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.

MONTHLY 5 - March 2026

March is for movies, and with the Oscars crowning its achievements, I thought I'd crown one of mine. Braveheart (1999 Eidos Interactive, Paramount Pictures & Twentieth Century Fox) has long since been a troublesome game to run, being on my radar right from the very beginning of this sight. The wartime strategy game is now fully playable thanks to some testing and tweaking so go try it out for yourself!

That alone might've made it my pick of the month, but it's another strategy game that takes that for me. The Movies (2006 Lionhead Studios Limited). This business sim from the mind of Peter Molyneux has you create an entire movie studio where you can even make your own in-engine shorts. You won't get anything Oscar-worthy, but it's a fun ride nonetheless.

To round out the stacked month is the much-requested voice-recognition FMV adventure The Jungle Book (1996 International Business Machines Corporation & Disney), the cinematic platformer based on Michel Ocelot's underseen animated movie Azur & Asmar (2006 Ouat Entertainment & Emme), and the obligatory yet entertaining educational tie-in Shrek 2: Activity Center - Twisted Fairy Tale Fun (2004 DreamWorks L.L.C. & Activision Value).

As for gaming updates, the excellent adventure game The Gene Machine got some quality of life improvements including an upgrade to DOSBox-X and controller support. The addictive GameCube puzzle game ZooCube got a handheld companion with the GBA port as well as some Retroarch improvements. Yutaka Saitō's Yoot Tower also saw an addition with its Japanese-exclusive iteration called The Tower II. It's been minimally translated by me to the best of my abilities so we can get a look at those region-locked addons. Lastly, the early Metroidvania, Eye of Horus, got a complete overhaul with emulator updates, remapped controls and the addition of the inferior Commodore 64 port and the definitive Atari ST original. See each of their game pages for a full rundown on their changes.

The first half of this month was spent anticipating the Oscar ceremony itself. I gave you all my predictions during my February post, and as time went on I got increasingly unsure of my choices. I could see Sinners - one of my favourites of the year - being snubbed for most awards, and the talk would be it being one of the Academy's biggest losers (they are notoriously anti-horror), but it got more love than I thought. That loser talk instead shifted to Marty Supreme. In the end, I correctly predicted 15 out of 24, but I ain't mad. Those that won were well deserved in an incredibly strong year.

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As an aside, my PC decided to pack up on Friday, hence the potential delay of The Movies review. I've been wanting to get an upgrade sometime soon thanks to Windows 10 closing up shop but financial pressures said otherwise. I'll do my best to sort something out so I can get you more stuff next month, but consider this a heads up just in case I don't.

MONTHLY 5 - February 2026

February is traditionally the time for love, so let's get it on with five suiters from gaming past. First, we'll be wooing in style with National Lampoon's Blind Date (1994 Three Vision Interactive Pictures/Interactive Sales Group), an FMV consequence-driven adventure with some saucy comedy. Then, it's time to get some BANG! Gunship Elite (2000 Rayland Interactive & Red Storm Entertainment) for an energetic and fully-thrusted space sim. Quell your excitement as you dive deep into my personal pick, Sentient: Explore the Infinite (1997 Psygnosis Ltd), an action adventure that'll have your brain busting all over the place. Lap it all up doggy-style with a trip to the adventure game Dogday (1996 Asylum Productions Ltd). And, if you're still not satisfied, you can always play with your Mechwarrior (1989 Dynamix Inc, Activision Software & FASA Corporation).

I've a few updates comin' at ya for round two! Quik the Thunder Rabbit has a bunch of new additions, including the leaked prototype of the cancelled SNES sequel. UFOs (aka Gnap) now utilises ScummVM, though there's also the addition of a useful patch to update the remaining Windows  original. Lastly, The X-Files: Resist or Serve makes better use of the graphic features of new emulators and re-vamped the remapped keyboard controls. See each page or the Game Updates section for a full rundown on what's new.

