SSI Games Discussion

[Jmustang1968]

Hmm I suppose I could get a usb floppy drive. Any recommendations?

[BogusMeatFactory]

On topic though about those SSI games I'm interested, just need to find something that works. I don't like turn based hexagon grid type stuff, and first person dungeon crawlers are a confusing turn off as I don't do pencil/paper maps for games. What options are left?

I highly recommend the Dark Sun games. It is turn based combat, but not hexagon oriented and is actually pretty fun and entertaining. It is entirely third person, with a heavy focus on story. No worries about maps either as there is a map overview you can use to help speed movement along quickly.

Other games I would recommend would be the Ravenloft games. Even though they are in 1st person and have lots of dungeon crawling, there is a built in map feature in the game which will make navigation INFINITELY easier.

Want to go into the weird and unusual, Hillsfar is a sort of an adventurer simulator where you go from town to town, compete in competitions or sneak into homes and commit theft and play various mini-games. It is a strange game that I found very enchanting.

If you want to go on consoles, Buck Rogers: Matrix Cubed on the Sega Genesis is a fun alternative to the PC game. Although you don't have access to as many classes or races, the full game is there and eliminates the first person dungeon crawling for an isometric 3rd person.

Those are a couple for you to look at and see if they meet your tastes.

As for the whole, "Using the real hardware to play the games." It is a matter of taste. Some people find no issue emulating or using all-in-one devices. Others are more purists and there is absolutely nothing wrong with that. Also, please don't say that old PC hardware is useless, because it isn't. That is like saying knowledge of the past is useless because it is old. It is history and has value.

[BoneSnapDeez]

Hmm I suppose I could get a usb floppy drive. Any recommendations?

Go on NewEgg. Read the reviews.

Avoid the cheap shitty ones that go for like $3.99 on Amazon. I've never gotten those to read games properly.

[Tanooki]

Well a first person/third person game isn't totally off limits with me. I mean I just picked up Arcana for SNES and it is that style, turn based RPG style combat (not rogue like) and it has an in game map so you don't get lost which makes a world of difference.

I think your list has some merit so I'll have to look into those later when I have some time to do that. Even that Genesis game sounds interesting since I do have that R5 system.

I just meant in general complaining and being an overkill purist is just not a good way to go. It's just a lot of very outdated hardware that serves little purpose short of trying to live in the past with a computer as the newer stuff can do it by other means just as well.



I think the USB floppy drive really is the best road to take with it. You get that, use DOS BOX and you're back in the 80s/90s gaming in no time.

[fastbilly1]

Also, please don't say that old PC hardware is useless, because it isn't. That is like saying knowledge of the past is useless because it is old. It is history and has value.

However alot of old hardware is useless. CNR slot cards for example, or anything that requires RD RAM. Sure they are important historically, but so is a Token Ring Network, and no one wants to debug a Token Ring over using a 10/100 (Fast Ethernet) network.

[noiseredux]

Hmm I suppose I could get a usb floppy drive. Any recommendations?

Go on NewEgg. Read the reviews.

Avoid the cheap shitty ones that go for like $3.99 on Amazon. I've never gotten those to read games properly.

yup. I paid like $20ish for mine I think and just went w/ one that got good New Egg reviews. Works just fine.

[MrPopo]

These games are on my list to eventually get, but I'd rather wait for GOG to score some kind of coup and get them. The supporting docs are pretty critical and I don't want to have to track those down on the download sites.

[BogusMeatFactory]

I am very curious to know who has the rights to the games. I know Ubisoft bought up SSI, but there is also the discussion of whether or not Ubisoft can re-release them since they don't own the AD&D rights. That may be why we haven't seen any of these games come out.

[Tanooki]

No doubt that's why it's not out there with Ubisoft not having the D&D license. They may own the game, the game code, but they don't own D&D or licensing rights on it which is a shame. I'm sure they'd cash in on that if they could.

I know there are precedents out there where a game has been bought up by a company another made, and they could not get the license, so what they do is remove any branding/names/iconography that could get them busted. They'll go radically different or just barely tweak it so they wouldn't lose a court fight. But in this case we're talking games of the 80s and 90s and there's likely no money in that even at $1-5 GoG pickups.

[marurun]

I had Champions of Krynn (the first of the 3 Dragonlance games) and Pool of Radiance (first D&D Gold Box game) on my Apple II. The latter was fookin' hard. I kept getting stymied by the challenge level. The former was better balanced as a PC game, and did really well incorporating the various Dragonlance mechanics like the different Knight ranks and the effects of the moons on mages of different alignments, not to mention the spell availability differences. I also found a neat way to cheat just by disk-swapping and adding and removing characters from my party. The end result was that I could grant equipment from my high-level characters to new low-level PCs, or start the game over using my high-level PCs. Also helped me keep my Dragonlances when the game tried to take them away at the end of the game.

Anyone try to create their own content in Unlimited Adventures? It was basically a Gold Box creation kit.