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Interplay's 10 Year Anthology | Console: | IBM PC |
| Region: | U |
| Year: | 1993 |
| RFG ID #: | U-016-S-13900-A |
| Part #: | CD-ICD-054-0 |
| UPC: | 040421130542 |
| Publisher: | Interplay |
| Developer: | miscellaneous |
| Rating: | |
| Genre: | Compilation |
| Sub-genre: | DOS games |
| Players: | 1-2 |
| Controller: | Keyboard |
| Media Format: | CD-ROM |
The featured game this week is a compilation of Interplay's finest works from their first 10 years of existence. One game for each year, brining us ten games. Those are:
| Mindshadow | Tass Times | Bard's Tale |
| Wasteland | Dragon Wars | Battle Chess |
| Out of This World | Lord of the Rings | Castles |
| Star Trek 25th Anniversary | |
Okay, most of the games included in this anthology are text adventures. If you're not familiar with this type, you must realize that you have no mouse, and all commands must be typed out. The biggest benefit is that these worlds feel big and free. The only drawback is sometimes getting the syntax right. Say if you're in a kitchen and are looking for a hidden door key, you might have to say "look in cabinets", "look in cupboard", "look under sink", "look in sugar can", etc. You have a sneaking suspicion its in that thing on the counter but you can't figure out how to properly ask to look inside. Finally a guess of "look in cookie jar" rewards you with what you knew was there all along. A bit frustrating at times, but a big challenge. Also, 10 save slots were still common at this time, and you would want to use them. There are often a lot of dead ends when you try to get far ahead of the story.
Battle Chess was a fun one, as the pieces did animations when they captured a piece. The Queen was the worst, which casted a thunder spell and zapped the poor sap who got in her way.
Out of This World (also known as Another World) is an interesting one as there are a few actions; however, the difficulty is a bit painful. A number of remakes have been done for this, including the most recent HD remake for PC. Some consider this to be a collector's edition of sorts. Gameplay is action based, but your character doesn't jump really high, so its more about timing your walk and knife stab.
Lord of the Rings was the only licensed game based on the books until the past few years. It plays like an older RPG and holds true to the books. A sequel was made that covered The Two Towers , but a third game was never made to finish the trilogy.
This week is devoted to the DOS games of Yesteryear. Text adventures, high fantasy RPGs, side-scrolling platformers, strategy simulators, and arcade ports were the few genres you had available. PCs, apples, Commodores, and Amigas always had the graphical edge on home consoles.
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