This Month's Most Viewed Games Tagged 'core, DOS' on The Great Games Experiment This Month's Most Viewed Games Tagged 'core, DOS' on The Great Games Experiment http://www.greatgamesexperiment.com/css/logo.jpg This Month's Most Viewed Games Tagged 'core, DOS' on The Great Games Experiment en-us Alternate Reality: The City
]]> 20 Sep 2007 12:33:09 Bubble Bobble
]]> 02 Aug 2007 12:42:25 Linley's Dungeon Crawl 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 Quake Rage through 32 single player levels and 6 deathmatch levels of sheer terror and fully immersive sound and lighting. Arm yourself against the cannibalistic Ogre, fiendish Vore and indestructible Schambler using letal nails, fierce Thunderbolts and abominable Rocket and Grenade Launchers.
]]> 26 Nov 2006 04:48:39 Syndicate 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 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 Quakeworld Team Fortress 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 Master of Magic Master of Magic (MoM) is a turn-based fantasy strategic computer game published by Microprose in 1994. The game has many similarities with Civilization, but is set in a fantasy world and includes tactical battles.

The player starts as a humble wizard ruling a small hamlet, and his goal is to defeat all other wizards, either directly by military operations or by casting the ultimate Spell of Mastery that will banish all other wizards from the mortal plane. There are many customizable starting options and a random map, making each game completely different.

For a complete overview of the gameplay, see the Master of Magic Wikipedia article
]]> 25 Nov 2006 11:18:37 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 Star Wars: X-Wing 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 Strike Commander This game is about a mercenary squad named Wild Cats operating from Turkey. In the game, the player mostly flies F16 and F22 in 2 missions. The player fights against Mig 21(s), Mig 29(s), F15(s), F16(s), F18(s), Su 27, A10(s), Mirage 2000(s), Tornado(s) etc.

The missions are very interesting ranging from Flying as an Escort, bombing bases, tanks, buildings, bridges, ships, Oil Rigs etc. In one mission, the player has to steal F22. Bombing of a nuclear power plant mission is a personal mission to take revenge for Stern's death
The game offers three training missions viz. SEARCH & DESTROY, DOG FIGHT AND GAUNTLET.

In search and destroy missions the player equips the plane with bombs and
destroys various ground targets.

In the Dog fight mode, the player chooses the number of planes, the type of planes and the altitude at which to fight.

In gauntlet, the player is surrounded by enemy planes to test how long the player will survive in a dog fight with multiple boogies. Gauntlet mode is very interesting because the player has to fight against all the planes that the player will come across in the actual missions. The game has kill board which displays the number of ground and air targets killed by the player and other squad members.
]]> 04 Jun 2007 07:37:23 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 X-COM: Ufo Defense Turn-based strategy game that seamlessly combines two different elements- tactical squad battles and resource management.
]]> 22 Nov 2006 04:38:58 Betrayal at Krondor Based on Raymond E. Feist's Riftwar saga (and co-written with Feist himself) is Betrayal At Krondor, a new tale in the Riftwar universe. Exploration in a 3D world and turn-based combat complement the story, which is divided up into nine chapters. Each chapter has a goal to achieve before moving on to the next chapter, but how that goal is met is up to you.

(from the Moby Games Betrayal at Krondor page)
]]> 09 Dec 2006 09:11:56 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 Phantasmagoria 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 Stonekeep 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 Terra Nova: Strike Force Centauri 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 Hard Nova In Hard Nova you play a mercenary working for a mercenary guild on Holbrook. You can fly around in space with your ship, land on planets and fight your way through enemy bases while uncovering a conspiracy of grand scale.
]]> 07 Mar 2007 12:22:54 The Bard's Tale II: The Destiny Knight 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 Ascendancy Ascendancy, the debut game from The Logic Factory, is a game of galactic exploration and encounter. In Ascendancy, you develop your home planet, research new technologies, build ships to traverse the stars, encounter aliens, and colonize new worlds as you expand your presence throughout the galaxy.

You begin the game by choosing to be one out of 21 possible species. Then, choose the size of the galaxy, the number of species in the game ranging from 3 to 7, and whether you want to play in a peaceful, neutral, or hostile atmosphere.

