2021-03-06 16:41:43

hey guys.
I know the audio game remakes topic is active if you want to talk about old games, but this topic is about some thing different.
i don't know if any one remembers any more, but back in 2019, Aaron made a topic in which he posted reviews, not game recordings, but his thoughts about games like troopinam.
sadly, the topic became inactive very early, but this is basically another topic like that.
i will post reviews about the older games that i liked, and we can talk about them, and of course, if any one else would also like to write reviews, they are more than welcome.
my first review is about super liam.
before i continue, i think i need to say some thing about when i found this game.
this was one of my first audio games.
before this, all I played were the blind fold games, which, despite being quite fun games, weren't the same.
when I read the read me, i was so excited.
there were a few problems running the game, and i thought they could never be fixed.
but I finally found a solution, and i remember being so excited.
i think i kept playing almost non stop for days, and i kept failing at level 4.
the reason i'm talking about all this is that i will always be very grateful to that game.
with that out of the way, let's start the review.
there are good things, and bad things.
i will start with the good, then move on to the bad.
the cut scenes.
this was my first game with cut scenes, and i loved them.
the levels.
i think, for the most part, the levels were pretty good and interesting.
the game has some really cool mechanics, like the final boss fight.
i also liked the different ambiences of each level, my favorite is level five.
major final boss spoilers. you have been warned.
i know it was a bug, but i liked the secret spot on the left end of the right most platform in the final boss fight.
end spoilers
i also liked that a few later levels also combined the things in earlier levels, as well as adding their own.
now, the bad things.
there are lots of plot holes.
i'm listing a few below.
if liam could fly like in the cut seen, why didn't he just fly over all the traps?
second, this isn't really a plot hole, but if doctor quark defeated x1 in the past, how did he return?
also, i don't think doctor quark asked for an adventurer in the news, so how did liam know quark needed him?
another thing i don't like, is how long level 4 is.
it also gets repetitive, and if you make a single mistake, you die.
also, i don't like the fact that you can't skip the score announcements.
another thing i don't like, is the fact that until level 3, every thing is nice and easy.
then, level four is so hard and long, that people are caught off guard.
i would have liked act two of level 4 to be cut by at least a third.
i think that's all the bad things.
out of a scale of 10, i would give this game an eight.
if people want a long and complicated adventure, i don't think this is for you.
if people just want some simple side scrolling fun, don't look further.
that is my review of super liam. feel free to completely disagree, but please don't flame.
also feel free to talk about what old audio games you like and why you like them.

2021-03-07 02:49:47

Nice thoughts there kavya. Superliam is sort of a perennial favourite for me, and one I go back to to run through again occasionally, just for fun.
From a modern perspective, I do sort of wish the information about the enemies and obstacles in each level was contained within the game, much like crazy party and The gate so you could discover them as you go on, but in general I like how well things work.

also, it always amazes me with many older games just how well thought out a lot of the mechanics are, and even when they have comparatively few design elements, how well they're employed.
superliam isn't random the way that Crazy party levels or other audio side scrollers are, but often traps and enemies are just well placed, particularly those ambush moments when enemies come from both sides and it's necessary to charge forward, Moe down what's in front of you, and then turn around quick.

With our dreaming and singing, Ceaseless and sorrowless we! The glory about us clinging Of the glorious futures we see,
Our souls with high music ringing; O men! It must ever be
That we dwell in our dreaming and singing, A little apart from ye. (Arthur O'Shaughnessy 1873.)

2021-03-07 04:23:10

I also love how polished the sounds were in old games. Sure, they were no VG Storm, but hey, they were quite good, especially since everything was self-voiced.

