This Month's Most Viewed Games Tagged 'casual, DOS' on The Great Games Experiment This Month's Most Viewed Games Tagged 'casual, DOS' on The Great Games Experiment http://www.greatgamesexperiment.com/css/logo.jpg This Month's Most Viewed Games Tagged 'casual, DOS' on The Great Games Experiment en-us Gamoliyas
]]> 26 Aug 2007 02:20:10 Where in the World is Carmen Sandiego There is a popular line of educational software mystery games based on Carmen Sandiego. Each game of the series has a particular theme and subject, where the player must use his or her knowledge to find Carmen or any of her innumerable henchmen. This series was originally produced by Broderbund, but it is now produced by The Learning Company.

from wikipedia.com
]]> 15 Jan 2007 07:29:55 Sherlock
]]> 30 Aug 2007 08:16:13 Monkey Island 2: LeChuck's Revenge
I thought I'd killed the Ghost Pirate LeChuck for good. Wrong. How many times can that bloated old fool die? Other pirates tell me there's no escape. "When LeChuck wants you dead, you're dead", they say. Legend has it that the treasure of Big Whoop holds the key to great power... I must find it before LeChuck finds me.

-The Memoirs of Guybrush Threepwood: The Monkey Island Years
]]> 06 Feb 2007 04:45:44 Day of the Tentacle One day, Purple Tentacle and Green Tentacle are out for a walk when Purple Tentacle decides to drink toxic waste. The waste causes him to grow arms, become evil, and eventually take over the world. It is up to Bernard, Hoagie, and Laverne to travel back in time and turn off the Sludge'o'Matic before Purple Tentacle can drink the ooze and become evil. Because Dr. Fred used an imitation diamond in his time machine, it breaks and sends Hoagie 200 years in the past and Laverne 200 years in the future. You must get everyone back to the present and save the world!
]]> 26 Nov 2006 01:03:10 SimCity

History

SimCity was first developed on the Commodore 64 in 1985 by Will Wright. It gained much of its popularity after it was released on the PC and MAC in 1989. It spawned a legacy of "Sim" games, some successful, and others not so, that are still enjoyed by players today. Sometime after the release of SimCity 4, SimCity Classic Live was made available by EA games to registered members.


Game Summary

SimCity is a city simulation game. The player plays the roll of god and mayor, building a city from the ground up. This requires careful balance of expansion and budget management. Players can change everything from taxes to education funding. There are no legal restrictions as well, players may levy huge taxes, as well as drop police funding down to 0 in order to raise money, but they also must deal with the effects of their actions. SimCity also has a number of disasters that can occur in your city, ranging from fires, to nuclear melt-downs, even alien invasions. SimCity uses a top-down view.

Purchase Details

The game is no longer in production. You may be able to find copies on amazon or Ebay, as well as your local used games store. Also, you can play SimCity Classic Live for free.
]]> 31 Dec 2006 09:30:39 The Adventures of Willy Beamish Welcome to the terminally cute, seriously warped world of Willy Beamish. You'll face neurotic yuppie parents, teachers pushed over the edge, a ghostly grandfather back from the grave, the baby-sitter from hell, a pet jumping frog on steroids and a plot to blow the city's sewer system sky high. It's chaotic, it's juvenile, it's definitely deranged and you're gonna love every minute of it.
]]> 25 Jan 2007 06:06:08 The Secret of Monkey Island
I cursed my luck again as I slid down the monkey's throat. Have my dreams of guzzling grog and plundering galleons been reduced to this. "Three small trials and you're a pirate like us." Fair enough. If only I could stomach the foul brew these scurvy seadogs swilled, the rest would be easy. How could I have known I'd meet a powerful and beautiful woman with a jealous suitor too stupid to realize he'd been dead for years? And how can I crawl through this great stone monkey to find a man who walks three inches above the ground and sets fire to his beard every morning?

-The Memoirs of Guybrush Threepwood: The Monkey Island Years
]]> 06 Feb 2007 04:24:31 Raptor: Call of the Shadows 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 The Incredible Machine From Wikipedia: Incredible Machine Article
The general objective of the games is to create a series of Rube Goldberg devices: arrange a given collection of objects in a needlessly complex fashion so as to perform some simple task (for example, "put the ball into a box" or "light a candle"). Available objects ranged from simple ropes and pulleys to electrical generators, bowling balls and even cats and mice. The levels usually have some fixed objects that cannot be moved by the player, and so the only way to solve the puzzle is carefully arrange the given objects around the fixed items. There is also a "freeform" option that allows the user to "play" with all the objects with no set goal or to also build their own puzzles with goals for other players to attempt to solve.

Created at Dynamix by Jeff Tunnell (Director, designer) and Kevin Ryan (Programmer, designer)
]]> 18 Oct 2006 03:40:21 Another World Another World, known as Out of this World in the US and Outer World in Japan, is a 1991 cinematic platformer designed and developed by Eric Chahi. The graphics and box art were designed by Chahi, while the music was composed by Jean-François Freitas.

While not a great commercial success, Another World was innovative in its use of cinematic effects in the graphics, sound and cut scenes, with characters communicating through their facial features, gestures, and actions only. This cinematic style granted Another World cult status amongst critics and fans.

