Update the sixty-second!

Like an ambidextrous chimp swinging through the forests, Lawnie has returned with grace and skill to this thread!

This week's scripted video was another 10 of the Best, featuring licenced PC video games from the nineties. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Pvx0I847lmE

The clear standout in Random DOS Game Land was Where in the World is Carmen Sandiego? An Edutainment classic that I'm just terrible at playing! https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LflxNwy8woQ

Most of the other games were awful, but Snaker stood out as an enjoyable Snake variant with scrolling that induced motion sickness in one of my subscribers. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Uqk6dOvW6zk

That's your lot this week, a relatively quiet one but hey! They can't all be frenetic and laden with content! I am but one man!

Lawnie... away!

Update the sixty-third!

Like an overcaffeinated squirrel, Lawnie has leapt from the trees and returned with an update!

This week was all about random DOS games!

The scripted video was part 5 in a regular series where I highlight the best 25 games I've played of the last hundred. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_Q1SI0XfZvQ

The 500th episode of the Random DOS Game show was a momentous occasion. What did I play for such an event? Er... Awesome Earl is Skate Rock! https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vz9gBUHKkFw

Sci-fi game Star Control was the next on the list with its Spacewar!-style combat leaving me with a LOT to say about the controls in a rare interlude! https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-FqyPFZ2swg

There was also a real-time adventure game with H.R. Giger art in Dark Seed! Though it was distinctly less endearing than other games I've played in the same genre. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=U6WHv44oqS0

Will next week bring even more fun and games? You bet! Lawnie... AWAY!

My main youthful memories of Star Control 1 involve fun 'arcade-y' melee combat between the wildly varying spaceships. It's unfortunate that the game wouldn't let you define different keyboard controls! It's quite hard to play without controls. Perhaps for you, the game should just be called "Star". 😁

I'll have to load it up on the old machine sometime and see if I can do any better.

Shreddoc wrote on 2022-04-17, 20:54:

My main youthful memories of Star Control 1 involve fun 'arcade-y' melee combat between the wildly varying spaceships. It's unfortunate that the game wouldn't let you define different keyboard controls! It's quite hard to play without controls. Perhaps for you, the game should just be called "Star". 😁

I'll have to load it up on the old machine sometime and see if I can do any better.

It even gave the option to let the computer handle those arcade sequences if I wanted... I even toyed with the idea! I chose to tackle the control scheme and figure it out on the fly... after all, how hard could it be?

1 2 3 4 5 as controls, but NOT on the numeric keypad. I mean... who could have predicted THAT?!

Update the sixty-fourth!

Like a Romulan warbird turning up when there's trouble, Lawnie has returned!

This weeks scripted video was another Worthwhile DOS Game to add to the 100 list. This time it was two of them! Hell to Pay and Perdition's Gate! https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gRHgUiglzTU

There were all kinds of interesting Random DOS games this week too!

Thunder Offshore was a competent voxel-based Wipeout clone by a small studio. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eCFKeGv3G9U

The Terminator 2029 was a very difficult tactical grid-based first person game with a fantastic musical score. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=duL3DaLSdeQ

Stonekeep was a latter-day grid-based first person RPG from Brian Fargo and the Interplay crew, just before they would go on to make Fallout and change the world. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=adDsP1fg_yM

And last but not least? Why it's the famous typing tutor! Mavis Beacon Teaches Typing! https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=C-xOa1r6gEE

Whew! What an exhausting week of content... will next week also be good? Probably. Until then! Lawnie... away!

Lawnie wrote on 2022-04-24, 08:46:

This weeks scripted video was another Worthwhile DOS Game to add to the 100 list. This time it was two of them! Hell to Pay and Perdition's Gate!

I'd love to give these maps a try someday. Kinda funny they were treading a legal gray area selling them as commercial products without a agreement with Id Software.

DracoNihil wrote on 2022-04-28, 02:27:

Lawnie wrote on 2022-04-24, 08:46:

This weeks scripted video was another Worthwhile DOS Game to add to the 100 list. This time it was two of them! Hell to Pay and Perdition's Gate!

I'd love to give these maps a try someday. Kinda funny they were treading a legal gray area selling them as commercial products without a agreement with Id Software.

Agreed. I'm ashamed to say I'd never heard of these maps until Lawnie covered them - by rights, as a Vogoner, I should have heard of all 90's games, with no exceptions! /s. I'm going to have to check these out sometime.

