Games you reminisce playing... - ..but can't recall the name of, sometimes.

[Red Hood]

Rescue! By Tom Spreen (no video because the only one on youtube is a bunch of idjits talking over the game, sorry!) is probably what you're thinking of. If not that, then probably Netrek, one of the first online games, which is still running. But my money's on rescue.


You guys are killing me with this stuff. Heh. Nightfall (MAC) is one of the few games I can think of that might fit the bill of a real time adventure game without emphasis on combat. The fact you played a demo confuses things a bit for me. I can think of obvious titles like realmyst which was a full action recreation of myst instead of point and click, but that also doesn't really fit the wholly indoor bill or scifi aesthetic either.

I'll be putting more work into looking at the games I haven't gotten yet later!

Oh my god YES! Rescue is exactly what I was thinking of!

 

[Smaug's Smokey Hole]

You guys are killing me with this stuff. Heh. Nightfall (MAC) is one of the few games I can think of that might fit the bill of a real time adventure game without emphasis on combat. The fact you played a demo confuses things a bit for me. I can think of obvious titles like realmyst which was a full action recreation of myst instead of point and click, but that also doesn't really fit the wholly indoor bill or scifi aesthetic either.

I'll be putting more work into looking at the games I haven't gotten yet later!

Oh yeah, sorry I don't want to put a burden on you and there's no hurry, this has been bugging me for 15 years. I know a lot of crap about old games but clearly not as much as you so now that I remembered a game that I don't remember I took the opportunity. I've had no luck figuring out what it is and about once a year, or every two year, I put in an evening tearing through any leads or ideas that I have.

I mentioned software rendering and MMX, there's a reason for that, it made certain games look a certain way for a brief period in time, like high-res and more advanced PS1 games.

The images are from an unrelated game(Dreams) but it has that sharp look that is pretty distinctive, MDK and POD in software was similar, though the game I'm looking for have tiny indoor environments with plant life and moss hanging over everything, but it was still that kind of very sharp software rendering that makes it feel like your eyes are getting sandpapered whenever the camera moves.

 

[UnclePhil]

Maybe somebody can finally help me solve this 31-year-old mystery.

It was a beat-em-up arcade game. It starts with the character crashing his car. I seem to remember the first level maybe having some waterfalls in the background or stone masonry? Anyway, his car crashes (or stops), he gets out. Dudes rush at him and he must punch them.

 

[He Who Knows Games]

It was a beat-em-up arcade game. It starts with the character crashing his car. I seem to remember the first level maybe having some waterfalls in the background or stone masonry? Anyway, his car crashes (or stops), he gets out. Dudes rush at him and he must punch them.

I'm gonna go ahead and guess 31 years doesn't mean explicitly 1988 or earlier, and I'll drop some titles that may fit the bill. Let me know if they spring any other memories on you or not. Gang Wars starts out with a car on the first screen. Growl has a logo that features stonework and water spouting free. Violent Storm features your girl getting kidnapped and you hopping out of a car and proceeding to beat the tar out of some punks.

snip

No, no. I was kidding. Believe me if I was getting sick of looking I'd just stop looking. But that's no fun now is it? Morpheus, while technically a point and click, and not having the graphical fidelity you're describing seems like it might be in a similar vein. It does have the time travel-y sort of neo-noir atmosphere. Sentinel Returns doesn't seem to have stuff like the diving suit or other descriptors, but does have fairly constrained "levels" and free movement.

 

[UnclePhil]

I'm gonna go ahead and guess 31 years doesn't mean explicitly 1988 or earlier, and I'll drop some titles that may fit the bill. Let me know if they spring any other memories on you or not. Gang Wars starts out with a car on the first screen. Growl has a logo that features stonework and water spouting free. Violent Storm features your girl getting kidnapped and you hopping out of a car and proceeding to beat the tar out of some punks.

It would have been '88 or '89, so 30-31 years. This was one of my first encounters with any video game. I remember because a short time later my mom brought home a Nintendo Power for me to flip through (volume 6, Ninja Turtles on the cover) and that was when I realized, holy shit, you can play these at home!

Out of all those, Gang Wars seems the closest match, though I remember the character jumping out of the wrecked car. Could be Growl as well. The music sounds similar in both examples. It's not Violent Storm because the graphics were a lot more 8-bit.

Human memory is finite, and video feeds from three decades ago will bleed together like degraded 8-track tape. It could be all of those.

