The new UpdateStar version 2.5, the program that keeps a user PC’s software always up-to-date and secure, has been released and is available for download free from Blast Magazine.

[download id="1"]

Features:

• One-stop information place for the individual software setup including information, downloads and status
• Reduces a PC’s vulnerability level caused by outdated software
• Personalizes updates: can be configured according to the users needs
• Enhances the “Add or Remove Programs” experience
• Simple interface and simple to use

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

Thank you to the good people are UpdateStar for licensing Blast to provide all its readers with this software in our November issue!

UpdateStar is a PC utility that lets you stay up-to-date just about all your other software titles.

This way you make sure you always have the most up-to-date software, maximizing the every-day user experience.

UpdateStar is for people who rely and depend on an efficient software setup on their computer in their daily life.

Features

• One-stop information place for the individual software setup including information, downloads and status
• Personalizes updates: can be configured according to the users needs
• Enhances the “Add or Remove Programs” experience
• Simple interface and simple to use

Download UpdateStar 2.4 free from Blast Magazine!

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

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.

Ignition Entertainment launched an online demo for the upcoming puzzle-strategy title Red Bull BC One for Nintendo DS.

“Red Bull BC One is one of the most important B-Boy competitions in the world. The legendary battle hosts 16 of the world’s best B-Boys in a one-on-one, knock-out-battle to determine who is The One,” Ignition said in a statement Wednesday.

B-Boys and B-Girls are hip hop terms. The term originated as a way to refer to any follower of hip hop, identifiable by clothing habits, listening tastes or lifestyle. It has since more specifically been used to refer to the hip hop dancing.

There are a ton of Red Bull BC One videos, screens, wallpapers and info on the game’s website.

GAME FEATURES:

• Officially licensed game, featuring the world of Red Bull BC One competitions
• 36 battles throughout 8 stages in story mode, plus training mode
• 70+ different dance animations
• Many un-lockable mini games and items
• 35 unique music tracks
• 3D backgrounds (basketball court, urban street, beach and more)
• Multiple customization options (outfits, hair, shoes and more)
• Battle against a friend in wireless multiplayer mode

Red Bull BC One hits shelves September 16.

Zack didn’t like computers.

At age 3, he was diagnosed with severe autism. His parents decided to send him to a specialized school, where he could get one-on-one attention. It was there that he was first introduced to computers.

“It was impossible for Zack to use a computer,” said his grandfather, John LeSieur. “He was throwing the mouse and throwing the keyboard [in frustration].”

LeSieur is the owner of PeopleCD, a software production company that creates programs to build an interaction between the Internet and software application. PeopleCD’s released the beta of its first program, a child-friendly web browser called KidCD, in late 2006.

When the beta was released, LeSieur let his grandson try it out on their home computer and was shocked by the result.

Zack loved it.

Now, LeSieur tells stories of how Zack will go up to the computer, turn it on, and start playing around with the computer on his own. “[The computer] is a tool that he really likes and enjoys, and that he never shows any violence for, which is really good for mom,” said LeSieur.

“He was able to get the results he was looking for,” he said. “Since it’s a full screen application, the only thing he could do was to click on an icon to get results. [Zack] was very happy with his results.”

Zack is now 6, and he didn’t like the updated version his grandfather created, KidCD 2.0. Other young children who had been using KidCD 1.0 had a hard time changing the browser pages to view the other icons accessible and had just been clicking on those they could see. LeSieur changed the settings so that the icons would switch every hour to allow a variety of websites. It was this feature Zack did not care for.

“Autistic children like things when they are very organized. It’s in place, and they know they fill find a result right there,” LeSieur said.

In order to continue the successful relations Zack was having with the computer, his grandfather came up with an alternate version of 2.0. In this version, the main page was an aquarium (Zack’s favorite), and included mouse animation and stationary icons.

“He was so happy, even if [he] doesn’t speak, you can see it from what he’s doing and how many times per day he goes back to the computer,” LeSieur said.

Thus, in April, the ZAC Browser was born.

Since LeSieur made the browser accessible from his website, zacbrowser.com, over 150,000 people have installed the free program on their computer.

“I can tell you it’s amazing how many e-mails per day we get from people where it has just changed their world,” he said.

Named for his grandson, Zac also stands for “Zone for Autistic Children”.

