My play through of Boiling Point came to a messy end when the game world got into such a tangle that I couldn’t continue; not a completely unexpected result unfortunately. It’s a fragile game.

To get my jungle shooting fix I’ve continued with Far Cry 3, which I’ve been playing on-and-off since it was released. I’m yet to finish it but really enjoy it each time I pick it up.

To get my retro fix I’ve been playing Network Q RAC Rally (1996), which is my favourite rally game to date. I have no idea if this is a good racing sim or not, I’m no connoisseur and have no interest in being one. It’s probably a very easy game, the arcade mode in particular is very much a case of ‘point the car forward and go as fast as you can’. There are more challenging modes - a world championship, etc – so I’m sure that a more hardcore rally fan could get something out of this game too, but I play this game for the great graphics, the sound, the amazing weather effects, and the nice variation in location, stage length, and road surface. Some of the longer stages can take ~30 mins to complete, and there’s just something very relaxing about flying along a dirt road through the European country side, a wall of trees on either side barely visible through the falling snow. Snowflakes burst on your windscreen, the windscreen wipers swish, the engine howls and pops, and your co-driver calls the corners. It gives you a real sense of speed which some car games lack.

It’s SVGA only so I’m playing this on a PIII 1Ghz Windows 98 machine to experience it at a decent frame rate, and it’s a DOS game so I’m booting directly to DOS 7. Sound is provided by a SB16, music is red-book and not bad for a mid 90’s game. Back in the day I played this with a Thrustmaster Grand Prix 1 racing wheel. The GP1 has paddles for go / stop, and buttons on the wheel for gear changes. Later models, like the T1 and T2, had a shift leaver and pedals - I’ve tried these models, but personally those additions don’t add much to the experience. The pedals in particular are just extra work for very little gain I think; it’s just more wires and things to go wrong.

To complete the Network Q Rally experience I bought a replacement TM GP1 locally for cheap - I have no idea where the original went. All told the replacement was in very good condition; the paddle gears were stripped, but that was an easy fix. While I was in there fixing things I tightened the “bungie” cord which provides tension when you turn the wheel, and now it’s as good as new. It’s a big improvement over the keyboard; getting the car sideways around corners is the name of the game and a keyboard is just too twitching to do that consistently.

I’m under the impression that this game was not particularly popular, in Australia at least. But if you can find it for sale then I think it’s worth a shot.

I loved network q rally best in the series imho
used to play it with a cheap-ass joystic (logic-5 i think) also noticed you have the keyboard of the gods (them ibm model-m)
I also bought the sequel International Rally Championship but couldnt play it because my 14" crt only did 640x480 and the minimum res of the game was 800x600
ps: the sequel to IRC, Mobil 1 Rally Championship has problems with xp fixes in the link
http://web.archive.org/web/20110707081405/htt … =6500&SID=64415

I recently re-bought my trusty old TM Nascar Pro [which was broken/worn beyond repair]- basically the same as the T1 wheel but with a sequential shifter instead of paddles and floor mounted pedals. In some ways I prefer it over than my more sophisticated Logitech FF Momo - the wheel feels more natural in hand and the neutral action feels more realistic. Maybe a more expensive FF model would be better I don't know.

I totally understand the desire to reduce controller footprint & wires, but for driving - simulation or arcade - I can't be without the tripartite wheel/shifter/pedals.

Thanks for posting Network Q Rally - I didn't know anything about it and will track down a copy now. Rally doesn't get much play here in the US and you need to make more of an effort to know what's out there.

Great rally game,i remember playing it a lot on my first pc(amd K5-100mhz),i always loved how at the start of the race the car was clean,and by the end of it it was all dirty and covered in mud.

recently finished warcraft II and dark portal on my 5x86 machine.

replaying warlords battlecry 3.

awesome games!

-

Lately I've mainly been playing Team Fortress 2 and Counter Strike 1.6. Both awesome games. 😁

Nahkri wrote:

i always loved how at the start of the race the car was clean,and by the end of it it was all dirty and covered in mud.

Yeah there's lots of attention to detail in this game and it makes for a great experience. Like when it's foggy, the fog comes and goes as you progress through the stage. And the engine sounds different depending on which camera you're using. Little things but they all add up.

I've been playing it with my five year old daughter and she's loving it, but is dissapointed that she can't drive off the road and crush the spectators under her wheels of doom. She's getting pretty good - a lot better than her mother anyway!

badmojo wrote:

but is dissapointed that she can't drive off the road and crush the spectators under her wheels of doom.

U can install carmageddon 1 or 2 if she's into crushing ppl 😜
If u like rally games i recomend Rally Trophy ,but it's more a sim then an arcade. http://www.mobygames.com/game/windows/rally-trophy

I just finished Star Trek:Voyager Elite Force,now playing Star Trek Elite Force 2,on my socket A system.
Also started Drakan Order of the Flame,on my pentium 3 system.

