DOS Games Discussion

Okay, so I have been racking my brain trying to find/remember this game. The low-down is this:

1. I am pretty sure it is a simulation game or, possibly, it's an adventure game.
2. I believe you play as a park ranger in an African grassland preserve. You receive files of briefings that tell you about poachers, other dangers to the preserve, etc.. You could also be killed by the wild animals and, I think, this would end the game.
3. I used to play this game back in 1997-99. It might not actually be a DOS-based game...
4. I want to say it was mostly a point-and-click type game, the graphics looked 3D, but I don't think you could actually move around in 3 demensional planes.

Anyway, that's the jist of what I can remember about this game. Any insight would be much appreciated!

probably

ECO East Africa

Yep, spot on.
http://www.mobygames.com/game/windows/eco-east-africa

However ...if the topic starter will ever get back here ... doubrtful.

This game was released in 1995 I believe, and was for Windows 3.1. I believe it was the first game released using Microsoft DirectX. I was the lead programmer on it. You're remembering the game correctly in that you could visit areas on the map, but couldn't walk around freely. I remember Doom had just come out while we were working on the project, and we were blown away by that type of game engine. Our scenes were constructed of several horizontal strips of imagery, one for sky, one for mountains (or other horizon features), a few for grass/lakes/trees, etc. The animals were created using a custom animation scripting engine. I believe this might have been the first game to have animated time of day transitions, which I had to figure out a way to do using 8-bit graphics.

Fun fact: Even though the object of the game was to save the animals, there was a hidden sniper mode (don't ask the key shortcut to enter it, as I don't remember) that would change the cursor into a crosshair and any animal you clicked on would be instantly turned into a pile of guts. Very educational indeed!

-Eric