I did say I'd try and post a few more games today to make up for the lack of a game giveaway. The first game called History Line 1914-1918, despite being 17 years old is still a great strategy game. Then there’s an excellent detective game called Casebook episode 0, which uses real actors and movie clips, with mini games to help you piece together and solve clues. Finally, a game called Dr Blobs Organism, at I originally bought from Reflexive; which has now been converted to freeware by the developer. All three games should play via Win XP, but unfortunately I deleted my copy of Vista, so can’t vouch for Vista. The first game can also be played via DOSBox, but it’s not necessary.
History Line 1914-1918 aka The Great War 1914-1918): (4.57Mb)
Quote
In the summer of 1914, Europe is on the cusp of war. Since the beginning of the new century the great powers have woven a complex network of alliances, pacts and neutrality agreements – some in the open, some others in secrecy. With the murder of Franz Ferdinand, the heir apparent to the Austro-Hungarian monarchy, and his wife, a chain of events is triggered, which leads to the First World War and will ultimately cost over 17 million lives.
History Line 1914-1918 is a spin-off to the widely known Battle Isle series and was released between the first BI game and its add-on in 1992. While the game was developed and produced by Blue Byte in Europe, it was released under the SSI label with a different title, The Great War 1914-1918, in the United States.
If you are familiar with the Battle Isle games , you will find yourself pretty close to home in History Line, as the game is based on the same system as its more futuristic, larger brother. If you are not, this is no problem either, as the game’s concepts and controls are very easy to understand. You can choose between the two sides in WWI - the Central Powers (Germany, Austria/Hungary, Italy) and the Entente (Russia, France, England) - and fight a series of 24 battles from each side’s point of view. In addition, there are 24 two-player maps, which are played by taking turns. At the end of each turn it is possible to save the game by pressing 'D' instead of 'F1'. There are 10 slots available which can be restored from the misc menu. Additionally, each map has a code which allows you to continue a campaign after each successful mission. The codes for all levels are provided with the extras.
The game is turn-based with two phases, movement and attack, per turn. The players alternately play through these phases, which means that while one player is moving his units, the other is assigning targets and vice-versa. This was a rather unique concept, which was picked up by several later games.
While initially you are limited to standard troops like infantry, cavalry, and smaller artillery units, there are lots of new and stronger units introduced during the later missions. At the later stages there are even large battleships, submarines, and bombers available for big battles. Besides every unit's strengths and weaknesses, terrain and weather have an influence on movements and the outcome of an attack. On winter maps the units are much slower, for example. Something that is always important is the experience level of a unit, which is indicated through little ribbons and influences greatly its damage-dealing capabilities. You should always take care that your units are not completely destroyed. When they have taken damage, withdraw them from the front for repairs. There are factories and depots on many maps, which have a certain amount of resource points to build new units or restore existing ones. While the goal of most missions is to capture the enemy’s headquarters or to destroy all enemy forces, sometimes special objectives like the defence of an important depot or railroad station come up.
As is common for historic games, there is lots of background info about the events of WWI included, which is presented between the missions and during intro and ending. You do not really get what one would call a dense atmosphere, but it is a nice addition and fits well into the game.
All these elements make History Line 1914-1918 a decent strategy game, which can provide hours of fun, especially in multiplayer mode. Compared to BI, it incorporates some improved graphics and additional cut-scenes, like the new combat animations. The graphics look good, except for the winter missions which I would rate as average, and the sounds and music are up to date for a game from 1992. The game is compatible with WinXP and VDMSound; however, as first choice I would recommend DOSBox as usual. Considering these factors as well as the general gameplay and presentation, I rate this game with a good 4.
If you are a Battle Isle fan, this game is a must! If you are not, there is a good possibility that you may become one. Now grab yourself a copy and experience one of the best strategy titles of the early 90s.
Reference: http://www.abandonia.com/en/games/24938/History+Line+1914-1918+%28aka+Great+War+1914-1918%2C+The%29.html accessed 3rd May 09
You'll require the level codes for this game. It comes from a time when you had to search out specific words from different pages, paragraphs and position in the sentence, lol.
Level passwords
Level Germans Allies Two-player mode
1 PULSE PULSE TRACK
2 CIVIL GOOSE HUSAR
3 MOUSE SPORT BEAST
4 VENOM BIMBO PLATE
5 NOISE TEMPO LIGHT
6 KIGHT BARON SCROL
7 ORKAN BUMM VIRUS
8 FRONT LEVEL BISON
9 RATIO MODE DRUCK
10 PARTS PRINC TROLL
11 PLANE CLEAN UBOOT
12 FLAME XENON DROID
13 GOTHA SIGNS GRAND
14 BALON HOUSE ROYAL
15 PAUSE SIGMA WATER
16 ELITE SEVEN SKILL
17 INFRA ZOMBI SKULL
18 HILLS MOVES AUDIO
19 COBRA BLADE SPELL
20 ATLAS ZORRO CAMEL
21 AMPER STONE FLAGS
22 KHEIN MOSEL STORY
23 CANDL ORDER SCOUT
24 STERN SODOM GREEN
Get the History Line 1914-1918 aka The Great War 1914-1918 strategy game HERE
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Casebook Episode 0 (24Mb)
How far could one man's ashes go? When Detective Burton's Aunt Maggie is involved, who's to say? It's a mystery of curious proportions when her husband's ashes go walkabout. She's looked everywhere, except the basement ... and you'll see why.
This game has an impressive movie-style interface. The Casebook games use cut scenes filmed with live actors, and photo realistic images of the crime scene to help bring a certain sense of realism to the game. The acting is top notch, and you will soon get swept into investigating the case.
Download Link:
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Dr Blob's Organism: (23.2Mb)
Something very strange is going on in Dr. Blob's mystery kitchen. Pulsing emanations spill from the windows at night illuminating the overhanging willows with eerie green light. Unsettling squishy noises, diabolical laughter and the crackling sound of raw electricity pierce the stillness of the after hours frightening passersby and disturbing nearby residents from their sleep.
Rumors of unlabeled crates and canisters being delivered by dark-suited men driving unlicensed black vans even now circulate among local barflies and conspiracy seekers.
Dr. Blob's Organism is a lightning-fast shooter game where players blast feisty one-celled organisms as they try to escape from a petri dish.
Each level in the game introduces new powerups (like freeze, lightning and multiguns) and special organism abilities (like force field, regeneration and frenzy) to enhance the fun and increase the challenge throughout the entire game.
The full version of Dr. Blob's Organism features:
• 20 levels of increasing difficulty
• 10 different powerups
• 5 special blob abilities
• 3 difficulty settings
• 21 music tracks
• Squishy, moist sound effects
• Bonus dishes
• Jukebox (Play music selections from the game.)
Minimum System Requirements:
• Pentium II 350MHz (600MHz or better recommended)
• 64M RAM
• Windows 95/98/ME/2000/XP
• DirectX 6
• OpenGL 1.1 compatible video card
• DirectX compatible sound card
• 32M of free hard drive space
There’s also a version for the Mac.
Download Link:
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