DOS Nostalgia

‘Leisure Suit Larry (VGA)’ review

Anatoly — Thu, 08 Jul 2010 03:13:14 +0000

One of the most known adventure gaming characters is a middle-aged balding traveling software salesman in a leisure suit. Yep. From Al Lowe comes an instant classic in this upgraded version with colorful graphics and great sound & music. Oh, and with a zipper icon in your interface. You know it’s gonna be good.

MobyGames page:
http://www.mobygames.com/game/leisure…

Al Lowe’s website:
http://www.allowe.com/

‘Quake’ review

Anatoly — Thu, 21 May 2009 17:06:45 +0000

More polygons than gamers ever saw in their whole life up until that point, but still not quite enough of them, in this 1996 id Software’s creation, along with 3D BSPs, lightmaps and a whole bunch of low resolution brownish textures. Thousands of internet multiplayer servers and total conversions followed the release. Two official mission packs and three sequels later the game still lives on.

Moby Games page: http://www.mobygames.com/game/dos/quake

The game is available pretty much everywhere, including id Software’s own website: http://www.idsoftware.com/games/quake/quake/

An apologetic vlog

Anatoly — Thu, 16 Apr 2009 21:52:27 +0000

I apologize for the lack of updates. Here’s something to waste 8 minutes on – me talking random stuff. Updates are coming as soon as I sort a few things out.

‘Another World’ aka ‘Out of This World’ review

Anatoly — Fri, 27 Mar 2009 04:09:10 +0000

A creation of Eric Chahi (who did everything but the music for the game), Another World is a game that aged exceptionally well. No HUD, no speech, no useless text, just the good old visual storytelling in this groundbreaking action adventure. Be prepared to die a lot and then cry for more when the game is over.

Moby Games page:
http://www.mobygames.com/game/dos/out-of-this-world

If you don’t own this game already get the the 15th anniversary edition here:
http://www.anotherworld.fr/anotherworld_uk/
It features slightly updated graphics, high resolution support and is even more balanced then the PC DOS version (which used to be the definitive one). It’s only $9 people! Less than two Burger King meals.

Not many people know that the game had a ‘sequel’ of sorts, ‘Heart of the Alien’ which was released on Sega CD only. Eric Chahi wasn’t directly involved apart from approving some concepts. The game is not as good as ‘Another World’ and is quite frustrating, but it has a great intro showing your alien buddy and what he was doing when you were separated in the original game. It’s worth checking out if you’re a fan of the original.

UPDATE:
I was reminded that Eric Chai developed one more game after AW, and that was ‘Heart of Darkness’ for Windows and PSX. Moby Games page here:
http://www.mobygames.com/game/windows/heart-of-darkness
The game is very similar to ‘Another World’ and looks like it should have been released in ’92. But even in 320×240 resolution the spite animations are fantastic and the overall game design is superb.

‘Castle Wolfenstein’ review

Anatoly — Sat, 14 Mar 2009 03:18:22 +0000

The game that came out before I was even born. A prisoner is trying to escape from the nazi fortress in this classic game that arguably started the whole ‘stealth’ genre, Castle Wolfenstein. A quality pc-booter title which was light years ahead of its time.

Mobygames page:
Castle Wolfenstein:
http://www.mobygames.com/game/dos/castle-wolfenstein

Beyond Castle Wolfenstein:
http://www.mobygames.com/game/pc-booter/beyond-castle-wolfenstein

‘Manhunter: New York’ review

Anatoly — Thu, 05 Mar 2009 21:17:56 +0000

A dark and twisted adventure from the early days of Sierra On-Line. Aliens, corpses, mazes and plenty of arcade sequences in this little known, but still kind of charming game. Bring a pen, some paper and a lot of patience.

Mobygames links:
Manhunter: New York – http://www.mobygames.com/game/dos/manhunter-new-york
Manhunter 2: San Francisco – http://www.mobygames.com/game/dos/manhunter-2-san-francisco

The Murry family company “Evryware” – http://www.evryware.com

‘Loom’ review

Anatoly — Fri, 27 Feb 2009 00:01:46 +0000

An adventure with a twist and probably the most underrated LucasArts game. Music, magic, a whole bunch of swans and absolutely no inventory in this 1990 EGA gem. Tchaikovsky is probably spinning in his grave, but who cares? This short and sweet interactive story will help you relax and kill an hour or so.

Mobygames page: http://www.mobygames.com/game/dos/loom

The ‘best’ version of this game is probably on the FM Towns computer. This version has 256-color graphics, but no speech and has all of the graphics (close ups) and dialog from the EGA version intact as well as properly recorded music.

‘Fantastic Dizzy’ Review

Anatoly — Thu, 19 Feb 2009 22:40:03 +0000

A 7th entry in Codemasters’ Dizzy series, the game is largerly unknown outside Europe. The cult 8-bit egg-like hero returns in his 16-bit outing.

MobyGames page: http://www.mobygames.com/game/nes/fantastic-adventures-of-dizzy

Visit http://www.yolkfolk.com

PS
I might add that my preferred version of the game is actually on the NES (I had the first, non-Alladin version), and that graphics are slightly better in the MEgaDrive (Genesis) version.

‘Alley Cat’ review

Anatoly — Thu, 12 Feb 2009 22:45:01 +0000

A classic IBM PC title, full of cuteness and charm with all of the attributes of the games of the time (such as CGA graphics and a tiny executable). Provided me with hours of fun when I was a little kid.

MobyGames page: http://www.mobygames.com/game/pc-booter/alley-cat

Alley Cat? Maybe not…

Anatoly — Thu, 05 Feb 2009 22:39:01 +0000

Just added a quick list of links. Doesn’t look too hot, but at least it’s something. Take a look, it’s in “pages” right there on the left.

After working on “Alley Cat” episdode for a few hours I’ve realized that I shouldn’t have picked a game with so much stuff in it as my first review! I mean, I picked because it was a tiny little game, but now that I look on the footage that I’ve recorded four months ago I see how much of stuff is going on in this game. It’s just a pain in the ass to edit! Of course there’s always a fallback like “Arcade Volleyball”, but I really don’t want to do that.

Anyway, there’s no way I’m going to finish the first episdoe tonight. So yeah… But don’t despair! Now that I’ve finally started on this I’m getting more and more excited and that means that something is finally going to happen. Stay tuned for some videos in the immediate future.