MS-DOS Gaming Quiz!

Bio Menace is a 2D, side-scrolling, platform game built on Commander Keen game engine. The basic goal is to control the main character Snake Logan through the levels of each episode; rescuing the hostage and reaching the exit, or killing a boss monster and reaching the exit. Most levels require Logan to pick up items such as keycards to access new areas, and ultimately, the exit. The levels are also full of monsters that can be shot and killed, or avoided. This game is free to download at GOG.COM.

Shadow Warrior is a first-person shooter similar to Duke Nukem 3D as both use the Build engine. Players navigate the protagonist, Lo Wang, through three-dimensional environments or “levels”. Throughout levels are enemies that attack Lo Wang, these are killed by the player using weapons such as a katana. Bosses are usually present at the end of a level. Shadow Warrior also features puzzles that must be solved to progress in a level. This game is free to download at GOG.COM.

Teenagent is a humorous point-and-click adventure, originally available as shareware, but the DOS version was later re-released as freeware. You control Mark Hopper with a mouse – click on where you want him to go, left-click on objects and people to look at them, and right-click on them to interact with them. By moving the cursor to the top of the screen, you bring up your inventory. This game is free to download at GOG.COM.

One Must Fall 2097 replaces the human combatants typical of contemporary fighter video games with large Human Assisted Robots (HAR). These HARs are piloted through a physical and mental link to the human pilots; however, this is merely a plot concept, and it is never shown on-screen, nor does it factor in to gameplay. Eleven HARs and ten customizable pilots are available for play, along with five arenas and four tournaments. The pilots vary in strength, speed and endurance, thus the many HAR/pilot combinations allow for large replay value. On February 10, 1999, the game was declared freeware by the developers.

Take the most powerful NATO tank, the Abrams Battle Tank, in 8 difficult missions against the Warsaw Pact forces. The four tank stations and the other aspects of the tank are quite nicely simulated, with different types of cannon rounds, coax machine guns, and all that. There’s also the independent turret and track rotation commands.

An Elder Scrolls Legend: Battlespire is an action role-playing open world video game developed and published by Bethesda Softworks, set in the world of The Elder Scrolls. In Battlespire, the player takes the role of an apprentice who, on the day of his final test, discovers that an army of Daedra led by Mehrunes Dagon has invaded and killed nearly everyone. On top of that, his partner is being held captive by Mehrunes Dagon himself. Over the course of seven levels, the player must travel through various realms of Oblivion to reach Mehrunes Dagon, defeat him and escape back to Tamriel.

Command & Conquer was the first of twelve games to be released under the title of Command & Conquer; six subsequent titles having since continued the story set as sequels with one acting as a prequel, along with the production of several spin-off games. Met with universal acclaim by consumers and critics, Command & Conquer was released on nine separate platforms along with becoming the originator of the Command & Conquer franchise, and today generally is considered as the title to have popularized as well as defined the real-time strategy genre.

On August 31, 2007, current publisher and owner of the C&C franchise Electronic Arts made Command & Conquer (Windows95/Gold version) freely available for download from their official website, to mark the franchise’s 12th anniversary.

Wayne Gretzky Hockey 3 is third installment in the series inherits all the style of two previous games enhancing them with VGA graphics, voice-overs, more player stats, and longer league play. As previous games, it deals with both coaching and playing efforts with AI reacting reasonably to player’s tactics. The league play offers longer play value, and the game can be integrated with Hockey League Simulator 2, a simulation package for statistical-oriented minds.

Face Off! is a hockey game by developers Mindspan, it doesn’t have a NHL license, so all players and teams are fictional. One does have the option to rename teams & players however. Multiplayer gaming comes in the form of a two player cooperative or competitive mode.

