I guess we might be around the same age Gatts...or at least have very similar game taste. ;) Also happy to find in this forum people with that "old school gamer" attitude, and strongly recommend the "youngsters" to try Master of Magic if they loved KB as much as we did. So many games after that one borowed so many ideas from it, and still very few have come close to produce that nice strategy-fantasy enviroment (Katauri guys probably the closest so far, hehe) Even today many people in the internet are eagerly waiting for a sequel, and a few companies have been trying to get the rights to do it....but for some reason, its still there, untochable. And still great fun to play.

In this game line, i would like to remember the great Panzer General (probably just 1 and maybe 2) in terms of great turn based strategy (another mythical game), and a funny adition to the family called Fantasy General, which worked just nicely translating the game engine to a fantasy setting. Worth a try.

And i do agree tottally with your opinions about the strong impact of 3D graphics in the new games and how much this has been a handicap for the story behind the game, or even the playability, or even, ironically, the pure fun, which is considered less important by the developers than having a great impact in the customer with the first image you get from the game....but this could take us into some sociological discussion not belonging to this forum i guess....oh gosh, i really do sound like old grandpa speaking....:shock:

Speaking about grampas..i started my gaming 'career' back in the 80's on Sinclair Spectrum 48k! :grin:

And, I too played Panzer General (and the spin-off Allied General). There was also Star General, which i disliked for some reason. This was before PG2 arrived.
Cheers.

When mentioning Master of Magic - try also Master of Orion (1, 2... the 3rd edition is somehow different, but I don't say bad) it just go sci-fi ... instead of magic cities and nodes you conquer galaxies.

Now I have also to call out DOMINIONS (1,2,3) - these game is complex, also has great gameplay / variability / huge strategy differences and the third part aslo great music. (It may just be little bit buggy, but hay - there are plenty patches)

I also liked the demo of Fantasy Wars and if I won't be able to wait for Armored Princess anymore, I will go for this one as well.
Old good Fantasy General took also few of my sleepless nights

BTW - I am 28, and count myself as youngster (hehe)
I first met (played)games on programming course (for children) and even I my addiction started to rapidly (geometrically) increase - I was the only one of the course who still liked basic/turbo pascal more than some games... but the world is full of traps and tricks - I found CIV 1, Dune 2 (I was 9 or 10) and lost I was
Prior that I only saw games when I visited my more fortunate friends - mostly ATARI / Sinclair TV/PC's (I was 7~8 years old)
At school we found on school PC Wolfenstein 3D (I was 10 ~ 11 years old) - we made it multiplayer - one of us used arrow keys, the other one used ctrl/alt/space (fire, strafe, shoot)
When I was 12, I was most fortunate to get my first PC 286, hercules (who does not know what hercules could mean - don't even bother to google it) - and games like 3D-block, South vs. North, and after some time waiting I got Dune 2 (w/o mouse - huge problem) and CIV 1 (than I had EGA already... yipeee)

I have not played Master of Magic (though it looks alluring), but this game has been dubbed "Not Master of Magic" due to not being able to obtain rights to the name:

http://www.elementalgame.com/index.asp

OMG, we talk like some old farts... ;)

Magic and Mayhem if you will be able to find it :)

Gatts, I am 27 so we've played pretty much the same stuff. Dune 2 was the first RTS by my understanding of the word and I loved it intensely. And then Command and Conquer came out. :cool: My dad and I ordered Wolfenstein 3D when it was first released (by Apogee I think) and I remember the bundle of disks arriving in the mail. And then Doom... :-P

I have mainly played turn based strategy over the years though. Master of Orion 1 is what started it for me. I still crank it up occasionally. For some reason I never got into Master of Magic, but I did try. If you like squad based TBS there's always XCOM and Jagged Alliance 2. Good times. :grin:

Doom really looks lovely in very high resolutions.

Long time ago I played only DEMO - then I forgot about it, these days (half year ago) I was so game-desperate (due low quality of new games) I got magic and mayhem but sadly it did not provide me with the same game lovely experience I had playing the demo - but the game logic/ system was quite unique and funny.

Lords of Magic is a game that I sometimes fish out from my game repository - fine fantasy TBS, indeed.

Ageless games of mine: I play from time to time Dune 3000 (fan remake of Dune 2), Master of Magic, Fallout 2 + mods, Albion, HOMM 3 WOG.
[with pauses I play these again and again]

From new games I play HOMM V 3.1 and KB tL of course

I just finished this excellent game 'Timeshift' it was a bit hard because it makes you think and find ways to survive, I admit it has some puzzles that had me scratching my head but a quick look at the guide from gamepressure.com solved it, if you haven't played this overlooked and under-rated game, it gets a 9/10 from me, buy it now and play it!:grin: