Welp, my break was entirely unrestful but I've got a job to do so I can just ease myself back in with some simpler videos, and thus with that, Ancient DOS Games Episode 307 - Tube is online!

I'd been saving this one for when I needed to do something simple because there really isn't a lot to say about it, but I did manage to dig up some long-forgotten details about it which I highlight during the course of the video. :B

Ancient DOS Games Filler #95 - Oblivion's Lowest Detail Setting is online!

...and nope, not age gated! The way Oblivion was made you can turn nearly all of the graphic violence off just by disabling blood decals! ;)

Anywhoo, the entire reason I wanted to make this video is because I was reminded a couple months back about how I first played Olbivion... back on an old Windows 98 machine... even though Oblivion doesn't run on Windows 98...

...yeah, it's a bit of a story but ultimately leads into a legacy setting Oblivion has tucked away which it will not enable by default no matter how bad your video card is, but when you enable this setting... it almost looks like an entirely different game! 8O

Ancient DOS Games Episode 308 - Theme Park is online!

This was a game I was expecting to like FAR better than I actually did... especially given that Roller Coaster Tycoon is one of my favourites and both games, at first glance, play much the same way...

...but where Roller Coaster Tycoon was built for players to grow and nurture their amusement parks to be the biggest and best parks possible, Theme Park is HEAVILY biased towards big-business and corporate thinking, so much so that it is actually impossible to run a park forever, as every location is geared up to eventually force your hand to auction off your park for cash or get bought-out or go bankrupt from perpetually increasing costs which don't keep pace with what park visitors are willing to spend.

...oh wait sorry, I don't mean park "visitors" as the game wants me to instead call them "the little people"... >_>;;;;;;;;;;

Ancient DOS Games Episode 309 - CyClones is online!
(Please note this is a mature-rated episode.)

I think after playing through over half of this game, something it looks like only a handful of people on the face of the planet have even attempted, I can say for certain this game SHOULD be an underrated classic... if not for some severe issues which plague the entire experience. It's too bad this seemed to get swept under the rug soon after its release in favour of Heretic, which was made by the same developers, as I truly feel like a modern port of this game with the issues ironed out would make it FAR more playable than the original ended up being! (The story would still be garbage, but it's a first person shooter, it doesn't need a good story if the gameplay is fun!)

Did you ever do a review of any of the Test Drive series of games? (NFS not included)

Ancient DOS Games Pro 25 - ACTUAL Weapon Stats - EarthSiege is online!

Up a little late because yesterday was a freaking disaster, including a thunderstorm DURING a freezing-temperatures snowstorm which I didn't even think was possible...?!?

Kinda like how this video went WAY off the rails... My initial intention was just to investigate the energy mechanics in EarthSiege as they're not well explained to the player, but yikes, as soon as you scratch past the surface of the game's details it's like everything on the inside is just a giant fuster-cluck. The numbers aren't as reported, make sense to some degree but also don't make sense at the same time... it's actually kind of impressive the game is even playable when you realize just how incorrect all of the stats and mechanics are compared to what we were led to believe! :O

Also...

rmay635703 wrote on 2023-02-25, 16:28:

Did you ever do a review of any of the Test Drive series of games? (NFS not included)

Yep! I've covered the first Test Drive game so far! -> https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=D23FbGFrVuo

Gemini000 wrote on 2023-03-04, 14:31:

Kinda like how this video went WAY off the rails... My initial intention was just to investigate the energy mechanics in EarthSiege as they're not well explained to the player, but yikes, as soon as you scratch past the surface of the game's details it's like everything on the inside is just a giant fuster-cluck. The numbers aren't as reported, make sense to some degree but also don't make sense at the same time... it's actually kind of impressive the game is even playable when you realize just how incorrect all of the stats and mechanics are compared to what we were led to believe! 😳

Ever looked at the scripts defining everything in Starsiege? Now that is a confusing mess!

Ancient DOS Games Episode 310 - Dungeon Explorer is online!

I originally showed some footage of this game waaaaaaaaaaaaaaaay back in the SECOND EVER filler video. Since then, I've been biding my time, hoping the full game would appear at some point... but it never has... so I finally decided, "Screw it, let's just make a video about the shareware game and hope it shakes loose some details about what happened to this thing!"

That said, I did uncover some interesting things all the same and found a website which goes in-depth into a few of the technical details which I also bring up in the video, not to mention, I've got the CGA mode working! (The CGA mode is broken in ALL downloads of this game on the net due to a missing file!)

Ancient DOS Games Episode 311 - Radix: Beyond the Void is online!

So... this review went kind of interesting given that I was fully expecting to be able to play the 2.0 remix by patching the 1.1 version I was gifted...

...except the only 2.0 patch updates I could find do NOT work on the German version of the game... >_>;;;

Still, that gave me an opportunity to see how playable the game was in its original state before it was tweaked to be many times more playable and the results weren't as bad as I was expecting... not GREAT, but not bad, and definitely helps to explain why the game flew under a lot of radars and is nearly impossible to find legit copies of nowadays. :P

I think it was because I saw the gameplay in your early video that I found out about the game and got a copy shortly after.

