Posted on February 3, 2022
Livestream 1/27/2022 – Gunman Chronicles
Half-Life shook the gaming world when it came out when it wove in enviromental storytelling, actually having a story worth talking about, and letting you see it from the perspective of the hero. Gordon Freeman’s adventure trying to escape the Black Mesa facility is forever burned into the brains of the people that experienced it.
Once Half-Life was a success the modders started bending and flexing the scripting engine that underpins the game to create narrative driven games telling their stories in ways that weren’t really possible before. At least in any realistic way and not just a text blurb explaining the story. One such mod that rose to fame was Gunman Chronicles which changed up virtually the entire game. This grew and grew to the point it was a full stand alone experience which was eventually sold in retail with a box and everything.
Playing the game now it is very clear this is a) a game based on the Half-Life engine and b) originally a mod. While it’s absolutely impressive some things shine through like reused character models and voice acting that can come across as interesting. Nevertheless the scope and polish this mod turned game has is really surprising and really amazing when you think about it. Very fun to play although it does lean into the scripted events a tad much… gun variety is something else though with many options and modifications available. Check out the replay of the stream below.
Posted on January 24, 2022
Livestream 1/21/2022 – Total Annihilation
After coming out of some illness going around I had to jump back into a game that is a true classic. That ended up being Total Annihilation from Cavedog Entertainment. A staple of lan parties back in the 90s it did something no other RTS games had done yet at that point by providing a large scale battlefield with tons and tons of units. Much to the dismay of the processors of the time…
While most games relied on sprites and bitmapped graphics Total Annihilation (say that name 5 times fast) instead went with fully rendered, polygon based, 3d unit. This was a dramatic shift from other games in the same genre and gave us a much more reactive battlefield all while computers buckled under the weight. I can’t think of any contemporary machine that could run this game at full speed when there was a lot of on screen action. You have to look considerably later into the upper P2 and P3 era to get that smooth performance. Such is the end result of heavy 3d rendering without any acceleration.
This game is still a true classic and while there have been attempts to soft reboot it through various means the original still holds up. Check out the livestream replay below.
Posted on January 7, 2022
Livestream 1/6/2022 – Hexen II
There has been a resurgance of what we’d call “boomer shooters” as of late. These refer to games that try and mimic what the original Quake brought to the table with wicked fast action, frantic pace and insane movement speed. Quite a few modern examples of these sort of games now exist but there were also of course many that came out back in the 90s when they got popular.
The Serpent Rider trilogy consists of Heretic, Hexen and Hexen 2. While the first 2 entries are based on the Doom engine Hexen 2 instead relied on Quake to handle the underpinnings. And playing it that becomes obvious very, very quickly. Menus are the same, the movement is near identical and the graphics are spot on. This is a Raven game however so there is a lot more creativity with the level designs versus Quake, at least in my opinion, with plenty of medieval things to wreck along the way. Plenty of Quake trademarked brown is around but there are splashes of color dotted around and you can tell they had fun designing the levels and art style.
I hadn’t really played this game much beyond a demo back in the day so it was fun to dig into it a bit especially with that revitilization currently going on for this sort of game. That said we do take a lot of modern conveniences for granted when you start getting lost by not having any waypoint system or maps. Still a fun one to play and the stream was great so check out the replay below!
Posted on December 29, 2021
Packard Bell PB 2980
Can’t argue with the draw of a classic beige tower from the 90s. This Packard Bell ticks a lot of boxes with its classic design, era appropriate specs and stacked drive bays. I got this machine in a lot a while back and the time finally came to cover it in a video. It’s a really neat machine that I’m willing to bet a lot of people have nostalgic feelings for either in a good or bad way depending on your experience.
Manufacturers had gone all in on the multimedia revolution by the time this computer was made and the bundled software reflects that. Everything was centered around the CD-ROM and what it could deliver. Full motion video everywhere, stacks of CDs and “high” resolution images. It’s hard to remember how much of a jump it was going from floppies to what seemed like unlimited storage.
Expect to see more of this machine in future coverage but for now enjoy the introduction of this machine to the Retro Random stable.
Posted on November 23, 2021
Livestream 11/18/2021 – Original Xbox
Hard to believe that the original Xbox launched 20 years ago at this point. It’s such a mainstay in the gaming landscape these days it might be easy to forget that wasn’t always the case. When Microsoft decided to jump head first into the console gaming market they were up against some pretty fierce competitors. While Sega had just bowed out Sony was killing it with their own first entrance with the Playstation and the follow up Playstation 2 was about to come out as well. Nintendo was right in the thick of it with the launch of their Gamecube system.
Personally I had played Playstation at that point but ended up getting a Gamecube later on in the life cycle when they were selling them for next to nothing. Before that I had been firmly on the PC for any kind of gaming for years and had skipped the previous console generation. So when it came to Xbox I did the exact same thing. Bought it at the very end of the cycle when it was cheap, promptly modded it and started catching up on games I had missed out on.
The Xbox still is a great console to tinker with and can stand in as a media player, DVD player, emulation machine and of course console gaming all in one. With it basically being a PC under the hood modding has been something that was just assumed which vastly increases what you can use it for. That said there are a lot of really good games including many that had their start on the Xbox. A fun one to stream so check out the replay below.
