What's your "Hidden Gem"? Game discussion

Colstar

@classicgmr I remember playing Buck Rodgers(?) alot and some really basic game where you had to shoot a shark that swam towards the screen. I only really used to go into arcades when my family went to seaside resorts for holidays, so I didnt get to visit them very often. :(

themazingness

I am the only person who has reviewed Second Dimension RetroPak Vol. 1 on Steam. https://store.steampowered.com/app/1137930/Second_Dimension_RetroPak_Vol_1/ It is a pack of modern NES games. The emulator it is using is Mesen, but I just rename the rom files to .nes and play them how I choose. My favorite game in the pack is Perfect Pair, a Pac-man-esque game where you play as cupid, avoid enemies, and claim territory to bring a couple together. It's actually my favorite NES game now.

Admittedly, Super Mario Bros. 3, Mega Man 4, and TMNT II the Arcade Game are more substantial titles (other favorites of mine), but I'm a sucker for arcade style games these days.

jamrom2

Wow...old thread still going. I'll toss my hat in the ring on this one....

I'm 51 now, so I've seen and played in the glory days of Arcade, Console, Home Computer... etc. And what fun it was... I have a few based on the systems I owned.

[Arcade]
BerZerk
Robotron
Spy Hunter
Reactor
Gyruss
Asteroids Deluxe
Time Pilot '84
Front Line
Moon Cresta

[Intellivision]
Bomb Squad
B-17 Bomber
Space Battle
Tron Deadly Discs

[Atari 2600/VCS]
Adventure
Raiders of the Lost Ark

[Commodore 64]
Forbidden Forrest
Impossible Mission
Racing Destruction Set
Ultima
Beach Head
Raid on Bungling Bay
Computer Ambush
Summer/Winter Games
Grand Prix Circuit
Telengard (one of my first games on C64)
A.C.E.
Gunship
Flight Simulator II
Spy vs Spy I and II

[Amiga 500]
Eye of the Beholder
Dog Fight
Armour-Geddon
Battle Hawks
Their Finest Hour
Birds of Prey
Gunship 2000
Hardball II
Nuclear War
Wings of Fury
Knights of the Sky

[Early PC]
Indy and the Last Crusade (point and click version)
Doom
Duke Nuke'Em
Mech Warrior 3
NHL 95
NHL 96 (menu music is worth it alone)
Red Baron
Red Baron 3D
Indianapolis 500
Herectic
Flight Simulator (any version)
A-10 Tank Killer
System Shock
X-Wing
Dark Forces
Knights of the Sky

Can go on forever... but I think that covers all the good stuff pretty well.

Clyde

@jamrom2 Nice list, I concur with at least half of it. But most of them were pretty popular, whereas this thread is about …

that gem you played that wasn't as popular, didn't draw a crowd or was just so much fun but only seemed like it was fun to you.

No offense, just a friendly reminder for everyone still reading here. 😇

jamrom2

@clyde hahaha... you're right! hidden gems! I'm sorry... I'll try again.

Lets see...

[Aracde]
Reactor
Timber
Space Duel
Rally-X

[Intellivision]
Microsurgeon - play this at the hardest level "critical"
Biplanes/Tanks (Triple Action)

[Commodore64]
Again...Computer Ambush
Police Cadet
Kampfgruppe
Bruce Lee II (homebrew)

[Atari800]
Broadsides

[Amiga]
Gee-Bee Air Rally
Persian Gulf Inferno
Hostages

[PC] - this one is tough
Alien Doom
Syndicate
Pinball (came with Win98)
Close Combat (Win95)

Clyde

Thanks for taking me not too seriously. 😉 As far as I can tell, that list is more in tune with the TO's request. That said …

@jamrom2 said in What's your "Hidden Gem"? Game discussion:

[Aracde]
Reactor

I knew this for many years only as its Atari 2600 port. I love its abstract otherness that set it apart from other games. The sound of the Atari version gives me goose bumps up until this day.

Speaking of strange Atari 2600 games, another all-time favourite of mine is Yar's Revenge. I don't know how popular it was, however.

[PC] - this one is tough
Syndicate

Now that one was very famous, at least here in Germany and, I guess, Europe, coming from Bullfrog and it legendary co-founder Peter Molyneux. 😎

DTEAM

@clyde said in What's your "Hidden Gem"? Game discussion:

[PC] - this one is tough
Syndicate

not with the cheat code "COOPER TEAM " or "COOPER TEAM TO THE TOP" (as team name) 😎 I don't remember if you need "to the top" or not. It's a very good game.

YFZdude

@dteam said in What's your "Hidden Gem"? Game discussion:

@clyde said in What's your "Hidden Gem"? Game discussion:

[PC] - this one is tough
Syndicate

not with the cheat code "COOPER TEAM " or "COOPER TEAM TO THE TOP" (as team name) 😎 I don't remember if you need "to the top" or not. It's a very good game.

It also is much easier when you are playing it in DOSBox and the cpu cycles setting makes it run super fast so you can research new tech in short order.

The final mission was a bit crazy the first time without limiting the CPU speed. I had to get good at setting my whole team to max stats so they would 'auto-defend' against the incoming horde of enemy agents.

I also played through the SNES version but it wasn't quite as good.

jamrom2

@clyde No problem at all. It's called RTFM - Read the F'n Manual... which I didn't. hahahah.

Yar's revenge was very popular. I didn't have a 2600, my friends did. Dragster was a good one, only with Enduro. Mostly the Activision titles were what I liked most. But I will admit, I play a lot of Human Cannonball on my Retropie set.

Syndicate was one of those games that you either really liked, or just didn't understand. The title music was great. I enjoyed that one.

Bullfrog made some of the best games...

High Octane was a another hidden gem, and a lot of fun to play on PC.

Reactor was a hard game to get the hang of, but once you did, it was fun to play. The music you hear on Youtube is nothing compared to the original or playing it on MAME. The cabinet had two boosted 5" speakers with good bass blasting right in your face.

jamrom2

@yfzdude yeah Gauss guns flying all over the place.. .you don't last long at all.

Clyde

@jamrom2 Same with me in only having friends with a 2600. My own console was a Tchibo Tele-Fever, a rebranded Emerson Arcadia 2001. There was only one electronics shop in my whole city (population about 3 million!) that had games for this system after it was discontinued by the coffee roaster chain Tchibo after only some weeks or months. But that fact made the trips to buy a new game kind of a holy pilgrimage. 😆 And it made me actually read their manuals completely on my way home.

Yes, Activision made some of the best games of that era. One of my favourites was H.E.R.O. on the C64 which I played through until its "end" when you reached the maximum points the game could display (999,999?) and the score would turn to "!!!!!!" or something similar, I don't remember clearly after all those years. You could then send a photo of the screen to the publisher and get some goodies for it, but I never did that to my deepest regret up until this day. (I actually took the photo but never sent it in.)

edit: And I just learned that it only had 20 levels. I never noticed that! 😲 🤪

I played Syndicate for a long time on my Amiga, it was one of my absolute favourites back then.