This should have been posted about four hours ago, but I fell asleep at the keyboard. This time it’s a stiff neck as opposed to a keyboard imprint on my forehead. The former is much more painful. Anyway, here at last is your serving for the second day of 2009. Tomorrows a weekend day, so it will be back to the game giveaway project for two days. I may post a game or two on Sunday as it’s my sons 10th birthday. I’ve got more great games lined up over the coming weeks, though until then, here’s some more excellent games.
I thought I’d let you down lightly today though. After the shed load of games we posted yesterday I hardly think most of you will have had enough time to have even gathered a breath, and I bet some of you haven’t even got through half of the games, lol, so…. maybe I should give Friday a rest, lol………..
No I’d never do that. Though having 34 games posted between myself and The Webmaster yesterday; posting only one today would seem very insignificant, so I’m going to post several from a file that contains games that were scheduled to have been posted previously, but when Wizzard first joined the team, the ones I’d planned to post were set to one side; that is until now. I’m going to post these today and the rest on Monday. I’ve actually lost my place with respect to whose turn it is to post next week. I think it was officially Wizzards turn over the Christmas week and mine this week, though we have all been mucking in over the holiday period, which is why I’m confused. (It’s the morphine that does it). Anyway, it’s been a pleasure to post some brilliant freeware and abandonware titles over the holiday period. Not only that we’ve been joined by two new team members reverseOrder and The Webmaster. reverseOrder will be posting some independent festival games tomorrow (hopefully) which should complement the games I have for you below. I’m going to start off with yet another original series called Populous that I bought and still have one of its later reincarnations called Populous: The Beginning, which only cost me £1 from Game UK about four years ago. Now you can own the first two in the series, though the expansion pack is not available unfortunately.
Populous:
Populous is a game developed in 1989 by Bullfrog, and was regarded by many as being the seminal god game. Populous was awarded with “Origins Award for Best Military or Strategy Computer Game of 1990” as well as “1990 Computer Game of the Year”. It was the first game in the Populous series and preceded Populous 2 and Populous: The Beginning.
In this game, first developed for the Amiga, PC and Atari, the player adopts the role of a deity and assumes the responsibility to shepherd people by direction, manipulation, and divine intervention. The player has the ability to change a landscape and grow their colony with the overall aim of having it conquer an enemy force. The player rules over a variety of different civilizations, including Ancient, Medieval and Prehistoric.
Populous was extremely successful, and spawned a number of sequels; (for example, Populous: The Beginning released in 1998) It was released on the PC, SNES, the Sega Master System, the Sega Mega Drive/Sega Genesis and other platforms.
Video of Game play:
http://uk.youtube.com/watch?v=MA8hBU6KT4Q
http://uk.youtube.com/watch?v=NTGneDh-SMY
Download Links:
http://www.gamefabrique.com/populous.html
http://www.abandonwaredos.com/abandonware-game.php?abandonware=Populous&gid=MTI5Ng
http://www.abandonia.com/en/games/465/Populous.html
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Populous Two Tribes aka Trials of the Olympian Gods.
:
Populous 2 continues the “god game” genre pioneered by Bullfrog's classic Populous.
In Populous 2 – Two Tribes, you're an unproven immortal who must fight your way through an entire pantheon of Greek gods, each with his or her own strategy and attacks, and ultimately enter into a showdown with Zeus himself.
The game play mechanics are similar to Populous, but Populous 2 – Two Tribes features a wider array of spells, digitized sound, and high-resolution graphics to give the spell effects extra punch.
The Basic Game (applies to the first Populous as well)
The player takes on the role of a demigod, one of Zeus' many children by a mortal woman. The ultimate aim of the game is to defeat Zeus himself, thereby earning a place in the pantheon of true gods. Along the way you will face myriad lesser deities, beginning with titans and demigods like yourself and later progressing to other famous Greek gods like Poseidon and Minerva. Each opponent has their own personality, which is reflected in their actions on the battlefield - for instance, Poseidon, being the god of the sea, is extremely proficient in the use of water-based abilities. There are a total of 1000 levels available in the Conquest mode, but you will not have to complete all of them - the better your performance on a level, the further you are allowed to advance before meeting another challenge.
