AstroNerdBoy
Reviews
Doom II (DOS)
More DOOM!
The Good
Doom was the first shareware game that I actually went out and purchased. After playing it over and over, I was ready for Doom II and it didn't disappoint. You had more weapons, more monsters, more levels, and even 2 secret Castle Wolfenstein (sp) levels! This game was a good improvement over the original Doom and certainly took many hours of my life back in 1994!
The Bad
The bobbing motion of the character as he ran always made me sick after a long time of play. Ugh. So after I solved this game, I never went back to play again.
The Bottom Line
This is the sequel to the first-person shooter that started the craze. The object of the game is to kill everything that moves, clear levels, solve puzzles (usually to get out of a level), find secret passages and hidden monsters, and just go nuts! You start with a 9mm and a few rounds but can immediately find a chainsaw! Later weapons are the shotgun, the super shotgun (double-barrel), the chain gun, the rocket launcher, the plasma gun, and the BFG-9000 (not sure about the number) gun. Plenty of levels to play (30) and more difficulty settings including one that continuously spawns new monsters to attack you. Fun, fun, fun!
By AstroNerdBoy on July 8, 2002
Rogue (DOS)
I Still Play This Today
The Good
I didn't purchase this game until 1988 but I have played it ever since! This game has almost unlimited replay value in that each new game is just that...a new game. Your quest is the same -- find the Amulet of Yendor. But because the dungeon is created randomly, the levels are always new and what you find or creatures you fight are different. The game is very difficult to beat as you are not able to "keep" saved game files (when you load a saved game, it is removed and when you save a game, the game terminates).
Forget about sound and graphics. The graphics are ASCII graphics (in color though) with the monsters represented by letters (R=rattlesnake, O=Orc, T=Troll, etc.). The sounds (what few there are) come through the internal PC speaker and not through a sound card. However, this just adds to the charm of the game which was originally designed for mainframe computers.
The AI on this game is very simple but effective! For example, Orcs will always look for gold to defend before attacking you. Nymphs stay "asleep" unless bothered. So monsters almost have a personality even though they are nothing but letters!
The Bad
The game is almost to hard. By "cheating" (meaning keeping a copy of my save files and playing a saved level over and over until I beat it before proceeding), I was able to beat the game once. But to go through until the end without keeping old save files, I have not been able to win and I've been playing until 1988. While your character (a smiley face) advances in levels as he gets more experience from defeating monsters, the monsters you face become more powerful than you.
This starts at level 4 with the rattlesnake. Not only does the rattlesnake take hitpoints, it also can take away strength. The weaker you are, the weaker your attack. At level 8, the Aquator appears. This monster doesn't take hit points but only attacks armor. So unless you have leather armor, the "A" will make your armor almost worthless. This goes on and on.
Normally one might "hang around" to build up experience points and to go up in levels, right? Well Rogue defeats this strategy by requiring you to eat or die. Since the only way to get food is to find it, you are forced to new dungeon levels in order to find more food (and whether or not food will be found is based on the random generator). So the game forces you deeper and deeper whether you are ready or not!
The Bottom Line
Bottom line, this is the forerunner of games like Diablo. It's jus a simple, ASCII-graphic, RPG-type game which is highly annoying but highly addictive! If you can find the Epyx version online (and it does exist for downloading), it's a great game to play at work because it only opens a tiny window which is easily hidden. And since the game comes with the "boss" key (which displays the "C" prompt) you can mostly play in peace!
By AstroNerdBoy on January 15, 2002
Fantasy General (DOS)
Pretty Fun Game
The Good
I never played any of the other "General" games put out by SSI so I can't compare it to them. But I really enjoyed playing this game enough to play it through two different heroes (the Warrior and the Wizard) and played it half-way with the Knight. When this game came out in 1996 (maybe late 95), there were lots of "board" strategy games both for computer and for the table-top and while I wasn't into the genre, I did like the idea of controlling armies of dragons, rocs, knights, warriors, and the like.
The musical score for this game is incredible, enough so that I ripped the songs into MP3s on my PC! Of course as with all games, the music gets old after a while but it is good. There is some replay value in the game in that there are four generals you can play and different difficulty levels. Heck, every once in a while I'll play this game again just for the fun of it. The graphics are only static "pieces" but since this is played like a board game, that didn't bother me.
I did like the "learn more" feature of the game (used to learn more about a specific army).
The Bad
There is a lot to learn about this game. Sure, the basics of movement, casting spells, and the turn-based system is pretty easy to learn, but how to use different armies or heroes takes a long time to learn. Plus each general has different bonuses (or penalties) that are bestowed upon your armies. I suppose all good strategy games have this learning curve, but in FG, this was really steep. I think this was the most frustrating thing.
