Wooden Toys, Part Eight - 1994
In 1994 (or at the end of 1993, I don’t remember anymore) a friend from whom we played dandy finally bought a PC. 386DX40 / 4MB / 270MB / 0.28 - it seems like it was written then. There was no sound. But the monitor was cool, not some kind of 3NE with twists, but the Bridge with digital control and memory for the modes, I did not have to adjust them. 3NE also had some kind of memory, but still it was necessary to adjust the picture quite often, especially if there were games in different resolutions, and even used Windows.
The 1994 games themselves I would not call so wooden - VGA and SVGA, live video in some places, support for sound cards has become mandatory, most likely there will be no sound on the speaker. Therefore, I decided to consider work under DOS a mandatory sign of woodenness. This will bring the retrospective to its logical end in 1997, when the last noticeable titles came out. Then the Windows era has finally begun. But there are still three years and several dozen good games.
Wooden Toys, Part Seven - 1993
Wooden Toys, Part Six - 1992
Wooden Toys, Part Five - 1991
Wooden Toys, Part Four - 1990
Wooden Toys, Part Three - 1989
Wooden toys, part two - 1986-1988
Wooden toys, part one - 1982-1985
Probably the best of the Disney movie games (among all the lion kings, jungle books and other chip-and-dales).
A cyberpunk quest about how a robot vacuum cleaner captures the world, using the services of its human slave. We play for this slave.
Arcade from Blizzard. Something like Prince of Persia with a shotgun.
Cannon meat is a tactic about small soldiers performing missions in a war. And constantly perishing at the same time, filling the cemetery on the transmission screen. They say that the version for Atari was better in terms of control, but about atari and other amigi we only saw references in books and magazines.
Colonization of America in the style of Civilization. Sail, develop, declare independence, fight off the royal troops - the game is over.
Virtual shooting gallery interspersed with puzzles. In the era of games with live video, they made a bet on prerendered 3D graphics. Some tried to translate Cyberia as "Siberia", but were wrong. I think that keeping the pun, it should be translated as “Siberia”.
The second part of Doom. The Marine returned to Earth, saw that the demons killed his beloved rabbit and went to take revenge.
The main character served as an errand boy in the royal castle. Accidentally saved the king, received a sword, a land allotment and the Chancellor's dislike as a reward. The game takes place in two phases. Strategic, in which you build a village, plant trees, buy cows, harvest, set traps, etc. and arcade, when you run around the village and repel the attack of demons. At first it’s just with a sword, but later you can use steeper weapons, up to flooding the territory napalm the dragon. The truth is there then nothing grows.
After several rounds, you move to a new location and again develop from scratch. The toy is straight-through, but funny.
Quest in a fantasy at first glance, the world. On the second - in the post-apocalyptic, in which people disappeared, and in their place there are upright intelligent animals. The main character - the fox - needs to find a weather management artifact left over from humans.
If Sonic were a rabbit. One of the best arcades in my opinion.
It's "Relentless: Twinsen's Adventure." Isometric action with a peculiar and not always convenient control. The main character must save the planet from a tyrant. Then another second part came out in a similar version.
Racing on toy cars on tables, bathtubs and other home decoration. You can play together. It’s not tied to the track, but they won’t give much impudence.
Civilization with magic. Less urban development, more battles. Moreover, the battles in tactical mode take place, and not just one unit runs into another, throwing dice. Victory strategy - flying battleships. Can be invisible if enough mana.
Fighting huge fighting humanoid robots. Nice music, but a little cotton management.
Vertical scroller with good graphics, music and weapons purchase. Per player, really. The popular Raiden of the same year allowed two to play together, but was much less lenient to player mistakes.
Colony planet development, technology tree, tactical battles. I would describe it as a cross between Master of Orion and Centurion. Quite a lot of micromanagement, you even have to fly and study the planets yourself.
Or just ROTT. A pretty crazy 3D shooter with the improved Wolf3D engine. The main trouble was the confusing levels. Of which there were many.
Real-time space strategy. Only you control not the cursor, but personally flying around the planets on the ship. Well, or all the same with the cursor, but then the opportunity to personally shoot at the enemy disappeared. But save resources. Of the features, you could play four of them - the screen was then divided into four parts. Although there were already two joysticks there, which we did not have. Usually played together, a maximum of three.
