Greetings, Master Malstrom!
First of all, thank you so much for bringing GoG to my attention, it was the final push I needed to check out PC gaming from when I didn?t even have a computer, could never be bothered to get through all the DOSBox and virtual machines and all that stuff.
I got my first PC in 2003, I was about 15 years old then, and all I really played were Blizzard games. Oh my god, Diablo 2 and Warcraft 3 were my entertainment back then, so good I never even bothered to even get a Playstation 2 until much, much later; and I was a big console gamer before that, stuck through everything from the SNES to the Playstation. Those were GREAT games, I still play Diablo 2 today.
Anyway, the point being that there is a huge part of PC gaming I missed due to not being there, a period of time often called ?The Golden Age of PC Gaming?! I?m surprised it took me this long to remedy this.
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I opened a GoG account and instantly tried out Tyrian 2000 to see if their optimization for newer systems really worked (and also because you recommended it), and my god, it really IS awesome. What I find interesting in it besides the kickass music and addicting combat, is how the game has 2 modes that subtetly change how the entire game works.
Full Mode you get an RPG style experience where you upgrade your ship and get stronger and stronger, Arcade Mode you get a more singular play session where you grow stronger by collecting stuff and getting stronger in the game session itself, and while everything is lost if you play this mode and turn off the game, you get stronger MUCH faster than in Full Mode and the feeling of getting really overpowered really fast is amazing. As a downside, the game gets easier as you go on, both in terms of your play session in Arcade Mode, and your entire playtime in Full Mode, but it?s a necessary tradeoff because feeling powerful is awesome, I cannot stand playing some Japanese shmups where you die in 1 hit and feel as weak as a fly the entire time, it feels cheap and more like pure trial and error instead of reflexes.
Great game, EVERYONE should open a GoG account and download it now.
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Satisfied with the emulation, I went to buy some games, and just like you said, there was a sale!
I love Civilization (started with IV), so the first thing I did was look into classic strategy games,?got Master of Orion 1+2 and Master of Magic for dirt cheap, all three games barely broke 5 bucks.
First, I booted up Master of Orion 1, and? the interface and usability of everything were shocking at first; a PC game where the text is barely readable? Wow! The only retro games I played until then were NES games, where the games weren?t complex enough to need the entire screen to fill with text and interfaces, these games are really ahead of their time, you can really feel the developers pushing the computer to the limit, there is a certain ambition in these games that is palpable as soon as you boot it up, I cannot even begin to comprehend how amazing Master of Orion was to someone who booted it up at 1993 and?how much of an impact it caused.
Getting over the shock (and reading the manual), I took a breath and dived in.
The game is very simple, everything in your empire is controlled elegantly with simple sliders, and after playing it for a few hours, I noticed?that?every single decision you make makes a huge difference in every aspect of the game, it?s not nearly as superflous as today?s strategy games (which are overly complex and bogged with so much shit that some decisions are downright irrelevant and others break matches), it?s so tight, so focused, so simple and yet so deep, everything you do influences everything you may do in the future, from where your sliders are to your ship composition and placement, it?s like a board game, and god damn I love how UNPREDICTABLE it is, you see a star in the map and you have no idea what?s on it, it?s exciting.
But damn, I still find it hard to get over how dated everything is, so I moved to to Master of Orion 2 to check it out.
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While Master of Orion impressed me with its simplicity, Master of Orion 2 floored me with its depth.
I come from Civilization, so the colony micromanagement people say bogged down 2 in favor of 1?s ease of play is actually a plus for me, I love managing my colonies and moving population around, I quite enjoy the macro.
Well, let?s just say I fell in love with this game on my first match! I cannot stop playing it, it aged much better than 1 and it?s only as complex as it needs to be, it still has that elegant simplicity found in the first one; you just have more things to do each turn and it?s more like Civilization in that sense. And the unpredictability of the first is still here in full force, the random events are hilarious and leave me in tears sometimes, either of laughing or just plain screaming at my screen, damn those space amoebas! Damn them to hell.
Truly a wonderful game, I don?t need to say anything else about it, it?s just too good and the best 3 bucks I have ever spent. I already installed it on my notebook, and I wish my damn iPad would run it! I?ll install it everywhere it runs, gotta love GoG.
