Bio Menace

Bio Menace Episode Two

Lately, I've been playing a lot of games from 1993. It must have been a really good year for gaming, because companies like Apogee were cutting them out like no other. Bio Menace is a 2D sidescroller similar to the original Duke Nukem which came out in 1991, only with several updates. It uses the Commander Keen engine, which was also released in '91, but plays with much more aggressiveness than the retarded kid with a helmet. You're Snake Logan, and you've been sent to check out the mutants invading the city. That's right, Pliskin's not the only Snake in town. This guy sporting a V-neck and mullet has been here a long time.


Gameplay: 7/10
Okay, here's what sucks. You can't move while you shoot, and you can't point upward. -1 point for each of those. Otherwise, the jumping controls feel pretty nice, and the action never really stops. There's lots of platforming going on in this game, hopping around through cities and forests, also there's lots of shooting going on. At least they were decent enough to allow you to duck and shoot, which you're going to be doing frequently, because 50% of the enemies are too short to hit while you're standing up. Every now and then you have to find a crystal or key to open the door, which is amazingly cliche, but what's a sidescroller like this without it? Of course, you're going to be picking up some powerups, which will do stuff like increase your fire rate or bullet damage. There's also a few types of grenades to use. Additionally, you have a few "secret" combinations that allow you to use the plasma shot, shield, and some others. The levels are usually self-explanatory enough to let you just blast through it on your first try, and not have to run around trying to discover your way, but sometimes you have to open up a bunch of doors to find the crystal you need to proceed, and those require keys, so you get what's gonna happen. -1 point for that.

Skull Man in Episode One

Graphics: 7/10
Hey man, they're good, and the game runs pretty smooth to boot. The level graphics are great and the game portrays itself very well. There's some things that bother me, like why all the monsters are so cute. Blobs, smiley dinosaurs, robots and such. -3 points for that but hey, at least they blow up with a satisfying gib.

Sound: 8/10
Lots of high quality digitized sound and sweet adlib tunes keeps your ears entertained. There's lots of explosions and gunfire, but the music sounds a bit random, so I bit off 2 points.


Overall: 9/10

The secret Apogee room, portrait of a hero

It's really a great game, despite the fact that you're some creepo with a mustache. Wait... a... minute, isn't that Carlos Santana? What are you doin' disguising yourself as Snake Logan trying to shoot a bunch of cute monsters? Did you take mescaline again? Oh look, you've wandered into the secret Apogee room, where they were keeping all the spare Duke Nukem and Commander Keen items! Looks like they're working on a game that's going to blow you out of the water in the near future and everyone's gonna forget about you! It's alright, Bio Menace, you had a good run, and it was fun to see you again. Have a good one.
http://www.3drealms.com/menace/

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/