Good obscure Pre-1995 PC games?

[Bostur]

Alien Legacy was sort of a space sim, simcity, exploration mix that received very little attention and seems to have been forgotten. It was very unique with it's mix of strict linear storyline and and sandboxy management gameplay. For that very reason it also lacked replayability and sometimes felt like one very long tutorial. But it was good fun while it lasted. It was the kind of game that would be perfect for expansion packs, but none were made.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alien_Legacy
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KXgjxafhIiE&feature=related
http://www.mobygames.com/game/alien-legacy

Bloodnet (1993) - Cool adventure game with RPG elements in a cyberpunk/gothic type setting.

Bloodnet seemed like a very unique game, and it's one of those games that I regret I never got into.

Secret Weapons of the Luftwaffe; Flight Sim/Combat, Lucasarts

WWII combat sim where you could fly missions as Allied or German air forces. focused mostly on the crazy (fun) Luftwaffe secret weapons, some of which were only in service for a very short time during the war and some only saw prototypes. Flying wings, rocket planes, jets, antiaircraft rockets and more. (I especially like the vertical rockets on the komet rocket plane, they fire when the shadow of a bomber hits light censers on top the plane, shooting the rockets up into the bomber's belly)
Also, everything is destructible, every building, factory, barn and haystack can be blown up.

As far as I know, Secret Weapons was a sequel to another Lucasarts flight sim called "Their Finest Hour". I never played Secret Weapons but "Their Finest Hour" was one of my favorite Amiga games, it also had an excellent manual. Lucasarts made quite a few flightsims at that time I think.

 

[Bostur]

Would you consider Phantasie or The Magic Candle to be obscure? Those are two others I thought of in answer to the OP's question.

I ask because you're like one of three guys on this forum who might actually have a clue WTF those games are...

I don't know about obscure, BG, obviously not as known as stuff like the Ultimas, Wizardrys, Might & Magics, Bards Tales and D&D Gold Box games, but maybe on par with stuff like Betrayal at Krondor, Realms of Arkania and Darklands maybe ? What do you think ?
It's tough to say exactly how obscure something is sometimes, maybe just look at the sales figures, I guess.


Here's a few other RPGs, just to throw them out there..

Disciples of Steel (1993)
Albion (1995)
Amberstar (1992) & Ambermoon (1993)
Hard Nova (1990)
Knights of Legend (1989)
Escape from Hell (1990)

To add to the discussion Magic Candle is a series that I heard of, but I have never seen or played it. In comparison Betrayal at Krondor, Wizardry and Darklands were quite well known at the time, but possibly obscure now.

It's interesting how obscurity can change over time. Someone mentioned Midwinter a game that is probably very obscure now, but it was one of the most talked about games at the time. I think only Ultima and Civilization got more press coverage.

On the other end of the spectrum everyone seems to know about Grim Fandango now, but very few people knew about it when it was released as the game sales also suggests. Even 'timeless classics' like JA or X-Com were relatively obscure at the time and probably only survived due to a die-hard fan base.

 

[Zeckt]

Lands of Lore! classic dungeon crawler yet more colorful then most with tons of personality to boot. The game starts off deceptively simple but has deep, hardcore dungeons and a huge monster variety. You often fight 5-10 specific enemies with unique sprites in each dungeon and never see them again. Anyways, I love that game and its on gog.

 

[Blood Brain Barrier]

Here you go:

http://www.gog.com/catalogue

Anything on gog isn't obscure anymore.

Here's a few:
The Immortal (1990)
Curses (1993)
Time Gate: Knight's Chase (1995)
Gateway (1992)
Maupiti Island (1990)
Bureaucracy (1987)
Heart of the Alien (1994)

 

[BloatedGuppy]

Knights of Legend (1989)

Ooh, good one. I loved Knights of Legend. Or more specifically, I loved making parties in Knights of Legend. Actually playing the game always felt like something of a let down after that. I particularly liked the winged guys who would collapse in exhaustion if they "flew" three feet.

 

[GoaThief]

The Battle Isle series have seemingly been forgotten, I've never seen the games mentioned in threads like these;

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battle_Isle_%28series%29

Awesome turn based tactics.

To be honest I think pre-1995, the better games were not found on Windows or DOS PCs... the home of real quality was the Commodore Amiga.

 

[CAPTCHA]

Anvil of the Dawn: Lots of people know of Lands of Lore, but I never see much love for this game which is superior in my eyes.

Albion: This one definatly came out post-95 (96 perhaps?) but none the less it's worth mentioning. Closest game I could compare it to would be Planescape - it's one of these "wordy" RPGs. Worth checking out.

Worlds of Ultima: Everyones knows about the Ultima series, but the spin-offs are less recognised. They use the U6 engine. Both games are classic sci-fis, with Martian Dreams being a steampunk adventure and Savage Empire a "land that time forgot" affair.