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2021-03-22 06:53:01

hello everyone, sorry for the short apsense.
this time, i will do a review on troopinam 2.
also, sorry for mis spelling troopinam.
like my super Liam review, i will split this into the good, and the bad.
let's start with the good.
the announcer.
i don't know why, but I absolutely love the announcer's  voice.
the effects make her sound exactly like a robot and that makes the game feel sifi.
the bonus levels.
unlike in a few other games, the bonus levels aren't simply a slightly altered version of the main game.
trying to keep a ship at the center of the screen is a nice change from shooting ships.
the sounds.
like i already said, the game sounds very sifi.
everything from the announcer voice, to the ship sounds, to the voice of lord Vecter, and even the level up sound some how sound like advanced technology.
the variety.
in later levels, the different types of ships are very different and a challenge in their own way.
the modes.
this is the only game i know of where you have so many modes like being able to play the hardest levels first, or to have more or less of a certain ship.
the gorbian ships.
this is something which, as far as i know, has never been dun in another space invader game.
firstly, the gorbian levels feel 3d because you have to target the ship horizontally, and vertically.
also, the developers seemed to understand that it is hard for some one to focus on pitch or volume in a game like this.
so, they made it that the target beeps get faster as you get closer vertically.
i think that's all the good things.
now, on to the bad things.
the levels. i understand that a game should be long, but the more uneek ships only come later, and the first 7 levels are only, center, shoot. meaning, center a ship, and shoot it.
the difficulty.
i think the difficulty is high, but not bad. the problem is, if you get till level 12, and then make a few mistakes and lose the game, you have to do those 11 levels again,
and like i said, the first 7 are boring and easy.
a solution would be, make the gorbian levels more frequent, make more ships appear in the early game, and make them fall a little faster.
i think that's all the bad things.
if you are looking for a fun, challenging, and free space invader game, look no farther.
over all, i give this game a 8 out of 10.
also, i am aware the developer is no longer working on the game, but the suggestions are for future space invader games.
again, feel free to disagree.
also, one more thing, this gos for all my reviews, the criticisms are not me trying to attack the developer, but to tell them how to make the game even better.

2021-03-22 11:28:40

Interesting thoughts.

I have a lot of fond memories of Troopanum 2, and I still tend to think that it does several things which other space invaders games don't.
If you want something similar to the bonus stage in a standard game, try out Gma lander.
Personally, I didn't mind the difficulty increase in levels so much as the lord vector boss, which is another case of starting by covering the screen in crap, then having basically instant kill bombs that you need to be physically in the right place to avoid, making it a question of chance plus random learning of location, which is quite difficult given that the bombs are instant killers, so even getting to him with four lives you have barely chance to learn their patterns, this as a contrast to say commander Ather and the satellite in Judgement day, or the various bosses in audio strike.

I'll also admit I never found Vector a particularly convincing villain from his vocal performance, too much flanger, not enough personality, I mean, why would he say "try again!", just after he blew you up?


These are very miner niggles though in what is otherwise a fantastic game, and one with still some very unique elements and a nice soundscape, which is quite an achievement in the very over saturated genre of audio space invaders games.

With our dreaming and singing, Ceaseless and sorrowless we! The glory about us clinging Of the glorious futures we see,
Our souls with high music ringing; O men! It must ever be
That we dwell in our dreaming and singing, A little apart from ye. (Arthur O'Shaughnessy 1873.)

2021-03-22 17:30:36

@dark, thanks for the GMA lander recommendation, i'll check it out.
as for lord vector,
boss spoilers
i'm not sure since i've never reached the boss, but i heard from a youtuber that you didn't have to know the location of a bomb, only listen to where it's coming from and move away.
end of spoilers
as for putting a lot of things on the screen, that's some thing the game does a lot.
if you want to know what I mean, go to the last level, set difficulty to highest, and set game board to biggest.
about the lord vector's try again thing, i've always thought that was sarcastic.
the reason is, at the beginning, he said, do you humans think you can take on my fleat? find out.
so i thought he meant try again like you would say if you and a friend were playing a game and you won.
the other reason I think that is that he laughs before he says it, like he's amused with your try.
I do agree about the sound desine, and another thing i forgot to say in my review is, i like the fact that you have to get an item instead of it being given to you.

2021-03-22 19:02:20

Hello everyone! I'm here to do a short review of accessible super Mario brothers. Unfortunately, i don't have much good things to say, and you probably may not know this game since as far as i know, this game isn't too popular. The bad things are: This game is way too frustrating and challenging at least for me.

