Tijn
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Maybe we can get him onto the podcast, wouldn’t that be something!
Thanks for the offer! One odd job that needs doing for every episode is to gather some game sounds, which we put into the intro. You can definitely help by collecting these (either by recording the game, and/or downloading the OST, recording YouTube footage, etc).
If you send them to our email and/or share them in IRC or through Mastodon, this saves us some time when putting the episode together!
We’ve decided to take 3 months for Ultimate Underworld, mainly to catch up with the podcast.
We’ve been behind before, but never by this much. Even though the end of the year is approaching, we’ve still got to produce a podcast for MDK, which is a game we had on back all the way in June.
The fact Ultimata Underworld is a big game seemed like the perfect opportunity for us to get back on track with the podcast. So that’s what we’re doing!
Meanwhile Pix is helping us schedule the upcoming podcasts with guests. Console has been helping us edit the episodes. With all this help, I’m confident we can manage to get back on schedule in the upcoming year, which would be great 🙂
I played it for the first time tonight and while I thought it would be quite daunting, I actually found it remarkably easy to get into!
I’ll definitely start a new game to apply the lessons learned, but I love how you can automate trade routes. Very neat combination of exploration and system building.
Yeah, it seems the low fps is just what it is. I’m a little surprised nobody made a patch. I’m guessing the way the game is made makes it hard or something.
It’s a shame though, I feel it’s the main reason the game isn’t as playable now as it could have been.
April 26, 2024 at 8:30 am in reply to: Cricket explained for beginners + my experience playing cricket games #8615Are there 14 teams competing perhaps?
April 25, 2024 at 12:21 pm in reply to: Cricket explained for beginners + my experience playing cricket games #8611Thanks a ton for this explanation!
Don’t worry @jadi – I think very few if any of us know how cricket is supposed to be played lol
Yeah this is an extremely left-field choice, but we’ve had a request to check out Allan Border’s Cricket by DGC member Toasty since the very beginning, so we figured we might as well give it a chance.
I don’t even know the rules of cricket, so there will be a lot to unpack here lol
Hey that’s awesome, welcome!
Welcome!
I think Loom might have been an earlier talkie, but FoA is definitely an early one.
I’ve not finished my run(s) yet, but from what I’ve seen it holds up better than it did in my memory. Turns out I forgot most of it I’m pleasantly surprised by what I’m encountering. Love all the traveling, to me that’s a highlight of any adventure game and this one doesn’t hold back in that department.
I do think I like most Lucas point & clicks better than this one, but tbh that’s mostly because their standard is insanely high and all of them rank among the best ones out there.
I plan to play all three (currently on the team path). Good idea to save at the point where the choice comes up, although getting there is pretty quick if you know the solutions to the puzzles really.
I’ve got the GOG version as well, but instead of playing it with the provided version of ScummVM (which is very old) I imported into a more modern release, which is imho a lot nicer.
Wow what a great post. Thank you for sharing!
Wow, congrats on completing all 6 episodes! I’m only up to episode 2 myself. But I must say, while I found episode 1 quite a drag at times, with its giant maze-like levels, somehow episode 2 feels a lot more stream-lined. There seems to be more health & ammo too, which is much appreciated. So all in all, I’m having a much better time than I had expected to haha.
I found that my Dosbox defaulted to 3000 cycles when running Wolfenstein 3D, which is definitely a bit slow.
Once I upped it to around 12k or so, the game ran a lot smoother. So maybe that’s something to try?
I’ve read a few conflicting reviews so far, seems this game is quite divisive, one of those “you either love or hate it” it seems.
It does make me want to play more and see where it goes though!
Yeah, I don’t have many fond memories of it either from back in the day, and playing it now it seems pretty repetitive.
I’m hoping it will become more interesting later on, as you unlock more stuff, but idk. Especially the fact you can just win battles without really being involved at all feels very strange to me.
Awesome stuff, welcome!
Thank you so much for making these, Patrick. Great stuff!
Does the link expire? If it does, we’d be happy to host your level pack here on this server.
Wow this is awesome. I can’t wait to check it out!
Yeah I agree, it’s nice an old game gets some special treatment, but I hope other games will get some time in the spotlight as well. Hopefully this Making of Karateka will pave the way for other productions to follow.
I played it again on stream tonight and found a lot more health potions than I did on my first run. I think I overlooked a fair bit of them, because they’re easy to miss really.
I’ve also got the shotgun now. I’ve made it to chapter 5. Things are looking up really.
Also I can’t believe how quickly this game gets utterly weird. I was expecting some bizarreness for sure, but the pace at which it’s thrown at the player is really something.
Even though I typically play old FPS games with arrow keys, I switched to WASD + mouse for this one and it seems to work alright for me.
I did smash a lot more windows than I intended to, but I think that’s true for any control scheme with this game haha
It’s interesting how the main path from the previous update still works, but won’t lead you to see any of the new content. I suppose the only way is to think of new solutions to the puzzles. Not getting hurt seems to be the big hint.
Hey @dreadnaut – I was away on holiday, but now that I’m back I’ll put something together for you. Very cool to have us listed!
Hey welcome to the forums. Thanks for the kind words!
This is a great tip! The channel is great overall. In fact, it’s through Ross’s Game Dungeon how I first learned of this game.
I sent Ross an email about the fact we’re doing this game with the club, and he replied that he’s interested in joining the podcast to discuss it. So that might be cool if it works out!
Man, I wish this game had more health potions.
Oooh, nice one! I’ll have to have a think about this. Surely some DOS games are going to make my cut, but likely most of them will not be actually. For as much as I love DOS games, most of the games I play are not if anyone can believe that!
More Lemmings!
Haha, yes the remake on Steam is very much the reason why I snuck it in!
Incredible work!
Very fun project to see how fast we can get this done!
The best (and only) time on speedrun.com is 14m23 😮 https://www.speedrun.com/the_secret_of_donkey_island
I can’t recommend Snail Trek enough
Thanks for sharing this! I got your email as I indeed didn’t notice this forum post. Also thanks for sharing your retrospective, I’ll share it through our mastodon so more people might see it 🙂
Yeah, I agree spoiler tags would be good. It’s something we can incorporate on the new website/forum we’re working on for sure.
I just finished the game for the first time. I love the style and vibe, but am also a bit surprised how much stuff seems completely optional as I only finished with barely over 60 points.
I’d love to find more stuff, especially that 666 ending seems very intriguing.
Spoonboy just noticed DOS Game Club got its own page on the Stunts wiki, how cool is that: https://wiki.stunts.hu/wiki/DOS_Game_Club
It mentions our leaderboard and the question whether it will remain open after the month is over. Just as previous leaderboards, we’ll keep this one up for as long as we can, so no worries if you want to submit laps after the month is over!
It should be deleted now, Cas. Please let me know if it’s in order. If it’s not, no worries, it’s not actually gone, just moved somewhere out of sight, so I can put it back if need be.
Wow, awesome laps, Marco! Sadly I missed it live, but I’m watching it back now.
As for the podcast, we’ll first play Stunts for the rest of the month, Cas. Then we’ll move onto scheduling the podcast, so it will be somewhere in July. It would be great to have you on!
Ok, I’ll delete your BRKLANDS lap, no problem.
Thanks, Cas!
Yeah, we were interested in X3 because of the novelty of a modern DOS game, but we found some issues with it and also didn’t really find the game particularly good, so we abandoned this idea.
There are other modern DOS games in development however, and recently Hadrosaurus has released The Aching for example (https://hadrosoft.itch.io/the-aching) which looks great.
So right now we’re thinking of covering that game in future month.
We’re always on the lookout for other modern DOS games too, it does seem interesting to talk about this stuff for sure!
Ah yeah, for sure. Thanks!
We’re working on a new forum system to replace this one which should automate these sorts of things, but for now we’ll just have to keep doing it manually.
Hey, you are cool indeed! Didn’t see this thread earlier, but welcome aboard 🙂
Oh nice, what a good idea! I’ll reach out to him for sure.
One of the reasons I’m interested in this is definitely because it’s more than “just” a flight sim.
Hey that’s awesome, welcome!
Oooof
We’ll be interviewing Jurie Horneman (lead developer) soon, so if we get the chance we’ll ask him lol
Amazing job on the port btw, this looks fantastic
Oh god you get the PC speaker beeps too?? I thought it was a bug in my version because of a sound file gone missing or something!
Loving this so far, hope you get all the way to the end!
Welcome! It’s always interesting to hear fresh perspectives on these old games tbh 🙂
Yikes
I’ve been aware of this game for a long time, but never really dove into it. Until now! Started a new game this evening and I’m totally hooked now. I just crash-landed on the planet and I can’t wait to continue, this is really nicely made.
Eyyy this was written by Jurie Horneman, who actually agreed to do an interview with us! Isn’t that cool? I’ll open a thread where people can suggest questions we ask him.
Alright, cool! Thanks!
We also got some replies through Mastodon, so I think we have enough guests now. I’ll get in touch to work out a suitable date etc. 🙂
Hey welcome Josh! I’m only seeing this post now, but it’s always exciting to see new faces.
Hey that’s great! Welcome 🙂
Ooooh will try this for sure!
I’ve only just playing yesterday but I’m really into it. Especially the tournament mode, with its upgrade meta-game is really my sort of thing.
I did play a lot of Mortal Kombat 2 on PC back in the day, which might be a little deeper in terms of special moves and such, but I’m not disappointed by OMF so far at all!
Hey that’s great to hear! So lovely to hear these kinds of comments, thank you!
I spent the entire evening yesterday combing through that forest looking for 3 sticks lol
It’s a forest! Just break off a branch! There are trees everywhere and I’m looking for sticks on the ground AAAAHH
Wow, thanks Matt! I hope your back gets better.
No problem 🙂
Here you go, how’s this?
Your real username can’t be changed it seems, but I’ve made Javabean your display name, so that’s the one that shows up for others to see. I hope that helps. Otherwise I can delete your account and you can create a new one if you prefer that.
I’m not sure if there’s a way for people to do this themselves, but I can help you if you want. What name would you like instead?
Hey that’s awesome! Welcome 🙂
Also thanks for all the tips, really appreciate (and need) them 😀
What is this “All Seeing Eye” people keep mentioning? Is it an in-game item, or something else?
Oh and also: is there a way to turn using the keyboard? It’s so slow to use the mouse to click the buttons, but when I press left it strafes left instead of turning left.
Ok, I’m dead. So apparently the guys in the bottom row can only do range attacks, huh. Can you move people in your party around, or is it static?
Ah, while randomly pressing buttons I just figured that if you right-click the weapon icon from the inventory, it attacks. Haha, ok.
But I’m sure I could use more tips going forward, so any help is appreciated!
Ah yeah. It’s a bit hard to implement this with our current forum software, but to be honest we’re working on a replacement. It might be a while before it’s ready to roll out, but the plan for the future is for us to have more control over how it all works, so we can definitely implement something like this then 🙂
Hmmm… there is a check box at the bottom for me that says “notify me of follow-up replies via email”. Isn’t that showing up for you?
Also threads with a red exclamation mark in front of them have new replies since your last visit, that’s maybe useful 🙂
Haha amazing you beat it already, Rich 😀
Hey, a fellow Dutchie! Welcome, sounds like you’ll fit right in!
Honestly I think watching a playthrough of this game would give a pretty good impression of what it’s all about, as it’s extremely focused on the story. It only has a handful of puzzles. It’s really all about soaking in the atmosphere, listening to the conversations and watching the plot unfold. It’s really an interactive film, this game. So watching it as a film definitely works.
Apparently PC Gamer (UK) reviewed it and gave it a 58%
From archive.org: https://web.archive.org/web/20001207205100/http://www.pcgamer.co.uk/games/gamefile_review_page.asp?item_id=1225
I found a Dutch review from 1997 complaining about the low frame rate, suggesting that “perhaps some more optimising could have fixed it” haha
Ok, I just finished the game. I was kind of into it from the start, but only slightly really, as I found it all quite confusing.
But the 2nd half of the game, from Vienna and beyond, has me absolutely blown away. The game just builds and builds as you get deeper into it, and where I found all the characters to be quite confusing at first, it all fell into place as the story progressed.
By the time the finale is over and ending credits scroll by, I was really moved by this incredible game. What a story, what a production, truly remarkable.
I strongly urge anyone playing this to try and make it all the way to the end. What a game.
Hey thanks for the kind words! Welcome to the club 🙂
Awwww, yeah I think there are a few console games with DOS ports that are… less than great haha
Mega-Man is probably one of the more famous examples of this. Too bad Metal Gear is apparently one too.
Hey welcome! What an awesome grandmother you have 😮 😀
I’m glad it’s mostly about taking in the vibe, because that’s exactly what I’ve been doing so far. I’m on my first playthrough and don’t really understand what’s going on exactly, but I seem to be progressing regardless, so I’m just going along for the ride haha
And the finale is up now too: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8iS7yyKqzgc
I played these last two parts in a single session because I felt it had been going long enough and I should get it over with haha
Part 4 is up now: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=monMd6CKZPs
Just one more to get to the end!
Awesome to see people playing the whole series! LBA2 is one of the first games I was really hyped for and bought a boxed copy the day it was available in the shops.
Very cool!
Especially not those from the 80s and 90s haha
Ok sod it, decided to upload it over 4G anyway. It’s only 6 GB lol
Hey that’s awesome! Welcome 🙂
I’ve got part 3 recorded, but sadly my internet at home is down, so I’ll probably not upload this over 4g if I can help it haha
Haha amazing
Part 2 is up btw, in which I tackle the Temple of Bu, the Dark Souls of DOS gaming haha: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=H742EGcHdFA
Hey congrats on beating the sequel!
Does this run on DOS as well? I thought it was a Windows game, but maybe not!
“Their earlier Alone In The Dark stands up better for me overall but I played that one when I was a good bit younger and struggled to the end without a walkthrough so I know it inside out which may be a key factor in loving these games.”
