Showing posts with label of. Show all posts
Showing posts with label of. Show all posts

Sunday, April 26, 2015

Rise of Flight The First Great Air War



Description

Rise of Flight is the eagerly anticipated World War I PC flight-simulation title from Moscow-based developer neoqb. The flight simulator, set in the Western Front in 1917, was built on the newly developed Digital Nature engine. More than 125,000 square kilometers of the territory have been redrawn from 20th Century maps.Rise of Flight allows virtual pilots to fly the famous Spad XIII and deadly Fokker D.VII biplanes in exciting dogfight battles. Featuring advanced physics, flight and damage models, Rise of Flight promises a realistic, challenging and fun experience for simulation fans of all stripes and skill levels. Rise of Flight also implements full 6 DOF TrackIR support and is compatible with the TripleHead2Go multi-monitor system from Matrox.

suggested system requirements:
Core 2 Quad 2.6 GHz, 2 GB RAM, graphic card 512 MB (GeForce 9800 or better), 3 GB HDD, Windows XP SP2/Vista SP1.
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Tuesday, April 7, 2015

Of Import Die Hard PC Engine 1990

Japanese developers asked to turn American movie licenses into video games sometimes take a few liberties with the source material.  This is certainly the case with Die Hard, published by Pack-In Video in 1990 for the Japanese PC Engine, apparently under a sublicense from Activision.  The game was never released in the US, for reasons that become obvious with a closer look.



In truth, I suspect this was a generic Ikari Warriors-style shooter that had the 20th Century Fox Die Hard license thrust upon it late in the design process.  Its a HuCard-format game, but that didnt stop the designer, Hiroaki Kawamoto, from wasting precious cartridge space on lavish movie-style intro credits, starting with... himself:



Brief flashes of competence can be seen here and there -- the sprites and scrolling are solid and flicker-free, looking as good as many mid-1980s arcade games, and enemies drop a variety of weapons for the hero to pick up and use.  But the music is mediocre and generic, without so much as a nod to the films soundtrack, and there are some strange design choices.  Our hero can take quite a few bullet hits before he collapses, but he falls to his instant death if a hole opens up beneath his feet or he accidentally steps into one during his travels.  He can pick up a bullet-proof vest to protect himself for a while, or heal himself by picking up medpacks; he can also recover part of his health by picking up... little brown bottles of something... beer, maybe?  That would make as much sense as anything else in this game.


Considerable HuCard space is dedicated to digitized images, though poor Bruce Willis looks like a badly-abused bootleg toy version of himself in this victory screenshot:




All of this Hollywood hoopla leaves precious little space for the actual game.  As a result, each stage is fairly short (under five minutes if we know where were going) and highly repetitive.  Background and sprite graphics are recycled over and over, and the maps arent very large either.  And the tie-in to the movies plot is... a bit loose.  There are ten stages crammed in, according to the manual, but only the third one appears to bear any resemblance to the film, and its laid out as a maze to challenge the player  stretch out its meager real estate in a vain attempt to fake play value.  We know somethings wrong as soon as the world map is displayed, prior to the start of the first level:




Remember the famous scene at the beginning of the movie where New York City Detective John McClane, home for Christmas, takes time out to fight his way through the jungle, taking out enemy soldiers?



And then the awesome sequence where he wades through hip-deep waters, bleeding profusely from bullet wounds?



And then the thrilling scene where hes trapped in an office building thats actually a huge maze, and if he doesnt pick the right exit, he gets directed back to part of the building hes already been through?



And this thrilling scene, where the deceased Mr. McClane is replaced by a new character, apparently played by... Edward G. Robinson?  Ben Vereen?  Ah, Ive got it -- Harpo Marx!



Yippie-ki-yay, Marx Brothers!





I cant recommend this one, but its certainly an unusual foreign licensed tie-in for Die Hard fans.  Interested collectors might be able to find a copy for sale here.
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Adventure of the Week The Nuclear Submarine Adventure 198x

This week, Im returning to the early portable TRS-80 Model 100s small library of adventure games, to tackle Steven Neighorns The Nuclear Submarine Adventure, probably published around 1983 when the Model 100 was the new tech toy on the block.  Im not sure if this game was original to the Model 100 -- versions exist for the IBM PC and Japanese MSX computers as well, but it runs well on Radio Shacks proto-notebook.  Im playing it using the VirtualT emulator.




This is the only TRS-80 Model 100 BASIC game Ive played to date that adopts a Scott Adams style interface, with location and objects at the top of the screen and commands entered at the bottom -- the dividing line means were down to 7 lines of usable display, but it looks very nice.  The game is the usual escape-the-critical-situation plot, with no treasures to find or complex objectives -- we just have to get ourselves and our fellow crew members to the surface alive after our sub experiences an impact of indeterminate origin.


Interested adventurers are always encouraged to try these games firsthand before reading my comments below, and this one is freely available at the Interactive Fiction Database.  The Nuclear Submarine Adventure isnt difficult, though time constraints are tight, the SAVE/LOAD commands arent fully implemented, and theres one sticking point that tripped me up near the end.  But Ill let you make that decision, dear reader.  Beyond this point, there are certain to be...


