This Week's Most Viewed Games Tagged 'DOS' on The Great Games Experiment This Week's Most Viewed Games Tagged 'DOS' on The Great Games Experiment http://www.greatgamesexperiment.com/css/logo.jpg This Week's Most Viewed Games Tagged 'DOS' on The Great Games Experiment en-us Privateer: Ascii Sector
]]> 18 Sep 2007 02:03:29 Alternate Reality: The City
]]> 20 Sep 2007 12:33:09 Rap attack: 2pacalypse now
]]> 18 Sep 2007 08:21:38 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 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 M.U.G.E.N M.U.G.E.N is a free 2D fighting game engine designed by Elecbyte, written in C with the Allegro library. The engine was originally released in July 17, 1999. Beta versions of it were made to work on DOS, Linux and Windows platforms, distributed through their website or to donators via email. With the existence of the Linux version, support for DOS ceased.

The engine allows for anyone to create characters, background stages and other game objects through interpreted text files, graphics, and sound compilations. It supports various types of audio formats such as MP3, ADX, OGG and MIDI as background music during gameplay or at other points such as an introduction or the select screen. The engine allows for most of the same type of functionality found in most any commercial 2D fighting game, up to and including recreation of those games' characters and gameplay (though due to some limitations, exact replication is rarely possible even in a full game for more complex fighting games). While the engine is setup primarily for fighting game development, several other game types have been developed using it, including shooter and platformer style games.
(copied directly from the article at Wikipedia.org)
]]> 11 Jun 2007 01:23:56 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 Gamoliyas
]]> 26 Aug 2007 02:20:10 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 Bubble Bobble
]]> 02 Aug 2007 12:42:25 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 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 ToME - Tales of Middle Earth ToME (The Troubles/Tales of Middle Earth) is a rogue-like based on angband. It features several races, classes, spells, powers, monsters, artifacts, quests, etc. The list could go on and on.

Unlike vanilla angband, ToME has several cities based on a map fitting for J.R.R. Tolkien's works. There are several dungeons you can explore, their levels are randomly generated from their design to contents and quests, but not everything is random, there are special rooms, quests, unique artifacts and unique monsters players can hunt for.

ToME is also an unique rogue-like by the fact that it's not entirely level based, players can customise their characters by increasing skills which range from weaponmastery to necromancy and summoning, just to name a few.

Because it's constantly in development, ToME has a very active community and several MODs player can create and use.
]]> 26 Jun 2007 05:21:09 Sid Meier's Pirates! (Original)
]]> 10 Sep 2007 02:28:50 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 Beneath a Steel Sky Beneath a Steel Sky is a science fiction adventure game released in 1994 by Revolution Games. It was released as freeware in 2003 and can be run on modern computers using ScummVM.
]]> 29 Dec 2006 04:51:55 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 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 Hand of Fate Years later, Zanthia, a young female alchemist and wizard encountered in the first game, discovers that the kingdom of Kyrandia is in great danger, disappearing piece by piece. The Mystics hold a meeting, and The Hand (a giant glove serving as Marko's assistant) formulates a plan, which requires a magic anchor stone from the center of the world. He chooses Zanthia to be the one who shall recover the stone. As it turns out, however, the quest for the anchor stone is a wild goose chase, used by The Hand to distract Zanthia and the other Mystics while it enacts its evil deeds. The Hand, supposedly a fragment of a long-deceased gigantic evil sorcerer, is the game's true villain, and Zanthia must defeat him in the end.
]]> 14 Feb 2007 02:41:53 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 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 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 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 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 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 Dark Legions A beautiful mix of strategy and action.
]]> 09 Dec 2006 07:53:55 Marshmallow Duel An addictive deathmatch over molten marshmallow. Play with friends.
]]> 10 Dec 2006 09:51:02 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 Prince of Persia The Grand Vizier Jaffar has thrown you into a dark dungeon and plans to marry the girl of your dreams in an hour. You're not going to let that happen are you? Try to escape from the dungeon, take out Jaffar's guards, find your way through the sultan's palace and defeat Jaffar himself. Now go, you've got 60 minutes!

Prince of Persia is a 2D action-adventure / platformer with run & jump gameplay. Avoid deadly traps, solve some puzzles and engage in sword fights. The player has an infinite amount of lives but has to restart at the beginning of a level each time he dies and must complete the game within an hour. An especially noteworthy aspect of the game is the very fluent animation of your character.

from the (Moby Games Price of Persia page)
]]> 24 Dec 2006 08:39:15 Flight of the Amazon Queen Flight of the Amazon Queen is a point-and-click adventure game released by Interactive Binary Illusions in 1995.

It was released as freeware in 2004 and can be run on modern computers using ScummVM.
]]> 29 Dec 2006 05:07:18 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 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 Ancient Domains of Mystery Ancient Domains of Mystery is a roguelike, where the players quest is to stop the forces of Chaos which are invading the world of Ancardia.
ADOM has ASCII graphics, like most other roguelikes, and a fixed overworld, while all dungeons are randomly generated.
]]> 01 Jan 2007 03:57:24 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 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     Red Baron Red Baron is a flight simulator set in WWI. You start as a new pilot in the war, and you work your way up to become one of the greatest fighters. There is a career mode as well as a single mission mode.
    ]]>     18 Jan 2007 04:32:05     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     Redneck Rampage 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     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     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     Fade to Black Fade to Black is the sequel to Flashback, again letting the player control Conrad B., the hero from Flashback. Instead of the side view that Flashback had, Fade to Black features third person 3d gameplay, not unlike Tomb Raider (and in fact, this game predated Tomb Raider by a year).
    ]]>     06 Feb 2007 04:35:08     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     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     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     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     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     The Last Express 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