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The Internet’s Forgotten Games

October 1st, 2010 by Benj Edwards

12 Forgotten Online Games

I’ve been working too hard and my brain feels like a block of sand (whatever that means), but I need to share this link with you before I collapse.

Just today, PCMag published my latest piece for them, a slideshow of 12 “forgotten” online games that you can still play. It’s mostly composed of intriguing telnet classics, although a few ancient, overlooked MMOs show up on the list as well.

I hope you enjoy it. If you do, please spread word of it far and wide. Leave no door unknocked; no word of slideshow evangelism unsaid. Tattoos — lots of tattoos. If you succeed, there will be more to come.



This entry was posted on Friday, October 1st, 2010 at 4:28 pm and is filed under BBS History, Computer Games, Computer History, Internet History, Retrogaming, Vintage Computing. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can skip to the end and leave a response. Pinging is currently not allowed.

8 Responses to “The Internet’s Forgotten Games”

  1. Dementropy Says:
    October 1st, 2010 at 7:38 pm

    Benj,

    I love all of your articles. Many bring back such great memories. I wanted to read this article and see the slide show, but when I click to see the slides, I get the following:

    Error in ISAPI_Rewrite helper ISAPI extension.
    12030 – The connection with the server was terminated abnormally
    File: .\AsyncProxyContext.cpp, Line: 1082.
    Intrenal Error

    Just a heads up.

  2. Benj Edwards Says:
    October 1st, 2010 at 8:04 pm

    Thanks for your comment, Dementropy. I’m glad you like my stuff. I don’t get that error, though. Maybe it was just a temporary server problem on their end. Which link are you clicking on to get the error?

  3. Dementropy Says:
    October 1st, 2010 at 8:43 pm

    Good call, Benj. It was just a temporary error.

    Keep it up! Your articles are my bastion for tech memories peppered with wit.

  4. Pedro C Says:
    October 1st, 2010 at 11:30 pm

    MUD!!! I so miss my MUDs and the quirky clients we used to use like tintin and ZMUD.

  5. JackSoar Says:
    October 2nd, 2010 at 5:17 pm

    I always enjoy reading about these relics of a digital age long past. Back in 2004-2005, my brother ran a MUD and it was great fun hanging out in that textual world. So much so that when he recently convinced me to finally give WoW a try, (I’m generally not a modern MMO fan) I was actually disappointed and quit after a couple days.

    Yes, I am in my 20s, and I prefer playing text-based MUDs to WoW. You read that correctly.

  6. Thomas Says:
    October 4th, 2010 at 6:13 am

    This made me remember a funny anecdote from playing a space MUD way back. I went to an uninhabited planet and got out to explore a bit. It was a moment of shock when the game told me that my ship was departing, leaving me stranded there. I cursed the creators of the game for planting this terrible trap.

    I thought my game was ruined until i “heard” another ship setting down on the planet. When that player went out to explore the planet, as I had done, I went over and stole the ship and continued to explore the galaxy. Needless to say, I got very cautious when landing on planets efter that! I wonder if that cycle’s still going on?

    ——

    As usual an informative and interesting article, Benj. But I miss some info about which year it launched on some games. Other than that – an enjoyable read as always!

  7. Donn Says:
    October 4th, 2010 at 5:41 pm

    Back in high school, the computer lab administrator, who oversaw the network of IBM PS/2s, put Barons on the system. Now THAT was fun, jumping on during a break or lunch to make a move, trying to keep up with your friends.

  8. Ant Says:
    October 7th, 2010 at 4:32 pm

    Grr. Why does Amazing Maze 2 still require IE? 🙁

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