CHRISTMAS COUNTDOWN - Day 5

As Simon the Sorcerer seems to making a bit of a comeback of late with the enjoyable Simon the Sorcerer Origins, I thought I'd revisit one of his more obscure titles of the past - Simon the Sorcerer's Puzzle Pack (1998 Adventuresoft Publishing). It includes 4 quirky desktop games, but read the review to find out which one's the best.

We'll be moving from magic to metal tomorrow, so come back to see what machinery we can make.

CHRISTMAS COUNTDOWN - Day 4

Sentinel Returns (1998 No Name Games Limited & Psygnosis) on this fourth day of the Christmas Countdown. This exceptionally atmospheric puzzle game is hard to pinpoint, but the fact that they got Halloween and The Thing movie director to helm the score tells you everything you need to know. Read on to find out my thoughts!

Come back tomorrow where we'll be eating swamp stew with an old friend.

CHRISTMAS COUNTDOWN - Day 3

On the third day of Christmas, the Collection Chamber will send you to the edge... Circuit's Edge (1990 Infocom & Westwood Associates) that is. This banger of a cyberpunk adventure with mild role-playing elements could easily fit into the Blade Runner universe. No wonder the company behind it (later renamed to Westwood Studios) would go on to make the Blade Runner game.

We will return with someThing tomorrow, and return we will! 

CHRISTMAS COUNTDOWN - Day 2

Day 2 of the the Collection Chamber Christmas Countdown, and it's time for some spying! Cate Archer returns as the super-cool queen of espionage as she travels the globe from Tokyo to Siberia to thwart a camp villain. That's right, it's Monolith's classic first-person-shooter No One Lives Forever 2: A Spy in H.A.R.M.'s Way (2002 Twentieth Century Fox, Monolith Productions & Lithtech, Inc.)!

Come back tomorrow for Day 3, and let's hope gravity won't fail you...

CHRISTMAS COUNTDOWN - Day 1

The Collection Chamber Christmas Countdown is finally here! And on this first day of celebrations we have SkyRoads: The Kosmonaut Collection (1990-1994 Bluemoon Interactive), a collection of endless runner alikes that randomly came back into mind after I played the remake of I, Robot on Steam earlier this year. As this is one of those shareware titles that got an Xmas Special, I knew then what would kick off this festive season. 

Included in the package is Kosmonaut, SkyRoads, SkyRoads: Xmas Special and the SkyRoads unreleased beta called Cosmonaut 2.

Come back tomorrow where we'll be exploring many locations, but only the frozen tundra of Siberia will be by Ski-Doo.

MONTHLY 5 - November 2025

Winter is officially here, and when the cold and rain comes it's time to stay inside and play some old PC games. 

I went down quite the rabbit hole with Herewith the Clues! (1996 Actual Screenshots). It's a murder mystery game for the Amiga that was adapted from a book that is often considered to be the birth of the genre. It was originally written by famed British horror author Dennis Wheatley (To the Devil a Daughter, The Devil Rides Out) in 1939 and not only is it a snapshot of London high society life in the months leading up to World War II, it's also a damn good detective puzzle. Check out my review to see if the game retains this, but a scan of the excellent book and other self-created goodies are in there too. So much so I'd call it my pick of the month.

There's strong competition for that spot, with Aliens versus Predator 2: Gold Edition (2001-2003 Twentieth Century Fox, Lithtech Inc & Sierra On-line), the classic FPS whose rights seem to be stuck in limbo. It came to mind after thoroughly enjoying Predator Badlands at the cinema and being mildly entertained by Alien Earth of Disney+. I'd describe my time with the game similarly to the former than the latter.

We also have Safecracker (1997 DayDream Software), a great first person adventure that has you cracking a bunch of logic-based lock boxes inside an empty mansion. Tellurian Defense (1999 Psygnosis) is an action-heavy flight sim that has you - rather predictably - protect a post-apocalyptic Earth from invading aliens. Lastly, Comedy Central's Sports Shorts (1994 Time Warner Interactive & HBO Downtown Productions) digitises clips from a bunch of 90s stand up acts that's perfect if you want a chuckle or two. Famous fresh-faced comedians like Adam Sandler, David Baddiel and more an appearance before their rise to stardom.

A couple of updates; Alien Anarchy adds a workaround and some saves to get past a crash bug that was apparently present on its initial release back in 1999, and the Pocky & Rocky Collection returns to the Collection Chamber after being removed 'cos some of the game are still sold. They are still available to buy so the newly re-jigged custom menu now links to the store page (with a guide to add them yourself if you have them) while the ones that aren't can still be played. There's a lot added to the package too, so check out the game page or the Game Updates section for a full rundown.

So, November is now over, but Christmas is coming and with it brings the Collection Chamber Christmas Countdown, an advent calendar of twelve games leading up to the day itself. It starts December 14th so don't miss it! I've got some great stuff planned.

MONTHLY 5 - October 2025

'Tis the spooky season, and with it comes a quintet of scary escapees from the Collection Chamber. Before I get to that, let's discuss something even more horrifying; Microsoft's forced obsolescence of Windows 10 - an entirely capable operating system that was apparently installed on over 40% of active Windows PCs (previous OS deaths were always less than 20%). Despite everything that I want to run on my system running fine, my more than capable CPU cannot handle the upgrade according to Microsoft themselves and thus I've decided to delay the upgrade for a year (thanks EU legislature!). Looks like I'll have to start saving for a new one - I can't quite afford it just yet. Until then, I'll carry on with getting old obscure games running as normal.

Talking about old games, let's take a look at the five new additions. We begin with an alien invasion in the heart of Brazil with an obscure first-person-shooter called Alien Anarchy: The Varginha Incident (1999 Perceptum Informática Ltda). Next up is a bizarre taxi trip through time and space with the FMV adventure Hell Cab (1993 Pepe Moreno). The classic novel by Robert Lewis Stevenson was given an action-adventure overhaul obviously inspired by American McGee's Alice in Jekyll & Hyde (2001 Cryo, Index+ & France Telecom). And, if you want to know what a couple of young men with a camera get up to in the suburbs of London, then play Psycho Killer (1992-1993 Delta 4 Interactive & Prism Leisure), a consequence-driven FMV adventure for the Amiga CDTV and DOS.

Pick of the month is a PlayStation game hailing from Japan; ...Iru! (1998 Takara) which has been fan-translated into English as "...They're Here!". It's a cool first-person survival horror that sees a dark force descend on a high school as a bunch of teenagers stay over to prepare for a festival. It's a cool little find that kept me gripped all the way through.

I've also prepared a few updated packages for you to try out too. The PlayStation version of Discworld Noir has updated its emulators and implemented full mouse controls in case you want an alternative to the PC original. Also on the PlayStation is the weird Japanese arcade game called Oh No! which, in addition to its updated emulator, has the addition of widescreen and hi-res hacks complete with a new custom menu. Lastly, Monty Python and the Quest for the Holy Grail has upgraded DOSBox to DOSBox-X.

See you next month!