Suggestions for possible addition to the site

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MrFlibble
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Suggestions for possible addition to the site

Post by MrFlibble »

From time to time I come across some interesting yet often rare and obscure DOS games in various places (mostly cd.textfiles.com though ;)), some are rather interesting IMO, so I decided to post them here, maybe they'll get included with the next site update. The games are listed in no particular order:

Ravage
A simple yet neat shareware shoot 'em up game with nice graphics and music.
RAVAGE11.ZIP

Babylon
A text-based shareware strategy game that seems to be a rather simplified variant of Hamurabi. The main goal is to conquer Egypt.
BABYLO.ZIP

Imperium Rex
A freeware global strategy game.
REX210.ZIP

Empire Deluxe
An updated version of the adaptation of the classic Empire board game. This is a commercial game, with a playable demo available:
EMPDEMO.ZIP

Global War
A shareware Risk-type global strategy game.
GLWAR30.zip

Canton
A trading strategy game set in China.
CANTON.ZIP
CANTON11.ZIP

World Empire
A popular Risk-like shareware game.
1EMP20.zip
9EMPIRE.ZIP
Last edited by MrFlibble on Thu Jul 26, 2012 11:31 am, edited 1 time in total.
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Post by MrFlibble »

Whoops, I messed up the download link for the Empire Deluxe demo, fixed that now.

Anyway, here's more:

Kings
A donationware turn-based strategy that blends ideas from Side Meier's Civilization and Empire. As the author himself summarizes it:
The idea for this game came mainly from playing Civilization and from
trying to play Empire (On my computer, Empire didn't clear the screen - it just
typed over what was already on it whenever the screen changed). Both had their
advantages and disadvantages (in my eyes), so I decided to try writing a game
with some aspects of each. Here are some of the things I got from each:

From Civilization:
The use of scientific achievements. It is useful to show that a beginning
stone-age nation cannot produce stealth bombers.
The use of cities as industrial and scientific centers, as well as simply
population centers. The problem with Empire's handing of cities is that you
need many sectors to accomplish the task that one city can do in reality.
Automatic updates. A player is given as much time per turn as he needs,
but only one year can be played in a turn. At the beginning, the update is
made.

From Empire:
Technological growth. In Civilization, your technological advancement
depends only upon what you've discovered, and any shaded of grey are ignored.
In the modern world, the scientific discoveries between each side are nearly
identical, but NATO holds a huge technological edge over the Warsaw Pact.
More than one player. I like being able to do real diplomacy and play the
game with my friends.
Raw minerals. It is nice to trace the production of weapons from ore to
iron to the finished product. It may seem tedious to make sure you have enough
ore to make metal and enough metal to make whatever you're making, but I think
it is just being realistic.

My own additions:
Caravans. Civilization treats trade very abstractly, and once a caravan
has completed a trip, you have a trade route. In Empire, you have to trace the
route for items as they move around. In Kings, I have made caravans units which
you can load and unload in cities, so they can transport what you want.
Military. I have been a wargamer for quite some time now, and I am very
disappointed in Civilization's handling of battle. I slow down the time scale
during war periods (any time two nations are enemies) to one month instead of
one year per turn. Also, units are given strength values, which must be reduced
to zero before the unit is eliminated.
Production and recruits. Recruits are really military units that don't
fight very well. They can be unloaded in a city to add recruits to that city's
barracks. When a unit is produced, it will get its manpower from the recruits
section of the barracks. If their are not enough there, and if the city is
large enough, it will draft city residents.
Supply. Military units are supplied by the nearest base or city within ten
squares. If there is none, the unit is eliminated. Ships out of port, however,
do not need to follow this rule.
What it does not have is AI opponents though.
Download: KINGS20.ZIP (v2.0)

Mineral Wars
A turn-based strategy that also aims at edutainment value by basing unit combat value on real properties of geological minerals. Shareware.
Download: MWAR.ZIP (v1.0)

Hostile Takeover
While simple, this shareware game has a lot of common with the successful Warlords turn-based strategy series in terms of both concept and game play.
Download: HOSTILE1.ZIP (v1.0) HOSTIL11.ZIP (v1.1)

