Your favorite game so far....?

Gothic 2 Gold

... but I hate these things, as they are too limiting. I'd rather do one per genre. Or maybe 5 ... heck, I just hate to name an absolute fave :D
 
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I replayed that game a few years ago, so it's gotta be able to run :)

Realms runs with dosbox, I believe. I seem to recall having some difficulty getting the graphics to run correctly. I was trying for a higher resolution, but I went back to the normal one and it ran fine to the end. (This is all from a very sketchy memory of about 2 - 3 years ago :))
 
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I really need to try that game. Does it run on modern systems?
I replayed it for the last time when I still had Win XP. I don't remember if I had to use VDMS or not, but I didn't need DOSBox. I don't know about Vista or Win7, though.
 
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I replayed it for the last time when I still had Win XP. I don't remember if I had to use VDMS or not, but I didn't need DOSBox. I don't know about Vista or Win7, though.

It runs on XP without Dosbox?? That's surprising to hear. I think I might hit Ebay for a copy.
 
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The only games I ever ran with DOSBox were EOB2 and Arena, so I'm pretty sure VDMS was all I needed to get RotH to work.
I found these instructions on the net when googling, so I think my memory didn't fail me after all (it's all about a computer running Win2000/WinXP, with VDMSound already installed):

"First, let's assume that you have already installed Realms of the Haunting (ROTH hereafter) to a folder called: c:\ROTH. Make sure you still have ROTH CD 1 in your CD-ROM drive.
Now we have to 'train' ROTH to use VDMSound. Using Windows Explorer, open the c:\ROTH folder. Then right-click on the INSTALL.EXE file you see there. A menu pops up. There are two 'Run with VDMS' options near the top of this menu. IMPORTANT: select the one with the MUSICAL NOTES icon! Up pops the VDMSound Configuration Wizard. Now normally you would just select the 'Use a default configuration' option and try to get a game working that way first. And in fact, ROTH works just fine with all the defaults. However, we're going 'under the hood' here to see how this all works, so select 'Set up a custom configuration' and hit the 'Next' button.
On the next page, choose: 'Create a new configuration from scratch' and hit the 'Next' button again.
There is a single button in the business portion of the next page, namely: 'Advanced…', so click on it. Whoa! Options. Truckloads of them :) When trying to get a game to work, I recommend changing JUST ONE THING AT A TIME. For instance, all you need do to get most old Sierra games running is go to the 'SoundBlaster' tab and change 'IRQ:' from the default of '7' to '5' (I just happen to know this, but you can find these little quirks out all by yourself if you always remember to only change one setting at a time between runs). Anyway, ROTH doesn't require any changes. We're just having a peek under the hood to see what's possible. So leave all the settings the way they are and hit the 'OK' button at the bottom of the dialogue to close it. Then hit the 'Next' button one more time, then the 'Finish' button, and we should finally get a Command Prompt appearing.
The ROTH soundcard configuration runs, and ROTH is even able to automatically detect, configure, and test your 'fake' SoundBlaster. Yippee!
Upon exiting, note that VDMSound has now saved its configuration as a 'VDMSound Shortcut' called INSTALL. If you ever needed to run the install again, you could do so simply by clicking on this shortcut.
Now we can try running the actual ROTH game. Just right-click on the ROTH.EXE file, and go through the same steps as you did with the install, making sure to maintain the same settings. After running the game once, you now have a VDMSound Shortcut called ROTH that you can double-click on to run ROTH anytime thereafter. And we're done!" (by emucade)
 
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Thanks Jaz, I'm definitely going to give RotH a try. Surprisingly, it's still possible to get a brand new boxed copy from Ebay. I'm going to order one tonight. :)



Pool of Radiance: Ruins of Myth Drannor

POR2! Excellent taste!

Another game I might have to try again, assuming you guys aren't just being sarcastic. I remember thinking the demo was *terrible*, and every review I read seemed to confirm that the full game was exactly that.
 
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Thanks Jaz, I'm definitely going to give RotH a try. Surprisingly, it's still possible to get a brand new boxed copy from Ebay. I'm going to order one tonight. :)

Another game I might have to try again, assuming you guys aren't just being sarcastic. I remember thinking the demo was *terrible*, and every review I read seemed to confirm that the full game was exactly that.

First, I found a instructions on how to use VDMsound and how to get VDMsound working with Realms of the haunting (too bad I didn't read this a couple of years ago or I could of had better graphics :))
http://74.125.153.132/search?q=cach...the+haunting+xp&cd=5&hl=en&ct=clnk&lr=lang_en

Skip down to the "here is a step-by-step guid to installing VDMsound". A few paragraphs down it will give you an example. Luckily the example they used was Realms of the Haunting.

Second, POR2.
If you're serious about wanting to try it out then at the bare minimum you will need the POR speed control utility. You can get it here along with a few other mods or editors. Without this control the walking speed during combat is tedious and borderline torture. I promise you, anyone would sell out their own mother rather than play this game without the speed utility.

Don't expect good or even substandard writing and dialogue. You will not find any in this game. The quests are boring, the characters are forgetable and the setting is a HUGE waste of an opportunity.

With all that said, there are a few 'not so bad' qualities about the game. Mostly combat. Although if you're looking for a combat game or strategy one then KOTC or TOEE are ten times….NO, strike that, they're a thousand times better than this one. The only redeeming qualitiy in this game is that it had some monsters in it that I never fought against before. That was the only thing that was remotely interesting.
 
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Ultima 3 on my Atari 800. That's the game that gave me the CRPG bug somewhere back in 1983 or thereabouts.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ultima_III:_Exodus

I think this was the best Ultima game, but that's just my opinion.


:) Ultima 3 was also the first true RPG I ever played, although I didn't play it until 1987, on the NES. It's also the only Ultima game I've ever finished, but I plan on doing U:IX later this year.
 
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Don't expect good or even substandard writing and dialogue. You will not find any in this game. The quests are boring, the characters are forgetable and the setting is a HUGE waste of an opportunity.

With all that said, there are a few 'not so bad' qualities about the game. Mostly combat. Although if you're looking for a combat game or strategy one then KOTC or TOEE are ten times….NO, strike that, they're a thousand times better than this one. The only redeeming qualitiy in this game is that it had some monsters in it that I never fought against before. That was the only thing that was remotely interesting.

That's kind of the same impression I got as well, which is why I'm shocked to see anyone claim that it's their all time favorite game.
 
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I was being a bit sarcastic but I really did enjoy it. Mainly for the HUGE dungeons and exploration, and there are a lot of intersting NPCs to come across. Plus I'm a sucker for turn-based combat. The story picks up quite a bit once you get through the first largest dungeon.

As well as the speed utility being a must is the patch. It's an odd patch because it actually substitutes for the installer (this avoids the erase hard disk issue, probably one of the scariest game bugs in the world).

You may be surprised to hear this, but I actually get the urge to replay it. My first time through was with only 2 characters: a human MC Paladin-Cleric and an elf MC Sorcerer-Thief. If you don't use joinable NPCs they can reach about level 22 in both classes. They kicked butt, but the beginning was tough. A cleric is a must for all the undead. Thieves are good because they get boatloads of XP for opening locks.
 
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As well as the speed utility being a must is the patch. It's an odd patch because it actually substitutes for the installer.

Is there a special way you have to apply the patch? I remember trying to play PoR a few years ago, but that final patch wouldn't install. It kept giving me a message that it couldn't find the game files.

I just downloaded and installed the demo, but it won't even start on my system, WinXP SP3. Compatibility modes had no effect either...
 
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