Weird French Computer Games - DOS Nostalgia

[@andvaribekho]

French games were always my favorite in the 80s and 90s. So unique and with a fantastic atmosphere. Metal Mutant was my favorite Silmarils game

[@olivdekade6954]

Thanks for this video. Not only because i am french but because curiosity is a rare quality. Also try to explore spanish and german games, there's a lot of jewels on 8 & 16 bit computers.

[@Lucasbrg]

Totally agree. Do you know any recommendation of books or videos that explore games from Spain or Germany like this one?

[@YOUENNNN]

It's kind of fascinating because even more popular or recent French games have this kind of weirdness into them, like The Nomad's Soul, Evil Twin, Kya, Fuel, Disonhored...

[@charlymop]

First time I see Mach 3 featured in a video. I played this game so much with my friend, could not pass the 2nd or 3rd stage. But I was always blown away by the intro coming out of the tiny speaker of my IBM PS/1.

[@DrIngo1980]

Oh man, this bring back so many childhood memories for me. My brother and I used to play all those ERE games on an IBM XT compatible in 1990. It was a CGA machine, so maybe a 286 processor, not sure. Had two 5 1/4inch drives. And we both, as Germans, didn't understand a lick of French, nor English. And either one of those languages was always the default. Some allowed us to switch to German, but that didn't help us either. Especially Captain Blood, Kult and Purple Saturn Days bring back a lot of memories. Those were really the games we played the most, because they were soooo challenging. And we didn't really know what the goals were. In a word, it was awesome. Thanks. Really great talk. Enjoyed it a lot.

[@TheZmusicGroup]

I liked the early Cryo games. Most of them were far from perfect, but they looked great and tried to do something different. Cryo's Dune is really a fascinating game, I love its presentation and its soundtrack. The devs were really passionate about the Frank Herbert's universe and it shows.

[@TimMer1981]

Alone in the Dark and Dune: one of the most epic games of all times. :) Lost Eden was also very nice. Goblins was fantastic, insane humor. :D Another World and Flashback were also very cool. :)

[@kogz]

Fantastic presentation! I was searching for French video games industry documents for a longer time, so I appreciate it much. I know Muriel was recently writing a book on this subject I hope it will be finished and released in English! French developers are the best and I really appreciate they work!

[@MessiahProphylaxis]

Muriel Tramis games were so ahead of their time. The subject matter is scarcely explored over 30 years later. Freedom: Rebels in the Darkness came out around the same time as Super Mario Bros. 2.

[@dosnostalgic]

I understand the sentiment, but you can't compare console games of that time to computer games. Very different audiences.

[@Kawa-oneechan]

For the uninitiated, Leisure Suit Larry *was* at one point supposed to go to space. It was a cutscene in "Love for Sail" that promised a 1998 release for "Leisure Suit Larry Explores Uranus". I for one am thankful they didn't.

[@n333k333]

Great vid ! As a relatively old French guy, I'll say mainstream French culture, as in the one that is actually being advertised and put in the spotlight in and out of France, is but a very small portion of what it could be / have been. Most of the truly interesting musical or cinematic French pieces of the 70s, 80s and 90s remained obscure and, often deliberately, not spoken about. This is a little less true in video games as it used to be considered a sub-culture and traditional mediums didn't pay attention to it, so early gamers didn't have to relay on them to explore anyway.

[@besmertnik]

Всегда нравилась рисовка от Silmarils, а геймплей мне больше нравился в Starblade и Ishar. Жаль Transarctica мне тогда не попалась, идея классная. Еще этот незабываемый PC speaker в Mach3, в конце восьмидесятых это был просто восторг. Игрался сначала на отечественных EC1840 и Искра-1030м, а в 90х уже на XT с EGA. Эх, в эпоху развития, когда не было устоявшихся жанров и трендов, порой такие шедевры выходили, а французы были с наиболее творческим и необычным подходом, каждая игра маленькая вселенная и произведение искусства.. Это вам не современный конвейер от Ubisoft.

[@alexander_mejia]

That was really cool Anatoly! Thanks for keeping the history alive by talking about it!

[@Alianger]

More stuff like this pls

[@Kiatrasi]

One high quality french game to play is Shadow of the Comet.

