Obscure DOS Games - Part 3

[@sergiofilho6669]

I loved OMF2097 back in the day. Not a single gamer I know today ever played or heard of it, I'm glad it wasn't some delirious false memory, this game is awesome!

[@OldAndNewVideoGames]

Yep, and I get why most don't remember it. I disregarded it like a fool back then too. It had no blood, no oddly looking characters, it didn't sold me when I saw it in a magazine. Even though it offered deep and customisable mechanics and very technical challenge. In the same time $hitcakes like Dangerous Streets looked amazing in magazines and were, well, I think I said already what they were. ;)

[@GodzillasaurusJr]

I don't think many of them remember it now, but me and my friends used to play it. If any of them doubt my memories though, I can just show them my physical printed manual. :) It got a sequel too, but it's a completely different game and I never tried it.

[@OldAndNewVideoGames]

@@GodzillasaurusJr Must've been fun. My then friends played both MK and Street Fighter with me and didn't even wanna look at anything else. :/ So, at least you've got a memory of playing this fantastic little game with someone.

[@brunohebert1351]

@@OldAndNewVideoGames Me too, I played a lot of OMF 2097. On Pc, at the time, it was one of the best fighting game (to me at least) Also, the Epic Pinball (same publisher) was pretty good and has (relatively) realistic sounds on the Gravis Ultrasound. One obscure game I played hours and hours is Su-25 Sturmovik (even though it was an EA game!). Not many people I know, knows about this game. A flight sim combat but "from the other side" And another one I've played over and over is Ascendency, a kinda simple 4X

[@OldAndNewVideoGames]

@@brunohebert1351 OMF was a gem, sadly for the most part it was hidden. And that's probably why despite all the novelties that it introduced, we never got a "proper" sequel. Yeah, I suppose games from Russia are not a politically correct subject these days. Which is odd, as it's not the devs that were responsible for anything. I may cover Su-25 at one point, thanks for the suggestion. I've spoke about Ascendancy a little in "10 Years of DOS Gaming", in episode for 1995.

[@nicholsliwilson]

Triplane Turmoil is so much more fun than I expected from looking at it. Project Nomad is an outstanding game that definitely belongs on this list. Robot Jox is absolutely a So-bad-it’s-good classic! I love that movie. 😄 Some games here are new to me again, including Powerdrome & OXYD that look like my kind of thing? Thaks.

[@OldAndNewVideoGames]

It's really hard to show Oxyd well on a video. It's a weird game but you sorta have to literally hit those bricks to open them to find the correct pairs. But after a little while whey you're used to it. It's surprisingly fun.

[@Lagbeard]

I would say One Must Fall 2097 is one the best fighting games ever made. Though to get the most out of it, you do need to access the secret options menu to enable Rehit mode... That menu I assume was revealed in the official paid strategy guide or something but it's unlocked by holding down the numbers 2097 in the main menu. Rehit mode allows you to hit enemies while they're in the air, and has juggle prevention as every unique attack can only hit once and when they get with a heavy attack and get slammed into the wall, you no longer can hit them until they fall down to the ground and stand back up.

[@OldAndNewVideoGames]

I see... So it can be played like a proper arcade vs fighter, in which most allowed for jugling. That's actually something I had no idea about. Thanks!

[@Lagbeard]

@@OldAndNewVideoGames Yea the game has some hidden features that do genuinely make it into a better game. Which probably hurt it back in the day as most people couldn't really find about them until the Internet became a big thing. But with everything out there about it nowadays, it holds insanely well for a game from 1994.

[@OldAndNewVideoGames]

@@Lagbeard Well, then it's good I've picked it for "*Best* Obscure Games..." video then. ;)

[@martinsvendsen1665]

I love the obscure short sessions :)

[@OldAndNewVideoGames]

Thanks a lot! :) The next one will be for the Amiga. I gotta cycle these two for a while now. And since I've already finished writing it today, I know already, that it's probably the weirdest selection of games ever. xD

[@ObiKKa]

Maybe this obscure titles series was inspired by Gary's retrogamer channel with his own playlists of obscure console game lists?

[@ObiKKa]

youtube.com/@GaryRetroGamer

[@OldAndNewVideoGames]

@@ObiKKa Not really but now you got me intrigued. :) Can you link Gary's channel?

[@williamwright9079]

Man I woulda tried all of these if I heard of em back in the day! Tough guy and Darklands look like my cuppa tea!

[@OldAndNewVideoGames]

Darklands is so unexpectedly good, you wouldn't believe. It was like Morrowind/Skyrim of yesteryear in 2D.

