I’ve tried to post a reasonable variety of games starting with some DOS based games that include Hammer of the Gods and the original Heroes of Might & Magic (I’ve just bought a recent incarnation of this series called Dark Messiah: Might & Magic that was released a few years ago and gave away the fourth in the series a few months ago). Despite the hassles of DOSBox and in the case of Might and Magic windows version having to use Daemon tools to mount the iso image theses are games well worth having in your games library. I’ve followed this up with a treat for those with palm top and mobile phones in the form of a game called Symbian Killer an arcade style shoot'em up, in the style of metal slug, neo geo and and snk arcade games. Then I’ve added a couple more RPG’s called Knights of Dillaria and it’s sequel Knights of Dillaria: Twin worlds. Following theses I’ve added a couple of retro space shooters, one of which was lost for many years, and finally a couple more bonus games for being so late with this weeks games. :) Oh yeah and I’ve included a few Easter themed games due to Easter being almost upon us.
Hammer of the Gods
Another gem from New World Computing, Hammer Of The Gods is set during the era of the great Viking explorations and before a mighty new empire arose in Europe, from the ashes of the Western Roman Empire. Ordinary folk have always feared the gods and looked to them for protection, but then men of iron souls arose who feared not even the gods, seeking only the glory of battle. These iron men dispatched many warriors to Valhalla (where the souls of warriors were believed to go after death), though the mightiest Viking warriors desired more than the glory of battle. They desired to become the death messenger of Odin himself. They desired to be The Hammer of the Gods. Four of the mightiest Viking warriors journeyed in their dreams to Asgard (home of the gods) to speak with Odin. To prove who is strongest, the four must battle for the favor of the lesser gods. After they earned the favor of the lesser gods, they can become The Hammer of the Gods.
These scenes are shown graphically in the intro video to the game, which, unfortunately, is missing due to incompatibility with DosBox.
When starting a new game, there are four races to choose from: Humans, Trolls, Elves and Dwarfs. After entering your name, you are prompted to take on a quest from the lesser gods, of whom there are 28. With each quest you complete you’ll be rewarded, and, more importantly, get closer to Odin himself. Assignments from the lesser gods range from simply giving out gold at the end of the turn, over giving your daughter’s hand in marriage, building a city near tundra, to raiding a monastery. After selecting a quest, you enter the game.
With graphics similar to Colonization, but a little more polished, the game is easy to discern. You start out with three fighters, one of whom is a Viking Hero. The purpose of the game is to become a favorite of the gods and to crush everything that stands in your way – as is the Viking spirit. Beside the cities of the computer-controlled players, neutral cities, British bastions and churches are scattered all across the map. When attacking a city, the combat mode is similar to that of Heroes and Might And Magic. An interesting feature is that every unit has the possibility of blocking a blow. This makes the combat less predictable. Another positive feature is that if you attack a village which has a diplomatic alliance with other forces, the armies of the defending cities will merge and fight you side-by-side.After winning a battle for a city, you are given four options:
1. Raiding the city (which yields gold) and killing part of the population. An advantage of raiding is that some local warriors might team up with you.
2. Plundering the city will yield more gold than raiding it, but local warriors will not team up with you.
3. Razing the city will result in the total destruction of the village and will leave an open site for another city to be built.
4. Subjugating the city results in the citizens obeying your commands.
Besides neutral cities, you’ll find bastions of English resistance. Within the walls of these well-guarded keeps, there are chests holding large amounts of gold. In order to defeat the Brits, you’ll need to acquire a large army. Armies are gathered through a simple-to-use menu. There are only three types of soldiers available for recruitment: Viking Swords, Viking Bows and Viking Heroes. These three units are available for every race. What distinguishes the races are the special units, which can only be obtained by solving quests. Special units are different for each of the races.
There are five levels of difficulty, but with the normal difficulty setting, the game is not easy to beat. Another feature worth mentioning is the game length. There are five(!) game lengths: Full, short, tutorial, PBEM short and long. One feature that makes this game infinitely replayable is the random map generator.
The graphics are nicely done and together with the great music weave a wonderful atmosphere. All in all a great game and definitely a must for every strategy fan.
Notes
This is the full version of the game. Unfortunately, the intro movie was left out due to incompatibility with Dos Box. Trying to run the intro might freeze the game.
Running the Game
Once set up with DOSBox you have to run/start the game from the Hammer.bat file or it will ask for the cd, which you don’t have. The game is too old for any of the download sites such as DiscWorld to stock NoCD patches for the game so using Hammer.bat is the only way to run the game. (not that this is a problem. It’s just usual for a game to be started from the exe file.
