Games with overwhelming gameplay and underwhelming graphics

[El_Cid]

Pitfall! - classic platform game, extra cool due to the Indiana Jones films out at around the same time.

Thrust(Firebird Software) - a truely excellent game. Outstanding gameplay with poor graphics. I spent lots of time on this addictive game....hmmm might try it again as it was so good

Blue Max - an isometric scrolling plane game, featuring air-to-air and air-to-ground combat.
For a very simple looking game it packed in the gameplay. My favourite bits were scoring a good bomb hit on a bridge and watching the enemy jeeps+tanks fall into the river and blow up. Great game!

[Skanky Burns]

Originally posted by DrSpike
I think the thread needs some benchmark. Compared to say Civ1 EU2 had great graphics. Compared to HL2 it doesn't.

Originally posted by Vesayen
What PC games can you think of which have stellar gameplay, but entirley underwhelming graphics, even when it was released?

[El_Cid]

Ah ok......well Pitfall did get a PC version

I'll try again(and better!):

1830: Railroads and Robber Barons - from the excellent Avalon Hill. It was like the forerunner of all the Train management games, and could be argued hasn't been beaten yet for gameplay.

Space Empires - a great series, i think i liked IV Gold the best, although i have a soft spot for II in the series. One of the early space/strat games with the obligatory poor graphics but good gameplay. Its tricky to find these days as shrapnel games no longer sell it from their site

Advanced Civiization - from Avalon hill, the game that inspired Sid to create the game series we all love This is based on the board game and is slightly easier to get into than the board game.

[Lemmy]

Hmm, overwhelming gameplay, underwhelming graphics?
Bumps!

[TheStinger]

civ 3

[Adagio]

Originally posted by Lemmy
Hmm, overwhelming gameplay, underwhelming graphics?
Bumps!

[DrSpike]

Originally posted by TheStinger
civ1 and civ2

You made a typo - I corrected it for you.

[Grumbold]

Most of my favourite games had utilitarian graphhics for their time. Civ 1. MoM. Railroad tycoon. Alien Legacy. Heck, although I hate to admit it, in MMOs Runescape has a heck of a lot more gameplay than the best super-graphic MMO simply because they can produce a new minigame and quest every month and a new skill every few months without requiring a production team the size of NASA and a budget to match.

[Urban Ranger]

Originally posted by El_Cid
Advanced Civiization - from Avalon hill, the game that inspired Sid to create the game series we all love This is based on the board game and is slightly easier to get into than the board game.

The boardgame version totally rocks. In essence, AH's Civilization is a social game. It's the social interaction aspect that makes the game so much fun. For example, when you move a couple of units to cause the building of a city to fail, and the other guy screams bloody murder at you

Making it into a computer game has largely removed those elements, unfortunately.

[Kataphraktoi]

MTW

MTW would be closer to the top of my top ten best games of all times list if the AI didnt attack your ungaurded provence even with a dozen royal marriages and an alliance

[El_Cid]

Originally posted by Kataphraktoi
MTW

MTW would be closer to the top of my top ten best games of all times list if the AI didnt attack your ungaurded provence even with a dozen royal marriages and an alliance

Sadly this was very normal behaviour for the period, and one of the reasons the english were very good at dealing with the scotish and the welsh(and vice-versa)
I thought the graphics in Medieval were pretty good? The intro screen thing was very atmospheric. But i guess the 3D sections are quite primitive compared to the norm.

Worms - incredible gameplay, i bet the folks at PC Format who passed this game by in one of their magazine competitions kicked themselves when it went on to become the classic it did!

Age of Wonders - although at the time the graphics were considered pretty decent, now it might fit in this thread.

Mech Commander Gold - excellent game and definately took a step back in the graphics department for this series. It added an excellent level of strategy and control over a great campaign format.

Jedi Knight/Dark Forces(I+II) - great games, pretty poor 3D models?

Total Annihilation - one of the first great rts games

M.A.X + M.A.X II - quite deep and complex while being easy and fun to play, i like the first game the most but the second looked better.

Z one of the later bitmap brothers games, simple gameplay but tricky strategy game.

[Quillan]

Lemmings...

[DrSpike]

Originally posted by Quillan
Lemmings...

Yeah, even great on the Spectrum!

[TheStinger]

everything was great on a spectrum

[Jon Miller]

Cv and Civ2

JM