Pixelmusement 2011 Archive Last Updated:
December 31st, 2011

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2011 Archive

December 31st, 2011:

Click here to watch Ancient DOS Games Filler #13 - Gemini's Computers

Well, not only has the year reached its conclusion, but so has my look at my gaming hardware. Hopefully you've all enjoyed seeing what kind of stuff I have on-hand to work with. I know my collection is tiny compared to a lot of collectors out there, but it's still something! :)

Also, I dunno if I've mentioned this or not yet, but PixelShips 2 is once again on hold as I put together a much more interesting and simpler game. (PixelShips 2 is REALLY complex and it's been awhile since I've programmed anything, so I'm starting with something simple so that PixelShips 2 won't seem nearly as difficult to make when I get to it.)

I'm hoping to have some details of this new game up soon as I'm really close to starting the coding, but with regular ADG episodes continuing very shortly, I dunno how much time that's going to eat up. I suppose we'll all find out soon enough! ;)

As a side note, I do still have all of the guesses that were originally registered for X-Wing, so there's no need to send your guesses in again, I still have them!

Happy New Year, everyone! :D



December 24th, 2011:

Click here to watch Ancient DOS Games Filler #12 - Gemini's Portable Systems

Merry TomorrowChristmas, everyone! Or, if you don't celebrate Christmas, hope you're still having a great December! :D

Took a little longer to get this filler up than anticipated. For some reason the rendering was going really slow today. Ah well, got it done and uploaded for your viewing pleasure. :)

...and yeah, not the greatest portable collection ever, but hey, it suits me just fine. Next week I'll be taking a look at my computers and then it's back to the usual Ancient DOS Games episodes!



December 17th, 2011:

Click here to watch Ancient DOS Games Filler #11 - Gemini's Gaming Consoles

Due to this being a busy time of year for me, I've decided to do some quick little fillers this weekend, next weekend, and the weekend after, dedicated to my collections of gaming consoles, portable gaming systems, and computers, with today's filler concentrating on the consoles.

Nothing too much else to say really, but perhaps this will drive the point across as to why I've only done a tiny handful of the games requested... My collections are simply not that large. Larger than the average person's collections, yes. Larger than the average collector's? Heck no! D:

I expand upon this stuff when I can though. The next console I want to pick up is the Odyssey2! :3



December 10th, 2011:

Click here to watch Ancient DOS Games Episode 70 - Caves of Thor

Yes, today's episode was supposed to be Star Wars X-Wing. The thing is, that game is HUGE, and I got SICK. Mix the two together and you get a really nasty situation. I didn't recover until partway through Wednesday, so there wasn't anywhere close to enough time to capture enough footage to do a good review of the game. This is why I had to substitute in something short and sweet and text mode.

The X-Wing review will be Episode 71. ;)

Not much else to say at the moment, except that my replacement video card was DOA so I had to send it back and now I'm waiting on a SECOND replacement. A bit annoying but my guess is this happens every once in a blue moon. It's like winning the lottery... a BAD lottery. :P



December 3rd, 2011:

Click here to watch Ancient DOS Games Episode 69 - Leisure Suit Larry

The funny thing about today's Ancient DOS Games episode is that I actually knew of Leisure Suit Larry way back when it was new, which would've made me about 5 years old. It was one of the products mentioned in Sierra's little game catalogues included with all of their games. As a child, I didn't understand why a game like Leisure Suit Larry would be worth the effort.

And now that I'm nearing my 30s I'm still not sure I do! ;D

But hey, the game isn't porn, it's just an adult-themed, romantic, misadventure, and it was requested by the game's original designer, Al Lowe himself. How could I possibly turn him down? ;)

Not much in the way of other news at the moment. Hoping to get my video card back sometime next week so I can get back into playing 90% of my non-retro PC gaming collection. :P



November 26th, 2011:

Click here to watch Ancient DOS Games Episode 68 - Visual Star Trek

Well, I intended for this week's episode to be obscure but not last week's so somehow I've managed to have two obscure games in a row. Ah well, at least next week's game should be almost blatantly obvious. ;)

Actually, most of the guesses this week weren't too far off. Many were for the Apogee game Crystal Caves and a few were for Elite, both of which have references to the Tribbles of Star Trek fame.