That's quite a night ahead of you. Next month is Movie March thanks to the Oscars airing on March 15th (see my predictions below). I'll be gathering together a quintet of movie-themed games and some of them have been long awaited! I'll see you all then...

Head on after the jump to see the games...

TOP 10 GAMES OF 2025

 

 

The gaming landscape of 2025 was one of uncertainty. Uncertain if that big game from that big company would be as popular as it once was, uncertain job stability, uncertain if GTA would actually release to market, uncertain if I could actually afford a Switch 2... It's all quite worrying. What isn't uncertain is that some good games have released this year, and that I'll rank them into a (slightly belated) Top 10 list. Read on for my thoughts...

MONTHLY 5 - January 2026

2026 is here! And other than a nasty virus that kept me in bed for a week, it also brings the first batch of games escaping from the Collection Chamber. To keep the mood light mid-winter, the theme is music and pick of the month is a Myst-style adventure game revolving around a prog-rock band called Queensrÿche's Promised Land (1996 EMI Records). There's even a bonus disc that's your more traditional interactive encyclopedia. Despite its subtitle, that's all we get for out next game, Tommy: An Interactive Adventure - Then & Now (1996 Eel Pie Publishing Ltd & Backstage Productions Aps) that takes us behind the scenes of The Who's rock-opera, from album to stage musical to feature film.

If classical music is more your style, try and identify the re-jigged compositions of the classic works of Bach, Mozart and more through the iconography of Lewis Carrol's Wonderland in Alice in Music Land (1996 DS Multimedia Productions Ltd). To make your own music with the help of creepy crawlies, give SimTunes (1996 Electronic Arts & Maxis Inc) a go. Lastly, Coktel's last ever game was a mid-2000s rhythm-based mini-game collection called Kooka Bonga: Crazy Monkey Party (2006 Mindscape Northern Europe B.V.) is worthy of a look.

Alas, I haven't had time to return to some updates, and it looks like Top 10 Games will be a little late too (though my mammoth Top 10 Movies rundown is up). It's just me that works on this site, but my aim is to give you as many working old classics and oddities as I can. I'll be back at the end of February to do just that!

Until then, enjoy these musical ditties by clicking on the links after the jump.

TOP 10 MOVIES OF 2025

 

 

2025 seems to be a transitional year in movies. Pundits have long-since predicted the death of the superhero genre, and while I still enjoy many of them you cannot deny their appeal is waning. In its wake are a bunch of truly interesting movies that are increasingly gaining traction with the moviegoing public. Movies like Bugonia, One Battle After Another, Marty Supreme and Sinners beat out any marvel movie if not financially, than certainly critically. It feels like the aftermath of the death of the Western in the late 60s where auteur-lead features like Bonnie and Clyde and The Godfather began to dominate. For all the doom and gloom in the real world, as well as the viability of cinemas in the age of streaming, I'm actually optimistic for the future of films. But for now, let's look back on the past as I dissect all the films I saw in 2025...

CHRISTMAS COUNTDOWN - FULL RUNDOWN 2025

As we edge into 2026, I though I'd remind you of all of the games released during this year's epic Christmas Countdown. From a cyberpunk adventure to a spy-themed shoot, snowy mountain peaks to dreamlike hills, SkyRoads to Yellow Brick Roads, there's a breadth of games to rediscover. Enjoy!

CHRISTMAS COUNTDOWN - THE FESTIVE FINALE

It's Christmas!!!! And also the last day of the Collection Chamber Christmas Countdown 2025. It is also the last time I could possibly mark the event with a Lemmings game. I've brought together the three iterations that came out in 2006 to give you what I call Lemmings: A New Collection (2006 Team 17 & Sony Computer Entertainment Europe). It has the PSP original, the upscaled PS2 port (complete with early EyeToy emulation) and the digitally released PS3 game which, despite often being lumped together, is a completely different game.

And with that, the festive season is over. I hope you found something over the last twelve days to get excited about, even if it's Christmas itself. I'll be back in the new year with my annual list of my fave games and movies that came out over the last twelve months. Until then, get merry, be jolly and have a very Happy Christmas!