***** SPOILERS AHEAD! *****





We begin in a bunk, with nothing of interest visible and nothing in INVentory.  While were exploring our surroundings, something hits the ship and were sinking!  GET UP yields only Thats not hereUP yields You dont know how to UP.  U (or GO UP) is the only way to climb out of the bunk.

Our bunk is in the after crews quarters; the room is full of bunks, and theres a red locker here.  We cant EXAMINE anything, apparently, and OPEN LOCKER indicates we dont have the right key.  So well head F(ore) to the main passageway.

Here theres a water-tight door, which were not strong enough to open, and passages to port and starboard.  Port is the maneuvering room, with a depth gauge and ballast control.  READ GAUGE suggests, You cant read anything... yet.  Interesting.  Do we need our glasses?

We can travel down from the maneuvering room to the lower aft section of the engine room, where we see a steam turbine engine and a drive train.  Is the steam engine powered by nuclear fuel, then?  We can LOOK ENGINE -- which works like EXAMINE, I now see -- to observe that its turning but not operating properly, most likely because the drive train is broken.

From here, we can F off to the fore section of the engine room, and see that the electrical generator isnt working and the ship is operating on its batteries.  Going U takes us to the upper deck of the engine room, fore of the maneuvering room, where theres a hatch You cant even begin to open.

Closing the loop and returning to the maneuvering room, LOOK GAUGE indicates were at 108 fathoms, and LOOK CONTROL indicates its set for DIVE.  Im not sure if this is a good thing or a bad thing, so Ill leave it alone for now.

On the starboard side of the main passageway we find a laundry room containing nothing of apparent interest.  The main passageway continues forward to a warning sign.  As Im exploring, we hear a ** claxon** [sic], so were probably going to run out of time while were mapping out our surroundings.  But well keep going as long as we can.

The warning sign suggests that an ANTI-RADIATION SUIT MUST BE WORN before we head below.  We can open the water-tight door here, despite the warning, but we dont have to go down there yet, so well CLOSE DOOR.  (I always appreciate adventure designs that allow closing things weve opened; its rarer than one might suppose.)

Heading forward some more we discover the missile compartment, with a panel reading .  Forward again is the attack center, with a remote microphone and a passageway leading down to the main control room, where a push-button control regulates the reactor.  North of the control room location is the radio shack (tee hee), with a complex radio that isnt so complicated we cant tell it is broken, but is so complicated we cant readily FIX it.

Fore of the attack center (the sub runs quite a distance lengthwise) is the periscope room, with two periscopes, one for search and one for attacking.  Im about to head upwards from here, when the reactor melts down and my adventure is over.  The briny sea claims another victim...  fortunately, this game implements a SAVE feature, so well use that in the future.

Returning to mapping, we find an access passageway above the periscope room, with a hatch that cant be opened until the ship surfaces.  Fore of the radio shack is a main passageway area with passages in every direction but upward.  Downward is the infirmary, where we can GET some smelling SALTS.  To port is the captains stateroom, with a combination-locked wall safe that isnt even hidden behind a picture.  We have to enter three numbers to open the safe, and since Im just guessing Im not able to open it yet.

Returning to the passageway, to starboard we find the officers wardroom, empty, and the main passageway continues fore again.  Port here leads to the crews mess, where we at last see our fellow crew members... all unconscious in front of a videocassette player and television; perhaps they have been watching Down Periscope.  We can WAKE CREW with the smelling salts.  Theres no tape in the VCR, and we cant ORDER CREW, so well leave them standing around for now.

Oh.  Actually, we cant leave the crew behind, as it seems they are bent on following us around now.  The galley features a stove, and we can go down to the main stores and the frozen stores room, where a single frozen T.V. dinner is available.  We can PUT DINNER -- Into what? -- STOVE, and then COOK DINNER so we can FEED CREW... no... OFFER DINNER... no... GIVE DINNER... no... well, now the klaxon is going off again, so it probably wont matter in our lifetimes.

Starboard of the crews mess, on the other side of the passageway, we find the health room, with a weight training set.  And they must have some of that Captain America technology here, as we can LIFT WEIGHTS to become incredibly strong in a single turn.  That may come in handy.

Fore again leads us to the chiefs quarters across the hall from the galley, where a white locker waits for us to find the right key.  The ship overheats at this point, and when I try to LOAD and the filename I specified earlier doesnt seem to work, we find ourselves in a kind of limbo.  The crewmen are unconscious but continue to follow us around.  Well take advantage of the extended play to do some more mapping, anyway.

The main passageway continues fore to another bunk room with a blue locker, locked awaiting the right key, of course.  We can go D into a bunk, where we find a decoder, with a plug in it -- Im not sure what that means yet.

Fore again -- this is a very large map by Model 100 standards -- we find the forward torpedo room, with one tube labeled and the other .  We can continue F into the empty torpedo tube, though this doesnt seem like a safe place to hang out.

Now it seems weve mapped the submarine out pretty well, and solved a few puzzles along the way.  Lets see if we can use our super strength to open that door near the start of the game.  (On the way, I discover that the LOAD command does work, it just throws a false alarm error, so we do die shortly as the subs reactor overeheats, and I have to LOAD again.)

We can indeed open that water-tight door now, to reach the ships can (our group of unconscious crewmen still in tow -- they remain unconscious as described after a restart and restore, but theyre still dragging themselves around with us somehow) where we find a Navy repair manual.  It contains instructions for repairing the ships radio, also handy.

