Episodes – DOS Game Club: Recent Episodes
DOS Game Club
Florian has been counting all of our regular "one game a month" episodes, and it turns out we've hit 100 of them! We started this club back in March of 2017 with the first DOS game that came to mind, which happened to be DOOM (id Software, 1993). In hindsight this was a bit of a big game to kick things off, so even though we did have a great time with our very first guest Mike ("toasty", who was on the Cricket episode not that long ago), much of the Doom rabbit hole was left untouched. We've long felt it would be good to correct this by diving into Doom again, and a 100th episode anniversary seems as good an occasion as any, so here go!
This month also saw the creation of the biggest DGC community project yet: a full episode of custom Doom levels!
Joining hosts Martijn ("Tijn") and Florian ("rnlf") on this episode of the podcast we have three fantastic guests, who are all not only keen long-time Doom players, but also Doom content creators. The custom content and community aspect of Doom is especially an area we felt was left unexplored in our first episode, so we tried to focus on that specifically.
First of all joining this episode is long-time DGC veteran David X Newton, who has a fantastic YouTube channel that's for a large part filled with videos related to Doom. We are also joined by Scwiba, a prolific and award-winning Doom level designer who focuses mainly on levels that are compatible with the original vanilla Doom. Last but not least we have Jazz Mickle, a wide-ranging artist who does everything from graphics to music to games, including a ton of different Doom things such as maps, songs and tools.
And on top of all this we received two voice messages, both from long time friends of the show. The first is from Watchful and the second from Spoonboy. Thank you very much for sending these in, it's always great to hear from club members!
https://www.dosgameclub.com/podcast/2025/06/ep103.mp3[ download mp3 ] (132 mins, 151 MB)
Thanks to our producer Pix, who also recorded the audio clips from his retro hardware which you hear in the episode's intro. And thanks to DGC member Console for editing the episode, you're a lifesaver!
And finally thank you, the listener, for sticking with us for so many years. Here's to the next 100 episodes!
RELEVANT LINKS:* David X Newton has a YouTube channel and runs the yearly RAMP Doom map project
-
Scwiba organises NaNoWadMo and many of his levels can be found on DoomWiki.org
-
jmickle.com holds all of the many things Jazz Mickle has made, most of the Doom things were posted between 2014 and 2018
-
Doom Is An Art Scene, YouTube video by Jazz Mickle
-
Our very own DGC map pack created by the community!
-
Doom Connector multiplayer tool for Doom
-
Doom World one of the oldest and biggest surviving Doom community websites
-
Zdoom offers different source port variations for playing Doom on modern hardware
-
Retro Ahoy on Doom video on YouTube
-
Action Button reviews Doom video on YouTube
We're back with a big one, in more ways than one! Normally we do a different game every month, but between December and February we've focused on Ultima Underworld for three months in a row. This was mainly done to give ourselves a chance to catch up, as we've been lagging behind with the podcast a fair bit. But also it's not easy to beat an open world RPG like Ultima Underworld in a single month, so this way everyone had a chance to check it out and see what's what with this groundbreaking title.
Enjoy!
Sadly our trusty co-host Florian ("rnlf") again couldn't make the episode. We promise it's just a hiccup, there's no drama and he'll be back for future episodes! Joining host Martijn ("Tijn") we have no fewer than four great guests. First of all there is DGC veteran Richard ("Pix") who is not only very keen on talking about Ultima Underworld, but he also been helping us as a producer the past months to make sure we get back on schedule. Next up we have two returning DGC members on the show: Patrick ("patrick_wd"), who was on the Jazz Jackrabbit episode, and Lars ("fastwinstdoom"), who joined us for Dungeon Keeper and Wacky Wheels. Last but not least we are joined by Chester from the excellent CRPG Addict Blog, where he has covered many RPG games over the years, so he can tell us a thing or two!
https://www.dosgameclub.com/podcast/2025/05/ep102.mp3[ download mp3 ] (191 mins, 218 MB)
Thanks to all who help us make this show possible, we can't do it without you!
RELEVANT LINKS:* The CRPG Addict blog by Chester
-
Ultima Underworld 3 design document from Pix's website
-
Reddit thread about the item limit as brought up by patrick_wd
-
Monomyth is a spiritual successor to UUW that was mentioned by Lars
-
Excellent deep dive in the making of Ultima Underworld by The Digital Antiquarian
-
Some 10 years ago PC Gamer posted an hour-long playthrough of UUW with creator Paul Neurath on YouTube: youtube.com/watch?v=6sh_DY28wl4
We've featured a lot of different kinds of sim games over the years. We've piloted fighter jets, space ships, a ww2-era bomber and even giant mechs. But never before have we gone under water! In a lot of ways, 1993's Subwar 2050 by Particle Systems and MicroProse could be described as "aquatic Wing Commander". But even though it might be a little light on its story, there's a surprising depth to this game (pun unintended!). Being submerged under the oceans brings its own unique atmosphere, and it turns out Subwar 2050 manages to capture it well and turn the experience of playing it into something that's quite unlike anything else.
Enjoy!
Sadly our trusty co-host Florian ("rnlf") couldn't make the episode, but joining host Martijn ("Tijn") we have three excellent guests to more than make up for it. First of all there is DGC veteran Bjorn ("TigerQuoll") who is always keen on any combat sim. Joining for the first time we have Dario ("Psy"), who we welcome to the family. Always exciting to have new club members on! And last but not least we have Alex, who runs the "Tales from the darkened room" blog and YouTube channel, which has several articles and videos on Subwar 2050, as well as many other sim games.
https://www.dosgameclub.com/podcast/2025/04/ep101.mp3[ download mp3 ] (96 mins, 110 MB)
Many thanks to DGC member Richard ("Pix") who helped produce the show, to DGC member Bernd ("console") who edited this episode, and to Bjorn ("TigerQuoll") for providing the game audio & music. Thanks to all who help us make this show possible, we can't do it without you!
RELEVANT LINKS:* Subwar content on Tales of the Darkened Room the sim gaming blog maintained by Alex
-
Alex also posts to YouTube, such as this video of Subwar running in Dosbox Staging
-
Subwar 2050 on Mobygames
-
Subwar 2050 is available on both Steam and GOG
-
Microprose was previously discussed on DGC in episodes: 024 (Master of Orion 2), 032 (Knights of the Sky), 034 (X-Com / UFO Enemy Unknown), 035 (Sid Meier's Pirates!), 052 (Master of Magic) and 078 (B17 Flying Fortress)
The Serpent Riders have made the kings of Parthoris their puppets and their undead legions are swarming the land. Only you, the Elf Corvus have the power to - you know what? The story probably isn't one bit more important than it is in DOOM, the masterpiece that this month's game is based on. Heretic was the breakthrough success for Raven Software, though, the company that would later become known for games like Jedi Knight II. But Heretic is remembered fondly by many fans, as well. Rightfully so? Or did it just ride the wave of DOOM clones, even using the DOOM engine in this case?
Let's find out!
Joining hosts Martijn ("Tijn") and Florian ("rnlf") on this episode we have DGC members DRS (returning from the Karateka episode) and Wouter ("jefklak"), who's on the show for the first time.
https://www.dosgameclub.com/podcast/2025/03/ep100.mp3[ download mp3 ] (101 mins, 115 MB)
Many thanks to DGC member Richard ("Pix") who helped produce the show, to DGC member Bernd ("console") who edited this episode, and to Bjorn ("TigerQuoll") for providing the game audio & music. Thanks to all who help us make this show possible, we can't do it without you!
RELEVANT LINKS:* Heretic Hack Editor
-
Deep dive into DoomEd on NextStep on YouTube, as used to create Heretic's levels
-
Interview with Raven Software level designer Michael Raymond-Judy
-
Original Heretic webpage on ravensoftware.com (archived)
-
Official id Software history mentions Heretic (archived)
-
Heretic retrospective on YouTube, by Seanzen Gaming
-
id Software was previously discussed on DGC in episodes: 001 (Doom), 009 (Commander Keen), 067 (Quake) and 093 (Wolfenstein 3D)
UK studio Revolution Software might be most famous for their "Broken Sword" series of adventure games, but before they released those they had found quite some success already. After their first game "Lure of the Temptress" in 1992 did well, they had higher ambitions for their second game: "Beneath a Steel Sky". Working together with comic artist Dave Gibbons they developed a dystopian cyberpunk world in which you play Robert Foster, a fugitive who tries to stay out of the hands of the law, together with his robot companion Joey. Heavy stuff! Luckily there are plenty of jokes sprinkled throughout the game to keep light-hearted and fun, so it's no wonder really Beneath a Steel Sky won our adventure game poll (see links below). Time to check it out!