There isn't even a main menu, instead you have to press f5 to learn the sounds, and enter to play.

Just pressing the f4 key will close the game without any warning.

The sounds are too hard to figure out.

I think that's all i have to say about this game. I unfortunately can't recommend this to anyone, unless you're good figuring out a lot of sounds and listening to multiple of them at the same time. I would give this game a 3 out of 10.

Best regards: Marco

2021-03-23 02:34:38

Hi my first audio games I bought and played were Classic Pipe, Blast Chamber and Hunter back in 2007.  I love the sounds in those games and I played the demos of Troopanum 1 and 2 and now I have them.

2021-03-23 06:52:47

hello everyone, this time, I am writing a review on super deekout.
as always, I will split this into the good things, and the bad things. this is how i will write all my reviews.
the good things.
the sounds.
just like in troopinam 2, the sounds feel very scifi.
the music.
the music is really good and not loud enough to drown out the game.
the levels.
i really like the fact that leveling up doesn't reset the game, so if you level up with the robot almost on top of you, he will still be there.
this means, unlike in other games, you can't just grab the coins and be safe from what ever mess you were in in the last level.
the bonus levels.
the bonus levels give you a nice brake from the main game while still not being different enough to throw you off when the game resumes.
the difficulty.
this is a game in which the difficulty isn't like troopinam 2 where it spikes after a certain level.
so if you die on level 10, you won't be too board on level 1.
the items.
i also really like that the robot also gets items which you need to pic up before it gets to them.
instead of there being a single power up and a race to get to it, you and the robot have different types of items and each is looking to take the other's.
the experiment components.
i find it really cool that you have to pick them up in a certain order and what you get depends on it.
it would have been cool if instead of getting 1 of 3 random things by taking them in ascending order, each of them had it's own order.
i think that's all the good things.
the bad things.
the walls.
i don't like that you take damage if you hit a wall, but you are never told how much which makes me worriedly check my health every time i hit a wall.
this isn't too much of a problem though, because you will probably get the armor powerup fairly early.
the story.
the main plot is OK, but I would have liked it if even a brief explanation was given about what the coins are and why you want to pick them up.
for example, may be the robot created the coins to generate it's bad items but you found that you could turn them against the robot by picking them up and making them create items for you.
the AI.
i find that the AI isn't that good, because if there is a coin or an item near the robot, all i have to do is stand a little far away from the robot and weight.
i would have liked it if the robot was a little smarter and didn't leave the last coin unguarded.
i think that's all the bad things.
over all, i give this game a 9 out of 10.
if any one wants to play a easy to learn, hard to master, free, arcade survival game with a lot of elements, go ahead.
that is my review of super deekout.

2021-03-23 07:07:45

sorry for dubble posting, but i think i shouldn't  put this in the post with the review.
about super mario, I don't think it's that bad.
i agree that it's very hard to grasp because of all the sounds, but after you figure it out, it's pretty fun.
I've started a play through on my youtube channel, which is called Kavya, so feel free to check that out.
i don't know enough about the game to write a review, but i would give it at least 7 out of 10.
that being said, if you have any questions about the game, feel free to ask and i'll try to answer them as best i can.

2021-03-24 19:59:49

@gregsteel I miss blast chamber, it's the one Bsc game I've never managed to work, and imho is still one of their best, actually it was the first of there's I bought, even though later I bought hunter and troop 2 as well.

@kavya, yeah, you can just about hear the bombs fall, but it's unclear, and their area of  affect once they hit the ground is very large.

Oddly enough super Deakout isn't a game I have played much. I played it long enough to decide I wouldn't be buying the game, and then didn't pick it up when it became abandonware.

I don't remember what my issue was with the game exactly, I just remember I didn't care for it enough to shell out cash for it, and never tried it again later, though perhaps I should give it a second look, especially after playing a lot more games like great toy robbery which are all about the avoiding.