 

[Smaug's Smokey Hole]

No, no. I was kidding. Believe me if I was getting sick of looking I'd just stop looking. But that's no fun now is it? Morpheus, while technically a point and click, and not having the graphical fidelity you're describing seems like it might be in a similar vein. It does have the time travel-y sort of neo-noir atmosphere. Sentinel Returns doesn't seem to have stuff like the diving suit or other descriptors, but does have fairly constrained "levels" and free movement.

No, sorry. Thanks for the effort, I don't think I ever knew about Morpheus or the developer of that. Fun to see a QuickTimeVR game again. The game I'm hazily remembering was Myst-like in that I wandered around and had no idea wtf I was doing. I had an idea though, it probably came from a PC Gamer demo disc and those are probably on internet archive(yup, just looked), but it was the Swedish PC Gamer. I'll probably go through them anyway now that I'm getting invested in this.

 

[He Who Knows Games]

Human memory is finite, and video feeds from three decades ago will bleed together like degraded 8-track tape. It could be all of those.

NARC is from 88, featuring digitized actors, and a car spinning out to start every single mission, though you're more in the way of shooting/exploding them than punching.
Renegade has you starting on a pier (or broken bridge maybe) for mission 2, which is not at all unfeasible to reach on a single credit, even as a kid.
P.O.W. has you escaping a POW camp in a nondescript jungle. There's a waterfall in one of the later levels.
Tough Turf Is set in a warehouse (and later penthouse) with the protag hopping out of the back of a delivery truck at the start of mission 1.
Ultimately, my goal is to help people get a little bit closer if I can't help them figure it out entirely. Even if the game has become an ideal mixture of ideas and foggy memories, finding something that may be a part of those memories tends to make me feel better if I can't remember it, so I spread the wealth, so to speak.

No, sorry. Thanks for the effort, I don't think I ever knew about Morpheus or the developer of that. Fun to see a QuickTimeVR game again. The game I'm hazily remembering was Myst-like in that I wandered around and had no idea wtf I was doing. I had an idea though, it probably came from a PC Gamer demo disc and those are probably on internet archive(yup, just looked), but it was the Swedish PC Gamer. I'll probably go through them anyway now that I'm getting invested in this.

PC Gamer Sweden is way out of my realm of knowledge, and I can't even find any scans online to try and dig through it. Unfortunately I think I'm gonna have to call it here. Sorry I couldn't help you out more, but just to share the resources, obviously there's the internet archive you're probably looking through, and then MobyGames which is a great resource for trying to find games by a more vague genre/anything else. But unfortunately even looking through mmx and 3dnow! class games, I wasn't really able to find anything that fit the description, outside of the stuff I've already listed. It seems like PC gamer sweden wasn't really as well catalogued as the UK and US versions, unfortunately, as I can't even find old nostalgiabait discussions on the demo discs it offers (other than one particular one discussing abe's odyssey, hexplorer and stratosphere). Best of luck if you keep searching, though!

 

[The V]

I have 2:

The first is an isometric safari game where the point of it was to attract guests. It migh have been released on windows xp, maybe even earlier. This game was not zoo tycoon.

The second was a two-player arcade game that was at Chuck E Cheese. It was a shooter with the occasional QTE. The story was that this couple took a vacation in South America and radioactive mushrooms were mutating the animals, making them violent. The ending (one of them? I'm not sure if it has multiple endings) was that the couple got away in a helicopter, but the pilot sprouted a mushroom on the back of his neck.

 

[He Who Knows Games]

The first is an isometric safari game where the point of it was to attract guests. It migh have been released on windows xp, maybe even earlier. This game was not zoo tycoon.

The second was a two-player arcade game that was at Chuck E Cheese. It was a shooter with the occasional QTE. The story was that this couple took a vacation in South America and radioactive mushrooms were mutating the animals, making them violent. The ending (one of them? I'm not sure if it has multiple endings) was that the couple got away in a helicopter, but the pilot sprouted a mushroom on the back of his neck.

Well. The first game could be any number of titles, honestly. There were a boatload of animal themed tycoon styled managerial games. Wildlife Park (Again, no non-commentary videos available, sorry) spawned 2 sequels, and the original was released in 2003. SimSafari is the more literal approach (assuming you remembered safari for a reason and it wasn't just a level) and could also be it.

The second game though, is Let's Go Jungle I'm pretty certain.

 

[The V]

Well. The first game could be any number of titles, honestly. There were a boatload of animal themed tycoon styled managerial games. Wildlife Park (Again, no non-commentary videos available, sorry) spawned 2 sequels, and the original was released in 2003. SimSafari is the more literal approach (assuming you remembered safari for a reason and it wasn't just a level) and could also be it.

