Hmmm, sid, as to how to write it, just look at the previous top tens'. Myself, I tried to think of best games ever. I probably need to considder updating mine, sinseI've played swamp, but I think I'll wait until I have played more games and more games have come out before I do.

oh aprone is adding in more weapons two. he sed he had a bunch of new guns to add.

Interesting choices there, I agree about treasuremania being a great quality game, I just wish there ws more of it.

You might however want to rethink alteraeon, as myself I only considdered this topic to be audio games not brouser games or muds (I made a separate top ten for that).

hmm, mine
1: bokurano daibouken 1 and 2, tied
probably the closest to mainstream quality, these 2 are just woooooo!!! heh
also, love the music
2: swamp
all i have to say is, bang, bang, bang, slash, oh crap, aaaaggghhhh! noooooooo!!! *goes to get weapons back*
replay value, random factor
I'll think of more later

Okay. Here goes my top 10 list. I'm not nearly as much of a gamer as a lot of others seem to be that I see post on here. I read a lot more than I post...A lot more.

Anyway, here goes.

10. Ten Pin Alley. I see nobody has mentioned this one. It was a well-done game, although far too easy to get strikes once you listened to the sounds long enough. LOL. I used to bowl, so this could be my attraction to it.

9. Dark Destroyer. It was one of the first audio games I played...the first being Robert Betts's Battleship then Shades of Doom...I don't like arcade-style, fast key-banging type games and that is what the VI community seems to have a lot of, obviously because they are the easiest both to design as well as play, but I must make an exception here. Don't worry. I'll make a couple more. Haha. It's fun and the acting is great even if the cut scenes are a little childishly silly, but that was the point...so.

8. Tarzan Junior. I love games like this. I only wish I could play it again without having to rip apart my poor computer's current software structure. Well, not really, but Setting up VMWare Player and a VM just for this is more than I'm willing to do at the moment. I like games where you can climb things in order to explore new parts. It makes it more like the real world instead of being limited to a flat plain. Monkey Business of course does a better job of using Touraine levels and such, but that game is not officially in this list because I will never beat a game in which I must refer to a guide every two or three steps I take along a cliff. Ridiculous!

7. GMA Tank Commander. I got the demo when it was first released or soon thereafter and I beat it the very first time I tried to play it, having first read the manual, of course. I must get a full copy soon so I can play it again. Last time I attempted to play, I got so frustrated when trying to navigate the sector with all the streets that I gave up. Still, I love the feeling of driving a tank with tons of artillery that you can chuck at oncoming vehicles, even if it is virtual. As an added bonus, the majority of the game's combat is long-range, which is perfect for me! I'm horrible when it comes to 3D Spacial Audio games, but I can manage alright as long as I'm not inside a damn building! That was the second sector, if I remember correctly, so I guess that is pretty pathetic...

6. Mario. I love the fact that this game that I used to play before I lost so much sight that it was impossible was adapted for us. The sounds are good but I can't get very far in it at all because I can't seem to jump at the right time and this is close to the beginning of the first level. One other major complaint. The music is extremely loud and if you are unlucky enough that you do not have control over your Midi volume independently from your other sound applications, there is no way to turn it down so you can here the sounds that you need to.

5. The Q9 Action Game. I beat this game but still have played it repeatedly. I loved side-scrollers when I could play mainstream games and this hasn't changed. I also really like the concept of the force fields and the deus shields. I like that you can stand in a force field and jump  repeatedly so you can get tons of energy if you do just a small bit of math to make sure you always have a bass strength and don't get killed. I also like that the deus shields, when active, reflect the attacking monsters' energy back at them thus inflicting damage. Of course, I agree with others who have praised the quality of the sound effects and the voice acting.

4. Alien Outback. This is my second and next-to-last exception to my general non-arcade game-style preference. I like the different types of ships and that the higher-level ones move across the stereo field as they come toward you...oh, and I almost forgot the coolest part! That you have the opportunity to shoot the ships with side lasers after they land! Well, they become Robots or whatever, but yeah... This is of course nice, since I no longer had that sort of powerless feeling when I'd shoot too slow and Dark Destroyer and the ship would just...land, and that would be one count against me. LOL.

3. Super Liam. Again, we see my love for side-scrollers. Add to that the nice variety of enemies that do different things, variety of levels and of course, the best part...the fact that the boss at the end of every three acts is different thus needs to be defeated in a slightly different way. My favorite level is the spaceship level. I love the challenge of timing the lasers so I run under them while they're off.

