Currently playing Omikron: The Nomad Soul:

Heretic:

Das Schwarze Auge (Realms of Arkania) Blade of Destiny:

And back to the modern world i recently got interested in the new Assassins Creed Liberation, while i dislike the series, this one is very different, thanks to a very unique protagonist and overall theme of the game (black slaves in america):

I’m finished with ‘Leisure Suit Larry in the Land of the Lounge Lizards’ and loved it. I played the VGA version first and then ran through the EGA version – both were very simular from a game-play perspective but of course the chicks were much hotter in VGA 😈

Next up is Red Baron, a game I’ve been meaning to play for a while. This was a CGW game of the year and it was still being talked about and selling well in ’93 (it was released in ’90), so it was a very successful game at the time. I have it as part of a ‘Sierra award winners’ compilation, as selected by CGW! The documentation is fantastic and provides some good background on WW1 air combat, which lead me to some further reading. At the start of the war the planes were extremely basic – the Wright Brothers were still experimenting with powered flight up until about 1910, and WW1 of course began mid 1914, so that gives an indication of how primitive the machinery was. Early on, flight was used for reconnaissance only, with enemy pilots doing nothing more than exchange a friendly wave if they encountered each other. Then they started shooting at each other with handguns, and before long they had mounted machine guns and Ace pilots started racking up the kills.

Red Baron (the game) uses the simplicity of the aircraft to its advantage – flying an aeroplane is actually very easy in this sim, but actually shooting the enemy down requires practice because the aeroplanes are so slow to manoeuvre and the weaponry is so primitive. The enemy AI is very good too, so they’re all over your tail before you know what hit you. It could be frustrating, but it’s actually very addictive and rewarding, and on top of a the fun flight mechanic there’s a variety of mission types and an almost RPG-like career mode in which you take a rookie all the way through the war (if he survives). New planes are available as they’re developed (all historically accurate), and as you rise the ranks you can request transfers to other air bases, get challenged by other Aces, etc. There’s way more to this game than meets the eye and I’m loving it so far.

I started playing it on a 386DX40 which I thought would handle it fine, but with all the settings cranked up it was struggling a bit, so I’ve broken out a 486DX2 66 instead. The 486 is perfect for the job and the graphics are pretty spectacular for such an old game. Sound Blaster is supported but sounds pretty average – I think it’s using FM only. Fortunately the MT-32 is also supported and the sound effects and music are really quite amazing on the Roland. Before getting an MT-32 I’d assumed that it would only play music, but of course games can load up their own sounds which allows the MT-32 to do machine gun fire, etc. My MT-32 is being driven by a Pro Audio Studio’s MPU041 via the joystick port – this is the first time I’ve tried this and it works well.

For a joystick I’ve gone with a CH Flightstick, which is a great stick 2 button stick. I haven’t used a joystick in a long while and was finding the ergonomics of it very uncomfortable, so I made myself an arm rest (the ironing board looking thing in the below photo) and it’s much better – being an Ace pilot is a young mans’ game apparently!

Red Baron 2 was pretty disappointing from what I’ve read, but are there any other good WW1 flight sims? The game-play or Red Baron combined with a more modern graphics engine would be pretty god damn fun.

Wow what a nice setup!

Wasn't aware that Red Baron is so demanding 😀

Joysticks... That's one thing that bugs me, I haven't got a good one and there is no modern alternative like with CF adapters, PCI SATA and any of that.

badmojo wrote:

I’m finished with ‘Leisure Suit Larry in the Land of the Lounge Lizards’ and loved it. I played the VGA version first and then ran through the EGA version – both were very simular from a game-play perspective but of course the chicks were much hotter in VGA 😈

Lol...very true

badmojo wrote:

For a joystick I’ve gone with a CH Flightstick, which is a great stick 2 button stick. I haven’t used a joystick in a long while and was finding the ergonomics of it very uncomfortable, so I made myself an arm rest (the ironing board looking thing in the below photo) and it’s much better – being an Ace pilot is a young mans’ game apparently!

I'm surprised that you find the Flightstick difficult to use....I have a vast joystick collection and I can safely say that my CH Flightick and Flightstick pro are the best (ergonomically) by far.