With our dreaming and singing, Ceaseless and sorrowless we! The glory about us clinging Of the glorious futures we see,
Our souls with high music ringing; O men! It must ever be
That we dwell in our dreaming and singing, A little apart from ye. (Arthur O'Shaughnessy 1873.)

2021-04-14 16:16:05

hey everyone, at long last I am back with a new review.
before starting, I want to apologize. I know that there are only a few reviews here, and I've been silent enough for people to think the topic was dead, but recently, I've not been able to get enough motivation to write one of these.
I won't start talking about why, because that has no business being on a public forum, and this topic isn't for that any way.
I am also sorry for the long silence on my youtube channel, to be honest, I've recorded tons of videos, and I just have to sort through and upload them.
don't worry, I haven't lost interest in either, and things are starting to settle down, so I should be uploading again soon.
all that being said, on to the review.
this time, I will be talking about hunter.
as always, good points and bad points.
let's start with the good.
the sounds and music.
I really like the creepy main menu music, though one could ask why a non creepy game has that tune.
the voice also soots it, though it can sometimes be hard to here.
even the rest of the sounds fit the atmosphere of the levels.
the levels
I have seen games with different levels and different themes for each, but only this game and monkey business have such totally unrelated levels, and I think it's great.
the random adventures
the random adventure is a great feature, so you get the challenge of the game, but in a different order.
the bonepipes level sounds
when you are trying to reorder the sounds, the result is very musical, and I love listening to some one else do it, because then, I can just focus on the tune.
the play each level feature.
I know, it's common for games to do this, but I think that in hunter the feature is very useful, because the levels are hard.
that's all the good things.
the bad things.
the levels.
the levels each have a short story in the readme, but I wish they would be in the game instead. it would give the game a more atmospheric feel if you could know what you were doing in the level right before starting it.
the replayability
the random adventure helps, but I wish the levels were just a bit more random.
I think that's all the bad things.
all in all, if you want a unique arcade adventure game which is fairly long, try this out.
I give the game an 8 out of 10.

2021-04-14 16:30:37

Hunter was one I bought earlier on myself, second after Blast chamber I think.
I totally agree it would be good to have instructions, or indeed the story  in the game itself crazy party style, indeed that's one shift in thinking which has happened over the past decade which I like, since while I never minded reading a readme when I started a game, as with Esp pinball xtreme, when the game has so many disparate parts and you literally need to change what you're doing between times, its a pain to have to essentially memorise the hole readme.

Personally, I was less keen on the try any level option, since it felt like a cheat for you to see the hole game in advance and be able to try things out, though i did like the fact you got so few lives and so couldn't mess up too often, indeed on higher difficulties the game could get pretty challenging.

Actually, in general the game is very well designed, since the difficulty comes not through throwing a bunch of sounds at you, but often through just having many things happen at once, EG, the Crocodile turn up just at the wrong time when fishing, or needing to time the rhino and the tigers in the valley.

While I do feel the advertising on the old bsc website which claimed hunter had some of the features of a role playing game was absolutely inaccurate, at the same time, for a basic arcade/adventure title, essentially a set of minigames strung together with an overall grim and quite nasty atmosphere, it does a pretty good job.

Actually, I might go and replay it now just for fun big_smile.

With our dreaming and singing, Ceaseless and sorrowless we! The glory about us clinging Of the glorious futures we see,
Our souls with high music ringing; O men! It must ever be
That we dwell in our dreaming and singing, A little apart from ye. (Arthur O'Shaughnessy 1873.)

2021-04-14 18:26:34

At 12, can you please give me a link to your YouTube channel? When searching it, I don’t find anything.

I am a divine being. I can be called a primordial deity, but that might be pushing it, a smidge. I am the only one of my kind to have ten tails, with others having nine. I don't mean to sound arrogant, but I have ascended my own race.

2021-04-15 05:20:44

I'm not sure how to post a link to my channel, so here is a link to one of my videos.
https://youtu.be/jiXTILvFckU
you can browse the rest of my channel from there.
also, if you have trouble with the link, please let me know.

