From Newsgroup: comp.sys.ibm.pc.games.action


Let's just get these out of the way so I don't need to do separate
posts for each. Happy Thirtieth Birthday (give or take a few days) to:

- Wing Commander IV: The Price of Freedom (February 9, 1996)
Wasn't that the guy from Star Wars?
- Zork Nemesis: The Forbidden Lands (February 15, 1996)*
The first fully graphical Zork adventure game!
- Abuse (February 29, 1996)
A crackin'** shooter/platformer!
- Civilization II (February 29, 1996)
Needs no introduction
- Alien Trilogy (February 29, 1996) (PS1 version)
Not a great game... but aliens!
- Bad Mojo (February 29, 1996)
One of the rare games about roaches


And, a bit pre-emptively but it'll save me some work next week:

- Z (March 1996)
A fun but mostly forgotten RTS game
- Terra Nova: Strike Force Centauri (March 1996)
One of Looking Glass Games' forgotten gems
- Descent II (March 1996)
That damn thief bot stole my missiles!
- Resident Evil (March 1996) (PS1 version)
Love it or hate it, the game left a mark

Did I miss any other notable titles that deserve a toast? Chime in and
let us know what other games from thirty years ago deserve to be
remember. We'll raise a glass to all these games! First person to pass
out gets stuck with the tab! ;-)









----
* Release dates often approximated. Exact dates for games of this era
were hard to get, back before we had cheap overnight shipping and
tight control by publishers about when games actually came out.
** Secret pun!!!!


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From Newsgroup: comp.sys.ibm.pc.games.action

Spalls Hurgenson <spallshurgenson@gmail.com> looked up from reading the entrails of the porn spammer to utter "The Augury is good, the signs
say:

Let's just get these out of the way so I don't need to do separate
posts for each. Happy Thirtieth Birthday (give or take a few days) to:

- Wing Commander IV: The Price of Freedom (February 9, 1996)
Wasn't that the guy from Star Wars?

Don't think I ever played this; 1, 2, 5, Privateer, Privateer2,
Starlancer and Freelancer were all I tried.

- Zork Nemesis: The Forbidden Lands (February 15, 1996)*
The first fully graphical Zork adventure game!
- Abuse (February 29, 1996)
A crackin'** shooter/platformer!

I actually have this installed right now.

Tried heavily modifying it back in the day, but had the shareware
version that came without the editor, so there were limits to what I
could do.

- Civilization II (February 29, 1996)
Needs no introduction
- Alien Trilogy (February 29, 1996) (PS1 version)
Not a great game... but aliens!
- Bad Mojo (February 29, 1996)
One of the rare games about roaches

I remember the hype at the time, but I never got or played it.

And, a bit pre-emptively but it'll save me some work next week:

- Z (March 1996)
A fun but mostly forgotten RTS game
- Terra Nova: Strike Force Centauri (March 1996)
One of Looking Glass Games' forgotten gems
- Descent II (March 1996)
That damn thief bot stole my missiles!
- Resident Evil (March 1996) (PS1 version)
Love it or hate it, the game left a mark

Played D2 that's about it I think.

Did I miss any other notable titles that deserve a toast? Chime in and
let us know what other games from thirty years ago deserve to be
remember. We'll raise a glass to all these games! First person to pass
out gets stuck with the tab! ;-)

Xocyll
--
I don't particularly want you to FOAD, myself. You'll be more of
a cautionary example if you'll FO And Get Chronically, Incurably,
Painfully, Progressively, Expensively, Debilitatingly Ill. So
FOAGCIPPEDI. -- Mike Andrews responding to an idiot in asr
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From Newsgroup: comp.sys.ibm.pc.games.action

On Sat, 28 Feb 2026 13:34:08 -0500, Xocyll <Xocyll@gmx.com> said this
thing:

Don't think I ever played this; 1, 2, 5, Privateer, Privateer2,
Starlancer and Freelancer were all I tried.

Hey, you remember "Starlancer" too! Almost nobody else does. It's
another forgotten gem (albeit only 26 years old; a relative newcomer
;-). Not the greatest game of its type but fairly decent. Sadly, it
got overshadowed by the "Freespace" games (which were undeniably
better titles) and "Freelancer" (which Starlancer was a prequel too)

- Abuse (February 29, 1996)
A crackin'** shooter/platformer!

I actually have this installed right now.
Tried heavily modifying it back in the day, but had the shareware
version that came without the editor, so there were limits to what I
could do.

That's right! I remember, "Abuse" came with a built in game-editor,
and a fairly robust one if I am recalling correctly. I think the
developers --Crack Dot Com-- had the hopes of its engine being used
similar to the way Quake was, to create whole new games, but nothing
really came of it.

- Bad Mojo (February 29, 1996)
One of the rare games about roaches

I remember the hype at the time, but I never got or played it.

It was an interesting game but beyond the shock-appeal of some of its
graphics and unusual story (a Kafka-esque tale of a lowlife being
turned into a roach), its gameplay wasn't anything too special. In
fact, since a lot of the 'puzzles' were about manuevering your
bug-avatar across the screen, the slightly wonky controls made things
less fun than they could have been. If you're an adventure game fan
and want something different... well, "Bad Mojo" scratches that itch.
But if you're not a regular adventure game player I'm not sure it's a
game I'd recommend.

- Descent II (March 1996)
That damn thief bot stole my missiles!

Played D2 that's about it I think.

I was never a fan of the Descent series, although I kept banging my
head against the games hoping I'd finally see why others loved them.
"Descent II" was probably my least favorite of the three; while
technically impressive (for its time, especially the AI) the
labyrinthian dungeons annoyed me and the game seemed designed for
people who had mastered the first (an early 'git-gud, scrub' game),
with little accessibility towards more novice players. The damn thief
bot epitomized that attitude.

A good game, sure, just not one that I enjoyed.





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From Newsgroup: comp.sys.ibm.pc.games.action

On Fri, 27 Feb 2026 11:13:50 -0500, in comp.sys.ibm.pc.games.action,
Spalls Hurgenson wrote:

- Zork Nemesis: The Forbidden Lands (February 15, 1996)*
The first fully graphical Zork adventure game!

https://www.mobygames.com/game/1219/return-to-zork/

Ahem. 1993 called. It wants its accolades back.
--
Zag

Give me the liberty to know, to think, to believe,
and to utter freely according to conscience, above
all other liberties. ~John Milton
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From Newsgroup: comp.sys.ibm.pc.games.action

On Fri, 27 Feb 2026 11:13:50 -0500, in comp.sys.ibm.pc.games.action,
Spalls Hurgenson wrote:

Did I miss any other notable titles that deserve a toast? Chime in and
let us know what other games from thirty years ago deserve to be
remember. We'll raise a glass to all these games! First person to pass
out gets stuck with the tab! ;-)

Heretic: Shadow of the Serpent Riders?
--
Zag

Give me the liberty to know, to think, to believe,
and to utter freely according to conscience, above
all other liberties. ~John Milton
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