MONTHLY 5 - October 2026

It's that spooky season again, and the Collection Chamber has five Halloween treats to fill your pumpkin-shaped buckets with. 

Creature Shock (1994 Argonaut Software Limited) offers some spooky arcade fare in a great-looking pre-rendered shooter aboard an alien spacecraft overrun by abominations. The Interactive History of Frankenstein (1995 Three Blind Mice Interactive) does exactly what it says with the kind of flair you'd expect for a mid-90s multimedia CD-ROM. Scooby-Doo! Phantom of the Knight (2001 TLC Education Properties LLC & Warner Bros.) has some child-friendly spooks in an entertaining edutainment title. The Thing: Station Survival (2011 Universal Studios) is an obscure FPS advergame promoting the 2011 reboot of John Carpenter's seminal 80's movie that I never knew existed until recently. But my personal pick of the month has to go to something that's more of a comedic sci-fi than the spooky cover would have you believe; an obscure point-and-click adventure by the name of Master of Dimensions (1996 Makh-Shevet Ltd.). Enjoy!

As you can probably guess by my output over the last couple of months, I've struggled to keep up to date with the Collection Chamber. Rest assured, I still aim to keep at it but I've decided to use November as a catch-up month as well as prep for the annual behemoth that is the Christmas Countdown in December.  This means there won't be a Monthly 5 in November but I will keep you posted regardless. Hopefully by then I'll be on top of it all. 

Until then, happy gaming... if you dare!

MONTHLY 5 - September 2026

The month of September brings forth a bunch of interesting old-school games from the depths of the Collection Chamber. First up is an obscure point-and-click adventure by the name of Agharta: The Hollow Earth (2000 IQ Media Nordic) that has some decent Jules Verne vibes. For a more educational adventure, there's Pyramid: Challenge of the Pharaoh's Dream (1996 McGraw-Hill Home Interactive) that teaches about the building of those triangular tombs through puzzles.

If you want something with some action, there's two titles to rage over. Metal Rage: Defender of the Earth (1996 Titus) is a fun first-person mech shooter that has some nice polygonal environments while Dagger's Rage (1995 Microforum, Inc) is a top-down shoot-'em-up with some trade mechanics thrown in. 

Lastly, Take a Break! Pinball (1993 Sierra On-Line) will have your flippers flapping, especially if you're a fan of Sierra's old-school adventure games. It has tables dedicated to the most famous of them, and some not-so-famous ones.

That's it for this month. The end of October will bring with it some Halloween spookiness so come back then for more!

MONTHLY 5 - August 2026

It's Bank Holiday Monday here in the UK, so before you have to get back to the real world, venture into some virtual ones with August's selection of games from the Collection Chamber.

First up, head on over to Area D (1997 ARI-DATA CD GmbH) or Danger Island as it is known in some regions. It's an admiral low-budget dinosaur-filled adventure from the folks behind Titanic: An Undersea Adventure. For more violent adventuring, step into the shoes of Hopkins, FBI (1998 MP Entertainment) which might just be my pick of the month. The puzzle-bots in Star Wars: Pit Droids (1999 Lucas Learning Ltd. & Lucasfilm Ltd.) almost took that crown too, so this kid-friendly brain-teaser well worth a look. In the same vein, Tiny Toon Adventures: Buster and the Beanstalk (1996 TerraGlyph Interactive & Warner Bros.) is also aimed at younger kiddos, but the animation and humour in this edutainment title makes it still worth a look for Looney Tunes fans of all ages. Last but not least is the historical strategy of Man of War (1997 Strategy First, Inc.) that has you recreate famous naval battles in turn-based combat. Those with a tactical mind will get a kick (or a cannonball) out of it.

Only one update this month as the joys of Summer sucked up a lot of my free time (and it might be the cause of some late reviews that I have to apologise for). The Violinist of Hameln (aka Hameln no Violin Hiki) got some nice additions to its package, including a completely translated manual made by me. See the game's review page or the Game Updates section for more information.

And with that, another month is over. I'll see you at the end of September for some more.

MONTHLY 5 - July 2026

The scorching summer is still upon up as we suffer the fourth heatwave in as many months, and the UK is not build for this! Time to stay inside where this rare new-fangled thing called "aircon" and maybe play some classic PC games. 

If you've been to the cinema recently, chances are you saw The Odyssey. Event cinema at its finest. In honour of that, I've just about stitched together a playable version of Odyssey: The Search for Ulysses (2000 Cryo Interactive Entertainment & In Utero). This action adventure has the usual Cryo quirks, but is actually one of their better efforts. For something a little more obscure, try Final Odyssey: Theseus verses the Minotaur (1997 Vulcan Software Ltd), a highly entertaining puzzle-based action game that suffers only by being exclusive to the Amiga CD.

