Every now and again, you may feel the need for a little online video game nostalgia. Some people play Hearts or Bridge, but for others, it’s an online bingo site like onlinebingo.com that takes you back to the old days.

Bingo, for its age, remains an immensely popular game in the US and Canada. But beyond church basements and firehouses, online bingo parlors have sprung up all over the Internet.

It’s amazing how excited people still get when they fill up their line, or card, or letter X and yell “Bingo!” winning a prize (or even cash in some places). The sheer nostalgia of Bingo doesn’t go away, and young and old remain hooked, collecting blotter markets and marking their cards when each letter-number combination is read aloud.

Bingo also reminds people of family and childhood. The game can be shared between grandchildren and grandparents, and it offers a distraction to keep sibling minds focused on one thing for a little while. Head on over to your local Bingo parlor or check out one of the many online bingo sites to get reacquainted with the game. You might even win a little something.

What do you know about J Edgar Hoover? Most responses to this question –or so my guess goes— would be:

1. He was the director of the Federal Bureau of Investigation (the FBI).
2. He was a cross dresser and closeted homosexual.
3. There’s a movie in theaters about him directed by Clint Eastwood and starring Leonardo DiCaprio.

It’s not my purpose here to review the current Hoover movie. I have not yet seen it, and a fine review of J Edgar (the Eastwood film) can be found in Blast Magazine here. But when I saw the trailers for J Edgar and heard some of the buzz about it, I immediately wondered if other biopics about Hoover had been made.

Hoover has appeared as a minor character in dozens of films and television shows. As for films that focus solely on Hoover, there was a feature made about him in the late 1970s called “The Private Files of J Edgar Hoover” but it is unavailable on DVD. The other film about J Edgar Hoover that was available is from 2000. It stars the legendary Ernest Borgnine and is titled, simply, “Hoover.”

I’m glad I chose the latter for this ‘retro review,’ because it takes a different tack than one would expect to detail his directorship of the Bureau over the course of 50 years. Hoover is a 90-minute one man show in which Hoover/Borgnine addresses an unseen audience from a simple stage that is decorated to appear to be his office. A faded American flag is the backdrop and only adornment aside from several Greek-style columns and Hoover’s office furniture.

The film moves between Hoover’s monologues to the audience, feigned conversations he’s had with others, and clips of a real life interview from a deputy of his, Cartha D. Deloach. The cutaways to Deloach add an air of documentary authenticity, though in truth they are almost wholly redundant: Deloach simply repeats what Borgnine’s Hoover has just said. I think the conceit is to give credulity to Hoover’s monologues, to let us know that this is not something a writer or director has concocted. But they don’t add much else, other than bumping up what would be a sixty minute film to ninety minutes.

The casting of Borgnine as Hoover is a wonderful choice. Not only does he bear some resemblance to Hoover (at least in terms of body type), but he also plays the part magnificently.

What’s refreshing as a whole about Hoover is its unabashed patriotism. The other recent one-act play/movie about a famous figure, Will Ferrell’s “You’re Welcome America: A Final Night With George W. Bush,” is too easily savage and snooty but not surprising: the artistic class simply knows George W Bush was a never-grown-up frat boy with an objectionable worldview and dangerous religious tendencies. One might expect similar fare for a stodgy and conservative figure like J Edgar Hoover. Not so in Hoover. Instead of a cheap takedown of the man, this film is an unapologetic defense of him, an explanation of and a compelling rationalization for some of his most famous actions and decisions. I might, however, concede, that Hoover does go too far in its defense of the man—as the movie veers quite close to a hagiography if little else.

More importantly, Hoover’s mission is to dispel myths about the Bureau Director, which brings us back to our list of popular conceptions of J Edgar Hoover. Number two on our list — which is widely believed to be true — is that Hoover wore women’s clothing and had a secret homosexual life. Hoover opens with a complete repudiation of this myth and takes to task the ‘tabloid culture’ of the media and society which baked up this, in his words, fabrication. Hoover’s reputed penchant for women’s clothes and homosexual behavior, in my limited research on the topic, does seem to be based wholly on conjecture and unreliable testimony. It’s titillating and what his enemies and detractors would like to believe, but I don’t see any conclusive proof of it.

J Edgar Hoover was almost certainly an annoyingly puritanical and boring man. He’s the kind of person you respect and want on your side but probably wouldn’t enjoy being around much on a Saturday night (unless bridge and The Lawrence Welk Show are your things). Hoover doesn’t offer much balance, but it’s convincingly pulled off and an interesting cinematic alternative –if you are looking for one—about the life of one of the most influential Americans of the 20th century.

Many of us romanticize our youth. Those trips to the lake in the summer. The wonder and joy of air travel. But then you return to the lake twenty years later and see that it’s only a pond, with an algae problem to boot. Flying is no longer fun but an uncomfortable, anxiety-producing experience.

The same thing can happen with movies from our youth. We cherish the memory of the thing, but as an adult there’s simply no luster. I put this kind of romanticism to the test recently when I happened upon The Dark Crystal in my local video store (yes, I still use these on occasion).

It’s a funny coincidence that I stumbled upon this movie the same week the new Muppet Movie hit theaters, for The Dark Crystal is a Jim Henson production, but in this story Kermit and Miss Piggy wouldn’t last two seconds. The Dark Crystal tells the tale of a foreign world where Jen, a “gelfling,” must find an ancient crystal shard and reinsert it into the “dark crystal” to make his world whole and peaceful again.

The Dark Crystal was filed in the ‘family’ section, which seemed to make sense as I would have been nine when it was released in 1982, but the movie was surprisingly macabre and scary and I’m not sure most contemporary parents would let youngsters watch this.

Regardless, The Dark Crystal does manage to withhold adult scrutiny…somewhat. I say somewhat because there are a few plot elements that are hard to believe from an adult’s perspective, but if audiences can look past the things that don’t make sense in Avatar –one of the most successful movies ever—then the lapses in The Dark Crystal are hardly worth pondering.

Though I don’t know for sure, I imagine Jim Henson and company must have been influenced by Tolkien. There are too many parallels between The Dark Crystal and The Lord of the Rings to ignore, and it’s impossible to ignore that JK Rowling may have in turn been influenced by The Dark Crystal and other similar tales. Jen is an elf-like orphan whose family was destroyed by an evil force which he must confront. Jen must travel from his safe and tranquil village through dangerous lands and take a sacred object into the heart of darkness. Sound familiar?

Though some of the elements in the movie might only be scary to a child’s eye and mind, the evil creatures in The Dark Crystal, ‘the Skekses, a vulturish-loooking race, are beyond creepy no matter what your age.

And the truly amazing thing about this movie, something you cannot appreciate when you are young, is the artistry behind the special effects. Today, CGI makes it easy to create a fantasy or sci-fi world, but no such technology was available in 1982. The Dark Crystal’s use of puppetry is simply incredible.

Some say that CGI makes possible filmmaking few could have dreamed of decades ago (and this may be true), but it can also be argued that storytelling has suffered due to computer graphics. It’s as if filmmaking, in certain instances, has so come to rely on CGI that the effect or the visual has supplanted the story. You have to marvel at what went in to making The Dark Crystal, but there is a real harmony between the technology and the story.

Nevertheless, I have to admit the memory I have of this movie and the feelings that arise when I think of it were not sustained upon re-viewing. I liked it, and I can see why kids would enjoy it, but it’s hardly an original story line and the characters are not hugely compelling. Only the bizarre and repellent Skekses stay with me, as opposed to the hero and protagonist of the movie (Jen).

I thought of sharing The Dark Crystal with my nieces to see if they would react to it the way I did when I was a preteen, but then I realized their mother would probably not allow it. It’s funny what our parents would permit, which we will not in 2011. But maybe I’m just being overly romantic.

When I ran ReviewCenter.com back in the 90s and early 2000s, I tested out a ton of flight simulators. And I tested out a ton of joysticks and peripherals.

The one I liked the best was the CH Products Fighterstick USB. Long story short, it’s the best joystick ever made. Back then, the 15-pin game port was still the king, though it was lumbering. USB enabled us to easily use multiple devices like throttles, joysticks, and rudder pedals all at once.

More than 10 years later, the Figherstick is still CH’s flagship joystick product.

The three-axis stick controls aileron, elevator, and throttle control, while the built-in eight-direction HAT lets you control point-of-view or thrust vectoring. It works perfectly in Windows, while rotary trim wheels allow you to fine tune control for older DOS games.

Recently I decided to pull my Fighterstick out of the closet and see if it still worked. It was beat up. Dusty, with some of the rubber casing missing from the USB cable, probably from getting dropped, moved, and boxed for about six years. Well, it still works. I plugged it in, Windows 7 recognized it instantly, and the Fighterstick worked just like it did a decade ago.

Just for kicks, I had CH send me a brand new Fighterstick and see if I could tell any differences. I could not. The X and Y axis of the stick feel and move the same. The Z axis throttle is just as tight on both sticks. All buttons work and feel the same, including the HAT.

After 10 years, the Fighterstick, well out of its two-year warranty, still works perfectly. It works as good as a brand new joystick. For something made of plastic and circuit boards, with tactile buttons, only my Sega Genesis controllers have held up as long. Remember Nintendo 64? How’s that analog stick working? Still making head shots in GoldenEye?

So there’s your testimonial for CH Products. Not bought. Not paid for. Just played with, over and over again.

This review originally appeared on ReviewCenter.com in 1997. It scored 4.5/5 stars at the time.

By: Jeffry J Brickley

Wing Commander Prophecy is the fifth game in the series (prior games in the series named Wing Commander and Wing Commander II-IV). It is a return to the original concept of the game, reducing the gameplay options for more effort in the actual space simulation. Although it was enjoyable to have more decision-making capability in Wing Commander IV, the return to the simplicity makes the gameplay smoother and more movie like. Wing commander Prophecy is like taking part in a movie. Although you can choose not to talk to people, talking is always in your own benefit, so there really is little choice.

Warning there are a couple of double missions that force you to leave right away after you return to the ship, so always make sure that you have a time for two more missions before you play one more…. These game-play emergencies make the gameplay exciting and unpredictable, bringing back some of the excitement lost in the lack of options from Wing Commander IV. Some missions require a little luck to complete successfully, but ALL missions can be completed successfully (at least by the scoreboard, there are a couple that are mandatory failures from the mission you are sent out on, but you do not loose points for not succeeding).

Note that the “Gold Edition” is not a true sequel but rather it is an addition that includes all of the original Wing Commander Prophecy. The “Secret Ops” are additional missions to keep you “in the mood” until the next release of Wing Commander.

If you saw the movie and expect the game to be the same, you will be surprised or disappointed. The movie is based loosely on the original version of the game from the early 80′s. If you manage to find THAT game, it is like all games of that era, rather cartoonish, yet still exciting. I look forward to the next movies as well as the next games or even a remake of the original game based on the new graphics engines! (Origin are you listening?)

Ups:
3D Graphics and sound are superior in this version. It seems Origin has a ‘style’ of releasing the Wing Commander series. Each odd number in the series is a BIG change from the prior version, each even number in the series is an improvement on the gameplay and graphics engine. I look forward to the improvements that they will manage to squeeze out for Wing Commander’s 6th in the series.

Downs:
Lack of game-play options, you are always flowing with the game, you are only truly in control when you are behind the stick in space. And then your only hope is to take out the enemy as fast as possible and take care of your wingmen.

This review originally appeared on ReviewCenter.com in 2002. It scored a 9.1 at the time.

By Carlos McElfish

KOEI is most widely known for kicking out strategy games. So the last thing this reviewer was expecting from them was an extremely entertaining music/rhythm game. KOEI has managed to not only avoid the common pitfalls of breaking into a new genre but also manages to kick the entertainment value up a notch or two — or three.

Gitaroo Man is the story of a kid named U-1, who, despite his highly original name, is constantly picked on by his classmates and picked over by the girlies. What no one knows (including himself) is that U-1 is the last of the legendary “Gitaroo Man.” Aided with a psychotic-looking guitar and a sarcastic, talking, transformable pet dog, U-1 is charged with saving the planet of Gitaroo from the clutches of the sinister Gravillians family. Along the way U-1 will learn to believe in himself, fall in love with a Bajoran and save the universe with the sound of music.

All in a day’s work.

Gitaroo Man is a musical-rhythm game along the same lines as Um-Jammer Lammy, or Space Channel 5. However, this game goes far beyond simple ‘hit the corresponding button at the appropriate time’ philosophy. When you are playing, because of the intricate motions that you have to go through to make your guitar sing, you feel as if you really are a skilled guitarist. You feel as if the awesome sounds being emitted from the TV should somehow be credited solely to you. KOEI has done a terrific job in keeping the transcending feeling of creating music intact.

There is a girl named Kirah who U-1 finds on a foreign planet and attempts to serenade her. The game’s manual describes Kirah as “shy and reserved with the heart of a warrior.” This suspiciously named girl is wearing a dress, on which the Star Trek Federation Communicator symbol is blatantly embroidered.

Graphics are cartoon styled, but not flat like Parappa. As you are engaged in musical-combat the action will evolve into a crazy, beautiful, 3D rendered cartoon. Having to pay undivided attention to making sure you are hitting the right buttons, and pushing the left analog stick in the proper direction makes it easy to overlook the wonderfully rendered on-screen action. Watching someone else play the game can be nearly as entertaining as actually playing it for that reason. Perspective changes around like a wild 3D cartoon hopped up on an illegal substance but can be most closely likened to a Parappa-view.

Gitaroo Man’s soundtrack is definitely it’s crown jewel, the music in the game sports some of the most catchiest tunes ever to grace a video game. The Japanese music group COIL produced the musical aspect of the game. Everything from heartfelt, catchy, guitar riffs to happy-happy J-pop is in attendance. There are 12 songs in total. You cannot help but bob your head in rhythm with the music along with Gitaroo-Man and his entourage. At times the grooves are so jammin’ that you will find yourself making a complete ass out of your person by providing auxiliary sound effects, sporting crazy guitar-playing-facial-gestures, and trying to get that trademark guitar “twang” by shaking the dual shock.

Voice acting is unique and fits the theme and style of the game flawlessly. From the high-pitched voice of Panpeus (the game’s equivalent of Glass Joe) exclaiming, “The Gitaroo is mine! Can I eat it?” to the leader of the Gitalline people of the planet Gitaroo who sounds nearly identical to the obnoxious old man in Ninja Scrolls or Goku’s mentor in Dragon Ball.

There are three different phases per round: Charge Phase, Battle Phase and Final Phase. The Charge Phase is your chance to increase the life-bar of U-1 by using the left analog stick along with the ‘O’ button to perform various guitar riffs. The Battle Phase will have you executing the same tricky-stick combinations but instead of charging your strength it will damage the enemy, also in Battle mode the enemy will instrumentally attack you so you must hit the correct sequence of buttons to defend. The final phase has you laying down the block-rockin’ beats to perform an aural fatality on the opposing character. It may sound complicated but believe me, after 10 minutes you will be kicking out the jams like a pro. What it all boils down to is that if you play good then you deal the enemy damage. If you play poorly, then you take damage.

