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[Kilroy the Grand]

Quite a lot of people on this forum are probably from an older generation. A generation where disks were square, and floppy disks were actually floppy. I am making this thread to gather a list of older games, preferable FREE games than anyone can play.

My contribution is a game called DARKLANDS!

A few pictures displaying the incredible ACTION

Spoiler (click to show/hide)

The map

Spoiler (click to show/hide)

This game was originally my brother's, but I got to keep it. I had loads of fun running around germany killing shit, and I'm sure you will too. I consider this almost as good as X-com by the way.

"The game does not end. However, there are a limited number of quest types available, causing the game to become repetitive after extensive play. This type of gameplay is sometimes called sandbox mode.
The player is free to complete quests that will give them a positive reputation, or to pursue a negative reputation by performing evil deeds. In Darklands your reputation is limited geographically, allowing the player to be simultaneously hated in one region and exalted in another.

Age is a factor in this game. Characters will begin to lose physical prowess (most notably, agility) as they age. However, the older the player is when the character is generated, the more skills and better equipment he or she starts with. A common tactic would be to create very old alchemists / physicians (that came with many nice potions and other equipment) and strip them of their wares, handing them off to younger characters, before casting the aged ones aside.

Real-time with pause combat system. This was very rare in RPGs at the time, though went on to become the standard combat system after being popularized by Baldur's Gate.

Darklands was released by MicroProse with a number of bugs, ranging from minor to major. These included many instances of what would now be called crash-to-desktop (CTD) errors. Additionally, the "character colors bug" results in on-screen characters colors being replaced with random (often bright) colorings.

All the cities that one's party may visit in Darklands are real places that existed in the Holy Roman Empire of the 15th century. Most are in modern-day Germany, but some are in other countries including Denmark, Netherlands, Luxembourg, France, Switzerland, Austria, Czech Republic and Poland. The city names given in the game are old German names of the cities, some of which are now exonyms. The new local names are given in parentheses."

To think some people would go to google and search for "DARKLANDS" and steal this wonderful game... FOR SHAME. People who don't fly the jolly Rodger should go here http://www.gog.com/en/gamecard/darklands

[Deadmeat1471]

My favorite is.....

1830 Railroads and Robber Barons!





It is a really fun, fairly short game about buying stock in rail companies, buying trains, reinvesting capital and paying dividends. In the end the goal is to make the most money by having the most valuable stock & cash combined.

Spoiler: Stock page (click to show/hide)

Random maps, different difficulty, different starting situations and many custom options make it an awesomely replayable game with hours of fun for the up and coming Rail Tycoon 

Spoiler: Random train (click to show/hide)

I'd say more, but thats about it, you buy and dump stock, you take over companys and buy trains and lay tracks, thats pretty much all there is to it, but it's done really well!

[Frumple]

Ngh. I hate to be the (E:Second, ruddy ninja!) one to bring it up, but Darklands doesn't appear to actually be (legally) abandonware; that is, it wasn't released to the public. So you should probably nix the link, since it's technically violating the forum's guidelines

Most abandonware is in a morally gray area, yes, but not a legally gray one. If the rights owner hasn't released it to the public, well...

[Deadmeat1471]

Darklands can be bought on GoG games, it has moved from being abandonware to being resold again, the site abandonia are very good for removing the downloads the second a company picks the game distributing up again(unsurprisingly). I strongly advise buying it from GoG! it's cheap and no DRM etc.

Link to BUY only $5.99!
http://www.gog.com/en/gamecard/darklands

*also, GoG is the ONLY site for us classic game lovers to need, they have nearly all the greats on sale for under $10 with (i think) weekly sales!

[Kilroy the Grand]

I honestly thought it was abandonware, you learn something new everyday.

[Deadmeat1471]

I honestly thought it was abandonware, you learn something new everyday.

Yeah, GoG have (intelligently) picked up a digital distribution model and grabbed ALOT of the previously abandoned(or semi old), now legally sold stuff.
Most though wern't ever available as abandonware, though they crop up now and then!

Also for $5.99...
Sid Meiers Alpha Centauri!!!



