The "I'm looking for a classic game" Thread

[jmfmagnum]

taking the chance, so was a blockout/arkanoid clone with everything white all i know is that i used a .exe called "nosound" because i didn't had a sound card at the time, dumb child me didn't read the folder just called it "nosound"

[proYorp]

This is a great thread! The other similar one too. Found out the name of SkiFree from that other thread after trying to remember it for a few years.

Might as well drop my own search in here too. I have vague memories about some educational game that was about typing posture and practice (seems like there was a whole genre based around that back in the day). I think there were multiple mini games within it, which were accessed by a main menu that was stylized to look like an office and you would click on different devices to open whatever game or menu. For instance, you could click the keyboard of a computer on a desk, and it would light up if you hover over it I think.
The main game mode I remember is one where the top 50-75% of the screen was a road as viewed from the driver's seat of a car, and the bottom of the screen had a line of text that you were supposed to copy. It was supposed to be a race, and the only way to control the car was to type. Your speed was controlled by how fast you were typing. I think there was a gauge to indicate MPH or something.
It was for either DOS or Windows because it was running on a very old (even for the time) Windows laptop. I think it was either VGA or "truecolor" because I think there was detail in the wood grain on the desk that would be difficult to attain with EGA.

[Ceilick]

In the mid 90s I had several DOS game discs that contained tons of games, and there's one game in particular in my memory that I can't remember the name of and thought maybe someone else might know.

The game featured a character with some kind of rifle who had a photo of a kid's face for a head (the head was the same size of the body), he might have had a helmet too, and the level I remember as the first, you would roam around a desert like setting (I think it was reddish brown, and I think it had kind of a sunset shading) with the perspective somewhat like the Keen world Map (not quite top down). The objective was to search the map hunting down these lizard things that looked like green/red/brown desert horned lizards (I think they were supposed to be aliens). The game advertised the opportunity to have YOUR face placed on the main character in future installments.

Edit: I'm 99% sure it's part of the "Game Empire Over 250 games!" collection as seen here: https://www.reddit.com/r/nostalgia/comm ... are_games/

I recognize this menu as absolutely my main source of games. But it seems like there might be different editions of the collection? Still investigating.

[Benvolio]

This is a cool thread. I'm sure there are lots of lurking vague snippets of game memories that linger, disconnected for ever more from tangible facts.

I recall some platformer on someone's console, probably in 1996, in black and white (obviously the game itself won't have been in black and white). Some sort of jungle-ish setting. Music sticks in my ear but impossible to place... closest thing I've heard is "Chime" by Orbital. Maybe it was that... im which case it was probably on someone's stereo rather than actually being music from the game. This memory will obviously lead to nothing.

Separately, on our home PC, we had this edutainment game from some American dental practice, can't remember what OS but it was either Win 3.11 or 95. You had different games to play, all related to good dental hygiene. Most memorable was one where a mouth was full of rotten teeth and you shot bullets of toothpaste or strings of floss at the teeth which improved the colour of the teeth. Black was worst, white was normal, but in between was an idiosyncratic cycling through bright colours so a half-rotten tooth might be pink or blue. Great fun. There were specific dentists affiliated and I strongly recall one being a Dr. Loos however this hasn't helped me dig it up on Google.

Edit: or was it American? I always assumed everything on the computer was from the US but maybe not... the name Loos sounds a bit Dutch...

[Grimson]

There are a couple of DOS games I remember vaguelly from my childhood, it'd be awesome if I could discover what they were.

• An Atari Breakout/Arkanoid clone. What I remember distinctly about the game was its mostly black background broken up by beautiful, shiny colored patterns, like stained glass. It's also possible these colored parts were the blocks you had to destroy. Another thing I remember about the game is that the board you play with, which I think had a metallic texture, could grow and shrink horizontally, probably through some powerup. Powerups seem to be a staple in Breakout/Arkanoid games though, so it's probably not much of a help in finding the right game. I've looked through a dozen clones in sites like MyAbandonware, but none of them match visually what I'm looking for.
  
