Bio Menace for DOS
Yet another one of those old shareware games that I never got to play the full version of until recently. Bio Menace. Honestly, I don’t know a whole lot about this game other than the fact it (obviously. Something that I noticed even back in the day) uses the Commander Keen engine. But it’s also the first game I played at home with any sort of blood and guts in it. Bodies are strewn about the blasted landscape, when the aliens die they blow up into little meaty bits and eyeballs and the like. When you think about it, this is a rather violent and disturbing game. But you can learn a lot more than I could ever tell you about this on the Wikipedia page. But great graphics (for the time), great music by Bobby Prince, decent sidescrolling run and gun gameplay. While it’s not perfect, and is actually pretty hard it’s definitely worth trying. And the main character’s name is Snake and he has a mullet. You can’t get much cheesier than that. I’m going through it again now because I never got the chance to back in the day. Back then I don’t even remember passing the first level to be perfectly honest. :) As usual, all the screenshots are courtesy of MobyGames and you can find the full version download at the bottom.
Major Stryker for DOS
This is one of those games that I never played the full version of until recently. In all honesty I had almost completely forgotten about it. I snagged this off of a bulletin board back in 1993 and I remembered LOVING it. Now, granted, a lot of these old PC games don’t fare too well nowadays. But this is one of those games that definitely stands the test of time. Another thing that made this game special to me back in the day and really helped turn me on to PC gaming was the fact that I had a PC that could run this … and a Nintendo. I didn’t have a Sega Genesis or SNES, it was the PC and the Nintendo … and the Atari 2600. And it was games like this and the original Duke Nukem games that showed me that the Nintendo wasn’t all there was out there in my little world.
While there isn’t anything particularly SPECIAL about it, it’s a fully playable and damned impressive vertically scrolling shmup with sharp, detailed 16 color EGA graphics (with parallax scrolling. Trust me, it was a big deal back in the day.) and some GREAT music by Bobby Prince that I unfortunately never got to experience until today because the PC I had to play this game at the time didn’t have a sound card. Hell, the music alone is worth the download, and I wish I had it to stick on my iPod, it’s that good with a monstrous 20 song soundtrack (granted, a few of them are the typical short “You’re dead.” tunes that I tend to hear a lot) … and there are a grand total of 30 sound effects in the entire game. With one voice sample that says “Game over, man!”
Gameplay isn’t anything you haven’t played before, you move around and shoot straight up. There are powerups in the game that give you different types of shots (including the ability to shoot behind yourself). But even on the beginner level this is one hell of a hard game. At least it is to me. I’ve never had this many problems with a shmup, not even the bullet hell style games. :)
Great game with some even better music. And is well worth the price of free because it was released as such at one point. If you like shmups or good video game music, it’s definitely worth a try. It may look dated, but fun games are fun games. All screenshots courtesy of MobyGames. Hit the jump to see them and download the game.
Double Dragon for the the PC
Back in the day, this was my introduction to the Double Dragon series. Not the arcade version (though I knew it was an arcade port), and not the NES version. THIS particular port. And I remember having such HORRID memories of the game. Maybe I just couldn’t stand the constant gangups (if you’ve got enemies on either side of you, prepare for a beating). Maybe I just wasn’t that much into beat ‘em ups at the time. I don’t know. Or maybe it was the keyboard control scheme for it. Unlike the more popular NES version, this one actually supports two player cooperative play, which was a big draw for the day. And that made it slightly more arcade like in it’s experience.
OverKill for DOS
If I remember correctly, this was the game that caused me to go out and get a controller for the computer … and in 1992 there was only one real choice : the Gravis PC Gamepad. I think I still have one of those around somewhere. Though I haven’t any idea if it works. But regardless, this is one of those games that I only had the shareware version of when I was younger. Hell, I was running it on a computer that didn’t even have a sound card. So I never got to listen to the kickass music this game was pumping out till MUCH later. Though, it did use the PC speaker for the shots and sound effects (which actually sound pretty decent) so at least I got part of the experience, even though it was limited to “pew pew pew” and a few garbled sounds that vaguely sound like explosions. I remember screwing on that little joystick attachment to the Gravis Pad and playing with that after I decided the directional pad wasn’t as good as it could be for a game like this.
