Let's Feel Old: Warcraft was released in 1994

[Yora]

Just think of it: This series goes back over 20 years now! Lots of the people who are playing Warcraft games now were not even born yet when the first game came out.
It's almost as old as the dinosaurs Civilization and Sim City. That's quite amazing.

[factotum]

Now imagine how old you've just made the people playing Elite: Dangerous feel, considering it's the spiritual successor to a game launched in 1984! :smallsmile:

[Bulldog Psion]

Congratulations on making me feel old. Great way to start a new week! :smallbiggrin:

[Wraith]

Here's another way to think of it; any game published before the year 2000 is officially closer to my day of birth than it is to the current date.

Half-life. Unreal. Baldur's Gate Trilogy. Age of Empires. Final Fantasy VII and VIII. Metal Gear Solid. Some of my favourite games, like Dungeon Keeper 2, are so old that they were developed by companies that have been defunct for nearly as long - nearly half of my entire lifespan.

You kids today have never had it so good. You don't know what it was like - you never fought in the Console Wars..... :smalltongue:

[Cespenar]

Ah. Back when the Orcs and Humans were just a copy-paste of each other with different skins. Apart from a couple of late game unit abilities or something.

When you could box-select up to four people!

[Abemad]

When you could box-select up to four people!

If you knew you had to hold ctrl while doing it...

[SiuiS]

I remember my kindergarten teacher taking us on a school tour and costing the computer lab to show us this newfangled thing they were thinking of hooking up called an Internet that would let computers communicate with each other sometime in the near future.

I'm now talking across time and space with a window i keep in my pocket and power with lightning and radiation, which gives me access to the sum total of all human knowledge. We've gone past science, folks. This is an age of magic and wonder.

And you damn kids, you just yawn and gripe about how long an entire computer tower's worth of compex data to render shapes mobile and interactive on your window of plasma takes across a radio signal fine tuned to capture and deploy more information in moments than computers had period when you were born!

[factotum]

Here's another way to think of it; any game published before the year 2000 is officially closer to my day of birth than it is to the current date.

What sometimes scares me is that I remember playing Phoenix in an amusement arcade not long after the game came out--in 1980. I've been playing video games for more than three-quarters of my life!

[Yora]

Half-life. Unreal. Baldur's Gate Trilogy. Age of Empires. Final Fantasy VII and VIII. Metal Gear Solid. Some of my favourite games, like Dungeon Keeper 2, are so old that they were developed by companies that have been defunct for nearly as long - nearly half of my entire lifespan.

Have you ever noticed how many awesome games were all released in 1998? I think it was the best year for games ever.

January 21: Resident Evil 2
February 11: Xenogears
February 28: Star Wars: Rebellion
March 19: FreeSpace
March 31: StarCraft
May 22: Unreal
July 31: Commandos
August 5: Soulcalibur
August 21: Rainbow Six
September 3: Metal Gear Solid
September 24: Anno 1602
September 30: Fallout 2
October 30: Grim Fandango
November 19: Half-Life
November 21: The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time
November 30: Baldur’s Gate
November 30: Thief
December 3: Star Wars: Rogue Squadron

[Lord Raziere]

Just think of it: This series goes back over 20 years now! Lots of the people who are playing Warcraft games now were not even born yet when the first game came out.
It's almost as old as the dinosaurs Civilization and Sim City. That's quite amazing.

Ha! I'm one year older the Warcraft. Odd, I've played World of Warcraft. not right now since I'm not subscribed right now, but I got a level 90 troll warlock as well as a lot of mounts, including a black serpentine dragon from that ninja faction in Pandaria. wish I could keep playing it, but I don't have the money. I'll have to wait until I can get a job for that.

[Alent]

That list of games from 1998 doesn't seem very convincing as the "Best year for games". Suikoden 2 isn't even on it and you've erroneously listed a handful of first person shooters. :smallwink:


Ha! I'm one year older the Warcraft. Odd, I've played World of Warcraft. not right now since I'm not subscribed right now, but I got a level 90 troll warlock as well as a lot of mounts, including a black serpentine dragon from that ninja faction in Pandaria. wish I could keep playing it, but I don't have the money. I'll have to wait until I can get a job for that.

