A year or so ago I grumbled about the Sega Mega Drive Ultimate Collection not being released on PC. Well, now they've gone and added a bunch of games to Steam.

It's not as big a collection as that console release, and Sonic (apart from 3D Blast) is conspicuous in his absence. No Streets Of Rage either, boo. Fortunately they do have classic 16-bit fighting game Golden Axe, which as far as I can tell matches the Megadrive version perfectly. So i should probably make a note on our review of the slightly lacking old PC Port from 1990.

Also after a few beers I went and bought Altered Beast. Which, er, isn't a classic. Actually it's kinda crappy.

Meanwhile, the greatest event that will never happen is of course Nintendo releasing any of their classics on PC...

tags: sega, golden, axe

Well I thought that, since I've kinda failed to keep up with Rik's output, it's time to get cracking on more content. So I'd have another go at King's Quest 6. This must be about the sixth attempt, somehow I've just never succesfully played through, but we really should get a King's Quest on board some day. I keep telling myself that, and then not actually playing any King's Quest. So enough procastinating let's go, er, quest.

Load it up today and savegame says:

Error on Explode
Script # : 0, IP: 8dc

Okay, well, attempt seven sometime this year I guess.

So I picked up Blood from gog.com, and sat through what has to be the ugliest, most plastic-looking pre-rendered cutscene I've yet encountered. Were we once impressed by this kind of thing? It's aged horribly.

In the interests of being positive, here's a mid-90s intro done right:



Yes we're rocking out on midi music there.
>air guitar<

tags: blood, ufo, intro, cutscene

I love the intro to X-Wing:



I liked the game, but I got quite badly stuck early on and gave up. It seemed a lot harder than TIE Fighter, which I managed to finish without too many problems.

I thought I might go back to this one at some stage, but that probably it isn't going to happen now. So let's revel in the majesty of this awesome intro!

tags: x-wing

I'd hoped to have something interesting to post for xmas, but if all else fails at least we can highlight a great deal out there in the world of digital distribution.

So how about Loom, The Dig, and both Indiana Jones adventures for £1.74? Get it!

[edit]Also worth a look, the entire Dark Forces/Jedi Knight set for £7.49.

tags: lucasarts, adventures, indiana, jones, dig, loom

We were vaguely worried about Lucasarts overpricing their classic adventures on Steam. However, it turns out Last Crusade, Fate of Atlantis, LOOM and The Dig are going for £3 each! Which is just fantastic value for money - there's hours of engaging adventure gaming there.

If anyone wants me i'll be off playing the Dig.



tags: lucasarts, adventures

Lucas Arts is Coming to Steam

This is great news, and something we've been waiting for since the coming of online-distribution.

Here's the selection so far

Armed and Dangerous™
Indiana Jones® and the Fate of Atlantis
Indiana Jones® and the Last Crusade: The Graphic Adventure
LEGO® Indiana Jones: The Original Adventure
LOOM™
Star Wars Battlefront® II
Star Wars Republic Commando®
Star Wars Starfighter™
The Dig®
Thrillville®: Off the Rails™

Reggarding their classic adventures it's far from the full back catelogue, but a decent start. I'm especially keen to give The Dig a try, even if it is regarded as sub-par, as I missed it the first time around. Meanwhile Fate of Atlantis is a classic and Loom is, while rather short, enchanting.

The Monkey family is conspicuous in its absence, but the remake of the original will be appearing on steam a week or so later. Hopefully the sequels will follow.

As for the Star Wars stuff I've not followed it at all in recent years, but I'd hope Tie Fighter turns up there eventually.

[edit]the dos games will all have new executables for windows, no scummvm or dosbox required.

tags: lucasarts, adventures

Anyone remember this guy?



Correct answers win a prize.

The Jman made a very sensible suggestion, that we review Doom. I'm not entirely sure why i've skirted around that one - I've covered the iD milestone immediately before, the next two after and even a 3rd-party game using its engine. Maybe it's just a reticence regarding such a huge name in gaming; there must already be many "10\15 years later" retrospectives out there. Probably deconstructing Doom's significance in great detail.

It will see coverage at some point - although just to be perverse I'll probably do Heretic beforehand. For now though, I'm focussing on something long-overdue...

you must gather your party before venturing forth

tags: doom, shooters

Migman's Flight Sim Museum

Given our own near-total lack of flight sim coverage, I thought it might be worth linking this site, which has entries for sims going all the way back to the beginning. Not a great detail of information on each game, but there are still some interesting bits and pieces looking back on over twenty years of the genre, see here and also here.

tags: flight, sims