Obscure DOS Games - Part 4

[@oliverbentley8125]

Big Red Racing was typical of those very fun, very simple to play, and addictive games. Each race was unique, with renewed vehicles and environments. Really a very good memory. Especially since there was even a cockpit view, which was absolutely rare for the time for arcade racing games.

[@OldAndNewVideoGames]

Yeah... And split screen mode! :)

[@GodzillasaurusJr]

Usually the games you present are wholly unknown to me, but I remember playing nearly all of these. However, I had completely forgotten that Big Red Racing existed, - I played it a whole lot back in mid/late 90's, and I remember liking it now that you reminded me it exists. :)

[@OldAndNewVideoGames]

Sorry, this one's not been a surprise. Still, at least I reminded you of something. That said, it could really use a modern remake.

[@GodzillasaurusJr]

@@OldAndNewVideoGames I enjoy reminiscing as well - this was absolutely not meant as a complaint! :D

[@OldAndNewVideoGames]

@@GodzillasaurusJr I didn't take it as one. :) I'm not that easy to offend. :)

[@adniumedia3499]

I really love how you structure your videos and the fact that you elaborate on the footage and games. I've used dosbox a lot since finding your channel!

[@OldAndNewVideoGames]

Thank you! :) That was the idea, not just to show a full playthrough with no commentary or a 10-minute review. But a wide selection of games briefly explained. Enough to explain what's what but not too much to spoil the gameplay/story.

[@movielover4244]

I'm trying to remember a game I used to play on the Amiga, you were an old man who ran around starrs, could get stuck snakes, fall into traps. throw buggers, he hade lots of fun sound i think. Long beard . Dont remeber the namn of it

[@OldAndNewVideoGames]

Was it a platformer or a different kind of a game? How big was a the main character sprite? Did his clothing had any particular major colour to them? Do you remember anything else?

[@movielover4244]

@@OldAndNewVideoGames he had a gray coat I think. bald with a long beard platform game. almost like a basement castle. he shook his hip.I remember it was difficult because you could get stuck if you ran wrong. collected some drink.

[@nicholsliwilson]

“Invasion of the Mutant Space Bats of Doom” deserves to be plaid for that title alone! 😄 Never plaid Manhunter: New York, I’ll have to check it out? That’s really interesting, Jill of the Jungle is not at all obscure in the US but is here in the UK/Europe & the same goes for Vette! Pre internet world I guess? Big Red Racer is great fun & a great recommendation! Definitely one to check out if you like retro racers! Great video, again there are several games I’ve not plaid here. Thanks.

[@OldAndNewVideoGames]

Believe it or not but there's more to the Mutant Space Bats of Doom, a sequel to be precise, equally as little known. :) The Jill thing may be because we were still here pretty much into other 16bit machines back then, not necessarily into PCs. And US was mainly PCs back then. I think. And yeah, Big Red is really fun. And it looks decent at "high res" too. I've already pre-written a draft for the next Obscure Amiga video, and there are some interesting games. Quite unintentionally in big part all falling into similar theme. I'm not sure what will KZbin think about it though, with its current oddly working inner algorithm...

[@ManuelleMagnus]

Manhunter: New York is definitely worth checking out, as is its sequel Manhunter 2: San Francisco. I beat both games and they're one of my all-time favorites.

[@cjcomrie]

aww yea, big red racing. the feel of it was greaat!

[@OldAndNewVideoGames]

Yep! There was just nothing else like that...

[@noneofyourbusiness4616]

Some gas stations in the US have car repair shops attached to them. Not most of them, but some. Thank you for the video!

[@OldAndNewVideoGames]

Thanks for clearing this up :) And for watching!

[@maxmirni2768]

big red racing was one of the best games i bought - so many options and genuinely fun racing too

[@OldAndNewVideoGames]

I agree. It didn't try or pretend to be anything more than it actually was. It was fun simple racer and as that it was amazing. :)

[@ManuelleMagnus]

Great video! Thanks a lot, especially for Manhunter: New York, since I asked you to review it.

