As there appears to be no game giveaway today I thought I’d post several more free games ranging from Alien shooters, puzzles, RPG’s and some sports games. There should be something for everyone here. I’ve been meaning to post a few of these games for quite some time, but there has been so much choice they were put on the back burner. Most of the games do require DOSBox though. Pick of the bunch: I would say Alien Shooter 2 then Theme Hospital, but they all have their merits.
Theme Hospital
The graphics are not as good as Hospital Tycoon, but from what I’ve played of both games, I think (IMO) Theme hospital is slightly better in the game play department :)
You will need to run the game in DOSBox, but thanks to wizard, it’s easy to run DOSBox. Check out the sticky on DOSBox made easy.
Theme Hospital is a level-based hospital management simulation where players have to start on an empty building, and then assemble rooms with all kinds of material, from desks and file cabinets for the general diagnosis to the expensive ultra-scanners.
There several additional rooms, such as a staff room for your employees to rest, a toilet so that patients don't have to relieve themselves in the corridors, a research department to get the most advanced diagnostic and treatment technologies and a training room where consultants can teach a thing or two to rookies, making them capable doctors.
The size and layout of each room can be set by the player, according to the available space. In addition to rooms, the player must provide radiators, seating for patients and drink machines.
Other peoples reviews:
one of the best computer games I ever played when it first came out. has aged really well. graphics are still cute and funny and the gameplay is brilliant. i play it every couple of months from scratch again. i never completed it though cause it gets dam hard later on in the game. bloaty head is still my favorite fictional ailment.
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Summer Challenge: (<1Mb)
Summer Challenge is a truly classic, keyboard trashing, sports game. :) It has all the necessary ingredients: it looks good, its fast, fun, diverse and challenging. It will cause pain in your arms and muscle spasms, but none of that can compare to the joy of braking your own record in a discipline :)
However, be careful not to play this game in front of many people. The sight of your arm hysterically twitching in an attempt to press as fast as you can is not the most peasurable one. Now, about the game itself...
It offers eight disciplines: kayak, hurdles, pole vault, high jump, javelin, cycling, archery and equestrian. It will take a lot of time to master those disciplines. You can also choose your opponent player's skill, ranging from amateur to world class (practically unbeatable).
Controls are very simple. In most cases you will only use and space bar. In some disciplines you will have to steer by using the arrow keys but that is pretty much it.
You can create custom tournaments and compete against your friend so, in a sense, multiplayer is supported.Graphics and sound are great, however sound will not work under WinXP. You may perhaps have trouble with starting the game. There are 3 or 4 executables with a similar name. I recomment using sum.bat for starting the game. If it doesn't work the first time, try a few more times and it will eventually start.
Also, in case the game exits when you try to train or compete in a tournament, you can fix this by going to the options screen and then returning to the main menu before trying to start playing. That is pretty much it! Enough talk, go win your first Olympic medal!
:)
Reference: http://www.abandonia.com/games/66/ accessed April 09
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Winter Challenge: (<1Mb)
There is not much to be said about Accolade's Winter Challenge. In the late eighties and early nineties, Accolade was making only sports games like Cycles, Grand Prix Circuit, Summer Challenge and so on. Winter Challenge is just one in the successful series.
It's packed with various events ranging from bobsled to ski jumps, biathlon, speed skating, all kinds of slaloms and so on. You can pretty much see all the available events on the first screenshot. As is usually the case with Accolade games, Winter Challenge is very well programmed. There are no bugs, glitches or errors – everything just runs smoothly.
The accompanying sounds are not the best I've heard, but they are pretty good nonetheless. Graphics are similar to those in Summer Challenge, except perhaps with a little less detail, but that's OK, since it is a year older.
The controls are typical for this genre: Keyboard smashing is inevitable in some events, such as speed skating or biathlon. However, it's still within reasonable levels. Also, you will have to learn some pretty difficult techniques in order to compete against world-class opponents.You can also play against your friends or play with your friends against computer opponents.
All in all, this is a flawless game that doesn't fall back on any categories. Thus a mark of 4 and a strong recommendation!
Reference: http://www.abandonia.com/games/66/
accessed April 09
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Caveman Ugh-lympics:
Here is a release to celebrate the successful conclusion of the 2004 Olympic Games. A very interesting release from Dynamix, Caveman Ugh-lympics is one of my favorite olden-day sports game. Even to this day I find the game very original and fun to play.
The game takes the Olympic Games idea and moulds it until nothing is left but a Flintstone like mass of fun and enjoyment. Up to 6 people can play the game and be ready to crush your keyboard till there is nothing left.
You start the game choosing the number of players and then each player chooses a person to play with. There is nothing more enjoyable that watching you hold the club over the head of one of the players and them looking to see whether you’ll club them (and choose them to play) or not. Once you’ve chosen a player, you go to the games main menu, where you have to choice of either practice or start the actual ugh-lympics. The ugh-lympics are made up of 6 games in all:
• Saber Race - In this game you run against one opponent and the aim is to out run him while there is a saber tooth tiger running behind both of you just waiting for one of you to slip up. The game is made more interesting with certain obstacles in the way which you need to jump over, and of course your opponent, who pushes you backwards if he catches up with you.
• Matetoss - Kind of like discus, in this game you have to spin your mate and try and throw her as far as you can. I find the keys to be a bit funny and hard to master in the game, but it’s always funny when you see her land too short and you see her give you the down-finger.
• Fire making - My all-time favorite is fire making, where you race an opponent to create a full-burning fire. The two of you sit next to each other and race to rub two sticks together to make sparks. Once there are enough sparks on the wood, you need to blow on it to start the fire. This is again made more difficult by giving you and your opponent a certain amount of breath which, if you run out, requires a couple of seconds of recuperation to continue. Aside from that you can also hit each other with the sticks which could buy you some time, or make you lose more time if you miss.
