90s / 00s pc gaming

[Luseth 2,046]

So despite never having a vastly powerful computer when I was younger, our house saw a few windows computers pass through it. I remember there being a windows 98 machine and it being my first forray into pc gaming. When I say my first forray my parents never really bought us any games and I made do with some dodgy copies mostly that a friend used to give me at school.

 

This thread is just to discuss some of those experiences and moments and seeing if anyone else here was gaming in the 90s / early 2000s.

 

So to start this off I am going to look at one of the games that came with the computer and led to one of my first experiences of football manager games -

 

Ultimate Soccer Manager 98/99 -

 

 

Now I have opted for this one because I have been going through the abandonware website looking at old games with the hope of getting a few running. This one worked straight away with no faff and the screenshot above is from my machine this evening 😄

 

The things I always remember about this game was that it wasn't just the coaching side of things but you used to be able to upgrade the ground, look at sponsorship deals and such. We won't forget some of the incredible players back then as well -

 

[J4MES OX4D 10,115]

Our first PC was an IBM Aptiva in 1995 but despite it being an amazing multimedia device, it wasn't ideal for gaming as it only had 75mhz and 8mb RAM along with a 500mb drive. Most of my games were from 1993-97 with the likes of Doom, Heretic, Stonekeep, Actua Soccer, IndyCar Racing, Championship Manager 2, Stonekeep, Virtual Snooker plus the original Tomb Raider. I had a N64 and PS1 on the side so I didn't mind not playing the latest releases from 1998 where you really needed at least 133mhz and 16mb RAM. Windows 95 was awesome though and it was one hell of a step up from the shitty RM Nimbus PC's we had at school! 

 

We finally got a new PC in 2000 which was cheaper than the £1800 Aptiva but it was pretty high-end at the time. The backlog I had was insane - had the Half Life collection to sift through plus new titles like Deus Ex, SWAT 3, Project IGI and the PC came with Age of Empires 2 which I played the hell out of. I picked up all the Championship Manger games - 3 up to 04/05 and also classics like Commandos 2, No One Lives Forever, Call of Duty, Battlefield 1942, Medal of Honor: Allied Assault, Thief 1+2, Unreal Tournament, Quake 3, Counter Strike and Max Payne.  The choice was absolutely insane and it was a great time for gaming because of the sheer potential and endless possibilities. 

 

A game from 5 years ago is no different to now but back in those days, the level of innovation in hardware and software was so big, you'd go from Doom to Half Life and all the games in between. The industry now is brickwalled and stagnant. 

[GazzaGarratt 11,126]

Delta Force - 1998.

 

 

I recall that within the box it also had a help card that would fit seamlessly over your keyboard to help you work out what each button was back then, which was so cool. Loads of multiplayer on this too back on the old dial up connection with NTL.

 

Before this - and I'm cheating a little here because it was made in 1988 for PC but I played it in the 90s - F19 Stealth Fighter. Man, I was crap at it, but when I lucked out and completed a mission, it felt like I'd won the lottery.

 

 

[Luseth 2,046]

Delta force just looks like the original Far Cry / Wildlands game?

 

I fully agree with you James, the innovation that came through then led to such big jumps between games it was probably gaming's golden era really. The current market is stagnated and I find myself struggling to pick up some games as they are generally rehashes or reskins of games from yesteryear.

 

One of my favourite strategy games back then was a game called Skull Caps, a sequel to Baldies. Both were great fun games albeit I can not get the latter one to run anymore-

 

 

[phil bottle 9,891]

The 90s was mostly consoles for me, SNES, PS1, N64 in particular...but towards the end of the decade I had a shitty desktop that allowed me to play the likes of Championship Manager and probably my favourite game of the time GTA 2.

 

I did play games like Unreal Tournament on my mate's PC though 🙂