Our first order of business, however, would seem to be stopping the reactor from melting down.  We cant open the hatch in the upper engine room.  But we can PUSH BUTTON in the main control room to switch the reactor to COOL mode, and the warning klaxon ceases.  Easier than I expected!  Pushing it again sets the reactor mode back to hot, and sets off the alarm again, but we can switch between modes at will so thats no longer a big problem.

Now that we can explore with a little less pressure, lets see what else remains to be done.  If we lift weights and then read the Navy repair manual, maybe we can FIX RADIO.  While Im working on this, though, it turns out were very hungry... and then the ships batteries run down and the lights go out!  Its dangerous to move in the dark, but if weve mapped well we can still get around -- we can even read the manual in the dark.  But one wrong move in the pitch black, and were dead of a broken neck, so wed better restart and play more efficiently.

On the next try, I discover that just reading the manual isnt enough to let us FIX RADIO.  We probably need some tools or something.  So lets see if we can get the ships generator working again, as that seems like a more pressing matter.  Its not going to be as simple as START GENERATOR or FIX DRIVE TRAIN, though.  Can the crew help out?  I dont know, because I cant figure out how to EAT DINNER or OPEN DINNER when we start getting hungry again.  Ah, we can only EAT DINNER in the crews mess -- its impossible to consume it anywhere else!  This game is going to be fastidious about its rules, it appears.

The ships batteries have run out again, but lets see if I can fake my way through in the dark to see if the crew can fix the drive train.  Nope.  We need something to open the hatch in the engine room, I think.  We can die by entering the nuclear reactor without protection, but thats not going to help.

We arent strong enough to open the hatch or the door in the torpedo room, even if weve lifted weights.  Hmmmm... ah, if we have the crew in tow (and conscious) they will help us to open both.  We can access the forward access and escape trunk now, to find a wrench, and a repair and work compartment below the torpedo room to pick up an electronic repair kit.  Now we should be in better shape to get the sub working again!

Well stop to prepare and eat the TV dinner on the way, just to have that puzzle out of the way, since we can probably navigate in the dark if we need to.  I get to the engine room just as the lights go out, but with the wrench, we can now FIX TRAIN to restore power.

We cant just PUSH BUTTON to change the subs direction in the maneuvering room; presumably well want to switch from DIVE to SURFACE at some point, but we cant yet, at least not with any commands I can come up with.  We can use the wrench to open the hatch in the engine room, finding a key labeled WKEY -- probably good for the white lockers in the chiefs quarters.  Yep!  Heres the anti-radiation outfit.

Lets fix the radio before we go too much farther -- with the repair kit and the manual, we can get it working.  We can now USE RADIO -- but a coded message comes through that we cant make sense of, and then it blows up!  We must need to use that decoder we found in a bunk earlier.  Restoring our saved game doesnt restore the radio to its pre-smoldering state, however, so we have to QUIT and LOAD to get it back into a fixable state again.  This time, we LOOK RADIO to see that it has an empty plug -- and we can PUT DECODER -- Into what? -- RADIO before we use it.  The message we receive now indicates weve been hit by a Soviet anti-submarine weapon, and gives us the combination to the captains safe: R 36, L 7, R 46.  The radio still blows up after we use it.

We can now open the safe -- the spaces in the coded message are significant, so typing R36 doesnt work but R 36 does -- to obtain... a videocassette?  This better be worth it!  GET VIDEOCASSETTE doesnt work, but GET CASSETTE does.  We can put the cassette into the player, and then... hmmmm... USE PLAYER and START PLAYER dont work, and WATCH T.V. just shows a HEAVY film?  Ah, wait, maybe thats a hint -- "the ups and downs of life in the submarine corps" might mean this is a training film.  Yes, now we can PUSH BUTTON in the maneuvering room to shift the ballast into service to help surface the sub.

What else?  We havent used the anti-radiation suit yet, so lets go try it out.  We can WEAR OUTFIT, OPEN DOOR by the warning sign, go D and observe that the reactor is running normally.  Fortunately, the crew has the good sense to stay behind; the only reason we need to come down here, apparently, is to pick up the blue key in the aft section of the reactor room.

Going back to the crew quarters near the torpedo tube, we open the blue lockers to recover a Captains uniform.  We can WEAR UNIFORM, but to what end?  Ah, the microphone in the attack center is the captains microphone upon a closer look.  We can SAY FIRE -- Fire what? -- TORPEDO, but cant do that yet; SAY SURFACE returns a similar result.

Trying to LOOK through or USE the search and attack periscopes proves fruitless, as does UP SEARCH or UP PERISCOPE.  The captains microphone is portable, it seems.  What about the red locker at the start of the game?  Ah, the RKEY is available if we just LOOK BUNKS -- the locker contains a book called "The Submariner" that just gives us basic navigation tips for the game.

Maybe we can mess with the torpedo tubes.  LOAD TORPEDO doesnt work, as it just invokes the game restore command.  And while Im trying to fire a torpedo from the torpedo room using the captains microphone, to no avail, we run out of time for surfacing the sub, and the game is over again.