Lakers versus Celtics and the NBA Playoffs is a basketball video game developed by Electronic Arts. The game would be the first team basketball game to acquire full players names and rights without actually relying on the NBA Players Association. Established stars in the game include Larry Bird, Kareem Abdul-Jabbar, Magic Johnson, Michael Jordan, and Patrick Ewing. The game introduced innovations in presentation. It was the first NBA game to feature TV style starting line up prior to the opening tip. It also introduced halftime shows and announcers to simulate an authentic feel.

Eye of the Beholder III: Assault on Myth Drannor was not developed by Westwood Studios and that the game had lost the ‘feel’ of the previous editions. After defeating Dran you tell all of the patrons in a tavern about your success over Dran Draggore and how it saved the town. After that, a strange man comes in and asks you to save Myth Drannor who is ruled by a “most foul” Lich named Lathander. He then says you need to save Myth Drannor by getting an ancient artifact from the Lich. You can find this game on GOG.COM.

Terminator: Future Shock is a first-person shooter based on the Terminator movie series. The game is notable for being among the first in the genre to feature fully 3D environments and enemies, as well as mouse-based camera rotation, before those features were popularized by Quake. The game has an evolving story and missions with a military feel, including briefings in which it is possible to talk to several people and gather info.

Z is a 1996 real-time strategy computer game by The Bitmap Brothers. It is about two armies of robots (red and blue) battling to conquer different planets. Unlike traditional real-time strategy (RTS) games, collecting resources or building specific structures is unnecessary for creating an army – the same principle that was introduced by Nether Earth, one of the RTS games ancestor. Regions and structures within their borders that actually manufacture the units are captured by moving troops to their respective flags.

Full Throttle is an adventure game developed by LucasArts and designed by Tim Schafer. The game features voice actors Roy Conrad (Ben) and Mark Hamill (Adrian Ripburger). It is the tenth game to use the SCUMM adventure game engine. Player take a role of Ben, a biker gang leader, though the other Polecats spend most of the game in prison with Ben trying to get them out of it.

The Dig is a graphical point-and-click adventure game developed by LucasArts, it uses the SCUMM engine, and features full voice-over soundtrack. The game uses a combination of drawn two-dimensional artwork and limited pre-rendered three-dimensional movies. The Dig is inspired by an idea originally created for Steven Spielberg’s Amazing Stories series. In the game, the player takes the role of Commander Boston Low, part of a five-man team to plant explosives on an asteroid to avert its collision course with Earth. Discovering the asteroid is hollow, Low and two of his team are suddenly transported to a strange alien world, in a long-abandoned complex exhibiting advanced technology.

Quadrax is an excellent logic game that was the best-selling title in Slovakia and Czech Republic in 1996. The game is actually a PC conversion of a 1994 Spectrum ZX game of the same name. The goal is for two adventurers to make their way through each level on their way to a rumored treasure. Along the way, they have to negotiate various traps and other obstacles. You control both characters, who must sometimes co-ordinate at the right timing to succeed, similar to the vikings in The Lost Vikings.

DinoPark Tycoon was developed by Manley & Associates Inc. and published by MECC (later SoftKey). It was released in many public elementary schools across the United States and Canada. It was not required by the schools’ curricula, but was intended as a fun way for the students to learn basic finance and management skills.

Yo! Joe! Beat the Ghosts is a platform game featuring two characters. The protagonists can jump, crawl, kick, beat, slide, and swim. They are even able to hold their breath when under water. If you are playing the game solely, “Joe” is your character of choice. A friend can take on Nat’s part at the same PC.

Wolfenstein 3D is a video game that is generally regarded as having popularized the first person shooter genre on the PC, created by id Software. Player is an American soldier named BJ Blazkowicz attempting to escape from the eponymous Nazi stronghold; there are many armed guards, as well as attack dogs. The building has a number of hidden rooms containing various treasures, food supplies, and medical kits, as well as three different guns and ammunition.