2. Swamp. This is, like so many on here have already said, a revolution in audio gaming! That's why it's here. Otherwise, I'm not too happy with my character's current situation, but that is entirely my fault. I die more often than a lot of other players because, like I said before, when it comes to 3D spacial audio, I do fine unless I'm in an area where I have opportunities to get backed into corners. Thus, I often die on missions, but I'm not scared. I still try and help and I am getting better at finding crates. I'm just not sure what I'm going to do when, very soon, I'll die and have no reputation. The only way to fix this would be to truck-sit a mission or two. Of course, I could always run around with my axe after I use up the 40 rounds in my Gloc, but that's grinding and I absolutely hate that! That's why I hardly ever play Alter Aeon anymore.

1. Pipe 2 Blast Chamber. I absolutely love this game! The best part is the extreme replay value thanks to randomized levels and all the other random events, not to mention all the cheat codes you can obtain, which I have more than once!

So, I guess I kind of discredited my repeated statement that I try to stay away from arcade-style games, but since that's the vast majority of the games the VI community has had up until recently, then my choices were a bit limited. Now, time to go through the game Database on here and see what new games I haven't played yet...that are! not! arcade-style!

Oh, I really wanted to put Time Adventures in that list, but since I just started playing from the beginning earlier today and am now stuck in the old country hous, it got kicked out by...something else. LOL. I talked to the boys in the communion room and everything else I could think of...the guards won't let me get into the other doors...

Yep, I'll be revising my list more than once in the very near future, I am sure.

Anyway, that is quite enough from me...

My top ten games plus one.
1. the GMA game engine. Written for Shades of Doom originally, without it we wouldn't have Tank Commander, Sarah and Pacman Talks. I only wish the twenty people who were developing games with it had been more productive.
2. Lone Wolf. Originally designed for DOS, David was the first to have sound playing and the ability to create new missions built into a game and it shows. I hope he updates the game with more sounds and have all the missions accessed from a menu.
3. Ten Pin Alley. Josh added the first truly realistic game simulator, creating the atmosphere of a bowling alley, complete with a ditsy intercom and the funny but annoying sounds from other bowlers.
4. Monkey Business. Created in the  late 90's it was very impressive with its multi levels and different environments.
5. Swamp, the first truly multiplayer on-line first person shooting game,a type of game many people thought could never be done.
6. Rail Racer and it's revolutionary use of the mouse in the game.
7. Top Speed  with the ability to use   a force-feedback joystick.
8. Blastbay Game Toolkit, with its many games.
9. Time of Conflict. a strategy war game still in development but with incredible game play. 
10. Super Egg Hunt. The game I go to when I want to enjoy three minutes of frantic action.
11. Tomb Hunter: Mysteries of the Ancients,  now named the Arc of Hope, still in development, looks to be my next go to game for single player fun.

AtKG4RDF: Which version of Mario are you playing? The BGT version has the ability to adjust volume with page up / page down. For the Dragon Slayers version, I haven't tried this method on Windows Vista, but I think that if you can't adjust midi volume from the volume control, it might be adjustable through another program that uses it, like Media Player.

... I get the distinct feeling I should try Pipe2. Hm, I think I let titles influence my decisions too much. (Then again, one usually needs to be atracted by the title before one stops to read a more detailed description...).

A shame really phil, I'd have loved to see that D&D game finished. I still think the gma game engine is the standard of how to build an fp game in audio, in fact I believed that technoshock was built with it for a while the techniques were so similar. I know when discussing first person navigation with aprone and testing a couple of his map concepts that eventually became swamp the gma engine was referenced a lot.

Ah, so it was more a fantasy themed action game than actually having stats and rpg like mechanics? still, sad it got lost, ditto with your other games. I remember hereing about your cops game, and it sounded fun.

KG4RDF, in Castaways did you unpause the game using the spacebar?  As funny as it sounds, that's the number 1 reason for players who get confused with the game and quit trying.  They don't know that the game starts out paused while you make your initial choices.

Well, it's mostly finished, though today I did try playing it with a braille display and jaws and realized that it doesn't use a keyhook, so I might wind up adding that. 8-4 could use more enemies, but it's hard enough without more than we already have.
I could try to go into SMB: The Lost Levels (the Japanese version of Mario2 that didn't make it to America right away because of being too similar to the first / too hard). I've only played that one up to 3-1, though. The only reason I would try it next instead of what we got as Mario2 is because I could use the same engine, hahaha.
I'm not sure if I could do Mario2 without it being object-based, but maybe we'll find out some day.
Which is not this day, as I'm working on something else that I want to rush out the door by the twentieth.
Without giving away anything about the game, I will say that my last testplay involved me ducking into a house to beat up an enemy, when another ran by and cut the house in half with a sword. I was not able to avoid being killed in the ensuing collapse.

On GMA games: Is the corridor detection seen in Pacman Talks and Sara a feature of the GMA engine, or is it something that just builds on more basic elements? As terrible as I am at playing either of them, those are features I really need to get around to trying to recreate at some point...