One annoyance with the game though is that when you hit pause for whatever reason, you are forced to restart the level from the beginning.

Finishing the game once through on normal mode will open up “Master’s Play.” Master’s Play will take you through the same 10 levels but this time around you will be required to shred your axe in rhythm even faster, and enemy attacks are more devastating as well. There also seems to be some minor modifications to the levels as far as background characters and various on-screen goings-on.

Aside from the standard single player mode KOEI included a few additional modes and bonuses to extend the life of the game. Vs Play is a worthy addition, allowing you to play against a human opponent. The gameplay dynamics are the same, allowing you to charge your energy, attack, defend, and deliver a finishing blow. This mode screams ‘on-line play’ but as we all know, internet connectivity is not something Sony seams to want to deliver on until they can get a system up and running that they can charge for. You can also assign your opponent in VS mode to be computer controlled if all your friends are on vacation. The other bonuses are Theater and Collection. Theater allows you to view all the CG cinemas you have witnessed thus far. Collection offers up illustrations of characters and vehicles in the game, complete with bios. You will have to beat the game on Master’s Play in order to “catch’em all.”

Gitaroo Man is a surprising, welcome, diversion to the as-of-lately stagnant music/rhythm genre. Fans of previous rhythm games will eat this title up like a kid in a candy store, and even casual gamers who rarely enjoy games of this nature will surely find a place in their heart for Gitaroo-Man. Quite simply, Gitaroo Man lays the funk down on all competing musical games currently on the market with enough left over style to put a particular K9 back in the doghouse

This review originally appeared on ReviewCenter.com in 2002. It scored a 7.9 at the time, right as the site changed from 5 stars to a 1-10 scale.

Surprisingly, and to the shock of many veteran gamers, there is an entire generation of up and coming electronic ball busters that are not familiar with the origins of Maximo. It’s a sad-but-true fact that I’m sure many of us would rather just as soon turn a blind eye to. But think about it, this new generation of gamers is going to be raised on an entirely new caliber of quality, and soon new will be old. And the absence of old knowledge will perpetuate Moore’s Law. I don’t mean to go all Hideo Kojima on ya’ll, but the passing on of knowledge is what causes great games like Maximo to be created in the first place.

Maximo was originally intended to be released on the N64, then after the development team realized that the limitations of the N64 hardware would interfere with their creative freedom, they turned their focus to the Dreamcast. After Sega declared the DC DOA, the game was optimized for the PS2 hardware. I’m sure Capcom will make a pretty penny because of this decision, but we’re left thinking Maximo could have been released on the Dreamcast. It brings an oversized Japanimation tear to my eye.

Many gamers have become spoiled with features that are often taken for granted. Back in my day we did not have save-anywhere features. We had to traverse the entirety of a level aided with nothing but our wits and a 2-button control pad. I come from a generation where continues were not passed out like candy at Halloween, we had to work for them! And work we did. Do you know what its like to progress through 80 percent of a game only to be informed that you have to start over again due to lack of continues? Well if you don’t, you will. Maximo throws out the idea that gamers should be hand-held or spoon-fed during the course of the game. While not anywhere near as difficult as Ghosts N’ Goblins, Maximo still retains that old-school ‘if you want it, be prepared to work for it’ philosophy. Luckily, Capcom keeps the experience incredibly entertaining, lubricating the all too common annoyance of having to restart a level (or in some cases the entire game) with smart level design, slick visuals, and an overall feel that brings us back to the good old days of pizza-greased joy pads that would inevitably be thrown on the ground in frustration — only to be immediately picked back up to give it one more shot. Enter Maximo.

Maximo sports some impressive visuals. It’s hard to imagine that Capcom Digital Studios created the foundation of this game to run on the lowly N64 hardware. What may be even more surprising is that they have created this game to load entire levels into the measly 4 MB of video ram of the PS2, it seams developers are finally getting a true sense of the system’s intricacies. You can literally eject the CD from the disc tray and continue playing the game right on to the end of the huge levels; animations, sound effects, secret areas, all intact.

Huge draw distances, reflective metal armor, and an almost cinematic approach to perspective are some of the things you should expect from Maximo graphically. Zombies will abruptly sprout up out of the soil in classic G&G style, ghosts will appear out of the woodwork, and huge environments will violently modify themselves drastically, and without warning. Imagine playing Ghouls & Ghosts on the SNES, now give the game a beautifully rendered 3D makeover, throw in a bounty of new graphical nuances and innovations, set to puree and you’ve got a basic understanding of what to expect from Maximo in the visuals department. This game pays homage to the 8 and 16-bit era of the series while also realizing the potential of the current state of the art.

As expected you will see a lot of Maximo running around in his skivvies, which looks particularly nasty in the Ice World stage of the game. You may find it interesting that Maximo can buy different styles of under garment, everything from the infamous red-heart pattern currently being pimped out in all of Capcom’s advertising attempts to a simple-yet-tasteful cow spot design. The different kinds of underwear have absolutely no effect on anything, and merely serves as an aesthetic diversion from the default boxers.

You may recognize many of the game’s tracks from previous G&G games. Those old-school beats are back in a big way; retooled, tweaked, and modernized for your enjoyment. The music compliments the detailed, eerie, visuals subtly enhancing the overall enjoyment of the game, and doubly so for those who are familiar with the series’ heritage. As many people already know, the memorable soundtracks in the previous games made up a large part of the experience and often would kick around in your head long after you stopped playing, fortunately the same can be said about Maximo.

Sound effects are surprisingly realistic. Swinging your sword at a tree will result in a thick organic ‘thunk’ sound, striking metal will have a clanging, reverberating, realistic metallic sound to it. Supporting the oft-overlooked positional stereo sound, enemies can sometimes be heard rustling in the distance, hearing the direction that monsters are coming from is particularly useful for staying alive.

Character movements are sharp and precise, and death can sometimes be a matter of a few microns. Gameplay is based on the same simple dynamics found in the original game; jumping, double jumping, attacking, and throwing your shield are all executed with ease. Because of the immediate familiarity with the control scheme, you will find Maximo is very easy to pick up and play. So when you die, the blame can rarely be placed on anything but your slippery thumbs. The camera can get distracting on a few small spots in the game but luckily you can kick it into FPS view at (most) any time and look at your surroundings as viewed by Maximo by holding R1. You can also line the camera up with your POV by hitting the L1 button.

Multiple elemental sword power-ups are available to aid you in your quest. Fire, Ice, Lightning, and Armageddon are all available, which increase the potency and effect of your attacks. Fire attacks are particularly devastating on the ice stages — each elemental property has different results on enemies depending on the current atmospheric situation.

Maximo’s levels are huge, requiring multiple attempts to fully explore. Luckily you’ll come across check-points as you progress through each level that are activated by performing a downward stab deep within the soil, allowing you to re-spawn at that point in the event that you come across an untimely death.

Collecting Death Coins is a necessity in furthering your progress of the game. For every 50 Spirits you collect you’ll be awarded one Death Coin, spirits are accumulated by destroying tombstones and various other objects. If you die and have no lives left, you will be sent to the underworld where Death Coins are the only form of currency that the scythe-wielding Grim will accept. At first all that is required to continue is one Death Coin, but every other time you run out of lives the price goes up. If you are unable to ‘pay the Reaper’s toll’ then its game over.

Throughout the duration of one life you gather various power-ups that fill slots in your inventory. You start out with a 3-slot capacity, that number increases by one for each set of levels you complete. Power ups that are locked into a “slot” are permanently saved, however you can utilize as many power-ups as you can get your hands on, but when you die only the ‘locked’ power-ups will remain. It gives an added sense of appreciation for the preservation of just one life. When you find a heart (one free life), you are filled with an urgency to retrieve it by any means necessary. And believe me, this game does not making retrieving free lives easy. You’ll be walking a 2 inch plank on a swaying pirate ship, double jumping over bottomless pits, and for the most part pulling off acrobatic feats that would otherwise only be suitable for a super hero.

Make no mistake, Maximo is a challenging game, luckily it stays consistently entertaining throughout. Every level offers an experience that is unique and challenging, giving you a real sense of accomplishment for progressing. Its possible to blast through the game in just a few hours if you know exactly what your doing at all times, but expect to invest around 15 hours of well spent time your first time around the block.

After defeating an end-boss you will be given the opportunity to; fully power up your armor, save the game, or receive a Sorceresses Kiss. Collecting all the Sorceresses Kisses (4 in all) will unlock an art gallery where you can check out illustrations of characters and designs from the game. Completing the game with 100% of every level explored will open up “Mastery Mode.” In Mastery Mode you will play through the opening level of the game, but this time around you will have to do it backwards with item and enemy placement changed. The monsters are hugely abundant in this mode and require skill and strategic planning to defeat.

Like some of the best side-scrolling platform games of yesteryear, Maximo requires calculating precision to successfully navigate. Keeping you on your toes is something this franchise has always flawlessly executed, and I am happy to report that this reputation is kept firmly intact with Maximo. Uttering foul language and slamming the controller down on the ground in frustration has not been this fun since the SNES days. Long live the double jump!

This review originally appeared on Reviewcenter.com in 1999.

Force 21 is far from your normal real-time gtrategy game. You don’t have a base where you begin — mining resources, building buildings, which in turn allow you to build certain units. No, it’s nothing like that. Force 21 doesn’t try to be that. It’s something much better.

Force 21, set 15 years in the future, has you in the middle of a war. I know that you may be thinking, “Oh, no. Not another futuristic WWIII scenario” but this actually seems to be possible. China, thriving off of its economic boom in the 1990s, has become short on natural resources and raw materials. On the other hand, Russia, economy falling from the breakup of the USSR in the 1990′s, is almost on the brink of collapsing. China, taking advantage of this, invades the Republic of Kazakhstan, for much needed materials.

“NUKE “ËœEM” is what you’re probably thinking, but that won’t happen. Apparently, missile defenses have been researched so much, that nuclear weapons have become obsolete. The only practical way to fight is by conventional warfare. China, obviously having the advantage over the tumbling Russia, was predicted to barge their way through the Russian army no problem. But the United States of America, trying to get in the middle of it, sends some forces into the area, hoping that they may dissuade China from invading. China decides to attack anyway. That’s where the game begins.

You can either choose to be the invading Chinese army, or the defending US army. Either way you decide to go, you have complete control over 16 different platoons from each army. These platoons are made up of tanks, surveillance, recon, helicopters, artillery, APC’s and electronic warfare units. In some missions, calling for air support is also permitted.

Each side has 15 missions in the campaign, with a briefing before each one, showing you the objectives. Next, you look at what units you are going to bring into the fight. You are also given approximate locations of where the enemy is. As nice as this can be, don’t set up an entire attack based on it. Always scout ahead. The enemy is prone to move around the area.

After all that is done, you are now in the game. You will find your units sitting nice in pretty in front of you. If you have ever played a RTS before, then you already know the basic commands. The only frustrating part of the setup of the game is that you can’t just click on a tank, or any other unit, and order it to do something. If you want to move just one unit around, you must separate it into it’s own platoon. While this is not a big thing to do, just a drag and drop, it gets quite annoying when, in the heat of the battle, you need to move just one unit around. Unlike most RTS games, you just can’t see anything on the map by clicking there. Your point of view is what the commander of the platoon would see. An interesting twist in the game is that requires that you do more recon than in other games.

Now, the grits of the game. The sound is quite good, but the voices of the units get repetitive real fast. The sound detail and quality make you feel like your there, but to take advantage of it, you’ll need a good set of speakers. The graphics in this game are absolutely superb. The detail of each unit is incredibly realistic, which add to the total realism of the game. Explosions are well done, not cheesy looking like a lot of games do. One of my only complaints with the graphics of this game is the distance that you can view off into the horizon. There always seems to be a layer of fog, limiting your visibility range. Sloppy work there takes away from the playing experience. I mean, if you were sitting in a tank, on relatively flat land, I would think that you would be able to see a little further than a couple of hundred of feet. Other than that, kudos to Red Storm on the realism.

The replay value of the missions is not the best, as the missions are mostly the same time after time, the only difference is the exact location of the enemy units.

The single player experience may be the best part of the game. Due to the unpopularity of this game (caused by a bad release date) there is a very small multiplayer base to play against. This is too bad, because this is the kind of game that’s really fun to play with a group of friends. The fact that there is hardly anyone to play with is very odd, seeing as how both Mplayer and Microsoft Gaming Zone support play for the game.

Overall, Force 21 has enough to satisfy both the people who like to sit down and play a realistic war game and those who just want to blow shit up. The ease of play is what really makes this game work. Also, I found absolutely bugs in this game, which is becoming more and more rare these days with companies over hyping games, then throwing crap programming in a box just to get it out.

Turn to page 2 if you want to see how the game ends. We also have a cool game demo available for download.

This review originally appeared on Reviewcenter.com in 1999.

Although 989 Studio’s Cool Boarders 3 is a very good snowboarding game with great graphics and outstanding sound quality, it didn’t quite live up to its anticipations or expectations. After Cool Boarders 1 and 2 paved the road people were expecting more out of the third component of this trilogy. It’s fun to play, but unfortunately it’s also a letdown.

The improvement of graphics are what save CB3. No other snowboarding game can even be compared to Cool Boarders 3 without looking like a NES game. The tricks looked very realistic as well as the hills and the scenery.

Another great aspect of Cool Boarders 3 is the many modes available on the game, like downhill, half-pipe and slope style.

Downhill is a regular race down a hill that takes into account time and points. The half-pipe, which was drastically improved from Cool Boarders 2, is a great test of your ability to pull of crazy tricks and stunts. Slope style is basically a snowboarding park with many apparatuses filling the slope. All can be used to help perform massive trick combos and to get maximum air time.

There are only five hills to share over the three game modes, however.

There is also an avalanche mode that is probably the most unique part of the game. A helicopter drops you onto a hill, seconds before an enormous avalanche. Your goal is to get to the bottom of the hill without being flattened by boulders of snow.

Another unfortunate change from CB2 is that you can’t pick the background music. The same ol’ song plays through all the modes, on all the hills.

All and all, Cool Boarders 3 is a pretty cool game. The graphics are higher quality than most sports games and it is extraordinarily realistic. Cool Boarders 3 is a great game but I recommend buying it used or waiting until the price comes down — $50 is a little too much.

This review originally appeared on Reviewcenter.com in 2002.

For us, it all started with The 7th Guest for the PC. We were indescribably intrigued by this game at the time.‚ The ability to journey through a beautifully rendered haunted mansion (as good as you could pre-render n 1993) via a first person perspective was something that, at the time, was unprecedented.‚ Bill Gates himself commented on the game saying something to the effect that it was “the future of multimedia.”