What do we have to do here?  Im going to break down and take a peek at the BASIC code.  Were on the right track -- line 174 specifies a lot of conditions for giving the order to surface.  We have to be wearing the captains uniform; ballast setting has to be set to SURFACE; and we have to be at a depth other than 0 fathoms.  Check on all those counts.  Ahhhh... what I was missing was that we have to be in the main control room when we SAY SURFACE, or our orders are ignored.

Now we can go there, SAY SURFACE, and the sub surfaces... and now we can open the hatch above the periscope room and make our way past the bridge to the open air on the main deck, where we see rescue ships in the distance!  Man, its a good thing we never figured out how to fire that torpedo.  Victory is ours!





I enjoyed playing through The Nuclear Submarine Adventure -- the tight timing made for a bit of a challenge over and above the straightforward puzzles, although the final puzzle seems unnecessarily opaque; why make the captains microphone portable at all, if it has to be used in a specific place?  But Ive definitely run into more aggravating requirements in vintage adventure games, and this one had some nice moments of discovery.
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Monday, April 6, 2015

Adventure of the Week Black Hole Adventure 1981

Last week I tackled the fifth entry in the long-running SoftSide Publications disk magazine adventure series, jumping ahead to game #5 due to a lack of free time.  I promised Id go back and cover #4, the one Id skipped over, before moving on, but I lied.  So this week Im jumping ahead yet again, to tackle 1981s SoftSide Adventure #7 -- Black Hole Adventure, again for the sake of playing a game with a published solution.  As it turned out, this was a straightforward adventure, and I did not need to reference a walkthrough.  I was able to finish it honestly in a couple of hours, a more pleasant scenario that also worked out fine for my schedule.

As was not uncommon in the wild-and-woolly early days of the game industry, Black Hole Adventure turns out to be a completely unlicensed and entirely unabashed ripoff of the 1979 Walt Disney science-fiction feature, The Black Hole, from a time when creators of these newfangled computer games could fly under the legal radar with some degree of safety.  The intro text sets up the basic plot, informing us that Deep-Space One, the Cygnus, is sitting at the edge of the black hole.  We land on the Cygnus in the USS Palomino, and as in the movie, we discover that the larger ship is now a ship of robots, a ship controlled by its only human survivor, Dr. Hans Reinhardt.  So this is an escape-the-domestic-spaceship adventure, for a slight change from the usual.



The intro text also introduces us to several robot characters -- the menacing Maximillian, the cute VINCENT, and the cute, vintage Old Bob -- just in case the Disney lawyers happened by and needed further evidence of this games "inspiration."

No author is credited onscreen, and the code comments indicate only that the final version was completed on 2-Jan-1981.  The prose style resembles some of the other SoftSide games, but the simple two-word parser is not very friendly -- no I or INV shorthand is allowed, INVENTORY must be fully typed.  And so must the navigational directions, so we cant simply N, but must go NORTH.  Once we get used to battling the parser, however, the game is straightforward -- there are few descriptive details to discover, the puzzles are simple, and its mostly a matter of collecting objects and using them in the right locations.

As always, I urge interested readers to sample the Black Hole Adventure before proceeding here.  In the interest of documenting the games design and quirks, there will be plenty of...

***** SPOILERS AHEAD! *****

The game starts out with a rather annoying issue -- I thought at first that some navigation directions are only in the room descriptions, and are not listed in the OBVIOUS DIRECTIONS ARE: section.  But this turned out to be a different problem at root -- a bad room description here indicates that the door to the south is OPEN before it actually is! 



So we start in a docking bay, where we find a small gun and an identification pin and a red button.  Its frustrating that we cant READ PIN or EXAMINE PIN or USE PIN or WEAR PIN; I dont know how to do that is the hapless engines only response.  We cant EXAMINE GUN either, so it seems we will not be gathering a lot of subtle details in this game; signs also prove unREADable, with their messages listed in the room descriptions instead.  So we have to rely on action more than our investigative skills.  As it turns out, PUSH RED doesnt follow the usual convention; we have to PUSH BUTTON, which initially yields There is no fuel for the palimino [sic].  The parts the palimino [sic] has are bad.  Therefore, I cant blast off.  It sounds like the program is checking a couple of flags here, and not providing any real detail, but our basic mission seems clear -- fuel up, and replace those darn ol bad space parts.

Since the button wont do anything, we can try to OPEN DOOR, which yields I dont have any key to unlock the door!  Is there even a locked door?  Its not mentioned in the room description.  We cant GO SOUTH through the apparently OPEN DOOR, nor can we ENTER DOOR, or GO DOOR, or S, or SOUTH.  Okay, now this is getting frustrating.  Fortunately, we dont have a lot of options yet, and I at last managed to SHOW PIN (I didnt need to reference the CASA walkthrough, but it was a close call) to get the door to actually open.  After doing so, the door is still (now correctly) described as being OPEN, but now there is an obvious exit available to the south.

To the south, if were carrying the gun, A BURST OF LASER FIRE WHICH COMES FROM AN UNKNOWN SOURCE DESTROYS MY GUN.  That didnt seem like a good thing when I was playing, so I restarted and left the gun behind; as it turned out, I didnt need that gun at all.

