CHRISTMAS COUNTDOWN - DAY 9

As is now something of a tradition within a tradition, Day 9 of the Collection Chamber Christmas Countdown (4C for short?) is reserved for Disney. As a kid, the VHS of latest Disney classic from the renaissance era was almost guaranteed to be under the tree. So, here's 3 Disney games to unwrap.

We 're moving away from educational titles, instead moving into first-person action, arcade pinball  and even survival horror! Disney's Atlantis: The Lost Empire - Trial by Fire (2001 Disney Interactive) is a decent first-person outing for the little'uns developed by the folks behind an earlier Christmas Countdown 2024 outing Ice & Fire. Disney's The Little Mermaid Pinball (2005 Disney Interactive) is a quick and fun ball-flipper firmly taking place where it's wetter. Lastly, we have a surprisingly unnerving foray into survival horror with the console version of Disney's Piglet's Big Game (2003 Disney Interactive). You may have seen some of the Silent Hill comparisons online, and believe me, it's warranted.

But if Disney ain't your thing, come back tomorrow. I promise it'll be worth a million bucks!

MONTHLY 5 - October 2024

Rise from the grave and party with the undead thanks to a whole bunch of horrifically spooky games brought back from the great beyond. 

Your mortal soul may not be in danger, but a bunch of video game characters are in my two highest recommendations of the month. Gast: The Greatest Little Ghost (2002 Mindscape & Idol FX AB) is a macabre adventure for all ages that has the titular ghost collect souls from those who have taken over an amusement park. The highly underrated survival horror Gregory Horror Show (2003 Capcom) has you do the same to the effed-up residents of a spooky hotel. Based on an equally weird and under-seen animated show of the same name, I'd say it pips Gast to the top spot by a wide margin. 

Beyond these soul stealers we have Dracula's Secret (1996 Corel Corporation), an entertaining adventure game for kids and Isle of the Dead (1993 Rainmaker Software, Inc) an under-loved if slightly wonky first-person-shooter with classic adventure elements that makes it utterly unique for its time. Finally, you can find out your own future in the fortune-telling application called Rosemary West's House of Fortunes (1993 Villa Crespo, Inc). No serial killers included, promise.

On another note, a lot more time has been spent away from the site than normal thanks to some real life events taking up much of my time. I've decided to not do a Monthly-5 for November, instead putting my focus on completing missing reviews, updating some of the older packages that most need it and preparing for December's Christmas Countdown. No idea how much I'm able to get done, but I'll update you all at the end of the month to let you know.

Until then, keep gaming!

MONTHLY 5 - August 2024

The month of August was the month of the Olympics, and outside of an enthusiastically happy blue man in drag, I didn't watch a single second of it. I did celebrate it in my own way by uncovering some officially licenced DOS games based on the 1996 event held in Atlanta. Atlanta 1996: Olympic Games + Olympic Soccer (1996 U.S. Gold Ltd & The Atlanta Committee for the Olympic Games (ACOG)) bundles the first 3D game based on the event with a rather standard football game which began a yearly series that would later take on the UEFA moniker. 

If you're not much or a sporty person, I've gathered some other games to keep your limbs from moving excessively. Continuing on from last month is the final mystery at Greveholm. The Mystery at Greveholm 3: The Old Legend (2000 Young Genius) returns to the first-person adventuring roots of the first game and is all the better for it. Ring II: Twilight of the Gods (2002 The Arxel Guild) on the other hand foregoes this style that defined its janky forebear to become a tank-controlled action adventure. At least the absolute weirdness of it all is still intact.

For something a little less fantastical, try the movie tie-in for Fantastic 4 (2005 Activision Publishing Inc, Marvel & Twentieth Century Fox), a flippantly entertaining beat-'em-up for a flippantly entertaining blockbuster. And if flippant doesn't cut it, check out Rising Lands (1997 Microïds), a real-time-strategy game that surprisingly crept up to become my personal pick of the month.

Enjoy!

MONTHLY 5 - July 2024

Politically speaking, July has been quite the wild month. France narrowly missed out on a sharp veer to the far right before the many Olympics snafus took over headlines, and the too-close-for-comfort Biden v Trump race took a swing to the Democrats as Biden stepped down in favour of his Vice President Kamala Harris. Better yet, 14 years of Tory rule has finally ended in the UK with Labour winning in a landslide (or more accurately the Tories lost rather than Labour won; the unfairly vilified Jeremy Corbin earned more votes in each of his previous elections). Time will tell on how our new P.M. fares, but surely it can't be worse than the Conservative chaos we've endured.

To commemorate such turmoil, I thought I'd go back to the mid-90s and see how other countries viewed our world leaders. South Korea to be precise, and I did so by playing a satirical one-on-one fighter that came out of their gaming industry called Hello, Mr. President! (1994 Open Planning Co., Ltd). I promise I won't talk about elections too much in the review, though no promises about Bill Clinton's wrestling undies.

Brighter times may be ahead right here on Earth, but until then let's leave it behind for some space-faring excitement starting with the on-rails shooter called Zeitgeist: Laser Fighter (1995-1996 Taito Corp), also called Jupiter Strike when it later hit the PlayStation (also included). With gameplay that has more than a hint of StarFox in its DNA, it's quite the hidden gem in my humble opinion.

