SHANNARA

In 1977, Terry Brooks wrote the first novel in his Shannara series and cemented epic fantasy on his readers rarely seen since The Lord of the Rings. In 1995 Legend Entertainment developed the as yet only adaptation of his work; Shannara (note: an underwhelming MTV series aimed at teens has since aired)...

ROLLCAGE HD

If there was any particular game that made you want a PlayStation at launch, it was Psygnosis' WipEout. Previously, racing games were mostly cutesy kart racers or realistic simulations. In 1999, they did it again with its spiritual successor - the blisteringly fast Rollcage series.

QUIK THE THUNDER RABBIT

The early to mid-nineties; a special time when every platformer ever conceived wanted to be either Sonic the Hedgehog or Mario the plumber. Some were not particularly shy in hiding this fact and none more so than Titus Software's 1994 attempt - Quik The Thunder Rabbit...

POCKY & ROCKY COLLECTION

We're going Japanese again for today's review. It's a long running series based on well-known legends; Kiki KaiKai or Pocky & Rocky as it's better known over here.

OH NO!

Oh No! is a Japanese on-rails 3D running game developed by Tycoon and published in 2000 for the PlayStation by a collaboration between Asmik Ace Entertainment and TBS. TBS stands for the Tokyo Broadcasting System, the Japanese television giant that brought Takashi's Castle to the world. Anyone who has seen that show knows how crazy it is, and that's nothing compared to what we'll find in Oh No!...

NOCTURNE

Nocturne is a fun 3D horror game that takes a lot of inspiration from the Resident Evil games as well as the cultural phenomenon that was The X-Files, but can this original tale of demon hunting capture an audience like those frachises could?

MONTY PYTHON & THE QUEST FOR THE HOLY GRAIL

Monty Python and the Quest for the Holy Grail is a multi-media story book of sorts created by 7th Level in 1996. It is based off of the infamous Monty Python movie of (almost) the same name. If this movie doesn't top a list of Greatest Comedy Movies of All Time, it's because Life of Brian trumped it. Does the game live up to the lofty heights of the movie? Or John Cleese? Let's find out...

THE COLOUR OF MAGIC & OTHER STUFF

Terry Pratchett's words and worlds have inspired generations of film-makers, game designers and more. There is not enough time to delve into all that I want to talk about in depth in my week-long tribute to the great man, so here is a little primer into to other things Discworld from the ZX Spectrum to our tabletops...

GOING POSTAL

In 2010, Sky1 broadcast their third and last Terry Pratchett adaptation; Going Postal. It may not have starred the familiar faces casual fans have grown to love from the series such as Rincewind or Death, but it is perhaps the most entertaining of the three.

DISCWORLD NOIR

While the first two Discworld games had a colourful cartoony approach, the third game in the series went in a completely different direction. With it's dark, rain-drenched aesthetic, Discworld Noir would spell the death knell for Perfect 10 Entertainment, but they were adamant that they would go out with a bang...

THE COLOUR OF MAGIC

After the great success that was The Hogfather, Sky1 commissioned another Pratchett adaptation. Broadcast during the 2008 Easter holidays, it would this time be based on the very first novel (and its sequel) in the Discworld the universe; The Colour of Magic...

DISCWORLD 2: MISSING, PRESUMED...?

If you've managed to figure out your fireworks and your custard pies, you may have successfully reached the end of the first Discworld game. Well, Rincewind's troubles are not over yet for there was a sequel; Discworld 2: Missing, Presumed...? (or Mortality Bytes to some of you)...

THE HOGFATHER

In the second of our week-long tribute to Terry Pratchett, we take a look at the first live-action adaptation of Pratchett's work. The Hogfather...

DISCWORLD

Thursday saw the sad passing of one our greatest authors, Terry Pratchett. He is perhaps one of the most beloved and influential authors of his generation. To celebrate his life and work, I will dedicate a whole week to all things Pratchett, reviewing his adaptations in digital and celluloid. We begin a classic; the 1995 adventure game Discworld...

KID KLOWN

After a morbid couple of releases, let's move on to something a bit more light-hearted for Mother's Day. And what could be more light-hearted than a clown! A child clown to be precise, who goes by the name of Kid Klown...