The protagonist of the game is Lester Knight Chaykin; a young, athletic, red haired physicist. Lester arrives at his high-tech underground laboratory during a thunderstorm, and continues to work on his experiment using a particle accelerator. Right before the particles reach their intended destination, lightning strikes the lab and interferes with the accelerator causing the unforeseen teleportation of Lester to a barren alien planet.

The player can control Lester using the keyboard or gamepad using four directions buttons and two action buttons: one for main actions, and one for jumping. Depending on the player's current position, movement, and status, the main action key performs a variety of actions including attacking and interacting with Lester's environment. At the start of the game Lester can only kick to attack, but later he can acquire a gun. While the movement keys normally make Lester run, the game also features sections where the player must swim, roll, or drive a vehicle. The player only has one life, but there are multiple checkpoints he can return to by entering the relevant pass code given at each one.
]]> 10 Dec 2006 09:53:52 Transport Tycoon Deluxe 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 Wing Commander I Set in the year 2654, Wing Commander tells a tale of mankind's struggle for survival in a ferocious war between the Human Confederation and the warmongering Kilrathi Empire, a fierce bi-pedal feline race.





"You're a starfighter pilot, the best of the best, but nothing in your training prepared you for action this hot. Deep space dogfights against Kilrathi aces are deadly, and the future of humanity is on the line each time you fly!


Wing Commander puts you in the middle of the most intense starship action you've ever experienced outside of a movie theatre. But in Wing Commander, you're the star!"





The majority of the game takes place within the cockpit of various space fighters. Depending on how well one performs while in action, the player may find themselves on the winning or losing path thus altering the plot accordingly. Medals and the respect of your wingmen are gained if performance is exemplary, in turn leading to a more effective attack wing. In between space-flight missions the player is free to roam the legendary carrier "TCS Tiger's Claw" and have conversations with their fellow crew mates, learning more about the horrors and triumphs of the bloody war that is now being fought.


When Wing Commander was released in 1990, the in-game graphics and space-combat engine were a step above all other products during that period. The game was even one of the first to use the new Sound Blaster for PC's, adding to the already cinematic feel of the game.


The strong script and characters which has been a staple through out the series are the primary reason why the Wing Commander has gained such a strong following over the years. That combined with movie-like presentation and strong gameplay has made the venerable Wing Commander a classic among gamers and critics.





Want to learn more about Wing Commander? Visit WCnews.com or Wing Commander Universe.
]]> 11 Feb 2007 07:47:45 Wing Commander II Released in 1991, Wing Commander 2 is a sci-fi space simulation that is a continuation of the storyline that was told in the original Wing Commander.






"Ten years ago, you were the Hero of Vega Sector, idol of millions - the starfighter pilot who single-handedly turned the tide of a major Kilrathi invasion. Then something went wrong.


You were disgraced, court-martialed and transferred to a backwater outpost. For years, your lightning-quick reflexes and instinctive dogfighting tactics went to waste while the Kilrathi killed your closest friends on the front lines.


But Mankind still needs a hero, now more than ever before. And you're still the best pilot in the Galaxy. You've got just one chance to prove yourself, just one chance to keep the Terran homeworlds from falling to the massed armada of the Empire of Kilrah."



Think you can handle it, flyboy?"





Again most of the game is spent flying missions in space for the Confederation in the continuing war effort against the fearsome Kilrathi Empire. When not flying missions, the player is also able to explore the "TCS Concordia" and talk to fellow crew-mates. A greater emphasis has been placed on storytelling, which gives the player a greater scope on the people fighting this war. The mood is darker than the original, mainly due to the fact that the Humans are in fact losing the war.


Wing Commander 2 bettered the original in every regard, from the updated graphics engine to the detailed script. It is considered an all-time classic within the gaming world.








Want to learn more about Wing Commander? Visit WCnews.com or Wing Commander Universe.
]]> 18 Feb 2007 11:05:29 Sentinel Worlds 1: Future Magic
]]> 31 Jul 2007 01:29:34 Rampage This is easy. You're a scientist and you "accidentally" became an abominable monster a la King Kong or Godzilla. What's life like as a monster? Well, there's a lot of destruction involved. You fight off tanks and helicopters, destroy buildings, eat people (and their food), and generally wreak havok on the world. All in a day's work.

]]> 28 Nov 2006 05:54:11 Maniac Mansion At the start of the game, the hero, Dave Miller, finds that his girlfriend, Sandy Pantz, has been abducted by Dr. Fred Edison, and sets out to save her, with two of his friends. The player could select the friends from a group of six, and the game would play somewhat differently depending on which friends were selected.
]]> 30 Dec 2006 08:02:38 The Dig When a giant asteroid headed directly for Earth is discovered, a group of five scientists are sent to take a space shuttle to the asteroid and plant explosives on it knock it out of its course, and prevent it frome ver reaching Earth.

The team is made up by Boston Low, a retired astronaut, Dr. Ludger Drunk, an archaeologist and geologist, Maggie Robbins, a reporter and linguistics expert, Ken Border, the shuttle pilot, and Cora Miles, NASA technician and political candidate.