Joining hosts Martijn ("Tijn") and Florian ("rnlf") we have DGC members Wesley ("Wesbat") and Dave ("dajaho"), both first time joining the podcast. Also joining is James Woodcock from pixelrefresh.com. Not only has James created a free to download "fan-made enhanced soundtrack" for Beneath a Steel Sky using more capable MIDI hardware than typically found in a gamer's PC; he also hosts a podcast together with Tony Warriner, co-founder of Revolution Software.
Last but not least we kindly received a voice message from DGC member Watchful, for which we are very thankful. You too can send us a voice message, by emailing it to club@dosgameclub.com.
Thank you for using LINC and be vigilant!
https://www.dosgameclub.com/podcast/2025/02/ep99.mp3[ download mp3 ] (114 mins, 130 MB)
Many thanks to DGC member Richard ("Pix") who helped produce the show, and to DGC member Bernd ("console") who edited this episode. Thanks to all who help us make this show possible, we can't do it without you!
RELEVANT LINKS:* DGC adventure game poll on Mastodon which Beneath a Steel Sky won
-
Download Beneath a Steel Sky for free from scummvm.org
-
Fan-made enhanced soundtrack for Beneath a Steel Sky by James Woodcock
-
Game & Gadget podcast with James Woodcock and Tony Warriner
-
Revolution: the quest for game development greatness Tony Warriner's book on the history of Revolution Software
-
UK magazine reviews scanned by DGC member Pix
When we started DOS Game Club back in 2017, one of our earliest members Mike ("toasty") asked us if there are cricket games for DOS. Being a keen cricket fan, this was a genuine interest of his. Or perhaps he was joking. Either way, the thought of checking out some DOS cricket games lingered in the back of our minds ever since. How does cricket even work? Let's find out!
Joining hosts Martijn ("Tijn") and Florian ("rnlf") is first of all of course Mike ("toasty") himself. He was a guest on the very first episode (on DOOM) and he's back now to answer all our cricket questions. Also joining is Jon ("BogusMeatFactory"), who was previously on the Jones in the Fast Lane episode (number 66). Jon is not only a keen and long-time streamer of obscure videogames (see link in the shownotes for his Twitch channel), but also recently became interested in cricket as a sport.
Enjoy!
https://www.dosgameclub.com/podcast/2025/01/ep98.mp3[ download mp3 ] (103 mins, 118 MB)
Many thanks to DGC member Richard ("Pix") who helped produce the show. We're still quite a bit behind schedule, but we are catching up and hope to be back on track sooner rather than later.
RELEVANT LINKS:* twitch.tv/bogusmeatfactory where Jon regularly streams games
-
Ball in Play by Warehouse Games on YouTube
-
English Sports skit by Dutch comedy group Jiskefet on YouTube
-
Mark Carter's Cricket Games Homepage with information and screenshots of the cricket games he and his brother have made
-
Mark Carter's github page which has source code for his cricket games
-
DOS cricket games on Mobygames
-
Mike's forum thread asking for a DOS cricket games from 2017
Niccolò Machiavelli was a Florentine diplomat, author, philosopher, and historian who lived during the Italian Renaissance. He is best known for his political treatise The Prince (Il Principe), written around 1513 but not published until 1532, five years after his death.
None of this is in any way relevant for Microprose's 1995 strategy game "Machiavelli The Prince", in which you assume the role of a Venetian merchant prince between the year 1300 and 1492. In fact, the game is a remake of 1994's "Merchant Prince" by Holistic Design, in which Machiavelli is never mentioned at all. What is very "Machiavellian" however is the way you conduct your business: gameplay doesn't limit itself to mere exploring and trading, but also involves managing your popularity by hosting parties and commissioning art, gaining influence in politics and the church by bribing senators and buying cardinals, as well as less savoury activities such as hiring arsonists and assassins to hurt your competitors.
All in all it's a very intriguing historical 4x turn-based strategy game that seems to have flown under the radar a bit and is definitely less well-known than some of Microprose's other releases. All the more interesting to check it out now!
Joining hosts Martijn ("Tijn") and Florian ("rnlf") we have three guests who are all brand new to the show. First of all there's Greg, who is a big fan of play-by-mail games and has a Machiavelli the Prince multiplayer game going for 4 years now. Next up is Leon, who is the creator of one of the very few if only surviving fan websites about Machiavelli the Prince (see links below if you want to check it out). And last but not least we have John aka "Dr. Riley" who is a history teacher and as such can help us determine the historical accuracy of this game.
We also received a voice message from DGC member Juan ("Reidrac"), who has fond memories of playing Machiavelli the Prince back in the day along with his sister. Juan also creates retro games himself, do check out his website linked below for those.
Enjoy!
https://www.dosgameclub.com/podcast/2024/12/ep97.mp3[ download mp3 ] (112 mins, 128 MB)
Many thanks to DGC member Pix who helped produce the show, as well as DGC member console who edited the episode. Many thanks to them and all who make this show possible!
RELEVANT LINKS:* Machiavelli the Prince fan website by Leon
-
Dr. Riley plays Machiavelli the Prince on YouTube
-
Holistic Design's official website
-
Juan's website where he publishes his retro games
!!!Newsflash!!!
A huge City Minecrawler is
headed straight for
the gaming community of
DOS Game Club, DGC
And you are Kurt Hectic, janitor on board the space station Jim Dandy and Earth's only hope. So get into your "Doctor Hawkins' Amazing Coil Suit" and strap on your "Doctor Hawkins' Incredible Ribbon Chute" and start skydiving down towards the planet, evading incoming missiles and start kicking some alien rear ends, not least thanks to the world's smallest nuclear explosion.
Is Shiny Entertainment's 1997 DOS classic still worth a play today? What does M.D.K. stand for? Who is Max? What is a Streamrider? And what does that all have to do with a handful of tiny villages in England and Scotland? Find out the answers to all of these questions (and more) in this episode.
Joining hosts Martijn ("Tijn") and Florian ("rnlf") are Richard ("Pix"), who's been on the show so often, he actually started helping us out with getting the show produced now (thank you so much!), and Nick ("Martli"), who is entirely new to the show and is joining us all the way from New Zealand.
Once again, no voice message this time. What's wrong with all of you?
Enjoy!
https://www.dosgameclub.com/podcast/2024/11/ep96.mp3[ download mp3 ] (106 mins, 122 MB)
We once again got lots of help from DGC member console with editing this episode. Many thanks to him and all who make this show possible!
RELEVANT LINKS:* Richard (Pix) scanned in some UK magazine reviews and posted them on our forums
-
MDK: The Complete History YouTube video by Slope's Game Room
-
Various patches for MDK including a fix for the F2 save bug
-
Interview with MDK designer Nick Bruty by MDK fan site Hectic HQ
In 1992, Nintendo released Super Mario Kart and all we PC gamers were terribly envious of our friends with a Super Nintendo. In 1994, Beavis Soft came to rectify the situation and gave us our own Mario Kart clone "Wacky Wheels".
People rejoiced and everybody thought it was a really great game. But was it really? Or were we just happy to see the PC finally being able to handle games console players had had for several years at that time?
While obviously a clone, there are several major differences between the original and Wacky Wheels. Is it still a good game? If not, does the nostalgia help?
Joining hosts Martijn ("Tijn") and Florian ("rnlf") are Lars ("fastwinstondoom"), who's returning from the Dungeon Keeper episode, and Rees (from "ctrl-alt-rees") who made a video on Wacky Wheels some years ago (see links below).
No voice message this time, shame on all of you! (Just kidding, but not really).
Enjoy!
https://www.dosgameclub.com/podcast/2024/10/ep95.mp3[ download mp3 ] (85 mins, 97 MB)
We once again got lots of help from DGC member console with editing this episode. Many thanks to him and all who make this show possible!
