MONTHLY 5 - FEBRUARY 2024

So, it seems life got in the way of January's monthly five, so I've made sure I wouldn't miss out on the short month of February. It's a Leap Year so there's an extra day after all!

Coming at ya with some underrated games including Z.P.C. Zero Population Count (1996 Zombie LLC) which marks my pick of the month. It's an uber-violent first-person shooter with a cool comic-book style and a dystopian sci-fi storyline. Continuing on from this theme is ARA NGC 6397 (1998 I. Hoffmann + associates Inc & Artech Digital Entertainment), a good-looking pre-rendered actioner with some adventure elements that remind me a lot of the on-ground segments of Star Wars: Rebel Assault II. If you want a straight-up adventure try Gord@k (1997 I. Hoffmann + associates Inc)- pronounced Gordak - which has you hack into a virtual reality security system that just so happens to look a lot like Myst. Us Brits will surely get a kick out of Only Fools and Horses: Comedy Pack (1999 BBC Worldwide Ltd), a multimedia CD-ROM that contains a GTA clone as a mini-game; Grand Theft Peckham if you will. Lastly, the guy behind Tetris provides the handsomely produced puzzle game that is Pandora's Box (1999 Microsoft Corporation). It's probably the best digital jigsaw game out there.

That's it for this additional day. Join me at the end of March for a quintet of movie-themed games. Adios!

MONTHLY 5 - April 2023

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.

CHRISTMAS COUNTDOWN - DAY 10

On this eve of Christmas Eve, I posit to you a question to ponder over... Could a trout run for public office?

While that thought is percolating around your brain, take a gander at Mind-Gym (1997 Melrose Interactive & NOHO Digital) where such thoughtful quandries and more will expand one's understanding of one's self. Or you could just discover how a cucumber can save the world, it's all good in this comedic send up of self-help books. Or is it?

Stop scratching your brain and click on the links after the jump to find out!

CHRISTMAS COUNTDOWN - DAY 5

On the 5th day of Christmas my true love gave to me... Dr. Drago's Madcap Chase (1995 Blue Byte Software)! It's a board game unique to PCs taking advantage of all (read: some) of the pixelated whizbangery the mother board will allow. It's like if It's a Mad Mad Mad Mad World took place in Europe and everyone took their turns on their way to the end. Read on after the jump to see where you'll place.

CHRISTMAS COUNTDOWN - DAY 4

The tree is up, presents are wrapped and now the pitchforks are out. We've got Beasts and Bumpkins (1997 Electronic Arts) on the plate for Day 4 of the Collection Chamber Christmas Countdown, and if you like a real-time-strategy with a bit of hanky panky, then you're in luck. Build your village, breed peasants and kill all those who oppose you. Pretty standard stuff, then. Read on to view my thoughts.

MONTHLY 5 - November 2022

This year has flown by. You blink, and it's the end of November! I've mostly been engrossed in God of War: Ragnarok since it came out, but the rest of my free time has been dedicated to The Collection Chamber. There are 5 great games featured this month so check out the obscure movie licenced FMV adventure (with too many arcade bits) Eraser Turnabout (1996 Imagination Pilots & Warner Bros.), the many versions of the underrated action platformer Fur Fighters (2000 Bizarre Creations Ltd), the Norse-themed role-playing sequel Heimdall 2: Into the Hall of Worlds (1994 Core Design), a classic point-and-click adventure starring everone's favourite sleuth The Lost Files of Sherlock Holmes: The Case of the Serrated Scalpel (1992 Mythos Software & Electronic Arts) and Bill Plympton's Take Your Best Shot (1995 7th Level Inc) a desktop toy based on his award-winning 1991 short Push Comes to Shove.

There are a couple of revisions too. Kiss: Psycho Circus - The Nightmare Child now uses a Windows 10 patch instead of dxWnd granting it better compatibility. I've also added a scan of the manual too. The Neverhood has also been revised updating ScummVM and fixing some save-game and screenshot annoyances. If you've not played either before, give them a go. They're pretty good.

To try the others, head on past the jump and dive in.

MONTHLY 5 - August 2022

Summer is coming to a close, but what better way to distract from the boredom of the office job/school work/financial crisis than a nostalgic trip to the 90s with a quintet of lesser known gems of the era. My good pal Austin is back with a review of SpaceKids (1995 MicroProse) , a strange supposedly educational title that plays like a wordless multi-path adventure. One adventure game I've always been meaning to play is Escape from Delirium (1995 Virtual X-Perience), a shareware title who wears its LucasArts inspiration on its sleeves. For a more Myst-like adventure, try Titanic: A Mysterious Undersea Adventure (1998 Dosch Design GmbH) which has more to do with an Atlantis-like sunken city than a sunken passenger ship. If you want a little more action, the mech shooter Iron Assault (1995 Graffiti) may be more up your alley or, if you want to drive fast through the British countryside, give Mobil 1 Rally Championship (1999 Actualize Ltd & Magnetic Scrolls Ltd) a go.