The second game though, is Let's Go Jungle I'm pretty certain.

The first game was simsafari, thank you.
And the second game was Let's Go Jungle.

 

[Tism the Return]

No idea of any of this is real or hallucinations induced by the MAME emulator late at night, but here goes nothing.

1) One on one fighting game, some sort of fantasy-medieval setting. At some point you fight a scorpion man, that's about all I remember.

2) Beat 'em up game, also medieval-themed. If you beat the game in co-op mode at the end you fight the other player, whoever wins rescues the princess.

3) Some sort of Japanese vertical SHMUP, you fought monsters and if I remember correctly you played as a ninja of sorts. The game was fairly gory.

 

[c-no]

I remember seeing an arcade game that had a gun fixed in a position like a turret and you were in a city shooting monsters. Contrary to what anyone thinks, it's not Beast Busters since what I remember from the first stage as a kid, monsters are literally on the street attacking people and you're in the area shooting said monsters. The first boss (miniboss?) was basically a giant ad or something of a man and woman that turned into a monster (vaguely recall a skeleton like monster) that extends its arms with either its own hands or knives.

 

[Victory Leo]

I'm still on the hunt for that game I mentioned.... I asked my mom if its still possible that we have those games laying around, it was from my brother's old stuff, with games like Bioforge, the X-files game that came in that file-style box with like 7 different disks, Half Life Blue Shift(the only one I could find) and a game my mom remembers called something like "Lord of the Universe" (it was in Hebrew, so who knows what it was actually called) she very vaguely remembers the game I'm looking for, I've gone through every PC Horror game I could find on Wikipedia last night and found no match. once again if anybody wants the details: it was a black box, with a red dome shaped head, with teeth similar to a Predator's, the back of the box had images of a green grass hill and some rocks, the graphics looked like something out of Myst or other semi-realistic looking puzzle and point and click games from its time. we could never get it to work for more than a few minutes before it would crash. it was definitely for PC, and the Box was Hebrew dubbed.

someone please help me this has been bugging me for literal years, maybe even a decade now.

 

[Smaug's Smokey Hole]

PC Gamer Sweden is way out of my realm of knowledge, and I can't even find any scans online to try and dig through it. Unfortunately I think I'm gonna have to call it here. Sorry I couldn't help you out more, but just to share the resources, obviously there's the internet archive you're probably looking through, and then MobyGames which is a great resource for trying to find games by a more vague genre/anything else. But unfortunately even looking through mmx and 3dnow! class games, I wasn't really able to find anything that fit the description, outside of the stuff I've already listed. It seems like PC gamer sweden wasn't really as well catalogued as the UK and US versions, unfortunately, as I can't even find old nostalgiabait discussions on the demo discs it offers (other than one particular one discussing abe's odyssey, hexplorer and stratosphere). Best of luck if you keep searching, though!

Thanks for trying, I'll keep looking for it. I just fear that I might finally find it and it turns out that my memory was bad and it was actually a German kart racing game or something stupid like that.

 

[WEEDle]

A vague memory of a demo I played has been bugging me for a while. I could have sworn it was an XBOX demo, but lately I'm thinking it's possible it may have been on a PS1 demo disc. I'll have to go through all of the PS1 demos I have sometime if that's the case just to make sure.

Anyway, I played it in the early 2000s, and from what I remember it was like a kart racer game except you were piloting airplanes. The graphical style was very cartoony. I can't remember if it was cel-shaded or not, probably not. The level of the demo I remember being set in a desert. At one point I think you fly through a mountain or something, there was possibly a train track.

 

[He Who Knows Games]

No idea of any of this is real or hallucinations induced by the MAME emulator late at night, but here goes nothing.

1) One on one fighting game, some sort of fantasy-medieval setting. At some point you fight a scorpion man, that's about all I remember.

2) Beat 'em up game, also medieval-themed. If you beat the game in co-op mode at the end you fight the other player, whoever wins rescues the princess.

3) Some sort of Japanese vertical SHMUP, you fought monsters and if I remember correctly you played as a ninja of sorts. The game was fairly gory.

