If you saw one film in cinemas this past month, chances are it was Dungeons & Dragons: Honor Among Thieves. I saw it with most of my D&D group and had an awesome time - perhaps the most fun I've had in a theatre post-pandemic. So, I thought I'd dig out some old D&D games of yesterear and give them a whirl. Of the three chosen for this month's monthly five, classic computer RPG Pool of Radiance: Ruins of Myth Drannor (2001 UbiSoft Entertainment) is my fantasy pick of the month, but with its mix of wargame strategy and first-person role-playing, Birthright: The Gorgon's Alliance (1996 Sierra On-Line) is also pretty good. Less so is Iron & Blood: Warriors of Ravenloft (1996-1997 TSR & Acclaim Entertainment). This one-on-one fighter featuring well-known D&D characters, classes and races is pretty pants and I tried both the DOS and PlayStation versions in a vain attempt to find something good. For kusoge gamers only.
Beyond the giant lizards and underground chambers, I've kept the variety up with a much-requested mech action game called G-NOME (1997 7th Level Inc). For adventure-gamers there's the obscure Amiga point-and-clicker called Sixth Sense Investigations (1998 CineTECH); a respectable indie game that's heavily inspired by LucasArts' Day of the Tentacle. It's pretty good too if you can forgive its terrible Leicester-accented voice acting.
For this month's updates, we begin with Obsidian which now takes advantage of its induction to ScummVM's list of supported games. The Amazing Spider-Man Collection has also been updated and tweeked which fixes errors, adds manuals and updates emulators. See the Game Updates section or head on over to their review pages for full update info.
That's it for this month! I'll see you at the end of May for more classic gaming goodness. Until then, head on after the jump to read my thoughts on April's ragtag group of aging code.
Click on the images below to head on over to the game page.
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1996 Sierra On-Line
DOS
Strategy-Role Play-Fantasy-Wizars!-D&D!
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1997 7th Level Inc
Windows '95
Action-FPS-Sci Fi-Mechs!
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1996-1997 TSR & Acclaim Entertainment
DOS + PlayStation
Action-Fighter-Fantasy-Wizards!-D&D!
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2001 UbiSoft Entertainment
Windows
Role Play-Fantasy-Wizards!-D&D!
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1998 CineTECH
Amiga
Adventure-Point & Click-Comedy-Sci Fi
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Dungeons & Dragons: Honor Among Thieves is awesome movie, indeed... went to cinema two times to watch it. So let's dive in Pool of Radiance then! :-) Never heard about Sixth Sense...looks very interesting, as well as Birthright. Excellent selection for this month, thanks!
ReplyDeleteI couldn't get the review out in time (sorry!), but I had the special edition of Pool of Radiance a few years after it came out. Paid only £1 for it at HMV in 2004. I remember it pretty fondly and it seems to have held up from what I've played again so I was surprised that it wasn't reviewed particularly well at the time. I guess comparisons to Baldur's Gate and Icewind Dale will that to you. Birthright was a pleasant surprise, though you'll have to hunker down and stick with it.
DeleteSixth Sense Investigations isn't the best adventure game out there, but I did get a lot of enjoyment out of it. Let me know what you think if you get round to playing it.
Why, Ambassador Biffman, with these games you are really spoiling us.
ReplyDeleteA sign of good taste indeed :)
DeleteAs always many thanks for all your greatly appreciated hard work Mr B..
ReplyDeleteYou're welcome!
DeleteYeah honor among thieves was amazing. It almost felt like Guardians of the galaxy in the DND world. And I'm glad I saw it
ReplyDeleteMe too. And Guardians is likely the next film I'll see too.
DeleteWell, I couldn't give a damn about D&D Honour Among Thieves, even if it's apparently a massive improvement over the first attempt at a Dungeons & Dragons film back in 2000... But G-Nome? The mech simulator-cum-backdoor pilot game to Dominion? Time to break out the flightstick and Gundamjack some mechs!
ReplyDeletePS. The only films I'll watch this year in the cinema are Evil Dead Rise and The Super Mario Bros. Movie (the latter ANOTHER surprisingly improved second attempt at adapting a popular IP).
PSS. Drowned God: Conspiracy of the Ages when, Biffman 101? I mean, you already have Dark Eye and Bad Day on the Midway, why not complete the trifecta of Inscape adventures with their most Myst-influenced one of the lot?
Only three of this five were based on D&D. Considering last month was a themed month, I didn't want to have two in a row. You should give a damn about the D&D movie btw. It's much better than the new Mario Bros which I felt was too busy and chaotic to let it's story and charactes breathe). I would rate it as one of the best films I've seen in 2023 so far. The new Mario may be miles better than the insane 90s one, but less interesting IMO.