Darkseed: A point and click adventure game based on the works of HR Giger. I don't actually like the game that much, but it's unique.

Dreamweb: Another adventure game with a blade runner theme. I've never gotten very far in the game, but something about it fascinates me.

Dune: A 4x game with a strong story element and some RPG mechanics thrown in. Nothing like it's more popular RTS sequal.

Abuse: A sidescrolling platformer that used the mouse to aim your dudes gun. Novel at the time. Still not a bad game.

Blackthorn: Not really sure if this is obscure or not. It's basiclly Flashback but with more an emphasis on action than puzzle solving.

One Must Fall: A fighting game. Very basic, but very fun. It's got a really catchy menu theme, just youtube it and enjoy.

Strife: Another that came out post-95. It was the last game to be made using the Doom engine as far as I know. Its mixes FPS with RPG elements and has an open world to explore. Played it again a few months ago and it still holds up, although the shooting mechanics aren't as tight as its contemporaries.

Battle Isle 1&2: TBS. There's nothing to remarkable to say about them; they are just well made and easlily accessable to learn, although the difficulty level is pretty extreme.

Steel Panthers: A proper "Dad" game. Its pretty much just a tabletop wargame on a PC. Has lots of detail and tons of campaigns set through out the duration of the WW2.

 

[Whitbane]

I Have No Mouth and I Must Scream (which, coincidentally, was made in 1995) is one hell of an awesome game, based of the short of the same name published back in 1967. It's the typical point and click adventure game with puzzles, an awesome story, and several good twists.

Read the story too, it's great as well.

 

[Canadamus Prime]

There's also Aces of the Pacific, if you like WWII flight simulators.

 

[mattaui]

Given what an enormous market electronic gaming is now, the PCs games in the 80s and early 90s are by definition somewhat obscure because there were just so few people who played them relative to the millions and millions who play them now.

The first game I got for my PCjr in 1985 was The Ancient Art of War, which was a cool little semi-real time strategy game, and it was followed by The Ancient Art of War at Sea. Some other favorites that followed in the mid to late 80s were Starflight and Wasteland. Wasteland in particular has enjoyed a lot more attention based on its spiritual successor, Fallout.

It is funny to hear the Ultima games referenced in such a manner, being the lineage that finally gave us the still extant Ultima Online, but as Icehearted noted, EA did pretty much run them into the ground in the process of dismantling Origin. It's really like they added insult to injury by naming their hated digital distribution platform after the previously beloved studio that gave us Ultima, Wing Commander and others.

 

[Bullfrog1983]

The Wing Commander series of games
The Ultima series of games
The Might and Magic series of games
Demon's Winter
Wasteland
Darklands
Covert Action
Warlords 2
Railroad Tycoon

 

[drthmik]

Secret Weapons of the Luftwaffe; Flight Sim/Combat, Lucasarts

WWII combat sim where you could fly missions as Allied or German air forces. focused mostly on the crazy (fun) Luftwaffe secret weapons, some of which were only in service for a very short time during the war and some only saw prototypes. Flying wings, rocket planes, jets, antiaircraft rockets and more. (I especially like the vertical rockets on the komet rocket plane, they fire when the shadow of a bomber hits light censers on top the plane, shooting the rockets up into the bomber's belly)
Also, everything is destructible, every building, factory, barn and haystack can be blown up.

As far as I know, Secret Weapons was a sequel to another Lucasarts flight sim called "Their Finest Hour". I never played Secret Weapons but "Their Finest Hour" was one of my favorite Amiga games, it also had an excellent manual. Lucasarts made quite a few flightsims at that time I think.

Yes I think of Secret Weapons as Tie Fighter but during WWII and it's more fun flying in the bad guys planes

Capcha
in the limelight

 

[TheMadDoctorsCat]

Its hard to tell WHAT is obscure. People KNOW about System Shock 2 (for example) but NO OF THEM played it.

System Shock 2 came out in 1998. (I played it, and still do.) System Shock, the original and great, came out in 1994. Sold less than a hundred thousand copies. It also got a 98% review score from PC magazine and happens to be my favorite game of all time.

Hey, what do you know? Obscure AND great? Damn, I wish somebody made a forum topic asking for suggestions of games like that...

 

[acey195]

Ascendancy, by logic factory 1995,
Inspired a lot of 4x space games


Colonization, Sid meyer 1994,
prequel to civilization.

Commander Keen(1 till 3), 1990,

Played these games, before I could read English, probably did help though(keen not so much I guess).

 

[Kyle LeMaster]

Played these games, before I could read English, probably did help though(keen not so much I guess).

Probably helped you learn the Standard Galactic Alphabet though =)

I was going to post Commander Keen, but Acey just beat me to it.

Of course the best game ever made was for PC, but came out in 1998: Grim Fandango.