Playing old games with updated pc's

sam83uk · 29 Jun 2007 at 20:17

i was thinking the other day how great it would be to play Jedi Knight (the first one) on my updated computer, i remember completing it at 640 resolution years ago i bet it'd be a whole new experience having it at high res with all the settings turned up. Same applies to deus ex and other games of that 'era'

anyone had any good experiences with this type of thing? any particular 'old' game respond well to todays pc's?

Surfer · 29 Jun 2007 at 20:28

Jedi Outcast (or was it Academy) multiplayer was great

esp with all the downloadable skins (vader, yoda, siddious, maul obi-wan etc) good times

its about time for a new star wars Jedi fps is it not?

Curiousalien · 29 Jun 2007 at 20:36

The problem with this is that we get used to better graphics, i recently went back to MOHAA and put all the settings on max (something i could not do 6 years ago) and although at the time the gfx were great even at max settings it looked bad

not even as good as my clouded nostalgia ridden mind could remember.

so like cartoons from the 80's I say never go back, they will never be the same.

Azagoth · 29 Jun 2007 at 20:38

I installed SoF2 last night and am playing it through again. I have to admit, it looks slightly dated but still holds it's own agains the new games. Especially when you add in the WeaponsMod5.0 which adds loads more weapons and upgrades the muzzleflashes, explosions, sounds etc. etc.

Zogger · 29 Jun 2007 at 20:40

I got destruction derby 2 working on vista while back. It was amusing but really terrible at the same time.

Also rollcage 2, it's surprising how these things change. That one was allright though.

Meanwhile the latest patch for Worms Armageddon was released today - Now that doesn't run particularly well on vista but it's playable.

Indy500 · 29 Jun 2007 at 20:42

Falcon 4 Allied Force was patched recently too.

Azagoth · 29 Jun 2007 at 21:14

sr4470 said:
Falcon 4 Allied Force was patched recently too.

Got myself Allied Force a while back, and because I hadn't played Falcon4 for ages I've forgotten how to fly it.

Indy500 · 29 Jun 2007 at 21:17

Azagoth said:
Got myself Allied Force a while back, and because I hadn't played Falcon4 for ages I've forgotten how to fly it.

I used to like playing around with the strategic map stuff

HangTime · 29 Jun 2007 at 21:52

sam83uk said:
anyone had any good experiences with this type of thing? any particular 'old' game respond well to todays pc's?

People who have read my posts on here over the years will probably know that I am not one to get caught up in the hype of only playing the 'latest and greatest' games. I regularly play older games on my rig which I keep resonably up to date (currently 3.2ghz C2D, 2gig cas3, 8800gts) and am not overly concerned with what new games come out as there is such a huge backcatalogue of titles from yesteryear that I am itching to try.

In the past 3.5 years or so I have completed over 60 games, of which at least 20 were more than 1-2 years old when I played them. The advantage of playing older titles on modern rigs is threefold:

1) Games are cheaper to buy, usually costing under a tenner.
2) Better performance than you would have got at the time of release
3) You can play using the latest patch i.e. less bugs etc

I would say the following games from 2002 or earlier have aged especially well and I have played through them within the past couple of years:

-Need for Speed: Porsche 2000
-Freespace 2
-No One Lives Forever 2
-Deus Ex
-Mafia
-Command and Conquer: Renegade
-Red Alert 2
-Diablo 2

Oh and obviously Quakeworld which I've played for the best part of 10 years now.

Generally I think that most games from this decade look at least "OK". Once you go back into the 90s however the poor graphical quality can start to become more of an issue, for example I had a hard time getting into System Shock 2. Freespace 2 and Quakeworld are different due to the exceptionally high quality mods available for them.

Tom|Nbk · 29 Jun 2007 at 21:55

Curiousalien said:
The problem with this is that we get used to better graphics, i recently went back to MOHAA and put all the settings on max (something i could not do 6 years ago) and although at the time the gfx were great even at max settings it looked bad not even as good as my clouded nostalgia ridden mind could remember.

so like cartoons from the 80's I say never go back, they will never be the same.

Can't stress how true this is.

Azagoth · 29 Jun 2007 at 22:11

Yeah, but at least now we can ramp up FSAA and AF to maximum and still get a smoother game than we did back in the day. Going through SoF2's Columbian level earlier has got me anticipating Crysis even more.

Although SoF2's obviously not going to be anywhere near as good as Crysis promises to be, there's just something about a firefight in a jungle where each weapon, MP5, M4, AK47 et al each have a dedicated realistic sound/muzzleflash and where round impacts throw debris like leaves and dust in the air.