If you're good at gold farming, you don't even need money anymore. They sanctioned Eve style in-game-RMT by letting people buy game time tokens for cash and sell them for gold this last patch.

Personally, my "oh god I'm old" moment was the Megaman 25th Anniversary event. I wasn't even 5 when the series began. I have so many fond memories of those games.

[Cespenar]

Have you ever noticed how many awesome games were all released in 1998? I think it was the best year for games ever.

I think 99 beats 98, actually, but the whole 98-01 band is pretty awesome overall.

[Lord Raziere]

If you're good at gold farming, you don't even need money anymore. They sanctioned Eve style in-game-RMT by letting people buy game time tokens for cash and sell them for gold this last patch.


Unfortunately, thats not a skill that I have mastered. sure, I have like, really high mining on that character, but that was mostly to get the awesome engineering mounts. which I do have, I mean how could I resist flying in a helicopter and motorcycle? but yeah. I'm not sure on the "gold farming" part....

[Thialfi]

Ha! I'm one year older the Warcraft. Odd, I've played World of Warcraft. not right now since I'm not subscribed right now, but I got a level 90 troll warlock as well as a lot of mounts, including a black serpentine dragon from that ninja faction in Pandaria. wish I could keep playing it, but I don't have the money. I'll have to wait until I can get a job for that.

World of Warcraft's continued success is stunning to me. I played for four years, from shortly after launch of vanilla until my wife informed me that she was pregnant with our second child, who is now five and a half years old. My last raid was the brand spanking new Ulduar. I didn't even know trolls could be warlocks. That's over ten years of being one of the top video games out there. I still look back on the game fondly, but what a time sink. It didn't help that I had 4 max level characters. My main was a male blood elf paladin named Darrian. I had Mourna, the female blood elf warlock, Irie, the male troll mage, and Nandi, the female troll hunter. Ah, good times.

[CarpeGuitarrem]

And now Warcraft is a card game! :smallbiggrin:

[Lord Raziere]

World of Warcraft's continued success is stunning to me. I played for four years, from shortly after launch of vanilla until my wife informed me that she was pregnant with our second child, who is now five and a half years old. My last raid was the brand spanking new Ulduar. I didn't even know trolls could be warlocks.

They couldn't be warlocks until the Cataclysm expansion. you sound like you left while it was still during Burning Crusade, so...that makes sense.

[Mutant Sheep]

They couldn't be warlocks until the Cataclysm expansion. you sound like you left while it was still during Burning Crusade, so...that makes sense.

Ulduar was Wrath, but yes. Makes sense.

As far as nostalgia for the 90's, Mario 64 is older than me. :smalltongue:

[Douglas]

Ah. Back when the Orcs and Humans were just a copy-paste of each other with different skins. Apart from a couple of late game unit abilities or something.

When you could box-select up to four people!
And if you were really careful about it, you could use that to make a 4-wide column of troops advance together! Select the row at the back, tell it to move to the front, wait a bit, and repeat. Useful for an archer/spearman maximum density block of doom.

As I recall, one of the tiny differences between orcs and humans in the first game was that one side's basic ranged unit did 1 less damage but had 1 more range. This was important to know because it affected how many rows were useful to include in the block of doom.

And yes, massing ranged units was how I beat all the early campaign missions, how did you guess?

[IZ42]

Even better: Pokemon Diamond and Pearl will be 10 years old next year, and the pokemon series will be 20! My favorite version, Sapphire, is 13 years old.

[Cespenar]

As I recall, one of the tiny differences between orcs and humans in the first game was that one side's basic ranged unit did 1 less damage but had 1 more range. This was important to know because it affected how many rows were useful to include in the block of doom.

Could be. Only difference I remember were the spells of Cleric/Neophyte, and Wizard/Warlock.

[Tengu_temp]

Archers are a bit weaker than spearmen, but have 1 more range. Orc spellcasters have 1 more range than human equivalents, and different spells. Generally humans were superior to orcs in Warcraft 1 - the increased range of archers made walls of death much more effective, healing is better than creating weak undead, and water elementals are superior to demons because they attack at range. Necrolytes have one good spell, and that's Unholy Armor, but its cost is pretty fierce.