A polygonal 3D fighter, Time Warriors puts eight fighters from eight different times and places against each other: Yrwen the Celt, armed with a long sword, Hysis the Egyptian, wielding two sabers, Molloch the Barbarian with his battle axe, the scimitar-wielding Sultan Iz-Baal, Shodan the Samurai and his katana, from a Chinese monastery Dong brings just a staff, Olof the Viking plans flattening his opponents with a war hammer and Apokles the Spartan brings a double-edged sword.

Menzoberranzan is set in a magical, mythical, medieval world, Menzoberranzan is an underground city populated by the Drow. It uses the same game engine as SSI’s previous game Ravenloft: Strahd’s Possession. It has elements of Ultima Underworld (3d world and real-time action) and its game concept is somewhat similar to Westwood’s Eye of the Beholder series. The game also features Drizzt Do’Urden as one of the main characters.

Blood & Magic was the first real-time strategy game to use the D&D license. The basic units of the game are the Basal Golems, which are created at the Bloodforge. They provide mana for the production of new units and can be turned into buildings or monsters. When four are placed on a foundation, they may transform into a mystical site dedicated to the kind of magic the player’s choosing…

Star Wars: Dark Forces is a first-person shooter video game developed and published by LucasArts. The storyline within the Dark Forces is set in the Star Wars fictional universe and follows the character Kyle Katarn. Katarn is a mercenary working on behalf of the Rebel Alliance. He discovers the Empire’s “Dark Trooper Project”, which involves the building of powerful robot soldiers. Dark Forces uses the Jedi game engine, which was developed especially for the game.

Corridor 7: Alien Invasion is a first-person shooter computer game developed and published by Capstone Software. It was widely ignored for its outdated Wolfenstein 3D engine, which was technologically surpassed by Doom at the time.

Ignition is an action packed racing game viewed from above and slightly behind the player. The cars on offer range from police car and VW Beetle to school bus and truck, each of which has its own strengths and weaknesses – trying to win with the bus, which involves blocking everyone behind the hideously slow vehicle for 3 laps, is perhaps the ultimate challenge.

Barbarian is a 1987 computer platform game by Psygnosis. It was first developed for the Atari ST, but eventually ported to other popular platforms of the home computer era. Like most early Psygnosis titles, the cover artwork (part of “Red Dragon” figure/landscape) was by the popular fantasy artist, Roger Dean.

The Incredible Machine (aka TIM) is a puzzle game, originally designed and coded by Kevin Ryan and produced by Jeff Tunnell. The general objective of the games is to create a series of Rube Goldberg devices: arrange a given collection of objects in a needlessly complex fashion so as to perform some simple task (for example, `put the ball into a box` or `light a candle`). Available objects ranged from simple ropes and pulleys to electrical generators, bowling balls, and even cats and mice, most of which had specific interactions with or reactions to other objects…

Dune II: The Building of a Dynasty is based upon David Lynch’s 1984 movie Dune, an adaptation of Frank Herbert’s science fiction novel of the same name. While not the first real-time strategy (RTS) game, Dune II established a format that would be followed for years to come, and was the first to use the mouse to move units, allowing players to fluidly interact with their troops. As such, Dune II was the first modern real-time strategy game.

Prince of Persia game starts with the Sultan being called away for a war in a foreign land. Sensing opportunity, the evil Vizier Jaffar seizes the throne for himself. The Prince is imprisoned, since Jaffar has designs on the Princess. The Princess is also imprisoned and is given an hour to decide: she would have to either marry Jaffar or else, die. The Prince therefore has 60 minutes to complete the game by saving the Princess and killing Jaffar.

In Quarantine the player drives a taxicab through a post-apocalyptic city, picking up customers and killing enemies. Due to the gratuitous violence the game was controversial at the time of release. Quarantine was one of the few games that successfully exploited the features of Doom with its own texture mapped stages and vehicular combat gameplay. The game was later continued with the sequel, Road Warrior, which largely kept the original gameplay, but introduced a more mission and story-driven gameplay.