Top indie remake ideas
Following on from other threads, what kind of games could indies make that were almost remakes of older "classic" games.
One of the ones I always thought would be great to make was a game called Midwinter. It was a sort of filled poly 3D island based "survival" game. Sort of like a large frozen island full of agents. You had things like hang gliding, driving, sniping etc.
I could use a 3d engine like torque and throw that one together.
Any of you guys thought about remakes of older games as indie titles?
www.mindflock.com - social AI-based games
All the time. A good creative exersize is to take two completely unrelated games and a random theme and see what kind of game you could make by throwing it all in a mixer.
Fr'instance: Joust, Star Control, and Steampunk could be a game of dueling Victorian airships with weird science attack and defense gimmicks.
Ooo, I'm putting that one on my list...
--Charles Oines
Irrational Designs
Cosmic Pirate... Agent USA... the list for me would be endless
Super Mario Brutha's
They can be African American decked out in fake jewlerry wielding desert eagles killing prostitutes (goombas) and prostitutes on acid (turtles with wings).
Hrmm..
#1: Wasteland - played the crap out of it, loved it, played it some more. It was SUPER hard though. I have no idea how I understood the game at the age I did(Elementary school/junior high)
#2: Gain Ground - This one was a sort of arcade strategy bastardization. All of the enemies would react in certain ways at timed intervals, and all of the available characters played differently. Some were faster, some shot only sideways, some threw grenades that could go over walls, some fired rockets that couldn't. Once you learned it though, it was way too easy until the last stages.
#3: Warsong - Yes, I'm aware there are sequels with translations on the net. They are awful. Langrisser 1/Warsong got EVERYTHING right. Played it through and beat it multiple times. I STILL play it. Nothing that has come along since then seems to have gotten it right.
#4: Discs of Tron - I would literally play this thing for hours in the arcade. Never got tired of it. Doesn't feel the same on an emulator - probably because it lacks the flight style stick and the crazy rotary dial that you could lift and depress from the console to aim up/down.
#5: Time Soldiers - The best of the "twist the joystick" shooters. Neat characters, good effects, and it required a little thinking to find all of the time soldiers.
#6: Moto Roader(TG-16) - A great multiplayer overhead racing game full of bastardry and fun. Not all that much fun by yourself, sadly.
#7: Phantasy Star 1-4 - Yes, I owned every one, and even though they were goofy, they were fun and well put together. The mazes in 2 were obscenely difficult - 3 was just a total abortion. 4 was almost completely perfect, and the first one was awesome just so long as you had a sense of direction. The modern incarnations of the series feel too formulaic, and aren't meant to be played alone. Because of that, the story is really minimal, which sucks.
#8: Paperboy - Another one of those games that just isn't any fun with a normal controller. But the arcade machine was *great*
#9: Sinistar - This game was super fast(almost too fast), had great controls, and made nearby uninitiated kids crap their pants every time Sinistar made some horrific, heartfelt threat against your very existence.
#10: Rampage. Here's another game that is just no fun by yourself. But with two of your buddies and about $4 it was a great afternoon.
#11: Rastan. This game is STILL magnificent. Great level design, great gameplay, great characters. Suffers from the usual arcade game issues - namely, it was super hard and designed to eat quarters. Nothing like jumping 10 feet into the air and poking a Harpy in the ass with a broad sword though.
#11: Rolling Thunder. The second game in the series was the best, IMO, because it was two players. The first game was a little too unfair at points - especially when you had to make a long life-or-death jump without being able to see what you were aiming at. The third game finally allowed you to shoot diagonally and while in the air, and added a ton of extra weapons. I frankly feel that this totally ruined it.
#12: Beach Head - I played this for HOURS and HOURS on the c64. I can still hear little men made from 5 pixels screaming for a medic.
#13: Galaxy Force 2 - Again, this is just one of those games that was only fun in the arcade. The local arcade had the full version with the rotating, tilting cockpit, and stereo speakers RIGHT BESIDE YOUR HEAD. Pure bliss. Power Drive used the same gimmick, but that game *sucked*.
#14: Silent Scope - So good in the arcade, so crappy without the fun controller.
#15: Skee Ball - Skee Ball is awesome. Shup.
#16: Haunted House(pinball) - This was an ABSOLUTELY AWESOME pinball machine. The machine was so complicated though that it suffered frequent breakdowns. Sometimes the basement part underneath the playing field stayed dark instead of lighting up.
#17: Missile Command - Again, without the tactile sensation of the big roller ball and those three odd nipple-like Atari-only arcade machine buttons, this game is just OK - Much like Golden Tee, Capcom Bowling, and Crystal Castles.
#18: San Francisco Rush - Let's be honest. The game has what is obviously a fantastically complicated physics engine but real physics have been left in the dust, and fun, crazy, mad physics takes over. The game's offspring, Hydro Thunder, just wasn't that good.
#19: Strider - Strider was awesome. With practice and about 20 - 30 minutes of spare time, you could play through it, perform acrobatics that would make ninjas puke up their lunch, kill several dozen things, climb on pretty much anything, and there was even a little bit of exploration. The Genesis port was perfect.