Yeah, well said. I think this is a huge part of why I love this game: the very fact I played it over and over when I was young, infinitely exploring the world and learning all the ins and outs. By the time I was done I felt so impressed with myself and it imprinted a lasting impression for me.
Objectively, I can see it’s pretty bad in terms of mechanics and the story is not at all as deep as it’s trying to be. But I still just enjoy being in this world because of the fond memories.
Hahaha
Yeah it’s not really a great success. I guess that’s why they had “normal” saving in the sequel. I get that they want you to “relax” and “just play”, but honestly one way of relaxing is knowing my game is saved properly and I can go back to a previous state, which is just not the case most of the time.
Hey good job! I’m not quite done yet, but I’ve beaten this game a few times before, so I’m sure I’ll manage this time as well.
In fact, I’m recording my playthrough and I just posted the first part yesterday: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=no6b6oXDtI8
So yeah, made it to the Temple of Bu, hoping to finish the whole thing in maybe 3 or 4 of such videos.
I know LBA1 is very flawed, but I just can’t help but love it to bits.
After playing some more, I think you kind of have to forget about the save system. Just go with it. Whatever happens happens. It’s not the end of the world to die, and even going game over often doesn’t mean you have to start over from the beginning. So yeah… just keep on going, I think?
LBA2 is definitely a lot less frustrating. Also the fact it has a free camera in some outside sections and allows you to drive around in a little buggy is really cool.
Sadly I never enjoyed LBA2 quite as much as I did the first game, mostly because I feel the story is a lot weaker. As with so many sequels, it feels like “Twinsen goes on another adventure for no reason”, while the first game was filled with purpose.
Yeah it is very unique and a lot of effort and care has gone into making these characters and locations. It’s so great, but also so terrible. The pinnacle of DOS gaming honestly haha
Honestly the PC Format one isn’t too unfair. It is a very flawed game. It’s charming too though and has a lot going for it, but in order to get to the good stuff you do need a lot of patience and work around the game’s awkward mechanics.
I’m honestly surprised the other reviews are so positive. I mean, yeah, the graphics are cool. The music is great. The story is not uninteresting. But I wonder if those who give this game 93% actually played it very much haha
Sounds like you made it quite far in the end. There’s a sort of sewer section near the end with a rock concert, maybe that’s where you stranded. After that there’s only one location I believe, which isn’t overly difficult compared to what came before. So yeah, pretty close!
This game is definitely tedious and vague. It’s filled with bad mechanics and also expects you to remember every little detail that is mentioned if you want some idea of where to go next.
But that being said, I think there’s also a lot of charm there. As you say the music is spectacular. I just love being in this world, even though the controls are awkward and the gameplay is overly punishing. It’s like Stockholm Syndrome honestly lol
Yeah, I also had way more patience as a child. You definitely have to hoard hearts and coins. Like Mr Creosote says, once you find a good spot with lots of loot, go in and out several times and stash up.
Lots of luck to anyone who makes it to the Temple of Bu by the way. It is the Dark Souls of DOS gaming haha
Honestly most of the mechanics of this game are pretty frustrating haha
It is true that the save/load system is quite unintuitive. It mostly just auto-saves and you have to assume it will be ok? I have the GOG-version too and I have hard time believing the original was like this, but I can’t remember.
I think some general tips to play/enjoy the game:
– Take it very slow
– Don’t run if you don’t have to
– Plan your moves
– Sneaking is good
– Avoid direct confrontations if you can
– Running away is fine
– Running past an enemy is fine tooThat being said, you do get more powerful as the game progresses, so do the tables do turn as you get further into the game. By the end you’re pretty bad-ass haha
All in all it is a frustrating game, and you will likely do some sections over dozens of times. But if you can somehow get into it, then there is a lot to enjoy here. The world, the characters, the story, it is really quite good. Just don’t expect to breeze through it, because it will bite you.
These are some solid starter tips!
After playing online a bit with various people, I’ve noticed there’s some confusion about what degrees are required for what careers. The game nor the manual explains much about this, but I did just find this wiki which seems to have a lot of info: https://jonesinthefastlane.fandom.com/wiki/Category:Degrees
I just played this game to death as a kid and gradually got a feel for how it all interconnects, but it’s nice to see it mapped out like this and it might be a good resource for new players who don’t feel like putting in 100 hours of research first.
I played this as a kid with my sister and had lots of fun with it then, so it’s kind of hard to see it separately from that.
Nowadays I mostly love it for how unique it is. Even though it’s sort of about mundane life, it’s also quite rare to see it presented in such a format.
I really think there’s something to virtual board games and I’d love to see it explored more!
Cool!
Alright, last call before we start scheduling this episode.
If you want to be on this one, just reply here 🙂
Alternatively voice messages are also always welcome!
That’s great!
Wow, only day 2 and you beat the whole thing. Classic, Richard! Haha
Hey, awesome!
Haha, I think this is totally fair, TigerQuoll. It *is* all a big in-joke. It *doesn’t* make any narrative sense at all. But! Honestly… the fact this whole game is a big joke is kinda funny to me.
Yeah, this might be my favourite looking game in the whole series tbh. Although I personally am also very charmed by SQ2’s crude double-pixel AGI graphics.
I don’t particularly mind the later VGA games either, I think it all looks fine and works well enough.
But this “clean EGA” style of SQ3 definitely is very well done and looks amazing.
Growing up I had a lot of these Sierra games laying around, so I just got used to the idea that you would constantly die in these games. Saving often is the only real way around it, I think.
Although it’s also worth noting that these games are very much not intended to be completed on your first try. They kind of expect you to start over and over, learning as you go and eventually work your way through it.
Ron Gilbert of Lucas wrote a famous article on this in 1989 called “Why Adventure Games Suck”: https://grumpygamer.com/why_adventure_games_suck
In this article he layed out some fundamental design principles that would make adventure games better in his opinion, of which the most important ones (imho) are no deaths and no softlocks. Lucas adopted this new philosophy starting with Loom and The Secret of Monkey Island, and all of their next games incorporated it as well.
Sierra never really made this shift, although there is a lot of variance within their catalogue. Even within one series, like Space Quest, some games are way more harsh than others. Space Quest 4 kills you in almost every screen, while Space Quest 3 is a lot more relaxed.
I’d say nowadays it’s seen as “bad design” when a game allows you to get stuck or outright kills you without giving the player a chance to prevent it or try again. Most modern adventure games I’ve played don’t really follow the “Sierra formula” anymore and I think ultimately that’s a good thing.
But even though these old Sierra games can be quite gruelling in terms of gameplay, I feel there’s still a lot of amazing content in them. So checking that out, even if it’s with a walkthrough or some hints provided by UHS, is still very much worth it I’d say.
Yeah, I found it too. I thought you had to win at the Astro Chicken game, but actually I got the message after messing up repeatedly.
Oh nice one!
Yeah the graphics are pretty great on these. I’m a sucker for good EGA art anyway and this is definitely up there.
It’s not Mac Game Club, Mike
I think I’ve played all of the games in this series, including all different versions, but I don’t think I’ve ever completed a single one of them haha
I’ll definitely be starting out with the 1986 original. I kinda know what the VGA remakes are like, so I think I’ll just try to play as many originals as I can manage this month.
Very excited to finally get to the end with these! And also looking forward to finally getting the jokes, because as a kid who barely knew any English, most of them went straight over my head haha
Hey thanks for the thread, this is interesting stuff!
Like yozy I figured this was about the original Dune film 😮
Yeah, I don’t mind if people are on twice in a row at all. I’m happy when people want to be on at all tbh!
Yeah, we definitely need to look into this one. It’s such a classic.
Hey thanks!
Sadly I have no idea how to get hold of Gateway 2. The first game was released for free through Gateway’s website, but the second wasn’t. It also doesn’t appear to be on sale anywhere, so I’m afraid the only option is to either look on eBay or something, or try to get it from a dodgy abandonware website.
Hey thanks for the tip, I’ll get in touch!
Thanks, Rich! We’d love to have you on. I’ll leave this open for a few days to see if there are any other takers.
We’ll probably start scheduling next week.
Speaking of graphics: it’s also possible to play the game in SVGA software mode if you start it with the “-hires” argument.
It’s too choppy for me in Dosbox, so I’ll just play the chunky low res version. But if you’ve got fast hardware, it might be worth a look. It’s really nice and crisp!
You can also press + and – to increase/decrease the game window size, which can improve the framerate a bit.
I wonder if I played this in Glide back in the day. I only got a Voodoo card in 1998, so perhaps I played this in software mode? Or maybe I went back to it. I really can’t remember.
Either way, the software mode looks pretty decent to me nowadays, so I’m not going to bother to try to run it with 3D acceleration now, although I think there are forks of Dosbox which allow this.
I’m glad you’re enjoying the game! It really is quite impressive for 1997. The maps are pretty huge for a 3D game from that era and it plays surprisingly smoothly.
I’m glad it’s running well for you, on what I suspect is real hardware. I wonder if people have the same experience with Dosbox. I’ve read it can be fiddly, but I’ve tried it myself a few years ago and found it running alright for me, so idk what others will make of it.
Wow, this is very cool stuff you guys!
I know Florian has some real hardware laying around, perhaps he’ll post some pics.
I’ve gotten rid of all my DOS stuff years ago. Nowadays I don’t really have the space to get back into it, so I just use Dosbox on my laptop. I don’t mind it really, as long as it plays the games somewhat authentically. But I do enjoy seeing your setups. It’s great people have this stuff all well-kept and everything!
Hey, that’s a great idea! Let me see how to set that up, one sec.
Also so far my score has always either been 62% or 97%. No middle ground haha
I’ve now completed 4 missions, which I think means I’ve seen over half the game now.
I feel the first couple of missions were quite good, albeit a bit short. But the last two I did felt a bit random tbh. Especially this last one, I was mostly clueless on what I was doing most of the time. It seemed I made progress by simply walking around a bit?
The game itself isn’t bad at all and I love the atmosphere. I do hope the next missions are a bit better though. It’s more fun when you feel you know what you’re doing imho
That’s a nice write up, Rich!
I’ve never played this before myself, but I just beat the first mission. It seems pretty simple, so I wonder if it gets any more challenging later on.
The atmosphere is really great though. It’s amazing how it combines Wing Commander-like space combat with point & click adventuring. I really feel like I’m in a Star Trek episode, which I suppose is the whole point, so that really works!
Oh wow, they made even more Terminator games?
I knew of this one from 1990: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Terminator_(DOS)
I had no idea they made more later on!
Wow, thanks for sharing this!
These games are indeed being removed from gog.com, so I think this is the last chance to get them DRM-free at all?
Thanks for the scans, lads. Really interesting to read these now!
We definitely need to have a fishing game month haha
Also no, we’re not going to allow any game that runs in an emulator which happen to run on DOS 😛
Hey nice, thanks for sharing!
I’ve made it all the way up to the last level, but haven’t been able to beat it (yet).
We could also do the podcast with just the three of us. But if anyone feels like joining, please feel welcome 🙂
I’m up to level 30 with LV1 so if I’m able to beat it, I’ll have a look at the sequel for sure. Seems interesting to see!
That’s great, Richard!
That means we just need one other person and we’re good.
Nice! I’m currently at level 26, just starting the “wacky” world which introduces the inflation mechanic.
Yeah, I feel the same way. In the beginning I was frustrated by the occasional death, but in later levels they just become part of the game loop. Having to do each level several times before you get it right might not be the best game design, but I still find it pretty enjoyable to play all in all.
Yeah, I was surprised by the arrow tracking thing too. But honestly it’s also pretty cool. It would have been nicer if it had been exclusively used for secrets instead of requiring it to make progress at all, but maybe that’s also just part of the oldschool way of game design.
In a similar vein the game sometimes require you to find other secrets in order to progress, which is a bit jarring, but at least this way the secrets actually play a role for me, as I mostly ignore optional stuff when I can haha
All in all the game is really growing on me and I’ve enjoyed the 2nd 12 levels more than the first 12. I’m now excited about pushing through until the very end.
Btw: there isn’t a way to look around as far as I’m aware, so in reality the first couple of runs are for mapping out the level, coming up with a plan and only then the actual solving begins.
Just beat the TTRS level! \o/
Luckily there are Dosbox ports which feature save state support 😛
This might be an interesting adventure game to check out next year, since this year is pretty packed with them already.
We had this idea to maybe do one Sierra, one Lucas and one other adventure game each year. This could fill the “other” slot.
I also was a bit underwhelmed with this game after the first few levels tbh. My initial impression was very good, but after doing a handful of levels it started to be a bit repetitive.
However now that I’m over 12 levels in, the difficulty is really starting to ramp up, which makes the whole thing a lot more interesting imho!
Hey welcome! Thanks for checking in 🙂
Alright, no problem of course 🙂 Thanks for being here and helping out!
I’m really impressed by how the game introduces all the mechanics one by one. You don’t see such accessibility that much in DOS games of this era.
There’s no way to save mid-level, is there? How many levels are there anyway?
Awesome to hear! Maybe you’d like to join the podcast? It would be great to hear your thoughts on this game if you’re interested.
I just installed the game myself and played through the first couple of levels. It’s great! I’ve never played it before, but I’m really wondering now why. I would have been all over this back in the day! It plays really well, especially since a lot of DOS platformers are less than impressive in terms of gameplay and feel.
Thanks for reporting this, definitely not intentional. We’re looking into it.
I think it’s all sorted now 🙂 If there’s anything up, don’t hesitate to reach out!
Ah yeah, the suggestion of a spam filter made me look into the “pending posts” queue and indeed, that’s where your posts were, TigerQuoll!
I’ve approved them and they’re up now. I guess we’ll have to come up with a more permanent solution, but at least we know where to look now.
And here’s part 3. That’s a wrap!