RELEVANT LINKS:* Wacky Wheels review & history by ctrl+alt+rees
-
Phil’s Wacky Wheels Site (archived, updated until 2015)
-
Big Wacky Wheels FAQ on gamefaqs.com
-
Wacky Wheels HD on Steam (discontinued) and itch.io
-
The Skunny Extended Universe which includes Skunny Kart
-
Kart Race obscure South Korean kart racing game that resembles Wacky Wheels a lot
-
Epic MegaGames was discussed earlier on DGC in episodes 19 (Tyrian), 46 (Jill of the Jungle), 75 (One Must Fall: 2097) and most recently in 86 (Jazz Jackrabbit)
After successfully keeping the Holy Grail out of Nazi hands, Indiana Jones returned in 1992 with a brand new adventure. And unlike 1989's The Last Crusade, Fate of Atlantis is not based on any of the films, but instead presents us with an entirely original story!
With two playable characters (sometimes), three possible paths, randomised and optional puzzles (a few), a lush iMuse-powered soundtrack and full "talkie" voice acting, this is definitely LucasArts' most ambitious point & click adventure to date. But is it fun? Let's find out!
Joining hosts Martijn ("Tijn") and Florian ("rnlf") are DGC veteran and adventure game fan Esko ("FireFyte"), as well as newcomer Dreamkid, for whom Fate of Atlantis was one of their earlier PC games and made a big last impression.
We also got a voice message from Watchful and last but not least the episode was expertly edited by Console. Thanks all for your effort, we can't do this without you.
Enjoy!
https://www.dosgameclub.com/podcast/2024/08/ep94.mp3[ download mp3 ] (144 mins, 165 MB)
RELEVANT LINKS:* There was quite some activity on the Fate of Atlantis forums for this month, and there are many great threads with scanned in magazine reviews, unofficial special editions, and much more.
-
FiniteArts.com is FoA director Hal Barwood's personal website, where you can find some of his earliest games as well as many other things.
-
Noah Falstein's blog which he kept until 2017 contains some interesting insights from the mind of FoA's co-designer.
-
Daniel Abu has been doing great work interviewing game industry legends on YouTube, including Hal Barwood and Noah Falstein.
-
Indy Guide is a walkthrough for both Indiana Jones adventure games and has been online since the year 2000.
-
DREAMM emulator for LucasArts games by Aaron Giles
-
More Lucas adventure gaming in DGC episodes 22 (The Secret of Monkey Island) and 54 (Day of the Tentacle), as well as episode 53 in which we interviewed David Fox.
You're in a Nazi prison, with a dead guard on the floor in front of you. You take his gun. Now you can fight your way out. This is the exciting premise of 1992's Wolfenstein 3D, developed by id Software and published as shareware by Apogee.
Now we all know Wolfenstein 3D was not the first FPS game ever made, or the first FPS id Software made, or even the first Wolfenstein game. But it's definitely one of the most foundational games for the first-person shooter genre, so all the more reason for us to finally check this one out for March, which is when we try to do a big blockbuster FPS game every year.
We have two guests joining Martijn ("Tijn") and Florian ("rnlf") for this episode. First of all long-time DGC veteral Bjorn ("TigerQuoll"), who not only joined the discussion on the forums for this month, but who also made a Wolfenstein 3D level pack for us all to enjoy! See the links below to get these. Also joining is first-time podcast participant Jake, for whom Wolfenstein 3D is one of their favourite games ever.
We also got two voice messages, one by watchful and one by Albrot. Thanks a lot for those! Also many thanks to DGC member console, who helped us again to edit this episode. All your support is much appreciated, we couldn't make this show without it.
Enjoy!
https://www.dosgameclub.com/podcast/2024/07/ep93.mp3[ download mp3 ] (133 mins, 153 MB)
RELEVANT LINKS:* DGC level pack by TigerQuoll
-
Scanned in magazine reviews by Pix and others
-
Official Wolfenstein 3D website by Apogee, now 3DRealms
-
Many Wolfenstein 3D downloads including MapEdit and Creator
-
List of official releases showing the wide range of systems this game is available for
-
What genre is Doom? a YouTube video by Ahoy about early first-person shooter genre naming
-
More id Software and/or Apogee in DGC episodes: 1 (Doom), 9 (Commander Keen), 16 (Duke Nukem 3D), 18 (Death Rally), 55 (Rise of the Triad), 65 (Raptor) and 67 (Quake)
You start out with a single city on a map that's mostly covered in a fog of war. Use the city to produce units. Use the units to explore the map, seize more cities as you grow your army and eventually conquer the map by beating the AI. Sounds familiar? Before Sid Meier's Civilization there was... Empire, a very early example of a turn-based strategy war game, that turned out to be quite influential on the genre.
Originally developed by Walter Bright in the 1970s for the PDP-10, later incarnations of the game were released for various systems, including MS-DOS with 1987's Empire: Wargame of the Century and 1993's Empire Deluxe. What's it like to play this now? Let's find out!
Joining Martijn ("Tijn") and Florian ("rnlf") is DGC veteran Hannes ("Mr Creosote"), who has been a long-time fan of the game and has written about it on his website The Good Old Days.
Thanks to Wesley for sending in a voice message, and to DGC member console for editing this episode. It's much appreciated, we couldn't make this show without all the help and support we receive.
Enjoy!
https://www.dosgameclub.com/podcast/2024/06/ep92.mp3[ download mp3 ] (106 mins, 122 MB)
RELEVANT LINKS:* The Good Old Days has reviews of both Empire: Wargame of the Century and Empire Deluxe
-
Classic Empire is Walter Bright's own website on Empire, which has been online since 1997, and contains a wealth of great information as well as downloads of various versions
-
Killer Bee Software is the current owner of the Empire license, and is responsible for Empire Deluxe on Steam and itch.io
Do you ever feel the world is just too... nice? If so, perhaps Dungeon Keeper scratches that itch, because even though it's a classic game of heroes vs demons, in this case you are the demon! Dungeon Keeper was a big hit for Bullfrog Productions back in 1997, but by no means their first. After Populous, Syndicate, Magic Carpet, Theme Park and many others, they were truly at the peak of the powers when Dungeon Keeper hit the shelves. Does that mean the game holds up now though? Let's find out!
Joining Martijn ("Tijn") and Florian ("rnlf") are DGC veteran Richard ("Pix"), as well as new-to-the-podcast DGC member Lars ("fastwinstondoom"). We also got a voice message for this one from DGC member David, aka EvilCommieDictator. Thank you!
Enjoy!
https://www.dosgameclub.com/podcast/2024/05/ep91.mp3[ download mp3 ] (140 mins, 161 MB)
RELEVANT LINKS:* Alakajam! is the game jam community founded by DGC member wan, who suggested Dungeon Keeper through the suggestion forum
-
Dungeon Keeper Resurrection Diary kept by Dungeon Keeper development team member Dene Carter documents how some of Dungeon Keeper was put together
-
Some Dungeon Keeper spiritual successors include War for the Overworld and Dungeons
-
KeeperFX is a modern engine for playing Dungeon Keeper, which adds many quality of life features
-
Dungeon Keeper magazine reviews scanned in by DGC member Pix
Can you believe we're 90 episodes into this show and still haven't looked at Lemmings? Lemmings! What a classic! When Lemmings (by DMA Design, published by Psygnosis) arrived on the scene in the early 90s it was an instant hit. Everyone's played this game, apparently over 15 million copies were sold over the span of its life time. Amazing, let's check it out!
Joining Martijn ("Tijn") and Florian ("rnlf") is Simon, from LemmingsForums.net. He's been active in the custom Lemmings levels scene for many years and is even responsible for his very own Lemmings game, called Lix. Please check out the links below to learn more.
We got voice messages for this one from DGC members Firefyte and Watchful. Thank you! Also big thanks to DGC member console for editing the episode!