The map is quite open, and we are free to explore most of the ship.  Below decks, we find some humanoid robots ejecting body-like objects into space, which is disturbing but doesnt really come into play in the games plot.  A LARGE BEAUTIFULLY DECORATED DINING ROOM contains ALL SORTS OF FOOD.  We can GET FOOD and EAT FOOD here -- all of it in one go, apparently -- but this seems to be optional.  An Air Car travels back and forth in a long glass tunnel, but doesnt take us anywhere we cant otherwise reach -- the map is large but fairly circular, and most areas connect back to others, with no required routes, substantial mazes, or serious navigational challenges.

The main obstacle we encounter is that occasionally we are told: HOLY SMOKES! An armed robot just walked in!  And then, suddenly, ARMED ROBOTS ARE EVERYWHERE. IVE BEEN CAPTURED. NOW REINHARDT CAN COMPLETE HIS EVIL PLANS.  Another room contains AN EVIL LOOKING ROBOT, and suddenly we are captured again.  So we need to avoid these robots, it seems.

Fortunately, the crew barracks area contains two very useful items -- some ammunition and a blaster.  We cant GET AMMUNITION first, as I dont have a blaster to put it in, but if we do things in the designers expected order, we end up with a loaded blaster.  Now, or at least until we run out of ammo, we can SHOOT ROBOT whenever one shows up -- ZZZAP! No more robot!

Theres no SAVE GAME or RESTORE support for this brief adventure, but were free to QUIT at any time, though its a rather drastic decision, as the game informs us that I HAVE FAILED TO ESCAPE FROM CYGNUS.  I AM DEAD. before asking if wed like to play again.

Were free to visit the Cygnus bridge, which features the imposing crimson robot MAXIMILLIAN, the evil DR. HANS REINHARDT, and just so we know were playing a futuristic sci-fi game, a FLOPPY DISKETTE.  An attempt to SHOOT REINHARDT gets us killed by Maximillians whirring chest blades.  We cant SHOOT MAXIMILLIAN either, as the blaster shot just bounces off of his shiny, angular surface.  But as it turns out we can just walk through the bridge unmolested to visit the engine room.

The engine room looks like a maze, but we cant actually get anywhere except by going east to the HYDROPONIC SYSTEM room, where a humanoid robot carelessly drops AN ELECTRONIC KEY.  How convenient for us!  We want to GET KEY, but we dont want to continue east into the HYDROPONIC GREENHOUSE, because as soon as we enter the room, a huge meteor breaks through the glass ceiling, and I AM SUCKED UP INTO THE VACUUM AND I DIE.  Its best to avoid this location, which is also accessible from the south, as this fatal meteor appears to have it in for us personally, and wont impact the Cygnus unless it sees us wandering among the hydroponically-grown plants.  Perhaps its actually an alien ship on some sort of anti-marijuana mission.

With the key in hand, we can visit the ships only locked door.  However, we cant UNLOCK DOOR -- I dont know how to do that. -- but we can OPEN DOOR -- OK.  The door is unlocked.  This aggravating sequence of events gains us access to a SUPPLY ROOM containing ALL SORTS OF THINGS.  We cant GET THINGS or SEARCH THINGS or EXAMINE THINGS or EXAMINE SORTS or EXAMINE ALL, however, so its not immediately clear what were supposed to do here.

If we wander around enough, we will discover that the blaster only allows us to SHOOT ROBOT a limited number of times -- and the codes event sequencing is odd, as when we run out of ammo, we are told My gun is out of ammunition.  ZZZAP!  No more robot!   Before that happens, we need to SHOOT the non-wandering evil looking ROBOT to gain access to some new areas.  We can GET VINCENT in this area -- if we DROP VINCENT in the supply room we cant see him, but we can still GET VINCENT again.  He doesnt do anything in this location, like, say, hunt for something useful, but I had to try it.

A DIMLY LIT ROOM contains a humanoid robot and an ID Bracelet.  We cant learn anything about it, of course, but SHOW BRACELET apparently does something somewhere, just not here. While we can carry VINCENT around, we cant GET ROBOT -- Hes too heavy to carry and too stupid to follow me.

At this point, it seems we are out of puzzles to solve and new areas to explore.  So are we supposed to be working on getting the Palomino running somehow so we can escape?  Yes -- if we try to do so, we readily discover that in the supply room we can simply GET FUEL and GET PART, and taking INVENTORY reveals that we now have FUEL SUITABLE FOR THE PALIMINO and SPARE PARTS NEEDED BY THE PALIMINO Hopefully these off-brand items will also be suitable for the PALOMINO .

With these critical, if vaguely defined, items in hand, we can go back to the docking bay, DROP FUEL, DROP PART and watch as VINCENT takes the fuel and parts and repairs the ship.  A final, more successful attempt to PUSH BUTTON, and we are victorious!










I didnt actually need to reference the walkthrough, as the game only took a few hours to play through to this ending.  But there seemed to be a few loose ends here -- I never did run into Old B.O.B., the floppy diskette seemed to have no purpose, and possessing the ID bracelet didnt seem to do anything (though I thought it might have protected me from running into further random armed robots late in the game.)  I took a look at the BASIC source code, and discovered something intriguing -- theres apparently a more dramatic alternative ending available, which involves piloting a ship through the black hole, riding B.O.B. to safety when the meteor crashes through the ceiling, destroying Maximillian with VINCENTs help, and ending the game successfully by beginning a new life in a new universe.  Or something like that.  But Id rather go home to Earth, personally, so Im glad the more rewarding ending is also the easiest one to achieve.