CHRISTMAS COUNTDOWN - Day 11

In the UK, it's become a long-standing tradition that The Great Escape movie would play on one of the TV channels Boxing Day. So, there's no better season to come back to The Great Escape (2003 Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer Studios & SCi Games Limited) the game than on Christmas Eve. It's your sworn duty!

Tomorrow is the big day itself! And our own tradition will be met, perhaps for the last time.

CHRISTMAS COUNTDOWN - Day 10

Day 10, and on this eve of the eve of Christmas, we pay tribute to Wicked by travelling to the Land of Oz. The obscure Japanese adventure Yellow Brick Road (1995 Synergy, Inc.). This is the US release, but that uniquely Nippon charm is all over it!

It may be Christmas Eve tomorrow, but the next game has long been associated with Boxing Day, at least to us Brits.

CHRISTMAS COUNTDOWN - Day 9

The days are counting down fast, and Day 9 of our epic Christmas Countdown give us a Disney Triple. First up is Disney's take on the digital game show You Don't Know Jack called The D Show (1998 Disney Interactive). Next is a traditional board game give some House of Mouse magic in Disney's Mahjongg (2003 Disney Interactive). Finally, we at long last complete the sub-list of educational mini-games in Disney's Tigger's Activity Centre (2001 Disney Interactive). 

Only three left to go, and who knows what strange Wicked-ness we'll see come tomorrow.

CHRISTMAS COUNTDOWN - Day 8

It's time to take to the slops for Day 8 of the Collection Chamber Christmas Countdown. Supreme Snowboarding (1999 Infogrames) - also known as Border Zone in the States - is fun arcade game based on the high-altitude extreme sport. If it turns out we're not having a white Christmas in real life, at least we can whiteout in some virtual snow instead.

There's three times the surprise tomorrow, but only uber-fans will earn those D bucks.

CHRISTMAS COUNTDOWN - Day 7

It's time to sail the Ocean Blue as we celebrate Day 7 of the Collection Chamber Christmas Countdown as we follow in Piri Reis' footprints as he creates the infamous map of 1513. Made by a small Turkish team, Piri, The Explorer Ship (1998 Sebit Inc) is so intertwined in its Myst-like adventure and fascinating historical edutainment that it's hard to categorise it as solely one or the other. Read on to find out my full thoughts.

From Ocean of Blue, to Mountain of White, we head off to one supremely extreme zone for tomorrow's Christmas gift.

CHRISTMAS COUNTDOWN - Day 6

I don't want to be a Gloomy Gus for Day 6 of of the Collection Chamber Christmas Countdown, but humanity is dead. Or at least it is in Machines: Wired for War (1999 Acclaim Entertainment) which posits a bunch of sentient robots on far off planets to make them compatible for Earth-kind. Instead, they factioned off into different colours to fight each other in a rather decent 3D real time strategy game.

Our explorations will be closer to home tomorrow, though who knows where the ancient map will take us...

CHRISTMAS COUNTDOWN - Day 5

As Simon the Sorcerer seems to making a bit of a comeback of late with the enjoyable Simon the Sorcerer Origins, I thought I'd revisit one of his more obscure titles of the past - Simon the Sorcerer's Puzzle Pack (1998 Adventuresoft Publishing). It includes 4 quirky desktop games, but read the review to find out which one's the best.

We'll be moving from magic to metal tomorrow, so come back to see what machinery we can make.

CHRISTMAS COUNTDOWN - Day 4

Sentinel Returns (1998 No Name Games Limited & Psygnosis) on this fourth day of the Christmas Countdown. This exceptionally atmospheric puzzle game is hard to pinpoint, but the fact that they got Halloween and The Thing movie director to helm the score tells you everything you need to know. Read on to find out my thoughts!

Come back tomorrow where we'll be eating swamp stew with an old friend.

