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

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

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

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.