Games that you had no idea what to do in as a kid

Josey Wales · 22-04-2014 10:14pm #1

I saw this topic over on another forum and thought that it might bring up some interesting suggestions.

I'm sure we all have at least one game that we played when we were young that left you scratching your head at what do to. That game for me was Jack the Ripper for the Commodore 64. I remember loading it up a few times and having no clue what I was supposed to do. It was a text based adventure but that just didn't click with the 7 or 8 year old me.

cherryghost · 22-04-2014 10:17pm

A2LUE42 · 22-04-2014 10:20pm

Sir Digby Chicken Caesar · 22-04-2014 10:23pm

Magill · 22-04-2014 10:32pm

Remember not having a notion what was going on when i finished played this game (Guess I was like between 4-8 at the time).

johnny_ultimate · 22-04-2014 10:32pm

I could never, ever figure out how to get past Scar at the end of The Lion King on the Megadrive. I bet you it is embarrassingly easy, but I tried what at the time seemed like a whole host of techniques - including painstakingly luring him to the edge of the cliff - but the evil **** just wouldn't give up. At least the amazing 16 bit versions of the various film songs made the chore of getting to the end a bit easier, especially during the damn falling log platforming bits in the Hakunah Mathatah stages.

Some day the king I will return and try again, and I shall surely be humbled by finally effortlessly confronting the torment that has plagued me for the guts of two decades. Either that or it really is incredibly hard. I'm banking on the former.

CiDeRmAn · 22-04-2014 10:43pm

Bugger, as a kid I was playing stuff on the Spectrum, so it'd have to be the likes of the Hobbit.
I just couldn't get my head around the parser, while the likes of Gremlins was a similar text adventure it had a better parser, The Honnit was much earlier and drove me mad, Thorin and his fecking singing about gold!

Robert ninja · 22-04-2014 10:55pm

Not a single level completed. Oh well, cheat codes and multilayer dino fights in a pink candy level.

Mr E · 22-04-2014 11:11pm

ET (Atari 2600). Very confusing game.

WeHaveToGoBack · 22-04-2014 11:14pm

Driver 2, it was my first Driver game. I played Take A Ride all the time, but didn't know where to drive to in mission mode. Only when I was like 15 and tried it again, did I notice that pausing the game and showing the map showed the point I was meant to drive to, and then I realised there was a thing in the minimap showing it too. I felt like a fool.

RobbingBandit · 22-04-2014 11:15pm

I didn't know there was an underground part to the opening level of Alex Kidd on the Mega Drive until a few months ago, also that rock, paper scissors mini game in it was so damn hard.

Hank Scorpio · 22-04-2014 11:16pm

A link to the past, never got the Moon Pearl so was stuck as a bunny and didn't know what to do. No internet back then

22-04-2014 11:20pm

The boat at the start of the second prince of Persia kept jumping for it and kept missing it didn't know where else to go

sarumite · 22-04-2014 11:23pm

Riven. (Although I was 20 at the time so hardly a kid I guess

) I just never figured out what I was supposed to be doing got bored, moved on and never came back.

norrie rugger · 22-04-2014 11:29pm

the original tomb raider. There was a ledge that you had to jump. It was a huge distance so I used to run jump but she missed every ****ing time, no matter the angle I tried.
Turned out you had to walk to the very ****ing edge and jump from standing.
The bitch could make it from standing still but not at a run

jill_valentine · 22-04-2014 11:32pm

johnny_ultimate wrote: »

I could never, ever figure out how to get past Scar at the end of The Lion King on the Megadrive. I bet you it is embarrassingly easy, but I tried what at the time seemed like a whole host of techniques - including painstakingly luring him to the edge of the cliff - but the evil **** just wouldn't give up. At least the amazing 16 bit versions of the various film songs made the chore of getting to the end a bit easier, especially during the damn falling log platforming bits in the Hakunah Mathatah stages.

Some day the king I will return and try again, and I shall surely be humbled by finally effortlessly confronting the torment that has plagued me for the guts of two decades. Either that or it really is incredibly hard. I'm banking on the former.

Ah, I remember it well. It is hard, and there's a trick to it too, which always felt like the game wasn't quite playing fair at the last fence.

You want to know? :pac:

pawrick · 23-04-2014 12:56am

There was one game on the C64 where I couldn't get past the 1st screen. You had to get across a hole but the character would not jump no mater what I tried and would just fall in and die. Think it was dungeons and dragons. A lot of the games back then were confusing or too difficult for young me.