'Mankind begins its most monumental task – the colonization of space. A crew of internationally renowned scientists and security strategists, with wide-ranging convictions and diverse ethics, embarks on a mission that will change the world. One Planet. Seven unique factions. Which will you lead? Each faction has its own agenda, each leader a final goal. You must play to each strength and exploit each hidden weakness in your quest to rule the future. '

http://www.gog.com/en/gamecard/sid_meiers_alpha_centauri

Probably THE greatest strategy game ever made!

-Awesome mechanics
-Awesome diplomacy
-Great storyline
-Genocide
-Ecological warfare
-!!Science!!
What more do you need.

*Srsly, if you like old games, get your ass to GoG. 99% of it works fine on modern systems(they tweaked them if necessary) and they are dead cheap.

[Cicero]

Well I suppose I'll be the first (and only) one to bring up a little known strategy game known as...

Constructor!



This is a very...unique game in which you play as a slum lord, building a city along with other players. Here's what GOG lists as it's features...

One of the most memorable city-building sims, distinguished by its cartoonish graphics and a wide range of "extra-cirricular activities"

Take out your competition's workers, steal their assets, burn their building and bribe city officials

Management and competition in a humorous setting


A few examples of the "extra-cirricular activities" you can partake in are, sending in hippies to squat on opponant's property, sending in ghosts to haunt their houses or sending in a terrible repair man to sabatoge their appliances blowing up their houses...

[Sirus]

I have a couple of old games in mind. First up is:

Ok, ignore the Duke-Nukem-esque box art. Actual gameplay revolved around you, the titular Druid, as you attempted to figure out what sort of magical land you found yourself trapped in. It was a mix of point-and-click adventure, puzzle solving, and surprisingly decent combat (you clicked on a part of your enemy to attack that part, and clicked on a part of yourself to defend that area). There was also a magic system in which you combined the four elements (and two semi-secret elements) for different effects. I only played it when I was much younger and no longer have the disk (I can't even remember if it was a floppy or a CD),but I remember that the storyline was serious and there were a lot of characters to interact with.

Second game is:

Part of the Wing Commander series (which I never played, sadly), this had you exploring a fairly large sector of space as you traded, fought pirates, became a pirate, whatever. There was also a storyline to follow, and the 3D modeling was actually pretty good for the time. It was basically a flight sim with lasers and jump drives. It had really kick-ass music.

[Kilroy the Grand]

I heard Privateer 2 was a massive appointment.

[Sirus]

I didn't even know there was a Privateer 2. *shrugs*

[Ultimuh]

These things sure bring back memories. :,)

[Bakuryu]

Darklands, Ultima IV,

 Frontier: Elite II / First Encounters

I think this is the game I have spent the most time ever on a continuous non-stop playthrough, just traveling through the near-infinite universe is enough, but add the assassination jobs or other fun stuff and man, you can get so many hours out of this game if you are into sandbox space games, IMO, no space game has yet to come anywhere close Frontier's awesomeness.



 Realms of Arkania


 Yeah, first games that come to mind.

[Ivefan]

I heard Privateer 2 was a massive appointment.

I liked it, but it was one of the first games i played on PC so my opinion wasn't bitterly hardened yet.

[jocke the beast]

Champions of Krynn by SSI. The first of the Krynn-triology.




My first contact with the Gold Box-series and I was hooked right away. Very fun turned-based battles and cool stories. The manual was a must-have and still is to make the game(s) playable.


http://www.abandonia.com/en/games/619/Champions+of+Krynn.html

[rhesusmacabre]

Chaos: The Battle of Wizards





Written by Julian Gollop (who would go on to make XCOM), it's a turn-based game where you control a wizard with the aim of killing all of the other wizards. You are granted a random selection of spells in order to do this. Most of these are summon creature spells but there were also many others, like magic fire and lightning bolts. The chance of a successfully casting a spell depends on its difficulty, its alignment, and the current world alignment (lawful, neutral, chaos), and spells can only be cast once. The exception to this is "Disbelieve" which can be cast at an enemy creature to automatically dispell it if it's an illusion (illusionary creature spells are automatically successful).

The game can be played against the computer, other players or any combination of these, with up to 8 wizard in total.

A pretty faithful PC remake can be downloaded here:
http://games.softpedia.com/get/Freeware-Games/Chaos-Funk.shtml