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]]> 14 May 2008 04:27:40 Linley's Dungeon Crawl is a free and portable roguelike molded in the tradition of the early greats of the genre: Rogue, Hack, and Moria. The player guides a single character deep into a subterranean complex to retrieve the Orb of Zot, fending off many horrible and hideous creatures along the way. Once retrieved, the player must return both character and Orb safely to the surface world. Easier said than done, but fun all the same.

Initiated in 1995 by Linley Henzell as a personal project, refinement of Crawl continues today through collaborative effort among a small group of developers. Free to play and distribute, hours of gameplay await adventurers on several popular platforms, including: MS-DOS, Microsoft Windows, GNU/Linux, *BSD, Solaris, MacOS (both Classic and OS X), OS/2, and AmigaOS.

]]> 23 Jun 2007 05:08:55 From the epic role-playing world of Arena and Dagger springs forth a sinister tale of mortal conflict and triumph. The celestial citadel known as Battlespire has been ravaged by a black-hearted Daedra Lord. If this evil Lord and his minions can so easily brush aside an entire defending garrison of the Empire's Battlemages, how can you, a solitary hero, stand against them?

Battlespire features the rich fantasy setting of Bethesda's award-winning Elder Scrollsâ„¢ series. This hi-res, hi-color 3D texture-mapped world is brilliantly detailed, from sinister dungeons to towering castles, each with unprecedented interactivity.

]]> 22 Jun 2007 08:06:54 Silent Hunter is a World War II U.S. Fleet Submarine Combat Simulator. As a commander of a U.S. submarine in the Pacific Theatre, from Pearl Harbor to the end of the war, you have a variety of submarines from which to choose and your task is simple, sink as much enemy tonnage as possible. One can play historical missions, hypothetical encounters or the career based campaign game. There are 9 patrol zones,from the Solomons to the Sea of Japan, and many coastal cities, ports and harbors to sneak into on either recon missions or to just sink ships tied up in port. As commander you may receive medals or commendations after especially successful or hazardous missions. Compare your tonnage and kill scores to those of actual commanders of the period and see if you can match up to the best.

]]> 21 Jun 2007 03:35:18 Raptor: Call of the Shadows (often Raptor for short) is a 2D raster graphics vertical scrolling shoot 'em up single player game for the x86 PC written for MS-DOS, by Cygnus Studios (which has since changed its name to Mountain King Studios).

Raptor: Call of the Shadows was originally released on April 1, 1994. There is a shareware version available for this game which includes the first sector, the Bravo Sector. The full version can still be bought today

As in all shoot 'em up games of this genre, there is a vast number of enemies to kill, both on the ground and in the air. At the end of each wave, and often halfway through the more difficult waves, there is a "boss" which is a single enemy of great size and whom can take a lot of fire before succumbing.

For each target destroyed the player earns credits, with the amount of credits earned per enemy destroyed is proportional to how tough the enemy ship is. Most of the ground objects (buildings, vehicles, turrets) can be destroyed as well. Between new waves and sectors the player can use credits to select among 16 different equipment upgrades (various weapons, "shield-packs", bombs, etc) to be bought for his own aircraft.

The game is divided into three "sectors": Bravo Sector, Tango Sector, and Outer Regions, all of which have nine sub-missions called "waves", making for a total of 27 levels.

(Quoted from Wikipedia)

]]> 11 Jun 2007 11:15:52 Team Fortress (TF or QWTF/Quakeworld TF for this specific version) was a popular multiplayer modification for id Software's "Quake". It featured teams of players choosing from 9 different classes in matches of capture the flag, VIP escort, territorial control, and many other missions.

Team Fortress 1.0 was released July 25th, 1996 for the original Quake, and the first release for QuakeWorld (v2.0) came on December 22, 1996 taking advantage of the enhanced multiplayer functionality of the new client.

It was sufficiently successful that the developers formed TeamFortress Software to then develop "Team Fortress 2" as a commercial mod for Quake II. TF would instead be rewritten for the Half-Life engine.