SeantheMan · 23-04-2014 1:01am

Populous and Warmonger on the Megadrive as an 8-12 year old

Games that on the cover you think would be for kids but I was also lost.... Fantastic Dizzy, ToeJam and Earl, and some game I can't remember the name of the life of me (you're an animal ..elephant or something...I forget..and your ship crashlands on a planet...and you've to get the parts to build it...it's a 2d game, side scrolling ....not isometric like ToeJam and Earl...in case you think I'm confusing them)

Some of the early survival horrors and point-click adventures I'd be stuck on for days.
Resident evils, silent hills........and I think everyone has tried using a baloon and scissors on a snake or any mental random combination of objects because you were completely stumped in the likes of Monkey Island ,Broken Sword or Grim Fandango etc

SouthTippBass · 23-04-2014 2:21am

I remember the first screen of Another World on Megadrive, I didn't have a clue what I was looking at. You were supposed to tap a button to make your character swim as he had teleported in underwater, but for the life of me, what that was represented by onscreen didn't look anything like it was supposed to. Didn't have a clue what was happening on screen or what I was supposed to be doing.
Cue hours of frustration, reading every inch of the manual, and trying everything I could think of to progress. Got it in the end, and it was an absolutely brilliant game, but came very close to giving up right at the beginning.

Captain Chaos · 23-04-2014 2:30am

First time playing Soviet Strike on the Playstation, first ever PS game. Never played a game before where you had a free run of a level/map with mission objectives and planning ahead could make later missions easier. Got the hang of it after an hour or so of SNAFU messages on screen. Good times.

Overheal · 23-04-2014 4:31am

Betrayal at Krondor

dosbox-0-74-cpu-speed_-max-100-cycles-frameskip-0-program_-krondor-screenshot-9_18_2013-11_35_06-pm-cropped.png?w=640&h=483

Also pains me that I never really understood how to progress in Kingdom of Loathing

nesf · 23-04-2014 6:00am

I was 9 and didn't know much about AD&D and had no access to a rulebook etc. THAC0 is an obvious acronym after years of gaming but back then it was rather obtuse:

(A selection of screens from Pool of Radiance)

Lacking the Internet and Google I didn't figure out some of the stuff until I got my hands on a few AD&D rulebooks in college (I'd a deprived upbringing you see).

Rory Gallagher · 23-04-2014 6:13am

Some Pirate game on the PS1.

Hadn't a ****ing clue what was going.

johnny_ultimate · 23-04-2014 6:16am

jill_valentine wrote: »

Ah, I remember it well. It is hard, and there's a trick to it too, which always felt like the game wasn't quite playing fair at the last fence.

You want to know? :pac:

No thanks, I've resisted the temptation to google it for years now under the belief I'll return to it :pac:

I appreciate the knowledge that the game was at least partially to blame though!

Greenmachine · 23-04-2014 6:25am

Frontier Elite. Floating around in space waiting for something to happen.

nesf · 23-04-2014 6:30am

Actually, this also when I was younger:

images?q=tbn:ANd9GcQjphdGMNc07mDhF_VefPmlJoz2ANqdA7RUYwAmwrYlR7N0LfR3Lw

I only spotted "Press Spacebar to move to the next section" after the game's tape had been ruined by a visiting toddler. (It was a lightgun game) :P

theteal · 23-04-2014 6:53am

I could not finish flimbo's quest. In fact, I didn't think it ended tbh. Whatever I was doing involved going through all the levels and the game just brought me back around to the beginning and off I went again, no end credits, nothing. It was only very recently that I saw a video showing that it was supposed to end.

truedoom · 23-04-2014 6:57am

this.

No clue, and still no clue.

Naydy · 23-04-2014 7:53am

I could never get past the hang glider sections of Sonic 2 on the Master System (I think they were in the second stage, so not very far in!). Couldn't get the hang of it at all when I was small. Usually would just keep taking nosedives until I ran out of lives or patience!

After our master system broke, for ages the only game my sister and I had was Spyro the Dragon on the PS1. We played through it countless times, and we found everything in it, except for one dragon. No exaggeration, we spent months replaying that one level over and over trying to find that last dragon. Turned out you had to do a complicated (ok - complicated for what had been a fairly easy kids game) charge move to get over to a secret area. We were unbelievably pleased with ourselves when we finally figured it out

CiDeRmAn · 23-04-2014 8:57am

Lords of Midnight on the Speccy, never had a balls notion what the heck was going on, but looks nice.
Tír na nÓg was another on the Spectrum, I guess I was just too young for the both of them.

Cravez · 23-04-2014 9:04am

Spike in Transylvania on the Commodore 64. Remember being so hard because of Ghosts always killing you, turned out you needed another item to ward them off but just never thought about it at the time.

RedXIV · 23-04-2014 9:05am

In FF7, once you get into shinra tower, there's a point where you are asked to sort out your materia before fighting a boss. I had no idea how the system worked as a kid and tried loads of strategies before having a penny dropping moment.