[@SoanosBarcoded]

That Manhattan 95 (Escape From New York) ripoff seems pretty well made. They even got the theme. :p

[@loganjorgensen]

Admittedly a lot of them didn't do too well in sales but even after the fact I still find all those games quite inspiring. Yeah that's what I found looking into early 3D games and polygons, so many were French. Or that FMV codecs were a new technology that few were developing much even in the multimedia 90s. Became a big reader of Heavy Metal in the 90s so thank you Metal Hurlant for starting that publication. Definitely think the 80s games captured a lot of the artful provocative underground aspects of those graphic novel stories Ie. the spirit of fantasy that seems to be suffocating a lot lately under contemporary literalism.

[@surject]

1995 - when Ubisoft stopped ripping people off - HAHA ;) But man, I remember a lot of these games from my childhood and teenage years. Didn't know they were all french productions. Most of them were very good too, I loved Heart of Darkness, Another World, Flashback, Alone in the Dark, Megarace etc. Also Dune and Rayman ofc, Goblins was fun too. I even still got the Transartica poster ;) Very nice artwork.

[@Alianger]

Interesting talk. A few too many games covered hastily maybe, but I'm intrigued by several of them.

[@Maggerama]

I still listen to Lost Eden's OST, it's beautiful.

[@Teeb2023]

Sure is. I bought the soundtrack CD, but subsequently lost it. Ironic, eh? Stephane Picq wrote it, IIRC.

[@niceanddestroyed]

P.S : i don't know about the review of Blade Runner in Métal Hurlant, but the translation of the title would be : "They murdered Philip K. Dick!" (means Philip K. Dick's work). I presume then that the review would not be that good.

[@Inignot12]

Dang, that seemed like a really fun presentation that I could've attended (tristate area). Thanks for uploading!!

[@panteranegra5668]

All these games are awesome! Show!!

[@Teeb2023]

I loved the "weird" angle most French games brought to my PC, Amiga & Atari games. Maupiti Island is one I played to an extent, but never finished. Loved the theme tune too... even recorded my own version of it. :) Ween too, another I never finished. Metal Mutant! A "great" game, largely due to the artwork and music. B.A.T.... another I forgot about. Captain Blood!... with its diced-up version of Jean Michel Jarre's "Zoolook" soundtrack. :) Dune, also. Great intro tune, by monsieur Picq, I believe?

[@ChrisKlein1980]

Awesome work!

[@mendez704]

God...I remember playing a spelling game in a MO5 when I was in french high school...the idea was to shoot the words that appeared wrongly written

[@0scarisaiah]

Great video, there certainly was something to the French creativity in making games. Salammbô: Battle for Carthage , Cryo's very last game, would fit the bill too with its dark and surreal alien atmosphere (a futuristic re-telling of the 19th century novel set during the events of the Mercenary Revolt in Carthage after the First Punic War).

[@Alexouais]

Great stuff! Thank you for making this. I remember reading about french video game history in La Saga des Jeux Vidéos by Daniel Ichbiah, which follows (every two chapters) the career of Philippe Ulrich (ERE Informatique, Cryo...). The French scene is fascinating. I should check Épopée!

[@JohnBeaversYT]

Thank you for this video. Cheers from France :)

[@zomp]

Hey, your DOS Nostalgia channel needs much more constant video uploads.

[@jonathanplooij3666]

great video

[@directionlessstudios7210]

Also Evil Twin on Dreamcast by French developers In Utero and published by Ubisoft. Definitely has that je ne sais quoi.

[@dosnostalgic]

It was also on Windows. One of my biggest guilty pleasures is Jekyll & Hyde from the same studio. Terrible game.

[@directionlessstudios7210]

DOS Nostalgia: Nice. I never played but I’ll keep an eye out. Yes, I can’t recall playing through too far in Evil Twin. But I was really blown away with the atmosphere and weirdness. I don’t think I’ve beat many French games in general, other than Another World / Out of this World - which is one of my favorite games of all time.

[@Dadutta]

purple saturn day sounds like it was made by timetravelling vaporwave artists

[@LArchiviste]

Thanks for this ;) and don't hesitate to take a look at my french old videogame channel ^^

[@Alemei83]

Outcast is a good french game.

