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Comment by gwicks56 | Hacker News Reader

I had totally forgotten about Descent, thank you for the reminder. That game seriously scared me as a 13 yo boy at the time. I loved it.

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The entire genre of flight and space-sims has almost entirely gone away and to me its such a tremendous shame- with today's multi-monitor setups and wide screens they would be such a better experience. X-wing, descent, flight simulator, were all so much fun. I still have my MS sidewinder collecting dust in a closet- which may be part of the problem- these games really needed a decent flight stick to enjoy, and that's a big barrier to entry.

I wouldn't say that. Elite: Dangerous is the current big space-sim, and hotter than ever. Everyone is looking forward to Star Citizen, although it's even odds to me if it ever sees a full release...

Oh God, Privateer. That was another 10,000 hours of my childhood.

In addition to stuff like Elite: Dangerous and the X series of games, House of the Dying Sun came out in 2016 and is rad.

The descent guys recently did a kickstarter for a new game: Overload. It just came out on Steam. I haven’t checked it out yet to see if it’s any good.

It's Descent through and through. It's great.

To this day I have to ‘invert’ my y-axis when I play for any sort of 1st person perspective game.

Same here! IIRC for me it's due to Duke Nukem 3D's default settings. (Annoying when games "forget" to respect this option, e.g. Crysis 3 in the VTOL flying segment.)

Me too, and this has a knock on effect as my six year old son likes to play some of my games and I don't reset the controls for him!

Huh?

DCS, X-plane, Kerbal Space Program (especially with Ferram Aerospace) , Elite:Dangerous , IL-2.

This off the top of my head. There's many more.

The only one out of that list that comes close to the style and gameplay of Descent or Wing Commander or TIE Fighter is Elite: Dangerous.

I feel you are actually supporting my point with your post. This is a handful of games released over a number of years. Space sims used to be its own genre with AAA titles. There would be hype, people would be excited for months about a release.

Its just not the same- yes space/flight sims still exist, as do puzzle/adventure games, but they are small niches now when they used to be very popular.

Don't forget about Freespace!

Still fun to play!

Well perhaps they will come back in VR form?

Also, I know it's not exactly the same but at least there are awesome driving games.

Strike Suit Zero is a good modern indie space flight sim. But you're right, it's been a long time since we've had regular releases of games like Wing Commander and TIE Fighter.

What a fantastic bunch of games those were, right? We eventually had such a blast playing Descent: Freespace at LAN's.. great game.. anyway.. the Descent devs are at it again!

https://playoverload.com/

That game seriously scared me as a 13 yo boy at the time. I loved it

I remember playing for hours then standing up and immediately falling over and having to just lie on the floor for a few minutes...

Check out Overload on steam dude. Made by the same peeps.

Overload is a pitch perfect modern Descent sequel. If you liked Descent, you'll love it.

Downloading now, thanks for the tip. Man, I feel old.

Additional check out: Sublevel Zero, a Descent game with roguelike mechanics.

I get a little sick to my stomach just hearing the word "Descent."

I still have Descent dreams. If they’re good it’s just an exciting time, but if it’s an anxiety dream then it’s the equivalent of “the brakes on my car don’t work” anxiety dreams in 3D. I may have played those games a biiiit too much.

Oddly enough, Descent was the one 3D game which didn't make me suffer from motion sickness.

They just published a remake: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Overload_(video_game)

This is not a remake, it's a 'spiritual successor' due to the devs not owning the IP rights.

It feels just like descent...

I call a potato a potato. (In my opinion,) it's a remake. :-)

Ah wingnut, I miss those times of plunging through the caves with you :-)

Played lots of Descent over kali, fun times.

I haven't thought/ heard the name Kali for decades... Did anyone ever actually purchase kali?

I did. I remember thinking that based on my license serial number (which seemed to be sequential), Jay Cotton was making a lot of money.

Here’s a 2-part interview with the creators:

https://episodiccontentmag.com/2016/08/26/kali1/

https://episodiccontentmag.com/2016/09/02/lan-trickery-an-in...

Interesting! I feel like an asshole teenager in retrospect. I pirated it :(

Descent gave me vertigo. I found it completely disorienting. It was awesome, and the only game to do that outside of VR.

I still hear the Marathon rocket launcher from time to time (rare now) and that alien cackle was so great.

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