Nothing much else going on at the moment. Just waiting impatiently to get my video card back. :P



November 19th, 2011:

Click here to watch Ancient DOS Games Episode 67 - Highway Hunter

One. That's the number of people who attempted to guess what this week's Ancient DOS Game was! I had no idea this game was so pooly known. I mean, I knew information on this game was hard to come by and few people ever talk about it, but geeze, I've had it for quite a long while now and I feel it's a great game. Short, with some... err... "interesting" music in the middle, but otherwise satisfying. :)

Next week's game is kinda obscure too and will also mark another first for an ADG episode, and I believe I first played it nearly two decades ago so SOMEONE had better guess it right! D:

In other news, the graphics card on my main computer started dying, despite being only halfway through a 3-year warranty period, so it's sent off to be repaired or possibly replaced, which means I'm gonna have to go the next month without any hardcore 3D gaming outside of my Wii and PS2. Lame. x_x

This development won't affect ADG though since the integrated chipset on my motherboard can handle the minimal amount of acceleration necessary for playing games in DOSBox at a high framerate, and for video editing. Besides, I have other non-digital projects I've been falling behind on so I guess this gives me an excuse to put more work into them. ^_^;



November 12th, 2011:

Click here to watch Ancient DOS Games Episode 66 - The Elder Scrolls II: Daggerfall
(NOTE: This episode contains mature content!)

I'm super tired, been working on today's ADG for almost 24 hours straight, so I'm just gonna get it up and give you all the hint here since it's mature rated: The next ADG game is one that normally gives you an energy bar for taking damage and only one life, BUT, if you set the difficult to hard mode, the energy bar is replaced with extra lives and you die in one hit. Also, it's a 2D shooter, but it doesn't take place in outer space.

Now where's my bed... *falls asleep on the floor*



November 5th, 2011:

Click here to watch Ancient DOS Games Filler #10 - Dr. Sbaitso

A bunch of you sent in suggestions and while most of them were good and I will possibly do some of them in the future, I felt doing a filler on Dr. Sbaitso was the best one to go for this week for a couple reasons. One, Dr. Sbaitso is infamous for the way it talks to people with a voice and has extremely poor responses. Two, it gave me a chance to take much more of a break than usual and to get some more work done on my other projects. (This filler only took about 10 total hours to make.)

I know it's not really too entertaining an episode, but there's very little I could really say about this program, so I felt sharing the experience of using it was the best approach. Besides, next week's game is going to take an extremely large number of game hours to get solid footage for so I'm gonna really have my work cut out for me! :o



October 29th, 2011:

Click here to watch Ancient DOS Games Episode 65 - Space Adventure

I had a feeling today's game would stump everyone! ;D

Actually, most of the guesses were for "Elite", which isn't too bad of a guess except that its legal state isn't as clear-cut as one might expect. The DOS version of Space Adventure is clearly public domain now, as only one person made it and he included a text file with the source code stating as such. (However, the BBC Micro version, which was made by entirely different people, is still commercial as far as I can tell.)

In other news, I added a couple tid-bits of information to the Wolfenstein 3D and Volfied video pages, and also, while PixelShips 2 progress pretty much slowed to nothing for the past three months, I managed to find a solution to the design problem I was having and am once again working on it! :)



October 22nd, 2011:

Click here to watch Ancient DOS Games Episode 64 - Volfied

Although it was common for ports of arcade games to be inferior to their originals, the DOS version of Volfied came two years after the arcade version and is not only completely lacking in polish and features, but they also managed to make it HARDER than the arcade version. o_O

Anywhoo, I tried my best to get as much footage as possible, but I simply couldn't make it past the fifth level, so it was kinda limiting what I could show in the episode. Hopefully I got my frustrations about this game across without tearing into it too harshly. ^_^;

Also, I think I'm coming down with a cold or something, so don't be surprised if I sound completely out of it when Ancient DOS Games Episode 65 comes out next week. :/



October 15th, 2011:

Click here to watch Ancient DOS Games Episode 63 - Wolfenstein 3D
(WARNING - This game contains mature content!)

Wow, this one took a lot of work. Considering how important Wolfenstein 3D was, not only to PC gaming but gaming in general, I had to make sure I did the game justice, but it's a LONG game so I rapidly started running out of time to get this episode finished! :O

I managed to pull it off though, and while I did miss a few things I made sure to mention them in the additional information section of the episode page. :)

Since today's ADG episode is mature rated, here's the hint for next week's episode: Taito's Arkanoid was a sort of "upgrade" to the breakout formula, adding weapons and powerups, but Taito performed this upgrade to another game too! I'm going to be covering that upgraded game.

I made a couple other updates too. For ADG Episode 62 - OverKill, I missed a "Doctor Who" reference which none of you are letting me live down. I also found out awhile back from Ken Silverman what the "5" stands for in Cubes5, but for some reason it completely skipped my mind to post the info! In any case, both of these episode pages now have the appropriate information added. ;)



October 8th, 2011:

Click here to watch Ancient DOS Games Episode 62 - OverKill

Today on Ancient DOS Games I decided to take a look at a game that skipped the radar of a lot of PC gamers, especially considering it was one of the first titles released by Epic MegaGames and that the box it came in flat out lied about a bunch of its features, such as its detailed story and Sound Blaster sound support. :P

Granted, it's not a bad game, but it's rather short and can take some getting used to. It's freeware now too, which is always a plus! :)

