CHRISTMAS COUNTDOWN - DAY 8

The force is strong with this 8th day of the Christmas Countdown! Star Wars: Yoda Stories (1997 LucasArts) is the second entry in the Desktop Adventures after Indiana Jones took a stab the year before. It's like a super simple and randomised Zelda clone designed to compete with the likes of Solitaire and Chip's Challenge on your work computer. In that context, it's quite a fun little game. Still makes me pine for full-on Star Wars game in the vein of A Link to the Past though. Force blast your way past the jump to find out more.

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.

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. 

WATCH THE VIDEO

MICROSHAFT WINBLOWS '98

Microsoft is not exactly my favourite fortune 500 company at the moment (see the May 2018 Update post for more info). To vent my considerable frustration, I'd thought I'll play a game whose sole reason for existing is to mock Bill Gates and his company. It's time to play Parroty Interactive's 1998 parody CD-ROM appropriately titled Microshaft Winblows '98.