There’s no way we thought we’d be done in only 3 sessions but here we are.
https://www.dosgameclub.com/play-together-simon-the-sorcerer-part-3/
Thanks for stopping by, Jonas & pushblock! It was fun talking to you, hope our hints have helped you along 🙂
By the way, here’s episode 2, which we forgot to link earlier: https://www.dosgameclub.com/play-together-simon-the-sorcerer-part-2/
The next and final part should be coming up shortly!
Wow, a swampling T-shirt! That’s awesome.
Also very much on board with continuing our quest tomorrow, possibly even finishing it?
If others want to join, anyone’s more than welcome to! Just click this link tomorrow evening (10pm CEST): https://meet.jit.si/DGCSimonTheSorcererPlayTogether
I’m ok with Sunday. Monday is fine too, but maybe Sunday is easier for other people to join in?
Ah yeah, ScummVM might be the way to go then.
When is the next call going to be?
Yeah, this is cool! Might be good to announce the next date a bit in advance so more people can have a chance to join. Just play as far as you’re able and then jump into the call to get updated on our collaborative progress 🙂
Ah, it’s nice at least versions exist that don’t really have this issue.
I find it especially baffling because they already had the text from the floppy version! Why remove it?
It’s always nice to meet a fellow Quest for Glory enthusiast!
Welcome! It’s great to have you. My first PC was a 386 SX as well, although running only at 16 MHz. Luckily by the time Doom came out it had been upgraded to a 40 MHz 386 DX, which was just barely able to run it!
Sadly I didn’t have as cool a machine as your Atari ST before that. My first computer was a Sharp MZ 731, which is a sort MSX-type computer from the early 80s. By the time I got it in the late 80s, it was very outdated already. Still had fun playing some games from the built-in cassette player, even if it sometimes took 20 minutes for a game to load haha
Anyway, welcome to the club and I hope to see you around, either on the forums, in the chat room, or maybe through a voice message or as a podcast participant.
I think it would be great if you joined another episode, Shattered!
I think it will be extra interesting to check these reviews out. Often it’s not so hard to get a sense of how a game was received, but with this one I can see it going either way. It’s impressive in some aspects, but quit disappointing in others, so… good luck reviewing this hot mess haha
Thanks for the research! “Eden” itself is also a biblical name (the place where Adam & Eve were at before god kicked them out). So yeah, it seems to be very Christian-inspired.
I’ve honestly not had too many issues with this in the end, as it seems to work when I simply put my cursor all the way to the left or the right of the screen at roughly the height of the inventory.
Ok, completed it just now. What an odd game. On paper it checks a lot of boxes: cool setting, good graphics, nice music, interesting characters, full voice acting. The story in itself is also not the worst, although perhaps a bit cliché. And even if the writing and acting is a bit amateurish at times, I’ve definitely seen worse.
So that should make a pretty solid point & click adventure game then, right? Well… not really. I’m not even sure what the cause is tbh, but the gameplay really lacks something. I know a lot of point & click adventure games are essentially just a matter of walking around and combining inventory items, but I’ve never minded that as much as in this game.
Maybe it’s the repetitive nature that makes playing it feel like a drag, at least to me. Actions also lack weight to them. It’s hard to really care about items when they’re just randomly scattered across the world and keep spawning when you run out.
Figuring out what to do can be fun, but then having to repeat it 5 or 6 times is something I’ve not seen in many other adventure games.
That said, the atmosphere is very unique and I do like the variety in the characters. The audiovisual presentation is nice enough and must have been pretty impressive back in the mid 90s when this came out. It’s fine as an interactive movie, it’s just not a whole lot of fun to actually play haha.
I’m making good progress, but I’m not quite there yet. I just have to write something down though, because this game is rubbing me the wrong way a bit just now.
Spoiler ahead:
So I just spoke with the Aquasarus who gave me access to the Valley of Despair, which was supposedly guarded by Tyrann and thus lead to a big battle. I can’t believe they just skipped over that entirely! This game has a pretty epic story, but instead of letting you experience that, they’re letting you deliver apples and bird nests all over the place… and then when things get really interesting it’s just a cutscene! Gah!
So cool so many of you have managed to play through the whole thing already. I’m making good progress, but haven’t reached the end yet.
The gameplay is way more repetitive than what I would have guessed. It’s honestly a bit jarring to see the same “puzzle” repeated several times.
It’s hard to say I’m really enjoying the game, but am I intrigued by it. I like most of the characters, although the writing and voice acting seems a bit amateurish at times. However the world is certainly quite nice and atmospheric, so all in all the game still offers a nice place to be in, which makes up for a lot imho.
Yeah, I have the same problem. It’s sad there doesn’t seem to be a keyboard key to scroll left/right, as that would fix it I believe.
That said, it seems to kind of work for me to scroll it all the way when I hover my mouse at the left or right edge most of the time.
The interview is out! https://www.dosgameclub.com/david-fox-interview/
We managed to get most questions squeezed in, so thanks for your contributions 🙂
Ok, we’ve got more than enough people now. Let’s see if we can make it work, thanks for all the interest 🙂
I guess we’ll mainly focus on the original and not so much this 2013 remaster.
Interesting how the shareware version is so unique! Seems like a great way to get the gist of the game without having to pay for the full thing.
Wow, that’s awesome Shattered!
We can have more people on, that’s no problem!
For new people who are wondering how this all works: we’ve actually made a guide which covers the whole process. You can find it here: http://dosgameclub.com/podcast-guide/
What it comes down to is:
* We ask everyone to record their own voice, using for example Audacity (free audio recorder). Using a phone is fine too, just make sure you wear headphones.
* We prepare some notes in bullet-point form to gather our thoughts. This is sent a few days before we record the podcast, so everyone can chip in and contribute.
* On the scheduled date & time we host a call using Jitsi (it’s free and runs in your browser) in which we talk about the game for maybe 2 hours or so
* In the end everyone sends their audio recording over, which we use to put together the podcast
It’s really quite straight-forward and hopefully a lot of fun too 🙂
Apparently the whole intro was animated by an intern!
Yeah, that’s a good point, about DOTT bridging the gap between the old and new Lucas. It’s also around this time that the name changed from Lucasfilm Games to LucasArts.
I think DOTT is pretty much an old-style Lucas game in spirit. In the commentary that’s in the remastered edition they mention it wasn’t originally going to be voiced, this was only decided on later, so it wasn’t written with voice acting in mind. Tim Schafer also says it’s the last game they made at Lucas that he really enjoyed working on ;(
Ha, I’m doing a second play-through right now of the original (I played the Enhanced before) with Bernard and Razor! It’s a fun combo. Did you know they planned on having Razor in DOTT too? The first idea was to have 6 kids and a selection screen, just like Maniac Mansion had, with both Bernard and Razor as an option.
On my first run I picked Michael and Wendy. They’re a bit more plain, but they do have some good skills. Especially Michael, who can use the photo development room. I was fascinated by that as a kid, so it felt kind of exciting to finally make use of it.
Ok, I beat it \o/
Spoiler:
I got the proper ending this time. I’ve played it before, but then I went with Bernard and called the Meteor Police, which I feel is maybe a bit of a shortcut. This time I had to employ Ed to beat purple tentacle for me and then shot the meteor off into space. Aw yeah!
Man, this game is way more involved than I thought. I’ve been at it for *hours* now and I’m still not done.
I’ve also accidentally locked myself out of a few solutions, yikes. Luckily I think still one remains that I’m trying now.
Yeah, I think the version of Maniac Mansion that comes with DOTT is the original release, which has more basic graphics & sound and only one save slot. You can take it out of DOTT and run it in DOS or ScummVM separately if you rename MANIAC.OVL to MANIAC.EXE.
The updated Maniac Mansion Enhanced version has more save slots, which is the version that comes with DOTT Remastered.
Yeah, DOTT is definitely a “try everything with every other thing” kind of game.
On the one hand it’s cool how you’re never really truly stuck, because of the sheer number of things available to you pretty early on. There’s almost always something you can try somewhere and manage to get a little progress.
But on the other hand I can see how it can be a bit overwhelming, because it’s really quite a complex game.
I don’t think there’s any shame in looking up hints, but if you want to avoid that and still feel you’re stuck, please don’t hesitate to reach out for help here. I’m sure there are plenty people who are willing to help out without spoiling the game.
Ah yeah, this is a cool subject to not overlook! Back in the day I also played the floppy disk version, which has the full intro voiced. Honestly quite an amazing achievement. I don’t remember how many disks they used, but not an insane amount I think.
I think by now I’ve played the full talkie version more than the partial talkie version, but the voices in the later part of the game still sometimes feel weird to me, because I played it without voice acting first and imagined something different in my head.
Also interesting how Little Big Adventure came out on floppy later than the CD version! I think it shows how the landscape was shifting towards CD-ROM very quickly. I imagine it’s also cheaper to produce a single CD vs having to include many floppy disks. We also talked a little bit about this in the episode on Z, which was intended to be a floppy disk game at first, but the publisher pushed for a CD-ROM release, which meant they had to come up with something to fill up all that space and decided to make some nonsensical cutscenes.
“However I wouldn’t be surprised if Nintendo removed a few things not deemed child appropriate.”
Yeah, it was ported by Douglas Crockford, who wrote a little article about his experiences porting the game to NES, which mainly involved jumping through Nintendo’s hoops in order to comply with their guidelines. It’s a pretty funny story really: https://www.crockford.com/maniac.html
Ah, I figured it must have been something like that. Cool!
I just completed another playthrough, paying special attention to the jokes, with this thread in mind.
I really can’t tell you what my favourite one is, there are so many great ones. What struck me most is the joke density, it’s nuts! Almost every line has something funny in it. The overall story and situations are pretty funny to begin with of course. And on top of the funny lines, there’s also a lot of physical humour, with goofy animations and sound effects.
Honestly the whole game feels like one big joke. One of my favourite moments is near the end of the game, when you have managed to retrieve your 3 kids back to the present day. It feels like you’ve won, but actually you’ve achieved nothing. And literally the first thing Dr. Fred suggests is that you perform the original plan by going back in time to yesterday, which is how you got into this whole mess in the first place! Haha, that’s really great to me.
A scene I really found hilarious when I first played this as a kid was breaking the snacks machine using the crowbar. You get covered in a giant stack of coins and Bernard then goes on to inspect every single one of them to check what year they’re from. I still find that funny now.
What I also got me laughing back then, was how Bernard says “Ted is red. See red Ted.” when you paint Ted the mummy red as he’s standing outside. I have no idea what I was thinking or why I thought it was so funny about it. Maybe just how dumb it is, I don’t know.
There’s also a lot of stuff that went right over my head then, but I do understand now. That’s why replaying this game is cool, because honestly there is a lot going on in this game. For instance all the American history stuff in Hoagie’s timeline. Apparently this is all common knowledge for Americans, but I had no idea. There’s apparently a sort of legend about George Washington cutting down a cherry tree. And John Hancock’s signature on the declaration of independence is so large, that to this day a “John Hancock” is used as a synonym for a signature.
I also love how it just keeps on going, cracking jokes right up until the very last screen, after Bernard says “Looks like everything’s back to normal!” and they raise the American flag, which is now a tentacle.
I sent Seravy an email, asking if he’s interested in taking some of our questions about this expansion. It doesn’t happen every day a 1994 game gets an add-on in 2019, right!
So if people want to ask him something, please leave the question here in this thread. I’ll gather the questions for a week or two and then forward the best ones to him, so we can discuss them in the podcast 🙂
Cool!
Just played Ski King 2 and after reading your reviews I was expecting very little, so actually I was pleasantly surprised haha. It’s not a great game by any means, but I still had some fun skiing down the endless hill. It’s very much like Ski Free, isn’t it.
Haha, good man for trying!
I’m with you, rnlf. DoTT has been a long-time favourite of mine, but despite trying several times, I’ve never actually completed the original Maniac Mansion.
I’ll try to fix that!
Yeah I can see the appeal of Deluxe Ski Jump too. I would probably prefer the mouse control if I was playing with an actual mouse. But I’m currently mostly playing these on a laptop’s touchpad which makes keyboard controls *a lot* nicer.
This is such an odd game. You play with the mouse??
It seems to have some sort of ragdoll physics going on, which is pretty impressive for 2000 honestly.
2000 is perhaps the craziest time to release a new DOS game. Even crazier than to release one now haha.
Can’t wait to try this one though!
December 8, 2020 at 7:31 pm in reply to: Vardit BeHarpatka Hadasha BeAlifut HaGlisha (1996, Multimedia KID) #3979Wow, cool find!
I’m also going to try to play as many as I can 😀
I still can’t believe there’s DLC for this game released in 2019. Mind blown!
December 6, 2020 at 11:15 pm in reply to: The Games: Winter Challenge (1991, Ballistic / Accolade) #3963Got the help from the manual, kindly provided by Travis Beamon through Twitter: https://www.dropbox.com/s/f8snaz44b8v86tv/The%20Games%20-%20Winter%20Challenge%20%281991%29.pdf?dl=0
December 6, 2020 at 9:02 pm in reply to: The Games: Winter Challenge (1991, Ballistic / Accolade) #3960Ok, got an update on the ski jump: in order to not fall, you have to press (and hold?) the enter key when you come down to land.
Makes sense right???
Hey cool, thanks!
Welcome to the club, TigerQuoll!
The list I made is just to get people started. Any game you can find is more than welcome! I think it’s probably best to open a thread per game, so we can discuss them in a somewhat organised way.
People get their games from all over the place. Sometimes games have been released as freeware or are for sale on gog.com or other such sites. Sometimes people still have their old copies from back in the day, or buy boxed games from eBay for their collection. Sometimes the sources are some vague abandonware website, which is totally fine but we appreciate if people keep the links to themselves haha
Looking forward to your contributions!