Oh and when I rented out MGS the first time from the town video shop. They used their own custom cases to hold the games so when it got to the "look at the back of the cd case" bit, I knew I had a cd in my inventory and was checking it for ages. Didn't go back to it for a few years after that

Star Lord · 23-04-2014 9:20am

Pacland in the arcade. This bit in particular:
98131-pac-land-turbografx-16-screenshot-the-springboard-allows-you.png

I could not for the life of me figure out how you got across the water, as walking or running, the springboard didn't get you far enough.

Only saw how to do so later, when some others were doing it. Talk about a counter intuitive move!

krudler · 23-04-2014 9:22am

The Last Ninja games were fairly baffling at times

Mr. CooL ICE · 23-04-2014 9:26am

Was never a big strategy game fan, but I was 14 when I bought Alpha Centauri due of the rave reviews. Hadn't a notion how to play it and gave up. Didn't realise til later that the whole turn-based thing was actually part of the game.

Branoic · 23-04-2014 9:32am

I was given a copy of the 1st Civilization game when I was 10, without the manual. I also had no prior experience in the genre and had no idea what it was, so I didn't even have any frame of reference to work off. But I was so fascinated by the game that I played it for hours and hours and pieced everything together. I'm 33 now, have a job, house, wife, kid, but that's still my proudest achievement :P

CiDeRmAn · 23-04-2014 9:40am

LordChessington wrote: »

Didn't realise til later that the whole turn-based thing was actually part of the game.

I still feel like that about turn based games!

pablomakaveli · 23-04-2014 11:12am

johnny_ultimate wrote: »

No thanks, I've resisted the temptation to google it for years now under the belief I'll return to it :pac:

I appreciate the knowledge that the game was at least partially to blame though!

Watch the fight between Simba and Scar in the film for a hint.;)

deathrider · 23-04-2014 11:26am

Panzer General II on PS1. Not a, damn clue what was going on. Also I remember spending a long time doing nothing in a PS1 magic carpet game too.

Penn · 23-04-2014 11:32am

Got G-Police for the PS1 as a present when I was younger. Not. A. F*cking. Clue as to what I was supposed to be doing or how to do anything. I can't even call it the worst game I've ever played because I just don't know. I don't know anything I did in that game.

Potential-Monke · 23-04-2014 5:25pm

Wizards and Warriors 3... Absolutely no idea what to do or where to go, coupled with the most infuriating jumping in any game ever!

super_furry · 23-04-2014 5:29pm

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lu3DkheSQhY

Hunter 3D on the Amiga. The first true 3D open world game I ever played and I never had even the slightest idea how to progress. Was great fun just wandering around and exploring though.

COYVB · 23-04-2014 6:28pm

I was so bad at Wipeout as a kid. Genuinely couldn't get my head around it, though i tried and tried and tried and tried

My favourite racer now.

RIP wipeout

2Mad2BeMad · 23-04-2014 6:34pm

Men in black on the ps1 I think it wad. I could beat resident evil 1 but men in black my god cudn get past the first levelled novices wa ta do

Cool_CM · 23-04-2014 6:36pm

Never came across a lot of enemy fighters playing F22 Air Dominance Fighter back in the day so spent most of my time staffing my own base after taking off. Also spent a log of time running across barren landscapes in Mechwarrior...

CiDeRmAn · 23-04-2014 8:33pm

deathrider wrote: »

Also I remember spending a long time doing nothing in a PS1 magic carpet game too.

I loved Magic Carpet on the PS1, and did quite well in it too, brilliant stuff, so early git builds his majestic palace and you lay an earthquake on his, carving it in two before summoning a volcano in the middle, just to rub his face in it.

Gunmonkey · 23-04-2014 9:27pm

Shining the Holy Ark on the Saturn, loved it but got stuck for ages in a mansion in a haunted forest. Had the whole area mapped out, me and my brother tore apart the game world trying to find where we had to go but no luck.

Ended up reading a guide weeks later in a a magazine and it was a bloody obvious solution to unlock the rest of the mansion.

CastorTroy · 23-04-2014 10:07pm

The Dizzy games on the Spectrum. Got to a certain point then got stuck.

Also played Hook and it was a part I had to learn how to fly by jumping off a height but couldn't. Tried everything I had. Tried just walking off. Gave up. Found out much later I was meant to "Use edge" or something like that.

the_syco · 23-04-2014 10:10pm

Myst

wandatowell · 23-04-2014 10:57pm

Where in the World is Carmen Sandiago?

wtf.

mightyreds · 23-04-2014 11:48pm

Revenge of shinobi for me the labyrinth level, could never figure out where to go just kept going round in circles, played that game so much always just to that level.

Games that you had no idea what to do in as a kid

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