The Gamer's Quarter

[Shapermc]

Ok, so another thread inspired me to do something I have been meaning to do for a long time. I have this old CD with HOUSE OF GAMES on it and the instructions are printed on it: "Type 'go' to start"

It has 450 old freeware/shareware DOS games on it. Some we all know and love, others are ... well just weird. You're going to need DOSBox to run these, and "go" doesn't actually start the games (I'm sure you can figure out how to, but as a tip the menu folder has a file called game.exe which is a list of all 450 games).

It was kind of a pain in the ass to do this as the CD was scratched to hell and I had to use the toothpaste trick to get it good enough to copy off of. At least I can mess around with some of these again. Here's the file!!
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“The average man has a secret desire to be a swaggering, drunken, fighting, raping swashbuckler.”
-Robert E. Howard in a letter to a friend circa Decmber 1932

"There is no place in this enterprise for a rogue physicist!"

[internisus]

Well, if that ain't the sweetest thing!

Any suggestions as to where we should start? For purposes of group evaluation and such.

[Shapermc]

I ... actually only messed around with it for a little bit. I recommend just going with what sounds good.

Number 340 (nocturnal something) sounds good but isn't!

Also, I re-linked the file for quicker download (THANKS PERSON!)
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“The average man has a secret desire to be a swaggering, drunken, fighting, raping swashbuckler.”
-Robert E. Howard in a letter to a friend circa Decmber 1932

"There is no place in this enterprise for a rogue physicist!"

[Cycle]

I had something like this called the Complete Encyclopedia of Games, which had like a 1000 freeware/shareware games. Pretty much anything you could imagine from the DOS era... good times.

[dessgeega]

i had one i think was called "games empire". same deal.
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[dessgeega]

oh snap! mission maze and alphaman! i had a registered copy of mission maze back in the day.
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[dongle]

The last time I went to the computer fair in Pomona two years ago they were still selling those huge CDs of shareware.

I hope someday a complete archive of Walnut Creek CDROM is released

[Cycle]

I got talking with Dess about these collections (if all goes well, she'll share more about this conversation soon) and she directed me here.

I'm still going through the list right now, but awesome!

CD-MAN! A pacman clone with good graphics and medicore gameplay! This game used to scare me when I was younger because the first level was set on a golf-course that looked more like a graveyard. To make matters worse, the second level has shark enemies and if you get caught, they shoot up Jaws style, digging their teeth into CD-MAN and pulling him underwater, leaving only a cloud of blood.

The other game I immediately recognised was SUPERFLY, a fly swatting game where you just need to bump the flys to kill them. However, if you get surround by dead flies, you lose! Kill the green fly to move onto the next level! I played this all the time when I was younger. I like how each level represents a different room in the house.

Also, both Lemmings XMAS games! Score!

More later, probably!
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[Cycle]

Update! Bunny Blast is a horrible game! The rabbits blow up pretty nicely, that's the only nice thing I can say about this shooting gallery game.

Gateworld! At first I was surprised when I played this. An apogee style platformer I haven't heard of?! Even the menus look the same. Then I played the game and realised why. It lacks the design, smoothness and playability of PC platformers. Shame, it has the same kind of production values.

The Dragons Domain III is a tribute to Adventure on the 2600. It seemed a little buggy, (graphical glitches) and, well, not as finely tuned as Adventure, but it didn't seem horrible.

Dungeons of the Unforgivin is a freeware Dungeon Crawler that also seems very buggy! Better off playing a commercial game of the same genre, really!

I wonder if there actually any hidden gems on here!
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[dessgeega]

so yes, frustrated by my failed efforts at finding evolve! online, i realized i could get it off the same shareware disc that i found it on in the first place. i'm currently bidding on said disc - it's going for one american cent.

i want to make evolve! available to all, on the internets, as it should be. i'll try to put the full shareware disc online if i can; it has a lot of great stuff.
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[dessgeega]

i have won games empire discs one and two for a single cent. with luck, i will soon be restoring evolve! to its rightful place on the internets.

this is history, and you are there.
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[ApM]

Just the other day, I picked up a DOS shareware CD at a used bookstore for $3 called "Best Of... MEGA GAMES." To give you an idea as to the quality: One of the screenshots on its cover is of Lamers, a 10-minute long Lemmings parody where your job is to kill all of the little people before they reach the end of the stage.

The menu doesn't work in DOSBox, but the directories are somewhat sanely laid out. Download it! (~90mb)

[TOLLMASTER]

[Lackey]

On one of these big shareware game compilation CDs I had there was this game supposedly set in a world in total darkness. The instructions mention getting a lamp and how the game opens up after that, but in practice before you get the lamp you just navigate a character around a black screen bumping into invisible walls. The walls seem to move too, I remember trying to map it. I want to play it now so that I can figure out if it was an actual game or just a somewhat elaborate joke. This is going to bother me until I find out what the name of the game is.

Bonus!

I wonder where they got the art for this. The text on the back is amusing: "Your mom told you to settle down, and you did: With a fast acting assault rifle and a mission!"
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| Little bird fighting against a bat sect game |

[dessgeega]

cyberdogs! that game doesn't involve dogs at all!
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[Cycle]

yeah what's up with that!
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[dessgeega]

game empire was the shareware cd i had years ago. tracking down evolve!, i was able to buy it for a cent, and they even threw in the second disc, both sealed.



click here to download game empire disc 1. i havn't gotten a chance to browse through it yet, but there's some stuff on there i used to play that i've never seen anywhere else, like evolve! and silicon city. the menu runs for me even in windows xp, but the install option will attempt to run the game after it's copied to your hard drive. so you might want to run it in dosbox! i have no idea how much luck you'll have with the "run the game from the cd" option.

i'll put the second disc up later, maybe.

EDIT: CYCLE HELPED A WHOLE LOT WITH THIS.
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[Winged Assassins (1984)]

[Cycle]

I present to you, the final in the epic Game Empire trilogy!

Game Empire III: The Return Of The Revenge

This one features windows games, and even has a windows menu! Which won't work in vista. Maybe XP users will have better luck! Atleast there's a screenshot folder.

Is there like, a win 3.1 or 95 emulator?
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[dessgeega]

hey ApM, you need to play spitball on that disc immediately. you already made a webpage for it without realizing.
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[Cycle]

[Lackey]