Great setup though and the "ironing board" armrest and the rest of your desk is great for using your mouse too. I look forward to trying Red Baron with MT-32 sounds. I only tried it with my AWE64 a couple years ago.

retrofanatic wrote:

I'm surprised that you find the Flightstick difficult to use....I have a vast joystick collection and I can safely say that my CH Flightick and Flightstick pro are the best (ergonomically) by far.

Yes the joystick itself is great, it's the sitting position required for a joystick that was the problem. Having my arm supported, and not having to reach forward onto the desk did the trick though.

I decided to give MegaRace a serious play for the first time since I bought it on release, and boy was it disappointing! It’s a classic example of those early “CD-ROM multimedia” games that were heavy on the multimedia, and very light on gameplay. The animated sequences were fun for a while but they repeat before long, and the host “Lance Boyle”, gets old very quickly. The actual gameplay is likewise repetitive and quickly becomes a grind – think Skyroads with the fun and challenge sucked out of it.

Now I’ve moved on to Links386 Pro (floppy version) which I recently picked up having read good reviews but never having played it. One of the complaints of this game on release was the long load times of the beautiful SVGA environments, but I’m running it on a VLB 486DX2 66 system with a PAS16 for audio (SB emulation only) and it handles it no problem. Initially I was having trouble with my swing because my mouse (serial Logitech) wasn’t always responding to my clicks, but after lots of trial and error I discovered that the Logitech mouse driver was to blame – switching to CTMOUSE solved the problem.

I played a lot of real life golf as a uni student and Links386 simulates the game very well; the behaviour of the ball in the rough, bunkers, on the green, etc is very realistic and the various clubs and shot types feel right. The audio and visuals are also fantastic and make the whole experience very relaxing and enjoyable. My only complaint is that it’s way too easy - admittedly I’ve only played the ‘practice’ mode so far but I was able to par a hole with only my driver and putter, and that was at ‘pro’ difficulty! Hopefully the game proper is more difficult.

Sometimes the burden of saving the world by shooting aliens in the face can be too much to bear; playing a game that lets you take your time and enjoy the view has been a nice change of pace.

Great posts badmojo. Keep it up!

I just finished Might & Magic X : Legacy after about 60 hours. It's got some technical issues in places but overall it was a pretty well done faithful modern recreation of the early M&M games. Recommended for anyone who likes this type of gameplay.

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Well obviously I've been playing this newer gunmetal demo and I still wish I could find a decently priced copy of the full version.

A shame the company went under after producing this game, it seriously kicked major ass in my opinion.

..mostly just trying out new mods for rFactor and running practice laps..

I’ve finished with Links386 for now but I’ll be back! My goal was to par the course on ‘pro’ setting with no re-hits or gimmes, and I got there in the end but it took practice. The gameplay is rock solid and I never once felt cheated, a really polished and enjoyable game all told. I have another course on the way – several were sold as add-ons – so I’m looking forward to another round when that arrives.

Next game on my to-do list is the sequel to my favourite rally game of all time, Network Q Rally Championship (1996). The sequel is called International Rally Championship (1997) and turned out to be a disappointing load of bollocks - I can’t even be bothered ranting about it, it was just a poor effort. I loaded up its sequel, Mobil 1 Rally Championship (1999), and was more impressed. This was a completely new game with a proper 3D engine and new interface, and looks to be a polished product. Unfortunately I couldn’t get my Thrustmaster Grand Prix wheel setup properly with it so it was insanely twitchy and impossible to stay on the very narrow roads. I put this back on the shelf too and will revisit it if I ever get a USB wheel.

Given I had my P4 out for some upgrading I decided to attempt a play through of DOOM3, a game I haven’t looked sideways at since its release. At the time I was disappointed that (in my mind) it had strayed so far from my beloved DOOM 1 & 2 but I also didn’t have a machine that could run it properly then. Now I’m totally loving on it, the graphics are simply stunning (running on a 8800GTX and a 17” CRT), the sound is gorgeous (Audigy 2 ZS), and the gameplay is simple, repetitive, and fun – just like DOOM should be. I’m using the duct tape mod which adds to the enjoyment factor, and for the first time in a long time I’m surfacing from a gaming session realising that it’s an hour past bed time.

badmojo wrote:

...I loaded up its sequel, Mobil 1 Rally Championship (1999), and was more impressed. This was a completely new game with a proper 3D engine and new interface, and looks to be a polished product. Unfortunately I couldn’t get my Thrustmaster Grand Prix wheel setup properly with it so it was insanely twitchy and impossible to stay on the very narrow roads...

