Video Game Nostalgia!

April 28, 2009 8:44 AM

Help me find some lost video games from my childhood!

I'm a child of the 80s, so these games would probably have been released some time between 1985-1995. All I have are bare snippets of memories from the games. Any help in remembering or identifying the three of them would be awesome.

1 - A 'war plane' simulator, except that instead of a cockpit view, it was kind of like a side scroller, and you could change the plane's altitude. I don't remember much except that you were maybe attacking a beach in one level and that to rearm you had to land on an aircraft carrier? Which was just about impossible the way I remembered it.

2 - Some sort of pandemic control game. You were an "Agent' I think, and I remember the color of white? You could take the train stations between towns and were trying to contain the outbreak of the disease, but I don't remember how. I think as the game progressed more of the ordinary citizens walking around would be infected.

3 - This one is definitely the vaguest, but a 3rd-person side scroller, Commander Keen style perhaps, where you were in a set of towers. I think once you finished the level 'one tower', you could get the key or access to the next tower. I don't remember if there was combat or puzzles, just the towers trying to get between them.

posted by onalark to computers & internet (27 comments total)

What system did you play these games on?
posted by demiurge at 8:45 AM on April 28

#2 is probably Agent USA. STOP THE FUZZBODIEZZZZ!
posted by iconomy at 8:49 AM on April 28

#1 might be Wings of Fury or Jumpjet - see descriptions on this page.
posted by iconomy at 8:56 AM on April 28

could #1 be Top Gun on the NES? Man, I could never land on the Aircraft Carrier.
posted by jrishel at 9:00 AM on April 28

#3 might be Tower Toppler.

The system you played on would help narrow these down, especially #1.
posted by iconomy at 9:01 AM on April 28

Landing on the aircraft carrier in Top Gun on the NES was indeed possible, though I never did it myself. :(
posted by nitsuj at 9:06 AM on April 28

#1 is definitely Top Gun for the NES. One of the most frustratiingly difficult games ever. Like, a really, really unbalanced kind of frustrating. And the aircraft carrier landing was damn near impossible.

I clearly remember no less than three tear-filled calls from kids on the Nintendo Hotline back in the day.
posted by Aquaman at 9:18 AM on April 28

These were all played on either early Macs or x86s
posted by onalark at 9:28 AM on April 28

#2 is definitely Agent USA.
posted by onalark at 9:32 AM on April 28

It's not Top Gun, it wasn't a cockpit view, you saw the plane from the side almost like a side-scroller.
posted by onalark at 9:33 AM on April 28

#1 sounds like it could be Blue Max. I used to love this on the C64.
posted by porn in the woods at 9:34 AM on April 28

#1 is Wings of Fury! #3 is going to be impossible to lock down I think :)
posted by onalark at 9:34 AM on April 28

#1 is definitely Wings of Fury. There's a moderately OK flash remake. Top Gun for NES was a cockpit-view game, not a side scroller. You're right about the balance, though.. the carrier landing was fiendish, but you could also hold the d-pad down for the entire mission and no bad guys could touch you until you got to the boss.
posted by ulotrichous at 9:37 AM on April 28

The tower game - was it called Nebulus?
posted by iconomy at 9:37 AM on April 28

#3 was not Tower Toppler or Nebulus. I think you were a human of some sort, maybe in a red suit.
posted by onalark at 9:40 AM on April 28

is #3 Dark Castle, by any chance? Third-person, dodging bad guys and solving puzzles, moving from tower to tower. There were Mac, DOS, and I think Sega versions.

Also, am I seriously the only one who was able to land on the carrier in Top Gun more often than not?
posted by xbonesgt at 9:56 AM on April 28

Nope it wasn't Dark Castle. Sorry I can hardly remember anything about the game :)
posted by onalark at 10:09 AM on April 28

While we're discussing games from my past, how about a bonus #4? This one is even more vague. I think it was a text-and-point-and-click adventure, and I remember it was also set in a castle, I think it was a top-down view. All I remember is that you had a quiver of arrows that was unlimited and there was a grandfather clock, but that I was stuck in some part of the beginning of the game and couldn't figure out what to do.
posted by onalark at 10:13 AM on April 28

was #4 Tower of Myraglen?
posted by cali59 at 11:01 AM on April 28

If number 4 wasn't Twoer of Myraglen, could it be one of the ridiculously tough (in that you had to do all the puzzles in a very poscribed order) King's Quest games?
posted by misha at 11:34 AM on April 28

About the tower game (#3), do you remember what system you played that on?
posted by iconomy at 11:41 AM on April 28

I'm pretty sure #4 Was Tower of Myraglen, but it's hard to verify without seeing some more screen shots than what has been posted on the web.

#3 kills me, I'm pretty sure it would have been on a IIGS, since all these other games appear to have been on one as well. I remember watching my older sister playing the tower game. I will ask her if she has any recollection of the game.
posted by onalark at 12:08 PM on April 28

This may be a red herring, but #3 may have had robots.

Could I be thinking of the first Space Quest game? Did it have any scenes where you were trying to get between towers?
posted by onalark at 12:09 PM on April 28

No, there aren't any towers in Space Quest I.
posted by interrobang at 12:13 PM on April 28

Heh, found #3. Impossible Mission II.

Thanks everybody, I don't know if this is more awesome or pathetic :D
posted by onalark at 12:14 PM on April 28

i vote pathetic!
posted by uspommie at 2:43 PM on April 28

Is #3 Magic Sword [YouTube link]
posted by mediocre at 4:01 PM on April 28