[@OldAndNewVideoGames]

Oh, no problem at all. It was an excellent pick for the video. Though I wouldn't really go as far as call it a review. That would require a fresh full playthrough and at least 10 minutes just for it. Or any other game really. :)

[@SteveBrandon]

I still have my copy of Vette. I thought it was a revolutionary game at the time considering there weren't really any 3D open world racing games before it and there wasn't much else in the way of 3D open world racing after Test Drive III: The Passion the following year (1990), not until Midtown Madness hit PCs in 1999, a whole decade after Vette.

[@OldAndNewVideoGames]

Yeah, and if it was a bit more popular, it could've spawned series I think. You know, for different cars and/or cities. It would be really good.

[@gamingtonight1526]

There were two Manhunter games, and I LOVED them! Finished them multiple times! Omicron Conspiracy was one of my favourite adventures of the 90s! VERY underrated!

[@OldAndNewVideoGames]

Yeah, but I didn't wanna feature both Manhunters in one video. Same as there were two Space Bats of Doom games, also not fit to be both in one video. It would be cheating. ;)

[@Sataaa]

I think Jill and Vinyl Goddess are well known, but I think many people will say so for almost any game on this list, there is always that one person that knew all of them and doesn't think they're unheard of. Vette looks an early Driver/GTA, kind of incredible, because those older games like Hard Drivin' look terrible next to it! I remember a lot of games with "Hugo" on their name, I remember even a weird first person windows wolf3D clone with Hugo in its name, it was a weird era of Hugo games indeed (I also think the TV one is the canon Hugo, like you) Omnicron Conspiracy looks weirdly fun, too bad about the PC Speaker sounds, ugh Big Red Racing also look like something I would have loved back then! Reminded me of a demo of a real full Mario Kart clone I played back in the day, Wacky Wheels. Thanks for all the games, lots of them were new to me, good job. If I can just drop a suggestion, I used to love games like TIM (or similar puzzles) and albeit TIM is very well known, probably too well known for this video series, I think the one I'm thinking of is not that well known: Laser Light, have a look at it. I don't remember if you already talked about it, but I used to play it on my grandpa 386 back then and it was very cool.

[@OldAndNewVideoGames]

First of all, thanks for your kind words! :) Yeah, Vette! is something else if you consider the year. There's nearly entire SF recreated in it. Which if you think about it, even GTA games of today haven't done. Big Red Racing was amazing and it should be remade. And no, I haven't covered Laser Light yet. It is video-worthy though, so I've added it to my list of games for next videos. Thanks for the suggestion! :)

[@ObiKKa]

Very nice presentation. Thank you.

[@OldAndNewVideoGames]

Thanks for watching! :)

[@endplanets]

06:15 Its the famous Sutro Tower of San Fran in the background. Nice detail.

[@OldAndNewVideoGames]

Many of the landmarks are actually in the game recreated in 3D too.

[@awesometown666]

I love the obscure series...

[@OldAndNewVideoGames]

Thank you! :) Just that some games were little known, don't mean they weren't good or should be forgotten. Though arguably, some were bad and should disappear. Pro Soccer 2190 on Amiga comes to mind. It should never exist. xD

[@TeaAndFloppyDisks]

I actually have heard of some of these games, which is pretty rare for your obscure game series. Mostly from other gaming channels. I've heard a lot of praise for Jill of the jungle, but the backgrounds seem just too sparse and grey for me.

[@OldAndNewVideoGames]

Jill came in the time when DOS platformers were unspectacular. Usually jerky scrolling, badly looking and sounding, and seemingly put together from bits and pieces leftover from other games. Jill was very competent, and also sold in a shareware system. So you could try it out for free before you were sure that you wanted to pay for it. It's by no means a great game, but it's a decent, and most importantly historically significant one. The fact that you played as a lady, and not a dude or an animal like in most others, was also noteworthy. :) And thanks for saying that most of the games in my obscure series you've not heard about! :)

[@TeaAndFloppyDisks]

@@OldAndNewVideoGames You're right, Jill had a significant role in platformer history. Shareware as well. Almost all the games I played back then were shareware and I'm very grateful that sort of thing existed. I don't think there were ever any games in shops in my town.

