MONTHLY 5 - NOVEMBER 2023

December is nearly upon us, but before we commence our countdown to the festive season, let's gander at an eclectic quintet of PC gaming perfection* from the past.

First up for November is Beyond Time (1997 DreamCatcher Interactive, Inc), a time-travelling ancient Egypt-set first-person adventure that dabbles in everyone's favourite* presentation style; FMV. For more trips throughout history, why not try Excalibur 2555 A.D. (1997 Telstar Electronic Studios), that sees Merlin's granddaughter travel to the future to do some exciting* actioning along with that adventuring. If you want some full-on guns-blasting action, take a look at Machine Hunter (1997 Eurocom Developments), a fantastically* frenetic top-down shooter that rises up to become my pick of the month. If all the bloodshed is not to your liking, try the ever-tranquil* SimSafari: Step into the African Savannah! (1996 Maxis, Inc), that takes the tried and true SimNoun template into a safari park. Lastly, navigate a cute little tank across vast landscapes in Wild Metal Country (1999 DMA Design / Rockstar Games), an overlooked gem* from the folks behind Grand Theft Auto. Despite my tongue-in-cheek asterisks, all of them are worth a try so check out my reviews to find out more.

Sadly, no updates I'm afraid, but I did catch up on some of the missing written reviews from the last couple of months. Check out my thoughts on Weird and SimIsle and let me know yours in the comments. I'm currently neck deep in preparing for the annual Christmas Countdown that will commence 14th December - that's 12 days straight of gaming goodness just for you lovely folk! On that note, I must crack on with it. Until then, head on after the jump and enjoy!

* Your definition of what's considered this may vary drastically...

MONTHLY 5 - October 2022

The frights are frequent in the fearful five for Halloween. I tried to focus on Stephen King adaptations but there are remarkably few of them out there. The Running Man is game based on a movie that's barely based on a book by his pseudonym (not to mention its not a horror story) and The Lawnmower Man is pants all round. I also didn't fancy a text adventure, even if it was based on The Mist. The only two that are left are a Capstone-published adventure game called The Dark Half (1992 Orion Pictures Corporation & IntraCorp Inc) and a desktop time-waster called Stephen King's F12 (1999 Blue Byte Software). Read on to see how well they fare.

To fill in the gaps, there's the obscure and underrated Amiga FPS called Fears (1995 Manyk Ltd & Attic Entertainment Software) which is more like Doom than the other Amiga Doom-clone called Gloom. I've also jumped for joy when an English translation patch arrived for Mizzurna Falls (1998 Human Entertainment) the Japanese-only Twin Peaks-inspired open-world action-adventure on Sony's PlayStation. Finally, I got to exploring the ancient Egyptian curses of The Mummy: Tomb of the Pharaoh (1996 Amazing Media & Interplay), a first-person adventure game from the people behing Frankenstein: Through the Eyes of thr Monster.

That's not all! I've also added a small patch for the Enemy Infestation package. Unzip the small configuration files in the game's install directory to prevent conflict with the game's keyboard shortcuts and the DOSBox hotkeys.

Head on after the jump to find out more... if you dare!

THE MUMMY

You can go one of two routes for a movie tie-in. You could spend time developing a decent game, perhaps sacrificing the release date to make it so (GoldenEye, Alien Resurrection) or you can make any old guffins just to cash in on the brand name (Batman & Robin, Frank Herbert's Dune). Developed by Konami, The Mummy (2000, Universal Interactive Studios) falls somewhere between the two.

SANDWARRIORS

In a far off desert planet, a war rages. The House of Horus fights the evil empire of Set for supremacy. The landscape is dotted with Egyptian-style pyramids and architecture yet technology is drastically advanced compared to our own. Sandships fly across the landscape locked in dogfights. Is the Stargate movie? Nope. It's a little known action flight sim called Sandwarriors.

S.C.A.R.A.B.

The Egyptian setting has been out of vogue in the video game landscape for some time now (I don't consider those cheap puzzle and casino titles that clutter the app stores to be games). Twenty years ago, this was a different matter. Alongside the likes of Powerslave, Pharaoh and Sandwarriors, Electronic Arts' 1997 game S.C.A.R.A.B. lies smack bang in the middle of this mini craze.

POWERSLAVE (EXHUMED)

Powerslave (or Exhumed as it's know in Europe) looks and plays like a Doom clone with an Egyptian theme. At least it does at first glance. Dig deeper into the 1996 game by Lobotomy Software and you'll find a lot more than you might expect. Even the PlayStation version is not really a port, taking these unique elements and running (and strafing) with them.

EYE OF HORUS

Released in 1989 by the London based company Logotron, Eye of Horus was way ahead of its time. It mixes genres very few were doing back then, using both platform and shoot-em-up elements. The Ancient Egyptian themes game even adopts a similar exploration mechanic found in classics like Metroid that was perhaps underappreciated at the time.