Over ten years later, TF still enjoys a small community of active players, and several variations on the original TF formula have helped keep peoples interest, including CustomTF, which introduced the ability to configure your own custom class by trading frags scored as cash to purchase abilities.

[adapted and extended from Wikipedia]

]]> 05 Jun 2007 11:12:49 Chex Quest is a total conversion of the computer game Doom (specifically Ultimate Doom). This game, notable for being the first video game ever to be included in cereal boxes as a prize, was found in boxes of Chex cereal in 1996.

Set on a distant planet named Bazoik, the game follows the Chex Warrior, a humanoid in an anthropomorphic piece of Chex cereal armor, as he fights to eradicate the Flemoid invasion. These slimy, green creatures have infested the planet and captured many helpless citizens whom the Chex Warrior must save. The game starts at the landing pad of the research facility on Bazoik, after which you are teleported to the storage facility. The other levels include the laboratory, the arboreum, and finally, the underground caverns of Bazoik, where the flemoids seem to be making a home for themselves.

(Quoted from Wikipedia)

]]> 03 Jun 2007 12:55:18 Story

A team of special operatives, known as the H.U.N.T. (High-risk United Nations Task-force), is sent to San Nicolas Island to investigate deadly cult activity taking place in an ancient monastery. Their boat, the only way back, is destroyed by patrols, and the team soon learns that the cult plans to systematically destroy nearby Los Angeles. The operatives, now unable to return to from whence they came, are then left to fight their way into the monastery on the island, and eventually put a stop to the cult's activities.

Rise of the Triad was initially, during its early stages of development, meant to serve as the sequel to Wolfenstein 3D, titled Rise of the Triad: Wolfenstein 3D II. The presence of the MP40 machinegun and the outfits donned by the enemies are allusory to Nazi Germany and imply the original aforementioned intent for the development of ROTT.

]]> 18 May 2007 06:18:53 From Wikipedia: Star Wars: X-Wing is the first LucasArts DOS computer game set in the Star Wars universe, as well as the lead title in the X-Wing computer game series. It attempts to "realistically" simulate the experience of combat in the A-wing, X-wing, and Y-wing starfighters of the Rebel Alliance. Fans of the Wing Commander series of games often put forward the mistaken notion that X-Wing was somehow inspired by, or derivative of Wing Commander, but the truth is that X-Wing was built on an evolution of the same game engine that underlay the Air Combat Classics series of World War II flight combat games, (Battlehawks 1942, Their Finest Hour: The Battle of Britain, and Secret Weapons of the Luftwaffe), that were developed by Lawrence Holland for Lucasfilm Games. In fact, Larry Holland has reported that Chris Roberts approached him at a trade show to boast that he had reverse-engineered Battlehawks 1942 to create the Wing Commander game engine which he then attempted to pitch to Lucasarts as the basis for a Star Wars flight combat game! The failure of that pitch led to creation of Wing Commander.

X-Wing's main advance was that it featured a fully 3-D engine instead of bitmaps and sprites. The game also demonstrated a significant step forward in the AI and mission scripting so that players felt immersed in a believable simulation of the Star Wars universe, and faced intelligent adversaries that seemed responsive to the player's tactics. This was in stark contrast to the simple-minded AI of the Wing Commander series that was essentially an arcade shooter for gamers who wanted to experience the fantasy of being a starfighter pilot without requiring anything resembling the necessary skills. X-Wing was a flight combat simulator that required a high level of situational awareness, and some semblance of actual dogfighting skills. The X-Wing series appealed more to "hardcore" gamers and in its original floppy disk version was often found to be too difficult for more casual gamers.

]]> 17 May 2007 03:06:27 Developed by Interplay Productions and distributed by Electronic Arts, The Bard's Tale series is considered by many to be one of the pillar classics of computer fantasy role playing games.

The Bard's Tale II: The Destiny Knight allows players to create characters, form parties and adventure throughout the lands. Combat is turn based and players can choose the actions of every member of the party.

