Midori suggested the following game over a month ago, but I forgot about it until I started backing up all the freeware stuff I’ve downloaded over the past few months, in preparation for another formatting session. All my main computers have annoying faults on them such as being unable to turn them off without using the on/off switch (not recommended if you want to keep your hard drive error free) or grinding to a halt after running several applications. All my computers have enough RAM. I them, so I’ve decided to do a full blown format to get rid of as much junk as possible. Anyway, I happened to stumble upon the game that Midori mentioned in passing after Wizzard had posted Neverball and Neverputt. The game in question is called Neverhood. I think most community members will have missed it as did G@rgoyle, so I thought I’d start this weeks game with Neverhood. Wizzard will return for the rest of this week:
Neverhood:
This game was originally released in 1996 by Dreamworks Interactive. The game plays okay on XP with Service Pack 3, but I’ve not yet tested it on Vista. The following was a review taken from one of my favourite abandonware source sites called Squakenet. Similar games to Neverhood include Duckman: The Legend of the Fall, Discworld, Beavis and Butthead in Virtual Stupidity
The Neverhood is one of the most original adventure games ever made, and one of the prime examples of how an ultra-slick style is sometimes enough to carry the game, even though we all know that substance is more important than style. Instead of using cartoons or computer animation, they built the entire set of the game with 2 tons of clay! Quite an achievement in any media, and the result is nothing short of amazing. The storyline is quite simple. You play the role of Klayman; you wake up in a room, and you have to figure what to do from there. Rooms and puzzles are played from a third person perspective, while moving from one place to another takes form in FMV cut scenes in first person. The game is extremely appealing to all family members, and is a lot of fun to play with. Unfortunately for all its graphical originality, puzzles in The Neverhood is nowhere near as creative. The most annoying part of the game is the room with the wall that goes on to infinity, the wall of which has the entire "bible" of the klay world (klay universe?) in it. This damned thing spans 38 (yes, thirty-eight) rooms, and believe it or not, I actually spent a few hours reading it all... and it gave me quite a headache. As in The 7th Guest, the puzzles in The Neverhood bear no real relation to the story at hand -- they have more in common with bar bets or the logic problems you might find in Games magazine, except much more pointless and repetitive. Many puzzles are just rehashes from other Myst clones: to open a door to a new location, you?ll have to solve a tile-sliding puzzle; to open another door, you?ll have to match musical notes by filling a doorbell with water -- if you fail, you?ll have to start over from the beginning until you get it right; to open yet another door, you?ll have to guide a mouse safely through a maze so he can eat a tasty slice of cheese. Fortunately, there are usually hints available if you go to the initial room and down the ladder. Perhaps due to lackluster puzzles and a high price tag, The Neverhood neither sold well nor won critical acclaim, despite being original and well executed. Two thumbs up for this underdog, but be warned that all the appeal lies in the style here, not so much substance. If you play adventure games for the interesting puzzles and situations, give The Neverhood a miss. If you prefer story-oriented games with a unique style, though, The Neverhood more than fits the bill.
Reference: http://www.squakenet.com/computer_games/1355/The-Neverhood/download.html accessed 10th June 09
Reviews worth reading:
http://www.mobygames.com/game/windoes/neverhood
http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=The_Neverhood&oldid=141530957
Cheats:
• Skip The First Level
On the first level press ENTER then type HAPPYBIRTHDAYKLAYMEN then press ENTER again.
Contributed By: Klog.
• Speed Up Game
To speed up the game, press ENTER, then type:
FASTFORWARD
Hit ENTER again and the game will go faster.
To turn it off, do the same thing and it will return to normal speed.
By emh465 reference: http://www.gamefaqs.com/computer/doswin/data/198975.html accessed 10th June 09
Walkthrough:
http://www.oldgames.sk/en/game/neverhood/download/3212/
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Star Monopoly (<1Mb)
A game for up to four players, where you can play either with human or computer AI. It’s not exactly like a traditional monopoly game, but I though it was good enough to include in the project. The site hasn’t been given a WOT rating yet. While perusing the site I was directed to a few dubious pages, but nothing serious, so just as a precaution, makesure you only click oonhe correct download links once you leave the giveaway site. During installation you WILL need to uncheck two tick boxes which would otherwise install absolutist toolbars and hijack your browser.