HAPPY MOTHER'S DAY

http://www.dorkly.com/post/62647/a-videogame-mothers-day

JACK IN THE DARK

The Alone in the Dark trilogy were landmark games, often cited as being the first in the Survival Horror genre that Resident Evil popularised a few years later. What you may not know is that a standalone demo was released prior to the first sequel. This demo is the bizarre foray into a demonic toy shop that it Jack in the Dark...

THE INNOCENTS

In 1961, director Jack Clayton ushered one of literature's finest ghost stories to the silver screen. It has often been eclipsed by the similar black and white spook-fest The Haunting released a few years later. Today, The Collection Chamber will release the greatest telling of Henry James' The Turn of the Screw - The Innocents...

HORROR ZOMBIES FROM THE CRYPT

Horror Zombies form the Crypt was developed for the European market for the Amiga, Atari ST and PC in 1990. It's been heavily inspired by the 1950's B-grade horror movies that were popular in the 50s and 60s. Does it deserve to be released from the Collection Chamber? Let's take a look and find out.

GHOST IN THE SHELL

In 1995, an animated movie from Japan was released to great critical acclaim. It has since inspired the Wachowski's Matrix Trilogy, spawned several sequels and television shows and is credited as being one of the movies to bring about a Japanime boom in the west. Two years later, it was adapted into a video game exclusively for the PlayStation. Unlike its cinematic counterpart, it eventually found itself amongst the forgotten residents of the Collection Chamber.

FABLE

When you think of Fable the game, you think of fantastic worlds, ghostly apparitions and a scrappy youth about to travel bravely on a magical quest. I do too. But the game I'm thinking of didn't spawn two divisive sequels, nor does it roam free with an HD remake. The game I'm thinking about has been held up in the Collection Chamber since 1996...

ECHO NIGHT

Echo Night is a horror adventure game released in 1999 for the original PlayStation. Considering the vast popularity of Sony's first console, you wouldn't have thought many of its titles are held in the Collection Chamber. This couldn't be farther from the truth...

DISNEY'S ANIMATED STORYBOOK: HERCULES

So far, our more twisted inmates have been chosen to be freed from the Collection Chamber, but today I'd like to introduce you to a more innocuous detainee; Disney's Hercules: The Animated Storybook...

THE CONGRESS

While the majority of those contained with the Collection Chamber hail from the days of yesteryear, The Congress, a 2013 movie that premiered in England during August of last to great critical acclaim, has only seen a home DVD release this past December. It is an animation/live-action hybrid by the same team that gave us the awesome animated documentary Waltz with Bashir, proving that director Ari Folman has lost none of his inventive vigour after the transition to the English language.

BUREAU 13

Bureau 13 is a point-and-click adventure game developed by Take-Two Interactive and released to the European PC market by GameTek in 1995. At the time, it received mixed reviews, praising its then state-of-the-art graphics and its few unique mechanics, while bemoaning the dull script and dubious voice acting.

ABUSE

Abuse is a run-and-gun shooter, developed by Crack Dot Com and released in early 1996 by Origin Systems in Europe. Heavily inspires by the Predator and Alien franchises, this PC exclusive was hailed at the time for its unique and intuitive control method, but suffered poor sales leading to its incarceration.

WELCOME

Hello guests, and welcome to the Collection Chamber.

Every day, depending on good behaviour, I will release a game or movie from the vault, posting a review of their freshly reformed status. I will document the theories behind their incarceration, as well as post links on where you can obtain their newly pardoned code. While they will mostly be in the form of a download link, some lucky ex-inmates will have fully reformed, being re-released online through Steam, Amazon or GOG.com.

I don't believe classic games and cinema should be locked up in the vault forever, so I have opened the gates, introducing these entertaining inmates to modern platforms though a customised installation.

I hope you will enjoy their newly found freedom in the modern world, and their relief from obsolescence and obscurity. Please let me know your thoughts about other prisoners that have gotten very few visitation rights and I will see what I can do as we dig deep into the Collection Chamber.

The Biffman