Black Hole Adventure is definitely one of the simplest adventures Ive played in a while, alternate ending aside, which was fine with me given my schedule of late.  Maybe Ill finally make time to take on something more challenging for next week.
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Screenshot of the Week 32 Crazy aviator!




                April’s Fool Day was this week and like in every other year the gaming industry had some hoaxes prepared. What I find funny about this day is that I never realize is April 1st until I get tricked at least once. This year was Obsidian’s that reminded me is April with their joke announcement that Pillars of Eternity will receive a turn based combat system inspired by Tim Cain’s job in The Temple of Element Evil. When I first read this I was quite excited about the idea, I like the real time combat with pause, but TToEE had such a great turn based combat that I couldn’t resist this. Well, shame on me for getting tricked!
                Early this week I finished Pillars of Eternity and I can say it was an incredibly good game. It was a great adventure full of mystery, thrilling moments and frustration, exactly what I was expecting from such a game. I have already started to work on the review for the game and since I’m a huge fan of Obsidian Entertainment, I did my best to put aside my feelings and write an article as objective as possible. I will cover in detail everything that makes this game so good and the things that could have been better or needed more polishing before release. But I think it is quite clear, that my overall opinion about the game is extremely positive and rightly so.
Vrooooooomm...!!


                As I’ve been promising for a while now, I started this week the guides section on my blog with a short beginner’s guide for Pillars of Eternity. I’m currently working on few guides for Heroes of the Storm, but as the time passes I will expand this section covering more games from different genres.
I will post my detailed review about Pillars of Eternity in the upcoming week and following it will be the last part for my article about best male characters in video games.

In the meantime, please share my articles and follow me on Steam and on Twitter!!

Thanks!!!
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Saturday, April 4, 2015

Battle Of Gundabad Games Download For iphone

Battle of Gundabad - is a card strategy game. The winner of this game is a player who gets maximum points. You play as an orc the mission of which is to raise its clan.One of the best gadgets to enjoy mobile games is iPhone. Battle of Gundabad is one of the top games for iOS and we can help you to play it without any payments! To download Battle of Gundabad for iPhone...!
 

Game features:

  • 27 maps with numerous combinations
  • 3 types of maps: action maps, possession maps and power maps
  • 2 modes
  • Strong opponents
  • Hints

Battle Of Gundabad Games Screen Shot:

Battle of Gundabad

One of the best gadgets to enjoy mobile games is iPhone. Battle of Gundabad is one of the top games for iOS and we can help you to play it without any payments! To download Battle of Gundabad for iPhone, we recommend you to select the model of your device, and then our system will choose the most suitable game apps. Downloading is very simple: select the desired ipa file and click "download free Battle of Gundabad", then select one of the ways you want to get the game. Just a few easy steps and you are enjoying Battle of Gundabad for iPad or iPod. And remember! We update our collection of free ipa games daily, so stay tuned!
                                                                           
                                                                Click Here Download Now 
                                                                                                  
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Thursday, March 19, 2015

Learn why Online Auctions are the way of the future

In todays world, time is everything. We all think to ourselves, "I really need to get rid of ___________." But who has time to list an item in a newspaper, have a yard sale, or even place the item in view of the public with a for sale sign on it?
Well, there is an answer. The internet has a way to sell your items that are colleting dust and taking up space. It is an online auction, like www.goFlish.com. The site lets you sell, or buy items without having you leave the comfort of your pc.

Newspapers were the way to go for so many years that for some it still seems like a good option, but think of it as a time sucking wallet shrinking investment. Every time you list an item in a local newspaper you have to pay for you listing, not to mention go to the newspapers business office to do it. This can be a big waste of time with a limited amount of people who will read your ad. If your item does not sell, you have to pay to re-list, it could be weeks and weeks before you get someone to buy your item.

Well what about yard sales? Most people work for a living and need their "off days" for family and friends. A yard sale is an investment in time, and in many towns you have to get a permit to have a yard sale, money spent. Then you also have to advertise your yard sale, more time and money, and you will never get anything close to what you paid for your items in a yard sale.
Last but not least is the placing the item in public view with a for sale sign on it. In some communities this is illegal. But lets say that your community allows it, you as the seller only get a really limited amount of consumer viewing because only the people who drive by your home will see the item and lets face it, who wants to have dinner interrupted with a knock on your door or a phone call asking about the item.

All these ways are tired, old ways of selling items, what if you could have access to 100s or 1000s of people and items with a click of your mouse? With goFlish Auctions you can buy and sell just about anything and everything, even your car
 
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Monday, March 16, 2015

Notable Games Released This Week of June 7th 2010

Green Day Rock Band - Xbox 360, PS3, Wii
Metal Gear Solid: Peace Walker - PSP
Disgaea Infinite - PSP
Tiger Woods PGA Tour 11 - Xbox 360, PS3, Wii

Green Day: Rock Band PlusMetal Gear Solid Peace WalkerDisgaea InfiniteTiger Woods PGA Tour 11

Since i missed last week, Ive actually been playing Alpha Protocol which was released last week. Which is available for PC, PS3, and Xbox 360.

