What are some of your favorite games from the past? Do you still play them every now and then?
I've been playing Doom (GZDoom), and it's a blast. There's the speed with always run on, the weapons especially the chainsaw, the enemies and the amount, and the basic gameplay that's still fun and no-nonsense. I never beat all the episodes so that's the plan then it's onto Doom 2.
My friend, I did the same thing earlier in the year (had a massive "Doom-a-thon"). Played every level of Ultimate Doom + Doom 2 + Final Doom (TNT & Plutonia) + Heretic + Hexen. (I use the
Doomsday engine myself, but it probably plays the same). Had more fun in those 2 months with sub 50MB games than I've had in years with a lot of modern 50GB a throw games. Yeah, I've got back into classic gaming again, and I know exactly what you mean with that "simple fun" feel that's rarely seen these days with a seemingly endless stream of bad ports in one respect or another. What started out as "now and then" has become the norm for me.
Some games I'll simply never get rid of:-
Age of Empires 2
Age of Mythology
Baldur's Gate 1 & 2
Bioshock (original)
Commando's: Behind Enemy Lines (+ BTCOD expansion)
Deus Ex 1&3 (original + Human Revolution)
Diablo 2 (
runs great at 1920x1080)
Doom 1&2 (+1,000 additional community WAD's)
Dragon Age: Origins
Giants: Citizen Kabuto
Heretic (Doom engine + additional community WAD's)
Hexen (Doom engine + additional community WAD's)
Jagged Alliance 2
Mass Effect (original)
Medal of Honor: Allied Assault
Morrowind
Neverwinter Nights 1&2 (plus a ton of community modules)
No One Lives Forever 1&2
Oblivion
Operation Flashpoint GOTY
Portal 1&2
Rise of Nations Gold
System Shock 2 (loved the original too but controls are way too clunky)
Thief 1-3 ("Tafferpatched" +HD texture packs & a ton of community missions)
Torchlight 1&2 (+HD texture packs)
And about 40-odd ScummVM Lucasarts / Sierra games (eg, Day of the Tentacle, Sam & Max Hit The Road, The Dig, Monkey Island, etc)
What I think impresses me the most is the awesome community some games develop who pull out all the stops to ensure they keep running 10, 15, even 20 years later after multiple OS & video card architectural changes, and often better than the original (widescreen patches, bloom effects added, unofficial bug fixes, etc). See above Diablo 2 screenshot as one example of many (not bad for a game that was originally "locked" at 800x600). Likewise, some of Thief's HD MOD textures
look amazing for a 1998 game. I mean Doom is now 21 years old, yet people are
still making WAD's in 2014...