Download:
Download Hammer of the Gods HERE
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Heroes of Might & Magic
DOS version:
If some of you, like me, have become familiar with Heroes of Might and Magic through one of the later renditions then the lineage with this first edition will be quite clear. Everything which makes a game “Heroes” is there. Heroes, creatures and spells, towns to control and expand, a world to discover and plenty of monster and opposing armies to fight.
Heroes stormed on the scene in 1995 in both a DOS and a Windows version. The version discussed here lacks the world editing tool and is thus the DOS edition. I don’t expect anyone to start creating new maps for a nearly ten year old game so that’s not a problem.
In heroes you have the choice to play either a single map or a campaign (only one). The single maps are by far the most interesting. No fewer then eighteen shipped with the game and those will keep you playing for hour upon hour. The replay ability is high since you can choose from four different species of creatures to play with. The difficulty rating is adjustable and the maps are listed with a difficulty rating as well. It is all very user friendly.
All the more strange that the campaign lacks any difficulty settings. You can choose from among the four species again but that is all. The campaign itself is nothing but a prearranged series of single maps which is disappointing. There is story interwoven between the maps by short texts that you have to read but there is little relation to the game. The campaign in itself is too difficult for the casual player and I had no fun playing it. I soon found myself going back to the single maps.
The game plays just like its younger compatriots. You control armies that explore the map and do battle with other armies and monsters in a separate semi 3D environment. Towns house buildings that produce creatures. The fights are fought in a Master of Orion style. Creatures are stacked in groups that fight. You never see the individual creatures.
It all looks far older then the ten years it is. For some reason 3DO (developers of Heroes) never managed to hire some decent graphics artists. If I were told this game was released fifteen years ago I would have believed it. The colours might as well have been restricted to sixteen and the animation is laughable. This is not a flaw that hurts the game but there is one that does. Balance. Namely, heroes has none. With certain species the going is much tougher then with others. Specifically the mountain species is a lot stronger then any other because their creatures are better then any other. This flaw would haunt the series during its entire life and in all its incarnations but it is especially bad in this version.
I have saved the most remarkable aspect of HoMM for last. It’s multiplayer support. In 1995 only few games could boast a multiplayer option at all and HoMM not only has one but it has four. Modem, direct connect, network and even hot seat play are all included making the life span of the game even longer. After beating the campaign and all the single maps you can challenge your friends even if you did not own a modem or two computers.
Sadly 3DO went bankrupt last year meaning the four games that have been made are all that we will ever see of HoMM unless someone picks up the license. A fifth game was being made when 3DO kicked the bucked but we will never see where they wanted to take the series next.
All in all HoMM is a game well worth playing even today and if a friend comes over you can have some nostalgic fun with its multiplayer option.
Windows version:
If some of you, like I, have become familiar with Heroes of Might and Magic through one of the later renditions then the lineage with this first edition will be quite clear. Everything which makes a game “Heroes” is there. Heroes, creatures and spells, towns to control and expand, a world to discover and plenty of monster and opposing armies to fight.
Heroes stormed on the scene in 1995 in both a DOS and a Windows version. The version discussed here lacks the world editing tool and is thus the DOS edition. I don’t expect anyone to start creating new maps for a nearly ten year old game so that’s not a problem.
In heroes you have the choice to play either a single map or a campaign (only one). The single maps are by far the most interesting. No fewer then eighteen shipped with the game and those will keep you playing for hour upon hour. The replay ability is high since you can choose from four different species of creatures to play with. The difficulty rating is adjustable and the maps are listed with a difficulty rating as well. It is all very user friendly.
All the more strange that the campaign lacks any difficulty settings. You can choose from among the four species again but that is all. The campaign itself is nothing but a prearranged series of single maps which is disappointing. There is story interwoven between the maps by short texts that you have to read but there is little relation to the game. The campaign in itself is too difficult for the casual player and I had no fun playing it. I soon found myself going back to the single maps.
The game plays just like its younger compatriots. You control armies that explore the map and do battle with other armies and monsters in a separate semi 3D environment. Towns house buildings that produce creatures. The fights are fought in a Master of Orion style. Creatures are stacked in groups that fight. You never see the individual creatures.
It all looks far older then the ten years it is. For some reason 3DO (developers of Heroes) never managed to hire some decent graphics artists. If I were told this game was released fifteen years ago I would have believed it. The colours might as well have been restricted to sixteen and the animation is laughable. This is not a flaw that hurts the game but there is one that does. Balance. Namely, heroes has none. With certain species the going is much tougher then with others. Specifically the mountain species is a lot stronger then any other because their creatures are better then any other. This flaw would haunt the series during its entire life and in all its incarnations but it is especially bad in this version.