From the box text:

"Do you believe in legends? Legend states that, 'Unimaginable power is bestowed upon the one who reforges the Destiny Wand...' Regardless of whether or not you hold faith in the stuff of legend, you must defeat Lagoth Zanta, regain the seven fragments, and reforge the Destiny Wand â€â€

]]> 10 May 2007 02:27:38 Directly following from the events of the first game, the newly-proclaimed Hero of Spielburg travels by flying carpet with his friends Abdulla Doo, Shameen and Shema to the desert city of Shapeir. The city is threatened by magical elementals, while the Emir Arus al-Din of Shapier's sister city Raseir is missing and his city fallen under tyranny.

After defeating the four elementals that threaten Shapeir, the Hero travels to the city of Raseir. There, he is imprisoned by Khaveen and under hypnosis helps the evil tyrannous wizard Ad Avis to resurrect the evil genie Iblis. In the final fight, the Hero attacks the palace and battles with Ad Avis, who falls to his presumed death begging for assistance from his Dark Master. As thanks for the Hero's success in liberating Raseir and restoring its lost splendor, the Sultan of Shapeir, Harun al-Rashid, rewards the Hero by adopting him as his son.
- from Wikipedia

]]> 22 Apr 2007 07:55:46 In 1996, Phantasmagoria: A Puzzle of Flesh by Lorelei Shannon was released. Though still enormous in size coming on five separate CDs it was in no way as large as its predecessor.

Dropping the unique adventure game style interaction in favor of an interactive movie format, A Puzzle of Flesh was more expensive to produce and less popular with audiences tiring of video clip-driven games. Though some concluded that it was a substantial improvement over the original in several areas, others dismissed the game, criticizing it for its completely different atmosphere, lack of creativity, interactivity and excessive violence.

The plot of the second game in the series revolves around the character of Curtis Craig, a 30-year-old man working in a company managed by the enigmatic Paul Warner. Curtis' mysterious and traumatic past is a key element in the plot, as he pieces together his experience to form a picture of his soul, one whose discovery might lead to his demise. Harassed by quasi-delusions which seem all too real, Curtis aims to uncover the truth about his family, co-workers and most importantly, his own existence. As his delusions become more and more real and begin to have an enormous, terrible impact on his surroundings, Curtis must confront his fears or risk getting devoured by what lives within him.

A Puzzle of Flesh has a fairly standard interface, with the cursor shaped into the distinctive logo of WynTech

Source: Wikipedia entry

]]> 14 Apr 2007 12:48:40 Made during the height of the "interactive movie" boom in the computer game industry, Phantasmagoria is notable for being one of the first adventure games to use a human being as an on-screen avatar. Actress Victoria Morsell spent months in front of a bluescreen filming the hundreds of actions players could direct her character to perform. The game was released on seven CDs to accommodate the massive amount of video generated by this process. Today it still stands as a record of sorts for the largest number of media cuts used in a game, though several other games including an adventure game based on The X-Files television series have matched it in the sheer number of CDs used. However, if it were to use modern day video compression codecs while keeping the same resolution, the game could probably have shipped on as little as one or two discs. On the other hand, however, the seven discs were used to highlight the seven days, during which the story takes place - the game could easily fit about five discs, even without the advanced video compression. Also, it is worth mentioning that large portions of data were repeated on each CD, to avoid disk swapping when playing the game.

The game script was about 400 pages long, four times the size of a regular movie script, and an additional 100 pages of storyboards set the style for the over 800 scenes in the game. The game required four months of filming alone and over 200 persons were involved in the production, not counting the Gregorian choir of 135 persons that was used for parts of the music in the game.

Source: Wikipedia Article

]]> 14 Apr 2007 12:45:09 "Quest for Glory: So You Want to be a Hero" is the first game, and a

]]> 11 Apr 2007 05:04:40 Terra Nova: Strike Force Centauri is a science fiction first-person shooter, squad combat computer game developed and published by Looking Glass Studios (known then as Looking Glass Technologies) in 1996.