If you're wondering about Radix GUS support in DOSBox, here's a topic about it, with a hacked registered 2.0 REMIX EXE that works with DOSBox:
Radix on UltraSound

Ancient DOS Games Filler #96 - DOS Games on the Game Boy Color is online!

I'd been wanting to do this one for awhile now, as I'm keenly aware of how several DOS games ended up on the GBC and GBA in some flavour or another, either as direct ports or conversions, thus this video covers a trio of such games to see how they compare to the DOS originals they were based on and if they're any decent! :B

Ancient DOS Games Episode 312 - Cyberia is online!

The most I knew about this game prior to buying it was that it had a very unusual means of moving around and was extremely polarizing, with some people praising it as being really good, and others calling it complete trash.

...and wouldn't you know it...

...it's BOTH! 8O

Ancient DOS Games Episode 313 - Adventure Fun-Pak is online!

Yeah, I know, I said this was going to be a racing game based on a real racing event. I ran into CONSIDERABLE difficulties trying to play the game though. Not technical difficulties, it was running perfectly fine, I just sucked so incredibly bad at it that I really couldn't capture any meaningful footage or really give any proper commentary on it. :/

So, I scrambled for a backup and decided to cover this little quad of games I actually had back as a kid, though haven't played in the longest time since. There are four games in this package: Night Bomber, The Thing, Rogue Runner, and Raiders of the Forbidden Mine, all of which are EXTREMELY simple, thus why I was able to cover such a package in such a short span of time! :B

Ancient DOS Games Pro 26 - Damage & HP - Mystic Towers is online!

I'd always been curious about the damage rates of the spells in Mystic Towers for quite some time, seeing as it always bugged me that the Ice spell seemed exceptionally weak by comparison to almost every other spell, yet the gauge showing the "Staff Power" seems to indicate that the spells increase in power linearly, starting from 1 point, then 2, 3, 4, and ultimately 5.

Thus it was time to test all of that and see what the ACTUAL spell damage and hit point ratings were! :D

...however... it didn't go exactly as planned... :P

you have produced consistent output all these years, just a nod of appreciation for the dedicated efforts 😀

it's interesting to see just how much is out there from back in the day

gerry wrote on 2023-06-04, 19:11:

you have produced consistent output all these years, just a nod of appreciation for the dedicated efforts :)

it's interesting to see just how much is out there from back in the day

Consistency is one of the MOST important aspects when it comes to making videos! :o

I've had a number of people ask me for advice over the years on what they're doing wrong and why their viewership sucks and unfortunately, 9 times out of 10, THAT'S the main reason, because they don't have a schedule and are simply posting videos whenever they feel like it, which often starts off at an impossible pace for them to keep due to other obligations, such as one or two videos a week, then rapidly drops to one a month, then one every two or three months, and then they just stop because they realize making videos may look fun and easy, but it's really not and it's simply not a task everyone's suited for. :/

I never discourage anyone from trying though because the occasional person DOES end up enjoying the process enough to keep at it regularly! Making videos is absolutely not for everyone but the only way to know really is to give it a try and see where you end up! :B

Ancient DOS Games Episode 314 - Corncob 3D / Corncob Deluxe is online!

This was kind of a weird one to take a look at... Not just because of the premise of fighting aliens with the kind of aircraft we had in the late 40's, but just decoding the nature of how the game was sold was a trip and a half with wrong turns and misinformation freaking EVERYWHERE. D:<

I eventually figured it out and explain through it at the start of the video, then go through the usual review motions for this... "unusual" flight sim! :B

Ancient DOS Games Mod 11 - MechWarrior 2: Ghost Bear's Legacy is online!

Playing this for my first time REALLY explains a lot in terms of how Activision went from the masterpiece of MechWarrior 2 down to the glitchy mess of MechWarrior 2: Mercenaries, as Ghost Bear's Legacy is kind of a transitionary thing in terms of mechanics and overall quality, granted, it probably doesn't help that they made this thing in under four months. :P

Gemini000 wrote on 2023-06-17, 03:17:

Ancient DOS Games Episode 314 - Corncob 3D / Corncob Deluxe is online!

This was kind of a weird one to take a look at... Not just because of the premise of fighting aliens with the kind of aircraft we had in the late 40's, but just decoding the nature of how the game was sold was a trip and a half with wrong turns and misinformation freaking EVERYWHERE. D:<

I eventually figured it out and explain through it at the start of the video, then go through the usual review motions for this... "unusual" flight sim! :B

Corncob reminded me of a game I used to be quite fond of but that is pretty obscure: "Flight Action" by Axisim Software.

https://www.mobygames.com/game/67702/flight-action/

Maybe this could be intersting for one of your other segments? It's quite a unique game, I think. I put it on Mobygames many years ago after doing some research. Unfortunately, I couldn't find out anything about the developer(s). It's not covered anywhere but one person on Twitter seems to have gotten excited about it: https://twitter.com/gravislizard/status/13004 … 5061842944?s=20

Also unfortunately, I'm not sure a full-release version is currently available anywhere. The game was only sold as a download as far as I could tell. I think what's floating around on the internet is the demo version. I got the game off of a shareware disk back in the day and that might have been the demo too.