Obscure Games

[Dr. DiegO]

Okay, another very specific theme thread I made. I like to talk about videogames that fell into obscurity, games that are not that well know for the majority of people but they are Interesting to talk and, of course, play.

I'll start this thread with one that, In my opinion, encapsulate the definition I presented for the type of game I'm talking about.



Gunman Chronicles It's a very interesting and original FPS develop by Rewolf Entretainment and released In the year 2000. originally started development In 1998 as a multiplayer mod for Quake, later jumping to Quake 2 and later to Half-Life. It was shown at the Half-Life Mod Expo in 1999, an event hosted by Valve and It's old publisher Sierra Entertainment to showcase the vast modding scene of Half-Life and showing the latest of Valve like the highly anticipated Team Fortress 2. alongside popular mods like USS Darkstar, Action Half-Life, and Counter-Strkie, Gunman Chronicles was the killer show of the event bringing the attention of Sierra, which they were Interested in making Gunman a fully independent game, Rewolf got funded and expanded and received aid from Valve to finish the game.

Gunman Chronicles Is basically a Pulp story that combines Starship Troopers and Spaghetti Western films, something you never see together. compare to Half-Life, Gunman Is more a typical classic FPS but with a twist on Its gameplay. you don't have reloads but you weapons can be modified and configured In real time! for example: you can set how many shells you can shoot at the same time and change the spread of the pellets, you blaster can be change to a wide of modes with a sniper rifle modification, you grenades can be set as tripwire and cluster but they are also the ammunition of the M.U.L.E. the Rocket/Grenade Launcher and so on.

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This game is also visually impressive for being a GoldSrc game, did you know that the textures are painted by hand and the models are sculpted? It's true! and you can check it out here

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Did you also know that this Is the first videogame role of Jim French? the voice actor of Bill in Left 4 Dead and the Father Grigori In Half-Life 2.

I can tell much of this game, Is one of those that you need to play to get all and words and pictures don't make it justice (more because I don't have much screenshots right now and there's a a lot of text right now). but, where I can play it? well, that's where we get why It's an obscure game.

Gunman Chronicles receive at it's launch mixed reviews and It didn't reach so far, Rewolf was dissolve the next year and the creators went to other places also leading to the cancellation of a Gamecube port (now that's Interesting). Valve keep the rights of the game, however, they don't sell the game on Steam for unknown reasons despite that there's evidence that at one point It was going to be alongside the other GoldSrc games on Steam at it's launch.

So how can you play this Abandonware?

• you can get a physical copy or... you know and try to install it, which is ill advice, modern operative systems don't go well with the WON version of GoldSrc, you get a crash at the start of the game
• Installing on steam as a Half-Life mod (which requires to have that game to run it) and using the Steam Patch made by Revenant100 (better known as MarphitimusBlackimus or MarphyBlack on short) so far the most easy one
• Use the files of your copy and run it with Xash3D, an engine made to be an advance mod platform (Half-Life's equivalent of GZDoom)

One more thing, If you are not playing the retail version you are missing the CGI Intro of the game which contain a critical part of the story, the beginning. the mod and Xash3D don't have the ability to play video like retail does.

Anyways, that's a lot yapping I made. If you have the chance of play it go for it. It's a cool game and a hidden gem of the GoldSrc era.

You have other obscure games with interesting stories?

[Adios]

You have other obscure games with interesting stories?

I could probably go thru any issue of PCGamer and find a ton of obscure game ads/demos. Its true.
Wow check it out, its that game Coolboyman and I both played.

A lot of PC game stuff is still foreign to me, idk.
Like Wizardry 8 was awesome and I never saw presentation like it again but I could never remember the name.
It used to be abandonware up until a few years ago when it got re-released on steam.
NOX was the diablo clone that time forgot, and that also got rereleased on GOG.com

There was this one version of Warhammer30k that was a turn based rpg version of the table top game for PC, but you can't run it on modern hardware without an emulator / DOSBOX of some kind.

