Stargunner

Apogee always released good flying shooter types. This one follows in the wake of Major Stryker, Raptor, and Zone 66. On the market in 1996, it features fast-paced action, good replayability and good graphics, all with an unrelenting difficulty that's sure to have you cursing your way through the first episode on the easiest difficulty. Tip: When you're at the buy screens, press F2 to save your game. Make a save for each level so that you can come back if you mess something up. You'll be glad you did.

 

Gameplay: 7/10

Fly your ship through a 2D plane of explosions, spaceships, and extra explosions collecting powerups, credits and points. Unique, no, simple, yes, but it does feature a buy screen where you can purchase upgrades to your ship and get it working the way you want. You can stack two extra guns of your choice, two orbiting moons that do various things, and install engines to keep your speed up. All of these features become apparently necessary, as you're not going to get anywhere without upgrading. Once you beat the stage, you face a boss, which is usually just some unimaginative spaceship with some weak points you've gotta hit.

 

Graphics: 9/10

 They're real good and they work very fast. Everything flying around you gives a great feeling of chaos and it takes a fine-tuned player to get used to its insanity. The enemies look good, the levels are okay, and your ship changes as you upgrade it. Cool. The enemies and bosses could have been cooler though, minus a point.

Sound: 8/10

There's some rockin' digitized music, entertaining digitized speech, and a punch of pew-pews. It does add a lot to the overall experience. Repetitive after a while, so I'm dockin' 2 points.

 

Overall: 8/10

It's an awesome addition to your freeware collection. You'll be playing it again and again as you discover the best weapon combinations for your play style. The story doesn't exactly keep you feeling gripped, but it does give you some sort of premise as to what the hell you're doing on this planet. Apogee went and gave the game away for free starting in 2005, which is quite generous of them, considering how great the game is. Check out the link below for some more information on a great game that time forgot!

http://www.3drealms.com/stargunner/

Command and Conquer: Red Alert

 Real-time strategy games are some of my favorite on the list, and this game is probably the first one I played. It came out in 1996, paving the way for an awesome game series that rocks worlds to this day. In C&C, your most basic objective is to construct a base, train an army, and whoop your opponents sorry Soviet ass. It also features an intriguing solo campaign as either Soviets or Allies, requiring you to complete various missions. Personally, I just play the skirmish modes against a bunch of AIs, and even to this day, it's a great RTS game.

 Gameplay: 8/10

It's simple, really. Drag and click to select a bunch of units and send them over to your opponent. On the right is the construction bar, which you'll be scrolling through a lot. You need to build power plants so you can harvest this stuff that you'll turn in to money so you can purchase tanks and stuff. It seems to lack certain functions that would have been nice, such as waypoints or group formations. -2 pointaroos.

 Graphics: 7/10

Although everything is small and underdetailed, you'll end up being wowed at the amount of units, explosions and gunfire. The maps are good, but the cutscenes look pretty weird. It's a little easy to lose your units sometimes thanks to them being so small, -3 points for that and the fact that it's hard to distinguish units, sometimes.

 Sound: 7/10

In these games, sound is very important, as it alerts you to if something is happening on the map that you're not currently viewing. You can tell a lot of work went into the sounds in this game, and they did a really great job. It does get a little repetitive, you're going to hear "training training training unable to comply, building in progress training training" -3 points for ouchies on the ears.

Overall: 8.5/10

It's an awesomely entertaining RTS, with a strong focus on action and speed of gameplay. 12 solid years after its release, Electronic Arts purchased the rights to the game and graciously made it freeware. So get your war on, this is one of the best free games in history.

http://download.cnet.com/Command-Conquer-Red-Alert/3000-7483_4-10017271.html

Sqrxz

My girlfriend said "I used to play this game when I was a kid, Squiddx or something" some time ago. Since I'd never heard of it personally and she didn't get the game name right, I wasn't able to find anything about it. Today though, today is different. After plugging in an old hard drive and scouring files dating back to 1998, we spotted it, in all of its MS-DOS glory. "What the hell, give me that so I can review it!"