I finished the 28 stage 'Championship' in Network Q Rally and WOW, what a great game. Apart from the occasional incorrect call by my co-driver and some questionable physics in one or two of the stages, it's flawless and consistently fun to play. I came in fourth and was tempted to start all over again to see if I can top that, but I've decided to take a break.

Next up is Half-life, a game that I've never really given much attention. In the early 2000's I played a lot of Day of Defeat and Counterstrike at LAN parties, so I did have Half-life. I just wasn't really playing games at that time outside of a LAN party setting.

I'm playing the 'game of the year edition' on a PIII 1GHz with 2X Voodoo2's & a Sound Blaster Live! 5.1. It looks beautiful and sound great too - the EAX effects are overdone at times but sound great for the most part.

It's a very scripted experience but the monsters are nasty, the jumping puzzles are fun (so far), and the atmosphere is generally very good. It doesn't take itself too seriously either which I like in a game.

Lots of fun so far.

I'm playing and still modifying the original 1998 Unreal.

Ahhh yes, Half-life....... This game sure brings back memories.......

I remember storming into my local Best Buy in late November 1998 to buy it, then going straight home, install it in my P233MMX with Voodoo 1 3D card, and play until the very early morning hours (I was late for work the next day, of course 😅 ). Then in mid-2002 the new Platinum Collection came out, and once again I did the same thing - only this time I had an Athlon XP 2000+ on an Abit KT7A mobo with 512megs of PC133 RAM, Nvidia GeForce 3 64meg video card, Voodoo 2 12meg 3D card, SBLive! Value sound card. The experience was simply incredible! It felt like a brand new game altogether 😁 .

Now I'm playing Half-life again (and reliving some of my old memories) in my rebuilt P4 2.4GHz Northwood rig with 512megs of DDR333 RAM, Nvidia GeForce FX5500 256meg video card and a new SBLive! Value sound card (the previous one died about 2 years ago); I'm also playing Warcraft 3 Reign of Chaos and the Frozen Throne expansion pack, as well as Diablo 2 with the Lord of Destruction expansion pack, all running on Windows 98 SE. And while all 3 games run great, I forgot how addicting Diablo 2 really is (my Paladin is in Lower Kurast and doing great at level 26 😀 ).

I'm currently playing "Redline" (1999). Nothing very remarkable about the game, except that I stumbled upon the demo once upon a time, and it was light enough on my old system then. It's level design is plain and the fact seems to be concealed by low lighting. Low is compensated by higher than average size of all locations.

Redline is mainly a first-person shooter, but allows the player to enter vehicles for protection and increased firepower. In retrospect, there are some similarities with GTA. Although all cars have mounted guns, and player's on foot weaponry cannot be used while in a vehicle. Evading gunfire and aiming while driving is hard and, whenever possible, I prefer to attack enemies on foot strafing and taking cover when needed.

The game offers a unique solution to the problem of carrying many different weapons simultaneously. The character instead has a single gun that can be transformed from a rapid firing and accurate machine gun into a shotgun or a sniper rifle with a scope when needed.

What I call 'second generation' 3D games like "Redline" benefit from a relatively modern XP system, which can do anti-aliasing along with trilinear and anisotropic textures for floors. It looks rather good then. Maybe it would look somewhat better at a lower CRT resolution, which would conceal the lack of detail. Going above 1024 px, like here, stretches the HUD too much. In my memory explosions in the game looked better.

Half-Life with reverbs in soundcard wasn't that bad. I played it briefly with my old Yamaha card, and there the metallic pipe reverb was less pronounced and didn't cut off upon level transitions.

Mobil 1 Rally Championship 99/2000 (by Magnetic Fields) was a great game. I know the Clocaenog Mid by heart from playing the demo. Too bad it doesn't run on my new video card anymore. The issue with elevated priority was definitely there, whether a steering wheel was used or not. I always went to the task manager (which alone took a while at that stage) to lower it to get smoother input from the keyboard.

I am playing Dead Island 1 (finished) and 2 (Riptide). I purchased both of them and some DLCs for 12,45 € on Steam.

Skullgirls

-

JayCeeBee64 wrote:

I remember storming into my local Best Buy in late November 1998 to buy it, then going straight home, install it in my P233MMX with Voodoo 1 3D card, and play until the very early morning hours

Yeah it must have been huge on release; the release date was pushed back for years so expectations would have been high. I read that DOOM was an inspiration for the Half-life and it shows, they’ve captured DOOM’s simple, addictive formula, and I really want to keep playing to see what’s around the next corner.

PeterLI wrote:

Currently playing SimCity on my Digital Venturis Pentium 75 (RAP-10, SB16).

Wow that looks amazing, SimCity is another game I missed back when it was released for whatever reason; it’s also on my ToDo list.

j7n wrote:

I'm currently playing "Redline" (1999)

Holy crap can we test multiplayer together? I read in the readme file that it's notoriously hideous especially with vehicles involved. But I've never in my life had the chance to try the game online.

Most people don't seem to have cared about vanilla HL multiplayer... it is way underrated, all of the hype was indeed around CS back then. I for one remember good times on killbox and crossfire, and WON was great while it lasted 😀

-