Play begins on your home world where you begin building structures for the purposes of increasing your research,industry and prosperity. As you build these structures you also begin doing research. Eventually your research allows you to build ships for the purpose of space travel. You can equip your ship with a variety of hi-tech gizmos including weapons, shields, engines, power generators, and special function devices. The more your research advances, the more various and powerful your selection of gizmos becomes.

As you travel to other solar systems you will encounter alien lifeforms,some friendly, some hostile. You can conduct diplomatic relations with them, exchange knowledge, make alliances or declare war.

You expand your empire by either colonizing unoccupied planets or invading planets belonging to your enemies. Finding a peaceful or violent solution to conflict is left up to you. There are several ways to achieve Ascendancy as you will discover on your own.
]]> 16 Jun 2007 02:52:16 An Elder Scrolls Legend: Battlespire 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 Bad Dudes
]]> 02 Aug 2007 03:46:38 Starflight 2 Starflight 2: Trade Routes of the Cloud Nebula is the sequel to Starflight, the original space adventure. Unravel many mysteries and upgrade your starship by trading, exploring, and fighting.
]]> 07 Dec 2006 02:28:42 HeXeN Raven Software's HeXen actually began development as an expansion for Heretic that was originally slated to hit the shelves as "Heretic II." However, the game design so expanded beyond the original game that this proposed the expansion of the Heretic universe took on a bold new identity of its own...HeXen: Beyond Heretic.

HeXen was developed over a period of 8 months, published by Id Software and distributed by GT Interactive in 1995. The game introduced the 3-D gaming world to the "hub system" of level progression, rotating polygonal brushes and multiple character classes that were available in both single player and multiplayer. All of this combined to help HeXen raise the bar for the first-person shooter genre. HeXen pushed Id Software's DooM engine to its absolute limits and surpassed Heretic as Raven Software's most popular, highly acclaimed title.

The success of HeXen prompted a mission pack, Deathkings of the Dark Citadel, and several ports to home console gaming systems including the Sega Saturn, Nintendo 64 and the Sony PlayStation. HeXen also became the first Raven Software game made available for the Macintosh.

(from the Raven Software Hexen page)
]]> 13 Dec 2006 01:40:26 Wasteland Wasteland was one of the first successful non-fantasy RPG's that Electronic Arts produced. It's design was the basis for Dragon Wars which was later published by the same developers under another publisher.

Wasteland set the player in a post nuclear United States. Players could recruit NPC characters into their party or create new characters.

Game overview (taken from Wikipedia):

The game is set in the middle of the 21st century, following a nuclear war between the United States and the Soviet Union. Parts of Earth have been turned into a "wasteland" where survival is the paramount objective. Players control a party of Desert Rangers, a Nevada paramilitary group that survived the nuclear holocaust, and are assigned to investigate a series of disturbances in the desert. The party begins with four characters, and through the course of the game can hold as many as seven characters by recruiting certain citizens of the wasteland to the player's cause. Throughout the game the player explores the remaining enclaves of human civilization, including a post-apocalyptic Las Vegas.
]]> 10 May 2007 10:21:13 Scorched Earth Scorched Earth was a popular shareware computer game from the PC-DOS era, originally written by Wendell Hicken, in which tanks do turn-based battle in two-dimensional terrain, with each player adjusting the angle and power of his or her tank turret before each shot. Despite the simple premise (and very simple graphics, by modern standards) the game is still playable, and some find it quite addictive.
]]> 26 Jan 2007 06:46:39 Albion Storyline

In the year 2227, the gigantic, interstellar space ship Toronto reaches a distant planetary system. The ship's owners, a huge corporation, believe that there are rich deposits of raw materials on the third planet of the system. The data which describes the planet as a desert, however, turns out to be forged. Albion is a world full of life, secrets, surprises, and magic. When Tom Driscoll, the pilot of the reconnaissance team discovers this, he swears to save Albion from Toronto's tentacles.

Gameplay

Albion is a fantasy role playing game. The gameplay has the basic statistic and level system most RPGs of its time had. To level up, you defeat monsters in battle and gain experience. The non-battle portions of this game are mainly puzzle and conversation based, so there are very few "Give X to get Y" puzzles. You can have up to six characters in your party, led by Tom Driscoll, the only character who stays with you through the entire game.

