Epic Games and 3d Realms

[NeoZeedeater]

In less than a decade, Epic Games(formerly Epic MegaGames) rose from small-time shareware company to one of the biggest names in PC gaming. Let's take a look at the games developed and/or published by Epic. These are for PC although a few of their later games also appeared on Mac.

ZZT(1991)
This ASCII-based adventure was Epic's first release.


Palace of Deceit(1991)
This adventure game was Cliff Bleszinski's first game for Epic. It was followed by Dare to Dream in 1993.

Jill of the Jungle(1992)
This was a three game series of platformers. While the graphics were quite crude, even for their time, they got the gameplay right. I would love to see the trilogy remade for GBA.


Highway Hunter(1992)
This was Safari Software's first shooter for Epic.


Overkill(1992)
A decent vertical shooter by Tech-Noir.

Kiloblaster(1992)

Brix(1992)

Jason Storm in Space Chase(1993)
This Safari Software platformer looks similar to the 2d Duke Nukem games.

Castle of the Winds(1993)
A Rogue-ish RPG.
http://grey-starr.ca/extra-pages/cas..._the_winds.htm

Ken's Labyrinth(1993)
I remember this game sucking refried monkey schlong but it's worth noting that it was created by the same guy who made the Build Engine, Ken Silverman.


Solar Winds(1993)
Digital Extremes developed this series of space action/adventure games.

Traffic Department 2192(1993)
Another shooter from Safari.

Xargon(1993)
http://www.mobygames.com/game/covers...8/gameId,1057/

Zone 66(1993)
This was one of my favorite shareware shooters.

Developed by Digital Extremes, the Epic Pinball(1993) series included some impressive pinball action.



Jazz Jackrabbit(1993)
Sonic with a gun is the best way to describe Jazz. Jazz is nowhere near Sonic-quality but it was still a better than average platformer and I quite enjoyed it. It had some slick 3d bonus rounds too.


Jazz Jackrabbit Christmas Edition(1995)


I didn't play much of its 1998 sequel but it seemed inferior to the first game. Jazz was also re-released recently for GBA by Game Titan/Jaleco.

One Must Fall: 2097(1994)
Diversion's One Must Fall was originally under development as a martial arts-themed fighting game(the beta exists on the 'net) but was released as a futuristic fighter. It was no Street Fighter gameplay-wise but I still liked it.


Adventures of Robbo(1994)This puzzle game was developed by xLand Games.

Electroman(1994)
All I remember about this game is that it was a platformer and your character looked like Robocop.

Twisted Pine Software developed three video board games for Epic in 1995: Epic Checkers, Epic Connect and Epic Hoppers.

Tyrian(1995)
Tyrian was Safari's most popular shooter.


It had a sequel in 1999 called Tyrian 2000.

Radix: Beyond the Void(1995)
A Descent-style game from Neural Storm.


Drowned God(1996)
An adventure game developed by Inscape.


Seek and Destroy(1996)
I think Safari developed this one too but I'm not sure.


7th Legion(1997)
A strategy game that got bad reviews.


Fire Fight(1997)
A Desert Strike-ish game developed by Chaos Works.


Unreal(1998)
Unreal didn't bring anything new to the FPS genre gameplay-wise but graphically it was mindblowing. Epic made a lot of cash licensing out the Unreal engine to various companies. A Dreamcast port was under development but it never made it out.

The more recent Unreal 2 also managed to be a very nice-looking yet average-playing game. It was developed by Legend Entertainment.

Age of Wonders(1999) Triumph Studios co-produced this revered turn-based strategy game with Epic. It was followed Age of Wonders II: The Wizard's Throne in 2001 and Age of Wonders: Shadow Magic in 2003. AoW2 is shown here.


Unreal Tournament(1999)
Now this is a game I can never give enough compliments to. UT was my Game of the Year for '99 and my most played online game. It was the perfect multiplayer FPS. The low-gravity level Morpheus is my favorite one. Like with Unreal, Digital Extremes is co-credited with Epic on the game.


UT was ported to PS2 and DC. The DC version was a decent port although still no substitute for the PC game.

It's a shame nearly every UT fan was disappointed by its sequel Unreal Tournament 2003. I haven't played it much myself since my computer can't handle it.


There's also Unreal Championship(2002) for Xbox Live.


And let's hope UT2K4 for PC turns out okay. The vehicle additions look very cool.



Your thoughts on Epic and related companies?

[The Bastard]

So many memories with Jazz Jackrabbit, One Must Fall 2097, Age of Wonders and of course the Unreal series.

Easily one of the more fan friendly developers. They actually post on their official message board on a regular basis. Too bad they get so much freaking flack for making Unreal Tournament 2003. UT'99 fanboys can't even decide why they hate the game other than "it's not popular" or because it doesn't play like UT'99.

For those who hate Unreal, you can leave the hate outside. There is enough of it as it is.

[Diff-chan]

Ill mention a couple things:

I think Jazz Jackrabbit is terrible.

if you've never played Fire Fight, you must. The game is simply an awesome 2D, Strike-esque shooter. It's really good... like... really good.