1:Hippodrome/Fighting Fantasy may be it.
2:Knights of the Round is my first choice. I'm going to assume it's not one of the obvious choices like the D&D capcom games or Golden Axe, so Knights of the Round is one of the common options. King of Dragons is another, also a capcom game so it saw widespread placement in many arcades. The hurdle i'm running into is the fighting your friend at the end. I can only think of double dragon as doing that. Do you happen to remember if it was 2d or 3d? Side on view, top down, or isometric?
3:Ninja Commando is my best guess for the vertical shmup category.

I remember seeing an arcade game that had a gun fixed in a position like a turret and you were in a city shooting monsters. Contrary to what anyone thinks, it's not Beast Busters since what I remember from the first stage as a kid, monsters are literally on the street attacking people and you're in the area shooting said monsters. The first boss (miniboss?) was basically a giant ad or something of a man and woman that turned into a monster (vaguely recall a skeleton like monster) that extends its arms with either its own hands or knives.

Do you happen to remember the year you saw it? Mounted gun games sort of disappeared between the late 90s and early 2010s so it'd help to know if i'm looking for something more recent. Gunblade NY/machineguns LA are about the only games I can think of that even involve people on the street, but neither have anything resembling monsters or skeletons.

Anyway, I played it in the early 2000s, and from what I remember it was like a kart racer game except you were piloting airplanes. The graphical style was very cartoony. I can't remember if it was cel-shaded or not, probably not. The level of the demo I remember being set in a desert. At one point I think you fly through a mountain or something, there was possibly a train track.

Freaky Flyers was on PS2/xbox/gamecube, shipped out demo discs for ps2 and xbox, and seems to tick the boxes. The level you're thinking of might be "coyote canyon" (8:00 in the video).

 

[Tism the Return]

1:Hippodrome/Fighting Fantasy may be it.
2:Knights of the Round is my first choice. I'm going to assume it's not one of the obvious choices like the D&D capcom games or Golden Axe, so Knights of the Round is one of the common options. King of Dragons is another, also a capcom game so it saw widespread placement in many arcades. The hurdle i'm running into is the fighting your friend at the end. I can only think of double dragon as doing that. Do you happen to remember if it was 2d or 3d? Side on view, top down, or isometric?
3:Ninja Commando is my best guess for the vertical shmup category.


Do you happen to remember the year you saw it? Mounted gun games sort of disappeared between the late 90s and early 2010s so it'd help to know if i'm looking for something more recent. Gunblade NY/machineguns LA are about the only games I can think of that even involve people on the street, but neither have anything resembling monsters or skeletons.


Freaky Flyers was on PS2/xbox/gamecube, shipped out demo discs for ps2 and xbox, and seems to tick the boxes. The level you're thinking of might be "coyote canyon" (8:00 in the video).

You're actually correct! After looking into it I can confirm it was Hippodrome, thanks for that. As for the second question I do remember the game being 2D, side on view. Can't remember much more. Definitely not one of the more famous titles you mentioned, graphics were worse from my limited memories.

 

[c-no]

Do you happen to remember the year you saw it? Mounted gun games sort of disappeared between the late 90s and early 2010s so it'd help to know if i'm looking for something more recent. Gunblade NY/machineguns LA are about the only games I can think of that even involve people on the street, but neither have anything resembling monsters or skeletons.

It was around late 90's to early 2000's. I say mounted gun because as far as I can remember, it was a game where you were shooting a machine gun at sprites. I can't remember much else and for all I know, it really could of been Beast Busters but with a different sprites or something.

 

[Jub-Jub]

Seems to me like DeathDrome.

Didn't relize you had responded, but HOLY SHIT you're good. That's the game alright.

 

[WEEDle]

1:Hippodrome/Fighting Fantasy may be it.
2:Knights of the Round is my first choice. I'm going to assume it's not one of the obvious choices like the D&D capcom games or Golden Axe, so Knights of the Round is one of the common options. King of Dragons is another, also a capcom game so it saw widespread placement in many arcades. The hurdle i'm running into is the fighting your friend at the end. I can only think of double dragon as doing that. Do you happen to remember if it was 2d or 3d? Side on view, top down, or isometric?
3:Ninja Commando is my best guess for the vertical shmup category.


Do you happen to remember the year you saw it? Mounted gun games sort of disappeared between the late 90s and early 2010s so it'd help to know if i'm looking for something more recent. Gunblade NY/machineguns LA are about the only games I can think of that even involve people on the street, but neither have anything resembling monsters or skeletons.


Freaky Flyers was on PS2/xbox/gamecube, shipped out demo discs for ps2 and xbox, and seems to tick the boxes. The level you're thinking of might be "coyote canyon" (8:00 in the video).

That's the one! Thank you!