Yeah, the controls aren’t very intuitive, especially for the ski jumping events. I’ve found the Commodore 64 manual, which seems largely compatible with the DOS version too: https://archive.org/details/Winter_Games_1985_Epyx
It includes instructions on how to play each of the events, which helps a lot 🙂
I guess Wikipedia is lying 🙁 It says there it was released for both Windows and DOS, which got me excited.
https://ski.ihoc.net/ this seems to be the best resource there is for Ski Free, as this website is made by the same guy who made Ski Free. They offer two versions there: the 32-bit latest version (which requires Windows 95 and up) and the original 16-bit version (which runs in Windows 3.x).
But none of these run in plain DOS, as Wikipedia is implying ;(
Hahaha
That’s great, Richard! I think you’re right there isn’t that much to this game. I just really like the vibe and how they’ve put so much effort into the upgrade mechanics. It really makes me imagine I’m in a garage somewhere tinkering on an old car. And racing them makes it more fun since you feel like you’ve put them together yourself, so you know all the ins and outs. Getting a win is more worthwhile when you’ve put sweat, blood and tears into the vehicle I feel haha
I’ve never actually beaten this game (who has???) but I know the intro song by heart
If you’re more of a video watching person instead of a reading walls of text person, I’ve recorded a quick guide on how to perform a cheap engine upgrade for a basic starter car: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ry7lB8F4Ygo
As for the racing, there are two modes available: “drag race” and “road race”. Drag race is just a straight stretch of road, pretty straight-forward. The road race also has the same drag strip at the start, but then continues to go into various corners and obstacles.
The road track is randomly generated when you start a new game. Most of them are OK I think in terms of layout, but some of the generated tracks can be really tricky. If you find the road track is particularly difficult, you can start a new game and it will generate a new one. Within the same game, the track will remain the same, so you can practice to learn its layout and become better at it.
Thanks for all the amazing info, @rasz_pl. I really appreciate it!
I’m a bit late to the party, but I feel determined to play through this game the coming days.
However I got myself stuck quite early on. I went up the church tower with the werewolf following me. I found a guide that says I can just wait a while and he’ll be gone. Thing is… I’ve been waiting all evening, going up & down the ladder several times, but every time I step into the church I immediately get attacked the wolf.
Is there a trick to this? Should I just fiddle with fighting him? Or can I actually get him to leave somehow so I can explore in peace?
Wow, you beat it already! Thanks for these tips, they seem very helpful.
You seem to be quite knowledgeable about the subject, @rasz_pl! Maybe you’d like to join our podcast discussion about this game? I’m sure you could tell us a lot of interesting things!
Also, apparently in the Windows version you CAN move & turn at once 😮
Oh nice! Yeah, they say it’s quite rare actually!
Very nice, thanks!
It’s especially important to consult the manual because the controls ar not so straight-forward.
First of all your movement speed can be set using F1-F12 (yes there are 12 movement speeds haha). The lowest 4 are for sneaking and the highest 4 are for running.
Controlling your character itself is entirely done using the numpad:
8 & 2 for walking forwards and backwards
4 & 6 for turning left and right
1 & 3 for picking up objects (with left or right hand)
7 & 9 for using object in hand
5 for duckingNote that you can’t turn and walk at the same time, so that’s a bit unfortunate. Apparently this was fixed in a later Windows release, but not in the DOS version.
The reason why it’s freeware is because some guy bought the license to Street Rod from the original developers back in 2012 with the idea of creating a sequel for it, called “Street Rod Online”.
I’m not sure what the status of this project is, but in the process of setting up a website for it, they were so kind to offer free downloads of the original games.
Thanks so much for this! Very interesting indeed and makes the game all the more impressive.
I started later in the month than I had wanted, but I must say I’m really into it now! I love how simple it really is, I was a bit scared the game might be too involved to be enjoyable. But it’s great! And even though the story might not have that much to it, I’m massively enjoying the in-between time on the station.
The only thing that’s unclear to me is what to aim for exactly when trying to dock with the station. Sometimes when I’m near and request to land, it simply does it. But sometimes it waits for me to be near… some point? I’m not sure where exactly the game wants me to fly.
Hmm… the file size limit was 2 MB and my gif was almost 5. I’ve increased the limit now, let’s try again.
Attachments:
Err… I think so? Let’s find out! 😀
It’s been a while since we’ve done a grand strategy game. I think this game would be an awesome pick for the near future.
I’m definitely interested in this! Might be a few months before another adventure game is in order, but we’ll definitely consider these Star Trek games when we feel one is due.
Yeah, they seem completely disconnected from the missions for the most part. It’s just the same 2 guys and the sergeant goofing around. Even though I’m only on level 5, I’ve already seem some clips twice.
But they do have a very unique 90s feel to them that’s not present anywhere nowadays. It’s a bit in the same vein as Beavis & Butthead, Bill & Ted, Wayne’s World, that sort of stuff. I think it’s awesome haha
I’m definitely interested in that! I’ll start a separate thread, let’s hope some people are interested.
I’ve played the first 5 or so levels now. The objectives seem pretty much the same for each one. Z does play a little different than what I’m used to from playing Warcraft and C&C, it seems more like a game of Risk with capturing those sectors. It’s also kind of bizarre there’s no base building at all.
So far the winning strategy to me seems to get rush at the start to get a good number of factories. As long as you’ve got more than the opponent and can hold on to them long enough, it’s pretty much a guaranteed win.
This is very much appreciated! I installed the game this evening, thinking I could at least play the first level no problem… turns out the game doesn’t explain *anything*. No tutorial, no mission objective, they don’t explain the interface or the keyboard commands, haha. This is the DOS experience 😀
So yeah, I guess I better read the manual first.
It’s a shame the gog.com version seems a bit shoddy. There are a lot of 11-13 MB versions to be found on various abandonware sites, but those don’t include the cutscenes, which I feel do add a lot to these kinds of games.
There’s an ISO on archive.org which seems to work pretty well: https://archive.org/details/Z_1996_Renegade
I just started the second episode and it seems… pretty similar for the most part? The level design is less open-ended, but otherwise it’s not that different, is it?
What do people generally think about the second episode? I get the impression it’s not very well received, but I wonder why that is exactly.
Wow, I’m amazed so many people have been able to beat all the episodes. Very good, guys!
I was happy to beat the first episode just now haha. Took me 3 or 4 sessions, I’m guessing 30-60 minutes each.
I still think it’s pretty good! They keep the variety up and the mechanic where you turn into various animals was a nice surprise. Once you get over the clunkiness, it’s really pretty good imho
Very cool! I also found it through David’s video haha
Oh no! Must have been all those impressive VGA colours that were just too much to handle.
Wow, nice one!
Wow, they give away half the plot in this ad haha
I’ve never played it myself, but my girlfriend is a massive fan. She has a boxed copy and everything!
Since we’re doing Jill now, it seems a bit odd to do a platformer immediately again. But I think we could maybe make Jazz Jackrabbit the next platformer we do 🙂
For what it’s worth, I think zxc is way more confusing than using ctrl, shift and alt.
You’re absolutely right neither Prince of Persia nor Another World gives off the somewhat amateurish vibe that Jill of the Jungle has. I’m personally not a big Keen fan though, I think I’m enjoying this more actually!
But yeah, $30 seems awfully steep for what it is. I can’t imagine a lot of revenue was generated in Europe. I certainly have never bought one of these old shareware titles, nor have I heard from anyone around me doing so.
It is very true that this game (and similar PC titles from the same period) cannot come even remotely close to the quality of the games that were available on other systems.
But I do feel the need to point out that the Sonics and Marios all have large billion dollar corporations behind them, while this game was essentially developed by a kid living with his parents, and a bunch of friends helping out to finish it.
And although I don’t think this is a valid excuse for delivering a sub-par game, it is important to realise that the game development landscape looked very different then than it does now. There was no Game Maker or Unity to help you get started, no frameworks or libraries to rapidly put something together, no internet filled with resources.
As such, it’s a huge accomplishment that these games were made at all, even if they can’t really compete with the fantastic products released by large and experienced studios.
I dunno what’s up with you guys, but I think the controls are fine?
Hmmm… I wonder if I could get my PS4 controller to work with Dosbox.
I don’t have any other joystick o_O
Yeah good idea, I’m all for checking it out. I’ve dabbled a little bit in Wing Commander 2 as a kid, mostly just liking the lion guys. I never got far in the actual game.
You can say “listen to thom” for example to make it a little less generic, but it remains a bit awkward. I sort of understand why it doesn’t want to spit out 5 pages of dialogue in one go though. I guess the system from the second game works better for conversations.
Yeah, I also remember from when I played these way back than I was more impressed with the first game than with the second.
Kind of ironic they made the first one freeware, haha.
Wow, those are pretty good ratings!
Got the final video out now 🙂
Great work as always, Rich!
I must say, there is indeed a lot of text to read haha
Thanks for checking it out! It was a little more work than I anticipated yeah, haha. I think an approximate metric is that 1 minute of video takes about 1 hour of work.
My process was to first write the script, record the narration of it, then record a whole bunch of gameplay footage and finally pick & choose appropriate scenes for the whole thing.
I’m not a video editor by any means and I don’t know how any of the professional tools work. Instead I used a Mac app called “ScreenFlow”, mostly because I already had it installed, as I occasionally use it for recording my desktop.
It offers a simple built-in editor which allowed me to put everything in order, so that’s what I used. This is what it looks like with the project loaded:
Attachments:
Oh by the way, you can enable MT-32 music output by running the game with the “mt32” parameter (so: “gate mt32”).
Similarly you can enable SVGA output by running the game with “gate svga”. SVGA mode allows for more text on the screen at once, but the graphics are otherwise the same.
Really cool to see so many people playing this for the first time and finishing it all the way through to the end 🙂
Same. I dabbled around for a few minutes, but it seemed to lead to nothing.
I have a hard time believing it can’t be broken though. Isn’t that the whole point of these VRs?
Yeah, it took me several days to get through this game, and that’s despite having played (and finished!) it before.
I don’t remember using the blood, I don’t think it’s necessary.
You’re definitely thinking in the right direction with the stump, the sack, the ash and the net. It’s mostly a matter of figuring out the right order to make it all work 🙂
I just beat the game too! I got motivated to do so after Firefyte beat it so quickly. I actually finished it years ago, but it’s crazy how little I remember of it. I don’t even remember how old I was when I played it. I just remember liking the game a lot.
The story is really pretty cool, which might not be so surprising since it’s based on a novel. The number of frustrating puzzles is quite limited, I feel most things make sense. The way the game is structured also means puzzles are contained to their own area, so the number of items and rooms you have to mix and match aren’t too much to handle.
Very impressive game all in all!
Wow, you did that quite fast!
How many hours did you put in in total you think?
I remember playing this years ago and being really impressed with how accessible and fun it is. Definitely will try to finish it again this month 🙂
It was actually released officially as freeware back in 1996 through Legend’s website. Sadly it’s gone now, but luckily there’s archive.org 🙂
Being able to see the whole table in one screen is really uncommon in these DOS pinball games. All the ones I’ve played so far have the screen scrolling up & down as you play.
Maybe spacefarer knows of one that shows the table all at once?
Yeah, it’s like an exciting X-Com 😛 Might be my favourite Bullfrog game, this
Is this similar to “Pinball Construction Set”? That was originally released for the Apple II in 1983 and ported to PC in 1985.
Yeah, I played this one a lot too.
Wow, that’s amazing. Not only because 1998 is quite late for a pinball game, but it’s even later for a DOS game!
I’ll try to put it together this weekend 🙂
Apparently this is sort of the same game as Silverball? What’s up with that?
There’s also a sequel released in 1995, which includes: Neptune, Safari, Revenge of the Robot Warriors & Stall Turn.
That is a good idea!
We’ll have to index all the games / tables then somehow though. Maybe it’s good to start gathering those in a thread?
Am I the worst Worms player in history? Quite possibly 😛
Not so close that I actually got a win in 😛
Honestly a very impressive win, pumpuli.
I feel it could have gone either way with this one. So tense!
Awesome!
Awesome! I’m currently away on holiday, but I’ll try my best to participate.
Thanks for finding this, kdrnic. I think it really helps in getting the text more legible.
Good news, people. We’ve expanded our Grand Prix Circuit scoreboard and now also have one for Wipeout!
Ooooh, I’ve never played this (or even heard of it) but it looks excellent!
Haha apparently they are! 😀
Yeah, it’s only available when you’re on land. It’s at the bottom of the menu.
You have to go to the spot that’s indicated on the map, go the menu en choose “search”. Then (if you’re in the correct spot) you’ll find your long lost relative 🙂
If you’re not playing the Gold version, you really need a map. Weirdly the gog.com version doesn’t seem to come with one? Anyway, here’s the one I’m using: https://magisterrex.files.wordpress.com/2010/10/piratesgamemap.jpg
I just want to add I’ve played this a ton as a kid and would love to feature it for a month.
That said, I played the Gold edition A TON as a kid, but never really played the original much. So that’s the version I’ll be focusing on myself this month 🙂
If anyone’s wondering what version to play, I personally would recommend new-comers to check out the 1993 Pirates! Gold remake. It’s essentially the same gameplay as the original game, but presented in much more appealing SVGA graphics, better sound, nicer UI and very importantly an in-game map! So at least you’ll have a vague idea on where you are, which you have to figure out by yourself in the original version. The game came with a map on paper I believe, which is very cool of course, but being able to show it in-game is very helpful for beginners I think.
Absolutely fantastic! What a great read. Thanks a lot for posting this.
Ooooh, this is awesome, man!
Yeah, it was surprising they didn’t go inside the Skyranger to hide from the aliens. They just panicked. But honestly I think I would panic as well when a bunch of aliens terrorised my town 😛
The most annoying right now is how the guys block each other. I mean seriously, you don’t have the “time” to lean over a few centimeters and let a buddy through? Haha wtf
I’ve tried the original DOS version, but because I’m completely new to the game, the lack of tooltips was really a big hassle. So many unmarked buttons!
