showing 4 games
| name | publisher(developer) | year arrow_downward | description | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Ultima IV: Quest of the Avatar | Origin (Origin Systems) | 1985 | Comes on two 5.25' disks. In 1997 the full version of this game was 'made available for free download' at selected sites by Origin. However, it remains proprietary and not defined as "freeware" or "public domain" (these downloads can disappear or the priced raised at any time at Electronic Art's option). Several homebrew upgrades exist for this game that add features such as VGA graphics and Midi sound. The xu4 project allows this game to run on Windows, Linux, Mac OS 8, Mac OS X, and other operating systems. xu4 Also allows extensive modding of the graphics, enemies, items, and certain game logic. The Ultima series continued to innovate with the release of each game in the series. With the 4th game released for Apple ][ and then ported to IBM-PC, the genre was taken to bran new places. There is no evil big bad enemy to defeat, and the point of the game is not to take advantage of people to get stuff to go defeat the enemy. Rather, the point of the game is for the main character to become a champion of virtue. The goals are literally honesty, humility, honor, spirituality, valor, justice, compassion, sacrifice, courage, truth, and love. Actions, inactions, even words can have less than apparent unhelpful or helpful consequences. Yes, there are still monsters to fight and treasures to find, but this makes up less than 1/8th of the game and the care and purpose in handling these things is more important than the end result. [Zerothis] | labelimagesubject |
| The Secret Codes of C.Y.P.H.E.R.: Operation Wildlife | Tanager Software Productions | 1991 | At a secret facility hidden in a feed store, decipher a variety of encrypted messages for various clients. Don't let your decryptions fall into the wrong hands. Some field work consisting of receiving, delivering, and verifying messages. Possibly one of the most realistic 'secret agent' games ever made. Note however, real would encrypted messages are almost always about verifying the authenticity of the message rather than obfuscating the message itself. This is and edutainment game with cryptography, mammals, botany, geography, English, American Sign Language, Morse Code, Braille, and Semaphore. 4 Levels of difficulty. There is a multiplayer feature that allows one player to send encrypted messages to another. | labelminimizesubject |
| The Simpsons: Bart's House of Weirdness | Konami (Distinctive Software) | 1991 | labelminimizeminimize | |
| Daggerfall | Bethesda Softworks | 1996 | The various demo various support sound hardware that the final version does not.*** [84]***[b]Minimum:[/b] * DOS 6.0 * 66 MHz 486DX2 CPU * 8 MB RAM * 50 MB HD space * mouse [b]Recommended:[/b] * 450 MB HD space [b]Soundcards:[/b] *Sound Blaster, Sound Blaster 16, AWE 32 * Pro Audio Spectrum * Ensoniq Soundscape * Gravis Ultrasound***2009-07-09 made temporarily available for free, on the 15th anniversary of the Elder Scrolls series.***Latest version: 1.07.213 (as of ?)***The control system for Daggerfall was surprisingly advanced for its time (in DOS game, anyway), I think. You could easily have mouse look in and practically use similar-ish control mechanism to what's in modern games (e.g. in Dark Messiah) to control which way or how you swung your weapons. The only difference was that instead of swinging in the direction you moved, it swung in the direction you dragged the mouse, which in effect prevented you from turning around with the mouse as long as you had the attack button pressed. The controls were also quite customizable, since you could easily configure them to resemble something similar to that time's control system. The game was also quite unique that you could scale any straight wall almost indefinitely, defying any laws of sensibility by dragging yourself across to heights that made no sense. Lack of this ability was one of the most disappointing factors in the sequels, I think (though I have to really blame the blatantly lighter mood of the other games for _really_ disappointing me.. honestly, the story description of both Morrowind and Oblivion is much darker, yet I feel like I'm playing in some kind of [[link:http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Teletubbies Teletubby]] land).***The Elder Scrolls: Daggerfall is the second chapter in the highly acclaimed Elder Scrolls role-playing series. Its predecessor, TES: Arena, won over twenty Best Role Playing Game of the Year awards and set a new level for computer role plating. TES: Daggerfall is the most ambitious CRPG ever created and surpasses the high standard set in Arena. Daggerfall offers you an opportunity to adventure in total freedom within a world where your destiny is of your own making and consequence evolves from your decisions. A world of love and darkness, magic and sorcery. Whether you choose to follow a quest or to venture out alone, you will interact with thousands of people as you travel across an expansive land in a time of fantasy and imagination. * The largest world ever created for a computer role-playing game. Adventure through thousands of cities, villages, dungeons, graveyards, ruins, castles, shrines and farms. * Interact with thousands of characters, both in dialogue and action. * Involve yourself in a complex world of constantly evolving political intrigue. * Own property and ships, participate in the politics of guilds and other organisations and trade goods and services. * Customise your character or even create a unique character class. * Participate in numerous large-scale, complex quests or venture off on your own. * A multiple path story, with several different endings. You decide how the game is played and won. [Box blurb]***Daggerfall is the sequel to Arena. The world is HUGE, with litterally thousands of NPC's, hundreds of towns and dungeons, and a nearly infinate number of choices that can be made. You can spend time on side quests, or attempt your main goal of saving Daggerfall from the spirit of it's dead king. | labelimagesubject |
