DOS Games Discussion

[Guest]

Hi! In a bout of nostalgia for the old games (which made me want to play Operation Neptune for some reason) a few months ago, I got to talking with a few friends and we remembered two others that I just can't place. Does anyone here know them?

The first game was a DOS game we had at school called that we think was called "Island", but if it was as simple as remembering its name, I'd have had it by now (though if that IS it's name, then maybe I'm just not good at this!). Maybe it was ISLAND.EXE. The game was about a character trapped on a desert island with one tree, and had a menu-based interface through which you could collect rainwater, swim in the water for floatsom with which to build a raft, or send messages that could attract the attention of rescuers (or pirates!). After around 20 days (random) you'd be hit by a hurricane. It was pretty succinct.

The second game was a piece of shareware that is driving me crazy because I always wanted to play it (yes, even though it was just shareware) because to little me, it was the coolest thing we had on the computer. I remember the game's file was called "Crystal Ball", but that doesn't help me, because there's still nothining online about it. This fellow (htt p://forums.macrumors.com/showthread.php?t=282543) is DEFINITELY talking about it, but I just can't find any info on it online. Does anyone remember it?

[Guest]

Actually, I'm going to be extra annoying, because I have two more! (or is that "extra challenging?")

I remember another adventure game (that I played on the mac but I believe was also DOS) involving some sort of time-travelling guy, his dog, and their messed-up trip to the land of the dinosaurs to recover dinosaur eggs. No, it's not Mac OS 9 standard issue game Nanosaur, it was actually a cheesy kid's Adventure Game, with a health bar that dropped whenever you made a bad choice Sierra would have skinned you for. It was a library take-out, so sadly I had to memorize the thing over several trips to beat it, so if I had to, I could probably walk you through from start to finish, which I know, is just sad.

The last game I just have a scrap of memory of, and is also about Dinosaurs. It was a friend's game and I only saw a bit of it: a top-down action game where you created a dinosaur out of various parts (or possibly traits?) and had to help it survive in the environment. I remember him specifically prepping an omnivoire to make eating easier on himself and then ingloriously gnawing on a tree or something. Any ideas?

[dosraider]

Island, as in Donkey Island?
http://www.mobygames.com/game/dos/donkey-island/screenshots

It would help if you would describe the games you're looking for a bit more elaborate.
Screen setup?
View? (first person-third person-birds eye ...)
Genre?
Colors?
Sceneries?
............
......
...
..
.
?

[dosraider]

[Guest]

Designasaurus is definitely #4! Thanks!

The Island game is EXCEPTIONALLY primitive. In fact, the longer I go without finding it, the more I think someone in our school board programmed the darn thing itself, and wasn't a very good artist, though it was in colour. The game lasts the better part of 10 minutes, and has definitely less than ten menu-based commands to control it. The island itself is a plain thing with a single palm tree on it, and most of the shots were of it (so while you could say it was third person perspective, you were never in the shot). I remember that when you collected water there was an animated segment where you saw three containers fill with a blue gradually.

The Crystal Ball game is pretty well described in the article I linked, but there's no harm in doing it again. It was black and white first person fantasy, letting you move around a small area until you encountered a crystal ball that would break when you touched it. The commands for movement were all in a toolbar on the left side of the screen, and there was also an option to cast spells. I remember being stuck until I cast a spell in the room with the ball and somehow (strangely, since I think it was a Fireball spell) summoned a wizard that talked to me. The link calls him "Merlin", but I don't remember that, myself.

The time travel game, now hmm... that was very cartoonish, with still drawings. Hm, it may have actually been younger than I thought it was. The sequences in it involve a brief trip to each famous dinosaur era (Triassic, Jurassic, Cretaceous (just in time for a comet to act as a time limit), along with a brief, unplanned trip to the uncooled planet earth that will kill you pretty quickly). Generally the game was from third person perspective, though there was an FPS sequence where you had to shoot raptors with a stun gun - if the game was unkind enough to dump something you needed randomly beyond the raptors. But I'm starting to wonder... maybe it's a bit younger than the other games? I wouldn't blame anyone for not remembering it in that case.

[Guest]

Hah! Thank you dosraider for that link to designasaurus ii and, inadvertantly, reminding me that there's a category search on Moby Games. The Dinosaur game I've been painstakingly describing is a bizarre little edutainment mouthful called: "The Awesome Adventures of Victor Vector & Yondo: The Last Dinosaur Egg". Man, children's writers can get away with some bizarre titles.

No luck on Moby for the Island and Crystal Ball games, though. It would seem I have an obscure, indie-game filled childhood?

[dosraider]

I defenitively know that crystal ball game, that wizard with the fireball spell.
It has been asked here a while ago, months ..?
BUT -( )- It's out of my memory.
Think it was also on Spectrum. Damn.
Owell, will popup again, sooner or later.

At least you have some dinosaurs to play with.

[Guest]

lol, very true.

[(Another) Guest]

I remember playing that game in Kindergarten! I've been trying to find it for forever... I never made it off the Island by the end of kindergarten . I'm pretty sure it was simply called "Island" as well. I believe it had a first person view... really simply graphics.. postly tan/yellow sand and blue water... When you had the chance you had to collect logs (by swimming in sharkwater?) in order to make a raft.

I hope this helps, I don't remember much else about it. If I find it ill let you know

[Guest]

Gah, this is the exact game I'm looking for too.

I also remember that you could send out messages in bottles, and then a ship might come to rescue you. Sometimes it was a pirate ship, and you walked the plank and died I think, or it was a good ship, which was the only way to actually beat the game (which almost never happened).

I'm also beginning to think this was a local thing, since I can't find any info on it.

Does anyone have any more info on where I might be able to find this game, I remember even though it was really primitive it was a ton of fun.