I was thinking about how I remember Maxis fondly, and I got to wondering what other people’s experiences were like!
Is your favorite still around? Are they still the same, or did they “change directions under new management?”
sierra ❤️
also bill pogue
Haha, that’s exactly the kind of game I want to make but with graphics and a little less dry. Didn’t even know about that one. Also I should probably actually figure out how to start that once I’m settled in here. It’s amazing how much planning and thought goes into getting one truck across the country. It’s like Oregon trail but you die of stupidity, yours or others, rather than dysentery.
Lucas Arts
Are they still around? /j
Yep, some classic point and click games, like Full Throttle. It’s from games like that that I learned Mark Hamill is an amazing voice actor.
Sierra entertainment! I was a big fan of the kings quest games, and Sierra online was my first experience with online gaming.
I was super into Sierra as a publisher. They seemed to back some of the highest quality games no one knew about. Ground Control, Gunman Chronicles, Homeworld, Aliens vs Predators 2, Empire Earth, Die Hard: Nakatomi Plaza, and of course Half-Life. They published some quality games.
Don’t forget the SWAT series. Really loved the third game and always played the ‘Children of Terrone’ map on lan parties
The SWAT series was amazing but now I just look back at it as copaganda.
I loved the Quest games! They were my first real introduction to the English language. Simple phrases like
Open Doorandfeed chickenswere a great way to build my basic vocabulary. I kept pestering my dad for translations until he got fed up and taught me how to use a dictionary :)I have so many great memories playing those games, on my own and together with my dad. It really was a bonding experience.
Westwood I had fun with Red Alert 1 & 2 for a long time. Super casual player though.
Origin “We create worlds”. They definitely did with the Wing Commander series. Played a lot of WC 3, 4 as well as Privateer.
I don’t think anyone mentioned Lionhead Studios. Black and White was fun. Sadly it’s in copyright limbo if I’m not mistaken.
Also played a lot of Civilization 1 from Microprose back in the day.
My favourite games from childhood were the Ultima series (3 onward).
Never finished most of the Ultima Games. Started U4 again a few years ago. Tried picking it back up, and I’ve misplaced that damn balloon again.
Never tried any of the Ultima series. :p
Apogee Software for Rise of the Triad, Blue Sky Productions for Última Underworld and Bullfrog Productions for Syndicate.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rjBm44oWwsk
I can’t see the name Apogee without hearing the fanfare.
I miss Wacky Wheels.
Wacky wheels is the best kart racer ever. Fite me.
I won’t, because you’re right!
I’m always reminded of finding and playing the midi files from the game music on my 486 as background music.
Rainbow Arts (Turrican on Amiga), Maxis (SimCity) and Digital Illusions (because of their pinball games)
All of them gone except Digital Illusions which became DICE.
A fellow old person! I’ll add Ocean Software and US Gold from the Commodore era.
I was going to say Digital Illusions but for Motorhead, the racing game. The OST for that game has been in my music rotation for decades and it’s still in my top 3 of all time.
Hard to pick but early to mid 90s era Maxis, Bullfrog, Bungie (Pathways/Marathon/Myth era), Blizzard, and SEGA all come to mind. All either gone or changed.
Humongous entertainment
The 3 Bs, baby. Blizzard, Bioware, and Bethesda.
Blizzards dead to me, Bioware fell off after dragon age 1, and Bethesda refuses to take its limiters off anymore (no drugs)
I’m enjoying heavily-modded DA:I, but I do feel like DA1 had some better writing and direction.
The only thing I can remember from inquisition is trudging through some high level desert looking for high level rocks (which very blatantly cut their drop rate from earlier zones) so that I could make an armor and weapon that still sucked and looked like pajamas.
also that the party loves to litter
Any recommendations for mods? I’m putting together a new build for it ahead of my semi-annual replay of the trilogy
Yeah, definitely!
I’ll skip the skins, because I assume you’ll want to pick your own that fit your tastes, but you can find all of these at NexusMods. Some of my favorites are:
- Speed Launch
- 60 fps in cutscenes
- No fall damage
- Infinite Respec Amulet
- Party At The Winter Palace
- Shorter War Table Missions (75%)
- Party Banter Time (5-10min)
- All Bard songs for CC Music
- Stay still in CC - Natural Edition
- Face Ash Begone
- Bugs Be Gone
- Skills Enhanced by NinjaReborn
- Inventory Capacity
You’ll also need Frosty Mod Manager to set all those up (they seem to work for me in the order I listed) and Frosty Fix.
- Set up the mods and load order in FrostyMM, and close.
- Launch Frosty Fix.
- Choose the profile/pack you want.
- Mash go.
- FrostyMM should open back up.
- Open the pack you created.
- The game should launch automatically with the mods correctly enabled.
All these mods feel “vanilla-ish” and shouldn’t spoil the original experience to any significant degree.
Interplay’s Black Isle Studios, now Obsidian.
Bullfrog for Populous and Dungeon Keeper (ruined by EA).
Troika for Arcanum and Vampire the Masquerade: Bloodlines (ruined by Activision).
I only remember Syndicate from Bullfrog
Frontier for Elite
Psygnosis for Lemmings and a bunch of other fun games on the Amiga.Fun fact: Rockstar (back then DMA) developed Lemmings.
Elite was a game changer for a lot of people. Lemmings was super fun, as well!
Blizzard. Without Activision.
Infocom hands down. Pure escapism
