 in it), but with anything from about 1996-2000 I've had little success.
DeleteIf you ever get Space Hulk: Vengeance of the Blood Angels working on modern computers you'd be a god amongst men!
ReplyDeleteIt's coming :)
Delete