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 - May 2023

A lot has happened in blighty this past month. Not only have we regained our rightful place as almost last in Eurovision, but we've only gone and crowned ourselves a new King! To commemorate this fact, I've been playing a game where one such monarch pillages his kingdom and sends his subjects to their deaths by fighting each other. That game is King's Bounty, and I've collated most of its ports and revisions in a compilation I call the King's Bounty Classic Collection (1990-1994 New World Computing).

That being said, my personal pick of the month is a blatant yet highly enjoyable Myst clone called Alida: The Enigmatic Giant (2004 Dejavu Worlds). Also available is one of the earliest stabs at a 3D platformer in the unfairly forgotten Bug! for PC (1996 SEGA). For the more adventurous among you, the hack-n-slash RPG NightStone (2001 New Horizons Studios) is worth a play and to cap out the month, we enter an educational fantasy land with beautiful art in Woodspell: The Enchanted Forest of Learning and Fun (1996 Mediola SRL).

As for the updates, we have three. Disney's Hercules: Hades Challenge and Chewy: ESC from F5 have been given the ScummVM treatment while Star Wars: Episode I - The Phantom Menace has had some tweaks for those with AMD cards. Head on over to their game pages for full details.

For this month's games, head on over past the jump. Enjoy!

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 - 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...

WATCH THE VIDEO!

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 - JUNE 2021

I'm getting June's post up just in time, though the video will take a little longer I'm afraid. Still, there are some doozies in this quintet of interactive gems. First up is an educational title set in the Medieval times; Crusader: A Conspiracy in the Kingdom of Jerusalem (1997 Index+). Anyone who ever had a Windows PC in the 90s played Full Tilt Pinball (1995, Maxis) or at least the Space Cadet demo the operating systems came with.  Next up is Galapagos: Mendel's Escape (1997 Anark Game Studios), a unique puzzle game that uses artificial intelligence in a disopian 3D world.  We also continue our adventures with Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets (2002 Electronic Arts) - more of the same, but better; just how I like it! The last game is an adventure set in the ruins of an ancient necropilis in Qin: Tomb of the Middle Kingdom (1995 Learn Technologies Interactive). Enjoy, and I'll see you soon for the predictably late video rundown...

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

VERSAILLES 1685: A GAME OF INTRIGUE

While in lockdown, I've visited a number of places throughout history without leaving the slight discomfort of my cheap gaming chair. From Ancient Rome to China's Garden of Perfect Brightness, the virtual holidays are a perfect way to satisfy any unrequited wanderlust. Recently, I travelled to Versailles circa 1685 thanks to a little game by Cryo Interactive Entertainment.

SYMBIOCOM (aka SYN-FACTOR)

 

After helming one of the best interstellar Mary Celeste adventures in Majestic: Part 1 - Alien Encounter, the one-man design team of Istvan Pely got to work on some thematic sequels. Released 1998, the same year as Zero Critical (a future Chamber escapee I'm sure), Symbiocom shares a lot with his previous game in that you are searching a deserted space vessel seemingly abandoned in the deep recesses of space.

STAR TREK: DEEP SPACE 9 - HARBINGER

Out of all of the Star Trek spin-offs, Deep Space 9 is arguably one of the best though it is somewhat underrepresented in video-game form. In 1995, the Federation space station located on the far side of the Milky Way came to PCs in a hybrid adventure game by Stormfront Studios called Harbinger.

LEGEND OF LOTUS SPRING

On this most romantic of days, why not play through a traditional Chinese love story in The Legend of Lotus Spring (1999, Xing Xing). Taking place in a beautifully re-created Garden of Perfect Brightness (Yuan Ming Yuan or the Old Summer Palace) in Beijing during the Qing Dynasty, it recounts the tragic love story between Emperor Xian Feng and his concubine HeHanQu, a woman who he lovingly renames Lotus Spring.

ALIEN VIRUS

With the number of games set in an abandoned space station, it could very well be a sub-genre all on its own. I know I've featured enough on them on this site to notice a pattern. So let's look at another one. Here's a 1995 adventure game by Trecision called Alien Virus.

MAJESTIC: PART 1 - ALIEN ENCOUNTER

Istvan Pely has become something of a minor celebrity in the gaming world. He is currently the lead artist for Bethesda's biggest titles most notably Fallout and The Elder Scrolls. Before he came to that envious position, he designed a trilogy of loosely related adventure games. The first was Majestic: Part 1 - Alien Encounter, a first-person space adventure released in 1995.

JOHN SAUL'S BLACKSTONE CHRONICLES

Legend Entertainment's admiral mission statement to create excellent games based on literary works continued with their last dedicated adventure game; Blackstone Chronicles. Published by Mindscape and released in the latter half of 1998 at the tail end of the genre's golden age, the revered developers managed to weave a ghostly tale worthy of the series of novels by John Saul.

S.P.Q.R. THE EMPIRE'S DARKEST HOUR

Ever want to visit Ancient Rome? With S.P.Q.R. The Empire's Darkest Hour by CyberSites you can, at least virtually. Originally conceived as an interactive website the year before, this 1996 game published by GT Interactive upgrades the visuals and adds some nice touches, but how does it handle as a game?

SILVERLOAD

The Wild West was a treacherous time in American history, but imagine if werewolves and vampires were thrown into the mix. Well, imagine no more because the 1995 adventure, Silverload by Millennium Interactive, did just that. And the PlayStation port did it too, only way better.

9: THE LAST RESORT

What do you get when Robert de Niro, Aerosmith, Superman, Jim Belushi and Cher collaborate with the twisted art of Mark Rydan to make a point-n-click adventure? The answer is one of gaming history's most notorious financial bombs. Nevertheless 9: The Last Resort (1996, Tribeca Interactive) is still a fascinating surreal head-trip of a game.

THE BOOK OF WATERMARKS

The Book of Watermarks is a Japanese adventure game for the PlayStation that's been heavily inspired by the works of William Shakespeare, The Tempest in particular. For a game that never made it out of its native country, it's surprisingly all in English, save for the easily decipherable menus, making it very playable for western audiences.