Autism is described by the National Autism Association as a bio-neurological developmental disability that generally appears before age three, impacting the normal development of the brain in the areas of social interaction, communication skills, and cognitive function. Individuals with autism typically have difficulties with communication and social interactions.

“People are always watching for a magic teaching tool [for autism],” said Temple Grandin, science professor at Colorado University, who has autism and is seen as a poster child for adults living with the affliction. “A computer is not the magic tool. A first grade teacher is.”

Grandin said she sees the ZAC Browser as a helpful alternative for autistic children, but not a stand-alone solution for development in autistic children.

“A computer program is not your primary way that you teach young autistic children,” she said.

While Grandin acknowledged that the ZAC browser is a great activity for autistic children, especially in place of video games, she emphasized that nothing can replace one-on-one interactions with other people.

Symptoms of autism as described by the Autism Society of America are notably little to no eye contact and lack of interest in forming relationships. Children who are diagnosed with autism need to be taught things like taking turns, manners and sharing.

“They’ve got to learn not to be rude,” Grandin said.

Those types of concepts are hard to teach over a web browser.

“A lot of autistic kids are spending a lot of time on video games, but you can’t get them to do anything else,” Grandin said.

Still, a few hours on the ZAC Browser can be very beneficial for an autistic child. The browser’s filter does not allow access negative or violent websites, and those available are geared towards education. Since he first started using the browser, Zack has learned new words and started speaking more.

He has also not been violent toward the computer since his grandfather installed the ZAC Browser.

As the first web browser created specifically for those with autism, Zac has already reached amazing success with those who have accessed it, LeSieur sees the ZAC Browser as changing the future of how software is created.

The ZAC Browser has helped adults with autism as well. A woman, who identified herself only as “Mwoolhiser” on the ZAC Browser forums, told other posters of her son Robbie’s success story. At 31 years old, Robbie loved the computer but was tpp easily distracted by so many options. After his mother downloaded the ZAC Browser, Robbie was using the computer by himself within 35 minutes.

When used in accompaniment with other teaching tools, the ZAC Browser can be a great way to teach autistic children. Nothing can replace the effect human contact has in positively influencing those with autism.

Grandin’s advice to parents: A lot of computer monitors flicker, a phenomenon that we tend not to notice with our eyes. Due to the eye problems that is oftentimes a symptom of autism, many autistic children notice the flicker that we do not, and this can lead to violence towards computers. While this type of outburst is not true for every autistic child, when given the choice between a laptop and a regular table-top monitor, 20 percent of autistic children choose the monitor. Laptop screens, by contrast, are made differently than other monitors and do not produce the same flicker. In order to prevent damage to the laptop keyboard, try hooking up an external keyboard for your child to use.

For other helpful tips from Dr. Temple Grandin, visit her “Teacher’s Tips” section on Autism.com.

Download the Zac Browser free from BlastMagazine.com

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

Starting today, the Windows, Mac and Linux demo versions of “Penny Arcade Adventures: On the Rain-Slick Precipice of Darkness, Episode One” are available for download.

Demo features:

• Design and develop your own character, seeing it come to life in 3D and in the comic-style 2D cut scenes
• Play through the tutorial level and the beginning of the game’s storyline
• Access the Startling Developments Agency screen to browse through the case log, inventory and dossier to get a sneak peek at the full game

Get it:

Windows
Mac
Linux

Very simple. Very basic. Download the Shareware Doom1.wad free from Blast Magazine.

Lighthouse Interactive and developer ClockStone Software announced Thursday that a new update patch for their fantasy-based action RPG Avencast: Rise of the Mage has been released.

“The update adds several new enhancements upgrading the game to version 1.03,” Lighthouse said in a statement.

Upgrades in version 1.03:

• Monster health bar instead of “wounded text”
• Low mana/health feedback improved
• Bugfix: unexpected monster health refill
• Bugfix: monster disappears
• Bugfix: planetarium laser
• Balancing: Kalios fire dwarf quest easier
• Balancing: Tertius boss monster in vault level easier
• Workaround: ‘disable videos’ option for users with codec/driver problems

The complete list of new features included in the upgrade, is available at the Lighthouse forums and at www.avencast.com.