Totally, re: legal gray areas, it was quite a Wild West sort of time in the digital realm. Underground content was being flung around all over, with little thought about licence.

DracoNihil wrote on 2022-04-28, 02:27:

Kinda funny they were treading a legal gray area selling them as commercial products without a agreement with Id Software.

According to Doomwiki they obtained a licence from id Software to use the Doom 1 engine (and presumably the assets), which meant that they weren't in any legal trouble. Members of the team had already been in close contact with id having been involved in making Final Doom with Team TNT and trying to sell Perdition's Gate as an expansion of Final Doom. So the two entries are like a sister products to Final Doom, and share some of the same developers.

Shreddoc wrote on 2022-04-28, 07:00:

I'm ashamed to say I'd never heard of these maps until Lawnie covered them - by rights, as a Vogoner, I should have heard of all 90's games, with no exceptions! /s. I'm going to have to check these out sometime.

That's the beauty of the show though, the more you learn about DOS gaming, the more you discover that you don't know! Who knows what crazy title I'll uncover next that will completely alter my perceptions?

Lawnie wrote on 2022-04-28, 18:43:

According to Doomwiki they obtained a licence from id Software to use the Doom 1 engine (and presumably the assets), which meant that they weren't in any legal trouble.

Oh, I guess I confused it with the situation with D!Zone.

Update the sixty-fifth!

Like a Romulan warbird when a paper-pushing Commodore is in temporary command, Lawnie shows up at the most inopportune of times!

This week's video had me randomly talking about Centurion, a game that has striking similarities to a Total War title but predates it by over a decade! https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fGlr0NXmuNM

There was a bizarre coincidence too great to ignore in random DOS game land, and that's explained in-depth in my doomed playthrough of The Gold of the Aztecs. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Q74Q2V4yuG8

Speaking of doom, I also ended up playing a game that wasn't a game at all in Doom4Vanilla. Find out why here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iWd-u2mRJxs

Less than 40 minutes of video?! I'm clearly slacking! Until next week! Lawnie... away!

Lawnie wrote on 2022-05-01, 11:48:

Speaking of doom, I also ended up playing a game that wasn't a game at all in Doom4Vanilla.

Of all the DeHackED stuff, REKKER and Batman Doom are rather interesting to look at as well as this.

There's also Vesper but that's for the new "MBF21" that DSDA-Doom springboarded into action, but that's still DeHackED based modding at it's core just way more stuff is available to hack around with.

Update the sixty-sixth!

This week I went a bit silly with the content, as there were THREE scripted videos, which is undoubtedly too much.

486 Memories was a subscriber-requested video about my experiences with using an Intel 486 DX2 for a decade. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MFOfLApJ0rQ

OpenJKDF2 was my annual May the 4th video, showcasing the incredible engine replacement for Jedi Knight. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8DoHek4jti4

And finally my Quick Review series kicked off properly with a look back at KaleidoKubes, the first DOS game I played on the Random DOS Game Show. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=u-aDkJcnL6c

As if that wasn't enough, I also got to playing the DOS version of Micro Machines. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zdTRrC-i_XU

And the DOS version of Playstation game Silverload... which wasn't very good. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=79xUoXwW3GA

There were others like The Alpine Encounter and The Scottish Open too, but I'll not link them here. Seven videos in one week. Good grief. That's more than any one Lawnie should do.

Until next time! Lawnie... away!

Update the sixty-seventh!

Greetings and salutations! More game stuff happened this week! Look!

This week's scripted video was a runaway success, with over 2,500 views in a matter of days! It looks at the different DOSBox scalers and most importantly uses Doom to test them out! https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=o9KW5JomtkE

The second scripted video of the week was another of my Quick Review series, where I focused on Muck Men from MARS! A game that kept my Random DOS Game Show going way back in 2020. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=f2xmgbKsV1E

Kingpin bowling was a likeable ten pin bowling sim. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kEZyKTKuPwc

Action Soccer was surprisingly entertaining and had wonderful commentary. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=V2xpd3U3rS0

Cyclones was early Raven experimenting in a Doom-like engine. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dk5jsGUMARk

The best of the lot though? Noctropolis, a comic book inspired point and click adventure game with FMV! https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dk5jsGUMARk

That's right, only six videos instead of seven this week. Clearly Lawnie is slacking! Someone pass me some smelling salts...

Update the sixty-eighth!