Super C for DOS
Why the DOS version? Why not the arcade version. Or the NES version. Because back in those days I didn’t get to a lot of arcades and I mostly had an old PC to work with, so this is the version of it I would have played if I didn’t have an NES. Don’t judge it by the piss poor EGA graphics though, it plays great and is just as balls hard as any other version of the game. I tried to play it earlier and didn’t even make it past the first level, gonna have to try again once I have a little more patience and can remember where everything is. Considering what PCs were back in 1990, and the fact that they couldn’t force people to buy a 386 for this when most people were still running either an 8088 or a 286, this isn’t a half bad port and is at least worth trying for those of you who are curious about what we had to deal with as far as arcade ports back in the day. I was going to put the original Contra for DOS on here as well, but that’s an unplayable atrocity of a game. Thankfully I never played it back in the day and stuck with the NES version. PCs of the day just weren’t set up to handle a game like that. You just use the arrow keys to move around and aim and use the 0/Insert key on your numerical pad to jump and ./Del to fire.
The sound is pretty good, the graphics, despite the fact that they’re EGA are pretty well detailed. The game manages to keep track of the hectic nature of the overall game great and the music is good. And, above all else, the control is solid. Even the 4 color CGA graphics look halfway decent, though nowadays there’s no reason to even play it that way unless you just want to see it like that for some reason.
Kinda makes me when I had a 286 layin’ around somewhere so I could play this game on it.
If you let it sit for a little bit, it even has the arcade’s corny opening (minus the voices) and is definitely worth a watch. All images via Mobygames beacuse I can’t get far enough in the game to take good screenshots. :)
Mario Bros VGA
This is another one of those games that I was first introduced to via the Atari 2600 instead of the arcade. Although later I did end up getting it for the original Nintendo at a yard sale and played it on that. But when I got this I was kinda starting to get into PC gaming, and this fit the bill perfectly, even though the sound is, yet again, being pumped out of the damned PC Speaker. But I was too young to really care, and if I wanted good sound I'd hop over to my Nintendo and play that because the PC my family had at the time didn't have a sound card in it. But if you like the original Mario game, this isn't a half bad version of it. Of course nowadays we have emulation and Nintendo's Virtual Console and things like that, so this is kinda out of date. But it does give me some good memories.
Download - 46k As always, use DOSBox
Joust VGA
My first experience with Joust wasn't in the arcades to be perfectly honest. I don't even think I've played an ACTUAL Joust arcade machine ever. My first experience with it was for the Atari 2600, and despite the changes from the arcade (the floating eggs, the lack of a hand coming out of the lava, the eggs hatching and being collected to the enemy birds working completely different, etc) I loved it. And being that I had no prior experience with the arcade version, THAT was Joust for me. Around the time this version of the game came out in 1990, I was heavy into bulletin boards getting whatever games I could find, and this was one of them.
Tom and Jerry CAT-astrophe for DOS
Another Hi-Tech Expressions game from 1990. I remember playing this when I was 9 and 10, and it was a lot of fun then. Nowadays, not so much. But it is kinda cool to see it again, I haven't played it in God knows how long.
Street Fighter for DOS
When the original Street Fighter hit in the arcades, it was met with more of a whimper because you only had 2 playable characters and the game wasn't that good. Player one was Ryu, and player 2 was Ken. The fighting sucked, the moves were hard to pull off and ... yeah ... Street Fighter got off to a rocky start. The PC version was released upon the world in 1988 ... and is an unholy abomination against everything that's good. And I played it CONSTANTLY when I was a kid. Not because I liked it, because I got so pissed of at it for being so horrible I was bound and determined to beat it so I could burn the disk.
Chip N Dale Rescue Rangers : The Adventure in Nimnul’s Castle for DOS
Hi-Tek Expressions released this game in 1990. And there are two memories I have of when I was a kid, cheesy cartoon like the Rescue Rangers and Hi-Tek Expressions because I played and liked quite a few of the games they released. I saw this game, and it was one of those things where I remembered playing it, I downloaded it and it doesn't ring a bell at all. lol