Download the Avencast 1.03 patch (file size: 8.8 MB) FREE from Blast Magazine

Game sumary:
As the sun rises over Avencast, the renowned academy of magic; a young adept begins his perilous journey. In a world of wizardry, wonder and untold mystery, you must undertake some of the most diverse quests to hone your abilities in spell casting, weaponry and melee combat. Your martial skills are soon put to the test as demonic monsters of unknown ancient origin descend upon Avencast turning the academy into a horrific state of chaos and destruction. Armed with over 50 combat moves and spells, and a vast arsenal of equipment items, you must uncover the source of these ominous happenings while vanquishing an onslaught of fiendish enemies. Treachery and deceit reveal themselves as the vicious army of adversaries beleaguers your frail haven threatening Avencast’s very existence. Amidst the mayhem, an astonishing truth unfolds which will forever change the battle scarred Wizard.

The WordPress Development Blog announced Wednesday that the second release candidate for the upcoming WordPress 2.5 is available for immediate download.

The developers also release a video screencast as a sneak peak of what users can expect with 2.5.

“2.5 is coming along thanks to the fantastic feedback you guys provided on RC1 (over 580 pingbacks and counting),” said WordPress developer Matt Mullenweg “We’re now ready to show you a bit more of a peek with a short screencast covering the new dashboard and uploader and Release Candidate 2.”

WordPress is the software that powers BlastMagazine.com.

One of the major additions to WordPress 2.5 is the gallery feature. Which will be the first attempt by the popular blogging and content management platform at a built-in photo gallery system. Plugins and third party services like Flickr had been used by many users in the past.

In our own case, we built a gallery module and will continue to use it, but Blast will also look carefully at the new WordPress gallery. We see applications in bulk video game screenshots and art galleries.

WordPress 2.5 was supposed to be released several weeks ago, but it suffered development delays.

From id: “Doom 95 continues the hyperviolent exploits that propelled the original Doom to infamy. Face the onslaught of demons and specters that populate this terror-filled underworld. Slip a few shells into your shotgun and get ready to kick some demon butt.”

Doom 95 was Doom’s first foray into the native Windows world. It let you run Doom, Doom 2 and PWAD’s in 640×480 resolution — twice the image quality of the original Dos version.

While it suffers some compatibility issues on modern systems, Doom 95 remains a decent, quick, portable and easy option for running Doom and user-created levels. Doom 95 includes the shareware Doom1.wad first episode.

Download Doom 95 free from Blast Magazine

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

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

Lighthouse Interactive and Vertex 4 released update 1.08 for SunAge, their sci-fi real-time strategy game for PC. The new update adds several new enhancements, an auto-updater, bug fixes and above all, new multiplayer features.

Features in update 1.08:

• Re-balancing of several in-game units, an added enhancement given community feedback
• Multiplayer game lobby with chat functionalities
• Master server and improved online functionalities
• Improved firewall support and “punch through”
• Auto-updater functionality (future patches or fixes will be downloaded automatically upon startup of the game).
• Heavily reduced network traffic; rework of the network protocol, now UDP

Download the SunAge 1.08 patch free from Blast Magazine

About the game:

Earth is a desolate wasteland destroyed by the radiation and heat of the sun. Humankind, known as the Dome Confederacy, have been forced to retreat into shielded cities enduring constant attacks by the Raak-zun cult; a sect of religious outcasts who live outside the dome. An age long war has ensued as both races battle for the limited resources of the dying planet. Amidst the havoc, the gateway to a bold new planet is unlocked. Hope is on the horizon, but this Mecca is teeming with lethal Sentinel drones who will not hesitate to annihilate any life form that gets in their way.

Game features:

• 3 Distinct Races – Human, Raak-zun and Sentinel – each with their own units, buildings, technological advantages and disadvantages.
• Unique Upgrades – Alternate modes can be researched for all units, unlocking dual functionality for greater tactical depth.
• Graphics – Stunning sci-fi environments from vast industrial cities and devastated wastelands, to a lush alien planet. While displaying rich graphical environments and visual effects, SunAge is very playable on lower spec PC’s and laptops.
• Tactical Landscape – All units and their alternate modes are crucial to the overall strategy. Exploit weaknesses in the enemy’s network while strengthening your own connection lines.
• Formations – Squad concept combined with long distance camera views allows a large number of units to be fighting onscreen with a clear overview of the battleground. Singleplayer – 25 campaign maps with compelling plots for each race.
• Multiplayer – LAN and Online – Classic multiplayer with focus on gathering4 different kinds of resources and outsmarting the opponent in battle. 10 maps created uniquely for multiplayer mode.
• Command Queuing – Command your units to prone, build or attack where you want them and when you want them to do so.
• Indirect Intelligent Targeting (IIT) – Order your units to focus on pre-selected targets.