Create and expand finance corporations, sell and buy shares, carry out merges and try all the chances that you are provided with by this broker's board. This game runs on any 32-bit Windows operating system (Win95/98, NT, ME, 2000, XP) and requires Flash 5 player installed to your computer.
Download Link:
http://www.myzips.com/software/Star-Monopoly.phtml
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Gods:
This was a really cool game when it was first released in 1991. It’s one of the first platform games I ever bought. Well worth checking out. You will need to run it via DOSBox though. If you’re new to the games project, check out wizzards thread on DOSBox made easy, which can be found as a sticky on the front page or game review pages.
When a game is called Gods, you directly think that this game must have been made by Peter Molyneux and his crew. This man has made so many good games where you played a god; sometimes people think that he is god himself. He just wanted to show the world how it is to be someone like him - always lonely but controlling all what lives in the world. A dream for us, but a nightmare for those who really are...
But back to the reality, Gods isn’t a game from Peter Molyneux, it is just a very good platform game where you play a hero with a strange mask on his face.In the whole game there is no storyline so I find it unclear why they chose to call the game Gods. It would be more logical if they called the game "The man with the iron mask". But enough nonsense for now, let's take a good look at the game.
The first impressions of the graphics are amazing! The overall looks of the game are beautiful, the character animation is excellent and the graphics stay great throughout the game. Every big stage (4 in total) has its own unique feeling and characters involved in it. The only small point of critic is that our hero moves like a duck. He doesn’t run properly and when he jumps, it looks as if he's in serious need of taking a dump.
The sound in the game is also very good. Every action, like picking something up, a coin falling down on the floor, or shooting an enemy down, will produce its own unique sound. This gives the whole game an extra good feeling, as you're fighting in a world that really lives and you can trust your ears when you hear something approaching.
The most important thing of all games is still: Gameplay. In Gods, it is really various and combines different styles into 1 game. Most of the time it's a real action game; you simply must kill a lot of enemies on your way to the end of the level. But it's not action all the way! Sometimes you will need to find keys and buttons to open doors to other stages. There are also a few puzzles in the game, where you need to combine things to get the right keys. This is not very difficult, but it keeps you sharp all the time and makes the gameplay various.Gods doesn’t have a save option in the game, so when you start a world you need to finish it. This isn't as difficult as it sounds, but can be really frustrating for first time players. I think that a save option should have been implemented after each world. People can get pretty mad when they finally make it to the level boss (which fills up the whole screen and looks awesome) only to die in a matter of seconds and having to replay the whole stage afterwards. But don’t let it scare you too much. The game isn't too difficult (only 1 difficult level), so with a bit of practice and patience, you will be able to finish levels in a much shorter period than when you initially started.
Game inf:
http://www.abandonia.com/files/extras/23517_game_extra_1.pdf
Download
http://www.abandonia.com/en/games/290/Gods.html
or
http://www.bestoldgames.net/stare-hry/gods.php
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Another platform game I bought around the same TIME AS Gods was a game called Elf. I never finished the game because it was too hard. (Considering that I wasn’t really a platform enthusiast at the time). This game should play on XP though I’ve not checked whether it will play on Vista yet. If you he problems run it in DOSBox.
Elf:
This is a conversion of the great Amiga action-platform game that combines some good ideas. You could say that this game is an improved hybrid of some popular Amiga and C64 platform games published in the early 90's. You play a role of a forest-elf whose girlfriend was kidnapped by the evil wizard. Everything else is clear.
Levels are long, there is no time limit and you can save the state only after completing an entire level (use F1-F7 to restore, depending on which level you wan to play). You progress through screens (there is no scrolling) shooting enemies with your magic ring. Enemies can be divided into two groups: pre-ordered ones which are the same every time you play and random ones that continuously keep coming. You should clear the screens of those pre-ordered ones so that they will be safe for a few seconds when re-entering them again.Generally you have to explore the level finding necessary objects and characters and figuring out how to use them. On the inventory screen you will be able to select items and try to use them somehow or you can speak with somebody. All this applies if you stand near an important place or character. You can freely try out what to do with items as they can't be used in the wrong way. Also you can find some bottles for energy, upgrades or some tricky effects that you can use if necessary. At the end of a level like this, you'll be fighting a big enemy. Not all levels are like this. There are levels without items but they have other sorts of puzzles.