[@OldAndNewVideoGames]

@@TeaAndFloppyDisks Ah, a small-towner like myself, I see? :) Our countries are not very different, I think, so I can kinda relate. Kinda, cause in Poland back then, the piracy was still rather prominent, and I had a lot of games for "free". Now, I would never pirate a game today, but back then I never gave it a second thought. xD That said, these were all full fledged titles, and not those that started as shareware. Shareware came in the form of compilation CDs bundled with gaming mags. :)

[@TeaAndFloppyDisks]

@@OldAndNewVideoGames Yup, there was a lot of gaming piracy here too and it seemed natural back then. But I did just have only the shareware versions of games most of the time and was so fascinated by the full version screenshots.

[@OldAndNewVideoGames]

@@TeaAndFloppyDisks Well then, it seems your moral compass was considerably more fine tuned than mine. I changed, but it took time, I must admit. :) On the other hand, I was just a kid back then, and didn't appreciate the work and effort that went into making these. I didn't understand what it meant to work on something.

[@gumdeo]

Vette! looks very nice for a 1989 game.

[@OldAndNewVideoGames]

It does, doesn't it? And having most of SF covered is another thing hard to imagine back then.

[@BurstingVeins1]

I'm a bit surprised you have Jill of the Jungle on this list since it's a pretty well known Epic Megagames game. Definitely more well-known than Xargon. I didn't know about Vinyl Goddess from Mars though, I'm going to have to pull that out and play it now.

[@OldAndNewVideoGames]

I think someone deciphered Jill's appearance here already. It was well known in the US, and much less so in Europe. And I'm European. So, it's hard to always get all games that nobody knows. But if I hit a bullseye with like 4-5 for each side of the World, I consider it a win. ;)

[@GodzillasaurusJr]

@@OldAndNewVideoGames I don't think it was very well-known here (Sweden), but me and my friends, at least most of them, were really into Shareware Games in general and Epic Megagames in particular, so to us she was a canonic hero. Also one of my favourite tables in Epic Pinball.

[@OldAndNewVideoGames]

@@GodzillasaurusJr Shareware games are like Christmas presents. Many may be missed and not something you'd like, totally unfit for you to enjoy. But once in a full moon, a one or two random, oddly looking games may prove real gems and something you didn't expect to find, but now can't imagine not knowing. :)

[@atomicspark7747]

LOVE this obscure series ❤ Btw many well known titles, like Big Red Racing 🫶

[@OldAndNewVideoGames]

Thanks and can't win them all. For Europe and US obscure games often were quite different, and even for individual countries too. I suppose this could've been the case for states in the US as well, but have no way of really knowing. I'm trying though. ;)

[@tabana_minamoto]

Good stuff. 😀 BTW, someone used the code was already, but didn't say thanks.

[@OldAndNewVideoGames]

Thank you! Yeah, the codes usually go within first day.

[@shan2752]

The bad thing about Big Red Racing is the jerky jittering of the 3d world in Dos Box or even on my Windows 98 machine. You can see the jittering in your video. Are you using Dos Box or real hardware? I need to try it out on my 486 DX2-66 to see if that resolves the issue.

[@OldAndNewVideoGames]

It's a recording from KZbin, but I suppose it came from DOSBox as most use it because of how easy it is to record the footage from it.

[@TheCyberDruid]

You should consider dropping the Squakenet footage. It looks very blurry :(

[@OldAndNewVideoGames]

When I get a new disk as I've very limited space on my drives now, I'm gonna download that whole *whateverthenameis* package that's like 1.5TB with all the DOS games and easy frontend/dosbox launcher preconfigured, and will be able to easily record all the footage myself. All but RPGs/adventure games that is as this take too long to get to the notable parts just for a minute or two long segment in a video. hmm... I think it's Retro Exo or something similar... The package that is... It will bother me all night now, what the name was. xD

[@nangld]

Vette looks like proto GTA 3

[@OldAndNewVideoGames]

It does, doesn't it? Also, it probably sports much bigger map given it covers an entire city.

[@davidkulhan1908]

The only one i know is the Jill of the Jungle ... never played it but back then my friends did and like it as far as i know :) other games are mysteriously unknown to me :)

[@OldAndNewVideoGames]

9/10, not bad, not bad. I'm getting there. One of those days I'll drop a video with games noone heard of. Come to think of it, I think I kinda do it now, I could release one with Android/iOS games I worked on about 7 years ago. They're unavailable anywhere anymore and there were hardly known. LOL :)

[@davidkulhan1908]

@@OldAndNewVideoGames hope there will be at least one i know :)) can´t wait .)