The neverhood game was a real gem, but everyone knew that one, altho only a handful of ppl got to play it on PC or the Sega Saturn.

[Adios]

Gunman Chronicles

Like I remember vividly seeing this game alongside a StarTrek FPS in the same issue of PCGAMER in 1998 but I had no PC to play them on and envied anyone who did  , but whatever.

[Dr. DiegO]

Like Wizardry 8 was awesome and I never saw presentation like it again but I could never remember the name.
It used to be abandonware up until a few years ago when it got re-released on steam.

I know this game thanks to SsethTzeentach

The neverhood game was a real gem, but everyone knew that one, altho only a handful of ppl got to play it on PC or the Sega Saturn.

This one Is another gem, I die for games with strong artistic direction and the The Neverhood inc. games are those.

[etch]

cool cool toon is a fun little rhythm game by SNK released only on the dreamcast. some of the characters have a very sanrio-esque design. it was only released in japan but there's an english fan translation patch now

[rtil]

cool cool toon is a fun little rhythm game by SNK released only on the dreamcast. some of the characters have a very sanrio-esque design. it was only released in japan but there's an english fan translation patch now

the little minigames are hilarious, especially the shooting one in the pipe. it's definitely a lot more involved than the more well known Space Channel 5. many rhythm games at arcade still use a really similar interface to the circle seen in this game, but with touchscreens. i didn't know about this, really cool.

[Dr. DiegO]

It's Incredible how the Dreamcast housed very unique games and had features ahead of It's time, what a shame It didn't lived long due to Sony, SEGA's previous flops and how the made the situation even worst of what It was.

[rtil]

piracy was also a huge issue for the dreamcast. the GD-rom was too easy to copy and people figured out how to get the dreamcast to play pirated games quickly. however afaik only model 1 dreamcasts will play them and there are 4 different models.

of course now we also have emulation which works fairly well

[Dr. DiegO]

You might know this game if you stroll Steam once or you saw my post of it's OST here. but here's another Valve-adjacent game on this thread.



NEOTOKYO is a tactical multiplayer FPS set on a gritty and grounded cyberpunk setting inspired by Deus Ex, Ghost In The Shell, and AKIRA.

The story goes that Japan in the future face a mayor social-political crisis product of the change of times. the Japanese government is facing pressure from inside and outside. the Asian geopolitics and the growing desire of Japan to return to be a powerful military and economical force and after a failed coup lead by rouge army forces of the GSDF product of an attempt of reforming the constitution to gave the military forces the power of engage in offensive actions outside of the country.  the coup was almost successful, but they managed to stop it and in order to not get another one, Japan's Prime Minister form a secret branch of the NSF called GROUP SIX. augmented soldiers sworn to protect Japan's constitution at all cost. then the rouge GSDF forces formed the JINRAI in order to make a second coup attempt.

In hindsight: The main conflict is between the NSF who wants to protect the constitution and the current government and the JINRAI who wants to destroy it and return Japan to it's former military and nationalist past.

the development dates back to 2004 as a CTF mod for Unreal Tournament 2004, the prototype was made for the Make Something Unreal of that year (same competition where TripWire made Red Orchestra: Combined Arms) however they already made plans to switch to Source Engine after seeing the leaks and the Tech Demos for Half-Life 2 circa 2003 and around that time Studio RADI-8 was form. in 2006 the made the transition to Source and released in 2009, however the Steam release was in 2014 via the now defunct Steam Greenlight service. where after that STUDIO RADI-8 dissolved and the game was abandoned. the rest of the team managed to get jobs at the entertainment industry, like the art director Leri Greer who later worked for the Live-Action adaptation of Ghost In The Shell (well... that doesn't sound good) and the composer Ed Harrison for the OST of Deux Ex: Breach (yikes!). as you can see there was talent behind this sourcemod, damn shame it didn't take of because that's one of the reason why it was abandoned.

But the game it still on Steam and it's maintained by a very small group of players who still play it every Friday, they are called "Active Neotokyo Players" and this group also organize small tournaments to keep the game on.