Enjoy!
https://www.dosgameclub.com/podcast/2024/04/ep90.mp3[ download mp3 ] (129 mins, 148 MB)
RELEVANT LINKS:* LemmingsForums.net is one of the oldest and biggest active Lemmings communities on the web
-
Lix is a modern interpretation of Lemmings by our guest Simon
-
NeoLemmix is the most popular modern Lemmings clone out there, with a focus on building & solving custom levels
-
The History of Lemmings as laid out by Lemmings developer Mike Dailly
-
Lemmings Universe is an old-school Lemmings fan site with many links to interesting Lemmings-related stuff
-
Lemmings documentaries is a thread on our forums containing some links to documentaries and other interesting Lemmings stuff
-
Custom levels is a thread on our forums where DGC member patric_wd posted the custom levels he made for the month we played Lemmings with the club. Sadly the links have expired now and Patrick couldn't make it onto the episode, but we very much hope he'll upload his levels later and share them with everyone.
-
Some of the "stand out levels" discussed in the episode are: Just Dig!, Cascade and No added colours or Lemmings
-
More DMA Design was discussed in DGC episode 11 (Grand Theft Auto)
We've done Prince of Persia, we've done The Last Express. So when The Making of Karateka was released in late 2023, we figured this was the perfect opportunity to have a look at Jordan Mechner's very first published game. Originally released in 1984 for the Apple II, the PC got a port of this game in 1986. So get ready for some CGA graphics, some PC beeper sounds and a game that runs way too fast at default Dosbox settings.
Joining Martijn ("Tijn") and Florian ("rnlf") for this episode are DGC member DRS ("dr_st"), whose first time it is on the podcast, and Chris Kohler, editorial director at Digital Eclipse for The Making of Karateka. Chris picked up a lot of in-depth knowledge about this game while working on The Making Of, so we're very grateful for him to come on to our show and share his stories.
Enjoy!
https://www.dosgameclub.com/podcast/2024/03/ep89.mp3[ download mp3 ] (107 mins, 123 MB)
RELEVANT LINKS:* The Making of Karateka by Digital Eclipse
-
Karateka rotoscoping raw footage
-
Prince of Persia rotoscoping raw footage
-
Karateka upside-down easter egg
-
The 2012 Karateka remake
-
More Jordan Mechner games on DOS Game Club: episode 20 (Prince of Persia) and episode 71 (The Last Express)
-
Recent & in-depth interview with Jordan Mechner by Daniel Albu
For the Halloween season we try to pick suitably scary games, so back in October (welp) we took a look at Realms of the Haunting (1996, Gremlin/Interplay). This game ticks a lot of boxes: haunted mansion, ghosts, scary monsters, but also... Time travel? A psychic partner? Interdimensional portals? Building a bong?? It's no exaggeration to say this game covers a lot of ground, as well as genres, as Realms of the Haunting is best described as a, uh, first-person shooter full-motion video point & click adventure game. And despite this was a major production of British powerhouse of gaming Gremlin Interactive, it seems to be quite an obscure game nowadays. But we're here for it!
Joining Martijn ("Tijn") and Florian ("rnlf") on this episode are DGC veteran Richard ("Pix"), who jumped onto this game right when it came out, and Ross (who you might know from his YouTube channel "Accursed Farms") who made a video on Realms of the Haunting for his "Ross's Game Dungeon" series.
We also got sent a voice message by Wesley ("Wesbat"), thank you! And last but not least many thanks to DGC member console for helping us edit this podcast.
Enjoy!
https://www.dosgameclub.com/podcast/2024/02/ep88.mp3[ download mp3 ] (87 mins, 100 MB)
RELEVANT LINKS:* Ross's Game Dungeon episode on Realms of the Haunting
-
Adventure Game Club podcast episode on Realms of the Haunting on which Richard ("Pix") was also a guest
-
UK magazine reviews scanned in by Richard ("Pix")
-
YouTube documentary on Gremlins Interactive by Kim Justice
-
realmsofthehaunting.com early 2000s fan site that's still online
-
Digital Antiquarian on Realms of the Haunting
Everybody know The Secret of Monkey Island. But few people have ever heard of Donkey Island. This game was made by two Czech teenagers on their school computers in 1994 and ended up being the first commercial game to be developed and published in Czechia. Besides a sub-par and, frankly, weird German translation, this game has so far only been available in Czech language - until Emmy and sonneveld came along and decided to translate the game to English and make it available to everyone for free!
So join us on our journey to find out why being shipwrecked became a trope in the Czech game industry as host Martijn (Tijn) discusses The Secret of Donkey Island with returning participant Jozef ("yozy" - who was born in Czechoslovakia), as well as Emmy ("Emmxyzzy") & Sonneveld, the team who put the English translation together.
Enjoy!
https://www.dosgameclub.com/podcast/2024/01/ep87.mp3[ download mp3 ] (84 mins, 96 MB)
RELEVANT LINKS:* Get the game for free at: donkeyisland.zip
-
Emmxyzzy's website with links to her YouTube and Twitch channels, among other things
-
Sonneveld on Twitch
-
AGIdev.com by Sonneveld, which hosts many resources on making AGI games
-
Donkey Island UHS-style hint guide by Tijn
-
Article (in Czech) about a possible sequel
-
Website of Czech game historian Jaroslav Švelch
There is one game that showed everybody that the PC was starting to become as viable a gaming platform as any console on the market. While DOOM was an entirely new experience, Jazz Jackrabbit replicated the experience players had on their SNESes and Mega Drives. Its protagonist even became a mascot for PC gaming at large.
But how does this 1994 game by Epic MegaGames (now only Epic Games, apparently they're not Mega anymore) hold up today? Is it still good? Or do you need to put on your rose tinted nostalgia glasses? We played the game in August, trying to find out exactly that.
In this episode hosts Martijn (Tijn) and Florian (rnlf) are joined by three guests to discuss this game. First of all there's Tim (LunarLoony), returning from all the way back from our episode about Pinball games (May 2020!). We also have Patrick (patrick_wd), and Wietse (densy) joining for the first time. Wietse is a game historian currently working on an article covering Jazz Jackrabbit, which will be published on his website (see links below) next year when the game hits its 30th anniversary.
We also got a voice message by Wouter. Thanks for that, Wouter!
Enjoy!
https://www.dosgameclub.com/podcast/2023/12/ep86.mp3[ download mp3 ] (133 mins, 152 MB)
We once again got lots of help from DGC member console with editing this episode. Many thanks to him and all who make this show possible!
RELEVANT LINKS:* Our guest Tim (LunarLoony) is on Twitch and YouTube
-
www.gamegeschiedenis.nl is a Dutch game history website run by our guest Wietse (densy)
-
Overview of Jazz 1 versions
-
JJ1 version 1.3 community patch (now part of the GOG release)
-
jazz2online.com Jazz Jackrabbit fan website
-
Vector Demo (1991) by UltraForce on: Pouet and YouTube
-
Control Freak: My Epic Adventure Making Video Games, by Cliff Bleszinski
-
1994 Usenet thread about Apogee vs Epic drama (through Google Groups)
-
Epic MegaGames was discussed earlier on DGC in episodes 19 (Tyrian), 46 (Jill of the Jungle) and 75 (One Must Fall: 2097)
-
New: we're now accepting donations through Ko-Fi
You're in some sort of cave. A red light eminates from the northern wall, while a green light pours in from the cave's exit. This is Azra, a strange far away world where many dangers loom. You are an acolyte of the Scarlet Lady's Red Court, and have no memory of how you ended up in this cave. But while the game's world and characters are mysterious, the presentation is instantly recognisable as that of a 1980s Sierra adventure game. However, this DOS game isn't 35 years old... it's brand new!
In July we took a look at The Aching, a parser-based graphic adventure game released in 2023 by Hadrosaurus Software. Don't be fooled by its release date however, this is an authentic DOS game that has no trouble running on a Tandy 1000. Definitely something we're interested in!
In this episode hosts Martijn (Tijn) and Florian (rnlf) are joined by two guests to discuss this game. First of all there's Shawn (DJ_HiP), returning from the Stunts episode, and who is completely new to the world of adventure games. Secondly we have Mike (Zerfall), who is a true veteran of the genre growing up on classic Sierra games, and has YouTube and Twitch channels where he looks at old games.
We also got a voice message by TheLobdegg, creator of The Aching, about other modern DOS games.
Enjoy!
https://www.dosgameclub.com/podcast/2023/11/ep85.mp3[ download mp3 ] (116 mins, 132 MB)
We once again got lots of help from DGC member console with editing this episode. Many thanks to him and all who make this show possible!
