NetNews Usenet Archive 1992 #26/NN_1992_26.iso/spool/misc/forsale/computer/39521

Internet Message Format | 1992-11-08 | 20.6 KB

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From: [e-mail] (Ilya Farber)
Newsgroups: misc.forsale.computers
Subject: 30+ IBM games for sale
Keywords: forsale IBM games
Message-ID: <[e-mail]>
Date: 7 Nov 92 10:51:01 GMT
Sender: [e-mail]
Organization: University of California, San Diego
Lines: 373
Nntp-Posting-Host: sdcc3.ucsd.edu


        It recently occurred to me that I have thirty or so games lying
about, that as a grad student I no longer have time to play them, and that
their transfer to new owners can therefore only bring joy to others
and money to me, so here goes ...
        I'm very picky about games, so almost all of these are excellent,
playable games with at least some lasting value. All are in the original
boxes with all the original disks and documentation, in exellent shape.
In most cases I'm asking about 50% of the original purchase price,
slightly more for very recent games and for "classics" which are no longer
available but still up to modern technical standards.
        The Fine Print: $5 packaging/postage charge (for the US),
regardless of the number of games ordered (hint, hint). I'd appreciate it
if you try to take equal numbers of $10-and-under and over-$10 games (to
leave something for everybody), but this isn't a hard-and-fast requirement.
5% discount at $50, 10% at $100. Other deals may be negotiable. Please send
me email or call to confirm that the games you want are still
available, and to make sure (if you don't have both 1.2 and 1.44 drives)
that they're in a disk format you can read.
                                                Ilya Farber
                                                [e-mail]
                                                [phone]

ARCADE/ACTION:
_____________

GODS            $20
A run/jump/climb/shoot/puzzle/powerup game in the tradition of CastleVania,
Black Tiger, and the like. From the Bitmap Brothers, makers of Xenon II
and Speedball II. Excellent VGA graphics, sound effects and intro music on
SoundBlaster, plus background music on Roland.

NOVA 9          $25
The (superior) sequel to Stellar 7, Dynamix' science-fiction tank action
game. The action and scrolling are fast, the opponents are great, with an
especially nasty boss at the end of each world, and the tank can pick up a
variety of special weapons and effects. The game has 9 worlds with story
sequences between each, and has SFX and music for all major sound cards.
I'll also throw in, as an added bonus, the command-line cheat password I
learned ...

THE AMAZING SPIDERMAN   $10
Primarily a puzzle game, this puts you as Spidey in a huge mazelike
building (over 250 screens!) which Mysterio has loaded with traps ... you
can shoot and swing from webs, and climb on walls and ceilings.

THEXDER II: FIREHAWK    $7.50
The better-still sequel to Game Arts/Sierra's fantastic transforming-robot
shoot-em-up, this one has better graphics, tougher foes, more levels, and
passwords for higher levels. Your ship can switch back and forth between
humanoid (for firepower) and jet (for maneuverability), and can pick up a
variety of special weapons. Reduced price because it's now also
available (without the box) as part of Sierra's "action five" multipack,
which runs about $30 in stores.

BLUE MAX                $12.50
A good one- or two-player WWI biplane dogfight game. The graphics aren't
quite as spiffy as some of the newest ($50) games, but it *is* VGA with
painted cockpits. It's also probably the only really good flight
simulator that also supports CGA and Hercules! It supports all major
control devices and soundcards, and has a large, well-written historical
manual with information on all the major aces, aircraft and tactics of
the era. It's also one of the few dogfight games I know which implements
clouds that you can actually hide in. I wouldn't recommend this game for
people who use Stacker or DOS 4.x, since it wants quite a bit of free
memory.

RAMPART                 $20
Yes, it's the real thing. In fact, it's better than the real thing. The
VGA graphics and digitized speech (for soundcards) are better than the
arcade version, and the mouse makes castle-building much, much less
frustrating. There's also an "enhanced mode" in which you can get
super-cannons (which leave flaming holes) and propaganda balloons (which
turn enemy cannons and/or ships against each other). Up to three players
can play at once (with mouse, up to two joysticks, and/or keyboard), and
since you're not wasting quarters, you don't need to wait 'till the last
round to start pounding each other in earnest!

CRACKDOWN               $12.50
A fairly close adaptation of the arcade game: two players can play
simultaneously, hugging walls and dodging around corners as they invade
the terrorist base and plant bombs. Includes a "virtual-quarter" continue
scheme, so you can continue your games but can't just brute-force it
through to the end and immediately lose interest.