Also, I added some details about the Talking Tanks feature to the additional information section of the Scorched Earth ADG video page. While I did miss talking about a ton of features in the game, that was one that a lot of people loved, even though I always disabled it, so it deserved being mentioned. ;)



September 30th, 2011:

Click here to watch Ancient DOS Games Episode 61 - Scorched Earth

This update is going up early because I'm going to bed very shortly and will be asleep during my normal update time. Still, hope you all enjoy it! :)



September 24th, 2011:

Click here to watch Ancient DOS Games Filler #9 - Cubes5

Over a decade and a half before Minecraft or Infiniminer even existed, Ken Silverman had developed a similar cubical engine alongside the Build Engine, though it was mostly intended just to test various rendering optimizations. I had taken a look at it for my own purposes back in early 2009 and considering the extreme popularity of Minecraft now I thought it might be interesting to take a look back to show that these kinds of cubical game ideas have actually been around for a long time.

This is a big reason why I don't like the idea of similar games being ignored simply because they're quote: "Minecraft Clones", because unless said game is copying the actual gameplay and objects of Minecraft, having a cube-based world isn't anywhere close to an original idea. Heck, even Minecraft itself was directly inspired by Infiniminer, another cubical-world game.

I really do eventually want to make my cubical game, but ADG keeps me really busy, along with other things. The amount of time I have to work on my game projects anymore is tiny. I'm actually hoping I can run across various engines and dev kits in the future that will allow me to speedily develop some of my ideas, but ultimately the best way to make the exact kind of game you want is to program it from scratch, even though it takes a million times longer doing it that way. :/



September 17th, 2011:

Click here to watch Ancient DOS Games Episode 60 - Raptor: Call of the Shadows

I consider today's episode of Ancient DOS Games to be a true test of my reviewing skills, with the comments all of you send me in response being the indication of whether I pass this test with flying colours or fail it miserably. You'll get what I mean within the first few seconds once I start talking in the video. ;)

One thing I'm going to be fixing over the next week are the meta tags here on the website, which are kinda screwed up and copy-pasted everywhere, so they don't link up with content properly. I'm not looking forwards to fixing them because there are over 100 pages on this site... >_>;

No news on any game ideas I'm working on. I'm still trying to settle on one and once I do, you will definitely know about it! ;)



September 10th, 2011:

Click here to watch Ancient DOS Games Episode 59 - Grand Prix Circuit

Just a quick update since I have nothing much to say about today's episode of ADG really, outside of what I already say in the review of course. ;)

I did fix a minor bug with a handful of the video pages themselves, and once I get up to my next filler I'm gonna take some time to fix all the meta tags across the entire website... they all need fixing... not looking forward to that... x_x;



September 3rd, 2011:

Click here to watch Ancient DOS Games Episode 58 - Traffic Department 2192

More quick updates due to the potential of disgruntled weather. :P

I wanted to also quickly mention though that I am still trying to work on my game ideas, but that I've been running into design issues with all of them. I'm doing my best to sort through them and finally settle on one that's solid enough to pour a bunch of effort into. When that happens, everyone will know! ;)



August 27th, 2011:

Click here to watch Ancient DOS Games Episode 57 - Impact / BlockBuster

Once again, another quick update since I'm suffering from quite the headache at the moment. Been having a lot of "meh" days lately. I am doing my best though to keep it from seeping into my ADG performances. :P

Oh, I did update the ADG Alphabetical Episode List so that games with multiple names would be listed multiple times for each of their names. (IE: "Fire Hawk / Thexder 2" is now also in the list as "Thexder 2 / Fire Hawk".)



August 19th, 2011:

Click here to watch Ancient DOS Games Episode 56 - Abuse

Super-quick, early ADG update since I'm going to bed in a few minutes and am going to miss my usual update time. Enjoy! :)



August 13th, 2011:

Click here to watch Ancient DOS Games Filler #8 - VVVVVV

OK, the game VVVVVV may be more C64 inspired rather than DOS inspired, but it's a fun game, and I made a custom level for it, so I figured I'd take a quick look at it before delving back into my collection of DOS games. ;)

Other than that, not much to report on at the moment, though I am pleased to say that the hit counts for ADG have been very slowly but steadily rising since it all began! When I first started the show, it took over a month to get the first 1,000 hits, and while the show as a whole still hasn't reached 6-digit hit-counts, it's roughly halfway there! ^_^

...yeah, I know, that's hardly impressive compared to the 1,000,000+ hits some web show artists get per episode, let alone their whole series, but some web show artists never even hit 5-digits, so I still think it's awesome to be getting anywhere with this. It's all thanks to those of you who continue to watch and continue to spread the word about ADG! :D



August 6th, 2011:

Click here to watch Ancient DOS Games Episode 55 - MechWarrior 2

Apologies if you loaded up Episode 55 and saw Telengard. This is what's called "making sure you pick the right file to upload". Should be fixed now. :P

Truly, I knew doing a MechWarrior 2 review was going to be difficult for a number of reasons, not just the fact that it's one of the best games ever made for DOS, but also the fact that there's a computer voice that's quite vocal during the gameplay and I was trying to figure out the best way to get around that... but couldn't really come up with anything. I'll have to figure some ways around that in any future reviews loaded with voicework in-game.