All of this is hard to do while creatures are constantly attacking you. There are some creatures that are not unfriendly. Shooting them will lower your fame score. Items that enemies leave behind will improve your fame score. Fame score and points are not the same thing. Fame score is only for the fame, while points will earn you extra life (every 100,000). Also there are some friendly animals and some herbs that can be picked up. You use those in shops instead of money. You can buy various upgrades, extra life and energy, but know that certain upgrades are for sale only on certain levels. You can get information about any upgrade from the shop-keeper before buying it.
Technical parts of the game are more than satisfying. Every level has different design except for the last two that take place inside the wizard's castle. Enemies and animals also vary from level to level (some are the same) and this really deserves praises. Enemies are different and original and are very nicely drawn. Well this goes for the entire game, if you like this Amiga style of drawing. Also there are some small but nice stuff (considering the graphics part of the game) that may impress you. Sound quality is fine and the tunes fit the atmosphere with only one fault: they are very short, but this doesn't have to be the fault at all, considering the taste.
This game is very hard to beat. You can easily loose a life if you don't pay attention and then you'll loose all the upgrades. Some enemies shoot, but you should worry more about collisions and holes. Sometimes enemies leave harts (energy) so you might be able to find the screen where you can easily destroy them and hopefully you will regain some health, if you don't have any more potions. Naturally, a game like this can't be so good without some humor. There will be some funny creatures and characters, funny messages in the inventory screen on.
Download:
http://www.abandonia.com/en/games/927/Elf.html
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Monuments of Mars: (<1Mb)
You will require DSBox for this platform game. The game doesn’t look as polished as Gods or Elf, but after playing a couple of levels thogh it worthy to inlude with the other two platform games, though in my opinion it is inferior to both Gods and Elf.
Monuments of Mars is a CGA-based platform game released in 1991 by Todd Replogle through Apogee Software, and I must admit that the only reason I wanted to review it is its name. It consists of 4 volumes, each divided into 20 levels. The first volume was released as shareware, while you had to buy the entire game for the other three. Apogee/3D Realms has discontinued support for this title and has released it as freeware on March 20, 2009.
The volumes explore different martian structures and are named accordingly: First Contact, The Pyramyd, The Fortress and The Face. It seems that several astronauts sent by NASA to Mars have disappeared for unknown reasons. Thus, your main goal is to free them after reaching the last levels, where they're held captive, and ultimately find the one responsible for this situation. As you can see, the story isn't complex. It basically involves proceeding through all those 80 liniar levels and doing all the possible actions in the meantime.
You can read the initial story (with all the horrible misspells) in the Main Menu. There you can also check the instructions on how to play the game. But it's not too hard to figure it out by yourself: avoid or kill enemies, avoid traps, limited ammo, take energy packs to recharge gun, activate computers, pull levers and push buttons (or shoot them, it has the same effect). Often, the rooms have a door which requires an access card to exit, but through many of them you'll just have to walk from one end to another. Usually, the astronauts are confined in the 19th level, while the last room represents a logical connection with the next volume in the game.
If you remember to save your ammo and not to kill every enemy you encounter, the game will seem very simple and short. Considering the fact it has almost no story, it becomes instantly boring and unrewarding. There are only 2 types of enemies: robots and alien plants. There's nothing special about them, their only attack is to touch you (obviously you'll die) and they're easy to avoid. What seems unusually interesting is that I sometimes managed to stay alive on the head of the alien plant. The control of your character will pose a greater problem. Your astronaut will move and jump awkwardly, almost like a robot and you'll often miscalculate your trajectory, ending in flames or in an enemy. Influenced by the martian gravitation you can change your direction while falling.
While exploring the underground facilities you'll receive points for each enemy killed or bonuses grabbed (in the form of small triangles). Additionally there's a considerable score boost if you collect all the letters in the levels (M,A,R,S). After you finish the volume you can compete in the Hall of Fame with popular game characters like Commander Keen and Roger Wilco.
Don't expect something special from the graphics (which are CGA) or the sound. You'll hear beep-sounds for a couple of actions like jumping, shooting, activating or freeing the astronauts. The rooms, on the other hand are well-designed, despite the limited engine software. It's the only feature that could motivate you to keep walking forward, wondering what creative puzzle will you solve next.
You can finish it entirely in an hour and every time you die the current level simply restarts automatically. If you got too bored you can save your progress by pressing S and continue afterwards with R (Restore). There's a single word that can define this game - average.
http://www.abandonia.com/en/games/25143/Monuments+of+Mars.html
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