The Bottom Line
Think of this as a board game for your computer with all of your pieces in the form of things from the fantasy genre. It is a fun strategy game.
By AstroNerdBoy on January 14, 2002
Ultima Trilogy: I ♦ II ♦ III (DOS)
Three for the Price of One!
The Good
This contained the first three Ultima games (I, II, III) and since I'd just been introduced to Ultima III, I purchased this out of college. Since I had to work two jobs to make ends meet in college, getting three games for the price of one was great! I never did complete Ultima I (I started at III and worked back) since by the time I started it, Ultima IV was out. I still have the floppies but I no longer have a 5.25" floppy drive. lol
The Bad
Ultima III is very different from Ultima I and II. So I started playing III which allowed you to have a party of four and was more akin to the RPG's of today. In Ultima I and II, you were a single player character and the thing to do was rob the shop keepers blind (which wasn't hard). So eventually you had phazers (I'm pretty sure that's how they spelled it) and other advanced weapons early in the game.
The Bottom Line
This is the compilation of the first three Ultima games: Ultima I, Ultima II, and Ultima III, complete with disks, maps, manuals, and the like.
By AstroNerdBoy on January 11, 2002
F-19 Stealth Fighter (DOS)
The Only Combat Simulator I've Ever Played
The Good
I was in the Air Force when this came out and we had heard the rumors of the "Stealth Fighter" that was still in test (which would eventually be known as the F-117). After the Persian Gulf War started, I actually pulled this back out and started playing all the missions against Iraq! It was pretty fun though flight simulation games aren't my cup of tea.
The Bad
I think VGA graphics were out by the time this game came out yet I was (for some reason which eludes me) still forced to play it in CGA mode. That annoyed me. Also, I never did get the hang of landing on a Carrier! lol
The Bottom Line
This is a typical fighter-flight simulator game. Plenty of action, missions, and ways to get promotions/medals. I had a lot of fun playing.
By AstroNerdBoy on January 10, 2002
Sid Meier's Civilization II (Windows 3.x)
A Good Strategy Game
The Good
The game is very engrossing and entertaining. I liked the fact that you have total control over everything (except when the peasants are in a revolting mood). Learning to play the game is pretty simple however it does take a while to learn the best strategies for improving your score at the end. For those who like to cheat, the game provides those at the click of a mouse. I like to use the cheats to maximize myself whenever some other civ has all but beaten me (and I'm down to one city). Heh!heh! I hate to lose and this way you never do.
The Bad
At times I had trouble getting a round (turn) to end. The game would act like I still had a move to make (and maybe I did but I wanted to proceed) and wouldn't go to the next round. Also at times having another civ's unit in your area (whom you were not at war with) would block you from moving. That could get real annoying!
The Bottom Line
This is an excellent turn-based strategy game. Plenty of replay value with so many different civilizations that can appear when starting a new game. Also the land can change by random generation if you are tired of the pre-drawn maps.
By AstroNerdBoy on January 10, 2002
Majesty: The Fantasy Kingdom Sim (Windows)
A Simple, Fun Game
The Good
I liked the easy learning curve of this game. Graphics are pretty nice as is the sound. The tax collector's happily saying, "More gold you majesty" makes one feel like quite the "tax-and-spend" politician. grin It's just a fun game on the whole.
The Bad
I didn't like not having control over the different "heroes" you recruit. They basically go wherever they feel like in your town or countryside which is bad when you are under attack and don't have a lot of gold to "Recall" your knights.
The "Mage Towers" used for defense of your city cost money to activate. Fine. But there should have been an option to keep them active (subtracting additional monies if required).
The Bottom Line
Basically this is a simple strategy game that is a lot of fun.
By AstroNerdBoy on January 10, 2002
Redneck Rampage (DOS)
Just an OK Shooter
The Good
OK, the premise of this game is funny. Growing up in the deep south, I could appreciate the redneck humor here. So the drinking and eating pork rinds for health was pretty funny (as was getting drunk).
The Bad
The humor wears off after a while. Once the game stopped being funny to me, I no longer found the desire to play it and haven't touched it since.
The Bottom Line
Ultimately this is a 1st-person shooter game with some redneck humor that gets old after a while.
By AstroNerdBoy on January 10, 2002
Baldur's Gate II: Shadows of Amn (Windows)
A Great Sequel!
The Good
The game took the elements of the original Baldur's Gate and made them better. The AI was improved so that when one member of your party is going to pick up treasure, other members will move out of his way. The 800x600 graphic size was a welcome improvement (though you can still play 640x480 if you wish). The ability to make notes in the journal was great for tracking important things like a specific place to return when a quest was completed. Also, now your party gets XP for doing things like picking locks and disarming traps. Conversations with NPCs are better done.
