A Look Back to 1993 - the pick of the computer hardware

[Butane Bob]

Yeah i think i read some sort of marketing piece saying how Cosmo had "super nintendo style parallax scrolling" or something to that effect.

[Goose]

What a great thread!

My first PC was back in 1993, sold my Amiga (BIG mistake) after I got the PC. My boss at work had to guarantee the loan with the bank - £1500!

A 486 DX2/66!

260MB HD

8 Meg Ram

Tseng Labs video card. Something like an ET6400/W32. (The W32 was a Windows Accelerator!)

I remember going to computer shows and picking up the latest demos, stuff like One Must Fall, Doom, Wolfenstein, Jazz Jack Rabbit. What was the shoot'em up from Epic as well? (Think it was epic). Ahh, Tyrian! Got on the Internet at the end of 1994 IIRC. I remember panicking like mad when I downloaded the Screamer demo which was 1mb in size! I figured I'd been on the phone for over 20 minutes so the bill would be huge!

I remember, up until I saw Doom, I think I maintained that the Amiga was still far superior. Still think that now where old-skool demos are concerned.

Upgraded a while later to an AMD chip, something like a DX4/100. Which didn't work and I ended up going back and getting the Intel equivalent. After that I got a Pentium 100 or maybe a 90.

[Blu3Flame]

Who remembers playing games like this?

In a period when CD only games were becoming increasingly common I remember being delighted to find the demo of Duke 3D on floppies at a computer fair. My 486 SX at the time wasn't really up to playing it and I recall having to play through it in a similar way to the screenshot above.

[mikeb]

Who remembers playing games like this?

In a period when CD only games were becoming increasingly common I remember being delighted to find the demo of Duke 3D on floppies at a computer fair. My 486 SX at the time wasn't really up to playing it and I recall having to play through it in a similar way to the screenshot above.

I remember playing Legends of Valour on my 1200 like that, until I forked out (if I recall) 150 quid for a spanky 2MB Blizzard Accelerator card which let me up it to roughly two thirds bigger - big whoop

[Gabe]

Ahh, this brings back memories.

I was so excited when I was able to buy my own PC (must have been around 95-96?); prior to that I'd been using my Amiga and Megadrive to game on. I then for the next 7 years or so primarily became a PC gamer. Good times.

I've since had a couple of PC World PCs (yeah, I know), one of which I got during Euro 2000 with my first DVD drive and a massive 21-inch monitor. These days I build my own, and made a couple.

Even though I'm pretty-much a console gamer now I still use my PC a fair bit, and the thrill of buying all the bits to build one still far outweighs any excitement of a new console.

[Dimahoo]

Who remembers playing games like this?

In a period when CD only games were becoming increasingly common I remember being delighted to find the demo of Duke 3D on floppies at a computer fair. My 486 SX at the time wasn't really up to playing it and I recall having to play through it in a similar way to the screenshot above.

I wonder how big the screen resolution would have to be these days to make that run slow again?

[88h88]

I remember playing tiny window'd Doom and the superb Tyrian... Amazing shit.

[disperse and recoagulate]

Haha some funny replies in this thread. It's good to read all your reminiscing stories!

Makes me wanna play IndyCar...

[Dimahoo]

Everyone goes on about Tyrian but does anyone recall Raptor?

[Goose]

Everyone goes on about Tyrian but does anyone recall Raptor?

Yes! That was the one I was thinking of instead of Tyrian! Thank you!

[Yiggy]

Great thread. My first PC was from a high street retailer called Escom which must have been in the summer of 94.

486 DX2-66

4 MB Ram

170 MB Hard Drive

1MB SVGA Graphics Chip

14" Monitor

I remember it was £500 and I got my dad to loan me the money telling him it was for school. Was it balls. I remember it came with Dos Lite which basically meant there wasn't really an OS on it. My friend sorted that out and then showed me how easy it was to copy games. Me and my friends just use to do disk copys when somebody got something new. I remember being able to fill my hard drive up with games and finding pit great fun looking through them all in Dos and deciding what to play. I remember installing Windows 3.1 and just thinking that. it took up valuable games space.

After a year or so more and more games were coming out on CD and i remember that even disk games were starting to need 8GB ram. I remember enquiring about an upgrade and them telling me it would be £150 or something which seemed crazy at the time. I made do with a Double Speed CD Rom / Soundblaster combo pack that was on special offer in Game (Future Zone at the time IIRC). That was my first time installing any new hardware into a PC. It would end up forming the basis of my carear. I made do with it for another year or so after that and eventually upgraded to a special offer Packard Bell in PC world which if i recall correctly was a pentium 133. It was like lightning.

At that point 3D cards were still non existent and in fact it wasn't until i was on my next PC, a specific ordered Pentium 2 - 266 with I believe a whopping 64MB Ram that i invested in that tech. I had previously paid £110 for a Matrox Mystique 4MB card of some description which seemed to make fuck all difference to the actual graphics. I remember my first decent card was a Rage 128 or something like that. I remember my jaw hitting the floor when i saw how much better it made Thief look. All very happy memories.

Some of the games i remember from the non 3D accelerated / floppy disk days were....

Doom

UFO - Enemy Unknown

Frontier

Duke Nukem

Blades of Destiny

Cannon Fodder

Civilization

Championship Manager (Yes Number 1!)

Carmageddon

Then on the dawn of CD and then 3D...

7th Guest

11th Hour

Ripper

Descent

Lands of Lore

Dune

Delta Force

Thief - This in my head was when the 3D thing really came into its own. This and the likes of Screamer for driving games.

I'm all misty eyed now.

[88h88]

Screamer.... Suuuuuuuuch a good ass driving game. Did anyone play Fatal Racing/Whiplash? It was a racing game by Gremlin which featured rollercoaster type tracks with loops and rolls. I remember playing it at about 15fps and still loving the shit out of it.

