SimAnt

Did you ever want to be in control of the entire hive mind of an ant colony? How about taking over the house of some jerk who doesn't even acknowledge your existence and runs you over with his stupid lawn mower? Still not enough? How about gruesome, explicit and very flowery descriptions of death?

In 1991, Maxis released "SimAnt", a genre defying and to this day unique gaming experience, packed with knowledge about ants. It's not an educational title and yet playing it, you somehow learn a lot about these little creatures.

Joining hosts Martijn ("Tijn") and Florian ("rnlf") to discuss this game is DOS Game Club member Phil ("PixelProphecy").

How does the game hold up today? Is it even a game? Or a toy? A simulation? But most importantly, is it fun? Let's find out together.

[ download mp3 ] (121 mins, 140 MB)

Eye of the Beholder

Evil creatures beneath Waterdeep? We can't have any of this. Time for our party of heroes to investigate. But what's that? Just as we enter the sewers, the corridor behind us collapses and we're trapped down here. Will we survive? Find our way out? Will we succeed in our quest to cleanse Waterdeep of whatever is really going on here?

This is the premise of Westwood's 1991 Dungeon Crawler "Eye of the Beholder". We haven't covered any Dungeon Crawlers on the show before, and after more than five years, it's finally time to delve into this iconic genre and see how they influenced our modern RPGs.

Joining hosts Martijn ("Tijn") and Florian ("rnlf") to discuss this game are veteran DOS Game Club members Richard ("Pix") and Björn ("TigerQuoll"). We also got a voice message from Peter ("pointer")!

So what's the game like? Does it hold up? Are four AD&D noobs even qualified to talk about it?

[ download mp3 ] (114 mins, 130 MB)

The Last Express

Robert Cath hastily jumps off a speeding motorbike onto the Orient Express, as it departs from Paris on the evening of 24 July 1914. He's been invited to join the train by his friend Tyler Whitney, who apparently has made a remarkable deal and wants to tell Robert all about it. But as soon as Robert enter Tyler's cabin, he finds him on the floor... murdered!

Those are the opening scenes of The Last Express, a 1997 first-person adventure game directed by Jordan Mechner (Karateka, Prince of Persia). What follows is a story of early 20th century mystery drama, all set on the Orient Express as it continues its voyage across Europe to Constantinople, using an interesting rotoscoped visual style and with voice actors speaking German, French, Serbian and Russian besides English.

Joining hosts Martijn ("Tijn") and Florian ("rnlf") to discuss this very unique game are veteran DOS Game Club members Richard ("Pix") and Esko ("firefyte"). We also got a voice message from Jozef ("yozy") who actually interviewed his mum for this!

So what's the game like? Does it hold up? Who murdered Tyler Whitney? Listen to find out!

[ download mp3 ] (126 mins, 145 MB)

Little Big Adventure

Evil dictator Dr. Funfrock is ruling the remote planet of Twinsun with an iron fist. And now that talk of the legend of Sendell has been forbidden, you have even been sent to prison for having strange dreams. What a mess! Luckily your ancestors have hidden various magical items for you, which give you a fighting chance to beat Funfrock and save the planet.

This is the premise of "Little Big Adventure", a top-down isometric action adventure game developed by French studio Adeline Software and published by EA in 1994. The team is largely made up of veterans from Infogrames who previously worked on Alone in the Dark. Are there any influences of that found in LBA? And how does it hold up 28 years later? That and more is discussed in this episode of DOS Game Club!

Joining hosts Martijn ("Tijn") and Florian ("rnlf") we have two new guests on the show. First of all there's James from the Retro Spectives Podcast, another retro gaming podcast in which they take deep dives into old games. Also joining is Michiel, aka "El Muerte", founder of The Magic Ball Network, one of the biggest fan sites for Little Big Adventure, which has been going for over 20 years now.

Enjoy the show!

[ download mp3 ] (179 mins, 205 MB)

KKND: Krush Kill ‘n Destroy

FMV cutscenes with very quirky humour? Check! Ridiculously over the top scenario? Check! Giant acid-squirting scorpions vs. six-wheeled flame thrower ATVs? Check!

In 1997, Beam Software released the first game in the KKnD series. Is it just an unimaginative Command & Conquer reskin clone? Or did it bring something unique to the then still young real-time strategy genre?

Joining hosts Martijn ("Tijn") and Florian ("rnlf") is club member Björn ("TigerQuoll").

This month our shoutout is slightly different, pointing you to a brilliant interview series that Caroline Delbert did with game developers who entered their games into the 2022 Queer Games Bundle over on itch.io. Nothing retro gaming related this time, but definitely worth checking out.

That's all for now. Enjoy!

[ download mp3 ] (79 mins, 91 MB)