Dark Forces was released on this day twenty years ago. It was among the first FPS of that era to introduce an actual narrative, mission objectives, puzzles, platforming, and a Z-Axis to the world. But most importantly it began the legacy of Kyle Katarn and the whole series of games.
This is probably still my immediate response when asked what my favorite game is. Sure, it's no feast for the eyes by today's standards and the lack of modern mouse control is off putting for modern gamers, but I can still remember spending hours on end pre-internet exploring the levels, solving puzzles, and being absolutely terrified by some of the enemies (dianogas especially).
Thank you, LucasArts, for two decades of fond memories with Mr. Katarn.
Dark Forces can be purchased and downloaded from Steam as well as GOG.com for a very reasonable price. I have begun playing it today myself.
Wow. Yeah! I still consider JK to be the highlight of the series, but DF was great when it came out, even if everyone seemed to forget about it when Duke Nukem 3D came out.
Reminds me of the many projects out there attempting to "update" the original DF for modern systems, like the Jedi Academy Total conversion and the long dead Cybercraft Dark3D, and the modern Dark XL (which hasn't had an update in awhile but supposedly isn't dead).
It's still pretty challenging and cool for an old school single player FPS. There was a port for the Playstation, but of course it lacked the modding that we all know and love from that community.