I’m now playing Openxcom and I’m having a much better time. I think the game is similar enough to still be in the spirit of the club tbh. It’s not like it’s completely different, it’s just a little more convenient.
What’s also very different is the way disk space is perceived by game developers now vs then. Back in the day games were distributed on floppy disks, so if a game didn’t fit on a single one, it meant production costs would be a lot higher. Also shipping a game on many disks is cumbersome for the player, so there was a strong focus on keeping game size to a minimum.
With the introduction of the CD-ROM and later DVD and Blu-ray, keeping games small in size became less and less important, to the point where we are now.
“How have game file sizes become so big? Is it just the graphics? Just the high-fidelity audio?”
Essentially, yes. 100 KB of OPL instructions can play hours and hours of music, but the same amount of space can only hold 5 seconds of MP3 audio.
The same sort of thing can be seen in graphics, where a single texture for a modern high resolution 3D model can be larger than all of the graphics in an old low res 2D game combined.
The code itself is larger as well, but I don’t think that’s nearly as significant a factor as the audio and visual data.
Here’s a nice article about this very subject with some interesting quotes from game developers: https://www.digitaltrends.com/gaming/why-are-video-games-so-big/
Wow, this is awesome!
Thanks for these suggestions, it’s really helpful. I feel like I could enjoy this game, but I’m totally new to it and I have absolutely no idea how any of it works. There’s no tutorial in the game, so it’s a bit difficult to get into. All tips are appreciated!
I also found this helpful video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QfICiJzmPYA
Massively looking forward to it 😀
Awesome tips, guys. I think we should totally do this one for October. I’ve never really played it 😮
Oooh, we should totally play this in October this year!
Hey, thanks for your suggestion! This game looks really intriguing 😮 I’ve played a Lord of the Rings game before, but I don’t think it was this one.
I’d love to play this one!
So cool to see people still posting stuff here. Maybe I’ll have another go as well!
Ha, nice!
Yeah, definitely. Maybe the price is also where it shows its SNES-roots, where budget games weren’t as common as on the PC?
Weirdly I think this game would be better received today than it was back then.
Also “too many buttons to remember”. Errr.. how many are there besides the arrow keys? Four? Haha
Can you believe we’ve *never* had a fighting game? 😮 Let’s play this in May!
This sounds awesome! It’s been ages since we’ve had a flight sim, let’s play this in June 🙂
Wow, impressive!
Yeah, I had the accidental item thing too. That’s why I tried to made sure the cursor was always on an empty inventory slot.
I think the main trick to this game is to take it slow. There aren’t really any timers or anything, apart from buttons with closing doors attached, so you can just carefully go from screen to screen, inspect everything, try things out.
If you approach this game as an action game, it probably doesn’t work very well. But doing it more like a puzzle game, it’s much more manageable.
Yeah, that’s a good tip!
Yeah, in the end I never used the F key at all. Space for fire, D only for running. That prevented me from firing in the wrong direction haha.
I also made sure my cursor was always on an empty spot, so accidentally pressing E would not result in using up an item. It’s important to be careful with the items, because many levels require very specific items in order to progress.
Now I must say, this is for my (DOS) version of Blackthorne. I’ve read somewhere that the latest version (which can be downloaded from Blizzard’s servers for free and runs on Windows/Mac) has slightly different controls: http://www.blizzplanet.com/blog/comments/blackthorne-keyboard-controls
Keyboard controls FTW 😀
Wow, this is pretty cool! I love Boxer so I’ll definitely check this out.
That being said, I’ve never actually seen such a warning for Boxer though, haha.
Thanks, this is very interesting information!
This game is notoriously hard. But also there’s a bug which causes the monsters to do more and more damages as you save & load. The bug is present on all difficulty levels except for the default one. So I guess playing on the default difficulty is the only option, unless you don’t want to use saving & loading at all.
Great stuff, Rich!
Maybe we should have a general chat forum and keep the support forum for real support stuff (site issues etc.).
Wow, that’s impressive, man. This game is insanely hard, haha.
Ah, that’s a good option! I’ve heard of some people who were struggling to get it working correctly with Dosbox, so maybe NBlood is a good option for them 🙂
I haven’t played Emergency Room, but reading the description, I wonder if it also involves actually operating on people? Because that’s really the core of Life & Death, I think. The diagnosis stuff is just to ease you into it, but the real gameplay I think is getting an operation completed successfully.
I must admit I’ve used a guide when playing this, but honestly I don’t feel it’s as different as without, except it saves a whole lot of visits to the classroom, haha.
Honestly I love this kind of novelty game. It’s utterly weird and arguably barely any fun, but I just imagine I’m an actual doctor and have a great time with this sort of thing 😀
Welcome back! 😀
Yeah, the fact you can play levels freely is really quite modern. It’s a very impressive game, this one!
In case you have difficulty finding the game, there’s a shareware version on archive.org: https://archive.org/details/MicrosDilemmaII_1020
Despite being called ‘shareware’, it seems to be actually quite complete!
Ok, this game is impossible to figure out, so I went onto YouTube and found a play through. It massively helps to learn the weird rules of this game, haha.
Check it out: https://www.youtube.com/user/Arm4g3dd0nX/search?query=minervga
I’ve just tried playing this game, but I don’t really get it, haha.
Has anyone had any success with this? I’ve tried digging a bit, I’ve even been able to sell off some silver. But all in all I just seemed to burn cash and lose health until I died?
Yes, I want this.
Yeah, this game is really daunting to get into. There are so many aspects you need to consider!
Once you get the hang of it, it’s really great though imho. Things are very interconnected, so every decision you make influences almost all other aspects of the game.
Oooh, I’ll have to try MoO1 then, it sounds interesting to check out.
I must admit I quite like MoO2 now though. I’ve been playing it for the last few weeks quite a lot. At first it was quite intimidating, as there are a lot of things going on which you need to understand before you can really have any success with this game.
What helped for me was to first play without tactical combat (which also means no ship design). This way the game is more strategic in nature and it’s mostly about managing your empire. There are still battles in this mode, but instead of going into detail, it just shows an outcome based on stats. Just like Civ really. It makes for a very streamlined experience, I really quite like that the game gives you the option to play it how you like.
I’ve heard of people with Dosbox who had the same problems, but increasing the cycles seem to help a bit.
I think vede had similar issues, but was able to resolve it. I’ll ask if he can share his solution.
Thanks for all the awesome suggestions, everyone! I think we’re going to go for Wasteland for this particular occasion. A lot of people seem interested in checking that out and with the release of Fallout 76 it also seems relevant.
But don’t think this is the last RPG we’ll ever play, so I’m sure we’ll be looking at this list again in the future 🙂
Ooooh, I love this game so much!
Oooh, that Mac version does look interesting.
I’m lucky I don’t seem to have too many problems on my Dosbox, I think. Although tbh I didn’t even know about the double-tap-to-run command 😀
Wow, good find 😀
Oh man, this game is so brutal. I’ve only tried it a little bit as a kid, but I never really got beyond the first room. It’s so unclear what the options are and how it all works!
After watching how to deal with the first monster on YouTube, I sort of got the hang of it and managed to play through the starting floor tonight, even getting rid of those weird beasts that guard the staircase.
But man, if this is just the beginning, I don’t know if I’ll manage without a walkthrough, haha.
September 14, 2018 at 7:57 pm in reply to: Favourite Gags and Jokes? Heavy spoilers, potentially :-p #1895But honestly, this game is so crazily packed with jokes, it’s almost difficult to find a moment when it’s not hilarious 😀
September 14, 2018 at 7:56 pm in reply to: Favourite Gags and Jokes? Heavy spoilers, potentially :-p #1894The little cutscene when Stan hands you the ship is really great.
I recorded a video of it:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_QivI70P_UEWow, this looks amazing!
It would be cool to have an RPG in an upcoming month (January?)!
I’ve played *loads* of Dark Sun by the way. It’s a really cool game. I haven’t played so much other RPGs. I’d love to dive into Krondor or Ultima, but also maybe one of the Might & Magic games would be interesting? Or Dune 1 possibly? Fallout is also a big one of course, but maybe too mainstream (we’ve covered a lot of big games recently).
If anyone has anymore suggestions, that would be great!
Wow, so you played all the… let me count… 10 Monkey Island games? That’s counting each chapter of the “Tales” games as a separate game.
Haha, amazing!
I’ve never really played Curse or Escape myself, nor the Tales. It’s interesting to hear you enjoyed the Telltale series, I might check those out myself.
I’m currently playing through the sequel and I must admit… I’m enjoying it less than the original. The original is so fully packed with jokes and silliness, it’s just great. The sequel feels more tedious, where you constantly have to move between places to get a little further with the intricate puzzles. It’s not unfunny though, definitely still very good.
I think they felt maybe Secret was too easy and they wanted to offer the player more of a challenge? I don’t know, but for me the original is still absolutely fantastic. It all works so well and is so unbelievably goofy, it’s really great.
Wow, that’s amazing. I suppose the sound isn’t vital for beating the game, but the music is really great though and provides tons of atmosphere.
Playing the game some more this morning, I realised how cinematic it actually is. Most point & click adventure games are quite static, but there are quite a few dramatic scenes and even some interesting camera angles and such things going on in this game. I don’t think I had realised that before.
Haha, there sure is more! I’d say almost every single scene in this game is hilarious in fact, haha.
Hello and welcome! Awesome that you decided to join and share some memories with us 🙂
The list of ingredients of grog is indeed quite something, haha!
Wat wat wat!
Haha, this is a great checklist!
This is cool, man!
Yeah, I think it’s the very first 3D survival-horror game ever made.
I tried playing this game several times in the past, but never really got anywhere. Looking forward to diving in properly this time!
Ah, right. Yeah, I’m doing level 14 now and it’s certainly a step up in difficulty from the previous ones, haha.
Oooooh, I think I actually tried playing this game a bit relatively recently. I don’t remember a whole lot about it, but I think I found it a bit too unintuitive to play it for longer.
But I’d love to dive in properly and check this game out for real. I mean, it does seem intriguing!
I definitely agree that a large part of the appeal of Warcraft is the setting, and also how polished it all is presented. Especially the voice acting of course, but also the creative way the buildings and units are designed. It’s just a pleasant world to be in, I think.
In terms of pure gameplay however, I must say I’m a bit disappointed. I’m at level 13 in the Human campaign now, and there’s only been 1 or 2 levels that posed any kind of challenge. I expected it to become more difficult near the end, but actually the last 2 levels turned out to be extremely simple. It’s all a matter of just building a big army and then overrunning the enemy. Because the AI lacks aggression, this strategy works on basically every map.
So all in all… it’s quite enjoyable to be around all these characters in this fantasy world, but it doesn’t seem to offer much in terms of actual strategy.
Man, that’s super weird. I’ve tried Chrome and Firefox, both logged in & out, but I don’t seem to get it.
Can you maybe post a screenshot? I have no idea what I’m even searching for, haha.
Yeah, I definitely feel a lot of what makes this game great is through the polish that went into it.
I’m up to level 12 in the Human campaign. This level is actually pretty interesting, with lots of islands everywhere. There’s 15 in total right?
Ooooh, that’s awesome!
Preview? Hmmm… I don’t have that?
I’ll investigate though!
Awesome links, man!
How’s the forum broken? 😮
“Sim City with shooting” haha that’s amazing
I definitely recognise the bit about the waiting. I didn’t mind that when I was younger at all. I remember being so taken by the setting and the world that it was enjoyable to just be there and look at all the guys walk around.
But nowadays my view is a bit more abstract and I agree… it’s really a bit boring? I guess you can increase the game speed to ease the waiting a bit, but then you lose a lot of control over your troops in case you get attacked.
Sadly I also agree with dr_st that the same strategy seems to work on almost every map, so that doesn’t help either to make things more interesting.
The voice acting is still great though, haha!
Yeah, I must admit that playing Warcraft has only made me realise what a C&C fanboy I am 😀
Yeah, IPX-over-IP has worked pretty well for us so far, let’s go with that!
I don’t have the Battle.net edition of this game, but I do have the original one patched up until 1.4.
I hope the different versions of this game are compatible enough to get a multiplayer game going.
Haha
Wow, I guess I’m lucky, because I haven’t ran into a lot of issues getting this to run on my Mac. I’m using Boxer, which is just a nice GUI which wraps Dosbox.
I heard from Florian that it’s also not working that great for him in his Dosbox though. I think he resorted to playing it on his 486?
Cool! Yeah, I’m also looking forward to this. I always like a cool RTS game and Warcraft certainly is one of the best.
That’s the upside-down one, right? Yeah, it’s kind of bizarre it’s there to begin with, haha.
I have so much nostalgic love for POP2. I thought it was absolutely fantastic back in the day. All those different settings! It felt much more epic than the dungeons of the first game to me when I was a kid.
But playing it now, I can see how flawed it really is (and how well-made the first one is!). It’s a shame, because I think some of the scenes of POP2 are really cool and memorable (like the jumping onto the ship as it sails away, or jumping onto the horse statue like you mentioned).
No, I think I only got half of that 😮 But tbh the hitpoints aren’t really that useful. It’s better to be careful and learn how to fight properly, haha 😀
Great tips, guys!
If the game remains difficult, there’s one last trick you can resort to: cheating 😀
By launching the game with the “megahit” argument (so “prince.exe megahit” on the command-line, or simply “prince megahit”) you unlock the cheat-mode. When enabled, you can use the following commands to perform various cheats:
k – kill an enemy
r – resurrect from death
+ – increase time left
shift+L – next level
shift+T – extra life
shift+S – heal life
shift+W – enable float mode (allowing you to survive long drops)
n – look down
u – look up
h – look left
j – look rightHey hey, I’m back from holidays and dove straight into the game.
I just beat it, with 11 minutes and 23 seconds to spare \o/
All the way through, I was convinced I had never beaten it before. But every single level was familiar, up to the very end, so I guess I have beaten it? Haha. Maybe I used the megahit cheat code before, but this time it was an honest run from start to finish (apart from some save scumming, which I feel is allowed).
