I had an idea for a fun theme and I was going to start it in February. But I thought, what about January? So I decided to do one this month as well!

I hereby declare January 2016 to be the month of '90s FPS games :D All related bounties will be for a minimum 100 points and some will have 25-50 additional points, if they get the "difficult" or "iron stomach" bonuses. Obviously all of these games will get the retro bonus, but that's factored into the 100 points :P

So I have a list of possible bounties and some of the games are locked in. Do you guys prefer if I publish the list now or do you like the element of surprise? The reason I ask is sometimes you may need to acquire a game (assuming you want to participate), or it might go on sale before the bounty (like some of these are currently on sale on Steam).

It might be more relevant for next month when we have a bunch of bounties from a certain 8-bit system...

Oh and there will be other bounties as well, so if you don't like '90s FPS games, there will be a few others for ya.

This sounds like great fun! I actually have a blogger friend who has been running a monthly game theme event for a few years now, but of course each theme is based around her interests :). http://chic-pixel.com/2016/01/january-2016-community-game-along-dating-sims/

I would like to see the list of games from the get-go, but the potential bonus points should be kept secret. That way, if we end up getting them, it's a nice surprise on top of beating a theme game. It sounds like a lot of fun, overall! It's a shame I'm awful at FPSes, haha.

I am very excited to play one of my three versions of duke nukem 3d :P

Here are the candidates I'm considering now (I don't know how many we'll actually do and these are listed in no particular order):

• The Ultimate Doom
• Doom II: Hell on Earth
• Disruptor (Insomniac's first game before they went on to create Ratchet and Clank...might be tough to find, I don't think there's a digital release)
• X-Men Ravages of Apocalypse (this is available for free and works with the Steam copy of Quake since I tried it out this morning :D)
• Outlaws
• Redneck Rampage
• Half-Life (I'll probably opt for the Source release)
• Goldeneye
• Daikatana (it didn't ACTUALLY release until 2000, but it's so infamous in 90s FPS lore, I always lump it in there)
• Bedlam (okay, so it's not really a 90s shooter, but it's an homage and it looks fun, so it counts hehe)
• Super 3D Noah's Ark (I have an extra Steam key for this one)
• Heretic
• Dark Forces
• Hexen (Tried to play this co-op recently and it's so confusing haha...we gave up)
• Alien Trilogy (been looking for an excuse to actually play this on my Saturn, don't think there's a digital release though)
• PowerSlave (excellent game, I think the PC remaster was taken down, so this probably won't work)
• Duke Nukem 3D
• Terra Nova
• Quake Mission Pack 2
• Eradicator
• Shadow Warrior
• Jedi Knight
• Quake 2
• Rainbow Six
• NAM
• SiN
• Redline
• Aliens vs. Predator (could also go for the Jaguar version...wait, scratch that)
• Kingpin
• Medal of Honor (the original PS1 game)
• Quake III: Arena
• Unreal Tournament
• Codename: Tenka
• South Park
• Doom 64
• Zero Tolerance (not sure I can have my soul crushed again with this one)
• Maken X

Only a handful of games in that list I haven't heard of before, gonna have to look some of these up!

System Shock 2
Wolfenstein 3D
Spear of Destiny

Outlaws! Now that's an underrated game. Then again, I am the type of person who tends to get excited about any western-themed games. :P

Bedlam SEEMS excellent. With that said, I really disliked actually playing it. The gameplay just wasn't all that compelling for me. It's a shame because the concept (of going through multiple game-inspired worlds) is pretty neat. The campaign is about 5-6 hours long for those curious about checking it out.

I was thinking February would be NES month and March would be point and click adventure month to honor the Day of the Tentacle remaster. I've never played DOTT, but I was a huge Maniac Mansion fan on the NES, so I'm looking forward to that one. I'm not 100% sure it comes out in March, but for some reason I thought it did.

Any thoughts on those themes? I know venturing into non-PC game territory with the NES limits who can participate (barring other means), so I want to make sure I'm not excluding anyone :)

Haha, well, thanks to "other means" I'm sure anyone who really wants to participate if only to compare notes/completion times will certainly be able to do so.

The real question for those who will pursue this darker path of "acquiring" 20+ year old games you can't find anywhere except used game stores, ebay, and so forth, how will you enter them on the site for tracking? I would think "Previously owned/Rented" would be the closest fit.

I think themes are a good idea but you definitely want to include stuff that's non-theme related just because of said limitations..I think anyway.

@dhobo - Yeah, probably Previously Owned / Rented for that. I guess you're sort of renting it, perhaps in a very loose interpretation of the term hehe

@jwcooley - There will indeed be non-theme related bounties.