The game is set in the year 2327 â€â€

]]> 01 Mar 2007 08:10:08 Dune, by Cryo Interactive, was the first attempt of making a commercial game based on Frank Herbert's Dune universe.

Dune blended adventure with economic and military strategy, and is considered by many the most immersive Dune computer game. Loosely following the story of the novel, the game casts the player as Paul Atreides, with the ultimate goal of driving the Harkonnen from Dune, while managing spice extraction, military, and later, ecology through the native Fremen tribes. As the player progresses, his troops are equipped with weapons from "krys knives" to atomics, tap into Paul's latent psychic powers, and get acquainted with such characters from the book as Chani and Liet Kynes.

The game, seen always through the eyes of Paul, is a mix between RTS and adventure gaming. While the basis of the game is the strategy component, dialog between characters and a linear plotline give the game more depth than most strategy games. The player is also required to do some miniquests involving talking to characters and traveling to locations, which adds a small adventure game element.



(loosely edited text from wikipedia)

]]> 13 Feb 2007 06:52:47 Paris, 1914. The world is on the brink of war and your life is about to change forever.

You are Robert Cath, a young American who is urgently summoned by his friend Tyler Whitney to join him on the train departing the Gare de l'Est, Paris, 24 July for Constantinople.

Arriving late, you are overcome with the heavy feeling of danger. Something has gone terribly wrong. Before you can grab hold of your senses, the adventure overtakes you, and you are plunged into a world of suspense, romance, international intrigue, and murder.

The Last Express allows you to move freely through the rich and detailed 3D environment of the world's most luxurious train, circa 1914, during its final European crossing prior to the outbreak of WWI.

Gameplay involves interacting with characters, exploring objects, engaging in action sequences and uncovering multiple story threads--with your perspective shifting from 1st person to 3rd person for maximum dramatic effect.

The fluid, constantly-changing way the other characters react to you--and the fact that the train moves relentlessly onward--creates a sense of real-time suspense and unpredictability beyond that of a traditional adventure game.

Information gained is used to piece together a series of interrelated puzzles which advance you through the story. If you are clever enough, you ultimately discover the shocking secrets of The Last Express... before it's too late!

]]> 10 Feb 2007 05:40:35 As the Stonekeep crumbles, your character Drake escapes to safety to learn that the castle's inhabitants have become undead. You return several years later for revenge. The sunken city of Stonekeep is now inhabited by monsters like throgs, snakes, and sorcerers.

This first-person 3D RPG involved treking through these dungeons and fighting monsters in real-time. The interface is almost completely mouse-driven.

- Digitized speech is use through the whole game, and NPCs and monsters are shown in full motion video.

- Stonekeep features an elaborate Magick system where four types of runes are inscribed onto a spellcaster: Mannish, Fae, Throggish, and Meta.

- Stonekeep's mythology revolves around a variety of Gods associated with planets of the solar system.

]]> 10 Feb 2007 03:03:10 Jeremy Hartwood, owner of Derceto has died recently. As either Edward Carnby or Emily Hartwood, explore the now abandoned mansion to discover why Jeremy committed suicide and what terrible secret lies within the walls.

Derceto is widely reputed to be haunted by an evil power. The case is quickly dealt with by the police and soon forgotten by the public. The player assumes the role of either Edward Carnby, a private detective who is to find a piano in the loft for an antique dealer's shop, or Emily Hartwood, a woman who also is to find the piano only for her because she believes a secret drawer in it has a note on which Jeremy explained his suicide, and either character goes to the mansion to investigate. As they enter the house, the doors mysteriously slam shut behind them, but they just continue up to the attic and nothing else seems to happen.

Trapped with only your wits to continue, this is survival horror at it's very beginnings.

]]> 10 Feb 2007 02:09:12 Imagine a world of intense beauty and mortal danger where your slightest move can trigger cataclysmic events, miraculous escaped or lethal battles. See magical cities rise out of great oceans. Enter the mysterious caverns of the Dracoid ruins. Discover gruesome altars and witness secret ceremonies never before seen by humans. This is the world of Lands of Lore: Guardians of Destiny.

