MONTHLY 5 - March 2025

At the end of last month, I gave my predictions for the 97th Academy Awards. Out of the 23 awards, I got 17 correct, missing out on the shorts which I don't tend to watch and not going all-in on Anora. I had a strong inkling it would win the top prize but had no idea this low-budget independent movie would do as well as it did - its multi-hyphenate director/screenwriter/editor/producer has become the first person to win four awards in a single night for the same movie! And, to commemorate, I've dedicated the month of March to Movies.

If you've ever wanted to be a multi-hyphenate like Sean Baker, you can take over every aspect of moviemaking in Steven Spielberg's Director's Chair (1996 Knowledge Adventure, Inc & DreamWorks Interactive) and take over the production of a couple of fake films starring Quentin Tarantino and Jennifer Aniston. Alternatively, learn how a real movie is made with Braveheart: Interactive CD-ROM (1995 Medisoft Corporation & Twentieth Century Fox) and discover the real history behind the Best Film winner too.

Play an adventure-game version of the Charlie Sheen starring sci-fi film The Arrival (1997 Enteraktion Inc & LIVE Film and Media Works) or an awkward beat-'em-up version of The Crow: City of Angels (1996-7 Acclaim Entertainment & Bad Bird Productions). But by far, my pick of the month is based on one of the most awarded franchises in the history of the Oscars; Wallace and Gromit in Project Zoo (2003 BAM! Entertainment, Frontier Developments & Aardman). Every short or feature film has been nominated, and while the newest one didn't win earlier this month, it does have three to its name.

But wait! There's more! I have some updates for you! Shadowcaster from last month has been fixed, with the CD version now working properly (I overlooked a simple issue). Classic point-and-click adventure Bureau 13 has been given some TLC, updating DOSBox, adding Gravis Ultrasound support and including a walkthrough and soundtrack. Lastly, the first ever game posted on this blog, Abuse, has been given a major overhaul. Not only has DOSBox been updated but an unofficial Windows source port is also included, along with a ton of user levels all neatly accessed via a new menu system. There's more besides, so head on over to the game page to find out more!

Grab your popcorn and head on over after the jump to dive into each game. I'm dedicating April to Adventure games - my favourite genre - which is apt considering it's my birthday month. Until then, happy gaming!

TOP 10 MOVIES OF 2024

 

 

2024 has been a funny year for entertainment. Unlike many previous years, I cannot speak of one cinematic event that truly stood out. There's no Barbenheimer counter programming despite Glicked trying too hard to be a thing (maybe if they chose Wadiator it would be different?). No teenagers in tuxes turned out for Despicable Me 4 like they did with the pandemic-delayed Minions 2. And more to the point, there were a notable lack of comic book movies whirling through projectors. It is also the year that, after the success of Everything Everywhere All at Once and Poor Things (which was a 2024 movie in the UK), the uber-weird became the new critical darling. Watch The Substance, Love Lies Bleeding or Better Man and you'll get an idea what I mean. But that doesn't mean this year wasn't a memorable one. Far from it. Read on to read my movie reviews of the year and catch my Top 10 while you're at it...

CHRISTMAS COUNTDOWN - DAY 11

It's Christmas Eve, and we have a doozy of a game for the penultimate Collection Chamber Christmas Countdown 2024. In case you're wondering about the clue from yesterday, Major Boobage refers to an season 12 episode of South Park. Kenny gets high and goes on an acid trip massively inspired by the 1981 animated movie Heavy Metal. That leads us directly to its interactive spiritual sequel to that movie's sequel called Heavy Metal: F.A.K.K.2 (2000 MetalMammoth Inc & Gathering of Developers Inc), a rather awesome third-person action adventure that yes, has very major boobage.

Tomorrow is Christmas Day, and the final game for this epic countdown. More adventures await!

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.

MONTLY 5 - May 2024

So, April may have been a bust - in terms escapees from the Collection Chamber that is - but there's plenty of newly uncovered convicts once again seeing the light of day in May. Life tends to have a way of getting in the way of life, but I've managed to gather five more games to see you into June.