Truly awesome game, this. And incredibly influential of course!
Good find! I suppose when Tyrian came out, the magazines were mostly covering AAA games.
It’s funny to see the difference between what got attention back then and what is considered a classic now.
Thanks for sharing!
Ok guys, this will be our August game, whoohoo! 😀
I recommend just staying on the road, guys 😛
Good suggestions, I’ll add the links 🙂
Cool to see so much interest, guys!
Cool, David! We’d love to have you on. We’ll try to do it on the weekend this time, so you don’t have to use the noisy booth at work then 🙂
Hahaha
Oh yeah, I’d love to try to setup a multiplayer session. I’ll make a separate thread for it.
Hey, I beat it! \o/
89 races in total, that’s not as bad as I thought actually.
Yeah, I’m finding the same thing. I think I dabbled too long in the easy races at first and now the guys in the top have an enormous lead. I’m catching up (I’ve got the top car and it’s almost fully upgraded), but it’s taking forever 😀
I’ve got myself an almost fully upgraded Porsch- erm… Wraith now. I think I’m getting quite close to the end!
Spent quite a bit more than Richard’s 4 hours though, haha.
Very cool, Richard!
Wow, this is cool. I had no idea there are these “hidden” bonuses!
Thanks for sharing your story, Simon! It’s so cool to hear these fond memories. This game seems to hold a very special place in people’s hearts, which is great.
We’re recording the podcast today. We’re already fully booked, having 5 people on the show. But if you do want to take part, you could record a voice message and send it to club@dosgameclub.com and we’ll include it 🙂
Welcome AngryDinosaur by the way! Glad to hear you like our little club 😀
Wow, well done Richard. You’re quite the gaming expert, beating this whole thing in a mere 3 hours 😀
And don’t forget to use the speed boost!
Well, GTA uses zooming quite extensively and was released only a year after Death Rally, so I think something could have been done. But after playing for a while, you start to learn the tracks and then it becomes a lot easier too 🙂
There are definitely multiple valid strategies, so the game is surprisingly deep! I’ve so far tried to upgrade my cars as much as possible, instead of buying new ones. I also think you don’t actually need the fastest car to win a race. There’s a lot to gain from having good handling, so you don’t have to slow down in corners and stuff. So going for the tires first is definitely a good idea, I think!
The strategy I’m using now is to not waste too much money on mines and stuff, but rather upgrade your car itself, so you can start competing at the higher levels.
I mostly try to stay away from the initial chaos and indeed lag behind a bit, so I don’t get as much damage. Once everyone’s out of bullets, I just try to race as hard & clean as possible to get ahead. That seems to work quite well so far.
I’m not sure if the AI is indeed responding to your current position, but that could well be the case!
I hope vede will come in post some of his progress. I think he’s played the game a lot, especially earlier in the month.
I didn’t get that much time to play myself. But I must say that this thread is motivating me to dive in and give it a go!
Wow, that’s really impressive!
This game is indeed really something. I can’t believe I hadn’t even heard of it before this. Definitely a big thanks to Corgibuttz for suggesting it!
The first time I played, I immediately lost my buggy because it ran out of fuel while trying to find where I had parked my spaceship, haha. Luckily you get a new one from the station, at a mere 10k.
Very, very cool stuff!
I don’t even think high-density 1.44 MB floppy disks were invented by 1986 😀
Hey man!
Thanks for joining the forums and share your story. I love reading how people played these games at a young age and it just stuck with them for whole their life.
It would be great if you could dive in again and see what you can make of it. And if you could share any tips or points of interest with us, that would be much appreciated!
Ok, I’ve been playing for a bit and I must say that apart from the technical issues described above, I find this game extremely impressive. The UI isn’t actually that clunky, given the fact it’s so old. I’m glad only a handful of buttons are used, so it’s quite easy to figure out how to control the game.
The game itself seems to be very ambitious. That landing sequence, in 3D and everything! Really something!
Wow, that save system is seriously old school. I wonder why they thought this is a good idea, because it seems extremely prone to error. In fact, the readme even states:
“ALWAYS SAVE GAME TO END A SESSION. ESC BRINGS UP THE SAVE GAME MENU.
NEVER REBOOT THE SYSTEM DURING A SESSION BECAUSE IT WOULD LEAVE THE STARFLIGHT FILES IN AN INCONSISTENT STATE.”I bet this led to a lot of phone calls to the support line back in the day 😀
I’m still on the oldschool arrows + alt + ctrl setup. And A & Z for jumping and crouching of course! No mouse required B-)
I was just watching a new LGR video the other day and Duke Nukem popped up!
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Mz3nNKQRnNQ
Apparently there was a “mobile” release of Duke Nukem 3D for this weird PDA-like device. But sadly… it’s not very good. I don’t believe it has anything to do with the real DN3D, other than that it looks sort of similar. Maybe it has the same weapons/enemies as well, but the levels are completely different, so the whole game is different.
March 17, 2018 at 11:35 pm in reply to: What a Game! aka. WHY DID NOBODY TELL ME _HOW_ GOOD IT IT?? #1226Oooh, that’s an interesting suggestion, dr_st! I never played it like that back in the day (probably because I didn’t know about it), but it actually makes a lot of sense.
March 7, 2018 at 10:14 pm in reply to: What a Game! aka. WHY DID NOBODY TELL ME _HOW_ GOOD IT IT?? #1212Yeah, same here Mgoddard. I always play these oldschool shooters with just the keyboard, using the default controls (arrows to move, ctrl to fire). It’s the default for a reason, right! 😀
Haha “don’t ban me” 😀
I was 13 years old when this game came out and despite the game’s “adult content” warnings, me and my friends were very much into it, haha.
I didn’t have my own computer until years later, but my uncle ran a computer store and my dad was also a bit into gaming, so the family computer was pretty decent in those days. I’m not 100% sure when we got what though. What I do know is that in 1995 we had a 486 still. It was a fast one, running at 100 MHz, with 16 MB RAM. So we didn’t feel it was needed to upgrade to a Pentium when they first started to appear.
At one point we did replace it with a Pentium 120 and 32 MB of RAM. Maybe that was in 1996? If so, then that’s the machine I played Duke Nukem 3D on. But maybe I also still played it on the 486.
Later we upgraded the Pentium 120 to a Pentium 150 MMX using once of those “Overdrive” upgrade kits, along with a 3Dfx Voodoo card. I think that was in 1997. I probably still played Duke from time to time on that machine.
We kept 2 machines for a while, connected through a serial cable. I know I played multiplayer Duke Nukem in that setup as well. I think one of the machines was the old 486 and the other one was the more modern machine. I think Duke 3D didn’t run at full resolution on that 486, but it was still quite playable. I think the Pentium could play it at 800×600 even.
March 1, 2018 at 1:40 pm in reply to: What a Game! aka. WHY DID NOBODY TELL ME _HOW_ GOOD IT IT?? #1185The “humour” is indeed in very bad taste and hasn’t aged well at all, with all the sexism and stuff. It’s probably the biggest point of criticism you can have from a modern day perspective.
At the time, I liked DN3D’s graphics a lot more than Quake’s. I didn’t really understand the 3D stuff, it just looked like a bunch of triangles without any detail to me. Meanwhile, DN3D looks very crisp at 800×600.
I understand Quake’s aesthetic better now, but I still have a soft spot for Duke Nukem 3D.
Hmm… I have bought a cannon of some kind. Maybe buy another one then?
Ok, I’ve finally managed to play for a night. I have absolutely no idea what I’m doing, but thanks to rnlf’s excellent guide I was at least able to drive around a bit.
I’ve actually made a bit of a profit trading stuff and I managed to buy a crane which I’ve used for mining.
So, not all bad, but now I’m looking for something to err… well… do, haha. Aren’t there quests and battles of some kind? Haven’t encountered those yet!
An amazing coincidence though, it seems oddly specific. I too thought it would have been made especially for this game.
Good find!
Hey man. I’m sorry, I don’t think we can help you. We’re a club of DOS game enthusiasts. Since EverQuest wasn’t released for MS-DOS, it’s not something we could cover.
This support forum is meant for people who have issues with this website, the podcast or anything else related to our activities.
Good luck getting help elsewhere!
Haha, hax0r!
We’ve just decided we’ll play this game in April! 🙂
Haha, this is a great story! I’m glad you’ve joined us to share this with us.
Can you link your YouTube videos please? I bet everyone would love to see them!
Thanks for this! Can’t wait to check it out, although I fear it will be a bit hard to control for me, since I’m using my laptop’s touchpad D:
I think we’ll have enough people, but feel free to join, toasty! It would be a pleasure to have you 🙂
It would be lovely to have you again, David!
I hope a new member will also want to join. It’s always great to meet new people and hear their insights 🙂
I’ve been trying and retrying the final level forever now. It’s incredibly hard, because all of the other 3 players are attacking only you, not each other.
I’m not saying I’m giving up, but… I’m feeling quite hopeless about this.
So rnlf and I played a multiplayer game yesterday. We had planned for more people to join, but we soon learned… HOMM only supports 2 people playing over IPX 🙁 😀
It went quite well: no real technical issues and I won the game, haha. It took ages though. Even on the smallest map, we easily burnt through the entire evening like it was nothing.
Now apparently HOMM does support 4 people in hot seat mode. Maybe we can set up a VM which we can get into using VNC, like we did with Scorched Earth. The cool benefit of this would be that we could stream that game to Twitch. That could be fun!
Oh yeah, that’s a good point! I don’t think we can easily add/remove players later though, so we can’t just start a game on a whim.
Ok, after struggling somewhat with level 5 and 6, I can tell you level 7 is a walk in the park. I don’t think they’ve tested this particular level much, because I can’t see how it really poses a challenge at all, haha.
Yeah, the difficulty ramps up pretty hard. I hope you can find a breach, David!
Meanwhile, I’m proud to say I’ve managed to beat level 6, whoohoo!
Yeah, that’s exactly it, David. It’s really expensive to get all the warlock buildings + units when you don’t have tons of gold at first.
Yeah, I’m currently playing that very level and it is indeed very challenging. I’m regretting my decision to play with the warlock now.
Good points, dr_st! You’ve clearly spent a lot of time with this game 😀
Yeah, the Barbarian is pretty ace. Those trolls are great as well.
It’s definitely true that the Warlock is hard in the early game. I’m getting quite a beating in the campaign because of this now 🙁
Woah, seriously? There’s a different banner for each colour/class combo? Damn!
Everyone’s a fan \o/
Oooh, nice! Level 3 can actually be quite tricky, depending on how it unfolds. You might think you’re doing well and then one of the AIs suddenly finds the treasure and it’s game over. Good job on beating it!
Yeah, the different objectives are nice, but I think it’s just fighting to the death from here on out though, haha.
I believe there are 8 levels in total, in case you were wondering.
It’s definitely one of those “just one more turn” games where it’s suddenly 4 am and you don’t know what happened 😀
Did you manage to beat level 2?
I did beat level 5 yesterday and I’ve played a little bit of level 6. It’s tough as nails though, so I’ll probably have to restart it a few times to get a good one going. So far I’m just exploring the map, but I’m already getting beaten up quite badly by the other guy, who seems to send strong heroes to my home town right from the start 🙁
If you like the sorceress’ phoenix, you’ll LOVE the warlock’s dragon 😀
Just a few dragons can easily take out 20 paladins like it’s nothing.
By the way – there really is only 1 campaign in the game. The only difference is your starting hero/town, but the maps & goals are the same between all the different lords you choose from the beginning.
I’m trying to beat the campaign using Lord Alamar (the warlock). I’m currently on mission 5 and it’s getting really quite challenging, so I’m not sure I’m actually able to finish the game. But I’m giving it my all!
So cool you’re getting into this while at first you thought you wouldn’t like it. That’s really what the club is about, finding those hidden gems you otherwise would have overlooked! 😀
Now I can tell you, I’ve been playing this game since forever and I’ve got the same experience as you, David. I mostly have 1 or 2 main heroes and some other ones for guarding cities. I’ve grown used to the popup asking whether I’m sure that I want to forfeit some of my movement points, but UX-wise it would be nice to be able to shut it off.
It doesn’t feel like I’m really waiting around a lot though. The flow for me typically is that I explore a lot in the beginning of the game, which is quite interesting. In the meantime, units build up in the towns I’m conquering. Then at some point, some enemies will pop-up and I’ll require reinforcements. What I often do is that I buy a “transport hero” in my most remote town and he will pick up units along the way until he reaches my main hero. He drops off the reinforcements and heads back home, and the main hero can continue his conquest.
After playing some more, I feel I need to add something to this thread: the fact there’s a big difference between an offensive and a defensive army.
When going out into the world, it helps to have an army that’s quick to take out any enemy you might encounter. So flying units are great to block off enemy ranged units for example.
But when defending one of your cities, I feel it’s a better strategy to have strong units that can take quite a beating. It doesn’t matter if they’re slow, because you can’t really go anywhere from your castle anyway.
Some of the units I wrote off initially, such as the dwarves or the hydras, are actually quite useful when defending. When a hole in the wall is created, they can move into the gap and block whatever comes through.
The castle’s archer is quite strong, so just hanging in there can really pay off. If you have a few strong ranged units as well, this is really all you need to effectively protect your town from danger.
Haha, yeah the noise that’s added to the background for “ambience” is very odd indeed. There’s some talk about that subject in the music thread as well.
I really like the idea of reading such a manual in bed by the way!
He’s err… managing the situation.
Yeah, I like HOMM2 the most as well. Some of the graphics are copied over from 1, but they’ve replaced the worst ones with new, crisp, good looking images. And from HOMM2 on, the hero is on the battlefield, instead of that weird tent. What’s up with the tent? Are they carrying the tent at all times? Is that where they sleep?
