What are some western developed games made before 2000 that you liked?

[BeefJerky]

Interplay had some great games too

Troof!

Surprised no one has mentioned Fallout or Descent yet.

 

[sirlynxalot]

Some cool car driving games. Stunts, need for speed, road rash, destruction Derby, rock n roll racing. Vehicle sims seemed to be more popular in the West. I don't know of that many Japanese flight sims for pc.

Blizzard, another Western dev with pretty solid output. Psygnosis too, I guess.

 

[100proof]

Pretty much anything Rare developed is good on the console front

Rare developed a lot of terrible games for the NES as a contractor including all-time turds like Nightmare on Elm Street, the licensed WWF games and Taboo the Sixth Sense. I'm sure the budgets and dev timelines for those games were abysmal but yeah, a lot of Rare's output from that era sucks... people just don't talk about them as "Rare" games.

 

[Neo Alec]

Rare developed a lot of terrible games for the NES as a contractor including all-time turds like Nightmare on Elm Street, the licensed WWF games and Taboo the Sixth Sense. I'm sure the budgets and dev timelines for those games were abysmal but yeah, a lot of Rare's output from that era sucks... people just don't talk about them as "Rare" games.

Nightmare on Elm Street is close to being a good game. Needs some rebalancing. I appreciated the 4-player at the time, and the soundtrack from David Wise is pretty good.

 

[roker]

Everything from Atari Games, the arcade division:

Hard drivin
Race drivin
Toobin
Stun runner
Paperboy
720
Marble madness
Gauntlet
Roadblasters

All those early games before fighting games took over the arcades. The graphics had high res pixels, and clear voice sampling. Most of the best ports ended up on the Atari Lynx.

Midway was no slouch either with:

Narc
Smash tv
Rampage
Xenophobe
Total Carnage
Arch Rivals

The landscape changed so much after the release of Street Fighter II.

 

[famicommander]

Tempest.

 

[Hattori Hanzo]

• Lords of the Realm 1 & 2
• Heroes of Might & Magic 1-3
• Might & Magic RPGs
• Elder Scrolls 1 & 2
• Master of Magic
• Panzer General
• Baldur's Gate
• Age of Empires 1 & 2

 

[StevenK]

Wipeout

 

[Hattori Hanzo]

Older Psygnosis games too.

 

[Burning Fight!!]

end of thread

 

[terry.330]

Rayman 1&2
Flashback
Road Rash
Need for Speed: Hot Pursuit
Toe Jam & Earl
Zombies Ate My Neighbors
Wipeout 2097/3
Shadowrun
American McGee's Alice

 

[Heinz]

Half-Life and all it's spinoffs
Duke Nukem
Age of Empires
Command and Conquer
Fury3
Need for Speed
Probably others

 

[wyo]

Plenty of great Western developed games pre-2000. If you know, you know. If you don't, fuck you.

 

[Lagduf]

Fallout 2.

 

[fake]

Sonic 2, one of the only good things to come out of Texas.

I liked Tomb Raider at the time.

Battletoads.

 

[Gentlegamer]

StarCraft

 

[LoneSage]

Sonic 2, one of the only good things to come out of Texas.

Not Texas, but San Francisco. Even back in the 90s I was surprised it was made in America. When you mentioned this, I had to look up some information on it.

A short article about it being made in America and the Japanese and American teams working together: https://www.gameinformer.com/b/feat...-how-sonic-2-became-sega-ace-in-the-hole.aspx

Mobygames Credits list: https://www.mobygames.com/game/6611/sonic-the-hedgehog-2/credits/genesis/?autoplatform=true

All the important roles - Producer, Director, Chief Programmer, Game Planner, Chief Artist - were done by Sega's Japanese team.

Zone Artists, which I guess is the level art design, is a mixture.

And wow, this finally makes sense after 30 years, but the special stages and CG were done by two Americans. This really makes so much sense because the special stage aesthetic was completely different from the real game.

So my verdict, Sonic 2 was developed in America and a cooperation made between Japanese and American team members, but the work was still largely done by the Japanese team.

 

[sirlynxalot]

So my verdict, Sonic 2 was developed in America and a cooperation made between Japanese and American team members, but the work was still largely done by the Japanese team.

The Japanese team apparently stayed in the office all hours of the night after the Americans went home and did stuff like, throw out level and enemy art the Americans made and replace it with other stuff. The various sonic 2 betas have all kinds of stuff that didn't make it into the game that seem not really up to the standard of the final game, such as "Wood Zone".

The group got in touch with Brenda Cook, an artist at Sega Technical Institute who created plenty of level art for the game… though none of it actually ended up getting used in the end. She provided a VHS tape of her portfolio of work at STI.

Brenda created Wood Zone's graphics, as well as some other desert and snow levels that were scrapped. Yuji Naka had been persuaded to come to the US to work on Sonic 2 but whether he was a control freak or through culture clash with American working styles or standards, there was apparently definite tension between him and the American side of the team and I get the idea the American side of the team had very limited influence on the final product.

Here's some enemies made by Tom Payne on the American side of the team, that got replaced by the Japanese team.
View attachment 1708227498815.webp

 

[fake]

Not Texas, but San Francisco. Even back in the 90s I was surprised it was made in America. When you mentioned this, I had to look up some information on it.