CHRISTMAS COUNTDOWN - Day 3

On the third day of Christmas, the Collection Chamber will send you to the edge... Circuit's Edge (1990 Infocom & Westwood Associates) that is. This banger of a cyberpunk adventure with mild role-playing elements could easily fit into the Blade Runner universe. No wonder the company behind it (later renamed to Westwood Studios) would go on to make the Blade Runner game.

We will return with someThing tomorrow, and return we will! 

CHRISTMAS COUNTDOWN - Day 2

Day 2 of the the Collection Chamber Christmas Countdown, and it's time for some spying! Cate Archer returns as the super-cool queen of espionage as she travels the globe from Tokyo to Siberia to thwart a camp villain. That's right, it's Monolith's classic first-person-shooter No One Lives Forever 2: A Spy in H.A.R.M.'s Way (2002 Twentieth Century Fox, Monolith Productions & Lithtech, Inc.)!

Come back tomorrow for Day 3, and let's hope gravity won't fail you...

CHRISTMAS COUNTDOWN - Day 1

The Collection Chamber Christmas Countdown is finally here! And on this first day of celebrations we have SkyRoads: The Kosmonaut Collection (1990-1994 Bluemoon Interactive), a collection of endless runner alikes that randomly came back into mind after I played the remake of I, Robot on Steam earlier this year. As this is one of those shareware titles that got an Xmas Special, I knew then what would kick off this festive season. 

Included in the package is Kosmonaut, SkyRoads, SkyRoads: Xmas Special and the SkyRoads unreleased beta called Cosmonaut 2.

Come back tomorrow where we'll be exploring many locations, but only the frozen tundra of Siberia will be by Ski-Doo.

MONTHLY 5 - November 2025

Winter is officially here, and when the cold and rain comes it's time to stay inside and play some old PC games. 

I went down quite the rabbit hole with Herewith the Clues! (1996 Actual Screenshots). It's a murder mystery game for the Amiga that was adapted from a book that is often considered to be the birth of the genre. It was originally written by famed British horror author Dennis Wheatley (To the Devil a Daughter, The Devil Rides Out) in 1939 and not only is it a snapshot of London high society life in the months leading up to World War II, it's also a damn good detective puzzle. Check out my review to see if the game retains this, but a scan of the excellent book and other self-created goodies are in there too. So much so I'd call it my pick of the month.

There's strong competition for that spot, with Aliens versus Predator 2: Gold Edition (2001-2003 Twentieth Century Fox, Lithtech Inc & Sierra On-line), the classic FPS whose rights seem to be stuck in limbo. It came to mind after thoroughly enjoying Predator Badlands at the cinema and being mildly entertained by Alien Earth of Disney+. I'd describe my time with the game similarly to the former than the latter.

We also have Safecracker (1997 DayDream Software), a great first person adventure that has you cracking a bunch of logic-based lock boxes inside an empty mansion. Tellurian Defense (1999 Psygnosis) is an action-heavy flight sim that has you - rather predictably - protect a post-apocalyptic Earth from invading aliens. Lastly, Comedy Central's Sports Shorts (1994 Time Warner Interactive & HBO Downtown Productions) digitises clips from a bunch of 90s stand up acts that's perfect if you want a chuckle or two. Famous fresh-faced comedians like Adam Sandler, David Baddiel and more an appearance before their rise to stardom.

A couple of updates; Alien Anarchy adds a workaround and some saves to get past a crash bug that was apparently present on its initial release back in 1999, and the Pocky & Rocky Collection returns to the Collection Chamber after being removed 'cos some of the game are still sold. They are still available to buy so the newly re-jigged custom menu now links to the store page (with a guide to add them yourself if you have them) while the ones that aren't can still be played. There's a lot added to the package too, so check out the game page or the Game Updates section for a full rundown.

So, November is now over, but Christmas is coming and with it brings the Collection Chamber Christmas Countdown, an advent calendar of twelve games leading up to the day itself. It starts December 14th so don't miss it! I've got some great stuff planned.