The good thing about it is that it?s probably the most replayable game ever made, so I don?t need to worry about a true?successor to it not existing (tried Endless Space before and was bored to tears, this was before playing MoO).
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I also bought Rollercoaster Tycoon 2, but unlike you, I had experience with this game before, I remember playing?the first one?a lot on my cousin?s house back in 2000 (I think?), and I remember really liking it.
I still do, game aged like wine, in fact I love it even more now that I?m beyond just designing rides and can enjoy the strategic aspects of the game much more. This game thinks of everything! I left my PC overnight with my finished scenario park running, I planned everything and it was pretty much working on its own, when I woke up barely anyone was at my park, I was losing money, and rides were all broken! The game simulates rides getting old and breaking down more, people getting bored of the same old rides, and so on and so forth, and since I wasn?t there to lower the prices and adjust everything, the park died a slow death. There is so much stuff ?under the hood? in this game, and it all feels right and intuitive instead of overly complex?like most other games with this trait, you don?t need to read FAQs on the internet to enjoy the game, these aspects will come second nature to you if you just have common-sense, I thought I was smarter than the game, but it just laughed at me haha.
About the sequel vs the original, the sequel is pretty much the same game with slightly better interface, higher resolution and a lot of new rides and other things to build. So getting 2 would be a no-brainer, right? Well, no. Let me explain, while RCT2 is indeed a more content-packed game, the way the scenarios are set-up and the scenarios themselves are much better in RCT1. In RCT1, you start the game with only a few scenarios unlocked, and as you play them and beat them, you will unlock more and harder scenarios as you go. This gives the game a feeling of progression and make it feel like a video game.
RCT2 throws this out of the water, making EVERYTHING unlocked as soon as you boot the game, this overwhelms you so much and there really is no sense of reward or progression.
Overall, RCT1 feels like a video game, RCT2 feels like a sandbox tool (RCT1 scenarios are also better because they are about managing parks from scratch, RCT2 is more about gimmicks and visual effects, liking building stuff in the middle of a carnival in Rio de Janeiro).
However, one can download all RCT1 scenarios ported over to RCT2.
I really recommend starting with RCT1 and then moving over to RCT2 once you want more, this way it won?t feel overhwelming and you will actually want the sandbox/design features from RCT2 after spending so much time in 1.
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I have also bought a game I have not touched yet, I?m waiting for the right time and state of mind to even try to play it, I don?t want to ruin it by frustrating myself with its dated aspects. That game is Master of Magic.
Well, thanks again, looking back in gaming is much more exciting than looking forward (what is there to look forward to?)?You should be on the lookout for Alpha Centauri (if it ever goes on sale). That is the other major turn based strategy game up at GoG I think will astonish you. Alpha Centauri is like Civilization on an alien world, but it uses Master of Orion?s ?design your own spaceship? concept with the units.A couple more strategy games I know you?ll enjoy based on what you said above:
Alpha Centauri
Theme Hospital
Dungeon Keeper 2
Some of the others I?m not as familiar with. I guess I need to buy them and try them out! I?m curious about Startopia for example.
This is how gaming should feel: as if you are overrun with good games and great new discoveries. Today, on game consoles, it feels like a drag waiting for each new release and most of them are disappointing.
Your experience with GoG was very similar to mine. I stared off playing with Tyrian 2000 just to see how the ?GoG experience? would work. Was impressed with it but also with the game. When Master of Magic was on sale, I decided ?Well, it is $2.50 so why not?? Remember that my experience with MoM has only been starting it up in DOS and, since Windows 98, through DOSbox (DOS in a Window). GoG having the game start up without me typing anything is a huge plus. Since MoM became more accessible, I?ve found myself playing it EVEN MORE. The breaking down of the DOS wall really makes it easy to get into these DOS classics.
The more games I buy from GoG, the more enthusiastic I get. I just love PC gaming without having to deal with the ?set ups? and messing with the DOSboxes. Oh, and I love actually having the manuals and soundtracks.
