Help identify Old Hovertank game

Question

I'm looking for info regarding an old hover tank /vehicular combat game that I played the demo of long ago.

It combined real-time strategy base-building with vehicular combat. The player took direct control of a tank, and assaulted a succession of enemy bases. After taking out the turrets and buildings in the enemy place, you could use your resources to build a new base, harvest resources to fund a new assault, repeat ad infinitum until there are no more bases on the map.

There were multiple weapon types, and though many of the enemy units were tanks, you could also run into infantry and aircraft on the enemy side. I believe it may have been possible to jump into allied tanks as well to switch what you were controlling.

I distinctly remember purchased buildings falling from the sky, thunking solidly into the ground prefabricated.

The game was full 3-d, with several tilesets, a desert oasis tileset, and a snowy conifer forest tileset at least.

The game came out for windows 98, and was definitely part of some demo, which offered only some of the levels and missions.

Bit of a long shot, perhaps, but I figure I may as well toss it out here.

Answer

This sounds somewhat like Uprising: Join or Die.

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Was there a code for “Hyper Sonic” in Sonic 2?

Question

I remember inputting cheat codes in the music test for Super Sonic anytime in Sonic 2 , but I remember there was either a way or a cheat code to get "Hyper Sonic". Does anyone remember?

Answer

From http://cheats.freeola.com/megadrive_i/sonic-2_910.html:

"Run forward in Oil Ocean, Act 2 until reaching the green jet springs. Jump on the very last spring and hold Right. Sonic will hit a group of spikes before becoming stuck in the side of the wall. Jump out to transform into Hyper Sonic. In this mode, Sonic can run faster and jump farther than Super Sonic, but is not invincible."

As I have never tested this cheat before, I cannot guarantee that it works.

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Whats the name of this old 8-bit computer game?

Question

My dad had an old amiga computer with a disc that had this game. it was 8-bit looking. you were in one room (overhead view) and had to shoot these aliens or robots that came out of the vortexes on the floor. the walls were one color. the floor another color. the enemies were hard to tell what they were but also just one color each. your bullet was just a dot. the disc had other games like nakamoto, frogger, pyramid run. most likely 80's game.

Answer

Robotron/Llamatron?

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What is this game: old game where lines(asteroids) are going down the city

Question

I've played this old PC game where there is only one screen of a city then falling stars/asteroids shown as lines go down on varying speeds. You have to click them for them to not hit the city. Once it hits the city, game over. It's in 2D and it's old. What is the name of this game?

Answer

Sounds like Missile Command or one of its many, many clones, and if that's the case, those aren't asteroids. They are nuclear warheads.

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Original Zelda for the Wii

Question

I loved the old gold-cartridge Zelda, and I've played (and own) the latest Zelda adventure where you can go trotting off through a fairly realistic 3D world, including swimming and they make full use of the wiimotes.

Is there a version of the gold-cartridge for the Wii? Where can I get one, if so, and how much does it cost?

Answer

Yes, the original Zelda is available on Nintendo's Virtual Console. I believe the majority of the NES games are 500 Wii points.

To obtain any Virtual Console games, open the Wii Shop Channel and choose the Virtual Console icon. You can browse the games by system or genre. Once purchased, the game is downloaded to your Wii and appears in one of the channel screens. For NES games, you can get away with using the Wii remote turned sideways as your controller, since you only need two buttons. For SNES and up, you will want a Classic Controller, since that gives you all the buttons you need.

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Identify, Old Windows Point and click adventure game. Pixel art set in the future puzzle and problem solving

Question

Alright, I can't remember which year I played this in but it was definitely from 1998-Early 2000's Was definitely played on Windows 2000 or Windows 98 but I'm leaning towards 2000. However its possible the game could have been released before that. Graphics were 2D most likely pixel art from the little I can remember. And to progress through the story you had to overcome various obstacles/problems. almost certain it was a point and click. It had full on music as far as I can remember due to its immersiveness. Not sure on whether or not it was a CD-ROM but I think I remember it having an .exe (Also something else that might be of assistance I remember playing games like Missile Command the 3D version around the same time)

In the game you controlled a young boy who I think started off in his room and noticed things were off. In his room were two badly adhered speakers and CD's everywhere (he comments on this) and I'm almost certain the walls and such were green. You had to escape his room using various objects as far as I know; (I played Mysteries Of Time And Space earlier and it's pretty similar although I think I remember wider zooms at times where the character was in view) but a little while longer into the story he realizes he's awakened in the future. At one point you come to a section with a lot of stores. The whole setting I remember was like suburban slums. It was a very cool game, pretty long from what I can remember and I never got through the story I would be so grateful if anyone could identify this.