There are also attempts to maintain it since this game runs on the 2006 version of Source and there's a lot of problems trying to play it on a modern PC like being 32BIT only and no other options like current maintained Source games can enjoy it. and there's also attempt to port the game to the 2013 version the engine to make it easy to run and maintain.

As for the gameplay, it's easy to say it's basically Counter Strike but cyberpunk, and at the first try you will say this, the way it makes the rounds is similar, but the differences lies in the class system and the gadgets of each one that goes to light amplification, thermal vision, and motion tracking, camouflage and different types of mobility, the lighter one having a dash more reminiscent to Unreal than anything. it's not perfect and there will be no that much of changes since the team went defunct and there's only a handful of people maintain it but sure there's an interesting gameplay there that sets it apart of other multiplayer games.

 

 

[rtil]

cheers to those keeping this one alive. it is indeed a strange hybrid of the bones of CS with UT. i'd actually like to see the original UT mod if any footage of it exists. it's not really my cup of tea as i suck at these kind of twitch shooter games, but it's an interesting piece of source history if nothing else.

[Dr. DiegO]

cheers to those keeping this one alive. it is indeed a strange hybrid of the bones of CS with UT. i'd actually like to see the original UT mod if any footage of it exists. it's not really my cup of tea as i suck at these kind of twitch shooter games, but it's an interesting piece of source history if nothing else.

Actually, there is footage of the UT2004 version on YouTube and screenshots on the ModDB page!

[rtil]

wow, it looks nothing like how i expected. also slower. but that's actually kind of impressive.

[Dr. DiegO]

It was a prototype after all and made against the time for the competition. The true plans was with Source in the future too.

[Dr. DiegO]

Another obscure Source Engine game brought by me to this almost dead forum



Zeno Clash is a First Person Beat 'em Up set in a Heavy Metal Magazine style world develop by the Chilean Independent studio ACE Team.

The game is set in the decadent and surreal world of Zenozoik where all types of bizarre creatures and groups live in constant violence and anarchy. you play as Ghat, the rebellious person outcast from his own gang and family after a violent confrontation with their leader and parent, the androgynous bird-like creature called Father-Mother. because of this, Ghat alongside a hopeful girl called Deadra makes a journey to the far ends of the world in order to escape the retaliation of his family and seek for a better life, discovery the mysteries of this world and the details surrounding the bitter clash between Ghat and Father-Mother.





What makes Zeno Clash different from other Source Engine games it's the gameplay. this is a first person Beat 'em Up focus primarily on immersive hand-to-hand combat with physics in line with games like The Chronicles of Riddick: Escape from Butcher Bay and Dark Messiah of Might & Magic, there are firearms and explosives but this are not the main way to confront the bizarre enemies you'll encounter. you have a lock-on system to focus on enemies, a stamina bar which determs you defense when blocking and doing more powerful strikes as well your movement when sprinting. the weapons are mostly used as an alternative way to deal with enemies in a fight, weapons like the Musket and Dual Pistols are for dealing with enemies out of reach and beasts, the skull bomb is for crowd control. melee weapons like the hammer and club are for heavyweight enemies which are bosses but they are also powerful against regular fighters. although unique, the gameplay is REALLY rough, the lock-on button is the same one for grabbing items and changing targets which makes everything uncomfortable and the crow control options, despite being there they are not really that good and makes fighting crowds a very painful experience, specially when they are carrying weapons and there's no clear ways to keep track of the other fighters. the base is good, but it really lacks polish, specially on the crowd aspect which might be a consequence of making it a first person game.

ACE Team is a studio founded by the brothers Andres, Carlos, and Edmundo Bordeu [their initials forms the name of the studio] in the late 90's, initiating as a modding group. they are the creators of total conversion mods like Batman Doom and ZanZan for Doom 2, and The Dark Conjunction for Quake 3.