That's not all! I've updated a couple of packages too! Azrael's Tear now uses a different fork of DOSBox to help even out its speed (though like the original game, it is still prone to the odd slowdown). I've also updated both the DOS and PlayStation version of Silverload. Among the plethora of changes, the DOS original now includes a scan of the manual while the PlayStation remake now supports mouse control. Head on over to their game pages to download and find out more.

And while your at it, check out August's games by clicking on the links after the jump...

MONTHLY 5 - APRIL 2022

'Tis April, and it's time to go back to a Monthly quintet of oldschool PC gaming. Fancy some action? Check out the futuristic shooter Eliminator (1998, Psygnosis). How about a visit to a spooky old mansion? Try Escape from the Haunted House (1997, New Media Generation).  A puzzle-heavy action RPG? We got you covered with Power Sokoban (1999, Nintendo, Thinking Rabbit). Want a movie instead? Watch the interactive kind that is Quantum Gate II: The Vortex (1994 HyperBole Studios). If none of that tempts you, why not abduct some sheep to build tanks in the strangest of real-time strategies, Tankics (1999, Gremlin Interactive, DMA Design). Read on to find out more!

HIDDEN GEMS - TOP 10 STRANGEST RETRO ADVENTURES

 

Have you ever picked up a random game bought from the local game shop or downloaded from a random abandonware blog and be confronted with some of the craziest shit you've ever seen? I have. More than once. In fact, I actively go seeking for them. Some of the strangest games I've ever played fall into the point-and-click adventure category so for your entertainment I've collated 10 of them and arbitrarily rated them from worst to best.

Out of the 10, there are 4 games newly escaped from the Chamber. Placed somewhere on list is Bad Milk (2000 Dreaming Media), DEVO Presents Adventures of the Smart Patrol (1996 Inscape), Who's Fat Lou? (1996 Mediola SRL), and the English translation of Eastern Mind II: Middle Heaven Chu-Teng (1995 Sony Music Entertainment (Japan), Osamu Sato & OutSide Directors Company) . There's also a fair few updates too so check them out after the jump and stay tuned for the rather lengthy video coming very soon...

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THE CHRISTMAS CATCHUP - DAY 7

Get prepared for Christmas with P.Y.S.T. (1996 Palladium Interactive), Parroty Interactive's parody of... I forget.

Practice your 'groan' face with the sub-cracker worthy puns. Apply mindful serenity in the face of argumentative family members as you encounter a topless John Goodman in a jacuzi. Strengthen your endurance by just playing the damn thing. Time to get pissed...  I mean PYST... Or do I?

MONTHLY 5 - AUGUST 2021

It's the August Bank Holiday Weekend and that means music! Whether you're slumming it at Reading Festival or tripping around one of the many smaller events, the sounds of Summer is here. So, I've dedicated this month's quintet of quality games to top tunes. Accompany MTV's resident music video commentators on their trip to university in Beavis & Butt-Head Do U (1998 MTV Networks & GT Interactive), their second point-and-click adventure. Defy the devil with a magic guitar in the tough as leather 2D platformer Johnny Bazookatone (1995 Arc Developments & U.S. Gold). Destroy the overlords with a little help from Aerosmith in Revolution X (1994-1996 Midway), their classic light-gun shooter and some no-so-classic ports. Play as the frontman  of a metal band as he plays another game within a game in the third-person-shooter Virtuoso (1994 Motivetime Ltd). Finally, rock out with the Rolling Stones in their Voodoo Lounge CD-ROM (1995 Virgin Benelux) dedicated to the late Charlie Watts. Enjoy!

I also want to plug an app a good friend of mind is developing for players of Dungeons & Dragons. The Goblin's Notebook is a single-pane view of your tabletop RPG campaign notes for pre-session planning, in-session note taking and post-session recapping, all direct from a web browser! I've been using it as a DM in my recent campaign and it's become an incredibly invaluable tool. Check out The Goblin's Notebook for free by visiting this link now!

Before I forget, there are a few updates too! Last month, I forgot to tell you all that Bermuda Syndrome got a new version that works natively on Windows. It looks better too! Also, the underrated futuristic racer, Scorcher, got an update. Head on over to their game pages to find out more.