  EDIT: I think I found this one! Bananoid, from 1989. It was more colorful than I remembered, but other than that it looks and feels very familiar.

• There was a simple puzzle game that involved blocks of various rectangular shapes. All blocks were colored blue, except one in the middle, which was red, and the goal was to move the red block outside the surrounding blue blocks. I think it worked like a slide puzzle.

• I never owned this game myself so I only played it once or twice. You controlled a yellow, spherical character, collecting points in some kind of a maze. Hazards included black, cartoonesque bombs, and flying arrows.

[proYorp]

• There was a simple puzzle game that involved blocks of various rectangular shapes. All blocks were colored blue, except one in the middle, which was red, and the goal was to move the red block outside the surrounding blue blocks. I think it worked like a slide puzzle.

Hang on wait, that actually sounds like a game we had that was in the same package as SkiFree... they were on the same computer way back when... lemme look... "Microsoft Entertainment Pack..."



Klotski?

[Grimson]

Hang on wait, that actually sounds like a game we had that was in the same package as SkiFree... they were on the same computer way back when... lemme look... "Microsoft Entertainment Pack..."

Klotski?

Ooh, it must've been this game, and that game pack. I recognize a few other games from the pack too like Pipe Dream, Mahjong/Taipei, and...oh my goodness, Rodent's Revenge! I had completely forgotten about that one!

How peculiar, apparently none of these games ran on DOS, but on Windows!

Thank you so much proYorp for revitalizing my childhood memories!

[Ceilick]

Found my game, by first figuring out the game collection it was on, softdisk's "Game Empire Over 250 Games", which I recognized the game selection screen from a google search. Then it was just a matter of downloading an iso and poking around the games. My game was, "Reptalia".


Here's a video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pcBVkFEPU6s

[Nisaba]

the soundtrack is actually great. the gameplay not so much. what even is this? walking the desert and randomly shooting scorpions? strange concept

[proYorp]

Thank you so much proYorp for revitalizing my childhood memories!

Awesome, happy to help! I'm kind of surprised I recognized it. I haven't seen that game in ages, though I think there was a moment in time when I was pretty obsessed with it. I guess I heard "rectangular shapes" and "red and blue blocks" and "slide puzzle" and it clicked.

I find it interesting how you remembered the red and blue blocks (which are the object and goal of the puzzle, the most important elements), but attributed these important colors to the object and obstacles, which are the elements most interacted with -- the mind is a fascinating thing... anyway I'm rambling...

[alexis92]

There IS a game that is considered by many as the 4-th Jill of The Jungle. It's Vinyl Goddess From Mars. But... although it has some similarities with Jill and Xargon, I consider it as a crap game.

The link doesn't seem to be working for me. Is this the game you're talking about? https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4I62vUAMHaA

[Roobar]

Yes

[Grimson]

I find it interesting how you remembered the red and blue blocks (which are the object and goal of the puzzle, the most important elements), but attributed these important colors to the object and obstacles, which are the elements most interacted with -- the mind is a fascinating thing... anyway I'm rambling...

Yeah, and I also remembered Bananoid having a dark/black background, which it didn't – the game just fades in and out of darkness when switching between levels. However I'm certain it's the Arkanoid clone I used to play on DOS, everything else about it is spot on.

This is why relying on people's memories, especially childrens', can be problematic...mutter mutter...*rambles more*

[Krocker]

I'm sure we've all gone through the experience of having to search for a game that we don't remember the name of, and having to rely only on our faintest memories. Personally, I am searching for a game that was entitled, if I remember correctly, Jill of the jungle 4.
It was a 2.5D game (sort of like River City Ransom) that was a lot like a typical adventure game. I think I got it on a Game Empire CD, but I can't remember for sure.

I have been looking for this game for so long, you don't even imagine.