[@TeaAndFloppyDisks]

No way, One Must Fall an obscure game? I guess if I grew up with it I didn't expect it to not be known. It's a really great game. I liked the customisations and upgrades and the music was awesome. I tried Mortal Kombat too but still preferred OMF. I still play it actually.

[@OldAndNewVideoGames]

OMF was much more of a technical fighter than MK. I mean sure, you could teach yourself all specials and learn how to chain them in MK, but in OMF you had all that plus mech and pilot pairings, each with their own stats.

[@leadbones]

Darklands is a classic overdose of TTRPG turned DOS game brutality.

[@OldAndNewVideoGames]

Nice way of putting it. DOS was demanding when it came to configuration and often you had to change your whole startup sequence for a particular game. Perhaps not for Darklands, but the sentiment stands.

[@leadbones]

@OldAndNewVideoGames It was one of those games that had pages and pages of manual, all spawned from a German TTRPG. You just couldn't get that stuff anywhere else. It was highly rewarding to figure it all out, but I get why it was and will always be obscure. A lot of my fun always seemed like work, to my friends.

[@OldAndNewVideoGames]

@@leadbones Oh, I get that. When I play Civ, Football Manager, Cities Skylines/SimCity or any other game where you manage a company, I don't know Capitalism+ for instance, noone seems to get why. Well, that noone, hardly anyone seems to get why. And I just like to turn those imaginary knobs a little to optimize the flow of money so that percentage difference today will bring millions to my company later, or that disagreement postponed over a plot of land will not lead me into a 100-year long war. ;)

[@CH-ml4rz]

I looooooooved One Must Fall.

[@OldAndNewVideoGames]

It was (is) a good game.

[@gumdeo]

Powerdrome - much praised by experts, but it requires lots of patience to get far into it.

[@OldAndNewVideoGames]

I'm one of those people who wouldn't have today. That's why I don't play Souls-likes. I have no patience anymore to approach the same boss dozens of times failing until I finally won't.

[@frilansspion]

Nomad looks awesome. I hadnt heard of that one

[@OldAndNewVideoGames]

There's even a modern remake I think. I just can't recall the name of the top of my head, and I'm heading to work now, so can't check either. xD

[@frilansspion]

@@OldAndNewVideoGames Thanks! Ill see if I can find it! (although I prefer non-modern :) )

[@rasmusolesen5307]

One Must Fall ❤

[@OldAndNewVideoGames]

Yep :)

[@ManuelleMagnus]

Could you please review BloodNet, Manhunter: New York and Manhunter 2: San Francisco? They are pretty obscure but at the same time are very interesting games IMHO.

[@OldAndNewVideoGames]

I'll think about it. Thanks for the suggestions!

[@EvilStreaks]

Omnicron Conspiracy was one of my absolute favourite games in the 90s. Not many people know it now, and out of the ones that do, not all of them "get" it. I made a remake of it recently just to fix a few things that bugged me back in the day, and improve some graphics and flesh it out a little bit. If I ever saw you include it in a showcase I'd be a happy boyo.

[@EvilStreaks]

(The original, I mean. I'm not asking you to show my work ;D )

[@OldAndNewVideoGames]

Is that the one with David Bowie or am I mis-remembering things? ;)

[@EvilStreaks]

@@OldAndNewVideoGames Naaah it's a 16 colour EGA affair. It's from around 1990 I think. It was very rich for it's time. It was like early open world and full of unique characters, mostly English-speaking aliens. Discovering coordinates new planets and hyperspacing your explorable spaceship to them. Good times.

[@OldAndNewVideoGames]

@@EvilStreaks Sounds cool. And since I'm wrong, I should look it up. :)

[@federicocatelli8785]

A couple games I never heard before like Sango Fighter. You're right about Darklands it's a flawed gem...still have the original CD somewhere

[@OldAndNewVideoGames]

I found it years after it released. Well, 3-4, not like years years, but still way after it came out originally, so I never experienced the issues personally, but I really like it.

[@davidkulhan1908]

The only one i know and played and realy like was One Must Fall :) the menu music is outstanding !

[@OldAndNewVideoGames]

The game is too. :) But yeah, music rocked in OMF.

[@HelmutKohlrabi]

If you want to enjoy the game fully grab Dosbox Staging and enable the GUS in the config and use that instead of any other soundcard. Staging has some GUS enhancements. One of the few games that use the actual hardware properly and allows for high resolution (for the time) multichannel sound.