OBLITERATOR             $10
An explore-escape-and-blow-up-the-alien-base game from Psygnosis. Very
good painted Amiga-style VGA graphics, with a fairly maneuverable hero
(you can do running jumps and such), some rather original types of
alien opponents, and four different guns to pick up.

WIBARM                  $7.50
A Japanese-style transforming-robot 3D explore-and-destroy game. Cheap
because the graphics aren't that great (it doesn't use very many colors).
If I recall correctly (it's been a while), you spend some time in 3D and
some time in top-view. I also remember this one having quite a bit of
area to explore.

AXE OF RAGE             $12.50
A quirky but very amusing fantasy hack-'em-up. You're a largish barbarian
or barbariette (your choice, he has an axe, she has a sword) seen in
side-view, fighting your way past head-eating purple dinosaurs and other
such monsters ... there are two levels, with a fair number of screens per
level, arranged so that you can choose a path and follow your compass.
Your ultimate goal is to find and decapitate some skeevy wizard. The
rulesbook and graphics are wonderfully eccentric, and add greatly to the fun
of the game.

POWERDRIFT              $7.50
A so-so adaptation of the arcade driving game. The 12 opponents, 5 track
sequences, and some of the vertical dimension are there, though there're
no jumps and fairly limited terrain graphics. Supports CGA through VGA,
and all major sound boards.


ADVENTURE:
_________

HILLSFAR                $12.50
A D&D-based game from SSI. The system is unlike that in their "gold box"
AD&D games, though you can import characters from Pool of Radiance or
Curse of the Azure Bonds. You spend most of your time wandering about
Bards Tale-style cities, gathering info and getting sent on quests. There
are action sequences for horse travel, arena combat, and skulking about
in houses. One of the more original aspects is lockpicking, which requires
that you match picks from your set to the tumblers in the lock displayed
above.

HARD NOVA               $20
A big, complex space adventure in which you play a hard-bitten mercenary.
Its greatest virtue is its variety: there are top-down exploration and
personal combat sequences, topographic-map aircraft combats, and a
well-developed space exploration and combat system. You can choose your
missions, hire crew, bribe and barter, and explore four different star
systems. The VGA graphics are top-of-the-line, and there are SFX and
music for all major soundcards.

PROPHECY                $10
This game is "average" in tech level -- EGA graphics, no sound card
support -- and isn't as huge as the new breed of adventure games, but was
still more *fun* than any I'd played in quite a while. It has a good
story, with interesting NPCs, a decent-sized world to explore, and an
entertaining and original magic system which allows you to construct your
own spells using "syllables" with fixed meanings. I really enjoyed
exploring this one, and wish there was a sequel ...

KNIGHTS OF LEGEND       $20
A huge, detail-oriented fantasy adventure from Origins. If you have a
*lot* of time to spare, this is the game for you ... your party can have
up to 6 characters from 4 races and 40 classes, with different skills and
weapon types, and specific armor for each hit location. Combat is
conducted in a turn-based top-down "tactical" view, with each character
controlled individually. The world itself is huge, with plenty of towns
and quest areas to explore. I never finished this game -- it was too much
for me! -- but I'd estimate it could take 150+ hours to get all the way
through it. I wouldn't recommend running it on anything slower than a
386SX, since it draws your characters in their full armored glory when
you go to check their inventory ... this is fine on my 25MHz 386, but was
intolerably slow on a 10MHz XT.

SORCERIAN               $20
Another GameArts japanese game adapted by Sierra, this is a classic
Nintendo-style wander, jump and shoot game, with a party of characters
who follow each other in a style well known to Nintendo fans ... there
are three major quests, each of which has five longish levels which are
completely different in terrain and monsters ... there's also a rather
complex component-mixing spell system, though it's used mostly to heal
party members or give you strange-looking shots which have a wider spread
and/or do special damage against certain creatures. You build your party
out of standard D&D-ish classes, pick names and pictures, and visit the
town every so often to get supplies, have things made, and go up levels.
I've only played the first five missions, but supposedly your characters
age (and their pictures change) over time. This game was at the top of
the charts in Japan for quite some time, which must say something ... it
requires an AT or better with EGA or VGA graphics, and has SFX and music
for the major sound cards.