• Clubbing - An all time favorite when playing against another human is clubbing. In this game you face off against each other holding clubs on a cliff. The point is to club each other off the cliff sides. This game is split into two modes: Intimidation phase, and the clubbing phase. In intimidation phase you need to growl, jump and pull all kinds of funny stances to try and intimidate the other player. This last for about a minute, after which the clubbing starts. This is pretty simple as you don’t appear to have a lot of moves and the real skill seems to be in dodging your opponent’s moves and clubbing them on the rebound.
• Dino Race - This one is pretty straight forward. You sit on a dinosaur and race against an opponent. The trick is to make the dinosaur race faster and jump over the obstacles in its way.
• Dino Vault - I found this one the hardest to master and you will definitely need a new keyboard after it. It is a basic game of Pole Vault with one simple difference: The rewards are higher! There is a huge Tyrannosaurus Rex at the end who you need to vault over, and he is just waiting for you to make a mistake.
Aside from the graphics, which are pretty good for that time, the atmosphere and style of the game are superb. It’s always easy to see what you are doing and there is no mistaking anything. The sound is probably the only disappointing aspect of the game, although it does also keep you informed about what you are doing and how you are doing it.
All in all this game is a wonderful addition to the Sporting Games genre and I’m sure that each and every person will find something to like about it. Enjoy!
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Alien Breed:
Alien Breed is an action game originally made for the Amiga, but it was converted for PC for your and my pleasure. The creators of the game are the well known Team17. You start the game as a brave soldier alone in the base and your task is to fight through, killing all that is in your way.
Aliens, and lots of them, and they come in many shapes and sizes.
Well use your brain ...err guns, which you can get at the start of the game. But be warned as your ammo is short and you should pick up extra packs from the floor.
You can pick up health which is, of course, vital to your survival. You can also pick up keys, with which you open doors - the good thing is that you can open any door with any key, whereas the bad thing is that you can get stuck if you run out of keys, so use them wisely! Not every door has to be opened. Another thing that can be picked up is money which was probably left by previous occupants of the base.
Well the Intex network computer comes in play here. That's the network that is incorporated into the base, but there is only one computer per level. From that computer, which is accessed by pressing alternate fire, you can buy different useful weapons and tools. You can also see the map of the level on it, as well as some other valuable stuff. It is also good to know that you'll use the intex computer for loading levels once you've passed them since there is no regular save game.
People say a picture is worth a thousand words, so you can take a look at the screenshots yourself. My personal opinion is that the graphics are quite good for its age, but you'll need some time getting used to the bird perspective.
The sound is fine, it may get a little repetitive, but it's good as long it's not PC speaker :)
This game is really amusing! After you get used to it, it can become addictive, but if you want to keep your nerves you should know that Alien Breed is a very challenging (if not hard) game, and it might get frustrating from time to time. However, if you are a skilled player you might experience fewer problems than I did. Another old saying is: the more the merrier (easier in this case), and yes, there's a two player mode.
Reference: http://www.abandonia.com/games/425/ accessed Jan 09
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Alien Breed 2: Tower Assault:
Alien Breed: Tower Assault (sometimes ABTA) is the third game in the Alien Breed franchise, a series of Science Fiction-themed top-down shooters largely inspired by the Alien films. A Deep Space Barracks receive a distress signal from a Science Facility on an otherwise uninhabited planet. With no idea what to expect, a small troop of soldiers are sent in individual X-Wing style ships to search the planet, search for survivors and neutralise any threat...
Reference: http://www.oldgames.sk/en/game/alien-breed-tower-assault/ accessed Jan 09
Get Alien Breed 2: Tower Assaul HERE
There’s also Alien Breed: Tower Assault, Alien Breed: The Horror Continues and Alien Breed: Obliteration which I will post details of at a later date. I'm looking to find out how easy it is to use an Amiga emulator because there a massive list of games available for the Amiga which includes some Alien Breed games that I think are not available directly for the PC for example Alien Breed 3D and Alien Breed: The Killing Grounds. Hopefully it'll be as easy as DOSBox.
:)
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AT Robots:
Robot shooting game – very basic
or HERE (require a free account to download)
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Colour Harmony:
This is a puzzle game with several different puzzles. All of which involve colour. :)
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Albion:
The Game has amazing twists and turns from the very beginning, and every decision you make could end up changing the very nature and difficulty of the game. The collection of raw materials such as the 'Krii' of animals that you fight in order to sell for cash, or merely keep as trophies is a fantastic dimension to the game, and allows you the money to further your characters development.
The different races in the game (not available from the very beginning, but apparent later) bring the game to life, and allow you to try out different methods of combat ranging from close range, using any of the plethora of spears/swords/enchanted daggers etc, to magic, and even firearms for people who like to keep their distance.
The combat layout is innovative and fresh, allowing you to place your characters in a formation to allow for more effective dispatch of different enemies (Stronger players who use close range weapons at the front, and rangers at the back a personal favourite, and obvious choice of mine). The small details and stories that every character has to tell make the game unique for it's time, and adds to the realism of the experience. These can range from small children who follow you around because you look different, to hardened hunters who can tell you where to hunt exotic beasts and which enemies drop the most lucrative items. Talking to people can get you information that you would not otherwise get from exploring the large and detailed maps. Although this game now looks basic by today's standards, once you are into it, and truly take on the role of hunting the murderer to take one example, the graphics no longer matter, and you are sucked into a world of adventure, and are in awe of the detail and new ideas that this game constantly produces.
Reference: http://www.download-full-games.com/pc/role_playing/albion.html access Sept 08