Beyond that, I've been hankering more of my favourite genre; the point-and-click adventure. The oft-requested Ring: The Legend of the Nibelungen (1998 Cryo Interactive, Arxel Tribe & Carrière Multimédia) is a poorly designed yet artistically impressive take on Wagner's infamous opera. Except in space. And that's where we'll be going in The Mystery of Greveholm 2: Journey to Planutus (1999 Young Genius), a the sequel to last month's surprise pick of the month though with the drastic change in gameplay it won't hold that title this time round. That would go to yet another space adventure; Earthrise (1990 Matt Gruson). It's a neatly-designed independent take Sierra's early graphic adventure game design complete with the familiar cursor-based character controls and a slightly wobbly text parser.

Enjoy!

MONTHLY 5 - June 2024

So, the end of June is here, meaning that half of 2024 has passed by! And with that, the Collection Chamber has set free a further five prisoners  filled with fun times.

My pick of the bunch hails from Sweden; The Mystery at Greveholm (1997 Young Genius) a spooky first-person adventure for all ages based on a TV show beloved by all Swedes of a certain age. Beyond this, we have the next entry in Don Bluth's edutainment series with All Dogs Go to Heaven 2: Animated MovieBook (1996 MGM Animation, Inc & Sound Source Interactive). Instead of watching the fourth movie in cinemas, reenact the second in Bad Boys II; Miami Takedown (2004 Blitz Games Ltd, Empire Interactive Europe Ltd & Columbia Pictures). Join the rebel force against a conquering alien race in the FMV-heavy action-packed The Raven Project (1995 Cryo Interactive) before heading back down to earth with the high-speed XCar: Experimental Racing (1997 Bethesda Softworks).

That's all for now! I'll see you next time for some more retro goodness.

MONTHLY 5 - OCTOBER 2023

Tales of the spooky kind are in store should you choose to unleash the five releases from the Collection Chamber! October's games feature some horrifying gems perfect for the Halloween season, including the Blair Witch Trilogy (2000 Artisan Pictures & Gathering of Developers), three games that are not only based on the legend spoken about in the classic 1999 found footage feature film, but are also sequels to the highly underrated Nocturne. The first volume, Rustin Parr, is the best of the three rising to my pick of the month.

As well as these three classic survival horrors, I've also compiled a compilation called the Gremlins Collection (1984-2011 Various). While it might be a littly Christmassy in places, the PG-13 frights of Joe Dante's classic movie are very much in keeping of the season. Not all of them are classics, but with 25 games (including ports) and a plethora of extras there's some interesting stuff in there. Lastly, learn about spooky legends and myth from around the world in Weird: Truth is Stranger than Fiction (1996 TwoPointZero Ltd). You're bound to find the basis for many an X-Files episode in there.

Alas, no updates this month. Real life has won out more than usual the past few months, but I hope to catch up with missing reviews in the next few weeks. I still can't access Facebook so keep up to date with new posts on Instagram or Twitter (X). I add new games here at 8pm GMT on the last day of every month regardless.

Now, roll on November.

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!

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!

MONTHLY 5 - February 2022

Look what we have this February! The month of love ends by meeting the one true Archangel (2002 Metropolis Software House), a fantasy action-adventure with role-playing elements originally published by JoWood. If that doesn't take your fancy, join the cult in Black Sect (1990-1993 Lankhor) a series of dark adventures fan-translated from the language of love (French) into English. Once you're done there, head down into some dungeons with Hexx: Heresy of the Wizard (1994 Psygnosis) where a lot of role-playing is going on. Perhaps the sex-craved antics of the sweet Transvestites from Transexual Transylvania is more up your alley in Richard O'Brien's adventurous Rocky Interactive Horror Show (1999 On-Line Entertainment & Druidcrest Ltd). What better way to end the month than by shooting your load in the vibrant first-person-shooter Shadow Master (1998 Psygnosis).

Not only this, but there are a few updates to announce too! Virtua Cop 2 and Rebel Moon Rising have been updated for better compatibility. Enjoy!

MONTHLY 5 - JANUARY 2022

I have an eclectic bunch of games to talk about in the first Monthly 5 of 2022. There's the family-friendly collection of activities in The 3D Adventures of Sailor Moon (1997 SNaoko Takeuchi/Kodansha, TOEI Animation) and some less-kiddy thievery in the heist adventure The Clue! (1994 NEO Software Produktions GmbH). A bunch of dragons need riding in action the role-playing fantasy Dragonriders: Chronicles of Pern (2001 Ubi Soft Entertainment) while some tripods need racing in the futuristic Killer Loop (1999 VCC Entertainment). Lastly, in memory of the recently passed Meatloaf we have the original game based on The Rocky Horror Show (1985 On-Line Entertainment & Druidcrest Ltd). Enjoy!

THE CHRISTMAS CATCHUP - DAY 6

I've more frights for you this festive season with Terror T.R.A.X. Track of the Vampire (1995 Ground Zero Productions) a choose-your-own FMV adventure where a couple of paranormal techno-cops investigate some bad guys who like to bite people. And blast electro-beams and rip eyes out from their sockets. I swear, this is the last Horror game to celebrate this yuletide... maybe.

Merry Christmas y'all!

THE CHRISTMAS CATCHUP - DAY 4

Another horrific turn for Christmas, this time with Mary Shelly's most disturbing of creations. Frankenstein: Through the Eyes of the Monster (1995 Amazing Media, Inc) is a pulpy first-person adventure starring Tim Curry as the titular mad scientist - emphasis on mad. Head on past the jump to find out more.