Episodes – DOS Game Club

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!

[ download mp3 ] (144 mins, 165 MB)

* 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 veteran 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!

[ download mp3 ] (133 mins, 153 MB)

* 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!

[ download mp3 ] (106 mins, 122 MB)

* 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!

[ download mp3 ] (140 mins, 161 MB)

* 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!

[ download mp3 ] (129 mins, 148 MB)

* 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!

[ download mp3 ] (107 mins, 123 MB)

* 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!

[ download mp3 ] (87 mins, 100 MB)

* 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!

[ download mp3 ] (84 mins, 96 MB)

* 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!

[ 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!

* 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!

[ 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!

* 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