Page 14 - OSG Presents Classic Gamer Magazine #4

E3 2000 Classic Game Overviews
E3 2000 Classic Game Overviews

Dragon’s Lair 3D Games.com Return to Castle Wolfenstein

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W hile the above frame looks like a car- asbro Interactive is giving classic gamers W hat’s there not to enjoy in kicking some
toon...it isn’t! After a long absence, Dirk the Dar- another means to play their arcade favorites. Nazi butt? Luckily for us we get to Return to
ing is making his impressive return onto PC’s in Games.com, which is set to launch early 2001, Castle Wolfenstein and engage in such activi-
Dragon’s Lair 3D. While this remake may look will offer gamers over 50 different games to play. ties. Activision kept this first person shooter under
like its original laserdisc grandfather, it now fea- Games.com will support seven different online wraps so well, that it came as a complete surprise
tures a fully explorable 3D environment. So, in- game channels including family, arcade, casino, to E3 show-goers.
stead of slapping your joystick into the intended gamer, sports, children, and game shows. Arcade Built with the Quake III Arena engine, it’s no
direction of movement, or pressing the “Sword” games of the classic mix include Asteroids, Bat- wonder the graphics are remarkably smooth and
button, you will get to run around and hack things tlezone, Tempest Tubes, Missile Command, the gameplay looks utterly amazing. Unfortu-
to bits. It’s about as close as you can get to actu- and many others. Fans of more traditional games nately, screenshots have been amazingly scarce
ally playing a cartoon; the graphics and environ- will also be able to play their favorites such as and the above one fails to do the game much
ments are just that amazing. Backgammon, Chess, Monopoly, Scrabble, justice. It does, however, show off the realistic
Your object remains the same: rescue Prin- Yahtzee, and Scrabble. lighting and textures rather well.
cess Daphne from the castle of evil Singh the While their site is not operational yet, you can As B.J. Blaskowicz, your mission is to escape
Dragon. Aside from a unique looking bevy of bad still visit it and sign up to be notified when the from your jail cell and start liquidating Nazi block-
guys, Dirk will also face a series of challenging games will be ready to play. A soft launch of the heads at will. From what we saw, just about every
puzzles. Now bring on Space Ace 3D!! site is expected later this fall just in case you’re object is interactive, so feel free to toss some
Dragon’s Lair 3D will be available Spring 2001 getting an itch to play Monopoly, Scrabble, Risk or chairs at those fascist ne’r do wells.
for the PC with rumored plans to port it to con- Asteroids. Return to Castle Wolfenstein will be available
soles. Fall 2000 for the PC.
Pac-Man Adventures in Time Greatest Arcade Hits (DC) Tempest 3000/Vm Labs

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A s reported in CGM #3, Mr. Pie-Sliced Yellow yaawwn<. I think we’ve been here and O k, we admit that we were treated like kings
Head is traveling his way through time and onto a PC done this before. If you already own this collec- by the VM Labs people. Heck, they even intro-
near you in Pac-Man Adventures in Time. It seems tion for your PlayStation, then you don’t need it for duced us to Traci Lords in their V.I.P. lounge (see
some uppity ghosts have done a number on Planet your Dreamcast. If you already play it via MAME, next page)! But, that aside, there is really nothing
Pac-Man by stealing the five magical dots, which are then you really don’t need it at all. Now, don’t get not to love about VM Labs and their Nuon tech-
vital to the Pac inhabitants’ survival, and scattering us wrong, if you don’t have these games in your nology.
them through five different time periods. possession, then we recommend you buy it. Aside from allowing movie companies to create
It’s up to our dot addicted hero to bring peace to his Midway’s Greatest Arcade Hits Volume 1 technologically enhanced DVD’s, Nuon (formerly
planet by traveling through time (courtesy of Professor covers the same games yet again: Defender, known as Project X) also caters to the more cas-
Pac-Man’s time portals) and retrieving the dots. Pac Joust, Robotron, Sinistar, Bubbles, and De- ual gamer. At the VM Labs booth, we were fortu-
will travel to Egypt, the old west, the future, prehistoric, fender II (was Defender II a “hit”?). The emula- nate enough to meet with digital artist and Tem-
and medieval times. tion is acceptable, but the interface can be a bit on pest 2000 creator, Jeff Mintner, showing off the
Hasbro has given Pac the usual 3D treatment, in- the cranky side. As for the games themselves, new Tempest 3000. As expected, it’s hypnotic,
jected a lot of creativity, and yet has maintained the Robotron is just not Robotron without the dual highly addictive, and as you can see in the above
familiarity of the original. Of course, there is still lots of arcade joystick experience. Defender, Defender picture, looks even better than Tempest 2K.
running, chasing, and chomping, but now Pac has the II, Joust, and Bubbles are just as fun as ever,
new trick of jumping over his pursuers. especially when playing Joust in 2 Player mode.
The graphics are cartoonish and quite vibrant. It’s Sinistar is still one of the best games ever, if only
also quite possibly the roundest looking Pac-Man we’ve for the sheer terror you feel when the evil one
ever seen, thanks to the game being PC specific. himself announces, “Beware! I live!”
Analysis: So far so good for Pac! Midway’s Greatest Arcade Hits Volume 1 is
Pac-Man Adventures in Time will be available in Sep- available now for your Sega Dreamcast.
tember 2000 for your PC.
Classic Gamer Magazine Summer 2000 14