First look: It's a sidescroller. I'm some sort of bug lookin' thing, possibly an alien, and I'm on a go-right rampage. There's some blobs coming to get me so I jump on them in classic sidescrolling fashion, which works well and gives me a little more air than before. I can also press down while I move to crawl when precision becomes necessary. The graphics aren't that great, extremely pixelated and a little weird, I wonder if it's just a rendering glitch or if it was made that way? Come to think of it, I didn't have any sound either, so I went to do a little more research. Rather than fix the problem I decided to play the Windows version when my DOS version was acting up. I've uploaded the DOS version to the link below, because I couldn't find it anywhere else on the world wide internet.
http://www.megaupload.com/?d=N8ADOQRS <<< DOS version of Sqrzx

Gameplay: 5/10
Now that we have a well working version, its noticeable that I'm frustrated with this game. The controls are awkwardly stiff and require a certain precision that just isn't easy to comprehend. You die, a lot. The water levels are relentless. Was there something I was missing? After checking http://sqrxz.de for a while, I learned that this game was supposed to be intentionally frustrating. It is in my beliefs that this is a coverup for the game actually being pretty shitty and gives little to no insight on the challenges that lie ahead. I'm really on the fence about this, because on one hand, it's like a puzzle game requiring patience and accuracy, but on the other hand it's a horrible sidescroller with bad controls. -5 points for the stiffness.

Graphics: 4/10
Well, they certainly updated the game in the Windows version, everything runs smoother, it has more color, and better resolution. This doesn't do anything for the game as a whole, though, because it still is just a bunch of tiles spread around using a level generator or something. Seriously, with these kinds of games, you should release your level-making engine, just in case you want people to think the game is awesome and spend hours playing it. All of this just isn't appealing to me, I had to -6 points for the lack of variety.

Sound: 6/10
Some cute little Megaman sounding bumpin' tracks are going on and just about everything makes a noise. Be prepared to hear the dying sound a lot though. -4 points for the low quality sounds.

Overall: 5/10
The game isn't that bad to play until you get so mad you want to take whatever is to the left of your computer screen, take a big bite out of it, and swallow hard. It's cute and quirky but is just missing a lot of things that would come standard to a game like this. The challenge in this game lies within the games physics itself, and how patient/fast you can be. Alternatively, I played the Deluxe version of the game that is also included with the Windows port, and it seems much more up to date. You're a rabbit looking thing running around in the same style world but there's some key gameplay changes that almost make the game a new experience. It ain't bad, and it probably fits quite well into my "top 50 half-ass games of all time" list.
http://sqrxz.de

The 3D Realms Build Engine

Not a lot of people have a favorite game engine. I sure as hell do, it's Kev Silverman's build engine, a first person platform designed with many new innovations and lots of new possibilities. Nowadays, we use Epic's Unreal engine, and this is the equivalent to that. A handful of games were released using this system, notably Duke Nukem 3D, Blood, Shadow Warrior, and Redneck Rampage. We're going to be taking a look at all of these games, and what features came with them.

1. Duke Nukem 3D

"Hail to the King, baby"

In 1996, 3D Realms Entertainment released one of the most playable games in history. Duke Nukem, a typical masculine badass with crewed blond hair, a tanktop, some jeans and suspenders, gets pissed off that the aliens have come to take the Earth women. "Nobody steals our chicks, and lives" he says, exploding through well-designed 3D levels full of alien pig police, floating octopus brains, and crazy shitting monsters with chainguns. Using a variety of weapons such as RPGs, freeze rays, and the incredible shrinking ray, he single-handedly rips through Hollywood and Space in one of the three original episodes, saving all the babes along the way. Still one of the best games ever. Duke3D isn't free, but you can still get the shareware version.
ftp://ftp.3drealms.com/share/3dduke13.zip

2. Blood

"Boo-hoo, when's the hurting stop?"

Blood was originally to be developed by 3D Realms, but they sold the rights to Monolith, who released the game in 1997. Right off the bat it's apparently similar to Duke Nukem 3D, but still an entirely different experience. In this game, it's Caleb, some gunslinger who gets betrayed by his cult and murdered. This is where the game starts, stepping out of his grave, uttering "I live, again". Wielding only a pitchfork, Caleb sets off into a dark, horrific world, watching out for zombies, cultists, gargoyles, spiders, two-headed dogs, little hands that wand to choke you, and then some. However, that's alright by Caleb, because he knows how to use some really unique weapons, like a tommy gun, a can of hairspray and a lighter, or even a voodoo doll, to bring his enemies down. Amazing level design in this game keeps you playing for a very long time, and man, it's a good one. Not free, but here's some shareware!

