h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

The subject says it all, really...

Which computer games are the latest and greatest?

And which should I definitely avoid?

I have a PC, incidentally.

Thanks,

26199

Well if you like football management sims, then Championship Manager 1999-2000 really is very nice, it is a tweaked version of CM3 which was still a bit ropey in places. And another upgrade is the Sid Meiers Alpha Centauri extension pack which is great if you're into that sort of thing.
Still they don't make games like they used to, who could ever tire of 'Manic Miner'?

Having recently played an emulated version of Manic Miner, I'm really glad we don't make computer games like they used to. It was absolute rubbish- apart from the graphics and "sound", it featured some of the most repetitive, punishing, simplistic gameplay ever designed. This game sticks in everyone's minds because it got loads of press and media attention- not because it was any good. Compared to a real classic of the time, Super Mario Bros, Manic Miner is a pathetic little creature.

Nostalgia is all well and good, but the games industry is finally starting to move beyond this obsession with cliched, retro arcade genres and redefine itself as THE mass entertainment medium of the next century.

Good PC games I've seen recently include:

HOMEWORLD (Real time space strategy)
UNREAL TOURNAMENT (1st person shooter- deathmatches)
DUNGEON KEEPER 2 (Been out a while- but really good fantasy RTS)
EARTHWORM JIM 3D (Hilarious, surreal 3D platformer)

Is Driver any good?

I have the PSX version- which is great- lots of fun. However, what I've seen of the PC version (demo) was not that impressive- looking just like the PSX one, with slightly bigger textures and a dodgy framerate. They might have sorted this out for release, but I've heard that Midtown Madness is better, which is a really similar game but without the 70s stylings.

i am on a computer games degree course a university and i think you should just wait and buy quake 3!

actually i've changed my mind you should abandon your computer by physically throwing it out of your window (if you have one). this will destroy all computer related stress in your life. the machines are the enemy!!

Buying any of the following will make you eternally happy and bring about a state of nirvana achieved previously only by strange llama things in Tibet.

1. Quake 3
2. Half-Life
3. Tiberian Sun
4. Grim Fandango
5. System Shock 2
6. Hidden and Dangerous
7. Champioship Manager 3
8. FIFA 2000

But buy nothing else! Only they are safe.

Hmmm... I already have Half-Life and Grim Fandango, and also the Quake III test... does that mean I'm in 1/4 of a state of Nirvana?

*grin*

Sounds like good advice, though - thanks.

And don't forget Starship Titanic! Since TDV foots the bill here, we should probably give them a plug!!!

- X

*grin* Already got that one, too; I can recommend it to all you adventure game fans, you know who you are .

I've asked Santa for Call of Duty: Modern Warfare, the 2019 edition.

I'd be amused to see what the other people posting in this thread would have made of it, in all its 4k VR online glory, if they could have looked forward 20 years. Would their minds be blown, or would they have expected more progress by now?

I'm still wondering here how Manic Miner and Super Mario Bros are comparable.

One was released in about 1983, the other about 1993 surely....?

Not that I am living in the past at all

Hmm, OK, Super Mario Bros 1985 apparently. Nvm. Should check before posting


Sadly I have little time for proper games these days and am mostly reduced to free shizz on my phone

Super Mario Bros: 1985
Manic Miner: 1983

Super Mario Bros credits:
Designer: Shigeru Miyamoto, Takashi Tezuka
Programmer: Toshihiko Nakago, Kazuaki Morita
Composer: Koji Kondo

Manic Miner credits:
Designer, Programmer, Composer: Matthew Smith.

The hardware they ran on is suprisingly similar in performance, and in fact the CPU of the Spectrum runs a good deal faster than that on the NES, but the NES benefited from things like custom video and sound chips.

It's quite hard to remember, but two years was a lifetime in terms of video game development back then. For instance - one of the most reliably technically brilliant developers for the Spectrum in those days was Ultimate. They eventually morphed into Rare and became one of the foremost developers for the Nintendo, but consider this: in 1983, they released "Jetpac", which was amazing at the time for its beautifully smooth moving 2D sprite graphics. In 1984, they released "Knight Lore", which looks like it belongs on a different generation of hardware entirely. People were learning FAST in those days.

Yes indeed.

If they'd done world championships for computer games back then, I would have been a contender with Lunar Jetman (the sequel to Jetpac). I used to amaze with my skillz at that

Iirc Knightlore was actually finished before its brethren computer game Underwurld, but they released Underwurld first because Knightlore blew it away so much they would not have been able to sell Underwurld.

Ah those were the days.

It's worse than that.

Knight Lore was finished before SABRE WULF! They held it back for the reasons stated and released it simultaneously with Underwurlde.

Didn't know Matt Smith was already active then. Oh wait, he's a time lord with a .

They finished before Sabre Wulf? Wow, yes that is silly. Though not so much really, correct business decision.
I always used to go nuts when the character would go into break dancing mode (i.e. transform to wolf or back again) - right in mid-jump in a really difficult room
And Alien8 which was Knightlore_2 really, was *really* slow to the point of tedium as it was too big really for the speccy to handle. Still groundbreaking though.

I always think that if they could (be bothered to) extract the same efficiency out of modern computer hardware as they did back then, then computers would now be able to teleport us to Andromeda.