The NES library is huge and there are so many classics to choose from. Here's my current list of bounties for next month:

• Dragon Warrior (My first RPG! Been wanting to replay this one anyways.)
• The Legend of Zelda (Ugh, I've never actually finished this, so I'm trying to motivate myself here.)
• Adventures of Lolo (Borrowed this one from a friend and beat it, would love to give it another playthrough.)
• Donkey Kong (This will take about 5 minutes.)
• Donkey Kong Jr. (And another 5 minutes.)
• The Guardian Legend (One of my favorite games of all time. I always play this around my birthday, but might play it early this year.)
• Mega Man 3 (I've finished the first two on Steam, so this one is up next. I figured I'd do this one also because it's really good.)
• Metal Storm (I've wanted to play this game since I first saw it in Nintendo Power and it looked amazing. Too bad it's $200+ these days.)
• Bayou Billy (This game is awful, but I played the heck out of it as a kid.)
• Kirby's Adventure (Eh, it's a Kirby game. You know what you're getting.)
• Super Mario Bros 2 (It's been a long time since I played this one!)
• Super Mario Bros 3 (Arguably the most popular one of all.)
• Kabuki Quantum Fighter (This is another Nintendo Power game that I've wanted to play for a while. I actually have this one sitting on my shelf though hehe.)

Dragon Warrior and Zelda will run all month. The rest will stay up for about a week each.

I hope your muscle memory is ready, because NES bounties are on the horizon :)

Has anyone here ever played The Guardian Legend? If not, you should at least give it a shot. It's amazing!

And there will be a couple of surprises along the way. One will require a Wii U or 3DS. Another is available pretty much everywhere and let's just say...better get your shovel ready!

Looking forward to this round of bounties. I have several games on that NES list. My shovel is ready!

You're making me want to go dig my NES out of storage! I have four of the ones you've listed (Zelda, DW, SMB2, and SMB3) and have beaten all of them. I'm pretty sure I could still do Zelda from memory, although the second quest would be much more difficult. On the up side, this may prompt me to finally try out Shovel Knight. :) (Oh! Would DW on a different format count? I have it on my iPhone.... g )

Your bounty feature is very motivating, is it possible to do a month for point&click (old or recent) ?

You're in luck, I'm thinking March will be point-and-click adventure month! I had planned on doing that in honor of the Day of the Tentacle re-release. Hopefully it's still on track for a March release :P I've played Maniac Mansion, but not the sequel, so I'm looking forward to picking it up.

Great! You gonna love Dott, it's so good but it's also very different from Maniac Mansion. It's more fun, easier and you can't die or be blocked by a wrong choice. By the way, maybe you already know but you can also play to Maniac Mansion in Dott, it's included in the game (you have to find out how but it's kind of obvious ;) )

Oh nice, I didn't realize Maniac Mansion was included! I hope they keep that in the remastered version.

If you have any adventure game bounty ideas, let me know! I've started a preliminary list, but certainly welcome feedback. I'll try to post it once I finish putting it together.

EDIT Here are some of the ideas I have. Adventure games are generally a bit more involved / longer, so not all of these will make the cut. (These are listed in no particular order.)

• The Cat Lady
• Resident Evil HD Remaster
• Leisure Suit Larry Reloaded
• Leisure Suit Larry: Magna Cum Laude
• Metal Dead
• Grim Fandango Remastered
• Day of the Tentacle Remastered
• Under a Killing Moon
• Garbriel Knight: Sins of the Father - 20th Anniversary Edition
• Harvester
• Samorost 2
• Tormentum: Dark Sorrow
• Juggernaut
• Phantasmagoria
• Outcast
• Deadly Premonition
• Snatcher

Interesting choice but maybe some good old classics ?

• Sam&max : hit the road
• Secret of Monkey Island (1 or/and 2)
• Discworld (1 or/and 2)
• Discworld Noir
• Simon the sorcerer (1 or/and 2)
• Full throttle
• The Dig

some sci-fi games too ?

• Beneath a Steel Sky (free with Gog)
• Primordia
• Machinarium
• I Have No Mouth, and I Must Scream

And some more "modern" games ?

• Runaway trilogy
• Yesterday
• The Next Big Thing
• Deponia trilogy
• The Book of Unwritten Tales
• The Blackwell Saga
• The new Sam&Max trilogy (Sam & Max Save the World, Sam & Max Beyond Time and Space, Sam & Max: The Devil's Playhouse)
• Back to the Future: The Game

I have Grim Fandango Remastered. I am looking for a reason to play it! :)

Sanitarium is another point and click adventure.

Oh...Another one that is on OUR list. Jurassic Park - The TellTale game

I know this month just started, but I'm always thinking ahead :) Something else we could do is focus on a particular series for a month. Here are some series that I REALLY need to play more of:

• Thief
• Metal Gear Solid
• Metroid
• The Legend of Zelda
• Lego games
• Sonic the Hedgehog
• WarCraft
• Halo
• Donkey Kong
• Resident Evil
• Strike games (Desert Strike, Jungle Strike, etc)

Deus Ex
Call of Duty
Far Cry

Great idea on the series. Theres several series that Id love to complete. Many of which are listed on your list above.

I've been thinking more about how bounties and missions can co-exist and I think it might make sense to let bounties last a little longer than they have been. That might encourage more activity on them, plus it just gives everyone more time to complete them.