[@waltermcinnis]

This is so cool. Thank you!

[@grongy6122]

The video gave me some strong Ashens vibes. Great work!) Actually I had an idea to record Dune intro into GIFs and make some kind of screensaver.

[@OldNerdPlayingOldPCGames]

Great video mate. Liked ;)

[@Dosgamert]

No Krypton Egg?

[@dosnostalgic]

I was actually unaware that it was French. Noted.

[@Dosgamert]

@@dosnostalgic When you time the highscores A & Q are switched, because they use an AZERTY layout.

[@BrunoFonsecaPT]

Really nice video. Being Portuguese I’ve played most of the games you presented and I agree most are weird. Regardless, you also have some of the best games ever like Another World, Flashback and LBA (that was criminally underdeveloped in your video). Cheers

[@dosnostalgic]

I was concentrating more on the obscure and funny stuff, and that's why I only mentioned LBA in passing along with some others, since I feel that it's somewhat well remembered especially among DOS gaming enthusiasts.

[@mendez704]

I also played Dragon Lore and Megarece

[@0374studio]

Great, спасибо! :]

[@BlueMoonshine]

I believe that you didn't give "Maupiti Island" the praise that it deserves. Not only is it a game with pioneering vocal synthesis, not only is it a game with incredibly beautiful graphics and digitized sounds, but it is also the only investigating game that cannot be solved by stupidly trying all possible solutions (as opposed to all modern investigation games). The only way to complete the game is to actually think and solve complex riddles. The video walkthrough with all details on how to solve the riddles is here: kzbin.info/www/bejne/l2fbYad-g56lmMk

[@patriotbarrow]

14:31 Me small Yoko. Me small usual.

[@spearPYN]

French games were best on Amiga, mostly because of music. To each his own though.

[@dosnostalgic]

But I do mention the Amiga and its sound in the presentation. 🤷‍♂️

[@niceanddestroyed]

Very nice and (quite) accurate video on old french video games. Still, the problem with your presentation is that you say weird a numerous times or laugh at the games the same way, and it is sometimes difficult to hear when you like a developer or a game. Besides, it is now a bit cliché to say that french games were weird at that time or still are (i just read a blog the other day which was saying the same thing). They were just conceived differently (although i must admit Inca and some of the Cocktel Vision games could be really weird for french people either). As someone said in the comments, they would try to add something different, maybe more artistic, historical, cultural and/or intellectual in a way. They would also rely on the atmosphere created, according a bigger importance to the originality and the quality of the graphics for instance (the influence of french comics as you mentioned, that american sci-fi movies actually ripped off or used a lot.. check Moebius work). Those things put apart, thanks for talking about those games . Here is a list of good old french games you missed : Bagman (aka Le bagnard, arcade game), Get Dexter (aka Crafton and Xunk), Lamborghini American Challenge (aka Crazy Cars 3), the amazing Future Wars (aka Les Voyageurs du temps) and some of other Delphine Software games (James Bond : A Stealth Affair, Cruise for a corpse), North and South, Skweek, Krypton Egg, Vroom (or F1), Prehistorik 2, Jim Power, Shadow of the comet, Prisoners of Ice, Hostages, Iron Lord, Storm Master, Fury of the Furries, Voodoo Kid, Crystals of Arborea, Ivanhoe, Blues Brothers, Mr. Nutz, Syberia.. I also admit Ubisoft made a lot of non interesting games or even bad games. Netherless, they also published a game made by a belgian team on the amiga that is a masterpiece, "Unreal". The same team would made "Agony" two years later, which is also a masterpiece, published by Psygnosis.