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MONTHLY 5 - JULY 2021

The end of July is here, and so there is another quintet of games I managed to get working on Windows 10. There were a few stops and starts this time, with several projects having to be put aside due to bugs and crashes later in the game. I thought I managed to get the long-gestating Dark Side of the Moon working, but it constantly crashed on me when ringing the bell at the casino (you'll know if you've played it). Another was Liath: WorldSpiral before I found out some of the speech was all buggered. It looked like it could've been true of the original release, but there's so little information out there that isn't in Russian so I can't be sure. Alas neither was meant to be. Nor my punctualty it seems, as I've again merged two months of of games into one for the video round-up. You can check it out below if you want to see these games in action. Then, once you've done so, click on the links after the jump to read their full review and play them for yourselves. There's some doozies too, including the action-fest that is Esoteria: Techno-Assassin of the Future (1998 Mobeus Design & Kirin Entertainment), the puzzle-fest that is Jewels of the Oracle (1995 Discis Entertainment), the sports-fest that is Alien Olympics (1994 Dark Technologies Ltd & Mindscapre Inc), the loogie-fest that is Beavis & Butt-Head in Virtual Stupidity (1995 Viacom New Media) and the IP theft of Zona 0 (1990 Topo Soft). Enjoy!

WATCH THE VIDEO

MONTHLY 5 - APRIL 2021

I may have bitten off more than I can chew with April's quintet of games edging into May. At least there's loads here to sink your teeth into, including three adventure games; The Beverly Hillbillies (1993 IntraCorp), Return to Ringworld (1994 Tsunami Media) and Hollywood Monsters (1997 Pendulo Studios). The last one has been translated into English from its original Spanish, with the Manual translation created by yours truly. On top of all that, there's the cinematic platformer on the Super Nintendo called Nosferatu (1994 SETA Corporation) and a collection of games based on Total Recall (1990-1991 Ocean Software & Acclaim Entertainment). Dig in!

There's only one update this month which coincided with my Top 10 Unexpected Movie Licences. Bloodwings: Pumpkinhead's Revenge (1995, Motion Picture Corporation of America Interactive) got a manual and some DOSBox love, so check that out too if you haven't already.

VIDEO COMING SOON!

** EDIT: Real life has intervened so I will combining April's video with May's. Stay tuned for that!**

Read on after the jump for more info!

HIDDEN GEMS - TOP 10 UNEXPECTED MOVIE LICENCED GAMES OF THE 90s

 

No one can deny that this past year has been... unexpected. Particularly in the movie industry. It's now awards season and even that's seen some unexpected goings on. Who would've thought a Borat sequel could've garnered two Oscar noms, let alone a couple of Golden Globes already in the bag?

 

Anyway, with this in mind I'd thought I'd tally up my Top 10 Unexpected Movie Licenced Games. There are a few criteria that would make a movie-based game unexpected. It could've been released way behind the initial cinema run, voiding any potential cross promotion. It could've used the licence in a weird way. Or maybe the licence itself doesn't usually scream 'game'. 

 

There are 4 games new to the Collection Chamber; Aliens Online (1998 Fox Interactive), Hamlet: A Murder Mystery (1997 Castle Rock Entertainment & EMME Interactive), Indiana Jones and his Desktop Adventures (1996 LucasArts) and Plan 9 From Outer Space (1992 Gremlin Graphics). One of the 10 has also been updated, but I won't spoil that or their ranking here. You have to watch the video below or click on the jump to find out. Preferably both. 

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MONTHY 5 - MARCH 2021

March marked the 6th anniversary of the Collection Chamber, and over 470 (not including compilations) games have been reviewed and made playable again! There's more to come, including this month's random quintet. Dylan Dog: The Murderers (1991-1992 Simulmondo) is a cinematic platformer based on the classic Italian comic series. Leather Goddesses of Phobos 2 (1992 Infocom) is a love letter to 50's sci-fi B-movies and big-breasted women with an insane amount of humour. The 1st one is also included. To get your racing fix on, try Maximum Roadkill (1996 Take-Two Interactive) for some sci-fi infused speed. Ringworld: Revenge of the Patriarch (1992 Tsunami Media) is a good-looking point-and-click adventure bsed on the works of Larry Niven. Lastly, Xargon (1994 Epic MegaGames) is a classic PC platformer - and one of the few that could possibly rival those on consoles.

There's one update this month, and if you've seen my Animaniacs ranking video you probably know about it. The Animaniacs Collection now has an additional game - River Adventure. It was too small a game to justify its own review so the new version has conveniently added it. Head on ove to that game's page for more info.

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