Gameplay:
Before beginning the game, you must create your deity. You can select a name for yourself, and choose your appearance. In a clever, and rarely-seen, twist, your appearance has an impact on the game play - if you choose a warlike, angry appearance, your battles will be fought in an aggressive manner, while choosing a more scholarly look will lead to a more subtle game requiring greater finesse. You can even select an avatar with some mixture of these attributes; you can select your eyes, facial shape and headgear in a manner reminiscent of those children's books with a person on each page which is then cut into several pieces.
You also begin the game with a certain amount of experience to allocate, allowing you to influence your proficiencies with the 8 different kinds of abilities in the game. You will also earn more experience after each battle, increasing your power as the game progresses.
Populous II {see second game below}is a real-time strategy game; the isometric battlefield is viewed from a bird's-eye perspective which occupies much of the screen, with a mini-map and the game's control buttons arrayed around it. It can also be viewed in a full-screen mode, which allows you to view a lot more of the terrain at one time, but shows you the controls in a little less detail. The battles take place on a map, which contains terrain surrounded by water in varying proportions. This world is inhabited by two tribes - those who follow you (the Good player) and those worshipping your opponent (Evil). They usually start out living in a few huts scattered around a hilly area. Your immediate priority is to make more farmland available to them in order to increase your population, and hence the reserves of mana (or divine power) which you require in order to use the abilities at your command. These abilities are called 'effects', and range from the default (and most used) Raise/Lower Land to the powerful (if not subtle) Armageddon, which converts the entire world's population into mighty heroes, who then head towards the centre of the map for a pitched battle which is a sight to behold. Between these extremes you'll be granted the opportunity to summon magical creatures, blast the enemy with a simple lightning bolt, create tidal waves and cover the land in deadly swamps, along with many more - the range of effects is certainly one of the game's strengths. In addition to your divine effects, you have the ability to influence your individual followers' behavior (although you never get to control an individual directly), telling them to spread out and settle, to group up behind your leader and head towards your Icon (which you can move around if you have sufficient mana) or to be more aggressive and head towards enemy territory. Through a combination of these abilities and your followers' efforts in hand-to-hand combat, you then attempt to achieve victory by wiping out your opponent's worshippers.
As you'd imagine, over the course of 1000 levels, all this has the potential to become very repetitive. Luckily, the game varies the challenges you'll face between levels, by limiting the effects at your disposal (your opponent's will often differ from those available to you, so keep your eyes open!) and by altering the game rules, for instance by restricting your ability to raise and lower land. The initial layout of the map's terrain also has a surprisingly large impact on your tactics - a level with lots of open ocean is a prime place to use tidal waves and whirlpools, whereas a flatter, higher landscape will maximize the impact of your earthquakes and volcanoes. It's also possible to play in bite-sized chunks, as rarely will a level take more than half an hour to complete.
The game's interface is certainly a bit daunting at first, particularly if you don't have access to the manual, but I found that once you get used to it it all becomes fairly natural. The relatively shallow start to the game's learning curve also gives you plenty of time to get used to the control system (which is entirely mouse-driven) - the game introduces new effects one-at-a-time, along with a basic description of their effects. Your first few opponents are very passive and present almost no challenge, but this changes as the game goes on - Populous II will offer sufficient challenge to all but the most hardcore of RTS players, and the way your progress depends on performance should prevent you from getting bored early on.
Graphics and Sound:
The graphics are not Populous II's strongpoint, but neither do they distract from play. They are very similar to those of the original - functional but not attractive; about average for 12 years ago. The terrain comes in a handful of varieties, ranging from verdant green grass to icy, wintry landscapes and some sort of green-brown sludge, presumably in an effort to avoid monotony. The type of terrain does have some impact on the game (for instance, your population increases more slowly in the cold) but it's mainly for show.