[@dosnostalgic]

Oookay, first of all I adore French games, but I was giving a presentation to room full of Americans at a convention. It wasn't a lecture, it was just a bit of fun. I have settled on the titles I listed very specifically to present them as something completely different from American or Japanese market of retro games. In the end I make a rousing call for the audience to investigate foreign games by themselves. I haven't mentioned A LOT of games. If I wanted to list every French developed game there, I'd be there all day. I also don't think a lot of the games you've named are actually good. I do feel the nostalgic connection to them, because I played them when I was younger, and French games were very memorable because of their high concepts and beautiful presentation, but they didn't age well at all. Stuff like Future Wars, which has beautiful graphics, but is borderline unplayable, and many others and that includes almost every single one of Titus platformers (I didn't bring up Titus in the talk because Americans are *very* familiar with Superman 64, and I think I would have a hard time convincing them that some of their games aren't actually awful) and stuff like Prisoner of Ice (which doesn't deserve to even be mentioned next to other Lovecraft games from Infogrames), and the same goes for Agony, which in my opinion is dreadfully boring (but VERY beautiful). Krypton Egg is indeed very good though. Anyway, like I said, the point of the presentation was to have fun. I would like to thank you for you comment, and the list. And I would like to encourage everyone who reads this comment to actually look into the games you've listed, as they very much fit with the theme of everything I've said in the presentation. Oh, and it's been 25 years, and I still haven't figured out how to actually play Storm Master.

[@niceanddestroyed]

@@dosnostalgic Thanks for your answer. It is very hard actually to tell if a game aged well or not. I would say that most of them did not (all countries involved) - even if we have to know what we defined by "aged well" : still good graphics or sound? still good gameplay? technology used? I am not sure you can judge a game on this criteria, as it would be quite accurate to consider it also in the era it was developed and released. Future Wars is from 1989, which is the beginning of point n click adventure games, and i assure you it was really playable and very enjoyable at that time. Delphine Software adventure games were brilliant and unique (still are from my point of vue). North and South aged well (was remade recently). Vroom is still a strong F1 game. The idea of my list, was to bring other entries on french videogames, not to tell you you had forgotten games.. You actually listed a good number of games or developers. Same thing for what is boring or not, someone will find this game boring and someone not. For instance, as a shoot them up, Agony is still a very good and unique game. I understand your word on Titus games (which made truly lot of bad games), still Blues Brothers, Prehistorik 2 and Crazy Cars 3 are good games (Super Nintendo versions are a bit better than the Amiga ones). Last word on french production during the 80s and 90s, there were a lot of french adventure games on the Apple II (La bête du Gevaudan for instance), and as you mentioned on the Amstrad CPC. There was also a french section of Ocean Software that was based in Paris (most of the people went on Delphine Software after that), that made good arcade conversions on the amiga and the atari st (Dragon Ninja, Toki, Pang..). Anyway, keep on the good work. Although i had some critics, it is still a good and interesting work (too bad you did not keep the "wonderful" adjective in the title of the video ;)) Maybe you could do old english videogames now (many many games, and good games).

[@alen3652]

Do you remember a game ... A cat game with superhero clothes, I remember diamonds but i not sure, do you know it? ITS name

[@MadsterV]

French ebay? Ouibay! c'mon!

[@viy83]

We need french subtitles :(

[@BF-Gator]

It's been 9 months, is the new podcast episode still coming?

[@dosnostalgic]

All my potential guests keep falling through, sadly. :(

[@BF-Gator]

@@dosnostalgic Aw man! I hope this doesn't mean the jagged alliance episode is cancelled!

[@dosnostalgic]

I've been on a couple of other podcasts as a guest in the meantime. The are links on dosnostalgia.com

[@BF-Gator]

@@dosnostalgic awesome thank you =D

[@DrMcCoy]

@@dosnostalgic (I'm very late here, yeah, I know :P) I mean, I'd be available talking to you about my ScummVM work RE'ing Coktel Vision games, if you want to create more content about weird French games ;). My view would be more technical, I guess. But also maybe a bit vague-ish, since it's been a few years since I touched the code. And/or you might ask my ScummVM colleague Strangerke, who is French, and did talk to Muriel Tramis a bit IIRC.

[@alexperkins1201]

Stopped ripping people off when they did Rayman. Plok might have something to say about that.

[@Kai18578]

Жаль, я не все понимаю

[@JimLeonard]

Next year: Russian games

[@dosnostalgic]

I can easily do that.

[@macdeath69]

Transartica is based on "la compagnie des glaces" from G.-J. Arnaud , but it is somewhat close to snowPiercer (originally a French comic) both are french.