#20: Robotron - This sucker was frantic, ugly, loud, obnoxious, and fantastic - much like Gilbert Godfrey isn't.
Acord has a good list. I'll second Strider, and Discs of Tron NEEDS to be remade once we have some real VR tech
Um... I'm not sure what your intentions were here, but this kind of talk can be seen as highly offensive in some cultures. I don't want to get into a flame war about it, just giving you a heads up.Originally Posted by meds
Everyone has the piss taken out of them. I don't see what's so special about this particular sub-section of black people - we all recognise what he's on about.
True racial integration/lack of racism means dissing everybody equally in my mind.
Totally agreeTrue racial integration/lack of racism means dissing everybody equally in my mind.
But you know how easily a misunderstanding can come from such a sensitive topic, and I'm not sure English is his first language (no offense, meds). I figured I'd give him a hint before he unknowingly walked into a minefield, hehe.
No offense intended to him
Fine, I'll edit it.Um... I'm not sure what your intentions were here, but this kind of talk can be seen as highly offensive in some cultures.
They can be *stereotypical gangstas of whatever ethnicity they belong to, i.e. a typical mafia goon or a scarface-esque Cuban or an annoying white dude who thinks he's a rapper or an arab with a turban or something else* decked out in fake *insert something relevant, i.e. silk suit if mafia goon, etc, etc* wielding *insert relevant weapon* killing *sex workers* (goombas) and *very dedicated sex workers* (turtles with wings).
English isn't my first language but I've lived in an english speaking country for most of my life. Yes I'm a minority and I've been mocked for my heritage, it's all good until someone decides to act on any given stereotype.
...and in an attempt to restore some kind of order/sanity to the proceedings:
1. Bombuzal
2. Pushover
3. Jet Set Willy
4. Frankie Goes to Hollywood (a massively underrated game!)
5. Nonterraqueous
6. Strike Force Cobra
7. Thunderforce III (best shmup ever)
8. Feud
9. Supersprint
10. Spindizzy
But please keep the originals strict jumping mechanic. Most remakes, while fun in their own way, seem to miss this point. The result is usually a generic platformer with graphics, but not gameplay, from the Miner Willy series,
I would have liked to see anyone try to create a game in the style of the old british arcade-adventures, flip-screen and all. It would be good if they dropped the random enemy encounters though and made these enemies move in more predictable ways.
Basically, anything 8-bit is good. For arcade-puzzlers I suggest looking at the entire Nes catalog.
Technosoft had the best presentation of any of the old school shooters I think, but the compile shooters(Aleste/Zanac/Guardian Legend) always had the best gameplay, I thought. They were different every time you played depending on what weapons you snagged
Starflight 2
Sentinel Worlds 1: Future Magic
Perihelion
Last edited by Mark_Tempe; 01-07-2009 at 09:58 AM.
Not a shred of evidence exists in favor of the idea that life is serious.
- Brendan Gill
This is what we've been doing for a few years, and it's surprising how many of these old games are in fact complete shit if you go back and actually try playing them on an emulator, even with a joystick. Coming up with remakes that'll sell is really, really hard.
We've got a shortlist of titles to do this year after we've gotten shot of Revenge of the Titans in a few months (a title which is taking lamentably long despite its trivial gameplay):
- Scramble (and all sorts of variations on horizontal cave scrollers)
- Pac Man
- Xevious (and all sorts of variations on vertical scrollers)
- Time Pilot
- Time Bandits (we're halfway through this one already, it's called Treasure Tomb)
- Rebelstar Raiders
Cas
X-Com! If I ever get to the point where I decide to spend eight months or a year on a downloadable instead of a month or two on a web game, a turn-based tactical game is high on my list, since you don't see very many of them, and they're damn fun.
Stunts! Simple driving game, but with loops, jumps, corkscrews, etc. Most tracks take only a minute or two to drive through, so it has that addictive "just one more try" nature, as you try to grind one more second off your best time. The track editor was great, easy to use, and made the replayability infinite. The game itself was buggy as all hell, but somehow they were the kind of bugs that made it more fun, rather than less fun... for instance, if you went off a jump in fifth gear, or through a loop in fourth, you'd end up in "super speed" mode (clearly a bug) where your speed was well over the normal maximum (even across grass), but you had almost no ability to steer, until you braked and got back to normal... whether or not to let yourself get into super speed, and when to get out of it, was always a neat risk-reward proposition.
Romance of Three Kingdoms II! A great military strategy game, although most of the scenarios weren't balanced, unfortunately, and you had to have everyone sitting at the same console, which wasn't practical, given the length of a game. A web-based version would be great, where you could have several games going at once, and just log in and see in which ones it's your turn to make a move.
Daleks! Oh wait, I'm doing that already.
Zombies Ate My Neighbours! Oh wait, someone else is doing that already.
My top 10 (in no particular order)...
- Nuclear War - did this already but I'd like to try again and make a good version this time (not in Dark Basic).
- It Came from the Desert - or any of those Cinemaware type "adventure stories with mini-games".
- Virus - I still love the flight mechanics although I doubt today's dumbed down gamer would be able to play it.