http://www.dosgamesarchive.com/download/blood/ 

3. Shadow Warrior

"Pain is for the weak"

  3D Realms Entertainment released this one in 1997. It stars Lo Wang, some crazy ninja dude with nonstop one-liners, who quits his job as a bodyguard, only to be chased down by the boss and his cronies. This game feels amazing and the level design is impeccable, sometimes you must solve puzzles, teleport, or crawl through something weird, just to progress in the level. Some of his weapons include the sword, shurikens, missile launchers, sticky bombs, and railguns. This game is amazingly captivating, you can get lost for a long time just playing around with the environment. Not free to this day, but hey. Shareware.

ftp://ftp.3drealms.com/share/3dsw12.zip

4. Redneck Rampage

"Hold on to your butts"

Xatrix Entertainment released this game in the height of the FPS industry of 1997. It's Leonard and Bubba, shooting their way through the most trashy hick town, on a mission to rescue their pig. In the meantime, they end up thwarting an alien invasion. Crazy dudes with guns are everywhere, even alien vixens with machinegun boobies. Your arsenal includes the usual revolver and shotgun, along with a bowling ball, or a crossbow that has dynamite strapped to it. Along the way, you have to watch your "gut" meter, which will make you extra flatulent and give away your position if you've eaten too many of the in-game items such as pork rinds or moon pies. Eating food does help you be less belligerent though, and will take your "drunk" meter down. Which is good, because if you drink too much liquor in order to numb your senses and not feel those bullets, you'll be stumbling around puking. While the game is pretty entertaining for a short ride, it just doesn't match up to the previous games, the levels seem very spread out and unnecessarily large. You can still get the demo version of this game, too.

http://download.cnet.com/Redneck-Rampage-demo/3000-2095_4-10005377.html

Unfortunately these games are a pain in the ass to get running on your new Windows machine. Check out the info from this site, which will help you a lot in your gaming ventures. I was able to get them all working well using these methods, and hearing the sound is one of the best parts of these games. You can find a little more history on Ken Silverman's Build Engine from here. Thanks for sticking around, I'll be back tomorrow!

Death Rally

Now we're talking. Death Rally was one of my favorite games. It came out in 1996, when video games were starting to be fast, graphical, intuitive, and challenging. It's a top-down perspective racing game against three other cars, doing laps around a winding street, using weapons such as machine guns, spikes, mines, or your car, to blow other racers off the road. Oh, and there's a little cameo. Some of you may know who I'm talking about.

Gameplay: 8/10
In Death Rally, the only thing that matters is to smash. Just straight blow through everyone you see and try not to get wasted while you do it. There's a bunch of other cars and weapons, but only one catch; you start with $495 bucks and a shitty Beetle lookin' thing. It handles like crap, too. Best win some races so you can upgrade this stupid car, or better yet, purchase one of the other ones. At first, you're probably going to get blown up a lot, which leads to having to repair the car, and eventually just being broke as hell, unless you can either not take that much damage during the race, or pick up enough of the repair powerups that you'll find along the track. The whole idea around this game is to enter races, rank up, and eventually race the badass at the end to become a total boss, or something. -2 points for the tracks being too short sometimes!

Graphics: 7/10
It runs fast and well. The menu screens are a little cluttered but look pretty good nonetheless. The cars don't appear to have enough detail, and the customization is nonexistent, with the exception of the color of the vehicle. The environments that you race in could have been a little more creative, as there was no animation or changing parts of the track. -3 points for those reasons.

Sound: 4/10
This game lacks severely in the sound department. The music is bland, repetitive, and the sound effects are a lackluster attempt with a lame product. They need some more kerpow, you know, more squealing tires, more gun sounds, more great music, all of this is practically not there. It sucks. -6 points.

Overall: 8/10
Despite the sound and graphics not being that great, even for 1996, this game is still a ton of fun to play. Guaranteed the minute you start it you'll probably be playing it for a long time. This game was ported to Windows, so there's no crazy stuff to run it, and best of all. It's. Free. To. Download and it has Duke Nukem in it. Pick this game up from here.
http://www.joystiq.com/game/death-rally/download/death-rally-for-windows-full-game/