Answer

Sounds like "Out of Order." Never played it myself.

It's freeware. You can still download it from the developer: http://outoforder.adventuredevelopers.com/

Ciao!

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What back up options exist for NES cartridges?

Question

My beloved NES cartridges are getting pretty old, and recently some of them have been functioning sporadically.

Do you know of other backup alternatives other than RetroZone's PowerPak? It's pretty expensive. Is it the only alternative?

Answer

Another strategy would be to find copies of the cartridge.

Try looking in local pawnshops. They usually have lots of old cartridges for next to nothing. You might have to look for awhile if you're looking for specific games.

You can also ask at a GameStop if they have any suggestions for where to look.

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Can you name an early 1990s tank based shooting game on Macintosh System 7.5?

Question

There was a very simple tank shooting game that came out in the early 1990s for Macintosh System 7.5 (I was able to run it on System 7).

I only have some very random memories about it; anyone have an idea on what it was called?

Game features:

• Tank shooter, in a fixed arena (squared box).
• Internal and aerial view of tank.
• Wire frame mode for slower Macs.

Game objective:

• Score points for destroyed enemy tanks, within a counting down round time.

Answer

Thanks to @tzenes suggestion of 'Battlezone' that looked similar in the wire frame mode, but not quite what I remember.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battlezone_(1980_video_game)#Clones

In the 'list of clones' I was able to go through and discover, the game I was thinking of:

It was...

Spectre VR

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Spectre_(computer_game)

It looks to be available for purchase on the iPhone too:

http://spectre3d.com

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Why does RollerCoaster Tycoon (original) on a Windows 7 64-bit VM display a black screen on launch?

Question

I'm currently trying to avoid Windows XP mode since the Windows 7 installation itself is a VM (running on a Mac Mini). Regardless, here's my description of the problem.

The game successfully launches, but displays a black screen. You can hear the music play on the title world. I end up using ALT-TAB to switch out of full screen mode so I can quit. I know that once I get the game into windowed mode it'll work fine, however I've tried numerous command line switches to no avail.

I have the following compatibility options currently set:

• Compatibility mode: Windows XP SP2 (also have tried Windows 98/ME and Windows 95)
• Disable visual themes (at least required for the save dialog to appear)
• Disable desktop composition
• Run this program as Administrator (otherwise I know the game cannot save)

I have also tried (no success):

• Run in 256 colors. I've also switched to the Windows 7 Basic theme and 800x600 resolution.
• Run in 640x480 resolution.
• Disable display scaling on high DPI settings.

I've tried the original game, with and without Corkscrew Follies installed, and with and without all known available patches.

So I'm looking to get the display working, regardless of method. If there's a command-line switch I can use to force a windowed mode (I've tried -w, -win, -window, -windowed) that would be just as fine.

Answer

I've been able to run the game under Wine, so you may have better luck with that then in your Windows VM.

Instructions for installing Wine on your Mac are here.

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What was this DOS / CGA puzzler/platformer?

Question

This is one for gamers from the PC's CGA era. It's a game I remember playing as a kid on my Dad's WYSE PC (Had a green monochrome CGA display, 5.25" floppy drive and 20MB hard drive!!)

Game description
It's a puzzler/platformer, where you control an alien looking for parts to fix his ship. You can move left, right, jump and after picking up a pistol a few screens after starting you can shoot (until the pistol runs out of ammo).

The game is divided up into screens, you have to reach the left/right of your current screen to move to the next one.

There are enemies in the game that kill you on contact, you are able to kill them by shooting them.

You are able to pick up items in the game. I remember there being drinks you could have, some would kill you, others would swap the controls round for a time.

Also you had a health/air/power (One of those) level, which slowly go lower as you played the game. If it ran out it was game over.

I thought the name of the game was Galactix - but I can't find anything on the internet to support this.

