The "What game did that come from?" Game!!

[The Former DMiller]

Well, it's obviously a PC game. I'll go with Age of Wonders 2.

[A Black Falcon]

I'd post pictures of those games to show how wrong you are, but that would ruin it if I ever want to use Age of Wonders 2...

I'd never use Starcraft of course because that would be WAY too easy!

Silly people, haven't you played more obscure PC strategy games? :)

Oh... um, want another screenshot?

[The Former DMiller]

I hate you ABF. :) Is it Majesty: The Fantasy Kingdom Sim? I'm probably dead wrong, so give us a clue because none of us play obscure PC games.

[A Black Falcon]

:D

I'm not going to give it away when its only been a few hours... isnt it fun to be guessing? :)

Of course you could try to find somewhere with pictures of pc strategy games (OK... here's a hint. Its realtime, not turn based.) and try to find this one... but it wouldn't be easy, I bet. As you can probably tell from the graphics, its not exactly a new game... :)

Oh... why guess wild, completely wrong guesses? Do you know what that does? Well... all it does to me is proves that you've never so much as seen a screenshot from either Age of Wonders 2 or Majesty because they look NOTHING AT ALL like this game.

Plus, AoW2 is turnbased... given away by the big buttonbar and 'end turn' button in it... :)

[The Former DMiller]

Another clue ABF. No one has any idea what your old PC game is. :)

[A Black Falcon]

OK... if you don't get it now, then you never will. Either that, or you didn't bother to try to find it... :)

RTS... but with elements of some other genres that if I mention would give it completely away... (as the screenshots reflect, if you can figure out what I mean).

1997.

Internet-focused.

To make it maybe too easy... it was a failure at retail and the developer closed afterwards. Ironic... :)

[The Former DMiller]

Never, ever, ever is someone picking an obscure PC game again. Glares menacingly at ABF. :cuss:

The game is Netstorm.

[OB1]

Amen.

[A Black Falcon]

Well. Good... you got it. It is in fact Netstorm: Islands at War... what clue gave you the name? The game's name ('internet-focused'), or the developer (my refrence to irony -- the developer's name was Titanic, and it went down after its first release... :) )? Or a good guess?

Anyway, Netstorm: Islands at War is a very fun RTS with strong puzzle-game influence... I've had it since I got it in December 1997 and still wish it'd succeeded in retail... the game is so unique and fun... but it didn't. I've never seen another game even remotely like it before or since... which is really too bad. It was a good idea... the game is based on floating islands, and you get one as a base. Your units that move are all workers -- the military units are all tower units. And you build bridges, Tetris-style (see the second picture) to build them off of and connect to other islands and mines so ground workers can go mine stuff.

It also had a very intresting online system where you start a island (game) with only the base units and as you win games by killing enemy priests (leader units), you could add more units to your inventory of units. It made getting started as a newbie hard, but was pretty cool how you actually had to earn stuff in multiplayer... gave me a reason to want to keep playing -- to get those cool (more powerful) units... :)


If you want to try it, this site has the full (abandonware -- Activision, the publisher, isn't selling it anymore) game download. Plus instructions on how to connect to the server... Activision took theirs down so its a fan-run server not listed by default.

As you can imagine with a name like 'Netstorm', the game is internet-focused and the single player campaign isn't very good... not that it matters much.

http://www.netstormhq.com

Oh yeah, and IMO its still one of the better RTSes out there... though I am sure nostalgia helps, IMO anyway its still fun. :)

Oh, its your turn now DMiller... how about something tougher than Fire Emblem?

[Dark Jaguar]

C'mon DMiller, or I taky your tourny!

Oh, and let's keep the obscure games coming, for PC, or even Mac or my Commodore 64*!

*DJ does not own a Commodore 64.

[Great Rumbler]

I will now use my powers as this games creator to take back control of it!!

Here's the pic:

Clue: Prequel to a popular game released several years ago.

