Except even those sometimes leak out into the wilds like Geist DS or so many other examples on Unseen64.
True. But I've seen that on Kusogrande; the (sometimes mostly bad games) competition.
Yeah, Noop for a while was one of those "Vague memories of game, can't remember the name." as often is the case with shareware compilations.

All of this is kinda reminding me of Hypnospace's latter phase. Which is spoilers.

If they leak out, they're no longer the games I was talking about!
But seriously, how does a game that's only in the possession of 1 person (nobody else even knows about it) "leak out"?

The Book of Legends (RPG)

https://store.steampowered.com/app/277470/The_Book_of_Legends/

Well, let's say I convince a stingy arcade board owner to sell his Marble Madness 2 board? {Scenario is hypothetical} And instead of just hoarding it like an idiot while the board slowly gets lost to the ravages of time due to cap rot, dying barrel batteries, or what have you; I instead dump the rom immediately, allowing it to forever be preserved, and as a second high five, I take detailed pictures of the PCB so people can read off the pinouts and chips, so they know what to buy as well.

That's not obscure at all!

It used to be the best ice hockey game for years, until some better game came out that was better. I really don't remember which game that would be though.

Anyway, it may be unknown to kids playing some NHL series these days, but if you look at some old computer/game magazines, that game was very well received in reviews too.

I actually should have that game in my C64 collection somewhere, although it was slightly rebranded. The name on the box is American Ice Hockey, but when you load the game it's 100% same game, they didn't even bother to redo the title screen, as it says Superstar Ice Hockey.

I think this game is pretty "obscure"
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gQN4rkHqG6Q

I found it some time ago on very old diskette, but I bet I first goit it from CD-Action cd (polish gaming magazine).

Wow, there's still site about this game https://translate.google.com/translate?hl=en&sl=pl&u=www.centrumkreta.pl/historia.html

I see. I didn't think it was that obscure, considering that it was developed by a well known company, but I have no clue about sports games (and sports in general), I didn't really read many videogame magazines, and I've never heard anyone else talk about playing it. Thanks for clearing that up. :)

Most obscure ever has to go to this weird C64 game that required a light pen to play.

I bought the cassette from a bargain bin for 50p because the cover art looked interesting, not knowing it needed a light pen until I tried to play it!

I've never owned or even seen a C64 light pen, and while the game did load it required a light pen to get past the beginning so... I still don't even know what the game was about or even remember its name at this point!


Weird but not obscure - This was literally a phone-in game for years in a UK saturday morning kids TV show where you had to yell stuff like Left! and Right! over the phone and hope the invisible gnome controlling it actually listened while the hosts either mocked you or offered advice or tips XD

Was a lot of fun to watch due to the huge amount of schadenfreude from the delay between the caller calling out an instruction and the operator doing it, which given it's a timing sensitive game made it almost impossible to play XD

Was so excited when they released it for home computers and my mate bought it for his Amiga, only to realize actually it was a bit crap XD

I´m trying to get this game on Gog:

https://www.gog.com/wishlist/games/shine

Give it a vote. It does have a page on Mobygames, but there isn´t a single screenshot available.

http://archive.org/stream/zzapp_64_issue_033_600dpi/Zzap640033Hi#page/n18/mode/1up

http://www.kultpower.de/archiv/hefte/happycomputer_spielesonderheft-4/big/happycomputer_spielesonderheft-4_053.jpg

Not this, certainly.

Possibly this one. You had to compete against "Roboter 1", "Roboter 2" etc. controlled by the CPU. Tiny pixelated robots that appeared on screen while the computer simulated their race with strange beeps.
I had it on disk. It was in a bunch of (pirated) floppies my father brought home one day, I think he got them from colleagues at work. Who knows how it ended up there. Many gems were in those dikettes: Strangeloop, Ghettoblaster, Winter Games, Pitstop II and others (hey, even strip poker and other "naughty" stuff...)

I had this one: https://www.myabandonware.com/game/mayhem-63p on the Commodore C116. The only original cassette we had. I still don't know what you were supposed to do in this game.

Depends on how you define obscure. I've recently played Guitar Hero but for the Amiga.
The most obscure video game in the world is actually the legendary puzzle game Super Gem'Z.

The story on why the game is so obscure goes as follows. During a video game event in Germany of 1992, some guy came into the event, puched the person who guarded the only RC-copy of the game that would be used to showcase it to the general public. The person then proceeded to steal the game, running away from the cops, getting away of it. After a couple of hours he then proceeded to uploaded it online. All of this happened, sans the running away from the cops and uploading it online of course, right before everyones eyes. This also includes the main programmer who literally coded the damn game.

I couldn't confirm it but it is rumored that the guy who stole it was totally piss drunk.

After an enormous buzz regarding the situation, the publisher of the game told the single developer that he won't be compensated for the leak. The developer said "fuck it" and never released the real deal because some possibly pissdrunk retard stole the game right before everyones eyes during an important event. From what I know is that the dev never made a game again, which is a huge shame, in my opinion.

While the copy of the release candidate is still available online (there are lots of youtube videos about it), its obviously illegal. Still a fun story, though I really feel sad for the developer. Its a story that seems so unreal that it is almost an urban legend, a very german urban legend. Still, its funny as hell because its true.

From the videos and screenshots that I've seen, this game also has some faithful anime art, at least for its time. Even more impressive since the game is done by germans during the early 90s.

The other unknown games I've played aren't really obscure, only very unknown. I know about some freegames that probably only 10-15 people in the world know about. Many of these games are also really just free to download pixel art games made without a budget of regular or even just mediocre quality made for fun as a project by up-and-coming video game devs throughout the 90s and early 00s.

EDIT: If you don't believe the whole Super Gem'Z story, read the trivia here. Also I've just realized that Chris Huelsbeck is involved with making the music for this game, which makes this obscure urban legend even funnier/sadder depending on how you see it. I only know about any of this because people told me about it way, way back. Whats funnier is that I didn't believe this story for almost a decade after I've remembered the name by accident and checked google to read up on it what feels like a long time ago.