RELEVANT LINKS:* The Aching on itch.io and Steam
-
DGC episode 84 is an interview with the Hadrosaurus Software devs
-
YouTube video by Zerfall and MysteriousJG exploring the latest content patch for The Aching
-
YouTube video by Martijn playing through The Aching before the content patch was released
-
Day of the Tentacle comes up in the podcast, which we discussed in DGC episode 54
-
Other modern DOS games that are mentioned: Gold Mine Run! by JJM/Reidrac and Barren Planet by Cyningstan
-
New: we're now accepting donations through Ko-Fi
Making commercial games for DOS nowadays is not a good business model, right? Hadrosaurus Software is hard at work proving this claim to be totally wrong. Their games Acronia and The Aching (which we played in July) are getting a lot of attention from the DOS gaming community, and rightfully so, we think.
Company founder Clarissa and The Aching creator Tamsin were so kind to take the time to talk to us about DOS game development from a technical, business and personal perspective and shared some interesting and funny anecdotes.
Enjoy!
https://www.dosgameclub.com/podcast/2023/11/ep84.mp3[ download mp3 ] (101 mins, 116 MB)
We got help from DGC member console, who helped us out with editing this episode. Many thanks to him and all who make this show possible!
RELEVANT LINKS:* Hadrosaurus website
-
The Aching content patch dev log
-
DGC episode 41 on DOS Games Jam
-
RetroTech Chris on YouTube
-
RAD Tracker by 3eality
The late 80s and early 90s were filled with "true 3D" polygon-based first-person driving games. There was Hard Drivin' in the arcade by Atari, Geoff Crammond released Stunt Car Racer, Spectrum Holobyte published Stunt Driver, to name a few. But the one game that proved to capture the hearts of many and remains being played […]
The original Speedball from 1988 was already a highly acclaimed futuristic sports game, lauded for its action-packed arcade-style gameplay and superb audiovisual presentation. But when the Bitmap Brothers released the sequel in 1990 for Amiga and Atari ST they truly outdid themselves. Both horizontal and vertical scrolling at a blistering pace was an achievement rarely […]
The official Terry Pratchett-approved Discworld point & click adventure game has been pinned on our forums for over two years, as April 2023 would have been his 75th birthday, had he lived to experience it. Although Pratchett was initially apprehensive about the project, after been shown early demos he gave his approval and by 1995 […]
"It is a period of civil war. Rebel spaceships, striking from a hidden base, have won their first victory against the evil Galactic Empire.During the battle, Rebel spies managed to steal secret plans to the Empire's ultimate weapon, the DEATH STAR, and space station with enough power to destroy an entire planet." - Sound familiar? Well, in our game of the month, you play Kyle Katarn for whom this theft of plans is such an easy task that he can do it as the first level!
But obviously, the Empire has other evil plans, or shall we say, "Dark" plans? They are working on a new type of battle droid and heavily armed storm trooper: The Dark Trooper. The Rebels cannot let that happen, so Kyle sets out to destroy this threat before it even becomes one.
This all sounds nice and well, but is Lucas Arts' 1995 hit game also a good game? Is it fun?
Discussing this game with host Martijn ("Tijn") and Florian ("rnlf"), we have returning member Björn ("TigerQuoll") and new member Niklas ("Killershrew") as well as a voice message by watchful, who has sent uncountable brilliant messages over the years.
http://www.dosgameclub.com/podcast/2023/05/ep80.mp3[ download mp3 ] (99 mins, 113 MB)
We got help from DGC member console editing this episode (again!). Many thanks to him and all who make this show possible!
RELEVANT LINKS:* DGC member Pix scanned in no less than five UK magazines reviewing Dark Forces
-
The Force Engine: Open source reimplementation of the Jedi engine
-
Orchestral Remix of the Dark Forces theme
-
The demo's "Rambo style" intro sequence that's cut from the full game
In 2119 the United Nations Seedship Calypso was launched. Headed for Beta Caeli, the farthest star yet attempted, this ark ship holds thousands of people in cryogenic sleep ready for colonising this remote system. Ever since the first interstellar war with the Centaurians broke out in 2043, the future of Earth and therefore the human race has been under threat. In 2135 the faster UNS Tantalus was launched with the same destination as the Calypso. Despite leaving years later, due to its faster engines it was projected to arrive 21 years before the Calypso would. But when the Calypso arrives and its crew is awakened, there is no sign the Tantalus was ever even here.
In Alien Legacy it's your job as head of the Calypso to find out what happened to the Tantalus, and more importantly ensure humanity's future by establishing a thriving colony far away from Earth. Developed by Ybarra Productions and published in 1994 by Sierra On-Line, this game offers a mix of management/strategy and narrative which is pretty unique.
Discussing this game with host Martijn ("Tijn") we have an interesting lineup of newcomers to the show for you! Sadly co-host Florian ("rnlf") couldn't make it, but he'll be back next time. First of all there's Tamsin ("TheLobdegg") who suggested we play this game. Then there's Chris, who's been a long-time fan of Alien Legacy and as Tamin's friend recommended it to them. And last but not least we have Brian ("SpaceGameJunkie") who got Alien Legacy on launch day back when it was originally released.
Tamsin is part of Hadrosaurus Software, who are working on Acronia, a newly made real DOS game we've talked about before in our episode about DOS Games Jam and modern DOS culture. They recently released The Aching, a Sierra AGI-style adventure game designed for Tandy 1000 computers and up. It's available on itch.io and Steam.
Brian has YouTube & Twitch channels dedicated to space games old & new and runs an active Discord community as well. Links can all be found in the list below.
http://www.dosgameclub.com/podcast/2023/04/ep79.mp3[ download mp3 ] (115 mins, 132 MB)
We got help from DGC member console editing this episode. Many thanks to him and all who make this show possible!
RELEVANT LINKS:* The Aching on itch.io and Steam by Hadrosaurus Software
-
Space Game Junkie on YouTube, Twitch & Discord
-
UK magazine scans by DGC member Pix
-
Joe Ybarra on Mobygames
-
Sierra was previously discussed in episode 8 (Quest for Glory) and episode 64 (Space Quest)
-
We mention Starflight which was previously discussed in episode 17 and also Project Nomad which was discussed in episode 40
Europe, 1943. World War II is in full rage, the United States joined the war effort and are now supporting the British air raids against German occupied western Europe with their legendary B-17 Flying Fortress bombers. Can your crew help end the war by successfully bombing strategically important targets while German fighters and Flaks turn the sky into a death trap?
Microprose's 1992 flight simulation is special in many ways. While other sims let you focus on one job and often on dogfights, a B-17 requires a much larger crew of ten soldiers - and you can take over each one of the important jobs they carry out: piloting, bombing, firing machine guns, navigating, first aid, repairs - you name it.
But is it also fun to let the AI do all the other jobs you're not currently involved with?
Our hosts Martijn ("Tijn") and Florian ("rnlf") are joined on this mission by experienced flyboys Rob ("Spoonboy") and David ("EvilCommieDictator").
http://www.dosgameclub.com/podcast/2023/03/ep78.mp3[ download mp3 ] (164 mins, 187 MB)
RELEVANT LINKS:* Spoonboy's B17 beginner's guide
-
UK magazine reviews scanned by Pix
-
Article from CRASH covering the origins of B17 developer Vektor Graphics
-
B-17 Flying Fortress credits on Mobygames showing how many people who worked on this have also worked on many other famous Microprose titles
-
The famous dive scene from Memphis Belle
-
Microprose was previously discussed in episode 32 (Knights of the Sky) and episode 35 (Sid Meier's Pirates!)
In 1995 Blue Byte released Albion, an ambitious 2D/3D scifi/fantasy RPG, exclusively for MS-DOS PCs. It's made by some of the same people who previously, under the banner of Thalion Software, made Amberstar and Ambermoon, an ambitious series of RPGs that shares some cosmetic similarities with Albion. But despite this overlap, Albion is very much its own game and story.
The story revolves around Tom Driscoll and Rainar Hofstedt, who take a shuttle from the interstellar spaceship Toronto to the remote desert planet of Albion. It's the year 2227 and the DDT corporation is planning to stripmine the planet for its resources. A shuttle malfunction causes Tom and Rainar to crashland onto the planet surface where they are rescued and welcomed by the Iskai, an intelligent cat-like species with a rich history and culture. Tom & Rainar quickly find out the planet is far from the deserted wasteland they were lead to believe and it's up to them to save it from DDT's plans.