[@davidkulhan1908]

@@HelmutKohlrabi yess but i had some problems with GUS on Dosbox .OMF is working great but...some games don´t work (Raptor for example) , some games like Doom, Doom2 are crashing randomly on GUS. So i switched to PCem, and everything works as it should on the original hardware. I had no issue with GUS or AWE32 on PCem. I thing it´s the best way how to emulate real old hardware is PCem (or 86box) with original roms. U can make many profiles 386, 486, DX, Pentium, MMX and many others.. so u can always make perfect hardware for that time or for a game u need. No crashing, no problems.. The only thing i´m missing is the Roland MT-32 support in PCem so i´m using Dosbox + Munt to emulate this fantastic soundcard.

[@HelmutKohlrabi]

@@davidkulhan1908 I believe Dosbox Staging fixes some things and raptor was working too. Doom sounds way better with a good soundfont and midi emulation (fluidsynth, etc.) , the GUS midi table is mediocre by today's standards. Isn't it possible to run munt as windows midi device in PCem or 86Box?

[@OldAndNewVideoGames]

@@HelmutKohlrabi I know it's a bit off topic but why Helmut Kohl? I'm not saying anything, I'm genuinely curious. :)

[@escgoogle3865]

Darklands, never finished it due to a boss fight crash. Nomads looks interesting. Here is one for ya "Last game you remember installing by floppies." Me, "Betrayal of Krondor"

[@OldAndNewVideoGames]

Does copying work or does it have to be install per se?

[@escgoogle3865]

@@OldAndNewVideoGames You must remember the pain is the important part. Krondor was bad but win95 on a sx33 laptop, agonizing.

[@OldAndNewVideoGames]

@@escgoogle3865 Oh, I can imagine. Bet you could go and do your shopping, come back and make a coffee and it still would've been mid-boot, LOL xD

[@Rubycored]

Well hello there~

[@OldAndNewVideoGames]

Hello and thank you for providing amazing content for retro community! :)

[@gamingtonight1526]

Biologically, there is nothing between "boys and girls"! :)

[@OldAndNewVideoGames]

Biologically there isn't. But socially, there's like a whole spectrum. I don't mind anyone, so see no issue with people identifying whatever makes them happy. It's a free World. Well, parts of it are. xD

[@gamingtonight1526]

@@OldAndNewVideoGames I think you are more likely to upset your viewers, as I doubt you have any trans watching your video's!

[@shan2752]

Leave the man alone, we don’t need a culture war here. Move on please! Thanks for the video!

[@frilansspion]

@@OldAndNewVideoGames And why should "socially" define who gets to do sports with who and use what locker room? Dont buy into all that bullcrap propaganda

[@omegazeed]

Darklands... One of the best and most immersive open world of all time

[@OldAndNewVideoGames]

True. And criminally underrated at that.

[@omegazeed]

@@OldAndNewVideoGames yeah it was too much advanced for it's own times... in recent years only morrowind have been so immersive as an open world

[@OldAndNewVideoGames]

@@omegazeed Fallout New Vegas and Fallout 2 are in the same boat IMO.

[@omegazeed]

@@OldAndNewVideoGames yeah absolutely! All real gems

[@omegazeed]

@@OldAndNewVideoGames and ti not forgot mt favorite wich Is arcanum, God bless troika

[@nameless5413]

Ah yes MUGEN the only actual metaverse there is in gaming, a work of passion and love by devs and probably the ultimate fighting game given its combined roster of... almost everyone you can think of from any fighting game (and beyond). hmm OMF is obscure? i remember all 3 leading magazines at the time having it on the cover when it came out :/ what a strange thing it is to see how different places taken to different games .)

[@OldAndNewVideoGames]

Yes, MUGEN as it is deserves upmost praise. And yeah, we had games like Liero, or Deluxe Ski Jumping, and they were nothing special for us when it comes to DOS, as everyone played them, and in the same time we missed some of the OMFs, Keens and such. And vice versa. You had these but not the European games. At least not the smaller ones. :) And by you I assume American. :)

[@nameless5413]

@@OldAndNewVideoGames Well i am not, in fact i am not far from where i believe you are (you being Western slavic maybe Polish?). So i am almost certain i had access to nearly identical game selections as you did albeit with far weaker local scene. Maybe you know Flashpoint or Mafia (ed.: spellcross is Slovakian i THINK). (also do not tell anyone where i am from i am not fan of Czech Republic at all)

[@OldAndNewVideoGames]

@@nameless5413 Well, here you go. We're not neighbours, and you're not from Czech Republic, it's been established already. ;) Anyway, my bad, you're European too. :)

[@ZeroSuitWario]

DARKLANDS

[@OldAndNewVideoGames]

Indeed.

[@Zontar82]

Omf 2097 is definitely not obscure

[@OldAndNewVideoGames]

Perhaps it depends on where one was raised and what he/she had access to. But I suppose, you're right, for some it might have not been obscure at all.