Ultima Underworld, only in space. Management, at least precisely from the ultima - is inconvenient. But the game is a cult.
The second Star Wars simulator. It was played better than X-Wing - they modified both the interface and the engine. As far as I remember, even X-Wing was reissued as a CD version on this modified engine.
The first release of Transport Tycoon is a game about developing a transportation network. True, pronouncing "Transport Tycoon", they usually still mean the Deluxe version. Shortening that TTD. Well, OpenTTD, respectively. But the beginning was still here.
About UFO there is no sense in saying something extra. The legacy is still alive in the form of the X-COM series. Although it differs in gameplay from the original game, but there is nothing new in it - even shooters came out under this name.
Warcraft The second pillar of RTS is on par with Dune2. At one time there were holivars about who is cooler. The claim to Warcraft was that it was necessary to produce a bunch of peasants when Dune2 cost a couple of harvesters. But in Warcraft, units could be distinguished. Yes, only four at a time, but still it was already four times more convenient than giving out commands personally.
The third part of Wing Commander'a. Four CDs, live video in screensavers and commercials, a three-dimensional engine, an epic story with planet explosions ... Probably the first licensed game to play was a boxed version. Not mine, of course. I passed WC3 much later, in 1997, probably already. But the computer was quite authentic at the time of the release, if not worse - 486dx33, with a 40 megabyte hard drive and a four-speed CD-ROM, which the disks started to spin only after you push it with your finger. The minimum installation on the hard drive was approximately 20 megabytes - just half my screw. Even Windows95 removed for the sake of this. Of course, everything slowed down, but the game did pass. The mission with the destruction of the Hippopotamus (and the death of Angel) was repeated several times, in the hope that I could still prevent this destruction. Then it dawned that it was plot.
Gold Fund:
Colonization
Jazz jackrabbit
Master of magic
Raptor: Call of the Shadows
Transport tycoon
UFO: Enemy Unknown
Wing Commander III: Heart of the Tiger
The year is fish. True, most of these games are already played in reprints. Unless Master of Magic was lucky, there were no sequels, no remakes. But there is a GOG version.
The 1994 games themselves I would not call so wooden - VGA and SVGA, live video in some places, support for sound cards has become mandatory, most likely there will be no sound on the speaker. Therefore, I decided to consider work under DOS a mandatory sign of woodenness. This will bring the retrospective to its logical end in 1997, when the last noticeable titles came out. Then the Windows era has finally begun. But there are still three years and several dozen good games.
Wooden Toys, Part Seven - 1993
Wooden Toys, Part Six - 1992
Wooden Toys, Part Five - 1991
Wooden Toys, Part Four - 1990
Wooden Toys, Part Three - 1989
Wooden toys, part two - 1986-1988
Wooden toys, part one - 1982-1985
Disney's aladdin
Probably the best of the Disney movie games (among all the lion kings, jungle books and other chip-and-dales).
Beneath a steel sky
A cyberpunk quest about how a robot vacuum cleaner captures the world, using the services of its human slave. We play for this slave.
Blackhorn
Arcade from Blizzard. Something like Prince of Persia with a shotgun.
Canon fodder
Cannon meat is a tactic about small soldiers performing missions in a war. And constantly perishing at the same time, filling the cemetery on the transmission screen. They say that the version for Atari was better in terms of control, but about atari and other amigi we only saw references in books and magazines.
Sid Meier's Colonization
Colonization of America in the style of Civilization. Sail, develop, declare independence, fight off the royal troops - the game is over.
Cyberia
Virtual shooting gallery interspersed with puzzles. In the era of games with live video, they made a bet on prerendered 3D graphics. Some tried to translate Cyberia as "Siberia", but were wrong. I think that keeping the pun, it should be translated as “Siberia”.
Doom 2: Hell on Earth
The second part of Doom. The Marine returned to Earth, saw that the demons killed his beloved rabbit and went to take revenge.
Horde
The main character served as an errand boy in the royal castle. Accidentally saved the king, received a sword, a land allotment and the Chancellor's dislike as a reward. The game takes place in two phases. Strategic, in which you build a village, plant trees, buy cows, harvest, set traps, etc. and arcade, when you run around the village and repel the attack of demons. At first it’s just with a sword, but later you can use steeper weapons, up to flooding the territory
After several rounds, you move to a new location and again develop from scratch. The toy is straight-through, but funny.