2021-04-29 05:51:18

hello everyone, this time it's a review on pipe 2 blast chamber.
I do want to say something before I start.
I'm running out of things to review, so could you guys tell me what you want me to review? they have to be audiogames, since to be honest, I've not yet gotten into video games, and when I made this topic, I meant it to be audiogames.
however, if and when I get into video games, I'll make a topic like this for them, too, or of Corse, someone else could also make it.
anyway, I'd prefer early 2 thousands, though when we run out of those games, we can start talking about newer ones.
with all that out of the way, on to the review.
the good things.
the concept.
I really love the concept of the game, it's easy once you get to it, but until then, it's a fair challenge.
when I say the concept, I mean the twisting pipes, moving to levels thing.
the obstacles.
the obstacles keep the game from getting boring, and there are enough of them, and they show up enough times that you can never be really bored of doing the same things. below, I'll talk about the ones I like best and why I like them.
the spiders.
they make sure your concentrating on what your doing and also have a good memory. though they can really be a challenge if you've been attacked by thugs, were on an electricity level, and the water was about to flow, and then, hiss.
the electricity.
though I think, really? every time I hear that It's an electricity level, when I'm not playing the game, I like it.
it makes you think, and you sometimes have to be really quik, like when a thugshows up out of no where.
now, moving on.
the sounds.
most of the sounds are really nice, and so is the music.
okay, I think that's all the good things.
now on to the bad things.
end game spoilers, if you haven't completed the game, skip to where I say end spoilers.
the boss.
I like surprises a lot, but the problem with this one is that
a, there are literally no instructions.
b, the boss itself doesn't make sense.
c, it's the end of the game, which means if you fail, you'll have to replay the hole game again.
end spoilers
the agent.
I don't know if it's meant to be some sort of code the agent is speaking in which can be translated by the other's comunication device, but if so, I wish it was said somewhere.
the game over sequence.
this is a miner gripe, but when you press escape, you have to listen to the game over sequence, which is a bit annoying.
the side scroller level.
I wish, like aac, there was a different tile sound for when you step on a square with steam, because there's no way to stop and listen to steam when for all you know, your standing on a tile with it.
same goes for electricity, btw.
I think that's all the bad things.
if you want a challenging and action packed arcade game with a lot to it, this game is for you.
I'd give this game an 8.5 out of ten.

2021-04-29 13:51:12

Pipe 2 blast chamber is I think over all my favourite BSC title, one reason I'm mildly annoyed that it's the one game I've not got to work on windows 10. There's so much going on, so many things to juggle and keep track of, it's the best sort of challenge, a challenge not just to your reaction skills, but your memory and multi tasking, plus like all BSC games the difficulty changes things a lot.

I agree about the side scrollers, its often a case of just peg it along and hope, jumping over barrels and swers as needed, albeit I only tended to get caught occasionally.

The boss is a pain when you don't know how to deal with him, but really stupid when you do, since all you need to do is hit the arrows to line up with which direction he's shooting, then blaze away with the control keys, hitting enter if he ever speaks to jump (yes, the fact you have to jump when he speaks makes no sense). Often though, you can just blaze him into submission in seconds without him getting a shot off, indeed compared to lord Vector who is if anything too hard, the boss is too easy.

I actually didn't mind the agent chatter, though I didn't like the way the occasional radio screams could get a little ear piercing, though yee gods! I am getting so sick of the trope of the mentor/game voice turning out to be evil! its being overused waaaaay too much.

As to other reviews, there are lots to do.

How about the draconis games if you have them, (the pinball games I've always liked quite a lot), or maybe Packman talks or some of the Gma ones.
or if your looking for freeware games, maybe some of the pbgames titles like tarzan junior and shodown, indeed tarzan junior is a game that definitely needs more attention.

There are also some interesting little one offs from the early days that could probably do with seeing the light of day again, EG superdog's bone hunt, sonic invaders, descent into madness, the savage gammet or the last crusade, and of course there are all of Jim kitchen's games, although he was writing games right up until his sad death in 2015, so some of those are from a somewhat later era.

