Old Games (Silencer, War Inc., and more!)

[UmmErrKane]

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Who here remembers Silencer? It used to be run for free by WON (Like ARC, only more popular). If you don't know it, it was an old side scroller, only BIGGER. It was like the precursor to the MMOG, because your character earned credits (Experiance) which was spent on bigger weapons. If you played a couple games with just the basic blaster, you might earn enough cash to start playing with the big guns, like mines and such. The basic premise was that it took place on Mars, and you were part of a group of hackers (Either Static [Ex. Government scientists, they focus on deception and technology], Oxy [A big corporation that controls all the planet's air. Killing civvies gets you big penalties with them, but they have access to cash and security access, moreso than other companies], Lazarus [A cult that worships rebirth. Actually, the more you die with them, the more they like you, because you "See the light" or something. You end up coming back to life occasionally, actually], and some other brawn-based company that NOONE played). Basically, you hacked into computers (Personal comps or big terminals. The big ones had more cash, but the second you started hacking them, everyone on the map knew it), stole files, and took them back to your base, selling them for cash. When you team acquired enough files, it started a countdown that, when it ended, popped a Government "Secret" onto the map, which the team that got the information saw on their map first (The other teams had to wait 15 seconds), and collecting three of them won the game (The government got pissed and nuked you sometimes ). Getting secrets, or doing certain things related to your company (Getting files for static, dying for Lazarus, or saving civvies for oxy) gave you security access that gave you more weapons and equipment.

A really simple game, though it doesn't seem like it, but VERY fun. In fact, it got rated higher than most retail games a lot of times, because of its social aspect (LOOOOOTS of guilds, one of the first games where people started making guilds and clans, to my knowledge). Unfortunately, WON got bought out by some company (FlipSide.com), who then proceeded to ztype Silencer up. They cut it down to 6 servers (Used to be about 20, and those were full to the point that the game crashed often due to too many games running at once), and the servers were so slow that noone played anymore . I've yet to meet anyone that can remember it, strangely. Anyone here heard of it?


Also, how about some other good old games, like War,Inc (One of the most innovative Strategy games I've seen. Certainly the most at the time, but it didn't have a great story, unfortunately. Most of the missions were "Go here, shoot this" types of things. The interesting features were the development and stock market parts of it. You were the CEO of a "Security" company, who got missions from clients to blow something up, and you made money of those missions, and could also invest in the stock market (THe game ran in real time. If there were no missions to do, you simply fast-forewarded a week or month), and even buy companies. Biotech companies ade your infantry stronger, Mining companies made your refineries more efficient, Cybernetics companies gave you access to Cyborgs, etc.. Also, you made your own units. You stared out with Machinegunners, Grenadiers, and Engineers for Infantry, and a Mobile HQ (Like an MCV), Ore Sniffer (Locates ore under ground so you can build a mining station on it), and a Hummvee, but you could build more vehicles by hiring scientists to research new weapons, computers, armour, accessories (Extra ammo storage, more storage racks (Lets you put more stuff on it without it losing speed)), engines, etc., then you go and build a new vehicle, specifying each part of it, from the Body to the engine to the targeting computer to the little shield generator you slap on the top so those pesky aircraft can't hurt you, then build it (For a lot of money. Prototypes cost millions of dollars to build, and you need a prototype before you can build them in the missions), among other things.

Then there's some old DOS games from WAAAAAY back in the day: Ken's Labyrinth (Ken Silverman, who made the engine that Duke Nukem and number of other games use [the BUILD engine], made it. It's a mazey thing with slot machines, vending machines (For food, cloaks, weapons, etc.), and lots of wierd baddies. The whole point of Ken's Labyrinth was to rescue your dog Sparky from the evil aliens who want to turn earth into jelly for their bagels ) and Blake Stone (A alien shoot 'em up game, with a lot of crazy things in it), among others. Anyone played these?


Note: Sorry for the long winded explanation of these games, but War, Inc. and Silencer are really big games that can't be described with a simple explanation (Like Half-Life can be described as an action game with a pretty good story, Deus Ex can be called a story-based RPG / Action game, and NWN can be described as a really long DnD-Based RPG and an online MMORPG)

[UmmErrKane]

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Just moved it to the right forum...

I've been playing a bit more of War, Inc. lately (Writing about it made me want to play it ). Before I had a really hard time of it because I didn't pay attention to the stock market much, so the only income I had was 10 million dollars here and there from missions, which is nowhere near enough cash to support a research and development department (With around 50 scientists at $10000 a day), and definately not enough to fight a war, since if you want a big base camp, with all the fixins', it's going to cost 3 million, and if you want to mine resources from the other parts of the mission it costs 200000 for a power plant, 450000 for a mining facility (Then 450000 more for every extra one you build, if there's more than one resource mine, which there usually is), then for the hard ones you want a medical tent and a repair facility which cost 1 mil between them, plus 100000 for each engineer (Needed to build and run the buildings), 10000 for each minigunner you want for defense... Really, for the harder missions, you need 12 million on hand, and that doesn't count making new units (I built a MLRS type of thing (But I gave it a sweet engine and added an anti-infantry weapon), and the prototype cost 3 million). The units themselves are pretty much free when in battle (Basically, you need resources to build them, so you have to build the mines, but the units don't cost actual cash), but you need to spend a lot of money to get them (Research the technology, build a prototype, make modifications, etc.)

But, this time I went and actually played with the finance interface, and I was lucky enough to find an interesting BioTech company that was at 20dollars a share (Pretty good for a biotech company), and I bought 150000 shares in it as an investment (In case I ever needed quick cash for a mission), and the price shot up to 200 dollars a share (Sold the stocks for around 8 million dollars profit, then spent those 8million buying more shares in the company, since its price dropped from me selling. They haven't gone anywhere in price really. Right now I'm at an 800000 dollar loss, but it's not a big deal at the moment. I have 25million in stocks and 27 million liquid... I think I'm fine ). Also, I'm up to really high tech levels, and I have power armour (Think of the wolverines and titans in TS. Mine have a 25hp Shield, 105hp of Armour, a 50mm Autocannon, and move fairly fast [Gas Turbine Engine]), which kicks some serious ass.

Also, there seems to be quite a few missions. I think there's 12-25.

Does anyone want the game? It's an old DOS game, so it probably wont work under WindowsXP, but it should work otherwise. Unfortunately, I have an old rip of it (Lost my CD), so it doesn't have sound, I don't think, but it's still good. If anyone wants it, I'll put it on my FTP (Only about 50 megs).

(Oh, I just did a mission for Gamma Airlines [I really needed the cash for a new unit prototype, and I wanted to do some other stuff, like hire a bunch of scientists, so...], and the mission was that their CEO had been kidnapped, and they didn't want to pay the ransom because the CEO's life insurance policy was 500 MILLION dollars (And probably more in case of kidnapping), so they hired me to kill the kidnappers and get his body (Keeping in mind that he hadn't bee killed yet) . The e-mail I got from my boss went something like this: "I don't know wether to scold you on taking that mission, or congradulate you on accomplishing it. One thing's for sure, I'm glad I'm on your side. If I ever get kidnapped, don't come after me. I'll take my chances with the kidnappers")