After 7th Guest, it was Mansion of Hidden Souls for the Sega CD.‚ It also featured an explorable mansion, and to our recollection, it too was haunted — with souls trapped in butterflies. What a concept.

When I heard that a sequel was in the works for the Sega Saturn I was giddy with glee, unfortunately the game never saw the light of day in America.‚ Then came Trilobyte’s 11th Hour, the sequel to 7th Guest.‚ While 11th Hour was technically superior to its predecessor in terms of a technological standpoint, it just did not hold the same sense of wonder and awe that the original game did.

Enter Fatal Frame, the most impressive 3D haunted-mansion explorer simulator known to man.‚ Tecmo has taken all of my favorite aspects from the past super naturally charged Mansion haunts and combined them with technology that would put the 33mhz SX computer I originally played 7th Guest on to shame.

Fatal Frame puts you in the role of Miku, a teenage girl who is in search of Mafuya, her brother.‚ Mafuya went to the mansion in search of Takamine, a famous novelist who ended up missing after doing some research for his book at the Himuro mansion.‚  Both Miku and Mafuya are cursed with the sixth sense; they can see ghosts, scarrrry.‚ Takamine helped Mafuya to cope with his ghoulish affliction through various books that he wrote on the subject.‚  Mafuya too ends up missing after searching for Takamine at the mansion.‚  Two weeks pass and Miku resolves to go searching for her missing brother, this is where you will come in.‚  As Miku you will uncover the secret, disturbing past of the mansion through clues you will uncover over a 4-night one-person manhunt for your brother.

The graphics in Fatal Frame are just short of astounding, for a system that can only render 1-pass bump mapping the visuals are surprisingly rich and detailed.‚ Interactive backgrounds, freaky grain-film filters, impressive Luigi’s Mansion-quality dynamic lighting effects.‚  Every object casts a realistic shadow on the background resulting in an almost frightening level of immersion.

Pre-rendered cut scenes are done up in a black and white, tattered film-like package that allows for both a realistic depiction of past events and an underlying documentary-ish feel.‚ The lighting in the game allows for a believable atmosphere that gives you the sense that anything could happen at any time.‚ The various apparitions that you will meet will be depicted in a terrifying flickering presence, usually contorted in positions that are painful just to look at.‚ Perspective is primarily represented via a third-person view, the multitude of camera positions adequately follow you around to the point where POV is rarely an issue.‚ The non-ghoulish characters in the game are rendered very well, with detailed, diverse clothing and realistically animated facial gestures that serve their purpose flawlessly.

The sound in Fatal Frame is composed mainly of an organic-ambiance and strange ritualistic chanting music that would scare your little brother to death if you were to record the samples onto a mini-recorder and put the device under his bed and hit play at full volume while he is sleeping.‚ Ghosts will scream in agony as you film them and taunt you in the instances when they have the upper hand.‚ Super-natural objects will resonate with a spooky hum as you close in on them, faint voices can be heard through long corridors, footsteps sound suitably different depending on the composition of what your walking on. All this equates to an audibly impressive, realistic experience that reverberates with resounding effect.

December 2008. Sony PlayStation 2 has been a viable product for eight years, selling about 140 million units wordwide, more than any other video game console in history.

The fact that we’re still talking about PlayStation 2 and still talking about new games being made only for the PlayStation 2 in the 2008 holiday season speaks volumes about what this console did for our industry. Today nearly 100 percent of children and teens play video games on some level.

Here at Blast, we’re big into nostalgia, but we don’t necessarily look to Pac Man and Space Invaders for our retro fix. PlayStation, PlayStation 2, Nintendo 64 and PC games from the 90s have given us a litany of content to draw from, especially with the entire reviews and news database from ReviewCenter.com.

Here is The Review Center’s PlayStation 2 Launch Guide from February 2000
By Tom Carroll, Review Center Staff

If you haven’t had the chance to play all 28 PlayStation 2 launch titles, now you don’t have to. Nobody has the disposable income to invest in crud, so we’ve taken the liberty of snagging a bit of the cream from the skim. We’ve got the skinny on which titles are phat and which fall flat.

Refreshingly (and unlike the Dreamcast’s launch, which was mostly made up of driving games of dubious distinction) the PS2 launch has a few candidates from each of most popular genres: action, sports, racing, and, surprisingly, RPG.

We also realize that no one wants to read too much at launch. Full reviews of each launch title will follow in short order. For now, strap on your helmet, grab the ol’ dual shock controller, and get ready to have your horizons expanded:

Armored Core 2
Agetec
From Software
Action
1-2 Players

The PlayStation’s main mech, or AC, is back in action with the best-looking ACs ever in a game of this sort. Armored Core 2 is the fourth in the series, but the true sequel to the first game, and the first of the series on PS2. With literally hundreds of parts to improve and alter your mech, and dozens of single player levels to battle in, players can enjoy lone play time, or they can venture into two-player split-screen action. While it plays much like previous games in the series, Armored Core 2 looks fabulous.

DOA2: Hardcore
Tecmo
Fighting
1-4 Players

If you’re only going to buy one fighter for your PS2, this is the one. It has more of everything than anything else out there. You want characters? It’s got ‘em. You want costumes? Ditto. You want arenas, breakaway walls, dramatic falls, slaps, punches, kicks, combos, tag elements (that leave you breathless), well, DOA2: Hardcore lives up the hype and continues shoveling it on long after the others have quit. This game is the sine qua non (for those of you classically challenged, that means, “the bomb”) and it easily tops Namco’s best efforts to date.

Dynasty Warriors 2
Koei
Action
1 Player

If you like your action fast and furious, DW2 may just be the game for you. You take on the persona of one of eight ancient Chinese heroes, each with different skills. Navigating via a huge map, you get to ride a stallion, battle bad boss guys, and formulate a strategy that leads to success. No other game will have as many characters simultaneously on screen, which may be frightening at first. This explains the furious part; the game is also a tad short in terms of gameplay — which explains the fast.

FantaVision
Sony Computer Entertainment America
Puzzle
1 Player

When Konami wanted to have one of its teams learn the PS2 development environment, it said, “Make an update of Gradius III and IV,” which is what happened (the game will be released within the month). When Sony Computer Entertainment International (SCEI) wanted the same thing for one of its teams, it said, “Make me a colorful puzzle game that involves fireworks.” Fanta Vision is the result. You link together same-colored fireworks as they fall from the sky to achieve various point totals. It is a beautiful game and one that will keep adult gamers interested for roughly the same time as a first-run movie. You do the math — movie = $8.50; Fanta Vision = $53.00 (tax included). See you at the movies.

Eternal Ring
Agetec
From Software
RPG
1 Player

Eternal Ring is a Japanese game in search of a US following. Its story involves science and magic, but the uninspired story makes it difficult to imagine that anyone will stay engaged long enough to plumb the more than 100 spells that are available. Less than inspired visuals and localized voiceovers drop this title to the bottom third of the bunch.

ESPN Winter X Games Snowboarding
Konami
KCE Osaka
Sports
1-2 Players

While SSX is the snowboarding king, it is a fanciful look at the sport. For the serious snowboarder who wants more realism in his/her gaming, there is ESPN WXGS (that’s Winter X Games Snowboarding, but we’re tired and we’re not typing that out any more). This game has the real deal: trademarked boards; signature riders; courses modeled after real terra firma. While the controls for this game don’t disappoint and the tricks are the bomb, there are times when you wish this game would just bust a bit more loose. Kudo to the Create-A-Boarder feature; it’s a winner.

Evergrace
Agetec
From Software
1 Player

Now that RPGs are back in vogue for console systems, isn’t it nice that the PS2 gets a capable one at launch. Darius and Sharline are the two main characters in Evergrace. They get involved in some pretty dark deeds, but it’s the game’s unique “Free Growth System” that stands center stage. Using the FGS, you can allocate experience points to any of a number of abilities. Not to be outdone, the game’s “Full Dress System” allows the player to dress his/her character from head to toe prior to battle, all of which affects the way the character fights. While Evergrace is the only true RPG in the launch bunch, you wouldn’t be disappointed if you gave it a try.

Gun Griffon Blaze
Working Designs
Game Arts
Action
1 Player

This should actually be called Fun ‘n Gun Griffon Blaze, becaue it’s a fast start boullion of battles and blasting. The worlds aren’t going to set your hair on fire (because the geometry and textures are somewhat simple, but what a rush it is to fly at one opponent, blast it into smithereens, then jet over to another hotspot and start blasting. You’ve also got a cool zoom feature for targeting that involves speed blur and such. Hot action; cool tech.

Kessen
Electronic Arts
KOEI
Adventure
1 Player

PS2′s launch lineup has room for everyone and everything, it seems. Even Kessen. One of the few original launch titles in Japan, the powers that be must have gone through some real gyrations before deciding to localize it for Western tastes. The results are generally good: the graphics and cinemas are first-rate; the strategy portions, while competent, are a bit tedious. If you measure your gaming pleasure in hours instead of emotions, Kessen may just pass muster.

Madden NFL 2001
Electronic Arts
EA Sports
Sports
1-8 Players

Electronic Arts’ Madden 2K1 is one of the most sophisticated games to launch with the PS2. It has to be. It’s football, for cryin’ out loud. But this is one console that goes much deeper than a new coat of paint and some new spark plugs in the engine. The amount of precision that you have to have to compete has been increased (now you have to not only hit the open man, you have to hit him when his head is turned back toward the passer when the ball is in the air). Skill, fatigue and injury are more of a part of this game than any before because the engine and graphics renderer have the ability to actually turn concepts and theories into gameplay actions. By making launch with more than just a collection of pretty helmets, EA has served notice to Sony’s own that an ordinary GameDay 2K1 will just not do.

Midnight Club: Street Racing
Rockstar Games
Angel Studios
Racing
1-2 Players

Somebody once said, “I wouldn’t want to belong to any club that would have me as a member.” Perhaps this is true of Midnight Club. At first the visuals and audios impress one as less rather than more. The opening movie is a shambles; the vehicles shine as though they were carved from blocks of plastic. Play the game for a while, however, and the personality of the thing starts to show through. The taunts really do get under your skin; the challenges are easy enough to catch your attention but become tough quickly so as to hold it. If Midnight Club succeeds at all, it will be because substance triumphed over style.

Moto GP
Namco
Racing
1-2 Players

It’s a shame that some games have to betray their roots as quickly as they do. Moto GP is a game that can be mastered in no time, which makes it a disaster for the home market. Such a shame, too, because you’ll never see a prettier game on any platform. The bikes are sweet; nearly every surface is awash in somebody’s logo; tracks are totally trick. If Moto GP succeeds (and racing games are often more popular than they deserve to be) it will be because style triumphed over substance.

NHL 2001
Electronic Arts
EA Sports
Sports
1-8 Players

Both Madden and NHL 2K1 show EA’s desire to deliver more of the “good stuff” right out of the gate. The problem is that sometimes higher polygon counts and richer textures mean a gummed up renderer unable to cope. Such is the case, especially with NHL 2K1. It’s a pretty title, to be sure, but the lack of snappy moves and an AI that’s too cagey with the difficulty setting ramped up will surely doom this game — fast in the past — to a slow start out of the PS2 gate.

Orphen
Activision
Kadokawa Shoten
RPG
1 Player

Orphen tries to be a hybrid of RPG and fighting game. Taken singly or as a whole, it is a failure. Orphen is an unappreciated and underrated sorcerer trying to make his way in the world. He joins up with various folks for various reasons, ultimately taking him (and them) to Chaos Island for some showdowns with various bad guys. The game looks nice, but the battling system is repetitive and boring, making an otherwise engaging story not worth the bother. Save your yen for a better game about some other lost cause.

Q-Ball Billiards Master
Take 2
ASK
Sports
1-2 Players

This game is pool as it’s often played: by the book and with little panache. The physics are steady and the player is given more than enough control to attempt any shot, even if they aren’t all accomplished. If you’re looking to play a bit more fast and loose with the “sport,” try Konami’s Real Pool.

Ready 2 Rumble Boxing: Round 2
Midway
Sports
1-2 Players

If you liked the first game in series (on whichever platform you played it on — wasn’t it ported to play on cell phones?) you’ll love the PS2 sequel. All the previou modes are retained; added are a tournament mode and career mode. You can also fight against a teeny slate of celebs — which was better for pre-launch marketing teasers than it actually is in the game. While R2R Boxing: Round 2 won’t be the only boxing game on PS2 forever, it will always be tops in kooky fun.

Ridge Racer V
Namco
Racing
1-2 Players

Namco is guilty, guilty, guilty — of a little bad judgement. The company decided to take a luke warm PS2 J-launch title and seve it up even colder to US audiences. The game lacked antialiasing and had problems with framerate flickering when it was being played in and around Tokyo (and in our office, too, of course). Such techno bugaboos could have been eradicated for the US launch, but Namco decided to put its efforts elsewhere. RRV is a good racing game, especially for those who’ve fallen for past incarnations of the game. However, front end be damned (and the game’s start, selection, and option screens are drop-dead gorgeous) can’t cover over this game’s warts.

Silent Scope
Konami
Shooter
1 Player

A gun! A gun! My kingdom for a gun! This stiff, ultra-formal remake of the arcade hit is just that . a remake of an arcade hit. It suffers mightily from control, as the sniper rifle that made the arcade version so infectiously fun isn’t anywhere to be found (and don’t look for some desperate hardware manufacturer to make one on a whim, either). If you enjoyed the arcade title so much that you want to burn up $53 to have it at home, you won’t be disappointed. If you played all the way through the arcade shooter, you probably don’t have $53 to your name any more . but you really won’t need to bother with it either.

Smuggler’s Run
Rockstar Games
Angel Studios
Racing
1-2 Players

This game is getting good word or mouth because you get to be a smuggler and haul illicit cargoes around various (somewhat) scenic locales. It’s getting good media attention because the environments are humongous and the game’s draw in distance (the farthest point you can see without needing fogging, etc.) is so far. Smuggler’s Run seems to be selling because of both of these reasons, as well as because it’s well crafted and addictively fun. Smuggle one home yourself — if you can find a copy…

SSX
Electronic Arts
EA Canada
Sports
1-2 Players

SSX (we assume that stands for Super Snowboarding Extreme) is the hottest of the 28 launch titles. It’s highly original and addictive. The character and track designs completely blow away everyone else in the pack. The boys (and girls) at EA Canada are to be congratulated on creating a game that will play just as fresh in Boulder, Colorado, Heidelberg, Germany, or Yokahama, Japan. You take you place at the starting line as one of six contestants from far-flung corners of the world. You have to master each course’s layout, flesh out your own skills as ‘boarding and trickstyling, while finishing in the money at the end of each race. Along the way you’ll unlock other characters, new courses, and better equipment. There isn’t a game around (since MTV Snowboarding of a few years back) that allowed you to catch such air and flip out over the tricks like SSX. The game should become one of (if not the) top seller for EA Sports because it has equal appeal for women as for men. Watch out Madden, this one’s gonna leave you stuck in the powder.