You could also consider talking to the mods , since there was a recent discussion about allowing posting of cracks of games from developers like vipgameszone and Bavisoft, cases where the developers have literally vanished off the net for a good 8 or so years and there's no way to play their games anymore accept with a crack, indeed I'd love to see Lords of the Galaxy and Galaxy ranger back again myself, since both were games I bought back in the day and had a lot of fun with.

Anyway, there are some thoughts.

With our dreaming and singing, Ceaseless and sorrowless we! The glory about us clinging Of the glorious futures we see,
Our souls with high music ringing; O men! It must ever be
That we dwell in our dreaming and singing, A little apart from ye. (Arthur O'Shaughnessy 1873.)

2021-04-29 14:25:56

Super Liam and judgement day are both old favourites of mine, only surpassed by BK3, though of course that is hardly a particularly old game so probably doesn't bear mentioning here. I often used to play judgement day in particular on a friend's laptop, since 13 year old me just could not figure out the process of bootcamping my mac, and well, say no more about virtual machine audio latency. I believe I also had issues moving and shooting at the same time, thanks, mac OS for intercepting control + left / right arrows for one thing or another. I'm still firmly of the opinion that JD is by far the best space invaders stile game we have.

2021-04-30 05:37:15

Hi Dark I have blast chamber working on my win10 machine.  I just ran the bscfix tool

2021-05-01 09:51:36

dark, pipe 2 should work on win 10, at least I got it to work. if you could let us know what the problem your facing is, we might be able to help. i suggest creating a new thread for that, though.
also, I might not be of much help, since I've forgotten how I got it to work, since I did it a long time ago.
and I do have monkey business, though I want to finish it before writing about it. I'm stuck on surf and turf, Btw.
spoiler.
I just can't find the ship, and when I get there, I can't find the monkey, it doesn't come to me like the walk through here tells me it will.
and I don't have any of the other draconis games, except silver dollar, and I just am not sure if that game has enough content for me to review it.
thanks for the suggestions.

2021-07-20 08:38:46 (edited by kavya 2021-07-20 08:43:39)

hello everyone, I'm back with another review, at last.
this time it's judgement day that I'm reviewing.
btw to avoid this kind of irregularity, I'm trying to make a list of old games that I can review, right now I've got the great toy robbery, blinded guide, Tarzan junior, monkey bizzness, which I can do because I've gotten pretty far in though I've not actually finished it, dark destroyer, maybe 3d snake? though not too much content in that, and that's what I've got so far, I'll probably think up more later.
also, I know that this is bumping this thread to the top over and over again, so if this is breaking the guide lines i'm sorry, i don't really know of a better way to do this, so if anyone does please let me know and I'll do it.
okay enough rambling, on to the review.
as always, good things and bad things.
the good things.
the trophies
this is one game where the trophies are really clever, most of them are any way.
the boss
I like the satellite best, it's an interesting difference to the usual concept.
the ending, big spoilers
I really like the way you get a bad ending at first and the more trophies you get the closer to the good ending you get, it's amazing, and gives you motivation to find those trophies.
the bonus games
they add replayability to the game, and I like the way that, though they're not the same as the main game, they're also fit into the story, it some how helps me get into the world of the game a bit more.
the l works theater
I like this because some of the audio in there is just for fun, and I especially like the, spoilers
things that blind people just shouldn't do one, it's kind of funny.
end spoilers.
I think that's all the good things, though I might be missing some since it's been for ever since I played JD properly, I mean I still play it a bit now and again, but not that much.
the bad things.
spoilers again
the ultra mode
I'm sorry to say that I'm kind of under welmed by the ultra mode, I mean I actually find the hard mode harder than the ultra mode, though that might just be me.
the logo.
I know this is a very miner complaint but I wish you could skip the  logo, I mean you can press enter and be taken to the main menu but the logo keeps playing.
I actually think that's all the bad things, I know there's only 2 but I can't think of any more.
so if you want a fun space invader game with lots of unlockables and replayability, look no farther.
I'd give JD a 9 out of 10