The Bad
What I didn't like was the repetitive music. Don't get me wrong, the music sounds great. It's just that after a while I was sick of hearing it (but I'm always like that). Also it seems that the number of quests gets to be a bit much. Granted doing all these things build experience points but most of them have nothing to do with the main storyline. So at times I would feel like "Ugh! Another tedious quest to do but hey, it will gain me XP and maybe a higher reputation).
The Bottom Line
Basically this game picks up where Baldur's Gate ended and goes from there. There are all kinds of new monsters to challenge your party as you become more powerful. Plenty of new items, spells, etc. in this game. If you like RPG games or D&D, you'll really enjoy BG2.
By AstroNerdBoy on January 10, 2002
Baldur's Gate: Tales of the Sword Coast (Windows)
A Nice Bone To Gnaw On
The Good
I liked the fact that the XP cap was raised enough to allow people to go up an additional level or two. Also, there were some cool new items like the Sling +2 and Quarterstaff +2 (my main character was a Wizard). Also Durlag's Tower was pretty interesting to explore.
The Bad
It didn't do anything to add to the main storyline. But really that's nitpicking on my part.
The Bottom Line
Basically there were a couple of "holes" in the land map for the original Baldur's Gate game so these were plugged with a new town and Durlag's Tower. I think there are four quest added to the game so there were plenty of ways to build your characters up to the maximum XP level (which I was at by the time I finished the game). This was a nice bone for us junkies who'd already finished Baldur's Gate and were waiting for Icewind Dale (and Baldur's Gate II).
By AstroNerdBoy on January 10, 2002
Doom (DOS)
I Played It Until I Got Sick!
The Good
When this game came out in 93, it was a vast improvement over Castle Wolfenstein 3-D. There were "cooler" weapons, better graphics and better sounds. Heck, I can still hear then noises of the various demons and my gun going off as I killed everything that moved! It was highly addictive and after it was placed on the company network, people had a hard time getting any work done! lol Replay value was added by going through at greater difficulty settings.
The Bad
I never liked the bobbing motion of the character as you ran from place to place. After a while it made me sea-sick! I loaded the game up last week for fun and after a few levels I was nauseous.
The Bottom Line
This is a first-person shooter. The object is to get from the entrance to the exit alive. Bonuses for getting through in a certain time frame (which were unrealistic IMO) or for killing ALL the monsters and finding all the secrets. The graphics, sound, and play are dated by today's standards but when this came out, this was top-of-the-line stuff! This is the game which while not the first of it's kind certainly started the first-person shooter craze of today.
By AstroNerdBoy on January 10, 2002
Battle Chess (DOS)
Cool and Funny
The Good
Watching chess pieces do battle was an entertaining and often funny event. The best was the "black knight" tribute to Monty Python ("Holy Grail" movie). Watching pawns take out more powerful pieces was good for laughs as well.
The Bad
Once the novelty of the game wore off, seeing the antics of the various pieces got boring. Also, even though I had an EGA machine, this still only displayed 4 colors (you could get 8 on a Tandy machine).
The Bottom Line
Bottom line: chess pieces come to life as you play the game.
By AstroNerdBoy on November 7, 2001
Baldur's Gate (Windows)
A Good AD&D Computer Game
The Good
I'd been waiting for a good D&D game since the old "gold box" SSI games. Baldur's Gate delivered by making a pretty good campaign-adventure to play here (the expansion pack made it sweeter). I really liked how you are able to learn the controls and play of the game (which is all in real time) while in a relatively safe environment (the initial town).
The Bad
I didn't like some of the NPC's in the game but that's just personal taste. Also, I found that by the time I got my party powerful enough to enter the city of Baldur's Gate, I lost interest in the game. I've talked to a few others who said the same thing. I don't know why this happened unless I just got old. : )
The Bottom Line
Bottom line: this is a good D&D computer game using 2nd Edition rules.
By AstroNerdBoy on November 7, 2001
Marble Madness (PC Booter)
PC Version Disappointed
The Good
There really wasn't anything I liked about this game. : (
The Bad
This was the first PC game I purchased for myself in 1987 and I thought it would look better than it did. But the CGA graphics really bummed me out, especially since the PC I used back then had an EGA card!
The Bottom Line
Take the arcade version of Marble Madness, take away the sound and all but 4 colors and you have the PC version of this game.