IT CAME FROM THE DESERT $15
A "CinemaWare Interactive Movie" modeled after the bad giant-insect
B-movies of the 50s, this adventure puts you in a small coal town in the
desert just before all hell breaks loose. Strange things have been
happening, and you have to wander around gathering evidence and analyzing
clues. The game play is organized such that you tend to move between
"scenes," which are sometimes more adventure-like and sometimes purely
action. From home, you can make phone calls and talk to your assistant;
you can choose destinations on the area map, and may wind up playing
chicken or knife-fighting with the local hoodlums; as you begin to
realize what's going on, you need to gather evidence to convince the
locals, and this quest may lead you to a shootout with a ??? in the mine
shafts; if you get wounded, you have to make a sneaky (top-view) escape
from the hospital, or lose time in bed; and, once you convince the
locals, you control the National Guard planes and tanks as they battle it
out with the ???. VGA and sound card support.

STRATEGY AND OTHER:
__________________

MEDIEVAL WARRIORS       $10
A turn-based small-scale warfare game for one or two players, this one
pits two teams of individual soldiers (with different strengths and
weapons) against each other on any of several different maps. Supports
different types of ranged and melee weapons, and can be played by modem
(if you can find another copy for your friend).

WAR IN MIDDLE EARTH     $10
An authorized Tolkien game from Melbourne House, this combines
large-scale map-based strategic manipulation and character-level
side-view adventuring on painted backgrounds. You can guide armies on the
map, while resolving individual combat and adventures on the location
screens. The characters and locations are supposedly true to the Tolkien
stories, but I can't judge since I was never a big fan of the books.

KING'S BOUNTY           $20
A relatively simplistic, but original and well-executed,
strategic/adventure game from the makers of Might and Magic. You wander
around the countryside hiring troops (who must be compatible; if you mix
Wargs and Pixies you risk a serious loss of morale!) and invading
castles. Information is a big part of the game; you want to know who
you're up against before you go fight them, and some locations can also
teach you valuable spells. I had quite a bit of fun with it, and
appreciated the fact that I could quit playing for a couple weeks without
having to remember gazillions of plotlines and clues when I started it up
again. I have a feeling that this game would run quite well on a decent
notebook computer. There's also a companion board/strategic game
available in game stores, but I know nothing about it.

RIDERS OF ROHAN         $15
Another Tolkien game, this time from Konami. You command armies, which
meet on the field of battle for real-time unit-scale combat which you can
pause at any time to reissue orders (or just select "quick combat" for
battles that are unimportant or lopsided). Simultaneously, you are guiding
the progress of individual characters, who can join the armies or go off on
missions of their own (say, to look for items or make diplomatic
overtures). In addition to the map view and strategic combat, there are
action sequences for bowyers (who can pick off invaders before combat)
and hand-to-hand combat, with most of the important characters from the
books represented as individual characters. The VGA graphics are good,
and soundcards are supported.

ROADWAR: EUROPA         $7.50
A fairly old game, using only the basic Apple-like CGA colors, but rather
fun nonetheless; you're wandering across the post-apocalyptic countryside
in a ragged band of vehicles which you design yourself (I love
steamrollers!), and spend much of your time in turn-based, Car Wars-like
tactical combat with other road gangs. Includes such joys as ramming,
boarding, and inter-vehicular firefights. Supposedly your ultimate goal
is to stop some mysterious nuclear terrorists, but I just had fun
building my automotive empire.

MISCELLANEOUS:
-------------

OMEGA           $20
A very interesting game from Origin, in which you can program (using a
special pseudocode programming language with if-then logic, loops, and
other basic constructs) your own artificially-intelligent tanks. You then
set them loose, in teams or every-tank-for-itself, against each other,
the premade tanks, and/or tanks built by your friends or downloaded from
Origin's BBS. With overview and closeup maps, you can watch them bumble
around and beat up on each other with high-tech weapons, and then you can
use your prize money to buy other neat gadgets like special sensors,
better power plants and armor, and jamming devices, and rewrite the code
to accomodate these new goodies.

MICROSOFT ENTERTAINMENT PACK FOR WINDOWS #2     $15/$20
I have two copies of this: one used, for $15, and one in the original
shrink-wrap, for $20 (original price $30). E-Pack 2 includes:
--Two solitaire games, FreeCell (requires deep thought) and Tut's Tomb
(much more simple-minded);
--Pipe Dream, a version of the classic "build the pipe before the water
reaches the end" game, and lots of fun;
--JigSawed, a program which makes a mouse-based jigsaw puzzle out of any
.BMP graphic (like your Windows wallpapers, or the special ones which
come with this program);
--Rodent's Revenge, a curious little block-pushing game;
--RattlerRace, an improved version of the shareware game Rattler (known
to old Apple II veterans as Viper), in which you attempt to munch apples
and escape while mazes, up to three other snakes and one or two bouncing
balls do their best to impede or kill you;
--Stones, a tile-placing game which requires careful planning and an eye
for patterns;
--IdleWild, a screen-saver program which includes a spiderweb, spotlight,
fractal builder, and more.