Yeah, I think they improved this in later editions, where you can recruit all available units more easily.
But to be honest, I rarely have enough money to buy large amounts of units anyway.
I’m talking about a “standard game”, which is the mode I normally play. In campaign mode you can choose your class of course.
Is it me, or is the starting class actually random? Is there a relation with the color you choose? It’s not entirely clear how it works to me.
I’ve played a lot over the past few days. The game is extremely similar to HOMM2 (which I’ve played a lot before), but there are some key differences.
The AI seems to be pretty aggressive and most of the maps allow fairly access to your starting city, which means that leaving it unguarded is quite dangerous. This means you can’t grow too quickly, or you will spread your resources too thin and you’ll end up unable to defend your kingdom.
The battle field is a lot smaller than later games and it’s a bit unclear how the underlying grid works exactly. You just have to move your cursor around and guess where you can go, which is not the greatest UX. I did get used to it however and it works reasonably well.
What’s really different is how magic works. There is no mana and instead the magic towers produce spells each week which your hero can collect when he visits town. So instead of running out of mana, you actually run out of certain spells. This makes me quite hesitant to use magic at all, because depending on a spell means I can’t use that spell in the future. It really becomes more of a last resort for me.
There are no monster upgrades, but there are more monsters types than there are slots, so you have to decide which units to bring along, just like in later games.
All in all this games has all the basic foundation in place on which the later games are based and it all works reasonably well. The game never crashed on me and I didn’t encounter any bugs or anything. It’s not as polished or feature rich as I’m used to, but still very very enjoyable to play!
Wow, you beat the whole thing! Very impressive stuff, Pix 😮
Wow, I had no idea. Pretty cool easter egg!
Ok, I’ll kick this off myself!
I played The Need For Speed recently and it’s surprisingly good!
Wow, great review, Pix! Well done. Congrats on beating the game too!
I agree the game does feel quite flawed, but there’s a certain charm to it as well. And since it’s a one man effort, it’s actually quite an impressive achievement, even though it does feel at times more like a children’s game than anything.
So much for our “spooky October” Halloween game, eh? Haha. Ah well, we might have something scarier next year 😀
Oh he moved to America? I didn’t know, that’s fairly interesting, especially to see it influencing his writing!
It is indeed truly amazing that your far away childhood heroes are just people on Twitter nowadays, haha. I remember sending Al Lowe (who made Leisure Suit Larry, amongst other things, at Sierra On-Line) an e-mail somewhere in the late 90s / early 00s and HE ACTUALLY SENT ME A REPLY! I’m still a bit psyched 😀
Is it just me or are the levels quite disorientating? I feel lost most of the time, haha. Having the minimap helps, but sadly you can’t have it on all the time. Which is in itself an interesting mechanic I suppose. Quite novel, I don’t think I’ve seen “temporary map” as a feature in other games.
I’ve managed to reach level 3 so far and found the magic wand. I’m not particularly into shooters, so I’m playing on easy, which I suppose removes a lot of what the game is actually about. But I’m having quite a good time nonetheless and I can’t wait to beat the episode!
It’s only because you guys talked about the “garden” area that I recognised it as such by the way, hahaha.
Hey, I did it \o/
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Yeah, rnlf also mentioned on IRC that the side-scrolling thing is a very significant step forward for DOS.
I never realised at the time that this is very different from how for example Prince of Persia or Another World/Out of this World work. To me, all these games played very similar and by comparison, Commander Keen definitely isn’t the best looking one.
I never was a big fan of the platformer genre in general, but thinking about it for a moment, I did play more DOS platformers than I thought I did. Apart from the already mentioned Prince of Persia and Another World, I especially enjoyed Blizzard’s Blackthorne, Jazz Jackrabbit and the Disney platformers (Aladdin and The Lion King). Those games can compete with the best console platformers imho, but of course they were released years later than Keen.
So even though Keen might not make the best first impression compared to contemporary games in the same genre, it did pave the way for scrolling DOS games. We have to respect that I suppose, haha.
It’s really amazing to realise they’ve worked on this game only for 3 months or so (I believe) and STILL found the time to include this stuff 😀
I think that style of puzzly level design is known as “metroidvania” nowadays? I don’t know that much about platformers, but maybe Keen is too cheery to be considered one of those?
Either way, yeah I noticed it’s less straight-forward to find the exit than in for example Mario games. The whole keycard thing was later repeated in Wolfenstein and Doom. It’s funny to think that basically Wolfenstein is a 3D Keen, sort of 😀
Ooooh, this is cool stuff! Thanks for sharing. Doesn’t Fez have something like this as well?
Holy shit, wan! I’m very much impressed 😀
Wow, I’m impressed with how quickly you managed to beat it!
Congrats, you’re a hero now 😀
Man, you are making some *excellent* progress! I think you’ve got all the spells there are in the game now. And you beat one of the main quests! Way to go! You’re rich 😀
So… any idea what’s next? I advise you to visit the bar in the town and have a good look near the stool. That might trigger a sequence of events that will bring you further along 🙂
Also, I have no idea about that centaur. Completely useless if you ask me, haha.
Oh yeah, that reminds me: there’s a super nice remake of Quest for Glory 2 made by fans that’s really worth checking out. You can get it completely for free and it’s super impressive. Also fully compatible with the character import/export stuff, which is pretty impressive if you ask me.
http://www.agdinteractive.com/games/qfg2/
The same people made a King’s Quest 3 remake which I’ve also massively enjoyed. Really top notch stuff!
Awesome progress, dude!
By the way: you can empty a bottle that’s filled with potion by typing “drink [type] potion”. But I don’t think you can drink the water, weirdly.
I think focusing on the wizard’s game first is a good idea. There are actually two places where you can get the trigger spell. If you want a hint, let me know, I don’t want to spoil it for you. It’s not very hard once you know it, but that’s always the case isn’t it 😀
As for the quests… I think it’s probably best to focus on the ogre first? It’s really mainly a matter of leveling up your skills and you’ll be able to make more progress with him. Although there is an alternative to attacking him, which requires yet another spell you don’t have at this point. It’s not for sale, but you can find it somewhere in the forest. I would advise you to check out the important areas and do some searching around, I’m sure you can find it 🙂
Hey, super cool you’ve decided to join us, Pix! Thanks for sharing your thoughts, it’s really nice you’ve touched on all of the DOS games in the series!
It would be great having you on the podcast, is that something you would be interested in?
Also, congrats for getting the entire world mapped!
Wow, is that Excel? 😀
Sounds like a very successful first day!
I love that you found the meeps and the Dryad 😀 There are so many cool characters in this game, it’s nuts!
I’m personally torn between the Magic User and the Thief. It’s not that I don’t like the Fighter, but I think he’s a bit… boring? He’s very strong, he solves problems by force and while there’s nothing wrong with that, it lacks a bit of cunning I personally prefer.
Choosing the Thief gives you a lock pick at the beginning of the game, which can be quite useful. The Magic User starts with the Zap spell, which is… not that great a spell to be honest 😀
So for QfG I would probably prefer a Thief with magic abilities over a Magic User with thieving skills. But during later games in the series, you can get some special spells if you are a Magic User, so if you want to play the entire series with the same character, picking this class might be interesting.
What I’ve also noticed is that the VGA version is more glitchy. There are weird bugs with the colours and sometimes characters get stuck.
I haven’t noticed a lot of bugs in the EGA version on the other hand!
Oooh, that’s interesting, d4rk0men! Care to share what the bug is? Is it about getting into the brigands base?
And if you’re a magic user (or have magic abilities) it’s highly advisable to invest in some spells early on. They are your main way to solve problems. Without them you might as well be a filthy non-magic user! 😀
Another thing I just remembered that really helps: draw a map of the world as you explore it! It’s really useful later on to be able to travel in an efficient way. It’s also useful to know where to go when you’re in danger and need a safe spot to come to your senses.
And let’s be honest, it’s also loads of fun to draw maps on paper 😀
In which screen is this occurring? The registration screen? The edit profile screen?
Haha, I think this is a typical first impression at this game, toasty 😀
It’s definitely a good idea to save often. That’s a thing in most Sierra games and QfG is no exception.
I think picking a magical thief is definitely one of the most interesting ways to play the game.
I’m currently playing the EGA version with a magic user character who has some thieving abilities, which is sort of the same thing 😀
I greatly approve of this suggestion 😀
Hi Marco! No problem 🙂 I’ll see if I can put it under the right track.
Cool that you’re joining us!
I think the AI is terrible as well. We need multiplayer asap 😀
It ran a little slow for my by default, but when I removed the cycle limit, it seems to run fine 🙂
Yeah, this is a great suggestion! I’ve played it a few times, but never really got into it seriously. So now is the chance to make up for that 😀
I’ve heard of this game, but never actually played it. I’d love to check it out!
Hahaha, great first thread, wan 😀
I don’t think so, kdrnic. As long as the fire response is adequate, it’s ok, right?
Sorry for the delay! I’ve just taken my turn and left Dossington with a bright looking future!
1940
—-
Mayor Tijn is dedicated to making Dossington “a more liveable city”, as was promised during his campaign. In order to realise this, action is immediately undertaken:* The fire department is reorganised to run more efficiently, saving 50% of its budget for better uses.
* An anti-drug campaign is started to help the kids of Dossington reach their potential.
* Pollution controls are mandated, so the citizens of Dossington can breathe freely.
* Taxes are increased by 1% across the board to fix the city’s empty treasury.1941
—-
* A police station is built near the bridge between Stinky and Riverside
* A fire station and hospital are built in Windy Bottom
* There is an on-going lack of power in Dossington, but the funds are lacking to fix this issue properly. Because the city generates enough income, a $10,000 bond is issued at 6% to make sure the necessary developments can be implemented for the benefit of all citizens.
* The funds are used to build a significant number of hydro plants, providing cheap, clean and durable energy for the city.
* A grade school is built in Hillview1942
—-
* A great number of water pumps are built near the Micropolis lake. Both the electrical and water issues of Dossington are hereby sorted for years to come.
* To meet the great demand for housing, additional residential zones are placed in Windy Bottom1943
—-
* As demand for housing remains high, it’s clear the city needs to expand. Beyond the Windy Tops & Bottom area is suitable area, but it’s hard to reach because of the hills in between. An ambitious project is started to build a tunnel that allows to access the area beyond the hills, to allow future development and expansion of the city.1944
—-
* A glorious tunnel is built to allow “Grand Valley” to be developed into the expansion the city so desperately need!Population: 24050
Treasury: $656
Yearly income: $1185
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Very nice!
I’ll pick it up next, if that’s ok.
Wow, nice find!
Hahaha, this is going well. I love these reports 😀
Ooooh, this is a good challenge! I’m already beyond 2017 in my current game I think, but I’ll start a new one for this 🙂
I’ve tried several games on “medium”, but found it was hard to get good momentum.
Since then I’ve tried 2 games on “easy” that were both very successful, so I suppose there is a real difference between the two modes.
I’m not trying “hard” until I’m comfortable with “medium”, haha 😀
\o/
Ok, I just learned how to fight fires… the hard way ;_;
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A flood has struck Tijn City D:
What do I do?!
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Cool site, Andries!
Oh no, I made rnlf’s mistake too D: I thought the game started in 1911 so I had to play until 1915, but I started in 1910, so I played for 6 years by accident :'(
I’m sorry!
Here’s a report of what happened:
1910:
—–
* In response to the high demand of industrial zoning, a new industrial area will be created across the river. It will be known as: “Riverside Modern Industry”* The lake in the middle of the new industrial area will be redesigned in order to use the land area more efficiently
* Riverside project phase 1: building a bridge across the river and laying a ring road
* To finance this project, Industry and Commerce taxation will be increased by 1% (to 7% and 8% respectively)
* A small park is built between Stinky Place Industrial and Old Town
1911:
—–
* Phase 2 of the Riverside Modern Industry project is initialised: water pipes & electricity lines are put into place* Because of the lasting demand in Commerce, a 1% Sales Tax is introduced to help finance further development in this type of zoning in the future
* An unfortunate water shortage is reported
1912:
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* To combat the water shortage, 3 new water pumps have been built. After inspecting the water network, it turned out an area in Hillside was not connected to the water network, a serious oversight of previous administrations. Mayor Tijn has restored the network, which was likely the cause of the shortage.* Riverside project phase 3: industrial zoning of the new area is underway, despite significant funds having been used for the redundant water pumps instead.
1913:
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* The Riverside Modern Industrial project is completed* Additional industry zones are assigned in Hillside
* In response to rising demand in Residential zones, additional space for housing is designated between the Old Town & Hillview area
1914:
—–
* The new Residential zone between Old Town & Hillview is finalised* At the people’s request, a small park is added to the new residential zone as well
* Commercial & Industrial taxation is lowered by 1% to respectively 7% and 6% to allow growth in these areas
1915:
—–
* The new Residential zone is slightly expanded. Also a City Hall and Mayor’s House are added to the area* To keep the crime rate low, a Neighbourhood Watch Program is instated
* A 1% Income Tax is implemented to pay for the additional services the city is providing
End of 1915 status:
——————-
Population: 12,220
Treasury: $1,624
Yearly income: $716
Projected income for 1916: $762Sorry again for governing an extra year!
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YES! The same game works, guys 🙂 I’m off being a mayor for 5 years now B-)
This is very nice!
I’ll try to take over tonight and bring Dossington into the next decade.
Awesome job, rnlf! I wonder who dares to be the next mayor 😀
I think it’s fine if the level 5 times are pushed down to be honest. If a level 3 time is faster, it’s only fair it’s placed above a level 5 time.
The level is still mentioned with each entry, so if you’re interested in the best level 5 times, you can look them up, right?
Haha, nice!
I felt inspired by Andries as well, that’s when I decided to try Britain again in the Ferrari and managed a #1 time. But you’ve already broken it, so it’s back to the cockpit for me 😀
This looks nothing short of amazing 😀
I held #1 in Japan for a while, after I had done a quick lap in a Ferrari, but toasty managed to beat me in a McLaren.