Street Fighter EX3
Capcom
Fighting
1-4 Players

If you read any of the reviews of the uninspired PS2 J-launch title, this game ain’t changed much in the interim. Fans of the title’s other better efforts will no doubt pick it up so they can have them all on the shelf, but don’t look for this fighter to set anyone’s knickers on fire.

Summoner
THQ
Volition
1 Player

Summoner is a sprawling mass of RPG gaming. It may have a good story line, but it shows its feet of clay by not being able to render large terrain objects that are really amazingly close to your action. Because of the nasty draw in distances and insane fogging, the summoning part of this game should have been your character summoning huge masses of hillside to appear and dissapear merely by walking toward and away from them. Interesting game design … bad implementation.

Swing Away Golf
Electronic Arts
Sports
1-4 Players

Swing Away Golf is to the game of golf what cotton candy is to a filet minion steak. To say it’s golf lite is to demean the word “lite..” All this having been said, it is a fun little romp with anime characters and a mean little physics engine that really does the job. Other than the game taking a nasty little hop when going from when you use the swing game to the time your character actually swings, it’s all pretty sweet. One word of advice, choose the knowledgeable and sympathetic caddy characters; the others are grist in te wheels of life — at least as far as Swing Away Golf is concerned.

Tekken Tag Tournament
Namco
Fighting
1-2 Players

While this game ain’t no DOA2: Hardcore (see above), it is the best Tekken game ever made. It’s doubtful that Namco set out to set the gaming industry’s collective hair on fire with this one . they just had to give the gamer all the Tekken they wanted without messing up the look, the controls, or the framerate. In this, they have succeeded and this title will sell well because of it. The US version of the game is essentially the same as the Japanese title, allowing Namco to devote its resources to other titles that will appear at or near launch. Caution: If you’re looking for something more out of this game than “Just Plain Tekken” you may be disappointed. If you just want an update and a new coat of paint, it’s the game for you.

TimeSplitters
Free Radical Design, Ltd.
Eidos Interactive
First-Person Shooter
1-4 Players

In the wake of the PS2 launch, TimeSplitters is one game that’s getting noticed. Speed kills and TimeSplitters delivers it at Mach 10. Modelled a bit after GoldenEye and Perfect Dark (no surprise since most of the developers are ex of Rare), this game allows you to be a free radical (pun intended) running and gunning around throughout the halls of history. Split time, not hairs — this is a fun game to play, with or without your friends.

Unreal Tournament
Infogrames
Epic Games
Action
1-4 Players

You want it, you got it, Sony. A launch with a bunch of no-name titles isn’t as much fun as inviting a few of the big boyz to join in. Unreal Tournament (along with Madden 2K1, Tekken Tag, and Ridge Racer V) fills the bill nicely. It’s a lush implementation of the original PC game with bows made to console controls. Various configurations are available, including keyboard and mouse set-ups. Have a lot of spare TVs around, hook up four units, four games, four TVs via I-like and you’ve got a UT party. You don’t even need the Planter’s Peanuts.

Wild Wild Racing
Interplay
Rage Software
1-2 Players

Tired of the same old modified ovals? Ready for a game that has some real off road teeth? Wild Wild Racing is the anti-Ridge Racer … it’s so good at times that it’ll shake you. Interplay’s staff modified the game’s Japanese control setup to emphasize power sliding. The result? You can fly around these off road race courses and hit the turns without

X-Squad
Electronic Arts
Action
1 Player

Inevitably, for every SSX there is an X-Squad. This game really needed a little more time in the bullpen to make it a more complete player. The game has some flashes of competence, but a monster contingent of weapons plus a minimum amount of fun inter- and intra-squad play doesn’t make for a complete game. Visual style aside, the art also needed to be much better to compete with other games (including EA’s own) in the ultra slick PS2 launch lineup. More later on this one . but you really get the picture in a paragraph.

Tom Carroll was one of the top gaming writers for ReviewCenter.com. If you’re still out there, Tom, Blast needs you!

In 1982 Greg Kuperberg and Orion Software put out Paratrooper, an EGA action shooter game on the brand new IBM-PC that put you in a gunner’s turret as helicopters and parachuting soldiers invaded. Before that, in 1981, Mark Allen released Sabotage for the Apple II. They were early examples if a twist on a convention concept: shoot everything to get points, but shooting costs points.

Ten years later, Night Raid was released with a shareware version by Argo Games and Software Creations in 1992 to little fanfare.

In Night Raid, commonly confused as Nite Raid for its DOS 8-character folder abbreviation, which I acquired in the 90s on a plain white 3.5″ floppy put out by Software for Everyone, a company that made their living by repackaging shareware, charging the legally allowed “copying and disk fee.”

The game has good graphics and sound for its time. It’s an addictive style too — you can shoot as many shells as you want, but the real object of the game is to rack up a high score. You get you get two points for shooting paratroopers, five for large, slow airplanes, 10 for smaller, faster planes, and 10 points for shooting down deadly smart bombs. It costs one point for each shell costs you a point, and you will get down to zero quite fast if you’re not quiet.

Of course, if you just want to blow off some steam, go ahead and blast the bejesus out of everything and keep firing those shells … boom, boom, boom, boom.

If one criticism is to be levied against Night Raid, it’s that the shareware is so short, only a handful of levels that takes up about 10 minutes of your gaming day to finish.

The registered version gets progressively harder, with more troopers, planes, and bombs engaging your hapless little bunker.

There is something to be said for the graphics, too. If you shoot the troopers parachute, he waves his arms as he plummets to the ground. During level intermissions, you get entertained by asides like pizza deliveries. For a game that three guys put together, it’s pretty detailed.

This game boasted over a megabyte of 256 color graphics, music, AND two-channel audio.

Ye Olde System Requirements:

• VGA Graphics Card
• 286 or better
• AdLib/SB/SS support
• 386 recommended

Download the readme file

Way back in the mid 1990s, the computer game magazines were full of whole page advertisements in the back of the book for a 3D Dos game called Cylindrix. It wasn’t necessarily a visual marvel, but it was an intuitive game and one of the first real 3D experiences in Dos.

Cylindrix was coded to run in Dos DJGPP Protected Mode so that it could address more than 640 KB of memory, something that the Dos programmers felt was impossible at one point in history.

I had an original copy on 3.5″ diskettes that I sold on eBay for over $100 about eight years ago. I actually wish I held onto it, because it’s a museum piece. But I still have my two-disk demo.

So what is Cylindrix?

Cylindrix is a fast-paced battle game set in a round cylinder. To play the game, you use teamwork and fast reflexes to tap the enemy pylons scattered around the map. Tapping the pylons turns them to your team’s color. The more pylons you have on your side, the most powerful your hover tank’s (did we mention you’re in a hover tank?) weapons become. You’ll find yourself constantly struggling to maintain a favorable pylon count, or your enemies will gain the upper hand.

You play the commander and you have to assign each of your wingman tanks a task like “Get Pylons” or “Attack Enemy Ships.” Knowing which commands to issue and when to issue them is the key to winning the game.

One of the game’s developers, John R. McCawley, obtained permission to license out the game for free. He’s also working on Windows and Linux ports of the game.

Definitely try his new versions, because his team completely rebuilt the game from scratch.

You will absolutely need DOSBox for my version, or it ain’t gonna work.

From the game’s readme.txt file
The playing field

THE CYLINDRIX. This is the playing field in which the game takes place. Your vehicle can either skim along its surface or detach from the surface and fly freely within the Cylindrix. Each end of the Cylindrix is capped with a force shield preventing you from escaping combat.

All of the cylinders are the same size, but the various lighting conditions will make some feel smaller or larger than others. Each square on the surface of the cylinder is 40′ x 40′.

A cylinder’s measurements are: Height: 382 feet high, or approximately 27 stories high Length: 1200 feet, or 87 stories long

Square foot area: 1,440,000
Total cubic feet: 137,000,000

Pylon: Average height, 7 stories
Radar Base: 45 feet high

PYLONS. Towers of energy called pylons jut from the surface of the Cylindrix. When your vehicle collides with a pylon, the pylon becomes charged to the polarity of your team, turning it whatever color your vehicles are. As a result, your teams weapons will do more damage. Capturing pylons is of extreme importance.

RADAR BASES. Each team has a radar base somewhere on the surface of the Cylindrix. The radar bases will fire relentlessly at any enemy vehicles in range. The radar bases control the homing of energy missiles, and update each vehicle’s radar display. If your radar base is destroyed you lose both of these.

ENERGY SQUARE. Each Cylindrix has on its surface an energy square. If you move your vehicle over the square its shields will be recharged.

HEADS UP DISPLAYS
Each of the eight ships has a uniquely designed Heads Up Display, but they all display the same information.

ON SCREEN RADAR DISPLAY. This is an actual 3D display of the cylinder and always moves in relation to your view of the cylinder. Your ship is represented by the white square that is at the bottom of the
cylinder when you are on the ground and when you are in the air the white dot will move in relation to the cylinder. The blue squares represent the blue team, the red squares represent the red team.
Any time your radar locks onto a ship, the square representing that ship will have a yellow box around it. If your radar base is destroyed, your radar disappears.

CROSS HAIRS AND RADAR LOCKING. These cross hairs allow for the aiming of lasers by eye or missiles when your radar is inoperable. When you lock radar on an opponent, a diamond shape will appear between the radar lock box, and your ship. When the cross hairs, the radar lock box, and the diamond are all lined up, then you are facing the enemy directly.

SHIELD STRENGTH DISPLAY. The shield strength level is indicated by the bar on the screen with the ‘S’ on it. Every time your force shield is hit with a laser or a missile it is weakened. If your vehicle is
shot after your energy shield has been depleted, it will be destroyed. There is a brightly colored square on the cylinder’s surface, called the Energy Square. If you move your vehicle on top of it while on the surface, your shield’s strength will recharge.

MISSILE DISPLAY. The number of missiles you hold is displayed here. Missiles regenerate automatically.

WEAPON DAMAGE DISPLAY. The relative amount of damage you are able to do, the number energized pylons you have tagged on the Cylindrix surface (see “The Playing Field” above) is indicated on the bar on the screen with the “D” next to it.

WINGMAN 1 And WINGMAN 2 – COMMAND DISPLAY.
Every time you give a command to your wingman, it is displayed here.

WINGMAN 1 And WINGMAN 2 – SHIELD STRENGTH DISPLAY.
The shield strength of your two wingman is displayed here.

KEY CONTROLS:

NOTE: Cylindrix allows the reassigning of keys, but the default settings are as follows.

AERIAL AND SURFACE CONTROL
“s” Take Off and Land
“v” Change viewpoint, in or out of ship.
“Esc” Pauses game and brings up an options menu.

SURFACE ONLY CONTROLS
Up arrow Move forward
Down arrow Move backwards
Right arrow Rotate right
Left arrow Rotate left
“Alt” Sidestep Right or Left using arrow key (Strafe).

AERIAL ONLY CONTROLS
“a” Throttle Faster
“z” Throttle Slower
Up arrow Nose down
Down arrow Nose up
Right arrow Rotate right (Clockwise).
Left arrow Rotate left (Counterclockwise).
“Alt” + arrow key Step Up, Down, Right, or Left (Strafe).

WEAPONS CONTROLS
“Ctrl” Fire laser
Space Fire energy missile
“x” Engage Special Weapon

COMMANDS TO WINGMEN KEYS
W 1 W 2
F1 F7 Get Pylons
F2 F8 Attack
F3 F9 Attack Enemy Radar Base
F4 F10 Defend Home Radar Base
F5 F11 Group – Surround and Defend
F6 F12 Orders Canceled

Ye Olde System Requirements

• 486/66 DX (SX will not work)
• Soundblaster compatible sound card
• Double speed (2x) CD Rom Drive
• 10MB of HD Space
• 8MB of RAM

Youtube is featuring this very old Sesame Street video that most of us should remember from our childhood.

Oh my god, huge flashback!

There are plenty more videos and games to check out at the new Sesame Street Workshop website at http://www.sesamestreet.org, which launched August 11.

Trippy…

This should be familiar too.

The vertical scrolling shooter is a great, classic arcade genre.

In 1992, Epic MegaGames released this almost forgettable little EGA game called Overkill. You, the pilot, are tasked with destroying all the evil alien forces that captured six otherwise peaceful planets, enslaving the populations along the way. Destroy them.

Overkill was developed by Tech-Noir Productions and Ste Cork, and it was the first vertical shooter released by Epic (oh there would be others…). It had some period features including joystick support and MIDI music but was technologically unimpressive. Other games of the time — Commander Keen, the original Duke Nukem I and II — had far superior graphics.

The game gave the player shields/life energy, a contrast to other “one hit you’re dead” scrollers of the time and earlier. You could also collect power ups and boost your fuel, shields and weapons.

This game was a bitch to extract originally. I bought the shareware in the 90s on 3.5″ floppy at one of The Christmas Tree Shops on Cape Cod — one of many bribes from my mother for one of many excursions to the stores, which are basically the perfect visage of an adolescent male hell.

Anyway, do you know how hard it is to pull something off a floppy these days? They’re gone, baby, gone.

Come to find out, Overkill was released into the freeware realm on July 23 by Ste Cork. Now the whole world can have it.

Download the registered version of Overkill free from Blast Magazine. You will need DOSBox.

This review originally appeared on Reviewcenter.com in 1999.

We reviewed the PC version, but it was also released on PlayStation. Click here to download the original demo!

Taylor’s review

When I first saw the box for KKnD 2 Krossfire, I thought “Wow, this game doesn’t look that bad!”

Little did I know how wrong I was. Installation was probably the best part of this game — smooth and quick with no restart afterward.

Even the opening movie was informative and actually looked good, but this is the only part of the game that has good graphics. The rest of the game did not impress me at all.

The graphics, in my opinion, were no better than Command & Conquer, which is 3 or 4 years old. Why they didn’t try to the improve graphics is beyond me. With such games as Command & Conquer 2: Tiberium Sun coming out soon, you would think that they would want to get an one up on the competition.

KKnD2 Krossfire ran exceptionally well on my system, probably because of such of its low quality graphics etc. Levels took only a moment to load while the movies would only take a few seconds.

The Sound for KKnD2 Krossfire was nothing special. When you click on an unit, it makes the same sound every time you click on the unit. Not to mention that it makes the same sound for every unit for your race. Now, I don’t mean to complain, but hearing the same marine saying the same thing over and over and over again gets on my nerves and I found myself often turning down the sound because of this.