Sadly our regular co-host Florian ("rnlf") decided to skip this month because it's a very big game and he couldn't find the time to play it enough to do it justice. Helping out host Martijn ("Tijn") instead is veteran DGC member Jozef ("yozy"), who is a long-time fan of Albion and even suggested we play it. Our two guests also have a long history with Albion: first of all returning from a while ago we have David ("DavidN") back on to join us. And last but not least Ben Chandler delighted us with his presence, who you might know as the graphic artist from Wadjet Eye Games among other things.
We also got two voice messages, which we're always very happy to receive. Much thanks to Peter ("pointer") and Raphael ("Ninetongues") for sending them in!
http://www.dosgameclub.com/podcast/2023/02/ep77.mp3[ download mp3 ] (141 mins, 162 MB)
RELEVANT LINKS:* Thread with magazine reviews on our forums, some scanned by Pix from his own collection
-
Ambersun (previously Albion), David's power metal band
-
Ben Chandler's blog
-
Albion fan Discord
-
Albion wiki
-
A great oldschool Albion fan site by IS4
-
Albion soundtrack in multiple formats
-
UAlbion a work-in-progress remake of Albion for modern platforms
-
We talked to two of the developers of Albion in episode 76
This is a special extra bonus episode! In December we played Albion, the 1995 fantasy/scifi RPG by Blue Byte. We had the chance to speak to Erik Simon and Jurie Horneman, two of the creative forces behind the game.
We discuss everything from the early days at the German demoscene, Thalion software, developing Amberstar & Ambermoon, the move to Blue Byte as well as everything that went into Albion and the legacy it left.
Sadly Florian ("rnlf") wasn't able to get into the game and decided to skip this month, but host Martijn ("Tijn") is supported fantastically by veteran DGC member Jozef ("yozy"), who happens to be a long time fan of Albion.
We also got a lot of great questions from the community, so we would like to thank: DavidN, number_guro, IS4, HunterZ, sheldo86, Ninetongues and MrCreosote.
Enjoy!
http://www.dosgameclub.com/podcast/2023/01/ep76.mp3[ download mp3 ] (107 mins, 123 MB)
RELEVANT LINKS:* Blog post on Albion & Avatar by Jurie Horneman
In 2097 the World Aeronautics & Robotics corporation (W.A.R.) is looking for a suitable representative to watch over Ganymede, the Jupiter moon that will soon be colonised. The Board at WAR has decided that the applicants for the position, being equally qualified, should fight for it. Now, the ten applicants must choose which Human-Assisted Robot (H.A.R.) will be their weapon and beat the others in a one-on-one competition.
This is how the manual of One Must Fall: 2097 describes the backstory of this iconic DOS robot fighting shareware game that is the subject of this month's podcast. It was developed by Diversions Entertainment and published by Epic Mega Games in 1994.
Joining hosts Martijn & Florian are two first-time guests: Ben, who only found us recently, and Biran, who has been a long-time listener. Both have spent tons of time on this game back in the day, so they can tell us all about what makes One Must Fall: 2097 such a cool title.
http://www.dosgameclub.com/podcast/2023/01/ep75.mp3[ download mp3 ] (150 mins, 172 MB)
RELEVANT LINKS:* UK magazine reviews scanned by Pix
-
Diversion Entertainment's website on archive.org with a link to the freeware release of OMF 2097
-
OpenOMF.org is a modern remake of OMF:2097 and has links to their wiki and Discord, among other things
-
Interview with OMF2097 designer / programmer Rob Elam
-
Interview with OMF2097 music composer Kenny Chou
-
Kenny Chou on YouTube
-
Demo group Renaissance on pouet.net of which Kenny Chou was a member
-
We talked about Epic Mega Games before in episode 19 (Tyrian) and episode 46 (Jill of the Jungle)
British photographer John T. Parker travels to the isolated New England town of Illsmouth in 1910, to take pictures of Halley's comet. During the previous passing 76 years before, Lord Boleskin had made some interesting discoveries, but he subsequently went insane. Parker has three days to finish Boleskin's research before the comet passes in the […]
Did you ever want to be in control of the entire hive mind of an ant colony? How about taking over the house of some jerk who doesn't even acknowledge your existence and runs you over with his stupid lawn mower? Still not enough? How about gruesome, explicit and very flowery descriptions of death? In […]
Evil creatures beneath Waterdeep? We can't have any of this. Time for our party of heroes to investigate. But what's that? Just as we enter the sewers, the corridor behind us collapses and we're trapped down here. Will we survive? Find our way out? Will we succeed in our quest to cleanse Waterdeep of whatever […]
Robert Cath hastily jumps off a speeding motorbike onto the Orient Express, as it departs from Paris on the evening of 24 July 1914. He's been invited to join the train by his friend Tyler Whitney, who apparently has made a remarkable deal and wants to tell Robert all about it. But as soon as […]
Evil dictator Dr. Funfrock is ruling the remote planet of Twinsun with an iron fist. And now that talk of the legend of Sendell has been forbidden, you have even been sent to prison for having strange dreams. What a mess! Luckily your ancestors have hidden various magical items for you, which give you a […]
FMV cutscenes with very quirky humour? Check! Ridiculously over the top scenario? Check! Giant acid-squirting scorpions vs. six-wheeled flame thrower ATVs? Check! In 1997, Beam Software released the first game in the KKnD series. Is it just an unimaginative Command & Conquer reskin clone? Or did it bring something unique to the then still young […]
You're seated in the cockpit, twelve meters above ground, your Mech's 75 tonnes stomping heavily on the desert ground. You're getting close to nav point beta, no sign of the enemy, yet. "Enemy Mech Detected!", your computer tells you in a sterile, cold voice. You arm your missiles and lasers and fire your first salva […]
There isn't much we need to say to introduce you to Quake. It's Quake, after all. Quake may be one of the most important games crossing the bridge between the "old" and "new" gaming worlds. It still came out as a DOS game, originally, as shareware, rendered fully in software. But it was also there […]
Real life isn't real enough for you? You need the daily treadmill also in your gaming? Well, we got something for you! In Sierra's 1991 game Jones in the Fast Lane, you get to live your spectacular life as an absolutely ordinary person whose biggest goal is to become assistant manager of the paper company […]
Update: In case it wasn't clear already, this was an april fool's joke. We made an English language podcast about Jones too and will keep the show in English of course. --- Original post: --- It's 1 APRIL again and that means we look at the game we played in February, which in this case […]
The Mega-Corps pay well, for those good enough to survive. They call you into the shadows with dreams of wealth, and you answer, the only way you know how. Apogee's 1994 vertical shooter Raptor - Call of the Shadows was a game that impressed many young players back in the day with its slick graphics, […]
What have you gotten yourself into this time, Roger Wilco? You wanted to have an easy, laid back job as a janitor on a space ship, but somehow it all went straight to crazy land the moment a bunch of space pirates came to take away a mysterious device you wouldn't understand anyway. Will you […]
Did you really, really want a model train set as a kid, with a landscape modeled after your preferences, stations where you want them and amazing trains that you control? Was it absolutely out of reach for you as well? Well, thanks to Chris Sawyer's Transport Tycoon, we got what we wanted in the end, […]
Oh no! First Penelope is kidnapped by the evil Dr. Hammerstein, then your uncle Horace is murdered and finally, you crash your airplane in the South American jungle where Penelope gets bitten by a venomous spider! Join us as we explore the world of the Hugo series, made for the most part by one man […]
Hang on to yer helmet while we drive over a couple pedestrians and cows and try to wreck the other drivers in Stainless Software's 1997 cult classic "Carmageddon". Join us as we try to figure out what the whole hype was about, exactly how far over the top this game really is and whether this […]
It's time for round four of our "year of the adventure game"! So far we've covered Day of the Tentacle, Lost Eden and Simon the Sorcerer, but now it's time to go beyond the stars with Interplay's 1992 Star Trek: 25th Anniversary, celebrating the 25th anniversary of the original series. Originally released on floppy disk […]
Back when Blizzard Entertainment was still known as Silicon & Synapse, they made a funny looking puzzle-platformer called The Lost Vikings. It's hard as nails, utterly unfair, but also weirdly kind of compelling. What more can we say about it? Listen to find out! Joining hosts Martijn ("Tijn") and Florian ("rnlf") for this episode are […]