But the mission turns out to be far from what they expected.
]]> 09 Feb 2007 09:21:31 Worms Worms is is a classic strategy game where each player controls a team of four worms, trying to destroy each other. The worms have a wide array of weapons at their disposal, many of them which are subject to influences from wind and gravity.

Each game takes place on a randomly generated level in one of the ten available styles, ranging from forests and deserts to Candy land and the moon (complete with affected gravity).

The way the level looks at the start is never what it looks like at the end, since almost all weapons leave considerable marks in the terrains.
]]> 17 Feb 2007 06:23:42 Frontier: Elite II Frontier: Elite 2 is a computer game written by David Braben and published by Gametek in 1993. It is the first sequel to Ian Bell and David Braben's earlier game Elite, and is available for Commodore Amiga, Atari ST and PC computers.

Frontier (or FE2 as it is commonly referred to) retains the same principle component of Elite—namely completely open-ended gameplay—and adds to this realistic physics and an accurately modelled galaxy. There is no plot within Frontier, nor are there pre-scripted missions (as there are in its sequel, First Encounters); instead players explore space while trading legally or illegally, carrying out missions for the military, ferrying passengers from system to system, engaging in piracy or any combination of the above. As a consequence, Frontier cannot be completed or "won"—instead, players themselves decide what to aspire to and set out to achieve it.

The game has since been released as shareware and is available as a free download, although being a DOS game, users of Windows 2000 and Windows XP may initially have difficulty getting it to run. Using emulation such as DosBox will get the official shareware version of the game to run on modern operating systems including Windows XP, Mac OS X and Linux.

In Frontier, the player assumes the role of one of Commander Jameson's grandchildren, having inherited from Commander Jameson one hundred credits and an Eagle Long Range Fighter. By the game’s standards, this is incredibly modest, and is used as a spur to encourage players to earn money by whatever means they feel is appropriate.

As with Elite, much of Frontier is concerned with trading: players can buy and sell much—from food and computer parts to guns and slaves—with the intent of making the most profit from each trading run. Thus, learning to compare prices in various systems is essential for profitability, and calculating overheads for each trip (such as fuel, missiles, and hull repair) are essential skills. It often becomes apparent that a particular trading route is profitable, such as the Barnard’s Star-Sol route. It is worth noting that some items (particularly narcotics, nerve gas, weaponry and slaves) are illegal in most systems and attempting to trade these in a system in which they are illegal will result in being fined by the police, which can often escalate into violence. It is often worth the risk, however, as illegal goods generally have a very high price on the black market.

Frontier substitutes Elite’s arcade flying style for one based rigidly on Newtonian physics: momentum must first be neutralised to bring the player's craft to a stop, and turning 180° has no effect on the direction of travel until previous momentum has been counteracted. The craft’s control is largely left to the player, but often day-to-day tasks—such as navigating from a hyperspace exit-point to a desired planet or space-station and docking—can be handed over to a ship's autopilot.
]]> 03 Mar 2007 12:22:46 Frontier: First Encounters First Encounters is the sequel to Frontier (1993), which itself was a sequel to the seminal 1984 game Elite. The game was created by David Braben’s company, Frontier Developments. Many fans of the game refer to it by the shortened title of FFE.

Like Frontier, First Encounters features realistic Newtonian physics and the ability to land on planets. It has graphics that are an improvement over Frontier (the main difference being Gouraud shading) and, as well as employing the same open-ended gameplay of its predecessors, it also features a storyline concerning an alien race called the Thargoids.

Like the other two Elite games, it has been re-released as shareware and can be freely downloaded from the Elite Club site.

Being a DOS game, First Encounters has difficulty running with Windows XP or Windows 2000 machines, although the official site does offer solutions to get the game running. A recreated game engine called JJFFE allows playing the game on Linux, Windows and DOS.

First Encounters plays much like its immediate predecessor Frontier: the game is a combination of trading, fighting and a variety of other activitiesâ€â€
]]> 03 Mar 2007 01:23:22 Yasmina's Quest Yasmina's Quest is an open source game (and motor) mix of graphical point-and-click adventure and text adventure written in PHP and DHTML (JavaScript, CSS and HTML) that uses mouse and keyboard optionally.
You can use the motor/engine/parser to create your own adventure if you know PHP and JavaScript.
This cross-platform and cross-browser game was tested under BeOS, Linux, NetBSD, OpenBSD, FreeBSD, Windows and others.
]]> 13 Jun 2007 10:15:26 Commander Keen Vol. 1
Moby Games said,
In game you play the role of Commander Keen: an eight year-old genius by the name of Billy Blaze, who builds an interstellar spaceship from his mom's vacuum cleaner. When Billy learns that the Earth is in danger, he dons his brother's football helmet to become Commander Keen -- Defender of the Earth!
]]> 30 Nov 2006 03:04:03 Quest for Glory 3: Wages of War 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 Lemmings Lemmings, a computer game developed by DMA Design (now Rockstar North) and published by Psygnosis in 1991, was one of the most popular computer games of its time. Several games magazines of the time awarded the game maximum review scores.