Hmm... What I remember most about M1RC was how *insanely* narrow the roads seemed as viewed from the driver seat. Not sure if it was a modeling issue or FOV distortion, but it was so distracting I gave up on the game entirely. Fortunately Rally Trophy came out not too long afterwards, and that had very good "seat feel" to it...

I'm currently playing MDK, another old favorite. And since I forgot how it looked like in real 3dfx hardware, I'm using my P166MMX with a 12meg Voodoo 2.

In short, it looks great and plays very fast! It's also loads of fun, shooting those silly-looking bots and doing strange things in order to continue through the levels.

The screenshots don't really do it justice, though; game resolution is fixed at 640x480 😒 .

EDIT: Just for kicks, I ran the Shiny Performance Test on both my retro-rigs and my main rig; the results were not quite what I expected:

Test 1: Intel Pentium 166MMX and 3dfx Voodoo 2 12mb (original retail version, glide executable)

Test 2: Intel Pentium 4 2.4GHz Nortwood and Nvidia GeForce FX5500 256mb (original retail version, D3D executable)

Test 3: Intel Core i5 3350p 3.1GHz Ivy Bridge and Nvidia GeForce GT640 2Gb (GOG version w/nGlide emulator, glide executable)

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tincup what rfactor mods are you playing

Davros wrote:

tincup what rfactor mods are you playing

Right now I'm really focused on cleaning up, slimming down, tweaking and reorganizing my sprawling rF install. Also catching up on the last 6 months of new tracks & mods.

Okay, the mods I like the most and go to most consistently are:

CART 1998 [RaceLine v101] love the series in those years and the cars are fun to drive in this mod
GP 1979 [GPC v20] one of the first rF mods and still one of the best - visceral driving experience
TOCA Super Touring 1993-2000 [EvoM v16] Love the BTCC and the tracks, relatively new mod, may become my go-to, but still on the fence
Historical GT & Touring Cars [HistorX v101] pure awesome, along the lines of Power & Glory for GTR2
Porsche Carrara Cup 2007 [GSMF] the best SCGT sedan racing I've run into yet
V8 Factor 2008 [v13] great Aussie series, cars powerful and trickier to drive than BTCC

Testing out a bunch of early 1990s F1 mods that seem very good and are fun as hell to drive
F1 1991-94 [F1-SR, only 1991 is Historic yet], The 1985, 1988 and 1990 mods are good too. The Senna/Prost years were a great time for the sport and car design

Megane Eurocup 2005 [RSDG v202] drive the European club tracks mostly with this mod
Rotax Karting [ITT v12] just getting into this, ideally it would have a complete Super One Karting type track set

All this is offline/single player..

Been into the Heretic/Hexen series recently, since I finally acquired a copy of Heretic to go alongside my copy of Hexen and its expansion. Almost done with Heretic too, and holy balls is it fun. 🤣

Also addicted to The Elder Scrolls III: Morrowind since I recently repurchased the game for the PC to replace my buggy, and somewhat obsolete Xbox copy if I include the fan fixes for the game. It is my favorite Elder Scrolls game alongside Daggerfall, which is fantastic as well.

Àbout two-thirds of the way through Dark Forces at the moment. It's a competent FPS anyway, but the Star Wars setting and music really makes it great fun.

Some of the levels are standard find-the-key affairs, but others have some more complex multi-level puzzles. Limited lives and no manual saves makes things more challenging than many PC FPS. The controls aren't bad by modern standards, although there's no mouse look - looking up and down is handled via the keyboard. There's a healthy amount of autoaim to help out.

This is definitely one to play with a Sound Canvas by the way, I noticed that some instruments were missing or at least far too quiet on a DB50XG.

EDIT: Finished this now. The last couple of levels are a bit samey but still a lot of fun. The stormtroopers are terrible shots just like in the movies 🤣

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