Rampant Games - Ten Computer RPGs You’ve Never Heard Of

[HiddenX]

Rampant Coyote shows you ten forgotten/obscure RPG-underdogs:

Even so, a lot of these indie games release with nary a splash, sell little or bupkis, abandon the field, leave the website to be devoured by Asian vultures when the registration lapses, and are remembered by almost none. And… admittedly, these games are not usually the diamonds in the rough their creators probably believed. But in many cases, they weren’t bad, and even if they were, sometimes they contained some interesting seeds of good ideas.

More information.

 

[HiddenX]

• Dungeons of Death / Dungeons of Magdarr
• Vampyr: Talisman of Invocation
• The Devil Whiskey
• Parhedros: Tunnels of Sethir
• The Omega Syndrome
• The Three Musketeers – The Game
• Swords & Sorcery: Underworld
• Inaria
• Darklight Dungeon / Darklight Dungeon Eternity
• Axe and Fate Rebirth

I have 5 out of these 10 games. If you know some forgotten gems just reply to this thread.

 

[Sacred_Path]

Used to play Vampyr back in the day. I bought Devil Whiskey recently but it's kinda insanely random. Is it more obscure than Demise? Dunno.

I don't know what qualifies as forgotten here, but there was this shareware bird's view RPG that also purportedly sported an editor. You had a 4 person party including classes like Barbarian, Ninja and Wizard who all leveled up separately. Like other shareware RPG's (I'm looking at you, Aethra Chronicles) only the first module was ever released.

 

[HiddenX]

Many gamers don't know these games:

• Helherron
• ZanZarah
• Prelude to Darkess
• Nahlakh
• Hired Guns
• 7,62 High Calibre
• Venetica
• Demise: Rise of the Ku'tan
• Evil Islands

 

[Deleted User]

The Konung series. Konung 2 was a lot of fun.

 

[Kordanor]

Had fun with Evil Islands when it came out. I think you were able to target certain body parts in combat which was something I haven't seen before.

7.62 High Calibre felt like an extremely cheap version of Jagged Alliance in Real Time. However, that is still worlds better than Hired Guns: The Jagged Edge, which should have been Jagged Alliance 3 at some point, but they lost the license and the game turned out to be a horrible mess.

From the ones of the linked page, so far "The Devil Whiskey" looked interesting, I really like the graphics, but the combat isn't something which really appeals to me in that one.

And if I remember right, the Dude making Swords & Sorcery: Underworld wanted to upgrade everything with a new engine at some point. So I'll wait till that happens.

 

[Sacred_Path]

I remember now, the game's name was Azalta. Not that it's good for much more than archival purposes.

We also shouldn't forget to mention the Yendorian Tales series. Those have aged rather well IMO, especially part II + III. I would recommend those over the old Might & Magic's, actually.

 

[Swann]

From the list of Rampant Coyote (apart from Frayed Knights) I have played Swords and Sorcery and Darklight Dungeon (I think the last is from Indonesia, and its atmosphere are really really dark)
From HiddenX list I´ve played Evil Island, a russian game that I recommend.
I will try to remember some titles that I played and forgot myself.

 

[Icefire]

Anito: Defend A Land Enraged was a neat little rpg from the Phillipines that very few heard of. I still have the original game cd I purchased directly from the devs years ago.

Spells Of Gold maybe fits here as well.

 

[Nephologist]

Wow, The Devil Whiskey looks great. Wonder how I missed that one, I thought I was familiar with all of the blobber dungeon crawlers out there.

 

[HiddenX]

Some more:

• Dark Disciples
• Motelsoft games
• Yendorian Tales
• Mininions of Mirth
• The Demon's Mantra
• The Warriors Tale
• Amaranth-Games

Some downloads can be found here.

@Kordanor
I meant the Amiga game: Hired Guns

 

[forgottenlor]

I've actually played 3 games on that list. But I like to give these little indie games a try.

 

[Donkerman]

Teudogar the alliance with rome by wolf mittag.

 

[rune_74]

I designed a few areas in minions of mirth back in the day

 

[crpgnut]

Excelsior: Tales of Lysandia
Helherron, Natuk, and Nahlakh were all by Tom Proudfoot
Yendorian Tales is a lot of fun, especially for those who love MM3-5
Warwizard, which is here somewhere.
Paladin 1 & 2
Sentinel Worlds: Future Magic
Amberstar and Ambermoon
Prophecy of the Shadow
Questron 2
Aethra Chronicles
Magic Candle 1-3
Keys to Maramon
Thunderscape

I grabbed most of these from an old box of floppies laying on my desk

 

[HiddenX]

Amberstar and Ambermoon are German, not obscure

Many gamers don't know the excellent Russian RPGs:
Rage of Mages 1 & 2 - predecessors of Evil Islands

 

[Lemonhead]

The Omega Syndrome looks really cool. Wish it was available on Steam or similar...

 

[Kordanor]

Wasn't Rage of Mages more of a Diablo Clone? I just checked the screenshots and realized that I actually played it. I don't remember much, but what I remember that I played it in multiplayer and that it was extremely tied to stats and items, almost something like the initial DOTA experience. But it was great for what it did.
It's really weird to completely forget games like this...

 

[Xian]

I have probably played about half of the ones on crpgnut's list but only Inaria from Coyote's and Yendorian Tales from HiddenX's list.

I played the original Questron on an Atari 800 (one of my first RPGs ever played), and the 2nd one on the Atari ST.

To add some of the lesser known but not really obscure ones I played in the past on the Atari or Amiga:
Bloodwych
Galdregon's Domain/Deathbringer
Antepenult - this even used the Ultima tile set
The Black Crypt - this was from Raven but surprised at the number of people that never heard of it

 

[Capt. Huggy Face]

I'd buy that Omega Syndrome in a second...