[DarhkFox]

Screamer.. i remember buying that in '97. I thought it was okay, but never really played it that much.

Does anyone remember "ignition"?

I used to love this game. It was like a updated Micro Machines and the music was fantastic. Infact I want to track it down again..

[Goose]

Screamer.. i remember buying that in '97. I thought it was okay, but never really played it that much.

Does anyone remember "ignition"?

I used to love this game. It was like a updated Micro Machines and the music was fantastic. Infact I want to track it down again..

OMG! I haven't seen that for years, it was great game!

[christaylor]

Screamer.. i remember buying that in '97. I thought it was okay, but never really played it that much.

Does anyone remember "ignition"?

I used to love this game. It was like a updated Micro Machines and the music was fantastic. Infact I want to track it down again..

I loved that game, I'm pretty sure I've still got it. I'm sure we could "arrange" something if you were interested... drop me a line if you are.

[sir podger]

Everyone goes on about Tyrian but does anyone recall Raptor?

the vertical scrolling shooter in the duke nukem 3d cd? if thats the one then i loved that game, it was all about the auto tracking minigun.

[trickytree]

Screamer.... Suuuuuuuuch a good ass driving game. Did anyone play Fatal Racing/Whiplash? It was a racing game by Gremlin which featured rollercoaster type tracks with loops and rolls. I remember playing it at about 15fps and still loving the shit out of it.

*puts hand up*

This and Terminal Velocity had me over at my Dad's place regularly. His Pentium 100 was a beast! (at the time)

[Goose]

Abandonware?

http://www.abandonia.com/games/107/Ignition.htm

[DarhkFox]

Abandonware?

http://www.abandonia.com/games/107/Ignition.htm

Yeah I found a rapidshare link within minutes of trying.

However, I feel the music is a big part of the game (most of the audio tracks were pretty ace). But for people that dont care for game music, that download is well worth it.

[Blu3Flame]

Screamer.... Suuuuuuuuch a good ass driving game. Did anyone play Fatal Racing/Whiplash? It was a racing game by Gremlin which featured rollercoaster type tracks with loops and rolls. I remember playing it at about 15fps and still loving the shit out of it.

This game was incredible. I used to play it with my sister near religiously when we were younger.

At the time it seemed like the A.I cars had their own personalities and I swear there was this one car who would without a doubt end up driving the wrong way around the track.

[christaylor]

Abandonware?

http://www.abandonia.com/games/107/Ignition.htm

Yeah I found a rapidshare link within minutes of trying.

However, I feel the music is a big part of the game (most of the audio tracks were pretty ace). But for people that dont care for game music, that download is well worth it.

Ah right, didn't realise it was abandonware, hence my subtle discretion. Pretty sure I've got the CD version with the music at home I can upload if anyone wants it.

[88h88]

This game was incredible. I used to play it with my sister near religiously when we were younger.

At the time it seemed like the A.I cars had their own personalities and I swear there was this one car would who without a doubt end up driving the wrong way around the track.

One team I remember being hugely aggressive towards you, another really didn't give a fuck and yeah, another team manned by retards. Glorious.

Also anyone remember Quarantine? It was a Doom-engined taxi driving game based in a future full of drugs, psychos and freaks. Bolt on weaponry to your cab and raise hell... It had a fucking brilliant soundtrack. I lost the CD version of the game I had years back, I need to grab another copy.

The intro was also pretty special:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QC8IXKrcbBs

[christaylor]

One team I remember being hugely aggressive towards you, another really didn't give a fuck and yeah, another team manned by retards. Glorious.

Also anyone remember Quarantine? It was a Doom-engined taxi driving game based in a future full of drugs, psychos and freaks. Bolt on weaponry to your cab and raise hell... It had a fucking brilliant soundtrack. I lost the CD version of the game I had years back, I need to grab another copy.

The intro was also pretty special:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QC8IXKrcbBs

Cor, I've still got that at home too!

Absolutely loved that, Doom on wheels, as you say.

Ripped the soundtrack to mp3 somewhere too I think.

Interesting fact: once you'd installed the game you could put any normal audio CD in the drive and on start-up the game would automatically start playing Track2 from the disc.

Track 2 on Slash's Snakepit's "It's Five O'Clock Somewhere", Dime Store Rock, fit the intro movie sequence perfectly.

[ScouserInExile]

Also anyone remember Quarantine? It was a Doom-engined taxi driving game based in a future full of drugs, psychos and freaks. Bolt on weaponry to your cab and raise hell... It had a fucking brilliant soundtrack. I lost the CD version of the game I had years back, I need to grab another copy.

I was going to mention this, but couldn't remember the name. Great game. You could buy an Uzi and do drive-bys!

I think my biggest PC games of the early-mid 90's were the two X's: X-Wing and Xcom. Both of them were proper time-sinks. I wonder if any of the X-Wing series will play on a modern machine? I should still have the CDs somewhere.

[88h88]

Ripped the soundtrack to mp3 somewhere too I think.

If you can grab me a copy of that I'd be hugely grateful!

[Blu3Flame]

I've got a boxed copy of Quarantine still sitting on my shelf, nestled next to a copy of Rise of The Triad.

[88h88]

Oh now that's just being mean...

[christaylor]

If you can grab me a copy of that I'd be hugely grateful!

Yeah, will see if I can dig it out tonight.

[Goose]

Blimey, Rise of the Triads! Weren't there two others as well? Same style, but I recall one was were you played a ninja?

What about Blood, did anyone play that?

Edit: Shadow Warriors was the ninja one.

Blood -

[christaylor]

Blood was awesome, and the Heretic/Hexen games:

There seemed to be a raft of them that all came out at similar times.