Games that just wouldn't be made in the modern game industry

[Hobie-wan]

"What a game where you endlessly build?"

Yeah, nobody will play Minecraft!

[brainofjtd]

ROGUE

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rogue_(computer_game)

[Gunstar Green]

I'm going to say the Wing Commander games. Specifically 3 and 4. Not only are space flight sims next to dead but also the big budget FMV elements that included some famous actors.

[J T]

ROGUE

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rogue_(computer_game)

You might be interested in Dwarf Fortress:
http://www.bay12games.com/dwarves/

[Lord_Santa]

80+% of all C-64/Amiga/Atari/Spectrum/Amstrad games
why?

people just don't buy into having only one button on their joysticks

:edit

that being said, I'm just going to wake up and see if I can narrow it down

[Lord_Santa]

Jet Set Willy: too damn difficult for today's "gamers"

Commando Libya: it wasn't accepted back then, it ain' accepted now

International Karate series/Exploding Fist series: nobody wants a fighting game with one button

Wolfenstein/DooM 1,2, etc. (etc. not being 3): can't look up/down? why would anyone want this?

Ultima series (up unto and including V): you actually have to type your questions?

Bard's Tale series/Dragon Wars: Automap and the lack thereof

SSI Gold Box Series: almost Baldur's Gate combat, but walking around in FPP and having to use a manual on the side, for keeping track of what's going on in the game? (an early form of copy-protection)

Zak McKracken & The Alien Mindbenders: didn't really catch on back when, don't think it would today either... a true hidden gem of Point and Click

Defender of the Crown: you call that strategy? and what is this kind of "fighting"? blech

Bloodwych/Dungeon Master/EoB series: what? you move one square at the time? can't look up/down? meh.

Quake 1: why would you mix Fantasy with Sci-Fi? oh noes, let's get rid of John Romero and create a generic Sci-Fi FPS instead

Rags to Riches: you're a bum. you collect pennies and bottles from the street. you get a shave. you get a job. you get an education. then what? get drunk? booooring

Car-Vup: let's see. I'm a cute car. I can jump. I collect... dots... yes? point-of-game? awesome story? blech.

Summer Games/Winter Games/World Games/The Games series: what? wiggle a "joystick" left/right? to run? what is this?

Last Ninja Series: you call that "fighting"? in isometric? and what how am I supposed to jump these rocks? Ninja's are sooo 90's

Monty Mole series: too damn difficult for today's "gamers"

Zaxxon/similar games: this isn't how you control a space-ship? what kind of perspective is this? what's going on here?

Q*bert: ..... yeah...

as you may notice, I could go on writing for a couple of more hours
suffice to say, I for one am glad to have grown up when games were still innovative and challenging

plenty of games wouldn't exist were it not for some obscure titles back when
today's gamers are treated with too many "AAA" titles, so they easily overlook the "less interesting titles"

at least PC-Gamer tried to do something about it by giving GOTY to Minecraft

and as I stated earlier, how many gamers would want to play any game, which had only one button?

I for one love it and these days with emulators, I can assign "up" (jump) to another button, almost feeling like C-64 games are similar to NES games
yay!

[ZeroAX]

You do know most of the things you say modern gamers would complain about, were designed that way due to technological limitation and not because the game designers though it would be a better game that way.

[Lord_Santa]

but it was these technological limitations that made these games what they are

I don't think I'd enjoy Bard's Tale series with an auto-map
nor would I enjoy the Ik/Fist series with more than one button

Jet Set Willy/Monty Mole series are meant to be difficult

Zak McKracken wasn't held back by anything, it just wasn't "popular" (it wasn't Maniac Mansion 2, as fans expected)

Wolfenstein/Doom series... what would you look at if you had mouse-look? this has been remedied later on, but there's still nothing of interest

and not having mouse-look wasn't as much a limitation, as it was part of the game-play (IMO), it was "walk forwards, kill anything in path"

Defender of the Crown was "advanced" enough back then, but the concept just isn't that brilliant

Bloodwych/EoB/Dungeon Master series consisted mainly of crawling in dungeons
not many people like dungeon-crawlers these days, no matter how fancy it looks

Rags to Riches was one of the early "free-roam" games, but the concept of it isn't appealing to today's gamers

Summer Games, etc are still to this very day the best sport series out there (IMO), but the fact that you basically need a joystick makes it not probable that people of today would like to play it (once again, there was no "limitations" on this game, just that you actually had to make an effort to win)

Car-Vup is a brilliant little game, but who wants to be a car jumping on platforms? no matter dimension

Last Ninja series are crtically acclaimed as superb adventure/fighting games, just not appealing to today's crowd

etc.

as you can see there's no "limitations" on these games, they're merely stuck in their respective time-era

[Erik_Twice]

but it was these technological limitations that made these games what they are

That doesn't mean they were good because of such technical limitations. I would say that they were good in spite of such limitations.

I mean, say what you want but having to type commands is far, far worse than using graphical menus. And having to write down maps is boring.

Also what used to be a good game isn't anymore. I can play Simcity and Railroad Tycoon now, but I won't because the formula and gameplay has been improved upon.

[jfrost]

There's a fair number of difficult games being released today. Can we let go of the "games of yore were so much harder, I grew chest hair when I was 7 just by playing" line?