Above is a mock-up of how I remember the starting screen for the game. You start standing in front of a large rocket, the one you have to recover parts for. The right hand column of the screen is used to show inventory and health information.

Any ideas?

Answer

The game is Galactix. It was a free game that came with the September 1988 issue of PcPlus.

For your viewing pleasure: http://youtube.com/watch?v=h1t01JMvHXg

Heres a screenshot:

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What online retailers sell vintage games or box art?

Question

I've been looking for an original Archon I for C64 for ages now, but all the offers on ebay are crazy expensive. So I thought I'd ask if anybody knows an online retailer that does trading of very old vintage video games?

I'm not interested in ROMs, as in fact I want the game just for the beautiful packaging it came with.

Answer

Old games that are in excellent condition can potentially be worth a lot of money, so it is not surprising that you have found Archon I sell for a lot of money on eBay. If you are adamant about obtaining this game, you need to research how much the game has been selling for over the last year or two and be prepared to pay approximately the same amount for the game. It will require patience and self restraint, but you should eventually be able to purchase that game you so desire.

Racketboy.com is my favorite community driven retro games website out there. They have some great guides to help you get informed on the best way to proceed with retro game purchases:

• How To Find The Best Gaming Deals on eBay
• Comparing Massive Markups For Pristine Retro Games
• Learn How Much Your Video Games Are Worth

They also have a thriving forum with several members that are avid retro gamers and game collectors (some of them even own video game stores), and many of them have channels that they can call upon to find rare games for a fair price.

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Buying old games in original packaging

Question

I've been looking for an original Archon I for C64 for ages now, but all the offers on ebay are crazy expensive. So I thought I'd ask if anybody knows an online retailer that does trading of very old vintage video games?

I'm not interested in ROMs, as in fact I want the game just for the beautiful packaging it came with.

Answer

Old games that are in excellent condition can potentially be worth a lot of money, so it is not surprising that you have found Archon I sell for a lot of money on eBay. If you are adamant about obtaining this game, you need to research how much the game has been selling for over the last year or two and be prepared to pay approximately the same amount for the game. It will require patience and self restraint, but you should eventually be able to purchase that game you so desire.

Racketboy.com is my favorite community driven retro games website out there. They have some great guides to help you get informed on the best way to proceed with retro game purchases:

• How To Find The Best Gaming Deals on eBay
• Comparing Massive Markups For Pristine Retro Games
• Learn How Much Your Video Games Are Worth

They also have a thriving forum with several members that are avid retro gamers and game collectors (some of them even own video game stores), and many of them have channels that they can call upon to find rare games for a fair price.

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Why do people use DOSBox over Virtualbox in a gaming context?

Question

I've noticed that a number of people here use DOSBox for playing older titles on modern PC hardware.

I am very familiar with VirtualBox, I use it to virtualize several operating systems. I have also read up on it's current 3d support.

My question is what is the advantage of something like DOSBox over VirtualBox?

Is it essentially for ease of use? With VB I have to install the actual DOS package and manipulate memory management, etc as I did back in the real dos days (presumably). Does DOSBox remove these sorts of configuration issues?

I'm considering running games that would have had requirements in the 100's of Mhz on an i7-2600k, so I'm not terribly concerned about virtualization overhead unless there's some specific gotcha that I don't know about

Answer

VirtualBox is a general-purpose computer emulator, and nothing else. It doesn't come with any operating system (you need to install one). The guest operating system is fairly "isolated" from the host. You can only access a host directory from the guest system through SMB sharing (over a virtual network).

DOSBox is a 16/32-bit x86 emulator that already comes with a DOS-like operating system pre-installed. The objective is to run DOS applications as easy as possible. It doesn't require a virtual harddrive image, as it can access host directories directly (after mounting a directory as a virtual drive — this is only possible because DOSBox also emulates the operating system). It also has some features to emulate old networking hardware (such as dial-up modems and IPX network) over TCP/IP.

VirtualBox uses virtualization, which means it requires a host CPU of the same architecture of the guest system.

DOSBox is a full emulator, all CPU instructions have been re-implemented in C, and it can run on any hardware. (there are videos of DOSBox running inside Symbian Nokia phones)

In a nutshell: DOSBox has been designed to run old DOS applications and games in a fairly easy way, in any host system.