Inherit the Earth: Quest for the Orb
Quest in a fantasy at first glance, the world. On the second - in the post-apocalyptic, in which people disappeared, and in their place there are upright intelligent animals. The main character - the fox - needs to find a weather management artifact left over from humans.
Jazz jackrabbit
If Sonic were a rabbit. One of the best arcades in my opinion.
Little big adventure
It's "Relentless: Twinsen's Adventure." Isometric action with a peculiar and not always convenient control. The main character must save the planet from a tyrant. Then another second part came out in a similar version.
Micro machines
Racing on toy cars on tables, bathtubs and other home decoration. You can play together. It’s not tied to the track, but they won’t give much impudence.
Master of magic
Civilization with magic. Less urban development, more battles. Moreover, the battles in tactical mode take place, and not just one unit runs into another, throwing dice. Victory strategy - flying battleships. Can be invisible if enough mana.
One Must Fall 2097
Fighting huge fighting humanoid robots. Nice music, but a little cotton management.
Raptor: Call of the Shadows
Vertical scroller with good graphics, music and weapons purchase. Per player, really. The popular Raiden of the same year allowed two to play together, but was much less lenient to player mistakes.
Reunion
Colony planet development, technology tree, tactical battles. I would describe it as a cross between Master of Orion and Centurion. Quite a lot of micromanagement, you even have to fly and study the planets yourself.
Rise of the Triad: Dark War
Or just ROTT. A pretty crazy 3D shooter with the improved Wolf3D engine. The main trouble was the confusing levels. Of which there were many.
Space Federation (Star Reach)
Real-time space strategy. Only you control not the cursor, but personally flying around the planets on the ship. Well, or all the same with the cursor, but then the opportunity to personally shoot at the enemy disappeared. But save resources. Of the features, you could play four of them - the screen was then divided into four parts. Although there were already two joysticks there, which we did not have. Usually played together, a maximum of three.
System shock
Ultima Underworld, only in space. Management, at least precisely from the ultima - is inconvenient. But the game is a cult.
Star Wars: TIE Fighter
The second Star Wars simulator. It was played better than X-Wing - they modified both the interface and the engine. As far as I remember, even X-Wing was reissued as a CD version on this modified engine.
Transport tycoon
The first release of Transport Tycoon is a game about developing a transportation network. True, pronouncing "Transport Tycoon", they usually still mean the Deluxe version. Shortening that TTD. Well, OpenTTD, respectively. But the beginning was still here.
UFO: Enemy Unknown (X-COM: UFO Defense)
About UFO there is no sense in saying something extra. The legacy is still alive in the form of the X-COM series. Although it differs in gameplay from the original game, but there is nothing new in it - even shooters came out under this name.
Warcraft: Orcs & Humans
Warcraft The second pillar of RTS is on par with Dune2. At one time there were holivars about who is cooler. The claim to Warcraft was that it was necessary to produce a bunch of peasants when Dune2 cost a couple of harvesters. But in Warcraft, units could be distinguished. Yes, only four at a time, but still it was already four times more convenient than giving out commands personally.
Wing Commander III: Heart of the Tiger
The third part of Wing Commander'a. Four CDs, live video in screensavers and commercials, a three-dimensional engine, an epic story with planet explosions ... Probably the first licensed game to play was a boxed version. Not mine, of course. I passed WC3 much later, in 1997, probably already. But the computer was quite authentic at the time of the release, if not worse - 486dx33, with a 40 megabyte hard drive and a four-speed CD-ROM, which the disks started to spin only after you push it with your finger. The minimum installation on the hard drive was approximately 20 megabytes - just half my screw. Even Windows95 removed for the sake of this. Of course, everything slowed down, but the game did pass. The mission with the destruction of the Hippopotamus (and the death of Angel) was repeated several times, in the hope that I could still prevent this destruction. Then it dawned that it was plot.
Gold Fund:
Colonization
Jazz jackrabbit
Master of magic
Raptor: Call of the Shadows
Transport tycoon
UFO: Enemy Unknown
Wing Commander III: Heart of the Tiger
The year is fish. True, most of these games are already played in reprints. Unless Master of Magic was lucky, there were no sequels, no remakes. But there is a GOG version.
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