For more information about SunAge visit the game’s official website.

See also: Blast Magazine puts out the first preview for SunAge.

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

Electronic Arts has released a large patch for the critically-acclaimed Crysis.

The patch contains performance compatibility tweaks plus changes to weapons balancing in multiplayer and several bug fixes.

Fixes

• Fixed: Potential crash in D3D10
• Fixed: Orange boxes apearing when hispec savegame loaded into lowspec game.
• Fixed: Inconsistent damage dealt to vehicles when shot by LAW.
• Fixed: Reflection resolution on D3D10, MultiGPU reflection update fix
• Fixed: Memory leak with FSAA modes
• Fixed: Infinite ammo hacks.
• Fixed: Memory leak in D3D10 when switching screen modes
• Fixed: Muti optimizations
• Fixed: When player melees during gun raise animation, their gun will be in a permanently raised position.
• Fixed: Crash when loading savegame with level exported recently by editor
• Fixed: Virtual keyboard does not function properly when a game pad is connected
• Fixed: Users can lose the ability to look around with the Right Stick
• Fixed: Setting screen resolution to “default” stops user from selecting last resolution
• Fixed: Bug when changing resolution in D3D10
• Fixed: Issues with Depth of field and water droplets in D3D10
• Fixed: Crash on NaN warning

Updates

• Added: Motion Blur UI and V.SYNC UI options
• Optimized: Motion blur
• Optimized: FSAA (Full Scene Anti-Aliasing)
• Optimized sound id implementation
• Enabled VSync functionality in D3D10
• New benchmarking files for ice CPU benchmark.
• http/xmlrpc password protected remote control session
• Marked debug cvars as cheat
• F12 (screenshot) now works in restricted mode as well

Tweaks

• Reduced LAW splash damage vs. infantry in PowerStruggle mode
• Slowed Rocket projectile speed down in MP slightly
• Disabled automatic turret bounding boxes on vehicles to prevent issues with LAW hit detection
• Reduced grenade explosion radius in multiplayer
• Clamped water tesselation to avoid cheating in MP
• MultiGPU improvements with depth map updates

Download the Crysis 1.1 patch FREE from Blast Magazine.

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

We have a review of Switchball coming 1/1/08, but for now, here’s a chance to get the demo.

Switchball is an intricate puzzle game set in a stunning 3D world. Control an ever-changing ball along a narrow winding course suspended in midair. Solve your way through challenging levels jam-packed with obstacles, traps and mazes. This one is addictive!

Features:

• Inventive and fun puzzle-driven play based on real world physical interactions.
• Beautiful and elegant 3D graphics offer panoramic views of 30 incredible levels in 5 amazing environments – Skyworld, Iceworld, Caveworld, Cloudworld and Lavaworld.
• More than 40 interactive objects including wooden blocks, sheets of cloth, spinning fans, magnets, cannons and many more.
• Morph the marble into a different ball, with unique physical properties including the metalball, powerball and airball to more easily get through each area.

Download the Switchball PC demo free from Blast Magazine.

Long before Takara developed their 2002 mixed-reviews tank sim, Epic Megagames was distributing Seek and Destroy, a PC action game that combined tank and chopper elements.

I first encountered Seek and Destroy in the July, 1996 issue of Interactive Entertainment (IE), the CD portion of Computer Games Strategy Plus magazine (previously called Strategy Plus, then called Computer Games, now sorta out of business, but it’s coming back.).

This CD was stacked — also including playable demos and shareware of Duke Nukem 3D, Zork Nemesis, Afterlife, Normality, Decathlon and Battle Arena Toshinden as well as video reviews of several games and textual archives of all 24 previous issues of the CD magazine. (It was based, fittingly enough, a CDMag.com)

The guys at IE gave Seek and Destroy a favorable review, and I wholeheartedly agreed.

From the publisher: Seek & Destroy combines elements of Choplifter, Desert Strike, and Return Fire. Pilot a chopper or a tank against hordes of enemies. Not too deep, but lots and lots of fun! This is the SHAREWARE version of the game, not a demo!