Battle System

The Battle System in Albion is turn-based and takes place on a six-by-six grid similar to a board game. You choose, at the start of each turn, an action for each character to perform: Attack, Move, Cast magic, Use Item, or Flee. There is also an 'Advance Party' option to move all enemies towards you one square. The area in which your characters can move is limited to the bottom two rows. If you have a weapon (or two, in the case of the Iskai) equipped, you can attack. If not, you cannot attack unarmed, unless you are choosing Siobhan.

Navigation

Albion is one of the few role playing games of its time to use a hybrid system for the navigation of the maps and dungeons. In most parts of the game, the maps are depicted in 2D overhead mode, with full mouse and keyboard control. You can move the party 'train' around with the keyboard and select items to interact with the mouse (so long as you are in fair reach of them). When there are mazes, corridors or even some dungeons, the map is represented in ray traced 3D, akin to Wolfenstein 3D. You can still move around with the mouse and/or the keyboard and select items to interact with using the mouse. Some players find this 3D mode off-putting, but thankfully it is in shorter densities than the detailed 2D maps.

Conversations

Conversations in Albion are handled in two ways: Set Topics and Keywords. The Topics usually signify something you can specifically ask that person, for example the leader of a tribe about an object that only he knows about, or a shopkeeper to show you his or her wares. Keywords are more dynamic and may yield different results to different people. You learn keywords for a particular town by speaking to people about common topics, and gradually you will learn all there is to know in the game just by speaking to people. For example, you can learn some of the native language and culture, some superfluous knowledge about who likes whom, and what kind of drink is preferable.

(Taken from the Wikipedia)
]]> 01 Feb 2007 06:49:12 Lands of Lore: Guardians of Destiny 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 Legend of Kyrandia In the fantasy kingdom of Kyrandia, King William and his wife have been murdered by the evil court jester Malcolm, a madman who possesses vast magical powers. Brandon, the prince, has been hidden in the forest by Kallak, a counselor of the King, who raises him as his grandson. Malcolm has fun destroying the forest of the country, and meets Kallak, turning him into stone. Brandon, oblivious of his past, soon discovers the truth about his origins. He finds out that Malcolm has stolen the Kyragem, a mystic stone that contains the kingdom's energy. Brandon has to recover the Kyragem and defeat Malcolm.
]]> 14 Feb 2007 01:23:27 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 2 Frontier: Elite 2 is the sequel to the hugely popular "Elite". You start the game with a spaceship and 100 credits, and after that it's up to you to decide how to play the game. You can be a trader, a pirate, a miner or even work for the military. There is a huge amount of diversity, and each path has its own pros and cons. For example, assassinations will earn you more money than trading, but bumping people off makes you unpopular and you'll be unwelcome at most starports.

As you progress, you earn money which can be used to buy bigger and better ships, or to add equipment to your current vessel. Smaller ships are faster and can travel further, but lack the capacity for larger weapons and more cargo.

There is a huge amount to do in the game, and you can easily spend days just exploring our own solar system. Planets and orbits are modeled accurately, so you can watch a sunrise from Earth or the moon.
]]> 27 Feb 2007 11:32:32 Quest for Glory 2: Trial by Fire 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 The Bard's Tale Developed by Interplay Productions and distributed by Electronic Arts, The Bard's Tale is considered by many to be one of the pillar classics of computer fantasy role playing games.

The Bard's Tale allows players to create characters, form parties and adventure through Skara Brae. Combat is turn based and players can choos ethe actions of every member of the party.

From the box text:

"Long ago, when magic still prevailed, the evil wizard Mangar the Dark threatened a small but harmonious country town called Skara Brae. Evil creatures oozed into Skara Brae and joined his shadow domain. Mangar froze the surrounding lands with a spell of Eternal Winter, totally isolating Skara Brae from any possible help. Then, one night the town militiamen all disappeared. The future of Skara Brae hung in the balance. And who was left to resist? Only a handful of unproven young Warriors, junior Magic Users, a couple of Bards barely old enough to drink, and some out of work Rogues. You are there. You are the leader of this ragtag group of freedom fighters. Luckily you have a Bard with you to sing your glories, if you survive. For this is the stuff of legends. And so the story begins..."
]]> 10 May 2007 02:08:39 Roadwar 2000 Post-apocalypic strategy game where you control a gang of warriors traveling across, battling mutants and other gangs and looting towns.
]]> 22 May 2007 03:57:46 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 Heretic Raven Software teamed up with Id Software for the second time in its creation of the hit fantasy action game Heretic. Based on a modified DooM engine, Heretic pioneered a revolutionary new inventory system for character item use that has become commonplace in the FPS genre. Id Software published the game under its flag and it was distributed by GT Interactive.