[A Black Falcon]

Can't you just convert it to a JPG and post it? Having to download it is annoying...

Anyway, it sure looks like Seiken Densetsu 3... first I thought it was the GBA Seiken Densetsu/Final Fantasy Adventure remake, then I realized it wasn't a GBA-sized screen in the shot so it couldn't be that game... then I thought of Seiken Densetsu 3 and realized it looked just like that game ( which I've been playing the translated rom of on and off for the past couple of months). Looks right... is it?

[Great Rumbler]

There, I fixed it.

And no, it isn't Seiken Densetsu 3.

[The Former DMiller]

The developer clue didn't help me at all. It was the year and the fact that it was an online game that helped. It does look pretty interesting and since it's old Virtual PC can probably run it great. I'll try and check it out.

And who said you could take my turn GR? I hate you.

j/k, it gives me the chance to earn another point.

[OB1]

Is that a PSX or SNES game?

[Great Rumbler]

Sorry, but I'm not giving out anymore hints just yet. The first clue should be enough to make a pretty good guess.

[The Former DMiller]

I want a clarification on something. Do you mean prequel in the sense that the game came after it's original game, but the story takes place before it (ie Resident Evil 0), or do you mean the game is earlier in a series, but before the game that made the series popular (ie Metal Gear before Metal Gear Solid)?

[A Black Falcon]

I assumed the former, which is why I guessed SD3... that, and the fact that it looks like a Square-type SNES RPG graphically. But yeah, could you clarify that?

Oh... and if anyone does try Netstorm, tell me because as you'd guess for a older game without a big community its not that easy on newbies. :)

[Dark Jaguar]

Is that Tales of Phantasia? It looks familiar but I'm not exactly sure...

[Great Rumbler]

The game in question is the first in a series [clue: the series is about to be up to 3] and was released first.

It isn't Tales of Phantasia, though the graphics style does look similar.

Here's another pic since I'm so nice [and yes, both pics are from the same game ;)]:

[OB1]

Hmm.. kinda looks like Suikoden but I don't recognize that character. I never played the second one so... Suikoden II is my guess. But that didn't come out "several years ago". So change my guess to Suikoden I.

[The Former DMiller]

Star Ocean. I had a feeling that was it, but I didn't guess it for some reason.

[Great Rumbler]

You are correct, DMiller.

Star Ocean was amazingly advanced for a Snes, I suggest anyone who is into emulation should pick this up if they can find it. Hopefully DeJap will finish their translation of it sometime soon.

[Dark Jaguar]

Okay, your turn now DMiller! This time be quick or someone else will steal your turn again!

[OB1]

Too late! It's my turn!

This is gonna be a tough one:

[Dark Jaguar]

Hmm, this is almost as hard as the last one you gave OB1, but I think I can solve this one too!

Wait, yes, no, yes, no, no, no yes...no...




yes!

The Legend of Zelda: Wind Waker!

Okay, now for MY turn! Sorry DMiller...

[The Former DMiller]

I think this one may be almost as evil as ABF's was, unless there is someone here who has played just about every football game out there.

[Dark Jaguar]

Cool, two challenges at once.

[OB1]

Monkey Island?

[Dark Jaguar]

Sorry, no.

[OB1]

I was referring to D's game.

[The Former DMiller]

The Lord of the Rings

[Dark Jaguar]

Haha, nope.

Oh, and I'll just answer anything that isn't specific as if it was to me. Take that in mind, so that if you guess his game and it's wrong, you might accidently get the right answer to mine :D.

[OB1]

I gotta say Derek, that's even worse than ABF's choice. There have been around five or so football games made each year for the past two decades. Talk about searching for a needle in a stack of needles.

[The Former DMiller]

Hehe, yeah. I'll say that it wasn't a game that turned into a series, and it was on a Nintendo system.

[A Black Falcon]

Of course! Star Ocean! I KNEW I'd seen that picture (the firsto one) in one of the (emulated) SNES RPGs... I just forgot about Star Ocean...