Pick of the month is a classic point-and-click adventure from the folks behind Flashback and Another World called Cruise for a Corpse (1991 Delphine Software). An American Tail: Aniamated MovieBook (1998 Universal City Studios, Sound Source Int & MCA Music Publishing) continues on from last time's The Land Before Time to provide another educational title for the little 'uns. For a bombastic multiplayer arena shooter, why not give the highly underrated Death Drome (1997 Viacom International Inc) a go. Or perhaps some wargaming is what you're after? If so, try the somewhat forgotten war strategy Offensive (1996 Ocean of America). Lastly, there's Vigilance on Talos V (1996 Square Wheel Studios Inc), a decent Metroidvania for PCs that way, way more Metroid than 'Vania.

That's it for this time. Hopefully I can get it together to post something for the end of June. Until then, happy gaming!

MONTHLY 5 - March 2024

March is the months of movies, and not just because the Oscars came about at the beginning of it. It is also the time the Collection Chamber specifically looks at movie-licenses and this time it's a doozy.

I recently saw Ghostbusters: Frozen Kingdom and I think I enjoyed it a little more than Afterlife, even though I'm still disappointed by the lack of city-wide chaos such a concept can bring. The originals did that perfectly. You'll get to try out the 40-odd entries in the Ghostbusters Collection (1984-2009 Various) to see how well they fare. Putting this together was task as gargantuan as a rampaging marshmallow man, so forgive me if I rank it my pick of the month even if includes that sucky NES port. New Ghostbusters II for that same system more than makes up for it though.

Earlier on, Denis Villeneuve finally gave us the epic Dune II in multiplexes, and it easily jumped to the top of my yearly list and I can't see it changing for a while. As the movie was delayed due to the ongoing effects of Covid and the union strikes, so was my package for Emperor: Battle for Dune (2001 Electronic Arts), Westwood Studios exceptional swansong to the franchise. I didn't have the foresight to pre-write the review so that may come a bit later depending on how I wrangle my increasingly limited time. Possibly the real pick of the month if I'm honest.

Another contender for that spot is Peter Jackson's King Kong: The Official Game of the Movie (2005 Universal Studios & Ubisoft Entertainment) in both of its forms. The special Signature Edition was the version I owned back in the day on PC and was a port of the PS2 version. The Enhanced Gamer's Edition originally only came with select graphics cards, but being a port of the X-Box 360 version, it included all of the graphical enhancements that made that game stand out.

To round out the month we have a couple of interesting time wasters. The Land Before Time: Animated MovieBook (1998 Universal City Studios, Inc, Sound Source Interactive & MCA Music Publishing) takes what Disney did with their Animated Storybook series and tacks it onto the classic Don Bluth property. Lastly, a slew of movie and TV franchises take part in Sci-Fi Pinball (1998 Fox Interactive). Aliens, Predator, The Fly and Buffy the Vampire Slayer all have their own table.

Check these bad boys out by clicking on the links below. There's no massive compilation package (or Easter holiday) next month so hopefully I can get all of the reviews in on time. Until then, enjoy this bumper crop.

TOP 10 MOVIES OF 2023

 

 

This year, I've been doing my best to keep track of all the movies I've seen as I've seen them. It's become a great way to get a good idea about how this past year in cinema has fared. And compared to last year, it hasn't exactly fared the best. Blockbusters bumbled and streamers were stripped. It says a lot that a couple on my Top 10 - and many worthy titles in my honourable mentions - came out in 2022 in other territories. That doesn't mean there hasn't been some stellar trips to the cinema, but not as many as last year. I'll actually give my star rating this time too, just to provoke angry (or politely worded) messages in the comments section. Here's my full rundown...

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 - AUGUST 2023

Summer's over, but more forgotten games are abound! I've been quite busy over the past month, so I doubt all of the reviews will be complete by the time I first post this, but the packages and art are up so that's something! Expect them in the coming weeks.

