RadioPoultry wrote:

Rodent's Revenge and Crusher, according to my very brief research, both came out in 1991. (Still don't know which was first.) They may have been created without knowledge of the other... but take a look at this later game by Soleau Software:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vSC-SCgdmqg

Aaah so in fact it could be Convergent evolution/Parallel evolution ? But Mice Maze does in fact look it is based on the code of Crusher. And quite interesting none the less. Thanks for the brief research 😀

Ancient DOS Games Episode 154 - Populous II is online!

...and I'm about ready for bed after being up since 1:30 AM. Made a TON of progress on my game project the past few weeks too. I really hope everything works out over the coming months. :)

For now though, I just want some sleep. Goodnight! :B

too bad populous the beginning isn't a dos game.

Maybe I'll take a second look at it in a filler video at some point. I remember the game feeling distinctly NOT like Populous though so I'm very uninclined. :P

Ancient DOS Games Episode 155 - DreamWeb is online! (Please note that this is a mature-rated episode.)

In all honesty, this game actually didn't meet my expectations. From all the stuff I read and all the stuff I was told, I expected a substantially large game with lots to do and tons of brutality. Instead, I got a short game with minimal puzzle solving and shock violence moments that only make up maybe 5% of the meat of the gameplay. Terrible voice acting to boot, but at least the music's good.

Really... this was a tricky game to give a thoughtful opinion on, so I hope I did a good job of that at the least. :B

Ahh, I've found my way home. 😀

I agree Gemini000, DreamWeb is a game that you either feel comfortable with from the start or just don't care about after a while. A family friend brought his CD back in 1996, and after an hour of play I just stopped and told him to finish it, I simply lost interest; the dark, moody atmosphere and bland voice acting didn't help either. Now that it's freeware maybe I'll download the CD version at ScummVM and give it another chance.

I gave DW a shot when I heard it became freeware. At first it felt like it could've been something. I liked the dark atmosphere and that foreshadowing music in the apartments. But like JayCeeBee64 I also lost interest after quite a short time actually. I managed to get my salary from my boss and went home to my flat. Then I went "fuck it".

Never heard of this game until now. Kinda looked interesting at first, until I saw the game play. Then I was like: "Yeah, not interested anymore..."

I think besides the lazy voice acting, the confusing item usage interface, the vague story line, and the shock violence scenes (LOL! Violent, my ass...), the one glaring problem that stood out to me was the entire UI. I mean, why is the game play area so small considering you have half of the protagonist's face covering the left side of the screen, and that stupid watch covering the top of the screen? Was it really necessary to have those things included in the UI? For an adventure game like this, it should NOT have been difficult to give us an entire full screen of the game play area.

Either way, it's just that one thing that really stood out to me as a big issue.

switchblade wrote:

Never heard of this game until now. Kinda looked interesting at first, until I saw the game play. Then I was like: "Yeah, not interested anymore..."

I think besides the lazy voice acting, the confusing item usage interface, the vague story line, and the shock violence scenes (LOL! Violent, my ass...), the one glaring problem that stood out to me was the entire UI. I mean, why is the game play area so small considering you have half of the protagonist's face covering the left side of the screen, and that stupid watch covering the top of the screen? Was it really necessary to have those things included in the UI? For an adventure game like this, it should NOT have been difficult to give us an entire full screen of the game play area.

Either way, it's just that one thing that really stood out to me as a big issue.

Populous did the same thing, remember? You look down through that book page, while all that static art takes up screen real estate.

Perhaps it's done to keep the game running nicely on low-end systems? Or maybe to control how much of the level the player can see, without stretching out the pixel art graphics?

Who knows.

Of all the things this game does poorly, I think that's the easiest one to overlook.

Given when DreamWeb came out, and given how much power it draws in DOSBox, I can safely say it was done as a stylistic choice and not because of any hardware limitations. Heck, the animations are actually very fluid and detailed, so framerate was the least of their concerns.

The game is incredibly unique, pretty much to a fault, and that's a big part of what makes it interesting. :B

Hey Gem, I was just looking at your ADG Blood video. I noticed you complained about how terrible the autoaim and, to be far it is.
But did you know that you actually can turn it off? 😁 Just add -noaim after blood.exe either in DOSBox conf file or launch parameter in DOS

SquallStrife wrote:

Populous did the same thing, remember? You look down through that book page, while all that static art takes up screen real esta […]
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Populous did the same thing, remember? You look down through that book page, while all that static art takes up screen real estate.

Perhaps it's done to keep the game running nicely on low-end systems? Or maybe to control how much of the level the player can see, without stretching out the pixel art graphics?

Who knows.

Of all the things this game does poorly, I think that's the easiest one to overlook.

That's because Populous is an isometric strategy game, which somewhat justifies the amount of static art its' UI has. DreamWeb is NOT a strategy game, and it was released 5 years after the first Populous game. Judging by the looks and game play of DreamWeb, I find hard to believe that it is even slightly demanding technical-wise.

Mind you, it's just one thing about DreamWeb that stood out the most to me. The small game play area just looks and feels claustrophobic, which doesn't sound appealing to me. Different strokes for different folks, you know....

Ancient DOS Games Filler #46 - Ziggurat is online!

...and would you believe up until this video I was mispronouncing that word as "ZIG-URR-AHT"? ;D

...and would you believe it's a REAL word? :O

Anyways... this is an indie game that was released only a few months ago and is probably one of the best indie first-person shooters I've ever played. Still not a perfect game by any means, but... well... go watch the video and you can see for yourself. It's extremely well polished, just could use some more features to give the player more control over the outcome of each run as it's a bit too random for its own good sometimes. :P

Actually, I've kinda lost touch with modern gaming for the most part. Retro and indie seem to be the only two aspects I pay attention to anymore. Not that modern games are "bad", there's definitely some decent ones, I think it mostly comes down to me not wanting to pay $60 for something I may or may not like, when there's stuff that can be just as fun that's only $5 to $20. :B

Also, a lot of indie titles harken to the days of early gaming just in overall gameplay, if not also graphics, so it's easier for me to understand and play such things. ;)

The game seems to have a ton of motion blur effects.

philscomputerlab wrote:

The game seems to have a ton of motion blur effects.

Fortunately, you can turn them off if you don't like them. ;)

Although me personally, I would like it if they had an option to reduce the level of motion blur since it is a bit over the top. :P

Woah. Ziggurat looks cool AND TotalBiscuit approves it as well. I might give it a try someday.

Gemini000: It is more than a real word. It is a structure.

http://www.crystalinks.com/ziggurat1.gif

WolverineDK wrote:

Gemini000: It is more than a real word. It is a structure.

http://www.crystalinks.com/ziggurat1.gif

That would be an example of a ziggurat for sure. :B

The word itself is fairly broad and is used to mean all pyramidal temples from long ago, specifically during the time of the ancient Babylonians and Assyrians.

In the game Ziggurat, the ziggurat you enter is that same exterior design, but upside-down to emphasise its evil nature and completely random on the inside because GAME. ;)

Gemini000 wrote:

In the game Ziggurat, the ziggurat you enter is that same exterior design, but upside-down to emphasise its evil nature and completely random on the inside because GAME. 😉

Of death ? 😉 Or is that Tower Of Death , I am thinking off ? 😉 probably the latter, if I recall correctly. Oh yeah, before I totally derail the post about Bruce Lee, then I must add. It was a lovely filler.