[Chen]

Archers are a bit weaker than spearmen, but have 1 more range. Orc spellcasters have 1 more range than human equivalents, and different spells. Generally humans were superior to orcs in Warcraft 1 - the increased range of archers made walls of death much more effective, healing is better than creating weak undead, and water elementals are superior to demons because they attack at range. Necrolytes have one good spell, and that's Unholy Armor, but its cost is pretty fierce.

Yeah the one more range on archers combined with healing really just made it so you needed around 6 archers and a couple healers to hold your base from the computer since it never sent too big a wave at you. Even demons died super quick that the archers and spearmen died before they could hit you.

[Lord Raziere]

Archers are a bit weaker than spearmen, but have 1 more range. Orc spellcasters have 1 more range than human equivalents, and different spells. Generally humans were superior to orcs in Warcraft 1 - the increased range of archers made walls of death much more effective, healing is better than creating weak undead, and water elementals are superior to demons because they attack at range. Necrolytes have one good spell, and that's Unholy Armor, but its cost is pretty fierce.

OOOOOOH!!!

Now I get that joke from that Illegal Danish Machinima. they were parodying how in reality a single row of archers on a wall wouldn't be enough to protect Stormwind.

as for what Illegal Danish is....its a comedy machinima of WoW. about this nonsensical guild founded to protect this danish recipe. only two episodes. never finished.

[Domino Quartz]

When the first Sonic the Hedgehog game was released, I was 2 years old. That was in 1991.

[Brother Oni]

The oldest games I remember playing were Farenheit 3000 for the ZX Spectrum (1984) and Gauntlet (1985) in the arcade.

I remember picking up computer magazines to stare jealously at Shadow of the Beast on the Amiga, with its 16K colours and fast loading times due to its fancy floppy disc drive.

[Eldariel]

Have you ever noticed how many awesome games were all released in 1998? I think it was the best year for games ever.

January 21: Resident Evil 2
February 11: Xenogears
February 28: Star Wars: Rebellion
March 19: FreeSpace
March 31: StarCraft
May 22: Unreal
July 31: Commandos
August 5: Soulcalibur
August 21: Rainbow Six
September 3: Metal Gear Solid
September 24: Anno 1602
September 30: Fallout 2
October 30: Grim Fandango
November 19: Half-Life
November 21: The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time
November 30: Baldur’s Gate
November 30: Thief
December 3: Star Wars: Rogue Squadron

I've noticed the same. I believe 98 and 94 are the two biggest release years ever (94 had, among others, Master of Orion, Jagged Alliance, Tie Fighter, Super Street Fighter 2 Turbo [still competitively played!], Super Metroid, Final Fantasy 6, UFO: Enemy Unknown [the awesome version], Warcraft, Master of Magic & Wing Commander 3). Many of those games are still awesome; Tie Fighter, Master of Orion, Final Fantasy 6, SS2T, UFO: Enemy Unknown (I'm still sad about the dumbing down of the recent re-release), Master of Magic (if only there were a re-release with proper AI and multiplayer, I'd never play anything else). Chrono Trigger and Command & Conquer barely miss it but I'd still say the '94 crop is far, far superior to the '95 crop overall.

'99 wasn't bad either with Alpha Centauri, Planescape: Torment, HoMM3, 3rd Strike, System Shock 2, Ultima 9, Unreal Tournament, X-Wing Alliance, Counterstrike, GTA2, System Shock 2, Homeworld, Ape Escape, Warzone 2100, Everquest/Asheron's Call. I probably still have a sour memory of that year due to all the flops tho: Final Fantasy 8, Chrono Cross, Tiberian Sun, Quake 3, Dungeon Keeper 2, RE3 & something I'm no doubt forgetting.

[Rodin]

When you could box-select up to four people!

Heck, that was innovation! My first RTS was Dune 2, which had single unit selection and you had to click a menu button at the side of the screen to tell a unit to Move, Attack, or Stop. None of that right-clicking nonsense the whippersnappers think is standard!