Calypso needs your help! The evil sorcerer Sordid has turned him (and a couple other people) into stone. You need to become a Wizard and save the day in Adventure Soft's 1993 graphical adventure hit "Simon the Sorcerer"! Joining hosts Martijn ("Tijn") and Florian ("rnlf") for this episode is Richard ("Pix"). [ download mp3 ] […]
In May we played Syndicate, the 1993 tactical shooter game by Bullfrog. Set in a futuristic dystopian cyberpunk world where governments have been replaced by corporations, it's quite a bit grittier than many of Bullfrog's other titles. But is it fun? Listen to find out! Joining host Martijn ("Tijn") for this episode are Rob ("Spoonboy") […]
Prince Adam of Mo, Eloy, Dina and yet more of their friends try to unite Dinosaurs and Humans in an attempt to save the world from the evil Morkus Rex, who, together with his army of Tyrannosaurs, threatens to kill them all. Join us as we guide them towards victory and find out what the […]
Join us as we side with the High-Risk United Nations Taskforce and try to rid the world of evil El Oscuro's cult who wants to destroy Los Angeles using their "transmitter" in Apogee's 1995 first person shooter "Rise of the Triad". Joining hosts Martijn ("Tijn") and Florian ("rnlf") for this episode are Björn ("TigerQuoll") and […]
Well, you know what they say: "If you want to save the world, you gotta push a few old ladies down the stairs" - and that's exactly what we did! Join us as we save the world from the evil Purple Tentacle in LucasArts' 1993 absolute masterpiece Day of the Tentacle. This is not a […]
Well, turns out we weren't quite ready yet to deprecate you of our lovely voices. I guess we'll keep making podcasts the classic ("lame") way. Thanks for all the nice comments about this episode, it was a lot of fun to make 🙂 (this post has been automatically generated on April 1, 2021) Hello. This […]
To kick off the DOS Game Club "Year of the Adventure Game" with a bang, we have a special episode for you all: an interview with David Fox! We recently got the chance to talk to him about the early days of developing adventure games at Lucas, where he was one of the first people […]
Who likes turn based strategy games? WE DO! But we think we're not alone in that. Simtex' 1994 4X classic Master of Magic is seen by many as one of the hidden gems of the genre often compared to "Civilization with Magic", but does that hold up? Or is it actually more than that? We're […]
How many Skiing games are there for DOS? We don't know for sure, but we believe the number is 13. And we tried them all! There are some that probably everybody knows about, like The Games: Winter Challenge, even though people probably thought that game was actually called "Winter Games". Far from it though, that's […]
In November we played STREET ROD, a quirky little racing game that's all about 1960s hot rods, released in 1989 by California Dreams. Sounds pretty American, right? Turns out, this game was actually developed in Soviet-controlled Poland, behind the iron curtain! Learn all about what makes this game interesting in this episode of the DOS […]
Northern Europe, 928 AD. A thirsty traveler, a wolf howling in the distance, and a seemingly deserted village. Or is it? Ečstatica is a 3D survival horror game with a very unique look: Instead of polygons, everything is made out of ellipsoids. Join us in our adventure to restore the village and defeat evil demons. […]
Thirty years ago, on 26 September 1990, Origin Systems released Wing Commander for MS-DOS, the first game in what would be a very long-running and expansive series of prominent videogames. Last September we played it with the club to see what it's all about and whether it holds up today. Two DGC veterans join hosts […]
In August we played Z, one of the hardest-to-google games on the planet. Unless you know it's from the Bitmap Brothers, which you now do! But is the game also noteworthy for it's quality gameplay and fancy FMV cutscenes telling an exciting story? Well, find out! Joining hosts Martijn ("Tijn") and Florian ("rnlf") in this […]
We spent our July playing Jill of the Jungle, one of the big milestones in PC gaming history for making Epic Megagames actually "mega" and allowing them to build all those future games we all so dearly love. But is Jill itself a noteworthy game? Or do we need the rose-tinted glasses of nostalgia to […]
Hello everyone! Last June we spent playing our first text adventure with the club. Incredible that we never did one before, so good thing we got that sorted. It's a genre that can be difficult to get into, so we decided to pick a very accessible game: Frederik Pohl's Gateway, by Legend Entertainment, released in […]
Greetings DOS fans, Last May we featured not one, but many games. All of the same genre: PINBALL! Helping Florian ("rnlf") and Martijn ("Tijn") out are two very knowledgeable experts. First of all DGC regular Tim ("Spacefarer"), who has made an elaborate video series covering the history of pinball videogames, from the very basic beginnings […]
Welcome to my death machine, interloper! My plans have come to fruition prematurely, quite to my satisfaction. You have my thanks, hacker. Let me show you the destruction podcast episode you I have brought upon the planet Earth. Martijn and Florian are joined by David ("evilcommiedictator") and Jozef ("yozy") in their fight against SHODAN in […]
Hello Dostalgicians! We still haven't quite caught up with our schedule, but we're getting there. One step along the way is this episode in which we discuss Parallax Software's 1995 hit game Descent - the game we played back in March. Martijn and Florian are joined by Elias ("pumpuli"), Rami ("JikissGamer") and Jonathan ("microwerx") in […]
It is the year 2020 and yet, some of us are still fascinated by an operating system that hasn't been updated in nearly 20 years. In this episode we are trying to answer the question "why"? That DOS is still relevant today is demonstrated by the success of DOS Games Jam - a game jam […]
Bonjour DOS fans! In our ongoing attempt to get back on schedule, we present to you our podcast episode on Nomad, the obscure 1993 space adventure game we played in February. The show is filled with DGC veterans, as Florian ("rnlf") hosts for a change, joined by Martijn ("Tijn") and Esko ("FireFyte"). Suggested by DGC […]
Hello! We hope everyone is staying safe with all this craziness going on. When in doubt: stay inside and play DOS games, folks! Back in January we played Worms with the club and boy did we have a lot of fun with that one. We even organised a little club tournament to see who has […]
Hello fellow DOS fans! A while back we ran a Twitter poll to see what people thought a good RPG would be for us to check out. And although Dark Sun, Darklands and Albion all good respectable scores, there was one clear winner: Ultima VII, released in 1992 by Origin Systems. So that became our […]
Yo yo yo! It's been a while since we last featured a racing game, so we dove into the suggestion forum and came up with 90s 3D pod racer Wipeout. Most people probably remember this as a title for the Sony Playstation, but the first game in the series actually saw a release for PC […]
Oh hello there! Every year in October we try to pick a game that fits with the spooky nature of the Halloween season. This year that game was The 7th Guest, developed by Trilobyte and released by Virgin in 1993 on not one, but two (!) CD-ROMs. Both our hosts Martijn ("Tijn") and Florian ("rnlf") […]
Sail ho! Back in September we appropriately played Sid Meier's Pirates!, the classic 1987 pirate game by Microprose. While not Sid Meier's first game by any stretch, it is the first game which has his name in the title, firmly establishing him as the famous game designer he's known as today. We're excited to announce […]
Hello! We're back with another podcast, and this is a big one! We're discussing the game we played in August, which was UFO: Enemy Unknown, known in North America as X-Com: UFO Defense. As in our previous episode, regular co-host Florian ("rnlf") had to miss this one due to his holiday and moving house. Luckily […]
Hi fellow DOS fans! Remember us? We used to make podcasts about DOS games, haha. It wasn't easy to schedule this episode about Theme Hospital, the game we played back in July. But we've pulled through and here it is! Sadly Florian ("rnlf") isn't joining us for this one, as he's away on holiday and […]
Hello! In June we played Knights of the Sky, an excellent World War 1-themed 3D flight simulator, released in 1990, both developed and published by the mighty Microprose. This game was suggested by new DGC member David ("evilcommiedictator"), who used to watch his dad play this game when he was young and later played it […]
Yo DOS peeps! Can you believe we never had a fighting game on? So we browsed the suggestion forum and came across one: Rise of the Robots. It's the game we picked for May, but it turns out... the game is actually famous for being terrible, haha. We still had a lot of fun discussing […]