Warlords
Actually, I'm quite surprised that this game isn't on the site yet :) The demo has its limitations (no save/load and only 40 turns to play as the Elvallie), it is quite fun.
Download: WARLRD.ZIP

Warlords II Deluxe
An upgraded version of the sequel to the Warlords game. Once again, you have only 40 turns to play in the demo but you can pick any of the eight nations on the map this time.
Download: W2DEMO.ZIP

Moria
A Roguelike game that apparently has enjoyed quite some popularity.
Download: MOR55_88.ZIP (v5.5 for 8088s) MOR55286.ZIP (v5.5 for 286s) MOR55288.ZIP (v5.5.2 for 8088s) M552-386.ZIP (v5.5.2 for 386s)

Excelsior Phase One: Lysandia
An Ultima-like shareware RPG.
Download: EXLSIO.ZIP (v1.0) EXCLS1_2.ZIP (v2.0)
Last edited by MrFlibble on Thu Jul 26, 2012 11:37 am, edited 1 time in total.
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Post by dosraider »

MrFlibble wrote:.............
Moria
.................
:)
wardrich wrote:The contrasts in personalities will deliver some SERIOUS lulz. I can't wait.
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Post by MrFlibble »

Well, Moria isn't on the list, as well as some other Roguelikes, now is it? Or maybe it wasn't included on purpose?

BTW, have I messed something up or did you remove the link to the Empire Deluxe demo?
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Post by dosraider »

Moria got a :) from me because of some nice memories I have about that game, not that the game itself was exceptional (even if it's rather a good game) but more hardware related, It was the first thing I tried to run on my (in those days) bloody fast industrial 386SX 20Mhz with some astonishing 2MB RAM.
The compy rack was saved from the shredder by moi, and I had to do a lot of work on it to get it running again ... ah well, old boring men and their stories LMAO ......

MrFlibble wrote:BTW, have I messed something up or did you remove the link to the Empire Deluxe demo?
I didn't touch your post ..... or one of the other mod/admins did, or you simply screwed up. :laugh:

And FYI:
MrFlibble wrote:Whoops, I messed up the download link for the Empire Deluze demo, fixed that now.
Link is still screwed up. :laugh:
wardrich wrote:The contrasts in personalities will deliver some SERIOUS lulz. I can't wait.
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Post by MrFlibble »

dosraider wrote: And FYI:
MrFlibble wrote:Whoops, I messed up the download link for the Empire Deluze demo, fixed that now.
Link is still screwed up. :laugh:
I didn't put it in until I was sure it wasn't removed with a reason :) (Originally it had pointed to a download of Empire: Wargame of the Century for a pre-IBM PC system BTW.) The link is fixed now (as is the typo in the title).
dosraider wrote:Moria got a :) from me because of some nice memories I have about that game, not that the game itself was exceptional (even if it's rather a good game) but more hardware related, It was the first thing I tried to run on my (in those days) bloody fast industrial 386SX 20Mhz with some astonishing 2MB RAM.
The compy rack was saved from the shredder by moi, and I had to do a lot of work on it to get it running again ... ah well, old boring men and their stories LMAO ......
Ahh, I see :) Actually I used to have a 386SX with 2 megs of RAM too, played Prince of Persia a lot on it (didn't know you could save your progress there back then :laugh:). However I'm quite new to Roguelike games; they are a lot of fun, but there's also quite a few of them, not to mention cd.textfiles.com has lots of packages with custom modifications or something. Not that I don't like open-source games that have multiple branches ^_^
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Post by MrFlibble »

There's also this SLASH version of NetHack, upon which the newer Slash'EM version is based.
Release 3: SLASH3.ZIP
Release 2 & 3 source: SLASHSRC.ZIP
Release 4: SLASH4.ZIP
Release 5: SLASH5.ZIP
Release 6: SLASH6.ZIP
Release 6 source: SLASHSR6.ZIP
Slash 4.1.2-7 beta: SLASH_E7.ZIP