The idea that spawned Zeno Clash was a similar ambition many small developers coming from the modding scene during the 90's and 00's used to have: making a deep and complex RPG. that's where Zenozoik: Shattered Land was born in 2002, a First Person Action RPG set in a surreal and primitive world inspired by the art of John Blanche, famous British illustrator responsible of the art of Games Workshop Warhammer series, Jim Henson's The Dark Crystal, and the filmography of Terry Gilliam, the project was halted in 2003 due to the humongous task of developing a game like that without the enough income and staff and not being able of get the ideas right in the game. the Bordeu brothers went to work on the defunct Wanako Games (later known as Behaviour Santiago before shutting down in 2017) where they worked on casual games, there is when the met programmer David Caloguerea, they left in 2007 and re-activate ACE in other to resume the development of Zenozoik, switching from Jupiter LithTech (Monolith Productions game engine) to id Tech 4 (Doom 3 engine) but later ditch due to issues doing exteriors to finally land with Source Engine. Valve's game engine was choose due to the level geometry capabilities as well the shaders and animations tools. when they settle with Source they finally decided that Zenozoik, as a big and complex RPG, was unfeasible. so they scraped the original concept and re-worked the idea into the first-person Beat 'em Up we see now. Valve also helped a bit ACE Team with the development, also suggesting the title "Zeno Clash" which of course ended up becoming the title of the game and the old title became the name of the fictional world.

The game was released in 2009 by Tripwire Interactive in North America and Iceberg Interactive in Europe, gathering a solid success both critically and commercially. later in 2010 an Xbox 360 version was made in conjunction of Atlus and SEGA as publisher. the end result was Zeno Clash: Ultimate Edition, an exclusive edition that features new attacks and weapons, co-op local and online, new challenges, a gallery and a new voice for one of the characters. the 360 version was a moderated success but it didn't surpassed the success the original PC version.

It managed to get a sequel with Atlus and Sega again as publisher. Zeno Clash 2 was released in 2013, following the story of the first game and bringing improvements to the gameplay and adding an RPG component and Open World exploration from the Zenozoik prototype all now powered with Unreal Engine 3. 10 years later the series got a new game, this time being an independent story away from the first two games. Clash: Artifacts of Chaos is a third person RPG inspired by the Souls games release in 2023 after a trouble development. despite managing a moderated critical success, it performed terribly commercially, not a bad game, in fact is another hidden gem, but it really didn't got a lot of luck on its release and as of now it's the last entry released in this series with an not so clear future ahead. let's pray that this wouldn't be the last game in this series.

Anyways, the first Zeno Clash might be a very rough game but it's one of those experiences you need play at least once and that's why I recommend to try this game + it's pretty cheap on sale.       

[wasp]

First thing to spring to mind is Kuru Kuru Kururin

By the later devs of UMvC3. The GBA version never had an NA release. The premise is fairly simple: your ship is constantly spinning (Hence the kuru in the title, which I'm led to believe means spin) and you have to navigate through a series of obstacles each stage, and can get hit thrice before dying. Sometimes you hit a spring and start rotating the other way.

There's thirty main stages, forty or maybe fifty shorter challenge stages, and a couple of bonus ones I can't quite remember how you unlock. Either you had to get every collectable or beat every stage without taking damage or both. Not a long game by any means but the cutesy style belies an incredibly frustrating experience as it goes on. I remember figuring out a pretty gnarly skip on one of the challenge stages where I deliberately took damage to force my way through an obstacle faster, which saved enough time to entirely negate the 2-second penalty for taking damage. Also it has maybe one of the most unique easy modes I've ever seen which is your ship simply becoming smaller.

[CooperBChance]

I've enjoyed Stubbs the Zombie a fair bit. Crazy to think this was built on the same engine as Halo lol

[Dr. DiegO]

I've enjoyed Stubbs the Zombie a fair bit. Crazy to think this was built on the same engine as Halo lol

Yeah, It was develop with the Blam! Engine and the studio was founded by Alexander Seropian, co-founder of Bungie. and he also was developer in Marathon, Myth, and Halo CE. reason why they chose the engine.