Also, I made a VVVVVV level.

OK, that deserves a little more explanation. VVVVVV is a retro-game put out by Distractionware that has incredibly simple gameplay, yet has a fun little story and absolutely epic music to go along with it. Although the game isn't very new, they recently ported the source code over to C and were able to add a built-in level editor that's incredibly easy to use. So over the course of two days I put together my own little level for the game entitled "Reactor Disaster" which I intend to keep up to date as new capabilities are added to the editor in future updates. Terry Cavanagh, the game's creator, also commented favourably on this level on the Distractionware forums, granted he said it was a might difficult so I quickly updated it afterwards to tone down the difficulty slightly... and add a few more rooms. ;)

You can download Reactor Disaster from this page in the Miscellanous Stuff section of the website, though of course, you need the full version of VVVVVV to play it. You'll also need to extract the level to a VVVVVV folder from within the "My Documents"/"Documents" section of your computer. (On Windows anyways. Not sure exactly where it goes on other operating systems.)



July 29th, 2011:

Click here to watch Ancient DOS Games Episode 54 - Telengard

This update's going online much earlier than usual because I'm probably going to be fast asleep during the normal update period; I would never wish my sleeping problems on anyone... >_>;

Don't really have much to say at the moment. Progress on my side projects, such as PixelShips 2 has been extraordinarily slow, as ADG really does take up the bulk of my time. Eventually I'll have some more game-related stuff to showcase, it's just gonna be awhile yet.



July 23rd, 2011:

Click here to watch Ancient DOS Games Episode 53 - SkyRoads

This update's going online a little early due to a risk of thunderstorms, so I'm also going to make this update as quick as I can just in case.

Besides the latest episode of Ancient DOS Games, I added a quick correction to the page for Episode 52 relating to Sound Blaster 16 sound support.

Should be interesting to see how many people get next week's game right! ;)



July 16th, 2011:

Click here to watch Ancient DOS Games Episode 52 - Cyberdogs

Despite the name of today's Ancient DOS Game, it has nothing to do with dogs, but instead is full of zombie cyborgs and guns... and chainsaws... and awesome... ;D

Not much else to say at the moment. I was super-tired when I did the voice over so it's not one of my best, but it does the job. Getting a voice over done wouldn't be so hard if I could just do one whenever I felt like it, but for environmental reasons, it's REALLY hard to find moments when I can record that won't pick up lots of background noise... except for the middle of the night, but then I run the risk of waking my neighbours up. x_x;



July 9th, 2011:

Click here to watch Ancient DOS Games Episode 51 - Duke Nukem

The Second Season of Ancient DOS Games has Begun!

I decided for the first episode of the season to cover a game virtually everyone should know about, just to stick with the familiar. The next episode will be a little bit more obscure, but not by too much. ;)

Hopefully everyone enjoys the new look and sound of the show. I also hope it plays properly for everyone as I've started rendering in MP4 format (Blip.tv then does a rapid conversion to M4V) with a slightly higher audio rate. If there's any playback issues with the new (or previous) episodes, make sure to let me know!

Also, I want to give a quick mention to the MetaFilter user "Lovecraft In Brooklyn", who single-handedly quadrupled my hit counts over the past couple days by posting a link to my website. (Yes, I'm able to look up link-backs and discovered the little post you made!) To answer a question some of your followers have: I haven't made my games for platforms other than Windows because I have no experience programming on other platforms short of MacOS, which I really did not enjoy programming for, nor do I have the financial capacity to invest in the equipment I would need to reliably do cross-platform development. Maybe someday, but with ADG being my primary focus at the moment, it won't be any day soon.

Here's a link to the post he made on MetaFilter: http://www.metafilter.com/105319/Gotta-blast-them-all



July 2nd, 2011:

Season 2 of Ancient DOS Games starts Saturday, July 9th!

Well, looks like my time off has expired. I spent my first week just playing Minecraft. I spent my second week hopping between multiple projects, including getting some work done for the look and sound of ADG Season 2.

Speaking of, as usual, the first three people to correctly guess what game I'm going to be reviewing will get their name in the credits. The hint for Episode 51 of ADG: It is a game that had a single letter changed in its name to try and avoid a copyright issue that never needed to be worried about in the first place. As usual, send your guesses to adg@pixelships.com!

I am still working on PixelShips 2 but because of the scope and size of the game, I've decided I really should make something smaller first, just to get back into the swing of game making. I'll have more details about the game I'm working on soon as I intend to keep a development journal going here on the website. ;)

Lastly, I'm thinking of giving an overview of my thoughts on Minecraft for the next filler episode of ADG, which is still a couple months away, but if anyone would like to see that, or if anyone has any other suggestions for what they would like to see in my fillers, or the regular episodes themselves, then feel free to make your suggestions!