BTW, here's a neat ftp with assorted NetHack files:
http://ftp.sunet.se/pub/games/nethack/
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Post by MrFlibble »

Dungeon Hack
Type: Playable Demo
Download: HACKDEMO.ZIP

Hack
Type: Freeware
Download: http://ftp.sunet.se/pub/games/nethack/Msdos/NH_older/
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Post by MrFlibble »

Black Knight: Marine Strike Fighter
Developer: SE Software
Publisher: FormGen Inc.
License: Shareware
Released in: 1995
Versions: 1.1, 1.2, 1.3, 1.33
Download v1.1: BKSE11A.ZIP BKSE11B.ZIP
Download v1.2: BKSE12A.ZIP BKSE12B.ZIP
Download v1.3: BKSE13A.ZIP BKSE13A.ZIP
Download v1.33: BKSE13A.ZIP BKSE13B.ZIP

StarMines
Developer: Jari Karjala
Publisher:
License type: Free
Released in: 1991
Version: 1.1
Download: SM110.LZH
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Post by dosraider »

Hmmm, I remember that one.... tried somehow to be better than Falcon 3.0, and .... failed to deliver.
Falcon series were one of the best in the genre.
Only the Jane's fighter games could beat them Falcon ones. (personal opinion ...)

On a side note, you do realize that emmzee sits on an impressive pile of games that he can add to the site? Not that this fact should restrain you to post those things, it's interesting stuff.
wardrich wrote:The contrasts in personalities will deliver some SERIOUS lulz. I can't wait.
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Post by MrFlibble »

dosraider wrote:
Hmmm, I remember that one.... tried somehow to be better than Falcon 3.0, and .... failed to deliver.
Falcon series were one of the best in the genre.
Only the Jane's fighter games could beat them Falcon ones. (personal opinion ...)
I played F-19 Stealth Fighter a lot in the early-mid 90's (and also some Microsoft Flight Simulator 4.0), but not much beside it, so I got interested what else there is in the genre because I really got to love F-19 :)
dosraider wrote:On a side note, you do realize that emmzee sits on an impressive pile of games that he can add to the site? Not that this fact should restrain you to post those things, it's interesting stuff.
Well, TBH I didn't even think about it. I know there are lots of games out there, so I just mention whatever seems interesting :)

BTW, Jack Flash is also a nice candidate for the Platform game section :)
1FLASH.ZIP
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Post by dosraider »

MrFlibble wrote:.... F-19 Stealth Fighter ....
Wouldn't compare the stealth fighter games with games as Falcon 3 or Jane's, very different approach in gameplay.

Don't misunderstand me, the F-xxx stealth series were good games.
Enjoyed playing them.
wardrich wrote:The contrasts in personalities will deliver some SERIOUS lulz. I can't wait.
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Post by MrFlibble »

dosraider wrote:
MrFlibble wrote:.... F-19 Stealth Fighter ....
Wouldn't compare the stealth fighter games with games as Falcon 3 or Jane's, very different approach in gameplay.
Yeah, I figured it out - I had an opportunity to play some Falcon 3.0 for a while (full version, the demo is too limited IMO) :) Never played Jane's but I remember reading an article about 80s-90s era flight sims in some gaming magazine and they were saying Jane's was some serious stuff.

Since I was a kid and didn't even have the manual of the game, I'd mostly play F-19 in action mode back then, with easiest landing mode setting, and without any stealth flying techniques of which I was simply unaware :) It didn't work too well on higher difficulty stages like Central Europe or North Cape ^_^
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Post by MrFlibble »

Apache
Type: Playable Demo
Download: APCHDEMO.ZIP

Body Blows
Type: Playable Demo
Download Demo 1: BBDEMO.ZIP
Download Demo 2: BODYBLOW.ZIP

Ultimate Body Blows
Type: Playable Demo
Download: UBB.ZIP

Evasive Action
Type: Playable Demo
Download: EACTION.ZIP
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Post by MrFlibble »

Kingdom
Another Hamurabi clone, a text-based strategy game.
Download: KINGDOM2.ZIP