"ONLY KINDA FOR SALE":
---------------------
(These are games that I'm not too anxious to sell, so the prices are a
little higher. Most of them are hard to find outside of leftover bins,
and rarely even there nowadays)

DRAGONSTRIKE            $20
A dragonback combat simulator from SSI. This has a campaign structure,
with your performance in one battle determining what you have to do next.
You'll wind up riding and opposing different types of dragons, with
different strengths, speeds, and breath weapons; you can also attack your
opponents with your lance. In most other respects, this is much like
an airplane combat simulator.

KEEF THE THIEF          $25
A quirky but very funny adventure game, with humourous VGA background
screens and one of the most truly original realtime combat interfaces
I've ever seen in an adventure game. Your character (Keef) can, and must,
do it all -- disarm traps, mix and cast spells, make friends and kill
enemies. There's a pervasive college-student-ish humor throughout the game
(no surprise, it was written by college students (and published by EA)), and
some of the nastier multi-stage traps ever seen on computer. Consistently
fun and satisfying, with mouse and soundcard support.

NINJA GAIDEN II: THE DARK SWORD OF CHAOS    $20
Perhaps you've played the arcade version of NG I (you know, the one with
the "grab button" at the tip of the joystick?), or the (absolutely
horrible) computer version thereof. Well, this is far better than both.
The action is good, you get nifty powerups (like "shadow warriors" who
follow you around and throw weapons when you do, but can't be hurt), the
bosses are some of the best ever done for the PC, and there are
pathetically-hokey-but-well-drawn interludes between each stage. Good VGA,
with soundcard support.

ROLLER COASTER RUMBLER  $15
Your basic high-speed EGA shoot-em-up, except that you're on a
roller-coaster; you use the mouse to shoot obstacles before you run into
them, while spinning upside down and doing other confusing roller-coaster
maneuvers. Includes a "monorail mode" which improves visibility by
removing all the fancy roller-coaster trappings.

DRAGON LORD             $25
Probably the most original and hard-to-categorize game I've ever played.
You are a Dragon Lord, trying to take command of a continent and find the
hidden artifact which will make you its undisputed ruler. You raise
dragons from eggs -- controlling the incubation environment, which allows
you to make tradeoffs between speed of incubation and eventual strength
-- and send them on raids against foreign cities, which are resolved as
scrolling top-view arcade sequences where your fire-breathing dragon
contends with primitive hang-gliders, catapults, military balloons and
other bizarre foes depending on the population and tech level of your
targets. Meanwhile, you're back home mixing spell components (using
another original and well-animated system, in which you control various
parts of a complicated alchemical apparatus as you add the various
ingredients) and using the resultant potions to plague cities, heal your
dragons, or improve the potential of your eggs. Meanwhile, two other human
and/or computer Dragon Lords are working against you, razing your cities
and conducting their own searches for the artifact ... excellent VGA
graphics, and AdLib/Soundblaster music.

THE DESKTOP FRACTAL DESIGN SYSTEM       $30
Allows you to generate Mandelbrot and Julia Set fractal images, zooming
in to explore their infinite variety; can also produce fernlike Iterated
Function Systems, and includes the author's own "Chaos Game Algorithm"
and "Escape-Time Algorithm." Stores its images in the miniscule .IFS
format (about 128 bytes per image, as opposed to 100+K for programs which
store their images in .GIF format). No math coprocessor required, though
you must have EGA and 640K. This program isn't quite as good as Fractint
if all you want to do is zoom into various parts of the Mandelbrot set
and say "gee, that looks neat"; but if you want to explore the
mathematical or evolutionary underpinnings of chaos and fractal images,
this program is far better. Includes an explanatory manual with ample
examples, and sample code for incorporating some of the included fractal
functions into your own programs.


BONUS GAMES:
-----------
These are games that I've gotten to work, but only erratically or after a
fair amount of fooling around with my config.sys. Since I don't want to
have to worry about them being returned, I'm offering them free: the
first three orders of $40 or more get their pick of one of these games.

BLOCKBUSTER: A Breakout-style game with a construction set and all the
usual gimmicks (invisible bricks, moving bricks, etc.)
FRIGHTMARE: A simple but spooky and slightly gory graphics adventure
FINAL ORBIT: An interesting, scrolling alien shoot-em-up set on a garbage
planet. Multi-player cooperative mode, with different shot powerups.
Wants lots of low memory free (no Stacker!), and doesn't seem to like 286s.