I have saved the most remarkable aspect of HoMM for last. It’s multiplayer support. In 1995 only few games could boast a multiplayer option at all and HoMM not only has one but it has four. Modem, direct connect, network and even hot seat play are all included making the life span of the game even longer. After beating the campaign and all the single maps you can challenge your friends even if you did not own a modem or two computers.
Sadly 3DO went bankrupt last year meaning the four games that have been made are all that we will ever see of HoMM unless someone picks up the licence. A fifth game was being made when 3DO kicked the bucked but we will never see where they wanted to take the series next.
All in all HoMM is a game well worth playing even today and if a friend comes over you can have some nostalgic fun with its multiplayer option.
IMPORTANT! In order for the windows version to run you must mount the ISO image using Daemon Tools. If you get an error the first time you start it, just restart and everything will be alright! To run the DOS version you must mount your cdrom in DOSbox by using the following command: MOUNT * -t cdrom *:
* = your cdrom drive. (Most used d: and e:)
Check out Wizzards thread about running DOSBox for a link to Daemon Tools. You can find the link in the stickies at the top of the games discussion forums..
Video
Watch video of Heroes of Might & Magic HERE
Download:
Download DOS version od Heroes of Might & Magic HERE
Download Windows version of Heroes of Might & Magic HERE
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Symbian Killer
Plunge into the most neck-breaking adventure to destroy the most insidious corporations in the universe - NOKIA (general) and its Symbian OS (in particular).
Here are some key features of "Symbian Killer":
• Animation and special effects that will not leave you indifferent.
• Inimitable sound effects and music from the famous DJ MoHaX
• 6 different worlds with unique action, including the final battle with Nokia Corporation!
Requirements:
• Pocket PC 2003, WM5, WM6, WM6.1 with a screen resolution of 240x320
Watch video of Symbian Killer HERE
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Knights of Dillaria:
In this game you are playing with a knight who has to collect the 8 missing Crystal Keys. He needs these keys in order to open the room of the legendary Necro.. sword. With that sword our knight will be able to beat the Demon.
The game has 2 difficulty levels: Easy and Hard.
To start the game in easy mode, select 2 knights. For the hard mode: Select playing "Alone".Hints:
Look in the folder for the mapa.bmp file. On this picture you will see where you can find the 8 keys (dungeons 1..8) and where the sword is (dungeon 9).For those who’ve never played such RPG games:
At the start, select 2 knights (playing together with a friend)
Go to the town and stay in front of the Save item + press Space (save your game).
Go outside the town and beat at least 2 enemies (when the battle screen opens, select "AI Fight" + space). After the fight you will earn some money and experience points.Go back to the town, enter the hotel to stay a night (to recuperate). Beat some more enemies, go back to the hotel and save your game from time to time.
After a while you will have enough money to buy some stuff in the shops. Personally I only bought HP and MP increase + some magic stuff as Fireball throw Crusher and Soul Drain. After buying something, press Esc so you will enter the character profile pages. Select "Use item" + space, select the item you wish, press space and give the item to the knight you want (select + space). To go back to the game press Esc.
If you need more easy enemies to beat, go inside a dungeon (best dungeon 1) and leave that dungeon again. You will see loads of new enemies ;) Or you can enter dungeon 2 and fight against those fire demons. These will provide you more experience points and after each fight that demon appears again. Easy to earn loads of points and money ;)
Good Luck Knight!
Controls:
Arrow keys = move / select
Space or Enter = Action key (enter, use, ..)
Esc = Open profile pages / go back / cancel
F4 = Full screen / windowed
or you also can use a game pad
Then there’s the sequel called:
Knights of Dallaria: Twin Worlds
The story of the game is based around traveling between twin parallel worlds. Doing something in the first world will alter things in the second one and so on.
Features:
- Classic RPG elements (leveling up, equipping items)
- Combination of real time and turn based battles
- 24 hour night/day system
- 8 dungeons each with it's own boss
- Find herbs and cook potions
- Ability to get drunk from the beer ;)
- Non-scripted, completely random weather
- Hire mercenaries to aid you in battles
- FmodEx engine(superb music quality and surround sound)
- and many more (boat sailing for example....;) )
Controls:
Arrows: Move
Enter: Make choices, perform action during game play
Shift: Attack with your sword (can be done only in the field)
Esc: Opens pause/inventory screen
Also you can use all USB based joypads
Watch video of Knights of Dillaria: Twin Worlds HERE
Download Knights of Dillaria HERE
Download Knights of Dillaria: Twin Worlds HERE
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Zirconia 2: Battle (16Mb)
Zirconia 2: Battle is a 2D shooter in which you battle a computer opponent indirectly. The screen will be split: with you on the left side and your opponent on the right. When the match begins, enemies which do nothing (except move) will spawn. Players must defeat these enemies and collect coins that they drop, of three different colors. You (and your opponent!) have a hand of up to 3 cards at a time which, when used, will have varying effects. You must have the appropriate amount of coins in order to play a card. There are many different strategies you can use here.