June 18th, 2011:

Click here to watch Ancient DOS Games Episode 50 - 2000 Shareware Games CD

Today is the first season finale of Ancient DOS Games! I figure 50 episodes a season is good enough. With the first season over I'm going to be taking a break from my ADG duties for a couple weeks. Also note that I split today's episode into two parts. You'll find a link for the second part on the episode page itself, or you can just click this magical hyperlink thingy if you've already watched part 1. ;)

Episode 51, the first episode of the next season of Ancient DOS Games, will debut Saturday July 9th at the usual time. You may also want to check back a week beforehand because I'll have a hint posted right here on my website so everyone can send in their guesses as usual!

Other than that, there's not much else to say. If you missed any episodes, or if you feel like watching some again, they're all very much still online. Don't forget too that there's an alphabetical listing of the episodes in case there's a specific game you want to watch the review for again and don't recall which episode number it was. ;)



June 11th, 2011:

Click here to watch Ancient DOS Games Episode 49 - King's Quest II

Sorry for the "relatively" poor audio in today's ADG episode. This is what happens when various people and equipment in your suburban neighbourhood won't stop making noise for every waking hour during the entire week. I had to use some extreme noise filtering measures to mask it all out. x_x;

The next episode is Episode 50, and what I've declared to tbe the final episode of the first season of Ancient DOS Games. It'll be pretty epic, so be sure to tune in for it. Afterwards, I'll be taking a couple weeks to kick back and relax from dishing out so many regular and filler episodes every single week since I started this last May. I'm also going to take the time to update the graphical style just a little to keep things fresh, though I'm not going to change it dramatically so don't worry, ADG will still be the same show with the same format, it's just gonna be a little more presentable. ;)

I also noticed, much to my surprise, that I somehow went this long without linking to the VOGONS Forums! This is where I've been spending most of my time chatting about various old games and hardware, as well as keeping people up to date with ADG happenings in the Ancient DOS Games thread there. So yeah, if you're into retro games and hardware it's definitely a good place to go to find like-minded people. ;)



June 4th, 2011:

Click here to watch Ancient DOS Games Episode 48 - The Elder Scrolls I: Arena

Well, the giveaway is over, and the winners of The Witcher: Enhanced Edition gift codes are MP83, Nerka99, and Michiel Sikma. The randomly chosen winner of the gift code for The Witcher 2: Assassins of Kings is J?rg Lorenz. Congratulations to you all, you will be getting your gift codes shortly! ;)

Also, since today's episode is mature rated, just like the games being given away, here's the hint for next week's episode: It's a game that has the Batmobile in it, but is NOT actually a Batman game nor has anything to do with the Batman franchise.

One last thing, the Lazy Game Reviewer got his review of Corridor 7 up, which I made mention was going to happen in Episode 45 of ADG. I updated the Episode page with a direct link to check his review of that game out. ;)

Other than all of that, I've been up for over 20 hours straight now... I'm going to bed. Good night. :P



May 28th, 2011:

Click here to watch Ancient DOS Games Episode 47 - Electranoid

Today's episode of Ancient DOS Games is very special because thanks to the people at Good Old Games and the developers of DOSBox, we have some gift codes to give out! :D

Specifically, we have three gift codes to give away for The Witcher: Enhanced Edition, and one gift code to give away for The Witcher 2: Assassins of Kings which was recently released. Both games are mature-rated so this isn't really for the younger viewers of ADG, but hey, free games are free games!

To find out more about how to win these gift codes, just watch today's episode of Ancient DOS Games. Please note that the gift codes themselves do not have a cash value and cannot be exchanged for anything.

Also added a few links to the Links section as well as a legitimate download link for Flightmare to the page for ADG Episode 46. Fun stuff! ;)



May 21st, 2011:

Click here to watch Ancient DOS Games Episode 46 - Flightmare

So, presuming we're all still alive, there's a new episode of Ancient DOS Games for you to watch. Yay! ;D

Nothing much to say at the moment really. PixelShips 2 programming has gotten off to a slow start thanks to many other distractions, but at least it HAS started. I'm thinking of doing a video series to show the various stages of development of it, but considering the amount of work ahead of me, not just with the game but with ADG, I may just resort to static images and text like when I was making Space Fortress 2...

...which I have NOT forgotten about! It's just when I went back to the source I noticed it was in a rather poor state because I had just begun to integrate initialization routines into the main game system, rather than having everything pre-defined at a code level. That... and the title screen is crashing. I dunno when I'll have the time to try and make SF2 playable, but at the same time, I'm still wondering if I can perhaps take what currently exists and remake it into something hardware accelerated? This is why I haven't released any Space Fortress 2 stuff yet, because there's still a lot of possibilities and I'm not sure where to take them.

