Category: Retro

Getting your hands on retro (PC, obviously) games can be pretty tough nowadays. Remember those big cardboard boxes, containing 10 floppy disks and a huge poster printed on some cloth? If you buy a game today, you get a plastic DVD box with a tiny manual, sometimes even not colored. If you want more swag, you’ll need to buy the collector’s edition, which means things like on-line preordering to be sure you’ve got one of the limited printed boxes, and paying more than $10 extra. At this moment, ebay may offer a solution for you but most games are slightly damaged and more than overpriced.

Great, I can replay Jagged Alliance again!

CD Project offers a solution to the desperate retro gamer; a solution called “Good Old Games” (GOG). Essentially it’s a on-line webstore dedicated to retro and old PC games which are not that easy to find anymore, even in budget edition. You can subscribe to their service and for only $6 download the games. Of course you won’t have the goodies included either, but hey. The project is in open beta phase right now, so go to http://www.gog.com to try it! More information:

When it launches in September, CD Projekt’s Good Old Games will offer cheap, DRM-free digital downloads of long-lost old-school PC titles like Fallout, Fallout 2, Jagged Alliance 2, Sacrifice, Descent 1-3 and Kingpin: Life of Crime, among others.

Priced at either $5.99 or $9.99, these aren’t straight re-releases. CD Projekt has done work to ensure that each game is now compatible with Windows XP and Vista, going so far as to create a custom installer for each game. A closed public beta demonstrating this is set to go live on August 1, with the site currently accepting applications.

Read an interesting interview about piracy concerns and more at shacknews.

There you have it! After the “recent” compatibility update of ScummVM, an adventure game interpreter which is able to run on almost any platform, Goblins 3 is now also supported. You’ll have to download the daily SVN build because release version 0.10.0 is still not fully ready yet. With a little bit of luck, maybe even Woodruff could become playable. That would be awesome, since DOSBox or native running on WinXP gives you a horribly bad resolution. For those of you who never played any Goblin adventure/puzzle game: it’s basically combining and clicking to progress to the next screen, full of more annoying but very humoristic puzzles. Sometimes Blount gets help from Chunk the Parrot (I think it is? Stupid pixels!) or his potential girlfriend.

Another Goblin adventure playable on the DS.

Having trouble tracking down some stupid MIDI files containing the awesomeness of Bobby “Robert” Prince, the composer for many classic DOS games? Worry no more. I finally ripped the Duke Nukem II soundtrack while replaying it via DOSBox. All PCM files have been encoded with the 160kbps lame mp3 codec. My apoligies for sometimes “cutting” it off, as the game has these weird soundtrack loop issues, I had to draw the line somewhere.

Cool? Awesome? Sexy? Oh wait, He’s back!

Bobby, we love you! The Doom I and II soundtracks can be found all over the internet, since there has been an official soundtrack release. Remember downloading those things isn’t exactly called legal. The above is, since I ripped it directly from the game (which I own legally via the Duke3D CD). Enjoy!
Download DukeII Soundtrack here (25.5 MB)

Addendum - level 1 as an example.

Platform games, one of the most dominant game genres in gaming history. They spawned a whole lot of spin-off series (run-and-gun, platform puzzles, Apogee’s shareware system, Mario 64’s 3D platform debut). Platform gaming has been the dominant type on every gaming platform for quite a while, but classic platforming is rarely seen on nowadays computers. Consoles have taken over the 3D platforming aspect while handheld games kept producing 2D variations (Castlevania, Wario Land), but what happened to PC platformers? Try to sum up more than five recent commercial classic 2D platform games. Euurhhghmmmhghyhg… Right.

Unfolding the History of Platform gaming would be rather boring and you can read the details at Wikipedia. So let’s instead try to sum up that list… The first, and most obvious entry would be of course Captain Claw by Monolith, since I’ve mentioned the game more than once before. Being a game from 1997, one can imagine more exciting recent 2D platform games for the Personal Computer.

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People feeling nostalgic can play enhanced versions the games:

For Quake, you’ll need:

1. ezQuake Win32 Installer (Just install in a directory)
2. Pak0.pak Quake Demo version (Or copy pak0 and pak1 from your original Qake)
3. Create a new dir in the ezQuake install dir called “id1″ and Unzip pak0.pak
4. Play! (start with ezstart, press ESC in the console!)

For Duke3D, you’ll need:

1. eDuke32 Win32 Installer (Just install in a directory)
2. Duke3D Demo - only keep DUKE.GRP after installing
3. If you feel like it, install the High Resolution Pack! (115 MB) (Already includes eDuke32)
4. Play! (setup your GRP install dir first)

For Doom, you’ll need:

1. zDoom Win32 Binaries (Just extract in a directory)
2. Doom.wad Demo Version (you can delete other files)
3. Extract the WAD file to the zDoom install dir or copy your full version ones (DOOM, DOOM II, Final Doom e.a., Hexen, Heretic all fully supported!)
4. Play!

For Wolfenstein 3D, you’ll need:

1. DOSBox Win32 Installer (Just install in a directory)
2. Wolfenstein 3D Demo (Unzip in a new subdir of the DOSBox install dir)
3. Play! (Start DOSBox, mount your dir and execute ‘wolf3d’)

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Skip to the Videos part!

Only the new and young generation of gamers might not be familiar with Apogee Software - that is, until one has read the article. Apogee, the legacy of shareware PC games. I remember everything like it was yesterday! Impatiently receiving my first oversized floppy disk containing a demo version of Cosmo’s little adventures, racing through the first few levels of Duke Nukem, defeating way too much zombies in Monster Bash, capturing the first castle in Mystic Towers, … The video game company literally created the shareware distribution model using various monthly subscribed magazines and one free floppy which was without a doubt numberous times passed on.

Apogee Software not only published excellent DOS (platform) games from various companies like Micro F/X Software or Scenario, but also created their own brilliant spin-offs or even whole separate branches. The perfect example is of course Duke Nukem, I’m quite certain Duke is one of the most well-known gaming franchises/character of the entire PC gaming world. Besides the Duke Apogee also created a few enjoyable platformers as well as shooters like Bio Menace, Crystal Caves and Rise of the triad. You can consult a full overview including release years at Wikipedia.

JAM Productions’ Blake Stone uses id’s “Wolf3D” Engine.
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