Hey hey! Seems like we're still behind schedule, but at least it's not getting worse, as proven by this new episode. Also, we're going to record the next episode in just a few days which will mean we're back on track. Anyway, this time we discussed our April game: Blizzard's classic platformer BlackThorne (or BlackHawk […]
Yo yo yo, Oh my, we're running late a bit 😮 But the good news is: we've got a new podcast episode for you all! In March we like to play big first person shooters and for this year we played Blood, the 1997 cultist shooter by Monolith Productions. To discuss this game, your regular […]
Guten Tag! This is a DOS Game Club Extra Special Episode. You see, recently we held our first DOS Game Club Meetup, as we went to the Revision Party 2019 in Saarbrücken, Germany. Exciting! Revision is a demoscene party, which means they have a stage with a big screen and speakers on which all sorts […]
Hey WeirDOS! Time for another DGC episode! In February we played Life and Death, the hyper-realistic, hyper-difficult surgery simulator by The Software Toolworks, published in 1988. Florian ("rnlf") is back hosting this episode, but didn't play the game at all, so he's just posing lots of uninformed questions to the other participants in this show: […]
Hi there! For January we really wanted to feature a big open-world RPG, as we've never had one of those with the club. We went over to the suggestion forums, where there's a great RPG thread with many awesome suggestions (you can find the link down below). One game in particular seemed to stand out: […]
Hello DOS people! We're a little behind schedule, but remember last December? We featured no less than six games that month! Because we had received a bunch of suggestions for smaller games, we decided to pick a few and play them all in a single month. The games we played were: * Ugh! * Bolo […]
Hey hey hey! In November we featured the amazing Master of Orion 2, as suggested by our trusty co-host Florian. He's been wanting us to play this one ever since we started DOS Game Club, so we're very excited to finally talk about one of his favourite games. Joining hosts Martijn ("Tijn") and Florian ("rnlf") […]
Bonjour mes amis, it's a new DOS Game Club episode! In October we were looking for a spOo0ky game to play and luckily, we had several great suggestions over on our game suggestion forum. Out of the options available, we decided to go with 1992's "Alone in the Dark", suggested by long time DGC member […]
Hey! A new DOS Game Club episode! This time we're covering The Secret of Monkey Island - even if you haven't played the game, if you are into games at all, you more likely than not have at least heard about it. For some this is the pinnacle of Point & Click Adventure games, and […]
Do you remember the Twitter poll we mentioned last month? The one Prince of Persia won? After playing that in July we felt sorry for the runner-up, so that's what we played in August! And that runner-up was of course Warcraft II. Joining Martijn and Florian to talk about this cool RTS game are Tyler […]
Hello! After we almost caught up with our delay from the summer break with the last episode, this new episode means were back on schedule! We ran a poll some time ago about which game to play in July. We had no idea what to play, so we pitted just a bunch of random favourites […]
Hello! We had a bit of a summer break, but we're back now! We hope to be back on track shortly. Now back in June we wanted to play a vertical shooter, as this is a genre that we haven't covered so far. We ran a poll on Twitter between some classic games in the […]
Hello there! We're about halfway through June, so there's still plenty of time left to dive into TYRIAN, our game of the month. You can share your opinions on this game over on our forums. - - - - - - - - - - - - PODCAST EPISODE #18: DEATH RALLY In May we […]
Hello, hello, hello! In April we played Starflight, a game of hard to define genre, that is nonetheless pretty damn cool! - - - - - - - - - - - - PODCAST EPISODE #17: STARFLIGHT Starflight is a game from the very early days of DOS gaming. Still from a time when game […]
Yo yo yo! Last March we played Duke Nukem 3D, so here's our podcast episode discussing this great game. But before we dive into that, here's a quick reminder that there's about a week left in April to check out the amazing Starflight, a space RPG from 1986. There's all sorts of cool stuff going […]
Hello everybody! As we're getting ready to switch the site over from playing Duke Nukem 3D (which was our March game) to Starflight (which we'll play in April), we've got something special for you: an extra DOS Game Club podcast, celebrating our 1 year anniversary! PODCAST EPISODE #15: 1 YEAR OF DOS GAME CLUB We […]
Hello Dossers! It's time for another DGC episode, but before we dive into that, a short reminder that it is still March and that means it's our anniversary and we are playing DUKE NUKEM 3D! So go and play the game and talk to us about it on the forums! We use your input for […]
Hello hello! It's currently February and we're playing TRANSARCTICA. There's still about a week and a half remaining, so if you haven't checked this game out yet, go play it now. If you have played it, please use the forums to let us know what you think. We use your input for the podcast we'll […]
Hello DOS gamers! In January we're playing HEROES OF MIGHT & MAGIC. There's still some time left, so if you haven't checked it out yet, now is a great time to do so. And if you did play the game, please share your thoughts with us over on the forums. Feel free to join us, […]
Happy New Year Everybody! 2017 has just ended and so has our time to play The Incredible Machine. Everybody start playing Heroes of Might and Magic now! I hear people love this game, so let's see if there's a reason for that. While you're playing, feel free to discuss the game with us in the […]
Hello! December is well underway, so we hope everyone is having fun with THE INCREDIBLE MACHINE, which is the game we're playing this month. If you haven't checked it out yet, then now is the time to do so! And if you have played it and want to share your experiences, please share them with […]
Hello! We're back already with a podcast on Commander Keen, as we're working through the backlog to get back on track with the regular scheduling. Thanks for bearing with us! PODCAST EPISODE #9 So in episode of 9 of the DOS Game Club podcast, Martijn ("Tijn") and Florian ("rnlf") had the pleasure to talk with […]
Hello DOS gamer, There's a lot going on, so let's get right to it! PODCAST EPISODE #8 In episode of 8 of the DOS Game Club podcast, we return to our usual format of discussing a game in a roundtable setting. As we're running behind a bit, we still had to discuss Quest For Glory […]
Hello! Ooof, it's been a while, hasn't it? With the summer holidays going on, we haven't managed to record the podcast episode for Quest for Glory yet, which we've played in August. But! In the meantime, we've got something quite spectacular for all of you! PODCAST EPISODE #7 So as you've guessed from the title, […]
Hi there! We've got another episode of the DOS Game Club podcast for you! Whoohoo! PODCAST EPISODE #6 Back in July we played 1995's Command & Conquer by Westwood Studios and had great fun with it. In this episode, Martijn ("Tijn") and Florian ("rnlf") are joined by Marwane ("wan") and new time participant Philipp ("derphilipp") […]
Hello! So, we're running a little bit out of sync here, because in June we played two games: Scorched Earth and Strike Commander. The episode about Scorched Earth was posted about about 2 weeks ago. Since then we've been working on the next one, while July was running to an end. Oh boy! We think […]
Hello, hello! Last month we have been playing 2 games: Scorched Earth and Strike Commander. We decided not to discuss both games in one podcast, but each give them their own episode. This is the episode about Scorched Earth, the one about Strike Commander will follow shortly. PODCAST EPISODE #4 Joining usual suspects Martijn ("Tijn") […]
Hello Everybody! Episode three is finally here! A small delay this time due to various reasons, but here it is. PODCAST EPISODE #3 We played SimCity 2000 for the whole of May and discussed it in our typical roundtable. Tijn and rnlf are joined by previous podcast participants toasty and wan. One thing we did […]
Hi DOS gamers! Month two of DGC has passed and we had a lot of fun! We are 26 club members now, that's a gain of 9 new people since the last podcast episode and the forum for Grand Prix Circuit has more posts than the one for DOOM, which, given that GPC is a […]
Hello everyone! The first month of DOS Game Club is over. Launching this website has been very exciting for all of us and we're proud to see we've got 17 members already and the forums are actively used. Keep it up everyone! PODCAST EPISODE #1 To fully conclude our month with Doom, we've recorded the […]
Hello and welcome to the brand new DOS Game Club! We're very excited to launch this thing and hope you are too. INTRODUCTION So, what's this all about? In DOS Game Club, each month we select a DOS game to play during that month. It's like a book club, where everyone is reading the same […]