The gameplay is quite boring. There are almost too many units in this game. You cant even figure out what you are making as a unit sometimes. It’s such a stupid design for making a unit. You click on “Constructibles” then a submenu pops up and you choose a base (small, medium, huge) then pick parts. Unfortunately, there is no way to know what these parts do however. Then there is the control factor of these units. To select a unit you left click on it. To move a unit you left click where you want it to go. This is okay, except if you have a lot of units together, and you try to move a unit away from enemy fire, but accidentally click on another unit, the unit is toast.

Despite the genre, this game requires absolutely no strategy to play. It’s just get money, build units, die, build even more units, more, more, more. You get the idea. There is no balance in the units. It’ll take a million archers to take out one sentry gun. The only way to win is to mass-produce units from the very start.

There are only one or two units that can attack air units, so air dominance is key in this game. It kinda makes the game unfair because if you have air and the other person is still researching things to make anti air, they will never win.

To sum it up, if you really want to play a game that bores you, and needs no thinking at all, this is for YOU! If not? go play StarCraft, a much better game. 2 out of 5 stars

Stormy’s 1998 analysis/preview

I guess this must be a pretty popular game cause it comes in several languages, they are English, German, French, Spanish & Mandarin. (I think that is the first time I’ve seen a game available in Mandarin!)

There are two CD’s, one containing the installation and Survivor missions, the other containing the Series 9 and Evolved missions. When you start the game with disk one in, you must pick a Survivor mission. If you pick either one of the other two, the game will bounce back to the desktop, and that’s that. The only way to play the other two missions is to start with disk 2 in the drive, BEFORE you choose the mission. There will be no “please insert disk 2″ prompt, which of course surprised the heck out of me, I thought the CD was broke.

The folks that wrote the instruction manual are aware that a lot of people don’t like to read manuals, so they wrote it humorous. Unless you already know how to play, you ought to get a kick out of learning how to play this game.

The game has 51 missions, and your objective is to gather resources to build your own buildings and fighting units while looking for the enemy so you can crush everything he’s got, in some of the missions, and in some of the missions your only objective is to kill. You can kinda tell right away, either you have the stuff to gather resources, (oil rigs, tankers, buildings, etc) or you don’t. If you don’t have all the extra stuff, then you gotta figure out how to kill the enemy with what you got, cause you can’t build any more. However, there are surprises lying around, there is buried 21st century goodies, and during a mission where I found myself with just one fighter, (he was a nasty one, but not invincible) suddenly I found a repair bay out in the middle of nowhere (thank god!) You can play this game alone or 2 people over Modem and Serial connections, or up to eight players on TCP/IP, or IPX.

Ye Olde System Requirements

• Pentium 133 or faster
• 16MB RAM
• 4X CD
• 2MB DirectX compatible video card
• DirectX compatible digital sound card

Official website

Square Enix announced Monday that the popular Super Nintendo RPG, Chrono Trigger, would be released for Nintendo DS in North America on November 25.

Originally released in 1995, Chrono Trigger sold more than 2.5 million copies worldwide and received almost universal critical approval. It received “Best RPG” and “Best DS Game” accolades at E3 this year and looks to be one of the top portable games of the holiday season.

Story

When a newly developed teleportation device malfunctions at the Millennial Fair, young Crono must travel through time to rescue his misfortunate companion from an intricate web of past and present perils. The swashbuckling adventure that ensues soon unveils an evil force set to destroy the world, triggering Crono’s race against time to change the course of history and bring about a brighter future.

Game features:

• A masterpiece with an engaging and unparalleled storyline, leading to the discovery of multiple epic conclusions to a journey that transcends time
• An inspiring musical score created by Yasunori Mitsuda
• Intriguing battle system made possible by the unique combination of the “Active Time Battle” system and “Tech” skills
• Famed character designer Akira Toriyama lends his signature art style to create the vibrant world that has captivated gamers around the world
• Taking advantage of the Nintendo DS hardware, CHRONO TRIGGER makes its way onto the portable platform with all-new dual-screen presentation and Touch Screen functionality
• Brand-new dungeons and an Arena mode add exciting new dimensions to this timeless classic

Ahh, 1993. The first person shooter was bursting forth in popularity with Wolfenstein 3D and Doom. We sped through command prompts and wrote our own config.sys and autoexec.bat files to make sure we had the free memory to run our new games. The biggest challenge: was it worth the memory sacrifice to enable the mouse?

One week before id Software took over the world with the shareware release of Doom, Apogee followed the monumental success of Wolf 3D with their next action shooter, Blake Stone: Aliens of Gold. Doom squashed it; Blake Stone sold poorly despite positive reviews. id even had a stake in Blake Stone, it build the texture mapping engine for the game. But Doom was destined for icon status.

“We had decent pre-orders and the first couple of months were pretty good but sales dropped pretty quickly,” said Mike Maynard, in a 1996 interview. His company, Jam Productions, put out Blake Stone. “Had we gotten more input from Apogee earlier on in the development process I think we could’ve released the game 3-4 months earlier than we did.”

The game set in the year 2140. Robert Wills Stone III — Blake — is an agent of the British Intelligence, recruited after a highly successful career in the Royal Navy. He was sent out to investigate Dr. Phrus Goldfire, a mad geneticist whose criminal organization, STAR, is set out to conquer the world. Stone has to fight through six campaigns, representing six different STAR facilities, to destroy Goldfire’s mutant and human army before it can invade.

This was a big game, built on an engine that was based on the original Wolfenstein 3D engine. The six campaigns provided many hours of gameplay.

The game has a lot of features including food tokens to increase health, friendly “informant” scientists who give you items, and the previews of the main boss, Dr. Goldfire, appearing throughout the campaigns to fight you, only to retreat once you hit him enough times.

This was another game I found on the old, red Aztech’s Super Shareware Games CD that came with my first CD-ROM drive. It’s a permanent fixture in The Old Shoebox.

The full version is available from Apogee/3D Realms for $10. Apogee and Jam would follow with a sequel in 1994.

Download Blake Stone: Aliens of Gold shareware FREE from Blast Magazine.

This review of one of the best games ever appeared on Reviewcenter.com in 1999.

Your adventure begins in the year 2100. Your job: colonize a hostile and unforgiving planet and save the future of mankind.

The problem: six other factions are out to stop you at any cost.

In Sid Meier’s Alpha Centauri, you play as one of seven ideological factions, battling against six others. Choose from The University of Planet, a science and information related faction, or Morgan industries, a faction bent on economic issues. You can also play as Gaia’s Stepdaughters, an ecology related faction, or the Spartan Federation, led by a great military power. You can also be the Lord’s believers led by Sister Miriam, the Human Hive, or the Peacekeeping forces of Brother Lal.

Every faction has its strengths and weaknesses. You really have to find your niche in this game, and that can take time. In Alpha Centauri, the follow up to Civilization II, Sid Meier has created the ultimate colonization and battle game.

We’ve never seen graphics as stunningly good as these in any game. The 3D rolling terrain is awesome. The military units are well shown, and the videos are just as good. Each faction fights for technical superiority, and we’ve never seen a tech-tree as cool as this one. All the technologies are based on ones today. Make your way up the tree, as you concentrate research in different areas. You reach your peak when you make Transcendence: The next step in human evolution.

This game is infinitely playable. There are so many variables available. You can choose from one of many levels of difficulty, randomized terrain and map sizes. You can pick your faction and even design your own map. I think that this game is difficult, yet fun. It offers a challenge to all those who get bored playing typical build and conquer games. Games can last lots of time. I found myself immersed in a game for over ten hours one day. This game is truly a step above and beyond typical games.

Another good element to this game is Diplomatic Relations. You must maintain a constant balance between friends, choosing allies and enemies carefully. You must vote on different planetary issues, including the UN Charter, planetary governor, and whether to salvage the ship you crashed on. This element of the game is very difficult, and makes the game even more interesting.

The units in this game are simply amazing. They range from simple conventional troops with conventional weapons to specially trained amphibious marine troops that can drop out of the sky that carry chaos guns. You can choose from infinite variables to design and implement your own troops or naval units. Use these troops to crush your opponents or defend your borders.

I totally recommend this game, for those who own high-end Pentium based computers. Although I did play this game on my minimal P133, I recommend at least a P266. The graphics are infinitely better, and the game play is much faster. You should also have a computer stocked full of RAM. I again recommend at least 32 MB.

There is only one true gripe I had with this game. You could only quit when it was your turn. This leads to waiting a few minutes before you can quit. If you have your own PC, great, but if you share it with a family, they’re bound to get mad at one point or another. But, in my experience, I have never seen a better build and conquer game than Sid Meier’s Alpha Centauri.

4.5 out of 5 stars

Ye Olde System Requirements

• Pentium 133 MHz
• 16 MB RAM
• 60MB hard drive space
• 2MB video memory

A couple of days ago, I found myself in an interesting situation. I found, that I had no desire to play my next-gen games. Hell, I didn’t even want to play my PS2. No, I wanted to play something 2D, and not the 2D with a 3D twist like Odin Sphere, but something truly classic, retro. Something … Mario.
 
I reached for my technology bin, which is cleverly hidden underneath my bed, and reached for my Super NES. After blowing the dust off and setting it up, I was pleased to find that it still worked. Initially, the hard choice came in finding a game to start with. I still have all my old SNES games, mostly for the sad fact that I can’t get more then 89 cents for them at my local Game Crazy.

After scanning, I found the one that I wanted — the one game that started my gaming carrier. My earliest memory with videogames is the first level in Super Mario World. I was 5, and I was feverishly excited by the fact that, by pressing buttons, I could jump on turtles and pop them out of their shell.

I would later find that this does not apply to real life. 

 
When I found out about Yoshi, my 5-year-old life was blown away. I remember the joy I got when I made Yoshi eat an apple, and the laughter I got when I would watch my grandmother try as hard as she could to get on Yoshi, only to fail miserably, throw down the controller, and say words my Mother would say not to use.

Super Mario World became my catalyst, and as the years past, and more and more time was consumed by games, and the greater my parents’ concern grew over that time, my videogame carrier can be traced back to Super Mario World, and the joy and reward it gave me. So, I found it rather befitting that I should pop in the game that started it all. 
 
I blew the cartridge, and flicked the switch. The simple tune of the SNES intro was enough to get me started for an epic journey into my past. I was surprised to find that I still had a save file for this game, and amazed that the SNES still retained all the information for a game I have not played in 10 years or more. I decided to start a new game though, for I desired the full experience. 
 
Everything was as I remembered. The buttons felt comfortable and familiar. Every secret tunnel or area was remembered. In high school, I had a hard time remembering math equations I’d learned the day before. It’s funny that I remembered all the secrets and button schemes from a game I have not played since I was nine. 
 
SMW is a 2D-scroller at its finest. Challenging, but certainly surmountable. Every cannon bullet fired at me and mushroom I collected was a constant reminder as to why I love games so much.

When I was little, nothing else mattered when I was playing that game, and I guess, a little bit of that thought process has stayed with me. When life is brining me down, all I have to do is pop in my Call of Duty or GTA, and nothing else matters.

Super Mario World reminded me what games use to be like. Graphics were not so much the huge focus it is today, it was about game play. I was about challenging and fun level designs, it was more about, what does the played need to do skillfully, to beat this section? Now a days, that seems to be a bit loss. Do not get me wrong, there are plenty of current games that do that, but much has been loss to the ‘graphics’ war.

I guess that is why I am a fan of the Wii. Say what you want about the Wii, – I know it is not the best console – but Nintendo did something wonderful by forcing people to think outside the box. 

Pop in your “first game” sometime. Look at the differences between old school and current generation, because this is the only way to see how far we have come, as in industry and as a daily consumer.

Our needs have changed, and the game industry has changed much to keep up with these demands. I don’t know, maybe I’m just nostalgic – I don’t even think I am old enough to be nostalgic – but it is always good to sit back, kick in an old game, and realize how simple your demands use to be.

Doomsday and projects like jDoom have kept the game going well into the 21st century, with support for high resolution graphics and textures, OpenGL, new character models, particle effects, high-quality audio and a whole host of hacks, tweaks, mods and fixes for Doom, Doom 2, Final Doom, Hexen and Heretic.

It also brings 16-player multiplayer and native support to Windows XP/Vista, MacOS, and Linux/Unix.

It’s a piece of gaming history that’s been sadly losing ground with time. There has even been trouble keeping some of files hosted online.

That’s just not right.

Here’s Doomsday:

Doomsday 1.9 beta-5 for Windows

Doomsday 1.9 beta-5 for Linux/Unix

Doomsday 1.9 beta-5 for MacOS

Here are some of the addons:

To install addons, place the .pk3 into the “/doomsday/snowberry/addons” folder.

jDoom Enviroment pack (for doom and doom2)
jDoom Enviroment pack (for tnt and plutonia)

Unliminated Ammo Mod

Rain in some Doom levels
Rain and sandstorms in Hexen

Lorcan TNT music pack

jDoom high-resolution texture pack
Texture pack for other front ends

Stay tuned for more. There are full resource packs that I’ll dig up and put online.

More good stuff happening at the New Doom Forums

This review originally appeared on Reviewcenter.com in 1999.

Your uncle has apparently committed suicide, leaving you a mine on Luna Crysta, which is “booming” like a California town in the late 1800s. You travel to Luna Crysta to do something with your new mine. After you start meeting people, from the suspicious manner in which everyone acts, you start wondering about Uncle Jake’s “suicide.”

You meet a beautiful woman, (wow, that’s a plot twist we didn’t suspect, did we?) a sinister man, an oily official, a belligerent cop and an oh-so-accommodating bartenter. Your girlfriend whines on the phone, and your sister talks like she wants you dead. And that’s all in the first couple of hours! You do manage to meet two friendly faces, an older female miner, and a young Cephid child, both of who have heard all about you from your uncle, and seem willing to help you.

You have very little money to start, and you might be thinking of selling out. A trip to the casino shows you that beautiful woman is a blackjack dealer, who is welling to cheat for you, (at least until her boss shows up). This gives you a little money to start building up a “kit.”

All the while, people are out to get you. The oily official says he’s sorry out one side of his face, and suggests you pay for the damage uncle Jake’s death caused. The belligerent cop can’t wait for you to misstep, so he can “get” you. The sinister man reveals your darling sister hired him to get your claim — and the words “one way or another” run through your mind while he’s talking. The oh-so-accommodating bartender offers you a price that you “just can’t refuse” on any ore or crystals you find. And the beautiful woman? She’s been hired by the boss to get close to you and watch you.

Boy, do you ever need a friend, huh? Do you feel like you’re in the middle of an afternoon soap? Well, just wait until the game really gets started.

Dark Side of the Moon is mostly a puzzle solver, although there is plenty of opportunity to get killed along the way, so trust me kiddies, save, and save often! This is not a game you want to space out and forget, even if you think you’re safe because no monsters have pounced on you yet.