Psygnosis, also known for the Wipeout series, had its greatest success in Lemmings. Famously, the concept for Lemmings came from an animation created by Mike Dailly over a lunchtime, to prove a point about how small a character could be on screen. [1]

The game was unique and based around a concept previously untried. In the original Commodore Amiga version, there are 120 levels, and on each level, the player must guide a group of up to 100 lemmings (or 80 in many versions, such as DOS and Windows) home by giving individual lemmings various commands. The "lemmings" of the game are small, green-haired humanoid beings that mindlessly walk en masse into any danger in their path, following the popular myth that real lemmings behave in a similarly suicidal fashion.

Of the numerous sequels the only one to achieve the success of the first was Lemmings 2: The Tribes, which added twelve specialist tribes of lemmings, each with their own type of level and specialist workers.

The game briefly gave rise to a new genre, described in magazines at the time as the "save 'em up", a joking reference to other popular genres like beat 'em up and shoot 'em up.


Source: wikipedia.com
]]> 15 Jan 2007 07:43:50 Flashback The year is 2142. You play as Conrad B. Hart, a man who has lost his memory. After barely escaping from hostile aliens, Conrad's bike crashes on an unknown planet. Conrad finds himself in the jungle, and from now on his quest for survival and his lost identity begins.
]]> 06 Feb 2007 03:49:44 Space Quest V: The Next Mutation Roger Wilco is a cadet and janitor at the Starfleet Academy. However, he cheats his way through the aptitude test and becomes the captain of his own ship. He is the newest captain of the SCS Eureka, a garbage scow. Roger explores space looking for trash, and eventually comes across a toxic disease that is spreading through the galaxy. You need to help roger save the galaxy and get the girl in the end.

Space Quest V was not designed by the full "Two Guys from Andromeda" team who did the original four games. Instead, only one of the two, Mark Crowe, was involved. The humor in this episode was different than that of the past games.
]]> 22 Feb 2007 06:47:34 Flight Unlimited Flight Unlimited is the first of the Flight Unlimited series of General aviation Flight Simulator games created by Looking Glass Studios. It focuses mainly on Aerobatics. It was released in 1995 for DOS and in 1996 for Windows 95. Notable features are the pioneering physics system, landscapes and FBO interface. It was one of the first games to use 3D elevation mesh and photo-realistic images to create realistic terrain representing small areas of country in the USA and France. It supplies challenges in the form of aerobatic lessons and hoops courses, where it is required to fly through virtual "hoops" in the sky against the clock.

The physics system was innovative, as it was possibly the first flight sim game (at least in the home) to use the idea of fluid dynamics. Instead of the control inputs directly affecting the plane, the controls affect the control surfaces on the plane, with the flow of air doing the rest. For example, in an older game, pushing forwards on the keyboard or joystick would directly make the plane pitch down (relative to its orientation), as though a 'magic hand' was rotating the plane. In Flight Unlimited, pushing forwards on the keyboard or joystick tilts the elevators, and the flow of air over the tail and elevators causes the planes orientation to change accordingly.

Rather unusual (for the time) is the FBO interface. It allows the player to walk around a room in 3d and select objects to access functions in the game. For example, a whiteboard allows access to the lessons, while a world globe allows the player to go to other world locations.

The game has a demo recording facility very similar to that in the X-wing space combat simulator. Recordings can be saved and played forwards or backwards, at various degrees of speed. Camera views can be changed, as in normal flight, and at any time, the player can 'eject the tape', and play the game from the current point of the recording. The game comes with several recordings, some of which show a range of manouveres, while others show how 'not' to fly a plane.
]]> 01 Mar 2007 09:36:06 I Have No Mouth, And I Must Scream "I Have No Mouth, And I must Scream" is an adult adventure game based on Harlan Ellison's short story of the same name. The original story was written in one night during 1966 and went on to become one of the 10 most re-printed stories in history. It also won a Hugo award in 1968.









"More than a century before the story opens, a supercomputer called AM had already destroyed the entire human race save for the five protagonists. Before AM's present incarnation, there had been three separate American, Soviet and Chinese supercomputers, each programmed for fighting an increasingly complex global war against its two opponents. However, the computers evolved and connected to each other, gained sentience and subsequently annihilated all humanity. AM feels its own creation was an act of unimaginable cruelty because he possesses so much power and can do so little with it, and therefore possesses an extreme hatred for humanity. The machine's hatred combined with its godlike power resulted in the destruction of the human race, save for the five individuals whom AM trapped and then artificially sustained at their current ages indefinitely, solely for the purpose of tormenting them forever."
Source: Wikipedia





The game is played as a point'n'click adventure and has a unique story delving into the tormented souls of the remaining five people on Earth - Gorrister, Ellen, Benny, Nimdok and Ted. After the successful completion of each adventure a showdown with AM himself will occur. The game is incredibly well conceived and has had much input from the original author. The script, visuals and audio all add to the incredible atmosphere and help maintain the eerie and frightening premise that is laced with the horrors of insanity, selfishness, rape, racism, paranoia and genocide.