Master of Orion 1-
Don?t underestimate this game. Many people, myself included, prefer and keep playing this one over the sequel. This game is more macro strategy focused with minimizing the micromanagement. It?s amazing when most of the galaxy is settled and you hit ?next turn? with ships flying everywhere, to different stars, to all sorts of different locations. And then you find one enemy ship is headed to a colony of yours. You click on it, and discover it is a massive fleet. It says it is arriving in ?seven turns?. You go into panic mode, and do everything you can in those seven turns to save your colony (or evacuate it).
There are many ways to play MOO 1. You can use Humans to out diplomat everyone. You can just make a giant fleet and steamroll everyone. You can use ground troops primarily to do the invading. You can focus on taking over Orion and use its super technologies to get at people. You can make a fleet of teeny tiny ships (Alkari love doing that). You can make a wing of bomber ships where when you attack a more powerful foe, your fleet is a diversion while the bomber ships swoop in fast to the planet and unload their bombs/poisons. Then everyone retreats. The colony will be destroyed.
I suspect the main reason why some people prefer MOO 1 over MOO 2 is because MOO 1 is truly different than any other strategy game out there. There is no space strategy game so? pure. Nearly every strategy game has a ?build city improvements? so it is refreshing to me that MOO 1 doesn?t. I just move some sliders, and focus on the bigger picture.
Some of the things I do:
-Like most strategy games, expanding aggressively pays off. This is no exception.
-Play as Silicoids, and you can colonize any world without planetology research.
-After making a new colony, send about five million colonists from another colony over there. The growth rate of 7 million people is much more than just 2 million.
-Heavily focus research into propulsion. Fast ships will save your ass. Once you get to Warp 4-6, you can drop propulsion and focus on other techs.
-Always terraform and upgrade factories unless you?re in the middle of a war. Your planets can quadruple in population and build faster.
Master of Orion 2
Much of the new features in MOO 2 came from Master of Magic such as hiring heroes or ?credits per turn?. MOO 2 really feels like a different game than MOO 1 which is both good and bad. If you were a fan of MOO 1, you got a completely different game. But looking back on it, you have two unique strategy games that play very differently. When Civilization 2 came out, no one played Civilization 1. After Civ 3 came out, not as many people played Civ 2. After Civ 4, not many people stuck with Civ 3 (and so on). MOO 2 is unique in that it stands side by side with MOO 1 and doesn?t seek to ?replace? it.
Make sure that tactical combat is on. This will allow you to design your own starships and control the battles.
Master of Magic
If you like Civ based games, fantasy, and Simtex?s style with ?unpredictability? with MOO 1 and MOO 2, you?re going to love MoM. The only reason why I don?t play MoM is because I?ll be sucked in for the next 8 hours. I can?t stop playing that game.
Rollercoaster Tycoon
Yeah, I bought the first one. I play many games at the same time so I?m slowly creeping my way through the scenarios. Extremely fun game. Any strategy game fan should check it out.
I can?t stop playing any of those games. I?m was playing Master of Orion like crazy when it came out in 1993. I still am today. The same goes with MOO 2 and Master of Magic.
I also still find myself returning to an Ultima game or going ?pew pew? with the Star Control ships. And this has been going on for decades.
I don?t know what the ?best games? are. I just know ones that I can?t stop playing. There is no ?intellectual? reasons for it. They just satisfy.
I?m really glad you took a chance on Master of Orion 1&2 and Master of Magic. Twenty years from now, you?ll still be playing them. What more could we want from a game?
What?s so great with GoG is that while it was great you hit a fantastic game like MoO or MoM, what happened if it wasn?t the case? Oh no! $5 wasted. The cheapness gives me the courage to try out MORE of these games. The only thing that is holding me back is that I don?t have the time to consume all these games.
And there are many more turn based strategy games available. I?m curious about the ones I missed out on.? I don?t expect them to be ?greatest game ever?, but they could be really good gems. This risk/reward structure with GoG is much better than with ?industry gaming?.
If I buy one GoG game each weekend, I?ll have spent $25-35 a month which is tons of gaming and STILL CHEAPER than any alternative given by the Game Industry. Of course, I don?t think I can consume even that number of games so fast so the money spent could be like $15 a month or even less. The value is just too good.
This is PC gaming done right.
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