This week's scripted videos kicked off with the St. Giga Soundfont Showcase Special. The most alliterative title in the channel's history! https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Q8mR4Dme-HM

It was followed by the latest in my Quick Review series, where I took a look at underrated point and click adventure game The Gene Machine. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-AxG0QT1SC0

In Random DOS Game Land Scorcher was an entertaining little racer with a member of the team who would go on to do much bigger things: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sEaCcfKMO2c

Striker 96 was a fun little arcade football game that deserved better than it got. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Z9awR3ig6D8

And Wetlands was a high-production rail shooter that should appeal to fans of the genre! ...but not me. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_k170507s9A

That's your lot this week! Lawnie... away!

Update the sixty-ninth!

Late by three days, Lawnie is like a drug-addled pop star when it comes to adhering to obligations!

This past week saw the return of the Subscriber Spotlight! Showcasing some of the great YouTube channels my subscribers/followers have! https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rgji6msgO5w

The other scripted video was a jaunt through Dinosaur Safari, a Windows 3.11 game I played growing up in the 90s all about taking pictures of dinosaurs. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dbI4sze1108

Chessmaster 2000 is one of the better DOS chess games out there. Even though I forgot to use the keyboard keys to move pieces. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MhOZ-1bYyws

The real gem uncovered by the series this week though was War Diary, an almost unknown Korean RTS that looks a lot like Warcraft but has some fundamental differences! https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yGQB7HZ_JSw

That's your lot! See you on Sunday... or Monday... or whenever I remember to do this! Lawnie... away!

Update the seventieth!

Like a boat with loads of holes in it that refuses to sink, Lawnie continues to break the YouTube algorithm!

This week's first scripted video was an amateur philosophy one discussing The Ship of Theseus and how it pertains to gaming, using Doom as an example! https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=inJdpAecBFM

Croina VS FPS returned with her taking on the first of a trilogy of terrible Capstone games. Corridor 7: Alien Invasion! https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QCUk6yWbHhs

In Random DOS Game Land, Rayman leapt onto our screens this week, and offered everything a platformer should. Except a gentle difficulty curve. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cfst5-1tWeI

The infamous FPS Isle of the Dead also made an appearance again! https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mfAXULoeYAQ

And amusing learning FPS Chill Manor had one of the greatest opening musical acts of any DOS game ever. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tRamWI_feqQ

That's your lot! There's no stopping Lawnie now! Well, there is, but that's not the point! Until next week!

Lawnie wrote on 2022-06-05, 09:35:

The infamous FPS Isle of the Dead also made an appearance again!

The floppy disk release of that game had MUCH worse music, almost like they just threw in work in progress MIDI and rushed the game out ASAP.

Lawnie, wondering if you'd consider putting Eradicator on you're list of "things to do"? It's a late era DOS game which
I happened to get recently on GOG. It's ok so far in the little time I've spent with it, has some sticking points where I
can't figure out what to do next. Check it out!

DracoNihil wrote on 2022-06-05, 23:36:

Lawnie wrote on 2022-06-05, 09:35:

The infamous FPS Isle of the Dead also made an appearance again!

The floppy disk release of that game had MUCH worse music, almost like they just threw in work in progress MIDI and rushed the game out ASAP.

I had noticed the differences, particularly with a lack of death animations and the change from machete to bamboo stick in the CD version, but yes, the music is... better. Not quite as torturous. It was still a pain to play, sadly.

buckeye wrote on 2022-06-07, 14:03:

Lawnie, wondering if you'd consider putting Eradicator on you're list of "things to do"? It's a late era DOS game which
I happened to get recently on GOG. It's ok so far in the little time I've spent with it, has some sticking points where I
can't figure out what to do next. Check it out!

I might be able to "randomly" select that one for you some time soon. I was looking up FPS alternatives for another of my 100 more worthwhile DOS games videos, and its name cropped up as an underrated shooter. So I'll take a look! Speaking of which: Radix. Radix was fun. I shall be talking more about Radix in the future.

Lawnie wrote on 2022-06-08, 20:56:

Speaking of which: Radix. Radix was fun. I shall be talking more about Radix in the future.

The interesting thing about Radix, because its rendering engine and map design is similiar to Doom... The person behind DelphiDoom has been working on making a game engine recreation to run Radix natively on modern systems. (well, natively as in on modern OS's, I'm pretty sure like DelphiDoom; the project is also written in Delphi)