The script for the computer game differs slightly from the original to allow for the transition from literature to the interactive medium and was again penned by Harlan Ellison. Ellison even lends his vocal talent to the game, voicing the super-computer/super-villain "AM".
]]> 03 Mar 2007 12:34:57 Chex Quest 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 Street Rod Street Rod is one of the finest dos racing games of the late 80s. It allows you to tune up and trick out your 50s or 60s era ride and then drag or street race them for money or pink slips. Beef up your cars to eventually challenge the King and his black Corvette.
]]> 27 Nov 2006 01:51:54 Planetfall After the fall of the Second Galactic Union in 1716 GY, a ten-thousand-year dark age settled upon the galaxy. Interstellar travel was non-existent, and many star systems descended into a near-barbaric state, buring coal and gas for energy, and growing food directly from exposed topsoil.

In 11,203 GY, a treaty between the Empires of Tremain and Galium formed the Third Galactic Union. Ships of the Stellar Patrol (a pseudo-military wing of the Union government on Tremain) began exploring the galaxy, searching for the human civilizations that are the remnants of the Second Galactic Union.

You are a native of the planet Gallium. Although it is one of the most politically powerful worlds in the Union, Gallium is no garden spot. In fact, the Gallium Chamber of Commerce brochure entitled "Ten Great Reasons to Visit Gallium" ends on page 3. The author ran out of reasons after listing just two.

For five generations, your family has served in the Stellar Patrol. Your great-great-grandfather was a High Admiral and one of the founding officers of the Patrol. It was taken for granted that when you came of age you would join up.

Now, more than a year after signing up, and two months after being transferred to the S.P.S. Feinstein, you are still only ranked Ensign Seventh Class. You superior officer, Ensign First Class Blather, has been making your life miserable. You're begining to wonder if you're really cut out for the Stellar Patrol...
]]> 28 Nov 2006 02:39:20 Spy Hunter Spy Hunter is an action/driving game. It places the player as the driver of a "spy" vehicle. The object of the game is to travel the freeways and hunt down and destroy as many enemy vehicles as possible, while protecting and not harming innocent civilian vehicles.

The view is aerial, much like a helicopter vantage point. The screen scrolls vertically underneath the player's car. An arrangement of the Peter Gunn theme music plays throughout.

The game begins with the player driving a vehicle, the G-6155 Interceptor (fictitious, but modelled on a 1983 Z28; its name derives from the date of birth of game designer George Gomez). Soon, the player starts to encounter enemy vehicles which try to force the player's car off the road and crash. Each enemy vehicle has its own special feature, such as tire slashers or bulletproof armor.

Points are scored for distance travelled (a counter increments the score while the player is driving) and destroying enemy vehicles, however these points are not added for several seconds should an innocent civilian car be destroyed. There is a lead-in time where the player has an initial endless supply of cars. After the lead-in time expires, the player must earn extra cars with high scores. The first extra car is earned at a default value of 30,000 points, but this value can vary depending on settings; up to 3 additional cars are awarded at similar increments.

The player must be careful to avoid harming innocent civilian vehicles. There are three types of such vehicles — two automobiles (one pink in color, the other light blue) and a motorcycle. Destroying these vehicles causes the score meter to halt for a few seconds (in effect subtracting points from the player's score) and will result in the weapons van (see below) arriving only once instead of twice in that sequence (it is also possible to inadvertently destroy the weapons van itself; doing so produces the same consequences as destroying a civilian vehicle). A very hard, direct crash with a civilian vehicle can result in the player losing a car.

Initially, the only weapons the player's car has available are two front-mounted machine guns with an endless supply of ammunition. Early on, these guns and the player's driving skill (the player can attempt to force or ram enemy cars off the road) are his only means of defense against the "bad guy" hordes. Eventually, however, the player encounters an ally, the Weapons Van. The player drives past the weapons van — which is bright red in color — parked on the side of the road. The van accelerates past the player's car and drops a ramp. The player can then drive up the ramp and enter the back of the van. The van then pulls to the side of the road and the spy car is equipped with a new weapon. A symbol atop the weapons van indicates which type of special weapon it carries. The weapons van appears twice in each sequence, or "territory" (forks in the road, where the player must bear either to the right or to the left, marking the boundary between one territory and the next). The player is not compelled to use the weapon supplied by the van; if uninterested, the player can simply ignore the van and drive past it.

There are three special weapons in all and they can all be equipped simultaneously (though this is rare). The special weapons consist of an oil slick, a smoke screen and missiles. Each special weapon has a limited number of uses, for example, the smoke screen can be used four times (three times in some game versions). The special weapons are activated via dedicated buttons on the steering wheel. Once weapons are depleted, the car can be refitted with a new supply from the weapons van (the ammunition can be refilled in this manner before it is totally depleted, and entering the weapons van and receiving the same type of weapon twice in the same territory results in the supply of ammunition being doubled - this does not apply for all game versions). If the car is destroyed, either by being forced off the road or shot, all weapons other than the machine guns are lost when the car returns to the road.

There are four enemy vehicles in all, each dark blue in color and possessing its own special characteristic:

  • Switchblade (subtitled Never To Be Trusted) with tire slashers (knives pop out of this car's tires and can force the player's car to crash if they touch his tires)
  • The Road Lord (subtitled Bullet Proof Bully) with bulletproof armor plating (the machine guns are ineffective against these cars)
  • Limousines called The Enforcer (equipped with Double Barrel Action) featuring a shotgun-toting thug who attempts to shoot the player's car
  • Helicopters called The Mad Bomber (subtitled Master Of The Sky) which attempts to take out the player with bombs. This enemy can only be destroyed with missiles (these can also unintentionally destroy the other enemies — and conceivably, the player's car itself — if they miss the helicopter, as missing shots can fall back onto the roadway - Missiles do not fall back in some game versions).

