RPGDot Network    
   

 
 
Dragonriders - Chronicles of Pern
Display full image
Pic of the moment
More
pics from the gallery
 
 
Site Navigation

Main
   News
   Forums

Games
   Games Database
   Top 100
   Release List
   Support Files

Features
   Reviews
   Previews
   Interviews
   Editorials
   Diaries
   Misc

Download
   Gallery
   Music
   Screenshots
   Videos

Miscellaneous
   Staff Members
   Privacy Statement

FAQ
Members
Usergroups
rpg-abandonware
  View previous topic :: View next topic
RPGDot Forums > CRPGs General

Author Thread
HiddenX
The Elder Spy
The Elder Spy




Joined: 20 Jul 2001
Posts: 749
Location: NRW / Germany
   

u are low on budget ?
u like old computer games ?
u know how to make DOS-boot disk ?
u don't care about good graphics ?
u wanna replay a game u could not beat in your teen years ?

then try abandonware, computer games that are no longer sold and free to download. I am NOT talking about warez - abandonware by definition has been discontinued by the developers, warez not.

Here are some good titles:

Betrayal at Krondor
Blood Omen: Legacy of Kain
Daggerfall
Dungeon Master
Knights of Xentar
Lands of Lore: Throne of Chaos
Planet's Edge
Swords of Xeen
Ultima 4
Wasteland
...

All titles can be found here:
http://www.theunderdogs.org

there are many more rpgs, but i can only recommend titles that i have gone through completely.

PS: the moslo utility is a 'must have' for most of these games.

Hx
Post Sun Feb 10, 2002 11:07 pm
 View user's profile
HiddenX
The Elder Spy
The Elder Spy




Joined: 20 Jul 2001
Posts: 749
Location: NRW / Germany
   

my fault:

sword of xeen is NOT abandonware, sorry.

Hx
Post Sun Feb 10, 2002 11:14 pm
 View user's profile
Sir Markus
Counselor of the King
Counselor of the King




Joined: 11 Jan 2002
Posts: 369
Location: Columbus, Ohio USA
   

Actually it's worth it to track down a used version of DOS 6.11 (I think that was the last version) and build yourself a Dos only computer, with an old 486 DX or P 90. It's dirt cheap to do and allows you to play dos games without having to configure to the windows environment. I just have mine right next to my main computer so all I have to do is move the plugs over if I want to play an older game.

A few other good DOS CRPG titles:

Anvil of Dawn (not sure if this is abandonware yet)
Ravenloft: Strahd's Possession
Menzoberranzan
Ravenloft: Stone Prophet
Dark Sun: Shattered Lands
Realms of Arkania III: Shadows Over Riva
Shadowcaster (More an action game, but pretty nice graphics and music with CRPG elements).
Post Sun Feb 10, 2002 11:24 pm
 View user's profile
HiddenX
The Elder Spy
The Elder Spy




Joined: 20 Jul 2001
Posts: 749
Location: NRW / Germany
   

The Arkania Triology was great, i had a lot of fun with the strategic combat system. i am not sure if these games are abandonware, but if u can find them as low budget software or in a second hand shop - get them.

Anvil of Dawn is a solid rpg-expirience, too.

The Dark Sun games have a lot of fans - i'll give them a try when i have enough spare time.

Hx
Post Mon Feb 11, 2002 12:23 am
 View user's profile
Sir Markus
Counselor of the King
Counselor of the King




Joined: 11 Jan 2002
Posts: 369
Location: Columbus, Ohio USA
   

Yes you are right, Swords of Xeen is not abandonware, but the 3DO store has what is called the Might and Magic Trilogy, which includes M&M 3, 4 and 5 as well as Swords of Xeen for 15 $US.

Not a bad deal; I just played through the Xeen games last fall and really enjoyed them if you don't mind the dated graphics.

As far as the games I listed, I'm pretty sure Shadowcaster is abandonware, but the others I'm not sure about. Ultima Underworld I and II are also discounted and a lot of fun for someone on a budget.

http://store.3do.com/cgi-bin/cart.cgi?product_id=5&customer=580990



[ This Message was edited by: Sir Markus on 2002-02-10 19:06 ]
Post Mon Feb 11, 2002 1:00 am
 View user's profile
Wolfgang
Village Dweller
Village Dweller




Joined: 10 Feb 2002
Posts: 4
Location: Athens,Greece
   

I would also like to add the Eye of the beholder(EOB) trilogy.

EOB1 was the very first R.P.G. I've ever played
and i consider EOB2 to be one of the best R.P.G's ever made.(and also extremely difficult,full of puzzles!!!Something we rarely see in most new releases)
I think they are really worth a try.

Although both 3 can be found at interplay-store I've found them at
http://www.classicpcgames.com/index.html?page=categories&id=6 for free.
Legal or not,I can't say.(Probably illegal)
Post Mon Feb 11, 2002 2:03 pm
 View user's profile
HiddenX
The Elder Spy
The Elder Spy




Joined: 20 Jul 2001
Posts: 749
Location: NRW / Germany
   

Sir Markus:

just started Menzoberranzan -

it is really fun to have the famous
Drizzt Do'Urden in my party and the automapping is very good.