From the start, Safari Software — which Epic bought out entirely in 1997 — admits that Seek and Destroy combines elements of other fun, pick-up-and-go games. They weren’t really trying to do much different; you fly around in a chopper or drive around in a tank and shoot the hell out of everything. Sometimes they mix it up by incorporating a demolition expert you have to drop of and pick up or some other subplots, but in the end, Search and Destroy is the kind of game you can just play, and play and play again. The controls are easy, the weapons are massive and there’s plenty to shoot at. There’s no getting lost in a 36-hour developing plot. Start the game, shoot stuff.

Seek and Destroy is still technically available from Epic Classics, but I’m not so sure about the © 2000 on the site…

Here’s IE’s original video review of Seek and Destroy.

Ye Olde System Requirements:

• IBM PC and compatibles
• Minimum: 486, Recommended: 486/66
• 4 MB RAM
• 19 MB (CD version) or 4 MB (disk version) of hard disk space
• Dos game with Windows Installer

Download Seek and Destroy shareware free from Blast Magazine

Here’s another out of that old Aztech’s Super Games cd:

At the twilight of the Eastern-Han Dynasty of ancient China, under the reign of the frail and incompetent emperor Han-Ling, the country was in disarray when the government was run by a group of corrupted eunuchs-theso-called “Ten Attendants.” Hardship and famine finally threw the country into turmoil. The rebellion quickly spread over the country. The rebels were known as “Yellow Scarfs” because they covered their heads with yellow scarfs. To get the full support of the generals in the military regions, Emperor Han-Ling entrusted them with more military power to put down the uprising. The Yellow Scarfs were finally crushed but at the expense of the central government which saw its authority threatened by the generals turned warlords. One of these warlords, Dong Zhuo, on the pretext of dislodging the Ten Attendants, marched into the capital city Luoyang and then usurped the throne. Although Dong Zhuo was quickly defeated by other allied generals, the turmoil was far from over. As the weakened Eastern-Han Dynasty no longer had authority over the whole country, every warlord was watching for the opportunity to take over the leadership. After ten years of suffering from numerous battles between warlords, the people in northern China finally had some respite when Cao Cao, a Machiavellian strategist, eliminated all his opponents in the North.

Not content with his sucesses in the North, Cao Cao wanted to reign over the whole China by eliminating the rest of the warlords in the South. His first target was Liu Bei who, being a royal prince of the Eastern-Han Dynasty, has a legitimate claim to the throne. Though small in force, Liu Bei was well entrenched in the country of Jing, and he knew how to preserve himself by allying with a neighboring warlord Sun Quan. Together they engineered a serious b;pw to the ambition of Cao Cao when they defeated his great army in the Campaign of Chibi.

Having suffered a great loss, Cao Cao had no alternative but to retreat to the north. Taking advantages of his military success, Liu Bei went further to occupy the region of Sichuan so as to consolidate his position in the country of Jing. With the help of his five intrepid generals — Guan Yu, Zhang Fei, Zhao Yun, Ma Cao and Huang Zhong, he managed to build up an army strong enough to wrestle alone with Cao Cao. With the aim of restoring the Eastern-Han Dynasty, he now sets off to the North to confront Cao Cao. But Cao Cao is by no means a chicken. He also has many experienced generals like Duab Weum Xy Xy abd Xuahou Chn holding out in various fortresses.

Will Liu Bei over come all these obstacles on his way to the North? Will he finally defeat Cao Cao to restore the Eastern-Han Dynasty?

And that’s how 1993′s Sango Fighter is laid out in its original documentation.

Back then, a small Taiwanese company called Panda Entertainment set out to design a historically accurate 2D fighter. The result was Sango Fighter — which was supposed to be marketed as “Violent Vengeance” in the US, but the distributor went with the original name.

Sango Fighter was also a Sega Master title called Sangokushi. Released exclusively in Asia, the Master port was 8MB and one of the largest in size ever released on the console.

This is, of course, a Dos title, but it has amazing graphics, a loud MIDI soundtrack and 12 playable characters based on real 2nd century Chinese warriors. The controls are a little awkward, but Sango Fighter is an enjoyable play and works perfectly in Dosbox. The shareware version is limited to fewer players and the first part of the story mode.