There are several mysteries to solve, (like starting with what REALLY happened to your uncle,) and various puzzles to solve. Very early on, the sinister man gets blown away, and of course, they think that you did it, so you become a fugitive, which makes for many opportunities for you to get blown to smithereens. That is cool too, if you get killed, you see your atoms floating in the cosmos, you state that while you are dead, you can’t stay that way, you have places to go, and people to see; and the big programmer in the sky-gives you another chance! How many games ya played that returns you close to where you were zapped-and doesn’t even penalize you?

Now for the bad points. There are 6 CD’s and you will spend a LOT of time swapping them. I would have liked it if they could have grouped some stuff you had to do more on the same CD. When you are talking to someone, as good as the graphics are, the action gets somewhat jerky, and I think the jerkiness shows up even more because the graphics are so good. If you don’t like “tongue-in-cheek” acting, you might be tempted to say that the acting is poor. I prefer, the sinister man is very sinister, the oily official ‘drips’, etc.

The movement and conversation are somewhat controlled. About half of the conversation on your side goes down without your control, when you are offered a choice of comments to make, I noticed that it didn’t seem to matter what you asked first, you will have to check every comment to exit this screen. As far as the movement, when you click the mouse to move, and you stop; look around, cause you only stop when there is an intersection, or when there is something next to you to look at. The reason I mentioned this as a bad point-this opinion will vary from player to player. Some people won’t care, some people that are used to having more free rein in the games they have played might feel this is confining.

The big bad point however — the game tends to lock up. When I first started to play, I got stuck in the same spot a half a dozen times; and I mean locks-up-need-to-hard-boot-your-computer lock-up. I finally had to uninstall, re-install, and start over so I could get past that one screen. I did some research on the web, looking to see if there might be a patch, and I did find out that it wasn’t my system. Enough other people mentioned it that it has to be a universal problem. I also noticed that I couldn’t play for too long, maybe a half an hour to 45 minutes at a time, and then Norton started to interrupt with messages saying that my memory load or CPU load was too high. I had to quit the game. My CPU usage was 97 percent and my memory load was 95 percent. I might mention at this point that I have an 8 MB video card, and a 450 P2 with 128 MB of RAM.

OK, so now you’re going to ask why bother since there were so many bad points, and I’m going to tell you why. Some of the bad points won’t be considered bad by everyone. As far as the lock-up glitches, I’m hopeful that SouthPeak, after working on the game for 2 years, will have a fix for these bugs soon. You don’t put as much work into a project as was obviously put into this one, without being willing to clean up those stupid bugs that crop up after production, though some beta testing might have helped.

I just would not let a few lock-ups keep me from getting this game.

The graphics are gorgeous, the sound is great and the story is quite good. If you like RPGs, or science fiction, or you just want to check out something different, give this game a try. I think you’ll be very pleased.

Quick hits:

Publisher: Southpeak Interactive
Developer: Southpeak Interactive
Platform: Adventure
Players: 1
Launch Date: Nov 30, 1998

Playability: 3.5 out of 5 stars
User friendly: 5 out of 5 stars
Sound: 4.5 out of 5 stars
Graphics: 4.5 out of 5 stars
Overall: 4 out of 5 stars
Ratings were determined in 1999

Ye Olde System Requirements

• Pentium 166 MHz
• 32 MB RAM
• 8x or faster CD-ROM
• 60MB hard drive space
• 2MB SVGA graphics for 640×480 resolution
• PCI or AGP video card with 2MB RAM strongly recommended

In a stroke of imaginative genius, French modder Kotomi managed to squeeze an entire Nintendo Entertainment System into an old Super Mario Bros. cartridge.

The engineer behind this mod used NES-on-a-chip to squeeze the entire gaming system, with AV plugs, power switch and two controller ports, into a single game cartridge.

NES, called Famicom in Asia, was released in the US in 1985.

Kotami has done a ton of retro mods including a USB version of the SNES Mouse and a bunch of wicked cool, colorful case designs.

Viva la France.

(Engadget, technobob)

There’s no question that Halo was one of the best action/shooter games ever made. It was a remarkable achievement in gaming and carried the Xbox at launch time. Its multiplayer had that James Bond Goldeneye/N64 feel where you could play it, the same levels, over and over again and love every minute.

I still like to dive into a quick slayer match in the Blood Gulch or dive, two at a time, in a Warthog and open up on enemies with the unlimited machine gun.

Not everyone knows exactly how much development went into Halo, and nowhere is that more apparent than in watching this old, 10 minute video from E3 2000, almost a year and a half before Halo launched November 14, 2001.

The E3 2000 trailer and I first crossed paths in the August 2000 PC Gamer CD-ROM. The disc had the Motocross Madness 2 demo teased on the front and also contained demos for Gunship!, The Time Machine and Force Commander.

This video is old. It has elements like a rocket launcher on the warthog and a really weird Master Chief’s voice. It was done cinematically — movie style — to show off at E3 and give a taste of what the game could do.

Enjoy this bit of history. It should be in a museum.

The ultimate goal of Boss Rally is to play through several seasons of racing, earning points and unlocking faster cars and harder tracks to become the ultimate rally champion. You can play against the computer or via modem, LAN or serial cable to play with a friend. You can control your game with either a gamepad, joystick, mouse, or keyboard.

There are several ways to play. The championship game is the primary game mode, pitting you against 19 other computer controlled cars, looking to win the for the season. There are 6 seasons per year, and this game does include weather to ruin your year. There is also Time Attack, which is a single player game, for bettering your time by racing against a previous race or recording a new race; or Quick Race, which pits you against a single computer controlled opponent, and allows you to practice and/or get used to the different options you have available.

There are 3 driving perspectives, cockpit view, chase and first person. You can also select an automatic or manual transmission, change your tires and shocks to better control, steer and ‘grip’ the road, depending on conditions. You need to pay attention to that, cause at some point you will be racing in the snow! You also have a lap counter, a lap speedometer, a regular speedometer and more on your screen while you are racing, and if these things bother you-you can shut them off.

The game suffers from serious control issues, however. The cars and courses are fake too. You’re also limited to two cars and courses when you first start out. This is supposed to be an arcade racer, but you have to spend hours unlocking all of the arcade game features.

If you really like racing games and have the right touch to get past the control issues, you might want to give it a try.

Quick hits:

Publisher: Southpeak Interactive
Developer: Boss Game Studios
Platform: Nintendo 64
Genre: Racing
Players: 1
Launch Date: April 30, 1999

Playability: 3.5 out of 5 stars
User friendly: 4.5 out of 5 stars
Sound: 3 out of 5 stars
Graphics: 3.5 out of 5 stars
Overall: 3.5 out of 5 stars
Ratings were determined in 1999

Ye Olde System Requirements

• P2-233MHz
• 32 MB RAM
• DirectX 6.0
• 60MB hard drive space
• 16-bit sound card
• 4 MB video memory

This article originally appeared on Reviewcenter.com in 1998 when there was no real professional wrestling monopoly.

WCW/NWO is one of the best wrestling sims THQ has come out with. Featuring up to date rosters and an excellent array of moves, Revenge is a welcome addition to your N64 game library.

Control in Revenge is easy once you get the hang of it. The game is very similar to THQ’s last wrestling game, WCW vs. NWO: World Tour, with some updates. It’s the type of game that just doesn’t get boring — especially on multiplayer.

There are several modes of play including championship belt competitions, exhibition matches, handicap matches, battle royals and tag team contests. There are also six Pay-Per-View arenas including Bash at the Beach, WCW Starcade, Super Brawl and WCW Monday Nitro.

Another nice little feature in Revenge is that many wrestlers come out with their corresponding girls/managers. For example, Macho Man Randy Savage comes into the ring with Elizabeth, and DDP comes out with Kimberly. And of course, who could forget The Mouth of The South Jimmy Hart who comes out with Meng and Barbarian. The wrestlers come out with music and strut into the ring where they show off their stuff before the match.

The various organizations of the time are also included in WCW/NWO revenge including NWO Red and White, Raven’s Flock and the DAW and EWF wrestling organizations. All this adds to the nice amount of realism that is in this game.

There is also a very nice arsenal of available weapons that you might find if you exit the ring and walk up to one of the guardrails and press C-UP. These weapons include Sting’s Black bat, a metal bat, a trashcan, stop sign, briefcase and a large wooden plank. Get the opponent out of the ring and beat him senseless with a weapon. Try using the more popular wrestlers also, because less popular ones tend to not find weapons as easily.

Overall I seriously liked Revenge. It is enjoyable and addicting to play with a nice array of wrestlers, weapons, bells, whistles, and all kinds of other things. (Make sure you watch the intro video at the beginning, it is probably the best I’ve ever seen!)

Ups

• Lots of wrestlers
• Several addicting play modes to choose from
• Stunning moves, great graphics, and high caliber sound

Downs

• Computer AI wrestlers are way too easy to defeat

Quick hits:

Publisher: THQ
Developer: Asmik Ace Ent.
Platform: Nintendo 64
Genre: Wrestling/Sports
Players: 1-4
Launch Date: 1998

Playability: 5 out of 5 stars
Sound: 4 out of 5 stars
Graphics: 5 out of 5 stars
Overall: 5 out of 5 stars
Ratings were determined in 1998

In December 2005, Apogee/3D Realms released the classic side-scrolling action game Bio Menace as a freeware “Christmas present” for its customers and loyal fans.

At that time, the game had floundered around incompatibility issues and relative obscurity — DOSBox wasn’t a big deal yet.

The game is built on the Commander Keen 2D engine and designed as a one-man show by Jim Norwood.

This is another game I first encountered on the Aztech’s Super Shareware Games CD.

Bio Menace is just an awesome game. You play CIA operative, Snake Logan, on recon duty in Metro City, which has been taken over by the evil Dr. Mangle and a horde of vicious mutants. (The mutants look kindly cuddly in the game, but whatever.) This is a game that combines elements of action, cyberpunk, post-apocalyptic and adventure in one floppy disc-sized install.

In the game, you get to maximize Snake’s killing power with machine guns, super bullets, plasma bolts, two different kinds of grenades and even land mines. Bio Menace consists of three episodes with secret levels and hidden easter egg in the second episode.

The game is non-stop and very challenging. Snake has very limited health, and medkits are in short supply.

Bio Menace has wonderful VGA graphics, Ad Lib music and Sound Blaster compatibility.

I’ll never fully understand why this game didn’t take off in modern gaming with sequels and console remakes, but you can enjoy the original, as intended, for free.

Download Bio Menace free from Blast Magazine

Ye Olde System Requirements:

• IBM PC and compatibles
• 286 Computer (386 or higher recommended)
• 575k of conventional memory
• 5 meg of Hard Drive Space (10 meg for registered)
• Supports Sound Blaster, Ad Lib and Joystick

One of the best computer golf games is still Links LS 98 and subsequent versions for Windows, released 11 years ago by Access Software.

Access made some very good games in the 80s and 90s, including the Tex Murphy series, before they lost their identity — and eventually their existence.

Links: The Challenge of Golf was released in 1990 for Amiga and DOS. When you think of computer golf, and how far we’ve come with an amazingly popular genre from Links to Tiger Woods 08, “The Challenge of Golf” is nothing less than a piece of history. Until recently, it was a lost piece of history.

“The Challenge of Golf” was the first realistic golf sim. It had amazing graphics and based itself on real professional courses. It was the kind of game that took a lot of machine to run 18 years ago.

In the DOS days, it was an art-form to increase your amount of free system memory so that you could run games like Links and later Doom and Wolfenstein and many other golden aged titles. Access actually included a letter to its players in the “readme.bat” file:

LINKS-The Challenge of Golf
echo INFORMATION ON HOW TO INCREASE FREE AVAILABLE MEMORY
echo Last update 11-10-90
echo .
echo Dear LINKS owner,
echo .
echo We believe LINKS is the most realistic and most technically advanced golf
echo simulator ever developed. In creating such a sophisticated program, however,
echo we have had to push your computer to its limits. LINKS requires a large
echo amount of memory to manipulate terrain data and to reproduce accurately
echo all of the intricate details of the game. At least 530K bytes are needed to
echo run the program. Player comments require another 8K bytes and wildlife
echo sounds require an additional 17K bytes. Thus, 555K bytes are needed to see
echo and hear all that LINKS has to offer.
echo .
echo To verify the amount of free memory on your computer, run the DOS utility
echo called CHKDSK. The last number displayed is the amount of free memory. If
echo the number is less than 555000, then some of LINKS’ digitized sounds will
echo not be heard. If the number is less than 530000, you will not be able to
echo run LINKS.
echo .
pause
cls
echo .
echo Your 640K machine actually has 655360 bytes available. When your computer
echo boots, it loads DOS (which takes about 55,000 bytes) and then uses a file
echo called CONFIG.SYS to automatically set aside memory for file buffers and
echo other things. It also uses a file called AUTOEXEC.BAT to AUTOmatically
echo EXECute user defined instructions. Both CONFIG.SYS and AUTOEXEC.BAT can (and
echo usually do) contain programs known as TSR’s. TSR stands for Terminate and
echo Stay Resident. These programs install themselves and then stay in memory
echo to be used when needed. A mouse driver, print spooler, keyboard enhancer,
echo disk cacher, memory manager and DOS shell are all examples of such programs.
echo THESE PROGRAMS USE MEMORY. If there are too many of them resident at one
echo time, there won’t be room for LINKS or other large programs. TO INCREASE
echo FREE AVAILABLE MEMORY, YOU MUST REMOVE OR DISABLE SOME OF YOUR TSR’S.
echo .
echo If you have more than 640K (1Meg, 2Meg, or more) this can be used as extra
echo memory for preloading sound and graphics, but not for DOS. LINKS still
echo requires at least 530K free of your first 640K.
echo .
echo LINKS AND WINDOWS
echo You must exit completely from Windows to run LINKS. Do not exit Windows by
echo way of the DOS PROMPT icon.
echo .

Microsoft bought Access games in 1999 and kept it in sort of a protected status for a few years. Access was renamed Salt Lake Games Studio and put out golf games and expansion packs, including Links 2004 for Xbox. They also repackaged their excellent DOS Links 386 game into a Windows version.

Take-Two Interactive bought the Access/Salt Lake studio in 2004. They built a few console games including the Top Spin tennis series. They also split the Amped Xbox/Xbox 360 snowboarding series between MS Games and Take-Two. Take-Two renamed the studio to Indie Built but closed the shop in 2006.

Links resurfaced in the July 2000 issue of PC Gamer, one of the best magazine CD’s ever released. The “Classic Games Collection Volume One” contained full version of Duke Nukem II, King’s Quest, Descent, Terminal Velocity, Alone in the Dark, Wing Commander, X-COM, Links, Monkey Island, Ultima Underworld, Ultima I, and Road & Track Presents: The Need for Speed. It was a stacked collection of classic games.

Download Links: The Challenge of Golf free from Blast

This article originally appeared on Reviewcenter.com in 1999.

