That old game
May 8, 2011 7:12 PM
I'm trying to remember a game that came with our family's old PC (an Acer desktop with Windows 98!). It was a semi-top-down shooter. The HUD was vibrantly green or blue and as your health decreased your character's portrait faded into a skull.
No, sorry, that's about all I have. I think it was sci-fi and involved aliens but that's not very helpful. The graphics were real 3D and it was sort of isometric because you couldn't move the camera directly behind.
posted by tatma at 4:51 AM on May 9, 2011
posted by tatma at 4:51 AM on May 9, 2011
Except for the skull thing, sounds like one of the games from the X-COM series.
posted by zer0render at 7:29 AM on May 9, 2011
posted by zer0render at 7:29 AM on May 9, 2011
Maybe "isometric" is the wrong way to describe it (my bad!). It was true 3D, with polygonal geometry, but the camera was sort of half-way overhead. Distant third-person?
Seems like you were this guy in a suit made out of blue/green? armor shooting green lasers. It wasn't set in space that I remember. It was terrestrial and didn't involve spaceships, but you were fighting some sort of weird invasion. The only level I can remember was completely made of rock. It was very dark.
At the latest it would have been released (or demo released) February 1999, when we bought the computer.
Really doubting my memory here...
posted by tatma at 9:41 AM on May 9, 2011
Seems like you were this guy in a suit made out of blue/green? armor shooting green lasers. It wasn't set in space that I remember. It was terrestrial and didn't involve spaceships, but you were fighting some sort of weird invasion. The only level I can remember was completely made of rock. It was very dark.
At the latest it would have been released (or demo released) February 1999, when we bought the computer.
Really doubting my memory here...
posted by tatma at 9:41 AM on May 9, 2011
I know you said it seemed like an invasion but could it be one of the old Eye of the Beholder D&D games from SSI? I seem to recall your portrait changed to indicate your characters status (washed out for unconscious, green for poisoned and a skull for dead, I think).
posted by JaredSeth at 12:10 PM on May 9, 2011
posted by JaredSeth at 12:10 PM on May 9, 2011
Although now that I look, the third EOTB game came out in '93 so probably too early for your question.
posted by JaredSeth at 12:11 PM on May 9, 2011
posted by JaredSeth at 12:11 PM on May 9, 2011
Yes, that's too early. It was a semi-overhead view (not first-person) and not a dungeon-crawler. It was not dialogue-heavy and there weren't many (if any) menus or commands on the screen.
It was about on-par with graphics from 1998. Kind of like looking at Unreal Tournament or Quake 3 as a spectator.
posted by tatma at 3:06 PM on May 9, 2011
It was about on-par with graphics from 1998. Kind of like looking at Unreal Tournament or Quake 3 as a spectator.
posted by tatma at 3:06 PM on May 9, 2011
Just an update:
X-COM:Enforcer isn't too far off. Outwars is also similar, but with an interface different to what I remember.
This is the computer it was with (except for a different processor). I tried looking up used PCs for a list of software but nobody seems to have had this computer except us.
posted by tatma at 12:43 PM on May 10, 2011
X-COM:Enforcer isn't too far off. Outwars is also similar, but with an interface different to what I remember.
This is the computer it was with (except for a different processor). I tried looking up used PCs for a list of software but nobody seems to have had this computer except us.
posted by tatma at 12:43 PM on May 10, 2011
Far shots given your criteria, but perhaps SSI's Cyclones? Or maybe Terra Nova? Or (please let this be it, both because this is my strongest guess and because it's awesome) Incubation?
posted by zer0render at 10:16 PM on May 10, 2011
posted by zer0render at 10:16 PM on May 10, 2011
Aha! I found it. It's Expendable. It doesn't look like I remember it, but the skull thing is definitely there.
It was released May 1999 so evidently I was too early in dating it. Now if I could get the demo to work...
posted by tatma at 7:10 AM on May 11, 2011
It was released May 1999 so evidently I was too early in dating it. Now if I could get the demo to work...
posted by tatma at 7:10 AM on May 11, 2011
Sweet, I tried it on an older desktop and it works. Thanks for your help everyone.
posted by tatma at 7:54 AM on May 11, 2011
posted by tatma at 7:54 AM on May 11, 2011
This thread is closed to new comments.
posted by iconomy at 8:06 PM on May 8, 2011