News X-COM comes to Steam

http://www.bit-tech.net/news/2008/09/05/x-com-comes-to-steam/1

If you're a fan of the old X-COM games then you'll be thrilled to know you can pick them up now off Steam.

 

Oooo awesome

 

I already own them all in the original versions, but I think I'll purchase again just for the ease of use It looks like they're releasing the early ones with tweaked versions of dosbox included so they can run in xp/vista. (though they've apparently not finished doing it for all of them yet)

I'd highly reccommend them to anyone who likes a bit of strategy and depth in there games, although feel free to forget enforcer exists

 

looks abit passed it.....to play old games again is kewl but to give an old game a chance hmm dunno, control system ok? Golden Axe is my baby! and Deathtrack.

 

Hmm well i must have missed these but they sound worth a try...

 

I bought the Boxset a few years back, excellent game and i wish Games Workshop would release a version of Warhammer 40k in the same style as this.

 

I wonder if the old DOS prompt debug hacks still work for these new versions XD

 

Excellent! This game brings back very fond memories. The first two installments are the best IMHO. It may look very dated, but its a great tactical game. There's nothing better than leveling an entire level; buildings, fences, trees, anything to smouldering rubble in a heated exchange with the invaders. First game to have a destructable environment? A favourite tactic of mine later in the game when you got jet pack suits and those guided missles was to blow a hole in the roof of the alien spaceship, send a few guided missles in through the hole, and then storm in with your jet pack suited troops.

May buy the first two if I cannot find my original X-COM CDs.

 

Greetings!

Terror from the Deep... Great game!

My favourite tactic for finishing off alien bases was to send two soldiers equiped with the mind control device and four "tanks" as backups.
The soldiers would control the aliens and use them to kill other aliens, the tanks provided cover for the two soldiers and recon.

The terror sites in ships were hard!

 

Oh man, I can't believe that they are now on Steam, they are so superb! Yes I know the graphics look like they belong on the stoneage but its the gameplay that defines the brilliance of this pair of all time classics. If you have even a vague interest in strategy games you need to play both XCom UFO and Terror from the Deep.

XCom can be tough especially in the later stages of the game when you come under strong psionic attacks (and sheesh, the final assault on the offworld base!!) but TftD is murderously hard right from the start - the dreaded Lobstermen!! I also recall dealing with the Chrysalids from the first game was quite challenging as well, especially on terror sites when they used the civvies as hosts for the zombies.

Bu the way I agree with the destructable landscape mention above, the petrols stations were the best if you have large number of aliens in the area. It was also the best way to deal with those pesky Sectoid snipers, particularly during the early parts of the game when your weapons are fairly weak - a couple of H.E. rockets sorted the little buggers out. Although it was kind of hard to do an autopsy on a pureed corpse.

 

Who says the graphics are terrible? They have got more style in their 16x16 pixels than most games have in their HDR, bump mapped Havok enabled wonderlands! No one complains that pac-man, mario or sonic is too 'blocky'- do they? It's a strange mash of anime, horror, scifi, comic book wonder- with a level of detail that rewards the patient eye. All I'm trying to say is that the game oozes atmosphere and style with such ease it makes you wonder what all that recent processor speed has been spent on.

It's easy to appreciate old skool action games with 'poor' graphics because the basic gameplay isn't miles away from a game with 'good' graphics.... but when it comes to strategy games, it's too easy to slate something by way of it's graphics style and forget that there is a great game beneath.

Sorry, I freaking love this game- at the time it was groundbreaking- like GTA3 x a million.

 

Anybody else have the floppy diskettes for this game? Great stuff. Gave me more than a few chills when playing.

 

X-Com: Ufo Defence. The words are orgasmic to true Gamers. One need look no further for one of the best games ever made, PC, console or otherwise.

S*D

 

The Gollop twins were amazing. Also enjoyed Laser Squad and Rebelstar on the ZX Spectrum. *chuu puishk d-d-d-d-d-d-d-d wuwuwuw didl-tik* (sound of getting shot, spinning round and dying!)

I don't know if I'd play through the UFO series again though - the first game took me a few months to enjoy and complete, and I dont know if I have the time any more. These days games which take a few hours to complete, sadly, are more accessible to me.

UFO Enemy Unknown Intro

 

This is awesome but are they compatable with Vista?
The TFTD page on steam says Vista is not compatable.

 

The chap from 2K who is managing them has said that he plans to make the dos version of TFTD available alongside the current windows one so it can be run on vista through a custom dosbox shortcut as the first one is right now, but hasn't given an exact time/date for when it will happen. Getting them all working in vista seems to be one of there goals although they apparently don't actually have the source code for the games, so they're stuck with figuring out ways to emulate things to get them working.

 

I'm sure I've got them working in Vista in dosbox before, but that was using the abandonware versions from places like the underdogs. I definately got apocalypse to work (my favourite one because it has more depth i.e. factions).

 

I didn't realise they were using emulation to get it working.
Would be cool to see an open version created like OpenTTD.

 

Um... They did... it was Chaos Gate
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Warhammer_40,000:_Chaos_Gate

 

I've been playing UFO:Afterlight a lot lately and its a great successor to the old games.