The Intellivision collection was relaunched on the last generation of consoles — Xbox, PS2, GC — in 2004 to mixed reviews. You have to give Keith Robinson, who runs and basically is wholly responsible for the survival of Intellivision, for keeping these games alive! See the bottom for a few old, old Intellivision commercials.

By: Tom Carroll

This is going to be a very “to the point” review. If you have ever hankered to return to the old days of video games, the days where you didn’t worry too much about a story line or character depth or polygon count or frame rate, buy Intellivision Lives. It’ll get you there faster than the twister delivered Dorothy to Oz.

This game consists of 50 of the best Intellivision games made, and they are true to the originals down to the square pixels and goofy “period” music. There are action games, sports games, kid’s games, and space games and even 21 games that were never released. How can you beat that?!

An added bonus is the extra material that comes on the CD. This is historical material, pictures, video and text-based biographies. Much of this was put together by Keith Robinson, original Mattel Electronics staffer, survivor and now a co-founder of Intellivision Productions, Inc.

Robinson originally joined Mattel Electronics in 1981 after a brief stint in TV and film special effects. After working on TRON Solar Sailer, a game based on a movie that was based within a video game, Robinson became manager of applications where he supervised the programming and graphic design of numerous Intellivision games.

Because Mattel was adamant about its programmers remaining in the shadows, the group was collectively called the “Blue Sky Rangers” in a TV Guide article about Intellivision. The name stuck.

For Intellivision Lives!, Robinson collected a bunch of the wacky videos and interviews that employees participated in during the studio’s heyday.

That’s the good part of the story. When Mattel pulled the plug on Intellivision, Robinson presided over several waves of layoffs. Because of Mattel’s attempt to avoid a media circus atmosphere, Robinson poured gasoline on the situation by handing out pink slips in a clown suit. Mattel Electronics closed its doors in 1984.

Although Intellivision lived on briefly in another incarnation, INTV Corporation, Intellivision was essentially dead.

But now, through the efforts of Robinson and others, the games and the times can live again. Intellivision Lives is a thoroughly entertaining buy and is well worth the cost to anyone who wants a good historical time capsule to keep on the shelf and play whenever the current crop of losers and clones fails to entertain.

Ups

The games look exactly like the originals!
Tons of fun games to play through
A chance to explore an age that will never be seen again

Downs

The games look exactly like the originals!
A list of games isn’t part of the documentation.

Quick hits:

Publisher: Intellivision Productions, Inc.
Developer: Intellivision Productions, Inc.
Platform: PC CD-ROM, PlayStation
Genre: Action/Game collection
Players: 1
Launch Date: April 30, 1999

Playability: 4 out of 5 stars
User friendly: 5 out of 5 stars
Sound: 5 out of 5 stars
Graphics: 5 out of 5 stars
Overall: 5 out of 5 stars
Ratings were determined in 1999

Released quickly after Doom, using a modified version of the same game engine, Heretic is a fantasy first person shooter designed by Raven Software, published by id Software, and distributed, along with everything else in those days, by GT Interactive in 1994.

Heretic introduced ambient noise — evil laughter and such — that was random, as opposed to Doom’s enemy-spawned noises.

Like the Doom story, Heretic has hellish elements, demons and tons of different weapons at your disposal. There were also plenty of cheat codes.

There has always been a ton of literature and source documentation on the Doom/Heretic/Hexen/Quake games, and I was able to dig up the original FAQ for Heretic, which is a fun, long read and will tell you just about everything you’d ever want to know about this ultra-classic title.

Heretic is a supernatural blast-fest that is the most realistic, action-packed fantasy combat computer game for the PC. Created by the graphic masters at Raven Software in concert with the technical gurus of id Software, Heretic adds new levels of play and graphic wonder to the tried and true DOOM gaming environment.

In the old days, PC games came in large boxes, twice the size of the puny ones they come in now. Even my original Heretic shareware CD came in a large box and cost money at Toys”R”Us way back when.

One of the best things about these games in the present is that their source code has been released, and modern, high-resolution, Direct3D versions of the game are being made available to breathe new life into games like Heretic. This is a fine example of “they don’t make them like they used to.”

Ye Olde System Requirements:

• IBM PC and compatibles/MS DOS (works on DOSBox)
• 486-33
• 4 MB RAM
• 10 MB hard disk space

Download Heretic shareware from Blast Magazine

One of my all time favorite PC sports games was High Heat Baseball 1999. It was behind its time and had sub par graphics, but it was a smooth playing game that was insanely customizable. It had replaceable graphics, importable stadiums (real Citgo sign for Fenway) and custom sound effects and player musical anthems you could add.

Around 1995, well before my High Heat days, I played hours and hours and hours of Hardball baseball. One of the first CD-ROM’s I ever owned — which came with my first 4X CD-ROM drive — was an Accolade game compilation that contained Hardball, Unnecessary Roughness football and Jack Nicklaus golf.

Hardball never had awesome graphics, but it, like many other PC sports games, especially at that time, was game you could truly make your own. You could add players, change teams, add yourself and your friends, add legendary players and change everyone’s skills accordingly.

The March 1996 edition of Computer Gaming World Extra, the free CD that came with issue 140 of the magazine, contains a demo of Hardball 5 as well as CRY.SYS, Space Bucks, 11th Hour, Age of Rifles, Fulltilt! Pinball, Heroes of Might and Magic, NCAA College Basketball and FPS Football 96 packed into a disc with patches, a comic strip and the obligatory AOL installation. It was a very typical magazine CD back then.

The Hardball series itself has been around since 1985, when Accolade put it on Commodore 64. It later ended up on Apple II, Apple IIGS, Macintosh, the Atari 8-bit family, Atari ST, Amiga, MSX, ZX Spectrum, PC (DOS in CGA and EGA), and eventually the Sega Genesis, Super Nintendo, and Sony PlayStation — if you believe Wikipedia.

Hardball 5 is one of the highest-rated PC baseball games ever made. Gamespot’s Hugh Foster called it “the most playable baseball sim on the shelves today,” in an early review.

It was also one of Accolade’s late titles before the Infogrames took over in 1999. Accolade is responsible for the Test Drive, Deadlock, Bubsy, Brett Hull Hockey, Barkley: Shut Up and Jam (AWESOME Genesis title) and Star Control gaming franchises among many others.

Download the Hardball 5 demo free from Blast Magazine

This article originally appeared on Reviewcenter.com in 1999. Why haven’t we seen anything like it since? EA/VW — let’s get a game going!

By Tom Carroll

You would have to live in a cave in Northern Siberia to not know there was a new Beetle on the scene. Volkswagen pulled out all the stops in publicizing the debut of the ’90s Bug. In fact, there still may be a waiting list to own one. That’s why it’s good that Electronic Arts introduced Beetle Adventure Racing (BAR) In BAR you have the best of all worlds: a racing game that is truly worth paying cartridge prices for, and no waiting for the test drive.

BAR lets you leave the road behind and drive anywhere you want, well, almost anywhere. The game offers Single Race (good for beginners or lonely people) but it’s much more fun to take on a friend in Duel Mode, then jump into a Championship Season to uncover hidden tracks and bonus surprises. If you prefer smashing to dashing, duke it out with up to four players in a Beetle Battle where the fun is in total free-for-all annihilation.

Naturally, the cars are cool. They’re Beetles; what more do I need to say! But the game allows you to choose one that suits your own driving profile. I wanted one that was reasonably fast but would stay put on the road and not skid all over the place. That’s what I got. If I had wanted more speed and less traction, so be it (or vice versa).

The tracks are littered with bonus crates. Smash ‘em for points or to borrow a kickin’ nitro boost for a mile or so. By the way, the crates look like they should slow you down, but they don’t. Smash them with complete abandon.

Giant jumps launch your car into the stratosphere. If you keep yourself reasonably lined up with the road just prior to the jump you should have a happy landing. If not, you’ll wind up at the bottom of a ravine or under water. Glub, blub! Naturally, drivers who can’t stay on the road incur a time penalty in exchange for becoming road worthy again.

The games designers lavished time and talent on BAR’s tracks and they are what I loved most about the game. In fact, the circuits in BAR are so richly detailed and spacious that they resemble environments for racing more than just tracks. There are short cuts all over the place. Entrances to exciting detours are often hidden by foliage or obstructions; have fun, explore, smash through stuff! Oh, if you’re worried about time penalties then use the Time Trial mode to explore without fear.

I docked BAR points for Cost. Naturally, I always think that N64 cartridges are too expensive (I can just hear Nintendo suits muttering, “What does he want us to do, give ‘em away?”). I also dinged the game for sounds; although I liked the music tracks (they tend to stick in your head) they are a little too cute, tame and predictable.

Beetle Adventure Racing is an amazing racing game and a must have for any N64 owner. Although it is going out on a limb so early in the year, I nominate Beetle Adventure Racing for pole position in the race for 1999 racing game of the year.

Ups
Superb graphics
Spectacular racing tracks and jumps
Extra smart track designs

Downs
Music tracks lie somewhere between 808 State and Lawrence Welk

Quick hits:

Publisher: EA Sports
Developer: Paradigm
Platform: Nintendo 64
Genre: Racing
Players: 1-4
Launch Date: February 28, 1999

Playability: 5 out of 5 stars
User friendly: 5 out of 5 stars
Sound: 5 out of 5 stars
Graphics: 5 out of 5 stars
Overall: 5 out of 5 stars
Ratings were determined in 1998

This article originally appeared on Reviewcenter.com in 1998.

Konami’s Metal Gear Solid is the most intense stealth game for any system. Not only has it completely revolutionized stealth/action games, but it has raised the expectations of all games. In other words, this could be the best Playstation game ever!

As one of the first full length stealth games, Metal Gear Solid provides an exciting adventure through a nuclear warhead disposal site in Alaska. Along the way you sneak around with your character, Solid Snake, fighting only when necessary. This may sound boring, but your heart races throughout the entire game. Your ultimate goal is to destroy a top-secret weapon named Metal Gear. But before you can do that, you must fight a series of bosses — maybe even some family members.

Metal Gear is a nice change up from the typical 3rd person shooter games. The view in Metal Gear is normally an overview, however, pressing “triangle” makes you see in the first person.

Throughout the game, you encounter different kinds of fighting and torture. Two examples are a fight with a sniper rifle and resisting death on a torture machine!

When you are hooked-up to the torture machine, the enemy tells you press “O” repeatedly to regain your strength. Konami should have found a more tasteful way to relay a message to the player.

For an early PlayStation game, Metal Gear Solid has outstanding graphics and sound quality. Some of the movies are so realistic its like you’re watching television! I strongly recommend buying this game. You’ll begin to love the complicated twists-and-turns of the intricate plot as well as the intense and invigorating game play.

Quick hits:

Publisher: Konami
Developer: KCEJ (Konami Japan)
Platform: PlayStation
Genre: Action/Adventure
Players: 1
Launch Date: September 30, 1998

Playability: 5 out of 5 stars
User friendly: 4.5 out of 5 stars
Sound: 5 out of 5 stars
Graphics: 5 out of 5 stars
Overall: 5 out of 5 stars
Ratings were determined in 1998

Without question, the PowerCube Plus ACS48 was one of a few product releases by Altec Lansing, Labtec and a few other companies that changed computer audio forever. Ten years ago, soundcards were starting to get better, but speaker offerings still largely consisted of two-piece, unpowered sets that sounded like cheap headphones. The PowerCube Plus ACS48, a strong, powered system, with a subwoofer — it was one of the best computer audio systems ever made.

As you read this article, you may not think much of the 20 and 40 watts tat the ACS48 runs on. After all, basic home theater systems today run on 100+ watts. But on a computer system, you just didn’t see much in the way of power.

This review was originally produced by The Review Center in 1998.

This kind of thing is always a joy to review. Not only was it easy to set up, but it was especially fun to turn up the sub-woofer as loud as possible and blast some music!

The award-winning ACS48 system was much more than we bargained for with an under $100 system. A few quick facts about this well deserving 5-star system include:

• Volume Controls Adjust All Three Speakers Simultaneously: just 1 volume control
• High quality, high performance three-piece system
• Powered speaker satellites are electronically controlled and magnetically shielded
• Powered subwoofer extends the low frequency response to add realism and bass

Electric power is a must have on a computer speaker system. We were all happy to see this included in the unit. Overall, this is a great system, boasting a 40 watt subwoofer, 20 watt satellite speakers.

The wood subwoofer is an ingenious add-in. It really brings out the true quality of the sound. Plastic is not as high quality as a genuine wood base. The wood really makes the sound rich and vibrant. The subwoofer is just perfect — it’s not something that you hear in a car that sounds like a nuclear device going off, but instead, its adequate 40 watts make it a perfect music and gaming speaker system. It might not be the best choice for an office, though.

If you really want to get crazy, Altec Lansing also makes the ACS251, a standalone powered subwoofer that you can wire up to any other speaker system.

Overall, the PowerCube Plus ACS48 is one of the best computer speaker sets we’ve seen.

Technical specifications:

Drivers (per satellite): One 3″ shielded full range driver and one 3/4″ high frequency tweeter
Drivers (subwoofer): One 6 inch long throw woofer
Satellite Power: 20 Watts per channel RMS at 0.8% THD
Subwoofer Power: 40 Watts at 0.8% THD
System Response: 35 Hz – 20 kHz
Input Impedance: >10k ohms
S/N Ratio: >65dB

Quick hits:

Company Name: Altec Lansing
Price: $99.99

Overall: 5 out of 5 stars

This review originally appeared on Reviewcenter.com and Sharewarejunkies.com in 1998. It was rock-solid software that still exists today.

By John Guilfoil

Command Software pretty much created a winner with this one. Command Antivirus with F-PROT Professional is an affordable, high quality mercenary that will set out and battle any fiendish viral vermin that threaten your beloved system.

The software is packed up with the latest features including detection of Macro and Polymorphic viruses, detection of 100% of known viruses with a user friendly interface and Y2K and Windows 98 compliance.

Command Antivirus works on a multitude of operating systems and is rather easy to install and run. I recommend it highly, especially for computers with net access.

All computers should have Virus protection and Command Antivirus is one of the better among the many good ones out there.

Quick hits:

Publisher: Command Software
Developer: Command Software
Platform: PC
Genre: Utility/Antivirus

Technical Requirements:
Works with most desktop and server configurations including Windows, Unix, Solaris, OS/2 and Linux

Overall: 5 out of 5 stars

This article originally appeared on Reviewcenter.com in 1999 during an explosion of real-time strategy games.

After many battles, a former kingdom has been divided into many small principalities and earldoms. The king’s troops were pushed back into one last royal province, and the rulers of the other provinces waged terrible, destructive wars against one another. The whole land fell into a state of chaos and now the former royal capital itself is under siege by the armies of the rebel lords. You belong to the last remaining group of loyal king’s men, and have been commanded to go to the king in view of the imminent attack.