For instance, a card could:
• spawn enemies onto your opponent's side and possibly overwhelm him
• send a lazer beam down their side of the screen
• give a negative or positive status ailment, like dizzyness or berzerk
• set up a defensive structure to block incoming enemies
Read the Zirconia 2: Battle manual HERE
Video
Download Zirconia 2: Battle HERE
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Vavatron
Recently-discovered and available to play for the first time, Vavatron, the lost arcade game. Known as "Project V" in the arcade industry, the mythical title – It was never officially released to retailers and has been described as a cross between Robotron and Tempest. The game, created by ruined studio 3 American Joes, was stunted by a notoriously sketchy development cycle that journalist Steve Kent profiles in an exclusive IGN feature, which can be found below:
The story:
Read about the lost arcade game HERE
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Cadog Adventures
A fun platform game in the style of Super Mario.
Unique in this game is that the worlds are really round.
Just as in a Super Mario game you have to collect coins and jump on the enemies.
controls:
arrows = move
Shift + arrows = run / jump higher
Download Cadog Adventures HERE
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Rocks & Diamonds:
Here’s an excellent Boulderdash clone
How to play:
You can move your playing figure with the configured keys (which
will normally and by default be the arrow keys) or with a joystick.
To 'snap' a field near you without moving to it, you
can use the left fire button on your joystick (hold it down, move the
stick to 'snap' the field, release the button) or the key you have
configured for this action (by default one of the left modifier keys like
'Shift' or 'Control').
To place a piece of dynamite, use the right fire button on your joystick or
use the key you have configured for this (by default one of the right modifier
keys, but you can change all this to what you like).
After placing the dynamite, better see to move away from this field...).
Other features:
- network multiplayer games (upto 4 players) for Unix platform
- local multiplayer games (upto 4 players) for all supported platforms
- soft scrolling with 50 frames per second
- freely customizable keyboard and joystick support
- stereo sound effects and music
- music modules and fullscreen in SDL version
- contains levels to play Boulder Dash, Emerald Mine and Sokoban
- lots of additional levels available (over 10.000)
- distributed with full source code under the GNU General Public License
- available for Unix (all flavors), DOS and Windows (95/98/NT/2000/XP)
- known to work under BeOS and Mac OS X
- should compile on any platform supporting either X11 or SDL
Download Rocks & Diamonds HERE
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Puzzle Master II
This is a decent ‘jigsaw’ puzzle clone, though not strictly a jigsaw puzzle. You can use your own images with this game, so it’s well worth a trial. You can see screenshots on the download page.
Download Puzzle Master II HERE
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Easter Journey
A gorgeous looking 3D sokoban clone
with 47 levels.
The music is very pleasant and fits the various moods of the game perfectly, with fantastic background graphics. The storyline and the way you progress through various landscapes is an excellent touch. The game starts out nice and simple and becomes progressively harder in the later levels which will be a bonus to the more advanced players. You can undo moves or reset the level if you wish level.
Cons :
- Crashes at the end. A nice outro would have been a huge improvement.
- The fade sequences after passing a level are a little slow.
- Extra levels didn't seem to be working.
This game was an entry of the Caiman Easter contest 2006
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Bunny Speed:
3D racing game with cartoon style graphic.
Pros:
Fun racing game - nice cartoony feel
Good physics ie. collisions, -handling and skidding etc.
Excellent sound effects - engine and skidding etc.
Nice themed tracksGood opponent AI/pathfinding
Cons:
Car is always horizontal ie. don't tilt when going up hills
You can cheat by driving around part of the track and then just going straight to the finish line after a short while, without completing the rest of the lap :-)
Graphics could be enhanced On the second race most of my opponents didn't move (After my second lap they were still on the starting grid and only when I crashed into them did they start moving
Opponents positions marked on the small map at the top of the screen would be handy
Summary:
Cool game, nice feel, but just with a few small enhancements it could be improved a lot
This game was an entry of the Caiman Easter contest 2006
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