Feel free to make suggestions. ;)



May 14th, 2011:

Click here to watch Ancient DOS Games Filler #7 - DOSBox Sound Support

Today's filler is actually a request... sorta. The request was to do a filler about all the various sound cards out there, but since I have very little personal experience with the actual hardware, I instead decided to focus on the DOSBox side of things while still providing a bit of history. Hopefully that's good enough. ;)

In other news, I've begun programming PixelShips 2! Nothing to see yet, just base initialization routines and such, but once I actually have some stuff to show I'll start a project page to chart the course of the production. However, even with PixelShips 2 in the works for real now, ADG is still my main project and gets top priority, so it could still be many months, probably over a year, before PixelShips 2 is finished. Time will tell.



May 7th, 2011:

Click here to watch Ancient DOS Games Episode 45 - Stellar 7

Quick update because I'm really tired and need to go to bed. No one guessed today's ADG episode correctly, much to my surprise, though I'm willing to bet a bunch of people are going to facepalm once they see this game in action. ;P

I also made yet another update in regards to my first ADG filler video by adding a more direct link for buying the Floppy to USB conversion kit. I still recommend reading the article I originally linked to first though, because it's quite the process to use this thing.

And again, don't forget to watch the filler next Saturday if you want to take a guess at what's gonna be reviewed in Ancient DOS Games Episode 46! ;)



April 30th, 2011:

Click here to watch Ancient DOS Games Episode 44 - Supaplex

Remind me never to review another Boulder Dash style game unless the entire planet requests it... >_>;

Yeah, Boulder Dash is one of the extremely few games I'm terrible at, and clones of it are no exception, but I did my best anyways in today's Ancient DOS Games review and besides, I had to review such a game sooner or later. I made a couple mistakes in the video too which I didn't catch until it came time to upload so please be sure you check the corrections on the video page before you send me angry eMails saying I don't know what I'm talking about... ^_^;

A couple other interesting tid-bits came my way too. Firstly, there's been a small update to the information for my very first ADG Filler Video. It seems there now exists a conversion kit that allows you to make a 5 1/4" floppy drive work through a USB port. It's quite a bit of work to get working but is a viable solution to the trouble of there being no such thing as a USB 5 1/4" drive.

Secondly, I've added a link to Steven Don's website to the links page. He primarily runs a technology blog but also has lots of additional goodies for people like myself who dabble in both programming AND video editing. Everyone who frequents this little place of mine should take at least a brief look. ;)



April 23rd, 2011:

Click here to watch Ancient DOS Games Episode 43 - Magic Carpet

Whew! Long episode today. Could've made it even longer but really, once I reached my sixth page of the script I realized I had to wind it down before things got too out of hand. Besides, I barely got this one done in time and spent virtually every waking moment yesterday and today getting this episode ready! :O

In any case, I did my best to do the game justice. The next game I'm reviewing is much simpler so it'll give me time to work on PixelShips 2 among other things. :)



April 16th, 2011:

Click here to watch Ancient DOS Games Episode 42 - Round 42

Nothing much to say this time around, other than that I'm getting this update up a little early 'cause I'm barely awake and need to go to bed ASAP. :P

One thing I'll quickly say is that most of the guesses were for Hitchhiker's Guide to The Galaxy, not Round 42. I do explain why I decided to go with Round 42 instead in the episode itself.

BTW: PixelShips 2 work is progressing, but it's still very very early stuff. I probably won't be able to show anything substantial until June at the earliest. At least my idea for it is solid now and, beyond Ancient DOS Games, it is really the only other project I'm working on.



April 9th, 2011:

Click here to watch Ancient DOS Games Episode 41 - Teen Agent

It's kinda interesting that the game I reviewed on Ancient DOS Games today was made by a Polish game company, since I believe there is some Polish background in my family tree. (One of my great grandmothers could speak Polish, I know that much for certain.)

Actually, the more ADG episodes I produce, the more I realize that many of the games I enjoyed growing up were made all over the world, which is actually pretty neat. Now, being Canadian, I just need to start finding some Canadian made stuff! ;)

I'm also making progress on PixelShips 2. It's still in the initial design phase but it's going VERY well. So far, the only details I'm prepared to let slip are that the game will use hardware acceleration, that there will be 240 PixelShips, 50% more than the previous games including ALL of the originals, that you will be able to install upgrades, that you will be able to build PixelShips and Upgrades out of their component pixels, and that the gameplay will be from an overhead perspective where you can turn in 360-degrees. Considering all the work I'm doing with ADG though it could be a year or two before anything substantial really starts to come about from the PixelShips 2 project. A TON of the people who've made their way to my corner of the internet want to see PixelShips 2, and now that I have a solid idea for it after all these years, it's time to get it made! :D



April 2nd, 2011:

Click here to watch Ancient DOS Games Filler #6 - My Tandy 1000SX Computer

Much to the surprise of some people, I was actually playing IBM PC games at home before any others. It would be a full year of gaming on our old Tandy system before I got a Gameboy, an NES, an NES, a Genesis and a Game Gear, in that order. (And no, I did not make a typo there.)