[@kad3tuk]

@@davidkulhan1908 Oh, most of those Android games are not available anywhere, even to me. But I suppose I think one was called "Twist my Jewels" (bad pun, but that was the idea) and it was a better Bejeweled Twist. Or was supposed to be, as some features never saw the light of day. Then there was "Chess War" which was a mixture of Chess and Piracy (C64) with some original ideas added on for more varied and strategic gameplay. I can't recall many others off the top of my head now. Oh, and it's *me*, on my private account. As I'm at my day job and my phone's logged into this one. :)

[@federicocatelli8785]

Feel like a weirdo I played at least 4 of them back in the days...not sure about Manhunter

[@OldAndNewVideoGames]

Four is not bad. Means that 6 you haven't so it's still a win. For me that is. ;)

[@nameless5413]

i am still mildly conffused about 90s Omicron named games but i assume that they had nothing to do with one another (that is nomad soul and conspiracy) altho their baseline story sounds close enough...

[@OldAndNewVideoGames]

90s was a Wild West of gaming. Anything and everything was possible. :)

[@nameless5413]

@@OldAndNewVideoGames so people claim, my lived experience differs. Sadly it never did shift enough in favour of gamers to stay that way, publishers eventually wiggled their way back in and turned things to awfull... as they always do for everything. No 90s was one of great nexi (Nexuses?! i do not know plural form of nexus) between technology ascendant, knowledge of people working with the technology and creatives feeling like experimenting with both. Many a great game you yourself have found and mentioned in just this series alone are proof that sometimes even good games just could not get through to people. (hell surely you know Hex-a-gone, well i never heard of anyone playing the paid version but i know of noone who would be unfamiliar with that game and yet was alive and into computers than).

[@OldAndNewVideoGames]

@@nameless5413 I think it's Nexuses. It makes sense this way. If we're talking about controversial looks at the history of gaming, I've another controversial opinion - and it's: games today are the best that they've ever been and the worst that we'll ever have. Opinion and a simplistic riddle, all at once. But yeah, despite loving retro games, I do not disregard modern games, quite the contrary. I have a very powerful PC, all the current consoles, and I appreciate modern games as much as those older. I think, I'm just a gamer, and not retro gamer. Which kinda explains the name of the channel. Not the content though. ;)

[@nameless5413]

@@OldAndNewVideoGames not nescesarily controversial, i can understand and see that from perspective of modernists. The programming is most accessable than ever for once and if you include portable devices that too is in its prime. but i am solely interested in PC and desktop one on top of that, so no decks for me. Creatively i am not sure. 2'010s had incredible zingers like Undertale, 2'000s had strong enough counter cultural games ( ex.: postal 2) 90s as mentioned were just incredible intersection of possible (a lot good was done by BBC computer literacy decade earlier)... not sure anything this decade was as good as games i know and adore from those decades HOWEVER i do no like recent stuff in general because i am old .P

[@OldAndNewVideoGames]

@@nameless5413 That's why it's controversial. Cause despite the name of the channel, people come here for retro stuff. Which I'm happy to provide as I LOVE it. I have tons of amazing memories and had years of fun playing all of these, and learning about some recently. But it doesn't mean that I don't love modern games as much. Naturally not all of them, but I've not liked all the oldies either. I mean, I hate Spy vs Spy for instance, which everyone seems to love. I do not touch Risk, in any form, as I consider it as the lowest form of strategy, and avoid text parsers when I can, cause they annoy me. So yeah, I'm odd. xD

[@Blackadder75]

Jill of the jungle was almost as well known as commander keen or duke nukem in my area, absolutely not obscure. But most of your other picks were really unknown

[@OldAndNewVideoGames]

9 out of 10 is a win in my books. ;)

[@Blackadder75]

@@OldAndNewVideoGames it was a very good episode.

[@OldAndNewVideoGames]

@@Blackadder75 Thanks! :)

[@EvilStreaks]

Omnicron Conspiracy !!!!!!!!!!

[@OldAndNewVideoGames]

:)

[@tamphex]

"Look around for kidnapable children" ..... wow

[@OldAndNewVideoGames]

;)