DeleteG-Nome has been requested quite a bit in recent months, so that's why that's here. It's a decent mech shooter. As for Drowned God, I put it on the back burner as Zombeaver has it on his site. I do want to play it and include at some point though.
Honour Among Thieves is a really good fun movie. Encourage everyone to watch it.
ReplyDeleteBiffman 101 !!!!!!!!
ReplyDeleteYou broke the bank in April. The whole thing is amazing.
POOL OF RADIANCE: RUINS OF MYTH DRANNOR - I trying run it many years ago but dont see the sprites of characters. They was transparent.
Second - BIRTHRIGHT: THE GORGON'S ALLIANCE. What a game. I trying play it too many years ago but crashes me on adventures.
G-Nome - yes! We have mechs as you promise :D Never played but need to test it.
Iron & Blood: Warriors of Ravenloft and Sixth Sense Investigations never played too.
100 x Thank you very much.
PS> Do you remeber old time - 1997 Magic The Gathering from Microprose ?
Greg
I have the big boxes of the OG Magic: The Gathering and Battlemage but haven't got around to doing anything with it. Both seem to have a slew of addons I need to hunt down too.
DeleteYes.
DeleteThe Duels of the Planeswalkers released in 1998 includes the original game and all of the upgrades from Spells of the Ancients + 80 new cards from the expansion sets Legends and The Dark.
I found yesterday a MTG 2010 updated Fan edition from SlightlyMagic.net.
And Shandalar 2012.
But not tested it.
Have a good day :D
Greg
Just Wow! As others have said, great work this month Biffman!
ReplyDeleteI've always wanted to try Pool of Radiance. I remember it was harshly criticized on release and compared unfavourably (unfairly maybe?) to the Baldur's Gate series. Upon trying to play it a few years after release I never managed to get it to run. Looking forward to finally playing it!
I've heard about Birthright and remember as a young lad thinking it seemed a little like the Conqueror game from the same years. Never had a chance to play but will do now.
As for G-Nome, thank you for considering your community's requests! Such an original and relatively obscure game. I played it on release but never finished it. If I may be so bold as to add another voice to the one earlier in these comments requesting/mentioning the Dominion game (full name: Dominion: Storm Over Gift 3). It's the "sister" RTS game release to G-Nome, taking place in the same universe with the same factions.
I know strategy games are not your favourite style but it would complete the series well and is also unobtainable today... And help soothe completionists like me haha.
Thanks again and take care!
Isolder
You're right in that strategy games aren't really my thing, but that doesn't mean I won't try them out. I did a bit of digging on Dominion and it had an interesting production starting off as a direct spin-off to G-NOME developed in-house at 7th Level. They then went bust and Ion Storm of John Romero fame took over. I'm sure I'll get to it at some point.
DeleteHey, a request, could you please do The Adventures of Pinocchio?
DeleteYes Dominion's difficult development cycle is definitely interesting from an historical gaming perspective. I had a great time with the game back in the day but never managed to finish it.
ReplyDeleteAnd yes I did notice you're still very open to releasing strategy games and we (well definitely me haha) thank you for it! The 90's were a golden age for RTS's style strategy games especially, and still so many of them are no longer officially available. Your relatively recent release of Dune 2000 was a godsend and definitely looking forward to its follow-up Emperor's release that you're timing I believe for the movie sequel.
Speaking of which, just saw the sequel's trailer today, really looking forward to it. Thanks again for all the great releases Biffman!
Yes. It will be here the end of November after the film comes out. One of my most anticipated of the year!
DeleteThanks!
ReplyDeleteHopefully they're in the vein of what you were looking for...
DeleteAny chance you could aim your magic towards Trilobyte killer, Clandestiny at some point in the future please? I can't get hold of a fully stable Win 10 working version (SCUMM one is tad glitchy) and I love that game (given its low sales I sometimes think I was the only person who actually bought it sadly) and GOG have strangely not acquired it.
ReplyDeleteFantastic work, Biffman! Just wondering if you could look into adding Dark Vengeance to Collection Chamber as well?
ReplyDeleteHi Biffman,
ReplyDeleteYou are awesome. The care and attention you pay to each upload shows and you are doing great work in preserving some long forgotten titles.
I have recently discovered the Collection Chamber and enjoyed reading your write up for each entry and discovering some gems from the past.
Loving this blog, Keep up the good work, and keep providing your readers with helpful blogs.
ReplyDelete