A short article about it being made in America and the Japanese and American teams working together: https://www.gameinformer.com/b/feat...-how-sonic-2-became-sega-ace-in-the-hole.aspx

Mobygames Credits list: https://www.mobygames.com/game/6611/sonic-the-hedgehog-2/credits/genesis/?autoplatform=true

All the important roles - Producer, Director, Chief Programmer, Game Planner, Chief Artist - were done by Sega's Japanese team.

Zone Artists, which I guess is the level art design, is a mixture.

And wow, this finally makes sense after 30 years, but the special stages and CG were done by two Americans. This really makes so much sense because the special stage aesthetic was completely different from the real game.

So my verdict, Sonic 2 was developed in America and a cooperation made between Japanese and American team members, but the work was still largely done by the Japanese team.

Ah gotcha. I thought it was San Antonio, so at least I got the San right. I am also half joking because it was mostly a product of Japanese devs living in the US. Mark Cerny was of course super important obviously though, and it’s good to see him still being a leader in the industry re: the PS5 hardware.

 

[LoneSage]

All we get is an ssia, sage?
Hey guys, list the non-Japanese video games you like from the thousands upon thousands that were released up until the year 2000.

Arcade-wise, there were some fun western games. Ones already listed like Smash TV, Hard Drivin', Mortal Kombat, and a few others.

But even as a child I could tell the difference in quality between western and Japanese games. It was a chasm, a no-brainer, Olympics and Special Olympics.

On one side you got Capcom, Konami, Nintendo, Sega, Tecmo, Toaplan, Irem, SNK, Square, and on and on and on.

On the other side you got LJN, Acclaim, US Gold, Ocean, Midway and I don't even care to think up any more.

The best of the American or European developers lied in the point 'n click or FPS genres. LucasArts with the revered Monkey Island and Maniac Mansion series (among others) and id Software with Doom and Quake. I recognize those are great games and well-received, but I never liked those genres.

I'm not saying all western-made games before 2000 suck, that'd be retarded. I loved quite a few, like Goldeneye, San Francisco Rush, Donkey Kong Country 2, Spyro 2, and a few more I'm sure I'm forgetting.

But in a choice between Mario and Bubsy, Street Fighter or Way of the Warrior, Contra or whatever dogshit run 'n gunner there was made by non-Japanese, it's just no contest. No contest whatsoever.

In the mid and late-90s you start seeing stuff like Tomb Raider, Crash Bandicoot, Spyro and more teams making good games. Then you have Half-Life, Halo, and GTAIII which changed gaming forever.

But pre-2000, forget about it.

I'm sure this subject is completely different for our European brothers, who talk about Amiga and other computers, which is something we Americans have no connection with.

 

[LoneSage]

The Japanese team apparently stayed in the office all hours of the night after the Americans went home and did stuff like, throw out level and enemy art the Americans made and replace it with other stuff. The various sonic 2 betas have all kinds of stuff that didn't make it into the game that seem not really up to the standard of the final game, such as "Wood Zone".

View attachment 72091



Brenda created Wood Zone's graphics, as well as some other desert and snow levels that were scrapped. Yuji Naka had been persuaded to come to the US to work on Sonic 2 but whether he was a control freak or through culture clash with American working styles or standards, there was apparently definite tension between him and the American side of the team and I get the idea the American side of the team had very limited influence on the final product.

Here's some enemies made by Tom Payne on the American side of the team, that got replaced by the Japanese team.

This is the best post you've ever made, congratulations. After I posted that I thought to myself there's no way the Americans spent all-nighters on Sonic 2. I've been reading lots of interviews with Japanese developers and nearly every interview they mention how they'd sleep in the office and not take a day off.

That screenshot of Wood Zone says everything that needed to be said. Comparing Wood Zone with any zone in the final product is a perfect encapsulation on why western developers could never dream to hang with the Japanese.

So the major (only?) things the Americans did on Sonic 2:
-the special stages
-the marketing, Sonic 2sday

aaaaaaaaaand that's about it.

 

[theMot]

if you had and Commodore Amiga or PC back then, Japanese developers were non existent.

Command and Conquer, stunt car racer. Grand Prix 2, Speedball 2, Sensible soccer… Many others, all quality.

 

[Tron]

Arcade
Gauntlet II
Gauntlet Legends
Paperboy
Discs of Tron
Missile Command
NBA Jam
Smash TV
MKII
Marble Madness
Defender

Console
Wizards and Warriors
Earthworm Jim
Tomb Raider
Wipeout
Road Rash II
DKC
Duke Nukem 3D
Jungle Strike

Yeah i mention tomb raider sure it has tank controls but i got use to them.I just like the sense of exploration for the first tomb raider and it's atmosphere i been thinking about buying that remastered collection to.

 

[yagamikun]

Kinda surprised nobody has mentioned the Turrican series. These were a lot of fun.

Also, the Delphine Software games like Flashback, Another World, etc.

Qix is another favorite. The original arcade release of Qix I believe was made by a husband a wife team here in the US and published by Taito America. Playing Qix on the Atari 800XL computer is my earliest gaming memory from...1982/3? I still have the cart.

 

[Heinz]

Who could forget Carmageddon? haha what a game, hey granny eat my fuckin wheel!