Sango Fighter never took off in the US. Street Fighter was already in arcades by 1987 and Midway put out it’s own 2D fighter — you may have heard of it, Mortal Kombat — in 1992, and Acclaim was quick to put out a home version. Sango Fighter never saw any Super Nintendo or Genesis (Mega Drive) action, which may have helped.

Download 1993′s Sango Fighter shareware free from Blast Magazine.

Today’s Old Shoebox feature is a game that brought me a ton of joy in the mid-90s. The game is Raptor: Call of the Shadows and the CD I originally found it on is called “Aztech’s Super Games,” a red CD-ROM that came bundled with my first 4x CD-ROM drive many years ago. The CD first exposed me to Duke Nukem (which Aztech spelled Nuk’Em) I and II, Blake Stone: Aliens of Gold, Biomence and a somewhat successful first-person shooter game called Doom.

Raptor: Call of the Shadows is one of the best Dos-based vertical shooters ever made. The concept was simple and quintessential to a period of gaming where you configured your sound card and never stopped shooting.

It was also fairly advanced for its April 1, 1994 release date. It had stunning graphics, background music and tons of individual sound effects from machine guns to missiles to explosions.

The plot was simple — you were a mercenary paid to eliminate “MegaCorp’s” competitors. Take it from 3D Realms: “In the future as a mercenary flying the super-tech Raptor, you’ll be sent on interplanetary missions to knock off top competitors of MegaCorp. Battle against hordes of relentless enemies. Spend the bounty you receive from their demise to expand your devastating arsenal, which can be upgraded with 14 hard core weapons!”

Raptor was mostly a keyboard-controller game but it supported mouse movement, joysticks and gamepads.

The came is divided into three sectors, giving you some new enemies and scenery in each: Bravo Sector, Tango Sector, and Outer Regions, with 9 levels in each region.

The first episode, the Bravo Sector, is largely urban/jungle, ending with a large enemy oil rig.

Tango Sector, the second campaign, includes some more variety including a chemical plant, farms, city environments and an airbase. In the final episode, Outer Regions, the player travels through moons, ice worlds and volcanic wastelands. The last two sectors also have a “night wave” where you fight at nighttime, adding to the game’s detail.

The Bravo Sector is the easiest of the three, and it allows players to save up money to weapon and shield upgrades to fight effectively in the other two campaigns later.

Raptor and many other classic titles are kept alive by 3D Realms/Apogee today. Developer Scott Host — whose company, Cygnus, worked on Raptor — now markets a windows version of the shooter.

Ye Olde System Requirements:

• 386DX/40 Computer (486DX2/66 strongly recommended)
• 2 meg of free memory (A 4 meg machine is recommended)
• 7.1 meg of Hard Drive Space (for shareware)
• 15.8 meg of Hard Drive Space (for registered)

Download Raptor: Call of the Shadows Shareware Edition free from Blast Magazine.

Updated: 12/7/07: Here’s a GREAT gameplay video.

A lot of people just haven’t gotten used to the new AOL Instant Messenger style. It’s completely different after all, and functionality or not, many people just want to chat — not video conference, not voice chat, just and lol and brb their nearest and dearest Internet friends.

So I dug deep into 15 years worth of archives and saving just about every file and found an old version of Instant Messenger from 2000 believed to be AIM 4.x.

Enjoy: [download id="3"]

Also, here’s AIM+
[download id="4"]
Happy Retro-AIMing!

Wikipedia’s list of AIM versions:

• AIM 1.5.234, with an unknown release date (for various Linux distributions)
• AIM 1.5.286, with an unknown release date (for various Linux distributions)
• AIM 4.3, with an unknown release date (for Mac OS 8.6 and earlier)
• AIM 4.3.2229, released in 2000, included with Netscape Communicator.
• AIM 4.7.1333, released on February 18, 2004 (for Mac OS X and Mac OS 9)
• AIM 4.8.2790, released on November 26, 2001 (for Windows 95)
• AIM 5.0.2829, released in September 2002 (for Windows 98/NT4/ME/2000/XP)
• AIM 5.1.3101, released in November 2002 (for Windows 98/NT4/ME/2000/XP)
• AIM 5.2.3292, released in July 2003 (for Windows 98/NT4/ME/2000/XP)
• AIM 5.5.3595, released in May 2004 (for Windows 98/NT4/ME/2000/XP)
• AIM 5.9.3702, September 2004 (for Windows 98/NT4/ME/2000/XP)
• AIM 5.9.3797, unknown release date (for Windows 98/NT4/ME/2000/XP)
• AIM 5.9.3844, unknown release date (for Windows 98/NT4/ME/2000/XP)
• AIM 5.9.3857, unknown release date (for Windows 98/NT4/ME/2000/XP)
• AIM 5.9.6089, released on August 31, 2006 (for Windows 98/NT4/ME/2000/XP)
• AIM 6.0.28.1, unknown release date (for Windows 2000/XP/XP/Vista x64)
• AIM 6.1.32.1, released on March 27, 2007 (for Windows 2000/XP/XP/Vista x64)
• AIM 6.1.41.2, released on May 3, 2007 for Windows 2000/XP/XP/Vista x64)
• AIM 6.5.4.16, released on October 10, 2007 for Windows 2000/XP/XP/Vista x64)

• AIM Pro 1.3 build 260, released on November 1, 2006 (for Windows 2000/XP)
• AIM Express, unknown release date, online version.
• AIM ET / LAIM / AIM Lite 0.31 Beta, released on June 9, 2007 (for Windows 2000/XP/Vista)

And if you’re really interested in retro instant messaging, check out the World’s Slowest Instant Messenger.

Lighthouse Interactive released a second patch for Born of Blood, the official expansion pack to the Windows space strategy game Sword of the Stars.

The update adds several enhancements to the English version of the game, including:

• New trade summary screen
• Improved ship manoeuvres, including rolling and off-the-plane pursuit mode
• New fleet management features
• New option to toggle area-effect weapons to automatic fire
• Improved AI combat maneuvering
• A mysterious new encounter!

“These new enhancements will make the game even more enjoyable,” said Lighthouse Interactive CEO, Erik Schreuder. “Born of Blood really is a must-play game for strategy fans.”

Update 1.4.1 (file size: 31 MB) upgrades both versions 1.3.6 and 1.4

Download FREE from Blast!

Lighthouse Interactive and developer Zoetrope Interactive released the official demo today for their upcoming psychological horror Adventure game, Darkness Within: In Pursuit of Loath Nolder. The scary Vista-compatible PC game was inspired by the works of H.P. Lovecraft and will be released on Halloween.

“The demo will take players into a world where nothing is as it seems,” said Onur Samli, CEO of Zoetrope Interactive. “Mysteries unfold and players will toe the fine line between sanity and insanity. We wanted to create an eerie game world where players will enjoy being frightened.”

Samli said the game packs an involving story that builds the protagonist’s character as the game goes on and you try to locate the fugitive murder suspect Loath Nolder.

“Darkness Within stands out from other games in its genre since it takes players deep into the dark recesses of the human psyche exploring themes such as the occult, nightmares and paranormal events,” said Erik Schreuder, CEO of Lighthouse Interactive. “The demo gives players a peek into the twisted world built around a compelling murder investigation. Darkness Within will keep players entertained for hours!”

The demo allows you to play one of the scenes you’ll encounter during the murder investigation. The company promises “strange happenings will occur, so players will need to keep their wits about them in order to escape the terrifying darkness.”

Official game summary:

As police detective Howard E. Loreid, players are tasked to solve the murder of Clark Field, a wealthy man involved in the occult. At the top of your list of suspects is Loath Nolder; a highly respected private investigator who mysteriously abandoned his last case for reasons unknown. Rumor had it that he ventured to several exotic places around the world learning from tribe shamans and sorcerers. It remains a great mystery as to why Loath Nolder disappeared so suddenly, resurfacing five years later and resuming his investigations just as abruptly as he had left them. Why does this venerated P.I. now sit on the other side of the law?Your seemingly routine investigation takes a dramatic twist as strange and terrifying happenings begin to plague your psyche. You experience lucid horrifying dreams and are tormented by paranormal happenings. Why do days pass instead of hours when you sleep? What’s real and what’s not? As you pursue fugitive murder suspect Loath Nolder, you must face dire truths hidden deep within a haunting darkness and the recesses of your mind.