Players took the role of Corvus, an Elven hero whose race was nearly eliminated by a horde of evil monsters from another dimension. The first episode of Heretic was released as Shareware as a precursor to the full version of the game, Heretic: Shadow of the Serpent Riders.

Heretic won several awards for excellence, appeared in such notable publications as USA Today and Playboy, and opened many new doors in the computer gaming software industry for Raven Software and its team of developers. Heretic was Raven Software's most popular, highest acclaimed, biggest selling game to that point.

(from the Raven Software Heretic page)
]]> 13 Dec 2006 01:18:12 Midwinter Older PC (and Amiga) game that had you playing a series of characters as you overcome obstacles in a world turned to winter. First person perspective with some interesting game mechanics (such as a clock based character switching system). While this is an action game, the main focused was primarily on exploration, survival and trapsing around the winter landscape.

It was one of the very early games to give you the ability to walk, drive and ride in the games many vehicles that ranged from armoured snow mobiles to ski lifts.

The clock based mechanic enable a player to 'park' in one of the many houses dotted around the map. If there was more than one person parked there at the same time, you could switch characters.

This game play gave way to some interesting strategic decisions as each character had different abilities and strengths.

Also somewhat unique was the fractal landscape which in the days before true 3D graphics made for some beautiful (if limited) vistas.
]]> 04 Jan 2007 05:51:45 Ultima V: Warriors of Destiny Ultima V continues the story of the Avatar begun in Ultima IV. The game begins with Lord British captured on a mission of exploration in a newly discovered Underworld. The Avatar (player) is called back through a portal to Britannia, where tyrant Lord Blackthorn rules with an iron fist and is backed by 3 mysterious "shadow lords".

With a deep plot and rich interactive world, Ultima V substantially raised the bar for RPGs of the day.
]]> 06 Jan 2007 10:26:41 Hidden Agenda Hidden Agenda is a political simulator that is unique in many ways, as well as being both realistic and extremely replayable. The game casts you as the new president of Chimerica, a South American country that has just overthrown a tyrant named Farsante. The economy is in ruins, the country leaderless, massive factions fighting one another for control... and your unenviable task is to create a cabinet and begin the almost impossible task of rebuilding the country.
]]> 23 Jan 2007 09:25:37 Balance of Power Balance of Power allows you to take on the role of either the President of the United States or the General Secretary of the Soviet Union with the goal of increasing your nation's prestige without going to war.

The interface is a simple map of the world showing the current level of influence the USSR and the US has on each nation. Turns are based around crises which much be resolved through diplomacy. This in turn affects the status of nations and the global threat level. If the threat level [DEFCON] gets too high, the game ends.

Developer: Chris Crawford
Released: 1985
]]> 24 Jan 2007 10:40:56 MechWarrior MechWarrior was the first computer game set in the BattleTech universe. It put you in the cockpit of a BattleMech and sent you on a number of randomly generated missions. The story line, which spanned over a 5 year period, went as follows:
You are Gideon Braver Vandenburg, and you are heir to your planet. However, the Chalice to give you the throne has been stolen, your family has been killed, and you are exiled. You become a BattleMech mercenary, and go to Inner Sphere to find out who destroyed your life and gain revenge.
]]> 25 Jan 2007 04:33:13 Master of Orion II: Battle at Antares 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 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 Abuse The protagonist of the game, Nick Vrenna, has been falsely incarcerated in a prison where illegal experiments are taking place. A prison riot occurs and the experiment goes horribly wrong. The people inside the prison - except for Nick, who seems to be immune - get infected with a substance called Abuse that transforms them into monsters. Nick takes a laser gun and goes on to single-handedly destroy all mutants, stop the substance from spreading further and escape from the prison complex.
]]> 06 Feb 2007 06:00:16 Lands of Lore: The Throne of Chaos 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 Loom 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 Populous In Populous you play a god, who has to watch over a people and make them stronger, so that eventually your people can conquer another group of people which are controlled by another god.
]]> 10 Feb 2007 05:37:35 Populous II: Trials of the Olympian Gods Populous II is a direct sequel to Populous. In this sequel you have to take your people to victory against the ancient Greek gods.
]]> 10 Feb 2007 05:56:03