Great Air Battles: Remember Pearl Harbor
A shareware flight sim made with Domark's Flight Simulator Toolkit aimed at recreation of historical air battles. Several scenarios for both the US and Japanese forces are available in the shareware version.
Download v2.1: GAB-V21.ZIP
Download v2.5: GAB_V25.ZIP (FILE_ID.DIZ still says v2.1 but this version is newer than the one above)

Dawn Patrol
A historically accurate WWI flight simulation game, with one playable scenario in the demo version. Supports SVGA mode.
Download standard version: DAWNL.ZIP
Download version with SVGA support: DAWNH.ZIP
A slightly different version (also supports SVGA):
http://cd.textfiles.com/101bg3/PAGE3/DPATROL/

Air Power: Battle in the Skies
Another flight sim from the same developers as Dawn Patrol, but this one takes place in an alternate history steampunk setting. There's one mission in the playable demo, and SVGA mode is also supported.
Download earlier demo: INSTALL.EXE
Download later demo: APDEMO.EXE

Overlord
Yet another historical flight sim from Rowan Software - this time about WWII.
Download program disk: LORD1.ZIP
Download SVGA graphics disk: LORD2.ZIP
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Post by MrFlibble »

And a few more flight sims:

Air Warrior
Download part 1: PCAIRWA1.ZIP
Download part 2: PCAIRWA2.ZIP

F-22 Lightning II
Download: F22DEMO.EXE

Fighter Duel
Download demo (23.10.1995) part 1: FDDEM10A.ZIP
Download demo (23.10.1995) part 2: FDDEM10B.ZIP
Download demo (27.08.1996): http://cd.textfiles.com/101bg7/ARCADE/FDDEMO/

Fighter Duel: Special Edition
Download: FDDEM3.ZIP
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Post by MrFlibble »

DND
Download: DUNGEONS.ZIP

Evets: The Ultimate Adventure
An interesting roguelike that invokes the party in my pocket and actually four mooks tropes.
Download v2.03: 2398.ZIP
Download v2.1: EVETS.ZIP
Last edited by MrFlibble on Mon Sep 03, 2012 5:41 pm, edited 1 time in total.
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Post by dosraider »

MrFlibble wrote:DND
Download: DUNGEONS.ZIP
Aaaarghhhh "YOU DIED" , frustrating D&D game, and you gonna see a lot of "YOU DIED" screens ...............


:laugh:
wardrich wrote:The contrasts in personalities will deliver some SERIOUS lulz. I can't wait.
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Post by MrFlibble »

Played Evets a bit (the authors seem to be fond of sdrawkcab names BTW). First off, the version numbers are v2.03 and v2.1 respectively, v2.1 is definitely better for a more use-friendly interface.

The game is actually quite fun but does deviate from the classic roguelike formula in a number of ways - I'd say it's more like more recent party-based RPGs, except the combat is not that detailed. Many aspects like the need to feed your character(s) are not present, and neither there is a ton of unidentified items to be tried. Save scumming is also allowed, you can save your game at any time and then restore it either from in-game or the main menu (although there's only one save slot). You start with a party of four predesigned characters - three fighters and a mage - and the only possibility to change classes so far is to accumulate enough gold to join a different guild. Apparently there are more "common" classes (like a Ranger or a Thief) that cost less, and "rare" classes like Samurai or Ninja that cost more.

Combat is turn-based and usually involves one or more groups of hostile creatures. For each round, the player has to issue orders to all party members: attack, defend, cast spell, use item, or flee the battlefield (which applies to the entire party). After winning an encounter the resulting XP is distributed equally among the characters in the party, and so is gold if any is found. In shops, purchases are made by separate characters, and there's an option to pool all available gold and give it to a single character if needed.

I'm not 100% sure but it seems that when a character levels up, a single attribute is randomly increased; however, levelling up always increases HPs of the character. The mage character automatically acquires new spells when he levels up.

All that said, the most noticeable feature of Evets is that the designers have deliberately made it easy to learn and play, but a side-effect from this is that the resulting game feels like it lacks depth compared to the more typical roguelikes. In spite of this, however, it's a noteworthy example of an early D&D style RPG that is more action-oriented
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