In my reading of a latest magazine, I had found that it had given Knights and Merchants a poor review. In the advertisements and previews I had seen, however, I found it to be a game deserving of a much higher rating. That is why I rushed to review it, to prove that magazine wrong, or at least to try.

Well, I was right. Knights and Merchants gets a four star review from me. If the game were less complicated, it would have been perfect. The game’s battle system is very complex. A setup like that ought to be its own game. When you throw in the kingdom management, the game becomes very frenzied. Otherwise, it is the greatest detail I’ve ever seen in a game. Until it, Age of Empires was the best. But in Knights and Merchants, your little people do exactly what they should be doing. My favorite was the farmer on the vineyard. He put a basket on his back, walked out into the fields, and he picks the grapes off the vines. Then, he gets back to his house, pours the grapes out into a huge well, removes his shoes, and stomps on the grapes, making wine. That is exactly the kind of game that this is. Everything makes a whole lot of sense. Soldiers and servants need bread, sausage, and wine for food, and the serfs are expected to bring everything to them. Builders require wood and stone as they are working, and they will stop until they get these things from the serfs.

Another good thing about the game is the amount of people needed. In traditional RTS games, there is one servant/peon that will do all your day to day tasks. In Knights and Merchants, serfs only bring commodities to building sites, food to hungry troops, and other things like that. Then, builders only will construct your needed buildings, which are also very numerous. For wood, you need a saw mill; for bread, a windmill and a bakery; etc. There are so many different variations in this game. However for people who don’t like these complicated games, I wouldn’t recommend Knights and Merchants, but if you want a new style of Real-time Strategy, go buy Knights and Merchants.

Download the demo free from Blast Magazine.

Quick hits:

Publisher: Interactive Magic
Developer: JoyMania
Platform: PC CD-ROM
Genre: Real-time strategy
Players: 1
Launch Date: 1998

Playability: 4 out of 5 stars
User friendly: 4 out of 5 stars
Sound: 4 out of 5 stars
Graphics: 4 out of 5 stars
Overall: 4 out of 5 stars
Ratings were determined in 1999

Ye Olde System Requirements

• PC Pentium 133
• 7 0MB Disk space
• 24MB RAM or more
• 28.8 modem for net play

“A Sinister Plot. An Enemy Sub on the Prowl. And You, Carrying Enough Fire Power to Destroy the Entire Planet.

Silent Steel…a dangerous undersea cinematic adventure of hide and seek. The enemy is out there, and they’re hunting the USS IDAHO.

As captain of the Fleet Ballistic Missile Sub Idaho, you are in command of the most powerful weapons system ever devised. With 24 Trident missiles on board, you carry enough firepower to destroy the entire planet. You’re on war footing te moment you submerge–no such thing as a routine patrol here.

With fear and uncertainty undermining the morale of your crew., the orders you issue will seal the fate of your ship as you attempt to unravel the intricate plot threatening the stability of the free world.

This all-video Strategy Adventure is the most advanced cinematic multimedia game ever released. Silent Steel’s branching storyline provides a greater depth of game play than other simulations. If you like a good Strategy Adventure game, you’ll love Silent Steel.”

Indeed you will love Silent Steel, but not quite as much today as you would have in the mid-90s, as the all-video game was meant to run on Windows 3.1 and 95, and despite repeated attempts, some of the character voices don’t work in Windows XP.

Tsunami’s Silent Steel is a dialog-driven adventure, where gameplay is completely based on choosing the right sequence of things for your character, the captain of the USS Idaho, to say. In Silent Steel, every choice you make — every order you give your submariners — has a major affect on whether you end up winning the game or being blown to the blimey deep.

This game was amazingly advanced when it came out. It was 100 percent video with a full cast and sets that included shots off aircraft carriers, Seahawk helicopters, submarines, and more with plot twists that included CIA interference and betrayal.

The original version was four CD’s, but a DVD came out later that removed the swapping of discs during gameplay.

The cast is perhaps the most impressive aspect of the game. Silent Steel stars Brian McNamara as the executive officer. McNamara, of “Army Wives” fame, also played Carson Ward on “The O.C.” and got a Golden Globe nomination in 1987 for “Billionaire Boys Club.” He and Jim Metzler, who plays the comical master chief, also have Star Trek acting credits. The traitor, Lt. Wheeler, is played by Fred Lehneg who was Marshal Edward Mars on “Lost.”

Silent Steel came out near the Crimson Tide submarine craze and gives a player a visually amazing perspective over their own submarine without the need for technical knowledge. It’s a classic piece of video game history, and it has held its value, still selling for over $20 online.

Don’t miss the blooper reel either! (ALT-B)

The full package:
Original readme file
Original glossary of submarine/game terms
Quick-win walkthrough

Ye Olde System Requirements:

• Windows 3.1 or Higher
• 486-66 MHz or better
• SVGA (256 color) display or better
• 8MB RAM
• 2MB Hard disk space
• 2X or higher CD-ROM drive
• 8 or 16 bit sound card

There once was a magazine called Launch.

Oh what a magazine it was. Launch was mainly a music publication, which offered a Macromedia-powered CD-ROM magazine in the 90s. It was an early form of convergence journalism, and we pay homage to them and their efforts.

Like just about every other good thing in the tech bubble years, it got bought out and bastardized, homogenized and repackaged. Today, Launch is unrecognizable as merely an Internet radio station incorporated into Yahoo! Music. Yahoo! paid $12 million for Launch in 2001.

But Launch CD-ROM did some great things back in the day, and one of the things they did pretty well was throw in video game reviews and game demos.

In Launch 11, which I believe was the February 1997 issue, they included a review and install program for a new action game called Tomb Raider.

To give you a sense of where we were back then, Launch 11 also offered an interview with Silverchair and reviews of cd’s from Bush, Branford Marsalis, Cardigans, Cake and Merril Bainbridge. Also featured, a review of the soundtrack from Romeo and Juliet (by the way, one of the best soundtracks ever made). They also reviewed Waverace 64, Grid Runner, Temptest 2000, Tobal No. 1, Mr. Bones and Drowned God.

The Tomb Raider review (read it here) is a classic early take on Tomb Raider.

Download the Tomb Raider Demo
Download the original readme

This review originally appeared on Reviewcenter.com in 2000.

By John W. Fletcher

Messiah is probably one of the more unique games I have seen in the last few years — being completely original by not only how it is played but an amazing array of new quirks you have never seen on the PC before.

In this game you are a cute little baby angel named Bob. You have been sent to earth, quite against your will, by God to fight the growing evil of Father Prime.

Despite his cute appearance he can be as much of a bastard as your inner devil wants him to be.

There are some quirks. He has a limited ability to fly — which can get you out of some tight situations. Second, and my favorite, he can possess anybody! You can fly into the back of any unsuspecting victim and take over his soul, forcing him to do whatever hideous evil you want him to do (don’t get any ideas you pervert).

Since there is a massive array of characters the game can get extremely interesting. To get certain places or better weapons you have to possess certain people, which can be good and bad (you’ll see when you play). For instance: As a weak scientist you can’t hurt people for shit but you can get into a needed-entry room. As the biogenetically altered 8-foot tall behemoth you can tear anybody a new asshole.

You can get a lot of gameplay out of this since it is a two-disc game. It took me a long time to beat it. The levels are huge and the difficulty of all the possessing and everything can drive you kind of nuts after a while.

As you proceed you have to do these kind-of maze-like paths to get where you want to go and possess a lot of different people. You even have to possess a rat! It’s difficult because if they see you they will kill you and if they suspect you they will kill you. It’s not as easy as it seems. You have to do a lot of flying puzzles to get places and that is difficult with little, chubby baby wings.

All the weapons you can use are awesome too. You have things like a bazooka you can use, or a harpoon that spears your enemies to a wall! It’s disappointing that Bob himself can’t kill anybody but the fact that you can be a pimp in a club and beat somebody to death with your cane — it’s all forgiven. Overall, it is really fun but very confusing.

You get to all of this in amazingly created and huge levels which are incredibly realistic and make your experience just that much better. I strongly suggest usage of a very fast computer. All of the characters have amazing detail and the scenery is pretty cool too. In the game you are playing from a third person point-of-view which you can toggle close or far. It has an interesting sound system by that there is no music and only fx until you get into fights — when it starts blasting Fear Factory so you can barely here the fighting itself! However, you can here some pretty cool tracks if you pop into your CD player. As for controls it is very good and you have to use a mouse-keyboard combo which can be slightly annoying at times.

Now the bad news. NO multiplayer — sorry, it’s strictly single player. Also it can drag on and on after a while. All the puzzles get really annoying and somebody is always killing me. When you are a cop none of the other cops seem to like you and will kill you if you do so much as sneeze wrong. It seems you can never survive too long — maybe this is just me, somebody try it and tell me because I can never seem to survive in some guy for more than 3 minutes. You always seem to be walking through a war zone in some areas where there are opposing factions and you are always on the wrong side.

I guess that’s part of the game but it just gets to me by the 20th reloading.

Overall it is a very unique and good game. I suggest you give it a spin.

Download the demo free from Blast Magazine.

Quick hits:

Publisher: The late Interplay
Developer: Shiny Entertainment (David Perry’s outfit. They also made Earthworm Jim)
Platform: PC CD-ROM
Genre: Action/Adventure
Players: 1
Launch Date: March 31, 2000

Playability: 4.5 out of 5 stars
User friendly: 5 out of 5 stars
Support: 5 out of 5 stars
Sound: 3 out of 5 stars
Graphics: 5 out of 5 stars
Overall: 4.5 out of 5 stars
Ratings were determined in 2000

This review originally appeared on Reviewcenter.com in 2002.

An evil force by the name of “Spooky” has been unleashed by those dastardly ghosts and it’s up to everyone’s favorite pepperoni-slice shaped yellow hero to make sure Pac-World is rid of this ancient evil.

The objective of the game is to collect various “Gold Fruits” Once you collect them all you will be able to do away with Spooky by ways of sealing him in a…er…tree. Ok, so the storyline isn’t that great, but c’mon, this is PacMan we’re talking about here; PacMan don’t need no stinking storyline.

Munching power-pellets and chomping ghosts is what PacMan is all about. How, you ask, was this simple concept used to create a wildly entertaining 3D platform game? With a little help from our good friend innovation. This arcade-turned-platform game borrows from a few different game designs and successfully integrates them all into one solid, respectable title.

PacMan World 2 feels like it was influenced from games like Crash Bandicoot, Super Mario World, Sonic Adventure, Klonoa and even Super Monkey Ball. What is surprising is that Namco was able to extract all the fundamentally entertaining aspects of these games without botching the project along the way. Not to say that Namco has a tendency to churn out poorly executed titles, but even the most respected companies sometimes set they’re sights a little too high — State of Emergency and Ehrgeiz for example. The only detrimental thing that this game has inherited from its predecessors is the sometimes in-the-way camera issues.

Every stage comes complete with a uniquely animated and entertaining loading screen, although it hardly seems necessary since the loading times are practically non-existent. But it does go to show that Namco’s development team did not at any time rest on their laurels, so to speak, during the creation of this game. While the visuals are fundamentally simple, the series basic design looks appropriately evolved on the current hardware that it runs on. Which is to say that PacMan is incredibly cool looking.

Real-time rendering is colorful, well animated, and boasts some impressive visual techniques on top of its already sweet looking cartoon graphics. Every atmospheric element that the game offers is equally good looking, the visual quality is consistent all the way through. There is not much in the way of cut-scenes, outside of the cool looking opening cinema there are only a few instances where dialog transpires.

In some respects the game’s sound is blissfully retro, at times using the same exact sound effects found in the arcade original. Music consists of around 20 original musical scores, which effectively give an added sense of immersion into the game’s beautifully rendered universe. Each track was specifically composed to compliment the stage that they appear in. The Haunted Boardwalk level sports spooky Halloween-like music while the stage “Volcanic Panic” includes tribal-influenced tunes. Namco did a great job in the sound department.

PacMan World 2 is an adventure game complete with a Super Mario Bros 3 type world map. The in-game play control style is fully 3D but is also similar to SMB3 in the sense that it offers top-notch, well thought out, running-and-jumping dynamics. What keeps this game from being in the same league as the classics however is its unbalanced difficulty and short life span. For how well the game looks, it is pleasantly surprising to find gameplay that is equally appealing. PW2′s nagging camera issues are somewhat diminished by the fact that the game actually lets you know when the camera is only partly functional or completely inoperable, by means of an on-screen notification.

PacMan is equipped with a few cool maneuvers to assist him on the journey, like the ‘Butt Bounce’ which launches Pac into the air like a super-ball, and the ‘Rev Roll’ that propels him forward — not unlike Sonic’s dash ability. He also has a flip kick that you can perform by pressing the B button while you are in the air, although this particular move is rarely required and seems like it was thrown in as an afterthought. PacMan will run, jump, scale ledges, and tiptoe across rope-thin bridges Monkey Ball-style. PacMan World 2 is about far more then just running around and jumping, you’ll don a pair of ice-skates and be set loose down a steep, winding mountain of ice while avoiding hazards and collecting items, equip a pair of flippers and get down with some aquatic action, and even pilot a PacMan shaped submarine. Namco has really put PacMan through his paces in this title, pitting the little yellow sphere in situations that Lara Croft would think twice about.

There is an arcade on the first stage that you can go back to at any time. In the arcade you will find a slew of emulated PacMan iterations of the past. The roster reads like this; PacMan, Ms. PacMan, PacMania, PacAttack, and a custom PacMan World 2 Maze game. An entire collection of fun games is at your disposal, assuming you have collected enough ‘Tokens’. Tokens are strewn throughout each stage, and as you collect them more Pac-Man games will be unlocked. This adds considerably to the replayability of Pa-Man World 2, as you will inevitably go back to previous levels to collect more tokens.

It’s quite apparent at first glance that this game is wicked enjoyable. PacMan World: 20th Anniversary was a great platforming game for the PSX and was somewhat overlooked in its time, hopefully this game will not suffer from the same fate. Assuming your down with platformers, you’ll be thoroughly entertained from beginning to end.

This brings me to my next point; the time it actually takes to get to the end is far too short. Expect to complete the game in around six hours. But I am not one to look a gift-horse in the mouth, what is there is fun — and fun is fun. The included arcade mini-games just sweeten the deal. PacMan World 2 exonerates PacMan from the horribly disappointing PacLand games and the freakishly wrong cartoon on which the game was loosely based. If solid, entertaining, platforming action floats your boat, you would be well advised to pick this title up.

Quick hits:

Publisher: Namco
Developer: Namco
Platform: PS2, Gamecube
Genre: Adventure
Players: 1
Launch Date: March 13, 2002

Playability: 4 out of 5 stars
User friendly: 5 out of 5 stars
Support: 4 out of 5 stars
Sound: 4 out of 5 stars
Graphics: 4 out of 5 stars
Overall: 4 out of 5 stars
Ratings were determined in 2002