By AstroNerdBoy on November 7, 2001
Diablo (Windows)
Rogue-like Game
The Good
Back in the early 80's, an ASCII-graphic game called Rogue was introduced to the world. It started on mainframes and by the mid-80's found its way to the PC. The concept was to take an adventurer on a simple quest down into randomly-drawn dungeon levels. This meant that every time you played a new game, it was different.
Now fast-forward to 1997. Diablo took the basic concept of Rogue and expounded upon it using nice graphics, sound, and an interesting storyline. I loved the fact that I could create my character, take him into the dungeon for a while, and if the dungeon level I was on was to tough, I could start over with the same character (keeping all his/her experience and equipment). Not only that, but the dungeons were all redrawn from scratch making the game "new" and different and used different monsters (from a set of monsters based upon the dungeon level).
I loved the fact that I could play this game forever if I liked (and I played it all the way until Diablo II had been out for 6 months).
The Bad
I didn't like the fact that you had no place to store gold and equipment. So you had to leave piles of gold, potions, and equipment lying around the town square.
The Bottom Line
Bottom line, this is a simple yet addictive game that is designed to give plenty of repeat play (and in this day of games that can go for nearly $60, who doesn't want to get the max out of their buck). Kill everything that moves, collect magical items (for selling or for keeping) and gold is the name of the game.
By AstroNerdBoy on November 7, 2001
Starflight 2: Trade Routes of the Cloud Nebula (DOS)
A Great Sequel
The Good
This game took the premise of Starflight and added to it. I liked the fact that your ship could become more powerful, especially after you acquire technology from the past! The new alien species were nice and an explanation of the "terminally-grumpy" race (who's name eludes me at present) from Starflight was very interesting. As before, the story for Starflight II was engrossing and that made gameplay all that much better. The graphics (for its time) were awesome but since I didn't have a sound card, I don't know how the sound was.
Another welcome addition were populated planets. Now you could hook up with aliens on planet surfaces to learn information as well as to establish much needed trade routes.
The Bad
I really don't recall anything I didn't like about the game. I'm sure if I still had a 5 1/4" drive, I'd play again.
The Bottom Line
Bottom line: EA and Binary Systems took an excellent game and improved it. Now if we could only get a Starflight III...grin
By AstroNerdBoy on November 7, 2001
Starflight (DOS)
The 2nd Most Adictive Game I've Ever Played
The Good
This game was like a dream to me when it came out. The sci-fi genre on TV wasn't there as it wasn't in gaming. But with Starflight, I could be the space explorer/adventurer. I had a crew (all of whom I named after TOS characters) and a spaceship. Now to mine local planets for money to train my crew and improve my ship. But this is only part of the charm of Starflight. The storyline was well done with the manual starting you off with a very interesting tale of his failed adventures (this also provides some clues on game play). I enjoyed learning about what happened to these humans on the planet Arth and their old empire as well as learning about the ancients.
The Bad
Sometimes finding artifacts to help you could be tedious, especially if you didn't have a special artifact which would tell you where to land to find other unique artifacts. Also, once you solved the game, playing quickly became boring. Sure, you could bully all the races and destroy them at will. I actually managed to land on the Speimen (sp) home planet and destroy it. But once I'd done that, I had no more planet-killers and I never played again.
The Bottom Line
Bottom line, an entire quarter of college was wasted while I spent all my free time, class time, and even some work time playing this game. Ah, those were the days.
By AstroNerdBoy on November 7, 2001
Tales of the Unknown: Volume I - The Bard's Tale (DOS)
Great In It's Day
The Good
Back when I first purchased this game, I was taken with the cool EGA graphics. And when you met a monster, you had the cool moving image of said creature. Ah, the goblins who's lips curled, the skeleton who's eye-sockets lit up, the magic users who flashed electricity, etc. And since I'd just completed Ultima III, Bard's Tale seemed all that much cooler. The nifty nods to Tolkien (with the Mithril weapons and the Barlogs) were appreciated and the game as a whole rocked.
The Bad
Ah yes, the dungeon play sucked in the later levels. All dungeons were the same size (say 16x16 for example) but to give the illusion of more space (and to confuse the player), most dungeons when you got to one end would appear to continue to go on. Say you were in position 16,16 and you went on. You'd then find yourself (if you went east) in position 1,16. That combined with the "oh, your light went out" areas and "spin" areas made mapping dungeons almost impossible and certainly very tedious. The only way I and my friends ended up solving the game was to buy the cheat book since the book had all the dungeons mapped.
The Bottom Line
Bottom line, this game was a great RPG game for its day. I wouldn't mind seeing a "Bard's Tale Redux" come out using modern computer technology for the graphics, sound, and auto-mapping!
By AstroNerdBoy on November 7, 2001