What classic wargames deserve a 21st Century makeover?

Rico

Rico

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I'd love to see some classic games being updated and given a makeover(both graphics and game engines) into the 21st Century... what's on your list?

Two of the ones that I cut my PC wargaming teeth on would be Steel Panthers and the Campaign Series games.

Both absolute classics and Steel Panthers at times was addicitve ... but neither does very well on modern screen resolutions and the mechanics all seem clunky and outdated.
 
Not that these are classics by any means... but a lot of the early S&T/SPI board games (by Dunnigan, Simonsen, et. al) would be great with enhanced Tiller features, etc... don't forget for you 'puter young'ins that S&T won thirteen Charles S. Roberts/Origins Awards between 1974 and 2009, and in 1997 the magazine was inducted into the Adventure Gaming Hall of Fame

I always thought, the base game (original, OOB, scale, etc) fit into the proper engine (which should be 'generically' transportable across scales...) with then the ability for the purchasers to do 'what ifs' would be awesome...

Granted 'Vassal' is a great tool for recreation of playing 'board games', heck my friend GJK (another old timer) has done massive work in the Vassal arena... but it is a 'recreation' of the game with the boards and charts and die rolls, using the computer as an interface.. cool.. but not my cup of tea... plus the great games are not Vassal compliant (in S&T case they wont give release of the copyrights)... there is also hexwar.com

Anywho... I just want my 'Combat Command' S&T #30 which I playtested against (yep J.F.D) down in the 'dump' at 23rd Street, NYC... a hang out of mine at 14-16yrs...
1361542921.jpg


And I want it ELECTRONIC!!!!!

a little walk in history, I think I am going to cry... Suck it up Fredrocker, board gamers don't cry... lol
 
UMS: Universal Military Simulator.
There was one dealing with the Civil War and another with a Vietnam setting. I think this one was one of my first real military strategy games I played at the age of 12 or so. Needless to say I didn`t really understood this piece of software and therefore I don`t even know if it was a good game or not. But I liked it and got me hooked playing more complex niche military games apart of all the mainstream games.

 
Well, Combat Mission : Battle for Normandy and Fortress Italy could use a big "overhaul".... :D The soldiers are all moving as if they were handicaped in some way.

But seriously - this would be my list:

Incubation
Battle Isle
History Line
Steel Panthers
Soldiers at War
101 Airborne in the Normandy
Empire Earth
Baldur's Gate / Icewind Dale

The "Men of War" series with an option for PBEM gaming and turn based mode.
 
Rico said:
I'd love to see some classic games being updated and given a makeover(both graphics and game engines) into the 21st Century... what's on your list?

Two of the ones that I cut my PC wargaming teeth on would be Steel Panthers and the Campaign Series games.

Both absolute classics and Steel Panthers at times was addicitve ... but neither does very well on modern screen resolutions and the mechanics all seem clunky and outdated.
Click to expand...
Definitely the SP series including SPMBT.
 
Shorker said:
Well, Combat Mission : Battle for Normandy and Fortress Italy could use a big "overhaul".... :D The soldiers are all moving as if they were handicaped in some way.

But seriously - this would be my list:

Incubation
Battle Isle
History Line
Steel Panthers
Soldiers at War
101 Airborne in the Normandy
Empire Earth
Baldur's Gate / Icewind Dale

The "Men of War" series with an option for PBEM gaming and turn based mode.
Click to expand...
Baldur's Gate and Baldur's Gate 2 both came out in Enhanced updated versions this past year. But I haven't played them so I don't know if they are considered worthwhile overhauls or not.
 
Thank you for your information - I have the "remastered" version of BG I but didn't play it very often since my main character was killed... LOL!!! ;)

The game runs on Win 7 now but the graphics is not really made better (not much improved). I guess with the programme "Virtual Box" you could just
run your old original game on a modern calculator as well. Haven't tried Virtual Box yet - currently fiddling around with FRAPS and Windows Video Maker
to make Combat Mission videos. ;)
 
I'd like to see Wooden Ships, Iron Men updated. Great board game, pretty good computer game, would be very cool if it could be upgraded.

I lthink Age of Rifles deserves an update as well. Task Force 1942 was good and could use an update, although Battlestation Midway probably meets that need. Does anyone remember was it 360 Pacific or some such publisher had the Battles series, like Utah Beach, a series of four of them , they were similar in scope (operational) to TOAW, but better supply modeling, they were good. 688i would be good updated and also Gary Grigsby's Carrier War game updated might be fun. Mig Alley, the Korean War flight sim updated would be fun.

Anybody ever play the OGRE board games, I think Steve Jackson games published them? I'd like to see that game series on a computer. I also would like to see the old Zeppelin title updated as well. I also like Koei's PTO for PC, would like to see that one updated.
 
Hericles said:
Baldur's Gate and Baldur's Gate 2 both came out in Enhanced updated versions this past year. But I haven't played them so I don't know if they are considered worthwhile overhauls or not.
Click to expand...

I'm currently in the middle of a co-op with the first one with some friends. It's alright but the multiplayer code is a bit spotty (connection problems) and the enhanced edition, though it looks a little prettier hasn't had much done in the way of gameplay. Sad to say it hasn't aged all that well.
 
First and foremost, Steel Panthers. Campaign Series just got a new major patch and Tiller's new Panzer Battles is of a scale very similar to CS.
 
Sid meier´s Gettysburg and Antietam would look great with some destructive terrain. Not that they don´t stand up today though.
 
@Fredrocker I think the great shame for us older gamers is that whilst the games are good on all the platforms (PC, Apple et al), they aren't as good as the boardgames - and even worse they still haven't managed to create a credible opponent in any of them - hence us all looking for pbem opponents.

Like you I would love to see some of the SPI greats computerised, tho I also think The Gamers were the natural 'sons' of SPI and they had great ideas like forcing games into series instead of having to learn every game a new.

I still play Vassal occasionally on some of these - tho mostly solo - and I am even still buying board games tho I am not sure why - since I play opponents so rarely...

Sadly I think the cardboard is still in my blood...
 
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