    • It is possible for the player to convert his car into a boat by voluntarily driving through a special boathouse located infrequently alongside the road; or at certain intervals the player will be compelled to enter the water, with the words "Bridge Out" appearing on the screen a few seconds before such forced entry. The boat driving sequence is very similar to the normal driving sequence, but provides a break from the regular action. In the water, the three enemies besides the helicopter are replaced by two others: The Barrel Dumper, which travels ahead of the boat and throws barrels into the water which must be evaded, and Doctor Torpedo, which shoots projectiles at the boat (using the oil slick on either of these characters results in their destruction by burning). At the end of this sequence, the player drives through another boathouse and his vehicle is instantly changed back into a car.

    Also, at irregular intervals the words "Icy Road Ahead" will appear on the screen; a few seconds later the scene changes to a "Winter Wonderland," and driving becomes more treacherous; however, some of the weapons — particularly the oil slick — will become more effective in destroying the enemy vehicles.
    ]]>     13 Jan 2007 03:17:18     Sid & Al's Incredible Toons Sid & Al's Incredible Toons is a funnier, cartoon version of The Incredible Machine. It is your job to solve 100 Rube Goldberg style puzzles by placing pieces in the right spot. The puzzle goals range from letting Al E. Cat(haha) catch Sid Mouse, helping Sid reach his cheese, or simply blowing one of the characters up.

    Sid and Al aren't the only characters in the game, however. They are joined by other cartoons such as Eunice the Elephant and Bik the Dragon. Each character acts as a different puzzle piece and is used in a different way. Eunice, for example, will toss things that hit her trunk, while Bik will blow fire any time something hits him.

    There are a variety of different objects used to solve the puzzles, and they range from realistic to cartoony. There are conveyor belts and pullies to get things where you want them, but there are also guns which will cough out bullets. Once you master all 100 puzzles, there is also a create-a-puzzle mode where you can make your own crazy contraptions to stump your friends.
    ]]>     25 Jan 2007 05:20:42     Pushover A rather original game where you have to knock down dominoes to progress through the levels.
    The fun part is that there are several different dominoe types which perform different actions.
    You have one that split in two, one that floats, one that is a blocker, etc, and you have to arrange them in order to be able to knock them down with one push and making sure that one special dominoe that acts like the "goal" is the last one to be knocked down.
    The game has 100 levels distributed across 9 zones.
    ]]>     03 Feb 2007 02:09:21     Chip's Challenge 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     Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade: The Graphic Adventure Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade: The Graphic Adventure roughly follows the same plot as the movie it is based upon. Certain scenes are omitted, but it sticks close to the original plot for the most part. The game uses the SCUMM system that was used in Maniac Mansion before it. This system involves choosing certain verbs to interact with objects and people in the game. However, this game features something that no other adventure games of the time had. The "Indy Quotient" system gives the players points based on how they solve certain puzzles. This gives puzzles multiple solutions and adds replay value to the game. Also included in the game are action sequences where Indy must fight to get by guards.
    ]]>     06 Feb 2007 06:09:19     Lode Runner The Bungeling Empire has stolen a huge cache of gold from its rightful owners, and your mission is to infiltrate its treasury and recapture it. This entails progressing through 150 screens of platforms, ladders and ropes.

    The Empire has sent robotic guards down to protect the gold, and contact with any of these will cost you a life. Your method of escaping them is to press fire to dig a hole in their line of movement, thus causing them to fall in briefly, allowing you to move across the gap safely. Once all the gold has been collected, a ladder allowing you to move onto the next screen is added. Completing these screens often requires forward planning and precision.
    ]]>     09 Feb 2007 06:28:37     Streets of Sim City Streets of SimCity is a 1997 racing and vehicular combat computer game published by Maxis. The novelty of this game stemmed mostly from the fact that the player could race cars around cities that had been created in SimCity 2000. The game is in full 3D, which was a departure from Maxis's normal fare. It is one of the few games in the Maxis series that Will Wright did not work on, and the last Maxis game to be developed and released without supervision by Electronic Arts (which acquired Maxis in 1997 and assisted development of Maxis games thereafter). Despite features such as being able to load cities from SimCity 2000, the game was known more for its bugs, including unexpected crashes, issues with vehicles stuck in buildings, people walking backwards and being able to drive through trees.

    The game is known to be the black sheep of the "sim" line, since it in no way actually simulates driving with precision. It instead focuses more on the goals of blowing up other enemy cars, winning races, evading cops, and hitting the occasional cow. The game can be controlled with a keyboard, a joystick, or a gamepad. As a result, the game was mostly only popular with SimCity 2000 users, which like SimCopter, allowed players to explore SimCity 2000 cities, created by themselves or otherwise. There is also a network mode in which players can play deathmatches with up to seven other individuals.
    ]]>     13 Feb 2007 02:12:45     Dune 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     Mortal Kombat Mortal Kombat was the first entry in the famous Mortal Kombat fighting game series by Midway, released in arcades in 1992. It was later picked up by Acclaim Games for the home version, then later returned to Midway. It centers on the first Mortal Kombat tournament and the ultimate defeat of the evil Shang Tsung by the monk Liu Kang.