Suffice to say, I learned to be patient when it comes to games, but I have a rule of thumb. If the loading times of a modern game exceed those of a relative-quality 80's PC game, then its loading times are too long.

I'm getting off track though. Today's filler video is mostly just a look at how the system works and some gameplay on it, so if you're not into those kinds of videos it may be a little boring. Have no fear though, the standard ADG series resumes next Saturday as usual! ;)



March 26th, 2011:

Click here to watch Ancient DOS Games Episode 40 - Command & Conquer!

It's no secret: I suck at most strategy games, unless they were made by Bullfrog. In any case, I decided to give C&C a review because it is a very important game in DOS gaming history and really needs to be mentioned before I do any other strategy games. I know Dune II set the standards first, not C&C, but Dune II was pretty rough around the edges and very user unfriendly. C&C on the other hand is almost perfect.

Next is a filler episode too, so if there's any particular things you want to see, feel free to send in your suggestions. Right now, I'm thinking of doing a look back at my old Tandy 1000 SX computer, but I'm always happy to entertain suggestions. ;)



March 19th, 2011:

Click here to watch Ancient DOS Games Episode 39 - Donald Duck's Playground!

Please don't mind if I sound kinda dead in today's episode of Ancient DOS Games. I'm STILL getting over whatever virus my body was infected with last week. >_>;

In other news, I now have an RSS FEED! This has been one of the most requested features for the website and it took me awhile to figure out the best way to implement one, but there it is. Your browser should also be pointing out that the feed's there.

Beyond that, nothing much else to say for the moment... I don't think... Oh! I almost forgot! I added a couple notes about Sango Fighter to bottom of the ADG Episode 38 page, provided by Brandon Cobb, President of Super Fighter Team.



March 12th, 2011:

Click here to watch Ancient DOS Games Episode 38 - Sango Fighter!

Sorry this episode went up a little late. I've been... "fairly" sick for the past week and it made it difficult to get the episode done, coupled with a personal thing I needed to tend to for a couple days that couldn't be postponed, those days been my crunch days for ADG, Thursday and Friday.

Yeah, I should probably get a buffer of episodes going at some point so that stuff like this doesn't happen. :P

Not much else to say at the moment. I'm slowly getting better so the next ADG should come out on time. I might not have the RSS ready for it like I had planned, but if not, by Episode 40 for sure!

Oh! I had to change the little note I recently added about Ken's Labyrinth once agian. It's extremely confusing and apparently I had simplified it the wrong way. It happens. :P



March 5th, 2011:

Click here to watch Ancient DOS Games Episode 37 - Major Stryker!

Got a few things to mention today. Firstly, next week's ADG episode might be a little late. I'm not going to be able to work on it during most of my crunch days of Thursday and Friday, which means I won't be able to check guesses and properly render the credits and such until VERY late Friday.

Secondly, I added an interesting tidbit about Ken's Labyrinth to the information on the ADG Episode 22 - Ken's Labyrinth page, provided by Jan L?nnberg, the person behind the source port of Ken's Labyrinth. :)

Lastly, yes it's true, I've been playing a lot of Minecraft. It's kinda bittersweet since I had a very similar idea to Minecraft way back in 2005, but I lacked the experience and resources to even attempt to make my game. At the same time though, what Mojang and his team have put together is pretty epic, although still very much a beta and prone to glitches and crashes. Before I got the beta though a particular person snapped up some YouTube footage of me building stuff on the Royal Kingdom Minecraft Classic server. You can check out his quick little video at http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4U274-VQH80.



February 26th, 2011:

Click here to watch Ancient DOS Games Episode 36 - Tank Wars!

Nothing much to say this update, though as a little bit of a bonus, I've also uploaded a bloopers video; outakes from filming the live action for last week's filler episode. You can access this video from the Filler #5 page or through this wonderful little link: Filler #5 Bloopers!



February 19th, 2011:

Click here to watch Ancient DOS Games Filler #5 - The NES Wiggle Trick!

One thing I think is important is to diversify without destroying the core point of my show. This is part of the reason why I do filler videos in the first place, because I want to be able to talk about things that aren't specifically related to DOS, which is why today's video is related to the NES. :P

Even if you weren't into the NES, you should still check out the filler video anyways just to take a guess as to what game's coming next on ADG! ;)

Also, I want to give a shout out to Clint Basinger of Lazy Game Reviews, who recently checked out my web show and felt it was good enough to send some of his audience my way. He does a similar show where he reviews classic games and hardware, as well as a few modern ones. You can check out his stuff at http://www.youtube.com/user/phreakindee.