Set in a reactive environment, this real-time, role playing/adventure game features animated 3D high resolution graphics developed by Westwood Studios.

This incredible world is now ready to be discovered. The question is, are you ready for it?

]]> 09 Feb 2007 06:49:30 Loom is a strange and beautiful adventure game set in a feudal past. The hero is Bobbin Threadbare, a weaver. In the world of Loom, everyone belongs to a guild. Apart from the weavers, there are sheperds, blacksmiths, glass makers.

When Bobbin embarks on his quest, he has no inventory (very unusual in an adventure game), he will solve problems not with items, but with "drafts", spells consisting of four notes of music. These drafts can be written down in the beautiful Book of Patterns that is present even in later jewelcase editions.

Loom first came out 1989 on floppies with EGA graphics and a 30-minute audio prologue on tape. The next year it was ported to Mac and Amiga. While the black & white Macintosh version is rather interesting, the color ports are rather crude. 1991 saw a new DOS CD version with VGA graphics and CD music.

]]> 08 Feb 2007 02:11:49 Developed by classic developer house Westwood Studios, Lands of Lore is a role playing game (RPG) that was originally released for the PC back in 1994! Since then it has won numerous awards and received much acclaim. At the time, it was one of the biggest and most detailed games available. It took full advantage of the new CD-ROM format with full voice digitization including voicing done by Patrick Stewart portraying King Richard.

The game interface is superbly done, by far the easiest and smoothest I have ever played. Many RPGs tend to have complicated interfaces that take hours of learning to master. But not here, simply click on the sword or magic symbol to use it. Other features include a compass, and a very nice auto-mapper which is a necessity in such a huge world.

Unlike some RPGs, Lands of Lore places more emphasis on adventure and less on the complexities of character and party selection. This allows you to be able to get into the game quickly without squabbling over the unnecessary details in some games, like the color of your pants.

]]> 08 Feb 2007 02:06:11 Chip is willing to do anything for Melinda the Mental Marvel, more than anything, because he wants to join melinda's exlusive computer club, the Bit Busters. Finally Melinda has offered him membership, but on one condition! Chip must find his way from one end of Melinda's magical clubhouse to the other, picking up cosmic computer chips along the way.

]]> 06 Feb 2007 07:49:36 Master of Orion II is like Civilization. Rather than take over the world, you focus on the galaxy, taking worlds instead of cities. Pick or create your own race, pursue technologies, employ strategic fleet deployments, and engage in extremely advanced diplomacy.

Various paths to victory.

]]> 02 Feb 2007 04:54:21 This game is a first person shooter of the old era where you are sent to save the world from rednecks and alien babes with machine guns in their bossoms.

]]> 28 Jan 2007 12:29:53 Sierra's King's Quest series is responsible for not only kickstarting the 3D adventure-game genre, but putting the company on the map. In the heyday of adventure gaming, when Sierra made most of the greats, it was King's Quest that paved the way for the Police Quests, Space Quests, and the Quest for Glory games. But originality wasn't even the series' greatest achievement. Over the years, the games continued to improve (until they stopped improving, that is), reaching their absolutely finest hour in the sixth iteration: King's Quest VI: Heir Today, Gone Tomorrow. King's Quest VI was infused with the best aspects of all the previous games, including a backstory derived from the series' rich canon, a strong tie into mythology and fantasy, and the combined effort of two of the premier designers in adventure gaming, Roberta Williams and Jane Jensen. This clever, beautiful, and unique adventure game is truly one of the best games that the genre has ever had to offer, and reminds us sadly that adventure gaming may be dying rapidly, but it's never going to be forgotten.

Though the games were originally text-driven, King's Quest V and VI abandoned the earlier mechanics in favor of a point-and-click system. Instead of having to adhere to a strict vocabulary in order to interact with the environments and the people around you, you were given the option to use an item, look at, touch, or speak with anything on the screen. You wouldn't be able to write dirty messages and get admonished by the clever auto-response box anymore, but it did make the games more accessible, and it did mean that you wouldn't have to spend any time attempting to rephrase yourself in order to accomplish something. King's Quest V also marked a huge drastic visual change for the series, including the abandonment of the looping map (now you couldn't go south to appear back at the top of the screen), support for 256 colors, and the use of rudimentary motion capture based on real actors. All of these techniques, which were developed for V, were improved even further in VI, including the addition of a fully 3D animated introduction.