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Glossary:

• Host: the system/computer that runs the emulator.
• Guest: the emulated system/computer that runs inside the emulator

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Crash and Reboot When Running mame.exe (MAME Emulator)

Question

I downloaded the latest version of the MAME Emulator (version 0.142 - mame0142b.exe) from the address below recently:

http://mamedev.org/release.html

Unfortunately, when I execute the mame.exe file from the command line it just crashes (screen goes black for a second, then PC reboots by itself - no error is shown). I've tried running it without any ROMs, but still got the same problem.

I have the latest drivers installed (275.33) for my NVIDIA GeForce 6100 nForce 405. I am using Windows XP Home SP 3.

Could you please advise how to get the emulator to run without crashing?

Here is the error I received (after disabling automatic restart):

Technical Information:

STOP: 0x0000008E (0xC0000005, 0xBD1B1642, 0xB1078658, 0x00000000) nv4_disp.dll - Address BD1BD1642 base at BD012000, DateStamp 4dd7387f

Answer

A video driver bug is the most likely culprit. Try running mame in a window instead of fullscreen with the switch -window. You could also try -video gdi.

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How to make Skip98 work on Windows 7 Home Premium 64-bit

Question

My Mother in law was playing to an old freeware Skip-bo game on her Windows XP computer, it's called Skip98. You could still find it by goggling it, but the original site is down.

She bought a new Laptop, it came with Windows 7 Home Premium 64-bit and I cannot get this old game working on it, I get corrupted graphics.

I check this question, but she has Home Premium version, so Microsoft state that :

You are not eligible to download Windows XP Mode. You must have Windows 7 Professional, Enterprise, or Ultimate to run Windows XP Mode. To upgrade visit Windows 7 Anytime Upgrade.

And she is not interested in upgrading to "get a free game working".

Meanwhile, I found a browser version, by the same programmer, but she likes to play when she doesn't have Internet access (example, at theirs holiday home).

How could I get it to work, or is there any free alternative?

Answer

I'm the author of SkipWE. I created a ZIP file which should allow you to run SkipWE without internet access. Simply download the file from the link below, extract it to your desktop (or elsewhere), then double-click the "SkipWE.exe" file. Hopefully that will work at your mother's holiday home :)

FILE: http://www.megaupload.com/?d=78RHS2UQ

Enjoy!

-PF

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Identify old adventure game about espionage

Question

It had lots of full motion video and came on something like 5 or 6 CD-ROMs. I remember two puzzles from it - CSI-style photo enhancement and something about torturing the witness using electricity.

Answer

It sounds like "Spycraft: The Great Game"

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Spycraft:_The_Great_Game

http://games.multimedia.cx/spycraft-the-great-game/

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Can't remember name of old flight simulator game…

Question

I'm trying to remember the name of an old flight simulator game I used to play as a kid (not too long ago, around the release of Windows 95 or 98). My memory is a little crappy, so please try to bear with me (the time frame should help, though - 1995/6 to 1998).

I remember playing the game as 3D, though it was front-facing into the computer with perspective, and as the pilot, I had to try and avoid hitting blocks that were coming at me on a grid. Does this sound like anything familiar? I was around 3-5 then, so I'm sorry I can't remember much.

If the color scheme helps, the background was reddish, and the blocks coming at me were blue. I remember that I kept getting to some screen with a bunch of flags on it (I assume a multinational disclaimer of some kind), but of course, I couldn't read, so I can't tell you anything beyond that.

I've been looking for this game for ages, and for whatever reason, the internet hasn't yet compiled a list of all released flight simulators, so I have nowhere to look this up. If anyone remembers anything like this, let me know... thanks!

Answer

Perhaps it was Cylindrix? One of its "maps" has blue blocks and red background. You can download and play it for free to check if it's the same.

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Cylindrix is not a flight simulator. The thing is, when you write

I had to try and avoid hitting blocks that were coming at me on a grid

It doesn't sound at all like a flight simulator. In the flight simulators I know th eonly obstacle is the ground (and sometimes buildings), and there's certainly no "grid". I think the reason you are having a hard time finding it is because you search for a flight simulator.

If anything, it sounds more like a fly-in-tunnel game, something like this flash game (only with added obstacles). Is that closer to what you remember? Unfortunately I don't remember any games like that from ~1995, only games in which you could not fly - such as the wonderful SkyRoads (also free).

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