DJ's: It looks like some comedy takeoff of LOTR... but I don't know what the game is... I don't recognize the game.

DMiller? Umm... Tecmo Super Bowl (the last one)? Madden 9x? QB Club? Um, any of the dozens of other football games released on the SNES? Too many... too hard to guess...

[The Former DMiller]

Nope. Like I said the game didn't turn into a series.

[Great Rumbler]

Hahaha!! I know what game yours is, DJ! You talk about it all the time! Kingdom O' Magic!

[A Black Falcon]

Um, DJ, is it?

DMiller, that is more evil than my choice... at least my game had a unique look that, once you find, you knew without a doubt it was that game. You chose a SNES football game that looks identical to a dozen other games at least... :(

[Dark Jaguar]

Yeah you got it! I'm surprised it took so long to get it with how I talk about it so often. It is indeed Kingdom O' Magic.



I just realized this pic is perfect for TC...

[A Black Falcon]

Yeah, its just like our forum population...

Except here, you've got the 14 (Um, and 200 aliases...) members and another 7 who refuse to post but stay on AIM/MSN all the time.

But yeah, overall that looks familiar... :)

Ok... who's next? Great Rumbler, what's the next pic?

*wonders when GR will be online next and if he wants to wait that long, given how it probably wont be soon*

[The Former DMiller]

Well, if you know football games that pic does give a lot away. The three windows passing system was used for a very limited time during the 16-bit days. I will also give you a huge clue: it's a college football game.

[Dark Jaguar]

Oh francensense and mir, like anyone "knows football games" and knows about 3 window systems or whatever else you are talking about.

Oh, I'm sure plenty do, but there's a sect of us here at TC, well maybe it's just me, who don't really like sports games in general unless it really has something interesting, like banana peels and shell launching :D.

[A Black Falcon]

Thats just you. I don't play many (um, almost no) sports games either, but do like a few... I do wish I had a recent baseball game. Those are fun.

That is, depending on what you call sports... if arcadish racing games are sports games, I have a lot of sports games... :)

Football SNES games though? Not a clue... I'd only have a chance if it was baseball.

[OB1]

I hope Nintendo makes a Mario baseball game soon. I love the other Mario sports games.

[A Black Falcon]

I haven't played a Mario Sports game since the NES... and I barely played the ones on that system...

[OB1]

The recent N64 and GBC ones are a ton of fun.

[Dark Jaguar]

I've only played a few baseball games, but they all feel like sports RPGs. Now maybe that's due to the games being like the real game's rules or something, but the whole thing goes in turns and phases and such. I mean, one second I get the "random encounter" of hitting a ball, then everyone's running to bases and it's "catch ball" mode, and sometimes people make it all the way around and sometimes they don't. In general though I'm confused by what I see in sports games. I just don't get the rules. Don't get me started on football games. The second the game starts I've already broken some rule I didn't know about. Sheesh, it's a video game. They should put limits and boundries that prevent rule breaking. Imagine if they let you get far enough to say you cheated in other games!

[Fittisize]

DMiller: is the game College Football USA '97?

[A Black Falcon]

Rules? If you don't like them, there's always Midway's sports games... NHL Hitz, NFL Blitz, etc...

Anyways, if you don't get the games you don't get the rules because you don't like sports and don't care to try to learn them. Thats not bad... but if you don't know how to play the sport why would you be surprised when you break the rules? Sports have rules so they are more fun to play and don't become games like Midway's... :)

For example... I don't know the a lot of the rules of football. I've never played a football game (yup, its true...), but if I did I imagine I'd be awful and wouldn't get much of it... but I don't care because I don't like football enough to want to try. I do play (demos at least) of games in the other four sports though... baseball of course being my favorite.

Its a problem when you only truly love one sport... for the other 4-8 months of the year you're left with no sports you really like a lot to follow... :(

Uh, if this post is kind of confusing, well, its 4:50am... I think I'll go to bed now...