I recorded a video of my attempt to retake the #1 position 😀 Here it is:
I just realised the other day that the spinning out mechanic of GPC is one of the things that makes this game kinda cool. I understand the feedback isn’t really there, so you can’t tell when it will happen, which doesn’t make it a great simulation game. But it does provide a nice upper limit to prevent going max speed into a corner. It is precisely because it’s kind of hard to predict, that it makes the game quite exciting.
Especially in the McLaren, if you’re pushing for good lap times, over trying to overtake another car before a corner, being scared of spinning out is what provides the thrill, I feel 😀
Oooh, I remember looking at the box of this game in the store. I never played it though, as I never ended up buying it.
I would love to check it out now!
Haha 😀
Well first of all, maybe we as drivers are at fault? Hm? But yeah, it does seem that the Ferrari allows for a fairly quick lap time to be set relatively easily. Possibly because of the superior handling, even a novice can get it ’round the track without too much trouble.
Doing the same thing in a McLaren or Williams takes more effort, but once you succeed, chances are the times will be quicker because of their higher speeds.
Maybe that explains it?
I don’t think the Ferrari is the worst car exactly. Especially for racing against the AI, I quite like it for its ability to overtake around corners. But maybe it’s not the best for setting quick lap times, even on the bendy streets of Monaco or Detroit.
That being said, the scoreboard is just a snapshot of course. Maybe tomorrow Ferrari will be at #1 everywhere!
As for me, the game is pretty much how I remember it from back when I played it as a kid. The game is rather basic, but offers just enough variety to keep you busy for a while. Main difference between now and back then, is that I always used to play on the easiest difficulty, where as now it’s quite the opposite and I’m always playing on level 5. I suppose these 25 years weren’t for nothing, as I’ve acquired some racing skills which I was lacking back then, hehe 😛
At first I was enjoying doing championships quite a bit. It’s not that easy to get yourself through qualifying and a race without hurting yourself, so that’s a nice challenge. Winning a championship doesn’t mean you have to win all races. In fact, you don’t have to win any races, as long as you score more points than anyone else in the end. Combined with the save/load feature, it’s quite doable, even though it can be quite challenging at first to make sure you don’t crash out, because a single contact with another car will mean the end of the race.
After a while, you start to notice however that the AI isn’t actually that good. Once you know a track by heart, it’s not that hard to get a pole position. And once you start on the first row of the grid, a race win is almost guaranteed. So after a while, racing the AI gets old and loses its appeal, because the fun (at least to me) is mostly in overtaking, which doesn’t happen if you’re at the front 😀
I feel the scoreboard does give the game a lot of extra replayability though, because now you’re not competing against dumb AIs, but against real humans. There aren’t a lot of things I enjoy as much in gaming as it is racing against other people. Even though we are only doing time trials (sadly GPC has no multiplayer racing features), beating someone’s time still feels much more exciting to me than winning from any AI.
My main complaint now is that I wish the game would give me better access to the built-in scoreboard. It only seems to appear after a session, but there’s no way to access it directly?
Otherwise GPC seems to be a pretty solid racer, especially for the time. Of course the format has since been massively improved upon, and I must say I enjoy some other racing games from that era such as Test Drive II quite a bit more, but still. To me, the few things that GPC offers are well done and still quite enjoyable.
Yeah, I don’t know. But I do remember all computers still had 5.25″ disk drives all the way into the 90s, at least the ones I had access to. So I suppose shipping a game on 5.25″ was fine for everyone?
It also offers the same 3.5″ disk ‘upgrade’ for $5. Seems to be a thing Accolade offers more often?
Oooh, those design rules are cool, dr_st. Thanks for sharing!
I just did 5 laps on Italy in the Williams and the engine was fine. Weird!
I have trouble getting it above 10k revs in 6th gear. When it’s in 5th and approaching the red zone at about 12k, I shift up and it falls back to about 9k RPM. Then it climbs up super slowly to about 10k and then I’m at a corner where I lose speed.
This is a very good suggestion.
rnlf, if you’re working on the CSS, would you mind adding this line as well to the body section?
“-webkit-font-smoothing: antialiased;”
This makes the font less blurry on Webkit browsers on the Mac 🙂
This is super cool! This is very content for the podcast too 🙂
Haha, yeah the McLaren has the best straight-line speed, so it works well for high speed circuits such as Italy and Germany. But for more bendy circuits such as Monaco or Detroit, the Ferrari performs much better because it can maintain a higher speed around the corners.
I’ve just set the best time for Canada in a Williams, but I don’t know if that time can’t be beaten in a McLaren. I’m not very impressed by the Williams so far 😛
I’ll do that! I’ll use the Williams and post my best times regardless 🙂
I’ll have to try the Williams more to say something sensible about it. I never pick it because for each track, I’m trying to guess if I need straight line speed or cornering ability. And in my mind, the Williams offers neither really 😀
Yeah, compared to modern standards, GPC isn’t very impressive of course.
But given all the limitations, I think it’s a surprisingly fun game! That’s what it is though, a game. Not a racing simulator.
I don’t remember this ever happening to me. But to be honest, I almost never pick the Williams anyway 😀
It’s pretty realistic though. Ok, 7 seconds is a lot, but in real F1 there are huge differences on tracks like Monza, because some cars are tuned for straight line speed and others for cornering. It’s hard to achieve both when designing a racing car, because they sort of oppose each other.
I don’t think Italy is the only track where McLaren has a clear advantage. Germany and Canada come to mind, they’re also both high-speed circuits just like Italy.
To win the championship, you don’t have to win each race. You don’t even have to win a single race 🙂
Ok, turns out keeping a scoreboard on a forum doesn’t really work.
So I’ve made a thing. Lo and behold: the official DOS Game Club Grand Prix Circuit Scoreboard!
It’s at: https://www.dosgameclub.com/grandprixcircuit.php
I’ve posted my 2 best times for Brazil & Monaco (I have screenshots as proof). I’ll post more times as I get them. I hope you guys will too!
This is a great suggestion! I think I’ve heard of it, but never actually played it. Can’t wait to check it out 😀
Those are best lap times from practice 🙂
Great suggestion! I’ve never really played these games. I remember other kids being really into them, but I never really understood the appeal. All the more reason to revisit it now!
SILVERSTONE (difficulty: 5)
———————————
Tijn – McLaren – 01m12.8sBRAZIL (difficulty: 5)
——————
Tijn – Ferrari – 01m24.2s
Tijn – McLaren – 01m26.2sYeah, the game is surprisingly hard to get into (on the highest difficulty level at least) because it’s quite unforgiving. As you say, touching someone else or over-revving for a short while will mean the end if your race immediately.
But now that I’ve been playing for a while, I’m getting quite used to it. The key is concentration, I think. If you play the game casually while not paying attention, it’s very easy to make a mistake. But if you really focus, it’s actually quite doable 🙂
Also the fact you can freely save/load during a championship is a massive help. And of course you don’t have to win all races in the season to end up on top, so all in all it’s not as hard as you might think it is at first.
I think lap times per circuit would be the most interesting thing to compare.
There’s also the total amount of points in the championship, but as you can save/load as you please, getting the maximum number of points in a season is easier than you might think.
So all in all, despite it being the slowest on paper, I really like driving the Ferrari.
I’ve managed to get pretty good lap times with the Ferrari, and I think the handling also enables overtaking around corners more doable.
The McLaren is my 2nd choice, as the speed is simply unmatched.
To me, the Williams is the least interesting car available. I wouldn’t know why I would pick that one over either the Ferrari or the McLaren 😀
I played some SimCity 2000 yesterday to test the waters. Kept me occupied for over an hour. Man, that game is so good, haha.
Oh yeah, this is a great suggestion! I played it extensively back in the day, but I don’t know if I ever finished it properly. I do remember moving to lots of cities, so maybe I did? But it was great fun nonetheless and I would love to play it again!
I would like to play it in 3Dfx / Glide mode if that’s possible. But maybe software rendering isn’t as bad as I remember it, haha.
Ooooh, I’m impressed! I’m still stuck at Episode 2, and really struggling at Ultra-Violence difficulty. One setting lower is a lot more manageable for me, so maybe I’ll finish it like that.
But you’re using the mouse! I’ll just have to hold onto that to not feel like a failure 😀
Ok, we managed a successful multiplayer session yesterday with sorceress, toasty, dollarone and myself \o/
We played the first level of the first episode and despite notable difficulties it was actually quite fun! And congrats to sorceress for winning the game, with 11 frags 😀
The problem with this though, as kdrnic pointed out on IRC, is that Doom is not intended to played over the internet at all. It synchronises the game on each frame and waits until it’s full synced before moving on to the next frame. That means the framerate is effectively equal to the highest ping between any two players. As you can imagine, with members spanning across the globe, this leads to a less than ideal experience.
Nonetheless we got it to work and despite everything, it was also pretty fun. I had a big smile on my face the whole time, so well done everyone!
Haha. Sure, let’s just get it out of the way 😛
Man, that was… not great, haha.
Let’s try again tomorrow.
Yeah, DOS shareware is awesome 😀 I remember these discs that came with magazines as well, some of them contained dozens of games. Just trying each one was a fun activity in itself.
And wow, that version of Lode Runner looks a lot better than the version I used to play!
Yeah, I’m with you there, sorceress. Episode 1 really got me hooked, but Episode 2 doesn’t do so much for me.
It’s just room after room, killing more and more monsters. And since there’s no story either, there’s really not a lot making me want to progress.
I’m a bit sad about it, because I was really into Episode 1.
One feature that makes Street Rod a really great game is the fact you don’t simply click “upgrade” if you want a better engine or gear box, you actually have to open the right part of the car, disconnect the cables, unscrew the screws, remove the old parts and put the new parts in.
This is a bit of work (and you better make sure the new parts fit your car!), which makes for great immersion. You really feel like a skilled mechanic once you’ve mastered this stuff 😀
Here’s a screenshot of the game, in this case showing a city production screen, with in the background the map on which the game is played.
Oooh, I’m all for this! I love C&C. After having played Dune II, the automatic resource gathering felt like such a step in the right direction. And the FMVs in between the missions are epic as well.
I think there are a lot of Warcraft fans as well though. Especially Warcraft II was a very good RTS game and released around the same time as C&C was released.
I’m not aware of a lot of other DOS RTSes to be honest, outside of these two series I mean. I think “Z” is one, but I’ve never played it. Other notable series, such as StarCraft, Total Annihilation or Age of Empires were all released for Windows, not for DOS.
If anyone knows an obscure, but good RTS game for DOS, I’m very much interested!
Ha, pretty novel having separate strafe keys, sorceress 😀
I had my own control scheme for a while as well, but not for the likes of Doom, where I thought the default controls were fine.
When I first started to play mouse-based FPSes however, I didn’t feel comfortable with WASD and instead desired the ability to control my character full with my right hand. So I mapped the right mouse button to walking forward, so I could walk, shoot & turn all with the mouse. I then used various keys on the keyboard for strafing left/right, jumping, walking backwards and other things.
I played at least 2 or 3 games like this before I caved and finally accepted WASD, haha.
> It seems counterintuitive to make the game easier in later playthroughs, but it also allows to pass the earlier parts of a game quicker so that you can reach the missions you haven’t played yet with less wasted time on areas you already know very well. I wonder if this is intended as a method to compensate for the lack of saving one’s game.
Well, as you’ve probably figured out by now, you can actually save your game in Doom. Haha.
But it’s an interesting point nonetheless! I do wonder as well if it was intentionally designed like this, but nevertheless it does have the effect you describe. New players aren’t held back by the lack of secrets found, so it’s pretty cool all in all!
So the backstory actually makes sort of sense. You’re on this remote research base where some experiment went haywire and now a portal opened and demons are pouring out.
So far, so good.
But what’s up with the evil soldiers then? Why are they the enemy? Aren’t they the good guys? Are they possessed by the demons? They look pretty much like normal humans, don’t they?
Yeah, an overarching story seems to be way more important in more modern games than it is in Doom.
I’m only realising this now, but I suppose the type of game that Doom is developed into more multiplayer-focused games (Quake, Unreal Tournament, Counterstrike, Overwatch). These games have more in common with Doom I feel than titles with a big single player campaign such as Half-Life or Bioshock or Far Cry.
I think Doom was somewhat popular to play over LAN at the time, but I’m not sure how feasible online multiplayer was back in 1993. Does Doom even support multiplayer over modem or something?
Wow, that link. That’s really cool! I had no idea. This is what you get from always playing pirated copies I suppose, haha.
So the backstory to Doom actually exists and it’s also remarkably detailed! Although it wasn’t uncommon in those days to include loads of backstory to the manual, it’s still a bit surprising they thought about all this stuff and then basically… put none of it in the game itself, lol.
For me personally, playing Doom feels a lot more fun than I thought it would be. I did play some Doom back in the day, but after having played *a lot* of Wolfenstein 3D it felt kinda the same to me at the time. I also didn’t like the darker atmosphere as much, so I never really got into it.
I’ve never really revisited the game since then, although being such a classic title, it does come up from time to time in discussions and articles and whatnot. I’ve always felt a bit “meh” about the original Doom because it didn’t click with me right away when it came out.
So to much of my surprise, playing it now for DOS Game Club, I was actually having loads of fun with it! I don’t mind the darkness as much now for some reason. It’s not as scary to me as an adult, maybe that’s part of why I’m enjoying it more.
I can also appreciate the level design and flow of the game more than I could back then. I sailed through the first few levels of the first episode quite smoothly and felt the urge to keep playing, so that’s pretty good I suppose! I hope the difficulty will ramp up somewhat in later levels, but I’m sure being an oldschool game that will be no problem. And there’s always the difficulty setting which I can increase of course.
Imagine that, Doom is actually pretty cool. Who knew? I didn’t 😀