[GloatingSwine]

Heck, that was innovation! My first RTS was Dune 2, which had single unit selection and you had to click a menu button at the side of the screen to tell a unit to Move, Attack, or Stop. None of that right-clicking nonsense the whippersnappers think is standard!

But then the best thing to do was to creep your line of tanks and launchers forward one tile at a time. Or to savescum where your death hand missile hit to make sure your knocked out the construction yard.


UFO: Enemy Unknown (I'm still sad about the dumbing down of the recent re-release)

Let's be fair the old version was still quite dumb, it was just dumb in different ways and without the internet you had to find out all the cheesy tricks (like reaction fire locking, mind control chaining, psi attack sinks, laser pistol training, laser cannon manufacture, etc) yourself.

At least there's Xenonauts now though.

[Cespenar]

Heck, that was innovation! My first RTS was Dune 2, which had single unit selection and you had to click a menu button at the side of the screen to tell a unit to Move, Attack, or Stop. None of that right-clicking nonsense the whippersnappers think is standard!

Yeah, Dune 2 was my first too. And pretty awesome as genre-definers go.

[Chen]

But then the best thing to do was to creep your line of tanks and launchers forward one tile at a time. Or to savescum where your death hand missile hit to make sure your knocked out the construction yard.

Ah Harkonnen got so much better a power than the others. Though sometimes the Fremen could destroy things without any enemy noticing. Never knew if that was intentional or a bug.

[Rodin]

Funniest Dune 2 tactic:

Enemies converted by the Deviator would keep doing what they were told to do until they finished that task, whether or not they were actually still converted or not.

Set up a line of Deviators, and every time an enemy is converted click a random place deep into the Fog of War around where the enemy base is. Given the size of the bases (particularly on the final mission), you were almost guaranteed to have them target an enemy building, which they would attack until it was destroyed. Since they had already reverted to their own side, the enemy base defenses wouldn't fire on them. Sooner or later, you would hit the enemy Construction Yard, preventing them from rebuilding those destroyed buildings. You could wipe out the entire enemy base without building a single tank.

[Eldariel]

Let's be fair the old version was still quite dumb, it was just dumb in different ways and without the internet you had to find out all the cheesy tricks (like reaction fire locking, mind control chaining, psi attack sinks, laser pistol training, laser cannon manufacture, etc) yourself.

Sure, but what I was hoping from a relaunch was the complexity of the old but with the stupidity taken out (and the difficulty bug fixed). That's really what a lot of good old games would need. The relaunch felt gutted tho.

[Gnoman]

I feel a bit old whenever I happen to contrast the amount of storage I have in semi-discarded USB sticks (which I find a use for once or twice a year), and compare that to the days when I'd delete pictures (made with GeoPaint) on my C64 disks because they were taking up an entire kilobyte of space.

[GloatingSwine]

Sure, but what I was hoping from a relaunch was the complexity of the old but with the stupidity taken out (and the difficulty bug fixed). That's really what a lot of good old games would need. The relaunch felt gutted tho.

I would prefer if someone managed to replace the complexity with depth.

Because complexity in and of itself isn't good, UFO was complex but highly degenerate (there were a few maximally effective strategies and no reason to deviate from them), and ironically the most degenerate part of the new X-Com that everyone immediately realised was broken as hell (squadsight snipers) was just something that everyone could inherently do in UFO and was the best way to handle every outdoor alien (and most of the indoor ones, open door and step aside) until you got psionics (preferably with a tank to scout because it had high AP and that counted in the opposed reaction roll).

The biggest problem with the relaunch was that the geoscape felt a bit irrelevant, there were never any emergent decisions to make there, and the forced "decisions" were actually calculations "which of these three do I need to reduce panic in most?")

The tactical level suffered from the obviousness of the monster closets (though actually the same creeping advance with sniper cover was still the thing you did in UFO so the player's strategies didn't change as much as you think), but it was the geoscape that suffered most. (Geoscape is what Xenonauts gets the rightest, though it does tighten up the tactical combat as well).