First on the docket to see us into Autumn is Celtica (1998 I Hoffmann + associates Inc & Artech Studios), a blatant Myst clone loosely based on Celtic mythology with a touch of mysticism and astrology thrown in. Then there's the video game adaptation of Luc Besson's The Fifth Element (1998 Gaumont Multimedia) in slightly wonky action-adventure form. Despite bad first impressions, it somehow grew on me to become my pick on the month. Psygnosis returns with a solid first-person-shooter called Lifeforce Tenka (1997 Psygnosis) known as Codename Tenka in some regions. Quarky and Quaysoo's Turbo Science (1992-3 Sierra On-Line) is a super fun edutainment entry to Sierra's Discovery series (like EcoQuest and Dr Brain before it). Lastly, it's time to simulate some golf in SimGolf: Compete on Courses You Create (1996 Maxis, Inc). Unlike the game with Sid Meier's name as a prefix, this one is more of a straight-up Golf sim (boo) with a robust course create option (yay).

Only one doozy of an update for this month, as well as a small patch. The Terminator Collection, which collates all of the classic first-person-shooters from Bethesda and hasn't been updated since I first uploaded it in 2015, has been given a complete overhaul. Basic DOSBox has been replaced with a newer version of DOSBox-X, every game now has a manual, input has been tweaked and modernised (particularly for Future Shock and SkyNET) and the custom menus have been re-built from scratch! And that's just the beginning of it! Took a while to do too, which is perhaps another reason why some of these current reviews are late. Anyway, check out the game page or the Updates page for more info on what's changed and read the ChamberNotes.txt within the install folder for a full technical rundown.
I've also added a small patch for Nocturne which includes a DDrawCompat .ini file that will limit the framerate so the flappiness of the wind physics isn't so flappy. Saw RagnaRox's excellent video on the subject and after being totally surprised by the shout-out, I thought I'd better include it. Just unzip to the install folder and you're done!

Click on!

MONTHLY 5- February 2023

The shortest month of the year is to an end, but I did manage to squeeze in some time for the Collection Chamber. First up is an obscure Amiga adventure that arrived late in the computer's lifecycle. Abduction (1998 Psyche) is a fascinating hidden gem in the pantheon of point-and-clicks that uses a top-down perspective that oozes in sci-fi atmosphere. Then, Dark Secrets of Africa (1999 New Generation Software) is a Windows RPG aiming to take an isometric bite of that Baldur's Gate pie. The sequel to Flashback is up next as the early 3D action adventure puzzles around traps and shoots at robots in a game called Fade to Black (1995 Delphine Software International). To celebrate the recent 25th aniversary of the best romantic movie boyfriends can also enjoy and its brief return to theatres, I've added the educational CD-ROM James Cameron's Titanic Explorer (1997 Fox Interactive) to the roster. To cap it all off, why not end with the pinball thrills of Tilt! (1995 NMS Software & Virgin Interactive) known as Hyper 3-D Pinball in the US.

On the update front, we have three revisions of some of last month's games, and the one I promised I'd fix then too. I wasn't entirely happy with Asghan: The Dragon Slayer's package, so I did a repack to take advantage of DDrawCompat as opposed to dgVoodoo. Dr. Slump got some tweaking of the controls so that the Turbo function no longer messes up button holds (a small patch is included if you don't fancy re-downloading the whole thing). Then there's Overboard! or Shipwreckers! if you're that way inclined. As with Dr. Slump there is a small patch for those who've downloaded Version 1, but Version 2 replaces the dgVoodoo config file with one that limits the framerate. This prevents some bugs that may occur when your boat needs to bounce. And finally, as promised, I've fixed the Gravis Ultrasound crash from last month's update for Shannara. The original DOS4GW.EXE has been replaced with a newer DOS/32 Advanced DOS Extender which solves the issue. Not only that, but I've also tweaked the DOSBox-X mapper file and config a little to standardise hotkeys and restore the original aspect ratio when running in fullscreen.

That's a lot to keep you busy, so until the month of March comes to its end, check out this lot by clicking on the links after the jump.

TOP 10 MOVIES OF 2022

 

 

I must admit, my cinema-going experiences have been getting fewer and fewer. I have seen only a handful on the silver screen this year, and all of them have been the kind of crowd-pleasing pictures I can convince my friends to see. Despite this, I believe it was an excellent year for the medium, with a few off-kilter experiments branching off into the mainstream and some streaming services supporting all kinds of genres to success too. My go to tactic is to randomly buy a month when they have enough I'm interested in and binge, baby, binge. These are my brief thoughts on a large number (though not all) of the movies I saw that were released in the UK during 2022, highlighting my highly subjective Top 10. Read on after the jump for 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.

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!