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Maybe it’s the whiff of summer in the air, but we've been a little, well, distracted. For the last few weeks, we’ve been spending a lot of time reminiscing and talking and opining over our favorite games from yesteryear. For some kids, summer meant lakes and rivers and baseball and camp. Not us. For us, summer meant long, uninterrupted hours playing lots and lots of games on our Commodore 64, Amiga, Atari 800, or IBM PC.
All these memories got us thinking: We've seen a lot of literal and spiritual remakes on phones, tablets, and even Facebook. It's a great way for gamers to revive their favorites. But there are a bunch of classic games from the golden era that have yet to receive a tender loving retro port. We decided it was high time someone identified a queue of sorts for future remakes. And while every game would work well on Windows, some of the classics would probably work even better on an alternative OS. So, as an added wrinkle, we’re going to pick one of three platforms - Windows, Facebook, or Android - as the best fit.
Enjoy the read, and we encourage you to make your own suggestions in the comments section. We'll give out a set of ThermalTake Tt eSports headphones to the best entry. (If we see lots of good entries, we'll just randomize the winner.)
One final note: We give big props to MobyGames.com – they are a treasure trove of credits, screenshots, statistics, and information about pretty much every game created.
Comments are closed on this article
ez223
May 26, 2011 at 11:06pm
I played Falcon 3.0 and 4.0. Probably the most complicated Flight sim I ever played. I'd also like to see Gunship remade. I loved that AH64 Apache sim.
TommM
May 26, 2011 at 7:23pm
Wow...talk about a blast from the past. Can't tell you how many hours I invested in Elite, Populous, M.U.L.E. and the early Ultima series. But it was significant. I'd probably lose my mind if any of those were remade. DECENTLY that is...
Oh yeah, I'd toss in The Bard's Tale too for that list.
neros1x
May 26, 2011 at 7:18pm
Descent. Why has no one even attempted to make another fully-3D FPS?! I've been playing the original via DOSBox and it still holds up.
More than anything on the list, I would love to see the Ultima series remade. I never got to play it, and I find it hard to get into now because its hard to find and the graphics on the earliest ones are dated beyond even the original Nintendo.
someuid
May 27, 2011 at 8:06am
Between Descent and X-Wing, I wore out a Thrustmaster joystick. Wore out as in plastic fatigue and parts that had their contact points shaved down to nothing.
jchadday
May 26, 2011 at 7:10pm
I would like to see Sim Tower on android or windows. Sim ant could be fun also. An upgraded Sim Copter would be fun also. I guess you could say I really liked the Sim games.
cdowley
May 26, 2011 at 7:09pm
The Wing Commander series is still one of my all-time favorites, especially WC2 and WC3. I'd love to see the MechWarrior series make a comeback, too.
someuid
May 27, 2011 at 8:21am
Mechwarrior was pretty amazing. The way the view swung and lunged made you really think you were in a multi-ton walking robot. I missed the first MechWarrior but did play MechWarrior 2 and it's expansions. I never picked up MechWarrior 3 or 4 for some reason.
rwwllms
May 30, 2011 at 1:09pm
MechWarrior was a favortie series of mine also. I wish they would bring it back. Don't neccessary have to remake them, just make a new game continuing the series.
But I would be more than okay with a remake of it.
PM_DMNKLR
May 26, 2011 at 6:47pm
These are 2 NES games that I want to see re-made, and could be done for any of those platforms, or all of them: Dragon Spirit, and Solar Jetman. Those are 2 of my all-time fave games for the NES, wherein my other faves are still having re-makes and sequels made, such as Castlevania, Zelda, Mario Bros. and Alien Syndrome.
Brdn666
May 26, 2011 at 6:25pm
I would love to see a Streets of Simcity remake. Something about driving around a vehicle, blowing up other cars with your missles and oil slick, in a city YOU made was a great idea. I would love to see that nowadays. (all the other games that would be good ideas, were and have modern versions. :D )
2Reckless4U
May 26, 2011 at 6:09pm
I think the original Shining Force would make an excellent remake with a reboot in graphics. While nothing ground-breaking for RPG's, I found it highly addicting on the Genesis and PC port.
Straegen
May 26, 2011 at 6:06pm
This is a fine list. I would probably fit Star Control which would work well with a touch screen, Archon especially with a multiplayer component and I wouldn't mind seeing a classic Wizardry/Bards Tale port.
Brad Chacos
May 26, 2011 at 5:26pm
Ah, that list brings back some memories. Wing Commander, Populous... The hours I lost to the Elite series is rivaled only by the hours I've spent with the Fallout and Elder Scrolls games.
FAST FACT: Being a bearded, jolly Maximum PC news blogger doesn't happen overnight. I honed my writing chops banging out crappy "Frontier: Elite 2" fan fiction as a pimply faced teen.
Anyways, I would love to see Masters of Orion remade for Windows, complete with 2011 graphics and who knows, maybe some Mass Effect-style *cough* romance options? I don't know how it would work, but we'd need full screen glory if we got into some hot Meklar on Mrrshan action. Now that's diplomacy!
tony2tonez
May 26, 2011 at 5:26pm
Where in the world is Carmen San Diego or Oregon Trail? I know they were made in the 90's but there were alot of fun. Espically Carmen, helped me with my geography when i was 5th grade. Although each has probably been remade but im too lazy to google it. ha