It's a similar story when it comes to the sound. I've not discovered any music in the game (although it may be a problem with my settings) but there are a few sound effects. They're very low-quality, but serve an important purpose - you will hear a sound corresponding to your own effects when they're happening within the area you're viewing, but those caused by your opponent trigger a sound wherever they are in the world, alerting you to the danger. While you won't be particularly impressed with the game's effects, you will quickly find yourself getting used to them.
Technical Notes and Hints:
Populous II requires only a very low-spec computer to run - a 486 is more than enough. In order to prevent it from running overly fast, the game does contain a tool for slowing it down. I found the best method was simply to run it in DOSBox with far fewer CPU cycles than I normally use, and run the game in its fullscreen mode (as well as slowing everything down, this allows you to see much more of the play area).
The game gives you the opportunity to save your deity between levels, but you can only have one savegame at a time (although it would be perfectly possible to back up the file and swap between two or more deities). You can also access any of the pre-made levels later by typing its name into a box on the level select screen, so you may wish to take note of the levels' names and numbers.
When using the Tidal Wave effect, it's more powerful if you start it a long way out at sea and let it build up, and with area effects like Storm and Rain of Fire you need to place them slightly above where you want to centre the effect.
The larger the area of flat land around your followers' dwellings, the larger the dwelling will be, and the faster its population will grow. The flipside is that the inhabitants will tend to leave the dwelling to settle elsewhere less frequently, but you can get around this by 'sprogging' - clicking the RMB on the centre of the building will cause a settler to leave it.Conclusion:
The game has a few other features which serve to round out the experience - you can create (and export/import) custom levels with the not-overcomplicated editing tool, which allows you to select any effects you've already seen in Conquest mode, change the game rules and so on to your heart's content, and there's a two-player option via serial or network connection.
Overall, Populous II is a high-quality title which helped Peter Molyneux to build his reputation. It's not much of a looker, but below the surface the gameplay is compelling and there's plenty of longevity. A must-play for any strategy fan, and certainly worth an hour or two of everyone else's time.
Reference: http://www.abandonia.com/en/games/443/Populous+II+-+Trials+of+the+Olympian+Gods.html Accessed October 08
Useful stuff:
Playing guides hints and tips in various languages
http://web.onetel.net.uk/~lapinskas/resources/downloads.htm
Video of Gameplay:
http://uk.youtube.com/watch?v=CrzmIuE34Zo
http://uk.youtube.com/watch?v=2k-ae2PZUno
Download Link:
http://www.gamefabrique.com/populous-2-two-tribes.html
or
http://www.abandonware-utopia.com/index.php?page=telechargement&id=438 (click on telecharger and then telechargement)
or
http://www.abandonware-france.org/ltf_abandon/ltf_jeu.php?id=218 (again look for telechager – you can also download the manual here as well)
Anyone interested in getting the third or fourth in the series you can check out the following videos:
Populous: The Beginning (3rd)
http://uk.youtube.com/watch?v=b82wzUJhM24
Check out these great screenshots of the game. They have inspired me to reinstall the game after not playing it since buying it all those years ago.
http://aok.heavengames.com/cgi-bin/aokcgi/display.cgi?action=ct&f=22,35843,,10
Also there’s a fan site if you get into the game it may be worth checking out for additional content. There were two expansion packs released for the first game called The Promised Land and The Final Frontier, which added new landscape types. It may be possible to find these as free downloads, but I really haven’t the time at the moment, so if a fan finds them, please post the links here. Thank you.
http://www.angelfire.com/pop2/mypopulous/NewsArchive.html
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Sclezanka:
Marbles of two colors get mixed up within the playing area. The games objective is to drive the computer's pieces into the holes using your marbles. You can add additional effects during game play by clicking the right mouse button and selecting your choice from a drop down menu. For example choosing weight makes your marble 10 times heavier. Check out the resultant effect yourself. :)
If none of your pieces gets into a hole during your move, the computer makes its move. The one that has some pieces remaining wins.