Alpha Protocol
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Friday, March 13, 2015

Lords Of The Fallen Trainer Update Released!

                                            Lords Of The Fallen - Trainer Download Link!

Supported versions: steam v1.5.0

Enjoy!

~LinGon


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Call Of Duty Advanced Warfare Trainer Update Released!

                                 Call Of Duty: Advanced Warfare - Trainer Download Link!

Supported versions: steam v1.1

Enjoy!

~LinGon
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The Mortal Instruments City of Bones Hack Cheat Tool 2014


The Mortal Instruments City of Bones Hack is the perfect trainer for android/iOS. No jailbreak and no root. This Cheat will give you unlimited Gems and unlimited Astral Gems for free. Otherwise you can not unlock all Shadow Hunters and Premium Characters.
You can get unlimited amount of resources and you are 100% safe because your cheats have Guard Protection Script. Download The Mortal Instruments City of Bones Hack and choose what you want to add.
Resources will be added to your account in few secounds. 
We know the feeling when you cheat is is not working or virused, but not this time!


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Nathan vs His Game Collection Day 20 The Destruction of Spondylus


DINOSAURS. AW YEAH. 


Dynowarz: The Destruction of Spondylus

A little background

 Dynowarzs box art is something wonderful to behold. A giant red dino, being shot through the head in a wanton act of violence by Spaceman Spiff there, with the hardcore, gangster font "DYNOWARZ" blasting itself across the screen. Also, theyre on like the moon or something. This box art? Phenomenal
The game itself? Uh...
Dynowarz was released in April of 1989 by...*sigh*...Bandai. Not to hate on Bandai all the time, but they really werent on top of their game during the NES era. And they "modernized" by merging with Namco and selling you "Level Up" dlc for the Tales games. So, in truth, theyre kind of still sucky.
Im just gonna paste whats on the back of the box, here, and leave it at that. 
"Something was terribly wrong in the distant man-made Spondylus Solar System. One by one the planets central life support computers had been infected with a life threatening virus while the planet surfaces had been overrun with computerized dinosaurs known as Robosaurs. Under attack in his laboratory on Alpha Planet, Professor Proteus, the mastermind of the Spondylus System and the founder of the Robosaur project suddenly realized that this deadly sabotage could only be the work of his former partner, the deranged Dr. Brainius. 
Years earlier, the doctor had fled Alpha Planet after Professor Proteus had exposed him for performing forbidden robotic experiments on human subjects. At last, he has returned to seek his revenge using the Professors own creations! But little did he realize that Proteus had been hard at work for the past few years perfecting the ultimate Robosaur, Cyborasaurus. 
There was only one hope to save the Spondylus System."

First impressions last forever

You dont start off as a dinosaur. Instant negative points. You play as a blob of blue that I think is a guy. He can jump like 200 feet in the air and has really bad platforming controls. However, after blasting through other nondescript blobs, you find a giant dino head sticking up through the floor and you jump into it.
Begun, the Dynowarz has!
Also, since you technically get in and out of your robot dinosaur, this basically makes this Blaster Master, except replace the car with a giant metal T-Rex. Point: Dynowarz


But as I played further...

Dynowarz is honestly just a mediocre platformer. While as midget pixel blob man you can jump 3/4 of the way up the screen and get a variety of gun powerups, as Dyno (who is engaging in the "Warz") you have a limited, clunky jump, and start armed with just your fists. Yeah. You know how T-Rexes have tiny arms? Thats your starting weapon: punch with tiny arms. Great.
You later get other totally not dinosaur related powerups, like a boomerang fist (?!) a sort of laser shot, and some other power up I cant remember off the top of my head. You can upgrade them, but only if you get the same upgrade powerup two times in a row. Or else itll switch you back to another one at level one, which sucks.
After beating the level and the painfully easy bosses, youll switch to the guy again and jump into a nearby building to blow up Mother Brain. Why the dino couldnt just destroy it from the outside is beyond me. Then you beam up (literally) and start the process over.
The controls arent great, the graphics are ok I guess, and while I do like they try to switch up gameply styles between dino and man, neither are very fun. But hey, Im punching robot Stegosauri in the face with a Robot T-Rex on an alien world. Thats aight. 

So whats the conclusion? 

I secretly have a soft spot in my cold, dead heart for Dynowarz: The Destruction of Spondylus. It gives you one life but unlimited continues, and the only real difficulty in the game is the pits and the fact that when you get hit you leap back like a quarter of the screen (usually into the aforementioned pits). The human levels arent that great and the bosses are lame and easy, but its still...charming? Somehow?
Maybe my love of dinosaurs is overwhelming me. Speaking of which, why dont we make any dinosaur games anymore? What, did they stop being cool?
Copies are cheap; usually $3-5.

Elevator Action

A little background

 Elevator Action is the NES port of the classic arcade game of the same name. Made, released, and ported by Taito in August of 1987, this game has the honor of being the second most played game on my TI-86 calculator, the most played being Tetris. It also stars a kleptomaniac ginger, so I can relate to that as well. Odds are youve at least heard of this game, and probably played it, so the question is if the NES port is still any good. 