BTW: I am very aware that certain browsers, most notably Google Chrome, have issues with the links on the side of the page, but I never had a clue how to fix it. Thanks to a friend though, I finally have a solution to this issue, but it has to be done by hand (find/replace functions don't want to work properly) and has to be done multiple times on every single webpage, so I'm going to discretely fix this problem over the next few hours. If you're catching this update in the morning, the links should be working perfectly fine by then. :)



February 12th, 2011:

Click here to watch Ancient DOS Games Episode 35 - SimCity!

Thirty five episodes of Ancient DOS Games... fifteen more and I hit the 50-mark... that's just crazy to think about. :O

Since my filler episodes seem to be the ones that get the most attention, I've decided to start doing them more often: Once every five regular ADG episodes. Now that I have a half-decent video camera, it's time to do a filler regarding a trick I've wanted to talk about for a long time. Even nowadays, I still see people on the net blowing into NES cartridges or performing surgery to their grey toasters trying to get them working and I just shake my head. There's not just one, but TWO tricks that can get around having to do these things, and so long as your NES and game carts are clean, they work 99% of the time. My NES is over 20 years old and I've never had to replace pins and I've never blown on a cartridge (except to get visible debris out) since childhood.

What are these tricks? Tune in next Saturday to find out! I'll also have the hint for the next ADG episode at the end of the filler. ;)



February 5th, 2011:

Click here to watch Ancient DOS Games Episode 34 - LineWars & LineWars II!

Once again, nothing much to say today, except that this update is being made a little early... and that I managed to stump everyone as to which games I would be taking a look at. :P

The next ADG episode is going to be almost blatantly obvious, so make sure to send your guesses in ASAP!



January 29th, 2011:

Click here to watch Ancient DOS Games Episode 33 - EarthSiege!

Nothing much to say today, other than that today's ADG episode came out pretty well, that I'm getting better at working with the audio from my video camera, and that next episode is going to feature TWO games so make sure you guess both of them when sending in your guesses!



January 22nd, 2011:

Click here to watch Ancient DOS Games Episode 32 - MechWarrior!

I swear, the censoring at the start of today's video is meant for comedic effect more than anything! ^_^;

Yeah, doing a review of the original MechWarrior is something I needed to be careful of since 7 of the 8 mechs you can pilot in it are all "unseen" mechs that were originally based on trademarked designs owned by other companies. Some people might consider me weak for not just showing it all as it is, but at the same time, keeping those elements as minimal as possible makes it far less likely I'll have to take the video down should a dispute arise. (Even the most popular web show artists on the internet have had to cut stuff out of their videos, or remove entire episodes from their websites.)

I also finally have the Megazeux section back up on my website. About a decade ago I was making Megazeux games for a couple of years, and over time I had migrated that work off of my website. Now that I have a video review of Megazeux online I felt it was fitting to bring it all back on a newly dedicated Megazeux page! At the same time, I also updated my port of the Town of ZZT to Megazeux to fix the keys so they will work in ALL versions of Megazeux from v2.51 and up. ;)



January 15th, 2011:

Click here to watch Ancient DOS Games Episode 31 - Megazeux!

Considering I used to make games for Megazeux, it's sort of fitting that I finally did an Ancient DOS Games episode to cover it. The first half of the games showcased in this week's ADG episode were made by other people, while the last half are games I made myself roughly a decade ago.

I'm gonna try to get my Megazeux stuff online on my website for the next update, but no promises. In the meantime, just search for "gemini" over at the DigitalMZX website and all the Megazeux stuff I ever released will show up. ;)

One last thing that's been on my mind: Since my filler episodes are some of my most popular I'm thinking of doing them twice as often, once every five regular episodes instead of once every ten. I'm also thinking of doing fillers that don't have anything to do with DOS gaming, though still focus on gaming or retro-gaming in general. Be sure to send me an eMail if you have any thoughts on that! :)



January 8th, 2011:

Click here to watch Ancient DOS Games Episode 30 - Covert Action!

Just barely got this episode done in time! I bought some new equipment for doing both audio and video and the audio portion didn't work very nicely, so I got delayed quite a bit, but thankfully had enough time to pull this all off. ^_^;

Also, it seems something went wrong with ADG Episode 28 - FX Fighter. I have no idea what so I'm reuploading the video file and with any luck that will make it work once again. Please let me know if the video fails a second time!



January 1st, 2011:

Click here to watch ADG Filler #4 - DOSBox Command Prompt!

A new year is upon us and this means many more episodes of Ancient DOS Games to come! But for now, I'm finishing off the two fillers for the holidays. Today's filler talks about how to work with the command prompt inside DOSBox, since that can be the one most intimidating aspect of getting a DOS game working.

Next Saturday will be the start of all new ADG episodes for 2011, and make sure to watch today's filler even if you already know how to use DOSBox because at the end there will be a hint as to what game I'll be reviewing in ADG Episode 30!

drex
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