Other game features:

• Built-in Hint System with 3 Difficulty Levels – Players can choose to play in Standard, Detective or Senior Detective modes.
• Unique Inventory System – Utilizing the ‘thinking screen’ allows players to collect and examine items, and thoughts. Clues can also be researched, combined or used.
• Dynamic Puzzles and Features – Traditional adventure game puzzles are complimented by deciphering dreams and underlining excerpts in documents to garner critical clues.
• Enhanced Gameplay Experience – The proprietary game engine enables compelling special effects, stunning visuals, and dynamic lighting and shading, in a panoramic first person game environment.
• Eerie Gameplay Atmosphere – An immersive experience is created by a fascinating story, chilling real-time cut scenes, and haunting music.

Download the demo (152 MB)

The official demo for Avencast: Rise of the Mage was released today in anticipation of the forthcoming Windows RPG release coming at the end of the month on PC DVD.

“Avencast combines role-playing with a fluid combat system found in beat-em-up games, which is unique to the RPG genre,” publisher Lighthouse Interactive and developer ClockStone Software, said jointly in a statement.

Avencast is Windows Vista compatible and has now gone gold. Michael Schiestl, CEO of ClockStone Software said, “Players will now have the chance to play the demo and experience first hand some of the exciting features in Avencast — intense, action-packed combat sequences, and mighty spells that are graphically stunning.”

Avencast features indoor and outdoor locations and more than 20 unlockable spells to unlock.

“This is just a taste of what Avencast has to offer,” Schiestl siad. “We hope players will enjoy challenging the malicious foes from the world of Avencast!”

Both companies are hopeful that the game will bring success.

“ClockStone created a unique and fluid combat system for Avencast that stands out and differs from other action RPGs,” said Erik Schreuder, CEO of Lighthouse Interactive. “The demo focuses on the combat system and spell casting.”

The demo features a tutorial, so players can learn the game before diving into it, as well as about 1.5 hours of gameplay, featuring spells, items and battles.

As the sun rises over Avencast, the renowned academy of magic; a young adept begins his perilous journey. In a world of wizardry, wonder and untold mystery, you must undertake some of the most diverse quests to hone your abilities in spell casting, weaponry and melee combat. Your martial skills are soon put to the test as demonic monsters of unknown ancient origin descend upon Avencast turning the academy into a horrific state of chaos and destruction.Armed with over 50 combat moves and spells, and a vast arsenal of equipment items, you must uncover the source of these ominous happenings while vanquishing an onslaught of fiendish enemies. Treachery and deceit reveal themselves as the vicious army of adversaries beleaguers your frail haven threatening Avencast’s very existence. Amidst the mayhem, an astonishing truth unfolds which will forever change the battle scarred Wizard. Avencast: Rise of the Mage is accessible to novice RPG game players, but it will also challenge core RPG and Action fans. Both combat and non-combat interactions create a perfect balance between brains and brawn. By requiring players to bring their own combat and strategic skills to the forefront, they will have the excitement of crafting a powerful character unleashing their hero’s potential.

Features:

• Cast Lethal Spells from Different Skill Trees – Surrounded by vicious foes, unleash a mighty soul magic spell. The pure agglomeration of energy alone produces a warp in the surrounding atmosphere before the catastrophic nova demolishes your enemies. Blood Magic (elementally charged blows with varying speeds, ranges, and damage properties) and Soul Magic (covers all kinds of ranged magic spells allowing better area control) – both allow players to summon reinforcements during combat.
• Perilous Quests – While brawn and agility will win most battles, acumen and strategic thinking are necessary to survive challenging quests.
• Fluid Combat System – Chain together spells and easily execute lethal attacks using an innovative system that favors skillful gameplay over dull mouse clicking. Unleash your hero’s potential as you bring your own player skills to each intense battle.
• Strong Player Personification and Character Development – Acquire new equipment, armor, weapons and spell casting skills to craft a powerful character.
• Over 30 Nightmarish Monsters with Advanced AI – Each with versatile combat strategies, attacks, and defensive moves dependant upon the player’s behavior and attack strategy.
• State-of-the-art 3D Engine – Stunning graphics enhanced with advanced visual effects make for an impressive display of devastating spell casting.
• Many Hours of Exciting Gameplay – Set in diverse worlds with both indoor and outdoor environments to explore.
• Attractive to a Broad Range of Players – An Action RPG at its core, but dynamic gameplay and adventure-like quests make Avencast attractive to a broad range of game players.

Download the Avencast demo here! (309 MB)