    Versions of the original Mortal Kombat game appeared on several different formats, most notably the Sega Mega Drive/Genesis and Nintendo's SNES. When the first game in the series was released for the SNES in North America, Nintendo of America had a strict "Family Friendly" policy towards the content of the games released on their systems which required the removal of graphic violence, religious imagery and themes, mentions of death, sexual themes, and other sensitive subjects. Hence, the first Mortal Kombat game on the SNES had the blood recolored gray in an attempt to pass it off as sweat, and the various Fatality moves were graphically changed to be less gruesome. The SNES version was graphically superior to the Mega Drive/Genesis port, but all violence was censored.

    The game was a response by Midway to Capcom's successful Street Fighter II, which spawned a number of fighting games. However, it used a distinctly different fighting system from the Street Fighter formula, which was used in all subsequent sequels until Mortal Kombat: Deadly Alliance. The controls consisted of five buttons arranged in an "X" pattern: a high punch, a high kick, a low punch, a low kick, and a block button, as well as an eight-way joystick. If the two fighters were standing next to each other, hitting any of the attack buttons would result in a modified strike: a low punch turned into a throw, a high punch turned into a heavy elbow, headbutt, or backhand, and either kick turned into a knee strike. Crouching and hitting either punch resulted in an uppercut, which was the most damaging attack of the game. Jump kicking and crouch-kicking were executed in a similar fashion to Street Fighter, although leg sweeps and roundhouse kicks were performed by holding away while pressing the appropriate kick button.

    The blocking in Mortal Kombat I by itself greatly changed the flow of fighting in comparison to contemporary games which used Street Fighter conventions. Characters do not block while retreating or crouching, but only block when the block button is pushed. Even then, characters take (reduced) damage from any hit while blocking. However, successfully blocking moves is simple – a crouching block can successfully defend against all moves, even aerial attacks such as jumpkicks – and blocking characters give very little ground when struck rather than sliding backwards. This style of blocking rewarded dodging to avoid damage but also made counterattacks much easier after a successful block, and the ultimate result was an environment which rewards a more furtive playing style than contemporary games.

    Another of the game's innovations was the Fatality, a special finishing move executed against a beaten opponent to kill them in a gruesome fashion. For example, one character (Sub-Zero) would grasp a defeated opponent by the head, then rip out the head and spine while the body crumpled to the ground in a pool of blood.

    Finally, Mortal Kombat also changed the way special moves were performed. Street Fighter (and many other fighting games) performed most special moves in fractions of circles (usually full, half or one-quarter) on the joystick followed by a button press (such as a quarter-circle forward, plus punch). Mortal Kombat was the first to introduce moves that did not require a button press (such as tap back, tap back, then forward), and only a few of the special moves required circular joystick movement.
    ]]>     02 Mar 2007 07:14:32     Jetpack Jetpack is a DOS game that was an immediate hit when it was released in 1993, and a cult following grew internationally. The author received a ton of mail and submissions by people creating their own Jetpack levels. The built in level editor is one of the most popular features - over 1000 levels have been created. Some teachers bought Jetpack because they considered the editor to be educational, encouraging their students' creativity.

    Jetpack was the top selling game for both publishers that carried it (Software Creations and Impulse Games). Jetpack runs fine on an 8086, and surprisingly well on today's computers!

    Jetpack has been made freeware by its author so it is now free to download.
    ]]>     02 Mar 2007 05:07:48     Elite Elite is a seminal space trading computer game, originally published by Acornsoft in 1984 for the BBC Micro and Acorn Electron computers. The game's title derives from one of the player's goals of raising their combat rating to the exalted heights of 'Elite'. It was written and developed by David Braben and Ian Bell, who had met while they were both undergraduates at Jesus College, Cambridge. Non-Acorn versions of the game were published by Firebird.

    Elite was one of the first home computer games to utilise wireframe 3D graphics. Another novelty was the inclusion of The Dark Wheel, a novella by Robert Holdstock which influenced new players with insight into the moral and legal codes which they might aspire to. It elevated the technically complicated software beyond the pigeon-hole of "game".

    Elite's open ended game model, advanced game engine and revolutionary 3D graphics ensured that it was ported to virtually every contemporary home computer system, and earned it a place as a classic and a genre maker in gaming history. Even now, over 20 years after it was published, Elite is frequently used as a yardstick by which any new space trading game is measured. It has often been said that "Elite has been imitated but never bettered". While this is perhaps somewhat hyperbolic, it is certainly true to say that Elite was a hugely influential game, serving as a model for more recent games such as EVE Online, Wing Commander: Privateer and the X series of space trading games.

    The Elite universe contains eight galaxies, each galaxy containing 256 planets to explore. Due to the limited capabilities of 8-bit computers, these worlds are procedurally generated: A single seed number run through a fixed algorithm the appropriate number of times and creates a sequence of numbers determining each planet's complete composition (position in the galaxy, prices of commodities, and even name and local details — text strings are chosen numerically from a lookup table and assembled to produce unique descriptions for each planet). This means that no extra memory is needed to store the characteristics of each planet, yet each is unique and has fixed properties. Each galaxy is also procedurally generated from the first.