Of course, it wasn't just the appearance that made King's Quest VI stand out from its predecessors. The story in this game, and the puzzle solving elements, though always strong, were practically flawless in this game. The beginning picks up virtually where King's Quest V left off, and the young Prince Alexander is dreaming of the girl he met during his father's previous adventure, the lovely Princess Cassima, who's from an island nation so remote that nobody knows where it is. Thanks to the Kingdom of Daventry's magic mirror (the hardest working mirror in video gaming), a glimpse of the young maiden is revealed to Alexander, and he runs off to find her. Though the game is a traditional boy-meets-girl, boy-pines-for-girl, boy-wins-girl back love story; the tale is told in such an interesting, outstanding, and sometimes downright humiliating way that it holds much more appeal than typical damsel-in-distress stories. Alexander and Cassima don't always behave like typical heroes and maidens, a pleasant and expected result from having two female authors on a video game script.

The characters that Alexander encounters along the way run the gamut of personality. From the bickering chessboard queens to the lost dangling participle who asks Alexander "where are you going to?" to the residents of the underworld that like to jam out to "Dem Bones", every NPC whether friendly or hostile offers a little bit of flavor, and often a very big clue as to what's next in store for the adventure. The game's puzzles require the perfect balance of creative thinking and knowledge of ancient mythology that makes them simultaneously challenging and rewarding. Of course, almost most notably, the game offers a number of optional puzzles including two entirely different endings, depending on whether or not you choose to turn young Alexander into a drag queen so that he can get closer to his true love. But the heart of the story leads players through familiar storylines like the tale of Beauty and the Beast, the Minotaur and the Labyrinth, and less familiar plotlines like encountering mysterious druids or going head-to-head against Death himself.

The result of the epic collaboration of Gabriel Knight author Jane Jensen and King's Quest creator Roberta Williams is one of the wittiest, most heartwarming, and entertaining adventure games of all time, one whose puzzles will embed themselves on player's memories far beyond the time that anyone remembers that this game was released on floppy discs. -- Carrie Gouskos

]]> 15 Jan 2007 09:31:48 In Transport Tycoon Deluxe you control a transport company, where you try to make as much profit as possible by transporting people ad goods by road, rail, sea or by air.

]]> 18 Dec 2006 09:13:33 An addictive deathmatch over molten marshmallow. Play with friends.

]]> 10 Dec 2006 09:51:02 A beautiful mix of strategy and action.

]]> 09 Dec 2006 07:53:55 The third game in Quest for Glory series is set in the Africa-like world of Tarna, where you travel with your new liontaur friends you have met in the second game. Shortly after your arrival, you learn about the conflict between the liontaurs and the neighbor Simbani village, populated by the leopardmen. It is now time for our hero to become a skillful diplomat and to prevent an upcoming war between the two nations.

The gameplay system of "Wages of War" is the same as in the two previous games. The game plays like an adventure, with puzzles to solve and characters to talk to, with the additional of RPG elements: combat (action-based) and character development. You can play as either a fighter, a thief, a mage, or a paladin, and raise your skills directly after battles or by performing various actions. Graphics and interface underwent a major change. This is the first 256-color Quest for Glory game, and the first one to utilize the new, icon-based interface.

(from the Moby Games QFG3 page)

]]> 05 Dec 2006 11:32:14 Controversial at its time of release ('93), Syndicate is a violent, real-time tactical game with cyborg agents performing missions all over the world ranging from political assassinations to abductions and rescues.

]]> 01 Dec 2006 02:15:43 Turn-based strategy game that seamlessly combines two different elements- tactical squad battles and resource management.

]]> 22 Nov 2006 04:38:58