Hx
Post Tue Feb 12, 2002 12:10 am
 View user's profile
soltys
Magister of the Light
Magister of the Light




Joined: 12 Jan 2002
Posts: 386
Location: Poland, Warsaw
   

about dos:
if you happen to use 95/98/98se/me you needn't dos 6.11. Just reedit your msdos.sys, make bootmenu in config.sys file and be able to boot to real dos any time you want. It's a little more complicated with Me, but still possible to do. Though I never used win me. And be sure to load setver.exe, as many programs check version and cease to function if they detect dos 7/7.1/8
Post Tue Feb 12, 2002 3:23 am
 View user's profile
Sir Markus
Counselor of the King
Counselor of the King




Joined: 11 Jan 2002
Posts: 369
Location: Columbus, Ohio USA
   

HiddenX:

Yes Menzoberranzan was a great game, might have to play through it again myself.

Anything by DreamForge is well worth playing they had a bunch of CRPG's in the 90's that were very good. Graphics aren't the best, but the gameplay was good, and I agree automapping for all their games was second to none at the time. They also did the Stone Prohet games and if I'm not mistaken Anvil of Dawn as well, and maybe even the EOB games, but I'm not sure...
Post Tue Feb 12, 2002 3:25 am
 View user's profile
Sir Markus
Counselor of the King
Counselor of the King




Joined: 11 Jan 2002
Posts: 369
Location: Columbus, Ohio USA
   

Soltys:

Yes having a system that will boot to multiple OS's is one solution, but then you have to use slowdown programs, none of which are very well done in my opinion.

Maybe it's just nostalgia, but I like booting my old 486 DX to the DOS prompt and running the games 'the old fashioned way' goofy, yes, but that's just the way I like to do it.
Post Tue Feb 12, 2002 3:31 am
 View user's profile
Shrapnel
Rocket Scientist
Rocket Scientist




Joined: 03 Jan 2002
Posts: 1325
Location: Newark, NJ
   

HAHA Ultima 4 is like 4 megs. I remember when I bought it, it came shipped in (4) 5.14 floppies. Im like, "WOW this game needs *FOUR* CDs, it must be massive!!"
Post Tue Feb 12, 2002 12:59 pm
 View user's profile
HiddenX
The Elder Spy
The Elder Spy




Joined: 20 Jul 2001
Posts: 749
Location: NRW / Germany
   

Some more games:

Dark Sun: Wake the Ravager

cool crpg, many sidequests, plays like Fallout with D&D rules. make sure you have version 1.10 - version 1.00 is *very* buggy.
if u play on a modern computer play under win9x and use a program called 'turbo' to slow down your machine.

same game engine - but more an adventure:
Al-qadim.

link turbo:

http://www.bhlegend.com/php/show.php3?page=utils

Hx
Post Mon Feb 25, 2002 10:46 pm
 View user's profile
Val
Risen From Ashes
Risen From Ashes




Joined: 18 Feb 2002
Posts: 14724
Location: Utah, USA
   

Sweet! I'm going to have to do some old-school gaming this week. I've always loved old Dos games.
Post Mon Feb 25, 2002 11:54 pm
 View user's profile
Maggot
Magister of the Light
Magister of the Light




Joined: 17 Jul 2001
Posts: 392
Location: Reykjavik, Iceland
   

When I think back to the old days, I think it sucks that I didn't finish the games back when they were new.

Now, when I try to play an old game, I spend time getting it to work on the newer computer, only to get disappointed by the graphics or music (that seem to be much worse than they were when I originally played the game). I don't know, but it seems to me that there are still many newish RPG's that I want to play to the end before I start on these older ones.
Post Tue Feb 26, 2002 12:13 am
 View user's profile
Sir Markus
Counselor of the King
Counselor of the King




Joined: 11 Jan 2002
Posts: 369
Location: Columbus, Ohio USA
   

Also, two games that don't qualify as CRPG's but are hopelessly addicitive, would be a game called Deadly Rooms of Death (D.R.O.D.) if you like 'brainy' puzzle games, give it a chance, and it will have smoke coming out of your ears. The other would be DX Ball, a breakout clone that's well done.

http://www.theunderdogs.org/game.php?name=Deadly+Rooms+of+Death

Another CRPG, Amberstar looked very nice, but I haven't had time to play it, but it looked nice when I installed it...

http://www.theunderdogs.org/game.php?id=51

Another, more mindless game, is DX-Ball, a freeware Breakout clone that's extremely well done...

http://www.freewaregaming.com/aa/dxball.html

Captive was pretty cool and had decent graphics for its day..

http://www.theunderdogs.org/game.php?id=169


Another outstanding CRPG that unfortunately got buried under all the 'Quake' hype of the time was 'Realms of the Haunting' they have it on amazon.com for $10.00/US. Personally, I loved this game.

http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/B000050NRN/qid%3D1014687417/ref%3Dsr%5F11%5F0%5F1/102-5381027-8332919

Just a few cheap/free gaming suggestions...


[ This Message was edited by: Sir Markus on 2002-03-07 17:06 ]
Post Tue Feb 26, 2002 2:12 am
 View user's profile


Goto page 1, 2  Next
All times are GMT.
The time now is Thu Apr 11, 2019 12:47 pm



Powered by phpBB © 2001 phpBB Group
 
 
 
All original content of this site is copyrighted by RPGWatch. Copying or reproducing of any part of this site is strictly prohibited. Taking anything from this site without authorisation will be considered stealing and we'll be forced to visit you and jump on your legs until you give it back.