    The player, initially Commander Jameson, starts at Lave Station with 100 Credits and a lightly armed trading ship, a Cobra Mark III. Most of the ships that the player encounters are similarly named after snakes, or other reptiles. Credits can be accumulated through a number of means. These include piracy, trade, military missions, bounty hunting and the mining of asteroids. The money generated by these enterprises allows the player to upgrade their ship with such enhancements as better weapons, shields, increased cargo capacity, an automated docking system, and more.

    Travel between planets is constrained to those within range of the ship's limited fuel capacity (7 light years); fuel can be replenished after docking with a space-station in orbit around a planet - a challenging task without a docking computer, as it requires matching the ship's rotation to that of the station. Players can upgrade their equipment with a fuel scoop, which allows raw fuel to be skimmed from the surface of stars - a dangerous and difficult activity - as well as collecting free-floating cargo canisters and escape capsules liberated after the destruction of other ships.
    ]]>     03 Mar 2007 12:00:49     Stronghold (1993) Dungeons & Dragons real-time strategy game from 1993 published by SSI and developed by Stormfront Studios. Designed by Don Daglow, Mark Buchignani and David Bunnett, the game was the first RTS to use a 3D perspective, although the visual effect was created in two dimensions by a carefully layered display system. Stronghold was the first Dungeons & Dragons licensed RTS.

    The game was often referred to as "SimCity meets Dungeons & Dragons." Players balanced resources to build a town with unique elven, dwarven, halfling and human neighborhoods, each with its own unique architecture. Residents and craftspeople of each neighborhood could be summoned to defend any part of the city that came under attack.
    ]]>     17 Mar 2007 10:38:17     Troll's Tale Troll's Tale is an adventure game created by Al Lowe (Leisure Suit Larry, The Black Cauldron). An evil troll has hidden the treasures of the Dwarf King, and it is up to you to get them back!

    Each screen featured a graphic and a menu of decisions. If you find the treasure, but the troll is on the screen at the same time, you would not be able to pick up the treasure.
    ]]>     19 Mar 2007 02:19:17     Shadowgate Adventure in Castle Shadowgate and solve the many puzzles to defeat the evil Warlock Lord. Some puzzles if not done correctly lead to your death.
    ]]>     19 Apr 2007 11:14:43     Toonstruck Toonstruck is a point-and-click adventure game featuring hand-drawn animation mixed with live action video - similar to the film "Who Framed Roger Rabbit?"

    The story begins in the real world with the player learning of the main protagonist whom will be under their control: Drew Blanc is his name and he is the artist and original creator of the wildly popular animated "Fluffy Fluffy Bun Bun Show". As the player will learn, Drew actually loathes the cutesy-pie antics of the show and prefers his other more adult creation of Flux Wildly, who has unfortunatley and unfairly been denied a chance at stardom. Forced by his employer, Drew must come up with a new character for the Bun Bun Show or his employment will be terminated. Exhausted and completely uninspired Drew falls asleep and is awoken in the early morning, just as he is being sucked into his TV, which to his horror is displaying the Fluffy Fluffy Bun Bun Show.....Welcome to the insanity of Toonstruck!



    Toonstruck was an ambitious, fun and cleverly made adventure game that was neglected by its audience at the time of its 1996 release. Poor sales within the adventure game genre during that period prevented the planned sequel from ever being completed.
    ]]>     25 Apr 2007 12:09:25     La Carta Mas Alta La Carta Mas Alta is an open source card game totally written in PHP and HTML.
    This cross-platform and cross-browser game was tested under BeOS, Linux, NetBSD, OpenBSD, FreeBSD, Windows and others.
    ]]>     13 Jun 2007 10:40:44     Arch Rivals Before Arch Rivals, arcade "basketball" games were simple "aim the ball" novelty devices. By letting each Player control multiple teammates, both directly and indirectly, Arch Rivals allowed Players to employ real basketball strategies and plays.

    However, the game might best be remembered for the fact that characters could punch each other in the face, "pants" each other and even tackle opposing players...

    Designed by Rampage designers Brian Colin & Jeff Nauman for Bally Midway shortly before a corporate buyout by competitor Williams Electronics, it is said that the success of Arch Rivals single-handedly paid for the 8 million dollar purchase!
    ]]>     29 Jun 2007 02:23:10     Commander Keen Vol. 2
    Moby Games said,
    his is the second game in the first trilogy of Commander Keen, called Commander Keen: Invasion of the Vorticons.

    In this episode a Vorticon Mothership is poised above Earth, preparing to destroy every major city within their deadly Tantalus Ray!

    Keen's mission is to sneak aboard the ship and stop these evil Vorticons from blowing up the Earth. In order to do this you need to find and destroy each X-14 Tantalus Ray, powered by cells from the big purple Space Amoeba. You need to find your way in the ship to each Tantaulus Control Room. You start in the ship's galley, and must find items to help you on your quest. You already have a Vorticion Hyper-Pistol, which has almost no ammunition at all and, of course, the trusty pogo stick from your Mars adventure.
    ]]>     30 Nov 2006 03:15:27