Well, my mood continues to be a happy one despite the weather turning into a monsoon (almost). I’m off to a big disabilities exhibition at the Birmingham NEC in the morning to see about getting a recumbent bicycle. Prior to my road traffic accident I used to cycle 40 miles a day to keep me super fit. It was while on my bike that the accident I've mentioned previously occurred. I can’t sit on a normal bike anymore because of the injuries to my back. Hopefully a recumbent bike will be the answer to my prayers as I’ve done nothing since the accident to even remotely speed up my heart rate – ‘scuze the personals, lol.
Anyway, I’ve got several more excellent games today. And….. especially for midori I’ve found another spider game, though this one is a platform game as opposed to a first person shooter (as in yesterdays SpiderZ). While reading through all the information I’d gathered; one particular game jumped out at me simply because I recognised a name mentioned there; namely ibwebb. You’ll see in what context below. If you read this ibwebb, was it you????? :)
Spider (50Mb)
The game comprises of only four levels Spring, Summer, Autumn and Winter, but I think it’s worth having. If you have Wik & the Fable of Souls, you’ll love this one. It has similar game mechanics, except instead of using Wiks tongue to swing from platform to platform, you use the mouse pointer to select where you want the spider to shoot it’s spiders web. I was really impressed with this game and ; if it was bigger I’d pay for it in a flash. The graphics ;and the game play are good. An unusual game and definitely a winner in my opinion. I hope they develop this gamefurther.
The following is the authors description:
Spider is an innovative 2d-style platform game that will give you the opportunity to spin webs and swing like a real spider! This game uses a combination of physics and visuals to maximize the fun. Swing your way through four colorful levels, collecting as many fireflies as you can find!
Reference: http://www.igf.com/php-bin/entries2007.php?entry_id=236 accessed 27th April 09
Left or right click to shoot webs, and hold the buttons hang on for dear life. Press space to tighten your webs and swing.
Differentiating webs can be a tad difficult at times, and the application doesn't handle task switching too well but nitpicks aside this is definitely worth a go.
Video:
Watch video of Spiders game play HERE
Download:
Go to download page for Spiders
(the site seems to be down at the moment, but I did download it yesterday) Could someone see if there is ay other place where this is available. I’m absolutely shattered and need to go to bed in preparation for my journey to Birmingham tomorrow. Thank you. If no one can locate a new link and the one I’ve posted continues to give trouble, I’ll upload my copy to filefront. The game is freeware so it shouldn’t be a problem......................thanks rO.............see reverseOrders post below for link
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Here’s another short but entertaining swinging game called String Theory:
String Theory
Dillon Cower’s String Theory was created for the second Experimental Gameplay Project competition. It’s a computer game intended to be played with a DDR-style dance pad, although it has keyboard controls as well. It’s fairly short, but has an excellent, innovative implementation of a swinging-style play mechanic that’s fun to play around with.
Swinging About
The controls in String Theory are pretty simple. Your little alien dude has four tentacles, and you can fire them in any of the 8 cardinal/ordinal directions. The tentacles latch on to the environment, but lose their grip after a few seconds. At first I wasn’t firing more than one string in any given direction. This is a mistake—when the game speeds up you really need to fire multiple times in the same direction to move around quickly.
I don’t have a DDR pad lying around at the moment, so unfortunately I wasn’t able to try the game as it was intended. I imagine it would be rather frantic!
Camera Path:
The camera follows a pre-defined path at a pre-defined speed. You lose if your character moves outside of the screen. Although this makes the game a little hard to learn, at first, it also provides an excellent structure to what would otherwise be a simple physics test. It’s a really simple—if punishing—way to structure the game.
I would love to see this physics mechanic set free of the camera limitations, though. It would be interesting to navigate the character around a free-moving world with some enemies, moving platforms, and other elements to spice things up. There’s definitely some potential here for a larger computer game with more features.