Download Link:
http://www.softsia.com/Sclezanka-download-rynm.htm
or
http://games.softpedia.com/get/Shareware-Games/Sclezanka.shtml
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Kaleidoscope v2: (<1Mb)
This is a fun little puzzle game, where you get a grid of 7x7 colored spheres which are mixed up. You have to create a symmetrical pattern from the scrambled spheres by moving either rows or columns. It’s almost like having one side of a very large Rubik cube. I guarantee the puzzle lovers amongst us will enjoy this puzzler. The download includes an editor, but I’ve not checked this out. You’ll find a couple of sudoku Mahjong and other games on the same download page. :)
Download Link:
http://www.softlist.net/program/kaleidoscope-software.html
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Alice Amazed
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Alice and Rabbit are lost in a bewildering hedge maze. The day is coming to an end, and they are anxious to get home before it is too dark to find the way.
Alice Amazed is a one switch game for one or two players. That is, each player uses only a single button or switch for character control. This makes the game more accessible to disabled people, but it is nevertheless a fun game for everyone.
Your goal is to escape the haunted maze, as either Alice or Rabbit, by crossing the river that separates it from home. It is not as easy as finding the correct path, however. The bridge needed to cross the river has been dismantled and hidden inside an enchanted chest somewhere in the maze. To find and open this chest you must collect enough points, through a selection of mini-games and challenges, to break its magic seal.
Reference: http://www.softlist.net/program/alice_amazed-software.html accessed Nov 08
You can read all about the game and it’s mini games via the manual which can be found in the installed games folder. The following is an excerpt from the manual:
.
Alice and Rabbit have lost themselves in a bewildering hedge maze. The day is coming to an end, and they are anxious to get home before it is too dark to find the way.
Alice has to cross the river at the right hand side of the maze in order to get home, but the bridge has been dismantled and stuffed into a chest hidden within the maze. She has to find the magic timber for the bridge before she can cross it. But she can't get to the magic timber unless she clears enough obstacles in the maze and acquires enough points for the chest to open. So off she goes to do her best to get home, and she has to hurry before she runs out of time.
Rabbit has to cross the river at the left hand side of the maze in order to get home to his wife and baby bunnies. In a one-player game, Rabbit is controlled by the computer, with skills based on the game difficulty settings. In a two-player game, the second player controls Rabbit and the game difficulty setting only affects the rules of the minigames.
First one home wins.
Controls:
When entering the full game, both Alice and Rabbit are snoozing. Each player has to press a button to ensure that both are ready.
The maze is navigated using control bricks that come floating down the rivers. Alice's bricks are located on the left hand side, while Rabbit has his control bricks on the right hand side. The bricks come in groups of five, and will be highlighted sequentially. Use your button to select the brick you wish to use from the current group.With the game on difficulty very easy, you move after each brick you pick. On the higher difficulty levels, you have to plan a number of moves ahead.
BricksAlice is controlled by the green bricks while Rabbit is controlled by the beige bricks. Grey bricks affect both players. The following is a presentation of the available bricks.
Download Link:
http://www.softlist.net/program/alice_amazed-software.html
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Star Monopoly: (2.21Mb)
Here’s what the developer said:
Play this free game to unleash your marketing abilities. Here you find a possibility to reveal all your logic and capacity for analytical estimation. You may take it as a possibility to train yourself before entering the world of commerce - create and expand finance corporations, sell and buy shares, carry out merges and try all the chances that you are provided with by this broker's board. Or if you feel to have little in common with the cruel world of finance wheeler-dealers, you may take it as just a funny game that needs some puzzling over but gives you a lot in response. Play either against your computer or with your friends - any game mode will give you real pleasure and fun! This game runs on any 32-bit Windows operating system (Win95/98, NT, ME, 2000, XP) and requires Flash 5 player installed to your computer./
The game comes with a full installer, but do make sure during the installation process that you uncheck both boxes otherwise you will get your browser hijacked and a toolbar installed. Otherwise installation is eay.
Download Link:
http://www.softempire.com/star-monopoly.html
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