UT is also my GOTY for 1999, and yes Unreal Tournament 2003 is a big piece of shit. Its the 2nd worst sequel Ive ever played (worst is Jet Set Radio Future). It's just a terrible, unfun game, and what makes it doubly bad is that its the sequel to one of the best games ever.

The Bastard, Ill tell you why I hate Unreal Tournament 2003. I posted it in my Summer Gaming Roundup:

Unreal Tournament 2003: Epic, why do you not care? This game is terrible. They ruined the good weapons from the first game (the sniper rifle in UT was the coolest thing ever, in 2003 its the biggest piece of shit ever). The game is wrapped up in the most hideous faux-sports setup since Pit-Ball. The characters are lame. The interface is more-gamey but less functional than the Windows-esque one from the first game (in other words, its worse). Sure the map design is good, but thats only because Epic took a lot of maps from the first game and updated the graphics! And most of the new maps suck ass! This game just blows. Epic used to be great, at least... but with this and Unreal 2, its clear the franchise is destroyed. 2/10.

And I also failed to mention there that they changed Domination, which was my favorite game mode. Double Domination was okay but the original was wayyyyyyy better if you ask me.

And there's a reason why it's not popular - because it sucks ass!

I agree Epic is one of those developers that cares about its fans, but there's still no excuse for the apathy that is clearly evident everytime I play UT2k3.

[Victrix]

Silverball totally ruled, I'm still trying to find a full copy of that somewhere. Dunno if you can still order all of their classic games or not.

Something curious is that people from the demo group Future Crew, who did one of the coolest demos evar wound up working at Epic and Remedy and whatever that fruity Final Reality company is. Skaven for one is at Remedy, his music ruled. I know Necros did music for UT, possibly some of the others as well. UT had the most pimpin soundtrack. Contrast with UT2k3 which had... well. yeah.

[animegirl]

I hated that Jill of the Jungle game. It was the only game my friend had on her computer and I had to use the keyboard to play it. It was pretty boring. And why is she jumping over concrete blocks in the jungle?

[The Bastard]

Seriously DiffusionX, that was the most reasonable explanation I've heard or read for why somebody hates UT2003.

Yes they overdid the whole nerfing weapons thing, but man some of those weapons in UT were way too abusable (minigun, ripper, translocator, sniper.....) and had to be weakened at least a little bit. Otherwise with the slower general gameplay speed of UT2003, it would of been almost unplayable with the outrageous spammy weapons. I'd have to agree that the whole sports theme was outright retarded and that they shouldn't of changed Domination at all cause Double Domination sucks ass. System requirements and being severely unN00B friendly would also add to lack of popularity. You didn't mention Bombing Run, adrenaline or the added mobility manuvers (double jump, wall jumps....). Any opinions on those?

Hopefully the return of the Sniper Rifle, Dual Assault Rifles, UWindows like interface, UT characters, better netcode and the whole vehicle thing make UT2004 at least kinda better. UT2003 was definitely a rushed game and they better not make the same stupid mistake with UT2004. I'm buying it anyways either way....

I still can't believe you think any maps are good in UT2003......

[Regus]

Dreamcast port of Unreal Tournament was awful. Shoddy ass controls that you could not customize, which in stark contrast Quake 3 let you custmize everything, the music was annoying, the loading time was awful, you couldn't switch teams once you entered an online game, and since the game didn't tell you who was on what team in the lobby you might of ended as the only guy on a team against 7 other people, and there was nothing you could do about it. And there was that bug that allowed people to litterally bring online games to a slow crawl by flooding the chat.

Garbage.

[Diff-chan]

The Bastard, no I like some of the maps in UT2K3... but those maps are the ones that were from the original game. Most of the new ones I didnt like one bit, in fact I thought they were mostly terrible, in particular that outdoors level with the bone walkways... pretty to look at but very little fun to play. The one map I did like... hmm... it had like two main rooms and a spirally walkway that went way up high. Pretty decent map. But other than that, ugh I thought they were crappy.

Bombing Run was okay, but I didnt feel a pressing need to play it but I would peg it as mediocre at best. Adrenaline, to me, was a good idea but the implementation was horrible and it didn't really add much to the game either way. Ditto with the new manuevers.

From what you said about 2k4 (I havent kept up on the development because 2K3 soured me), it seems as though Epic realized their mistakes and are trying to fix them. Thats a good thing! Im glad they realized they fucked up horribly with 2K3.

[NeoZeedeater]

I'm not a huge Quake 3 fan but I agree with Regus that if we're talking Dreamcast, Q3A was ported much better than UT.

Animegirl20, having to use a keyboard would kill the fun out of any platformer.

[holsomeness]

Thanks for reminding me about Epic Pinball. I need to get that up and running again. That screen with the cyber woman was always my favorite but it always glitched on me. Enigma was a real trip as well.

A guy I knew in college did some freelance animation for JJ2. I'm not sure what part of the game he worked on.