The single level isn’t very long (I think 110 seconds or so unless you modify the camera speed settings). Still, it’ll take you a few tries to make it all the way to the end. You’ll spend more time playing than downloading, which is always a good ratio. The game forces you to restart from the beginning when you lose, which can get a little tedious, but it also gives you a chance to experiment a bit and hone your skills. :)
Download Link:
Go to download page for String Theory HERE
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The following game reminds me vaguely of Jets & Guns, but obviously isn’t in the same league; however, that said, it’s a great shooter that requires some skill and dexterity to switch between units and fight at the same time. The overall feel of the game is quality IMO
Invasion 2 (22.4Mb)
They're back! This time they have taken over 3 areas of the world and have built massive armies. It is your mission to infiltrate the alien territory and destroy their massive armies.
This is the long awaited INVASION 2. The download may take a while if you’re on dial up because its 22.4 MB but IT'S WORTH IT
Important: after downloading, you MUST unzip the file and then open ‘Invasion 2 Launcher’ instead of ‘Invasion 2 Game’.
CONTROLS
1 - Unit Select: Soldiers
2 - Unit Select: Tank
3 - Unit Select: Helicopter
Arrow Keys - Control the Currently Selected Unit
Shift - Use Power-Up
Mouse Position - Aim
Mouse Left Click - Fire
Mouse Right Click - Destroy Airborn Missiles
Space - Pause
Esc - Abort Mission
Go to download page for Invasion 2
or
Alternate mirror for Invasion 2
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I know, I’m going crazy again. I did this at Christmas, but more so back then. There are so many freeware games available and as previously mentioned, more being added virtually on a daily basis, plus the fact that theres an almost inexhaustible supply of old DOS games there’s little chance of this prohect closing down soon unless the community wishes it to be so. ;) Soooooo, here’s the lat one for today:
Drag Racer
When I downloaded this I was a little sceptical as to it’s fun value. I’ve tried so many car releated games over the last few years and most have not been that inspiring (take last weeks game giveaway street racer), well, I was pleasantly surprised at what this game offered. Don’t get me wrong, there’s no high flying graphics and the actual game play is rather muted, but the whole game, from choosing the car, giving it a paint job and tuning it up, to racing it against another car is quite enjoyable. You get to choose what distance the drag race will be over. The graphic is almost cartoonish in looks. But I really enjoyed playing it for a short while. Here’s what the developer says:
Drag Racer v3 is an authentic drag racing simulator where you get the chance to test your driving skills against various opponents on the race track. Buy a car, tune it, modify it and race. Collect credits and by tuning parts as well as new cars for your virtual garage. Gear up and become the #1 drag racer in the tournaments.
To use nitro:
After buying the kit you must click on the nitro bar to fill it. Then in a race hold the 'N' key to use it.
Mike's note:
Thanks to ibwebb for the updated author's site and the note on using nitro
It appears that the Author has abandoned the on-line racing portion of this game. He has not responded to emails and his website appears dead. You can still race locally, but it looks like NO on-line racing.
Go to download page for Drag Racer
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darn it, I couldn’t resist another one for the road, :)
Alien Agency:
The installer is in Czech, but it’s easy enough to install; once installed you can select English if required. You have to do this everytime the game is booted up, but it’s worth it. The game reminds me of several 3D platform games I’ve still got from the late 90’s and early this century such as Psy world, Bemazed, Parg, Psychonauts and Sonic. This game combines the 3D patform element with a shooter, though the shooting aspect is very basic. However I did think it was worth posting here.
Here’s the authors description:
A 3D platformer / Third person shooter (from Czech)
In this jump and run game you have to collect diamonds and shoot the ugly aliens.
After each level you got a password. eg "A+N+O". When you start the game again, you can enter the password by pressing those 3 keys at once. eg press key A, key N and key O at the same time.
controls:
arrows = move
mouse = aim
Left mouse = shoot
Right mouse or space = jump
Esc = exit to menu
space = skip intro's
Download:
Go to download page for Alien Agency
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I’ll have a few more goodies for tomorrow.