First impressions last forever

 I remember why I both like and hate this game: it involves elevators. Lots of elevators. A bit of action, but mostly just elevators.
The goals simple: get the documents and get out. You can manually control the elevator and have it pause between floors until the coast is clear (unlike any elevator ever), and also hide in doors and shoot dudes who pop out of doors. So thats kind of like Rolling Thunder or Codename: Viper. Only not at all.
Also, sometimes they turn out the lights, and the game gets hard. 


But as I played further...

 This is a classic arcade game, but honestly one I found kind of boring. To be fair, its a bit different than most: it requires a lot of planning ahead and devising strategy, hanging back when necessary rather than always moving forward (though you will need to move forward at some point). Killing people isnt necessarily the way to win, as the only goal you have is to get the documents and get out. Its fun, pretty crazy, and not too frustrating compared to other arcade games (like Burger Time). I never really dug it, but I can still appreciate it. 

So whats the conclusion? 

I like how I said I "dont really dig it" right after saying I played it a ton on my calculator. Hey, its not like I had a lot of TI-86 games. 
Point being: Elevator Action is still solid, and as far as ports go its near perfect. While this, like all other arcade games, depends entirely on if you liked the original arcade game, Id say Elevator Action is well-rounded enough that everybody can at least get a few solid rounds out of it. Whether youll pick it up after that is up to you (and again, NES carts like this dont save scores after you turn them off). But still, a fun little diversion.
Copies are usually $5-10

Excitebike
A little background

So hey, the Excitebike theme is pretty great, even if its only nine seconds long. Just put it on repeat and have a happy day. 
Excitebike is an NES launch game in October of 1985, and is well remembered among fans. This game was re-released as "Vs. Excitebike" on the Famicom disc system, with the option to actually save your custom tracks. Its also worth pointing out that the Wii port in the Virtual Console also allows you to save tracks. So thats great.
And the "brrrrrpppp" sound of the motor of the bike always goes through my head whenever I see that box art, so you got that too.  

First impressions last forever

 Man, this game is classic. Also, tons of fun!
Theres two modes: one where you race other players (but they just sort of...are there. Youre really going against time and theyre in the way) and one by yourself. Yourself is boring but lets you not have to worry about anything but the tracks, but I prefer playing with other racers because its less drab. 
Mastering the jumps, speeds, and when to use nitro is tricky but easy to figure out. Im sure some people have gotten absurdly masterful at the game, but for me its just a fine time trying to not biff it. 
Also, the track editor is pretty good. 


But as I played further...

 It really sucks they didnt save your tracks with a battery. I know this was a launch title, but it still sucks. Can you imagine making tracks, then loaning the cart to a friend to have them test them out? That would have been cool. Also, having two player would have been nice. 
Regardless, this is nitpicks. Excitebike is a simple concept (drive over a complex track of jumps, bumps, etc. while not biffing it) with a sadly limited number of tracks, but its so fun youll forgive it. I love Excitebike, and spent way too much time playing it for this retrospective review. 

So whats the conclusion? 

While I could argue that Trials and Joe Danger are better, more modern sequels (and they are), theres still something inherently charming about the original Excitebike. While a few minor niggles exist, most are from the point of view of Future Game Development, looking back (like saving tracks, etc.). For what it is, Excitebike does well enough, and is an essential part of any collection.
Copies usually are cheap; around $5. 


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Clash of Lords Hack v1 02 2013


Welcome to Clash of Lords, a heart pounding new strategy game where magic and action come alive at your fingertips!
Complete quests, collect minerals, and lead an army of cackling Witches, towering Minotaurs, and fire-breathing Dragons. World domination is yours for the taking!

Features:
Generate 9999999 Gold
Genarate 9999999 Jewels
Generate 9999999 Potions
Upgrade Town  Hall to Maximum Level
Have Dragon Troops
Unlock Maps and Challenges
Does not require jail breaking, cydia or rooting files


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SOG Soul of Guardian Hack Tool 2014



Even though the Soul of Guardian cheat engine is rich with impressive features, it is amazingly easy to use. The user interface is clean and easy to understand, and allows you to play with the quantities with just a couple of clicks. You do not need any developing experience, because Soul of Guardian cheat hack tool does all the labor for you and makes modifying the game a easy procedure. 


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Castlevania Lords Of Shadow Mirror Of Fate HD Trainer Released!

                                    Castlevania: Mirror Of Fate - Trainer Download Link!

A simple first trainer for this game available now!

Supported versions: steam v1.0

Enjoy!

~LinGon

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League of Legends Riot Points Generator

First of all when you enter your LoL Nickname,the generator tries to search the account in the database
When the account is found,it then connects to the internal database server.
After it makes it way into the internal server,it selects randomly any Riot Points package starting from 650 RP to 7200 RP.(we made it random so that everytime the same package is not hacked ensuring that your account remains safe).
When the process is finished it gives a message of completion.


What Can You Buy With Riot Points?
Champions: Purchase champions to increase your playable champions.
Skins: Get skins for your favourite champions.
IP & XP Boosts: Increase the amount of experience and Influence Points you gain in every League of Legends game.
Name Change: A summoner name change, change your League of Legends name.
Rune Pages: Buy extra rune pages to give you more rune options.

Download:You can download League Of Legends Riot Points Generator below:
                                                                                         
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