For more traditional adventuring, I've dusted off the comedy point-and-click Bud Tucker in Double Trouble (1996 Merit Studios (Europe) Ltd) which features the voice of British comedy legend Rick Mayal - perhaps my pick of the month. The oft-request platformer Pitfall: The Mayan Adventure (1995 Activision, Inc) is also making a come back. I had been working on it for quite some time, but as I researched further it seems like the technical issues I was encountering were there on its original release. Make sure you read the ChamberNotes for this one to find out which setting plays the best.

Lastly, after a minor health scare, I gave myself the task of being a surgeon, specifically a Virtual Surgeon: Open Heart (1997 ISM Interactive). Nothing to do with my actual issue, but this educational FMV job sim did come to mind. It's quite graphic in its depiction of real surgeries, so a content warning is advised.

That's it for July. No updates I'm afraid, life and time got the better of me, but I'll be sure to get on that for August. Until then, enjoy these resurrected gems by following the links after the jump...

MONTHLY 5 - June 2026

My god has it been hot this past June. The 40°c heatwave that blasted throughout the U.K. has been incredible, and there's another one on the way in a matter of week (if any of the reviews end up being late, this is why)! So, get away from the heat and into some air con (if you're lucky enough to have it) and play some old video games.

And as it's feeling like desert heat out there, why not visit an actual one in the historic adventure Egypt 1156 B.C.: Tomb of the Pharaoh (1997 Réunion des Musées Nationaux, Canal+Multimedia & Cryo Interactive Entertainment). Cool down in some high seas before going on a pillage with the strategy game Cutthroat: Terror on the High Seas (1999 Hothouse Creations & EIDOS Interactive). If ancient Egypt or the Caribbean isn't your thing, how about a trip to Europe in the mysterious adventure game The Watchmaker (2002 Trecision SpA & Got Game Entertainment LLC). And for the action-hounds, we have the action-heavy helicopter sim Hellfire Zone (1995 Absolute Entertainment Inc. & Gametek (UK) Ltd.) or the hovercraft first-person-shooter Rapid Assault (1995 GTE Vantage Incorporated & IBM Corporation).

As for the ongoing update project, there's three to talk about this month. The PC version of the classic puzzle game ZooCube ZQ has been updated for compatibility with Windows 11, as has Spider-Man 2: Activity Centre. Among other upgrades, Shadow of Destiny has had its speed problem fixed thanks to some tweaks to the updated dgVoodoo config. Visit their game pages or the Game Updates section for more information.

MONTHY 5 - May 2026

After a chaotic couple of months, I'm trying to get to some semblance of normality come May's close. And so, I bring you the return of the Monthly 5. Pick of the month is the Myst-like adventure game Sentinel: Descendants in Time (2004 Detalion SC), a game I've owned physically since its release but never played fully until now. Almost as much fun is the arcade flight combat sim Arfix Dogfighter (2000 Paradox Entertainment AB) which has you control model aircraft around every-day locales Micro Machines-style.

On the more obscure side of things is the overlooked FMV sight-seeing spy adventure C.I.T.Y. 2000: London (1993 Rollogame & Aditus Inc) which is a unique time capsule of my country's capital from the early 90s. Then there's the Ocean-published action-adventure hybrid Guts 'n' Garters in DNA Danger (1997 Magic Canvas Entertainment) which has more going for it than at first glance.

To round out the month is a return to the light and bubbly world of Disney with Disney-Pixar Monsters, Inc. Wreck Room Arcade (2002 Disney Interactive), a collection of mini-games that were sold separately to tickle that collectable instinct in us all.

That's not all! I've been doing my best to update as many games as I can for those of us who've taken the plunge on Windows 11 like I've recently have had to do. The native versions of Virtua Cop and Virtua Cop 2 now use dgVoodoo and Thexder for Windows '95 has improved compatibility with the Indeo video codec. Stupid Invaders removed an old DxWnd setup and now relies solely on the more stable current version of dgVoodoo. Last but not least, Star Wars: Monopoly now uses a nifty piece of software I've recently discovered called DREAMM. See each title's game page or visit the Game Updates section for a full rundown on what's been changed. I'll be keeping it updated as and when a new version gets completed, so check back there often.

I'll be back at the end of June for some more retro-gaming goodness, but in the meantime check out this month's choices after the jump...

UPDATE - APRIL 2026

Those who follow me may know that I have recently got a spanking new Windows 11 PC. I wasn't planning this, as I wanted to wait until Microsoft cut off European support for Windows 10 this coming October (a year later than the US as demanded by the EU consumer protection laws). Alas, my PCU died last month so I decided to bite the bullet early and scramble some money together to get a new desktop PC. 

This means that this past month has been dedicated to setting up and organizing my new desktop and checking on the compatibility of existing games on this site. That's over 150 windows-based games I've been testing (a far cry from the 8 I had to check when upgrading to Windows 10 back in 2015). I'll be detailing about where I'm at with that after the jump. Some partially work, some are broken and need more troubleshooting, and some have simple solutions that you can easily implement yourselves in the meantime before I get round to revising and updating the packing. I'm planning to get back to my regular monthly fives next month, but until then check out this updates post below.