- Project Firestart - AFAIK the first survival horror game, still holds up even today. Not in crappy 3D, though - the remake should still be 2D.
- Syndicate - Hells yeah! I would even accept this one in 3D isometric; Mr. Robot style.
- Laser Squad - there is an updated version but it lost some of it's charm in the process. Old school all the way!
- Cannon Fodder - I love those little buggers!
- Close Combat - I know it's a more recent series but they went downhill quickly with each iteration. Good mix of strategy with tense action.
- The Movie Monster Game - I figure with Octopus Motor in limbo I have a shot at doing this before they get their game done
- Sewer Shark, Corpse Killer or Astron Belt because FMV is due for a comeback! Turn n' burn, Dogmeat!
I spent way too many hours, days, months years, playing Mail Order Monsters against my brothers.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OLcYHlmKM7U
This kind of game almost screams to be made now...it'd be nice to have something akin to Spores Creature Creator to build monsters, but I would love to see this game remade. It's the first one I think of whenever someone asks!
Or maybe just an HD version of Out of This World/Another World.
-Tony
While not exactly a remake, Dirk Dashing looks and plays a lot like the old Commander Keen DOS games. And it sells fairly well, especially on Mac where there is a demand for platformers.
Some other games I think would be good:
* Spy Hunter - I actually plan to incorporate something similar into Dirk Dashing 2
* Gauntlet - I used to love the 4-player arcade version of Gauntlet, the player dynamics in that game were great (especially when one player grabbed all the treasure while the others were holding off the hordes, and after the battle the other three players turned on him and punished him severely)
* Time Pilot - Another vote for this one!
Dude, X-Com is TOP on my list of games to be remade... The problem is, if you're gonna remake it, it's gotta be done RIGHT. X-Com fans tend to be extremely critical of anything that comes up even a smidgen short.
Heck, even the Gollop brothers aren't remaking X-Com. Their latest games lack several elements of the X-Com series, and I'm assuming that's by design
River City Ransom was always great, but translates poorly to controllers with 50 buttons or the wii.
Concept inspired by a conversation at a party tonight: Grand Theft Transformer.
There was a remake of X-Com called "UFO-Aftermath". I was so excited when I saw the box that I bought the game and regretted it almost instantly when I installed the game. Combat was now full 3D with rotating cameras which I didn't like and the building/research economic aspect was reduced. If I were to remake X-Com, I would add on better graphics(2D, not 3D) and keep everything else as it is. Maybe throw in some new weaponry and aliens, but that is about all that I would touch. The game design itself is good enough as it is.Dude, X-Com is TOP on my list of games to be remade... The problem is, if you're gonna remake it, it's gotta be done RIGHT. X-Com fans tend to be extremely critical of anything that comes up even a smidgen short.
Heck, even the Gollop brothers aren't remaking X-Com. Their latest games lack several elements of the X-Com series, and I'm assuming that's by design
Funny thing that we have a lot of X-com die hard fans here in GUNROX and I personally haven't played it much, let alone trying to make GUNROX similar to it.
________
Inspire
Last edited by berserker; 03-12-2011 at 10:54 AM.
Hmm well, we've already half written Time Pilot. It's very similar to the original game, except it's got a shop to buy upgrades in, and instead of boring big aeroplanes it has big procedurally generated motherships all over the place bristling with turrets and hangars.
Cas
While I was in college doing some boring Computer Studies course (who wants to know about Charles Babbage? or Pascal and Cobol programming?).
I used to skip class a lot and go down the arcade; we could last all day on Gauntlet with just one 10p. You pretty much knew the layouts of all the levels, and where the food was on each level, then you just grab the food and exit the level ASAP. Your health just went up and up...
Until the arcade owner pulls the plug at the end of the day.
For the persistant highscores on the game, it would divide your final score by the number of coins you used (which was usually 1), so it was a real pisser when someone tried to join in and put a coin in the wrong (your) slot...
Gauntlet 2 was cool, and you couldn't last forever on it like G1. Does anyone remember the Dragons in Gauntlet 2?
I'd improve the accuracy of beginning characters a bit, at least at very short range. It was a bit ridiculous that you could miss by almost 45 degrees when shooting at something two steps in front of you, and that consequently, you pretty much had to arm your rookies with autocannons + explosive ammo if you wanted them to hit anything. Maybe put them in groups with one guy in each group holding a laser pistol, in case you came around a corner face-to-face with an alien and couldn't shoot the AC without blowing yourself up.
I'd probably also increase the accuracy of the aimed shots a lot, because again, you were usually more likely to hit with several snap shots or auto shots than one aimed shot. I very, very rarely used aimed shot.
For that, take a look at Jagged Alliance and their implementation of weapon accuracy. It is way better than X-Com as their aim shots have a very high accuracy etc.
I'd add a second one for syndicate.
I'm actually doing a homage to populous in some ways (with a smidgen of the sims/black and white).
Although Molyneux can bite me
www.mindflock.com - social AI-based games
... I still want to make things inspired by classics from childhood like Oregon Trail and Carmen Sandiego (but very heavily changed). However, my dev queue is so long, such things are unlikely to come about...
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