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suggestions.tips

 If you're aware of a great game or have coded one, feel free to drop me a line.

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perfectly.violet^1.0

a simple yet elegant design

3d.table.sports.mass.media

Developed by Mass Media and published by Time Warner, it represents the best silicon interpretation of air hockey. Power Hoops also gets high marks while Foosball was sub-par. The only downside is that it was released in late 1995 when DOS was still the platform of choice.  Requires Dosbox / frontend for XP play. 

binary. lana yu

arkanoid.2.taito

While most of the clones are forgettable & monotonous, the Taito original holds it's own. 

binary

ballistix.dma.design

Psygnosis classic sports hybrid with elements of air hockey and pinball. Options include adjustable gravity, shot power, etc. The DOS version is linked below. There are also versions for the Amiga and NEC Turbografx 16 that you can play on your favorite windows emulator. One of the coders for this game is currently working on the Grand Theft Auto series for Rockstar Games. 

binary

commandos.pyro.studios

Action | RTS game developed in Spain.  The sequel has an updated graphics engine.

homepage

decisive.action.jim.lunsford

Official US Army training software. Units are depicted with official NATO symbology, and US Army official map control measures delineate the battlefield. Includes scenario editors for infinite replay value. Both single player AI mode and multiplayer 'play by email' mode.

homepage. screen 1. screen 2

ecstatica.2.andrew.spencer

Developed by the gifted Andrew Spencer, released by Psygnosis in 1997. Impressive ellipsoid technology for smooth graphics and realistic body movements. 

demo. patch

exit.taito

Stylish cell shaded action puzzler where players use decision-making skills and wits to escape various obstacles while rescuing people from more than 100 different emergencies.  Initially a psp exclusive, there are nintendo ds and xbox 360 live arcade versions to be released in 2007.

official site

incredible.machine.series.jeff.tunnell

If anyone has any homemade levels for any windows version of The Incredible Machine, I'd be glad to host them.

order contraptions. box shot

lode.runner.series.presage

Sierra's Lode Runner Online Mad Monks' Revenge (MMR) and The Legend Returns (TLR) are 2 of the best computer games ever developed. You can also play the original Broderbund levels with the download level packs lrpuzz.zip and lr_online_games.zip. The former also includes all 50 levels from Championship Lode Runner, compliments of Presage.

binary. tlr levels. mmr levels. level maps

lumines.tetsuya.mizuguchi

Tetsuya Mizuguchi and Q Entertainment bring Lumines to life on the Sony PSP. A modern puzzle arcade classic released in 2005. 

official page. screen

microsoft.arcade.dima.pavlovsky

Faithful windows versions of 5 arcade classics, the most notable being Tempest. Runs flawlessly on Windows XP. The default control sensitivity in this version is superior to the mame and atari windows releases.  In a perfect world, there'd be a 64 bit version that runs on Vista.

binary

microsoft.inkball.microsoft

The object of Microsoft® InkBall is to draw ink strokes with your mouse to guide colored balls into holes of the same color.

An ink stroke disappears when a ball hits it. A single ink stroke can affect only one ball. 

The amount of points that you earn is based on the color of the ball. The game ends when a ball enters a hole of a different color or the game timer runs out.

By choosing from a variety of game boards and five levels of difficulty, you can make InkBall as challenging as you want.

As you increase the level of difficulty, you can encounter increasing ball speeds, more balls, more holes, and more complex game boards, including puzzle-style boards. 

When you reopen Microsoft^® InkBall after playing a game, InkBall opens at your previous difficulty level and displays the highest score that you have achieved.

There are 2 versions of microsoft inkball.  

The xp tablet version can be played with a mouse  on any version of xp as long as tablet support files are installed.  In order to play it on xp, you'll need to have microsoft windows journal viewer or microsoft office 2003 or later installed since they install the required tablet support files / dll's. While the mouse pointer is not visible within the game window in the xp version,  there is a modified version that enables the mouse pointer to be visible on xp.  

The windows vista version is included on all versions except home basic.  The business version requires that the games pack be enabled through the control panel.  The vista version only runs on vista.  The vista version elicits the error message 'inkball.exe is not a valid win32 application' on xp.

With clean graphics and challenging gameplay, microsoft has released a true classic. The only negative is that the vista version only runs on that os. If you'd like inkball to be backwards compatible with pre-vista windows, you could contact microsoft to implement the change in future service pack updates. 

microsoft inkball. screen 1. screen 2. screen 3 [ modified ]

motoracer.2.delphine

The demo actually contains a dirt track not available in the full version. The control sensitivity is also slightly different from the full version. One of those rare games where they nailed the gameplay. It seems the more realistic the physics model is, the less enjoyable the game. Thankfully, the inverse is true here. 

demo. patch

nba.inside.drive.high.voltage

One of the most entertaining sports games ever developed with outstanding gameplay. Great attention to detail, particularly AI. Developed by High Voltage Software, published by Microsoft. Subsequent versions were only available for the Xbox. 

demo. homepage

orbital.bit.generations

In Orbital, you control a small planetoid as it floats through space. You start out as one of the smallest objects on the screen, but by merging with objects a size larger, you increase your own size and gravitational pull. In each stage, your goal is to grow large enough to snag the sun into orbit around you. There is also a moon in each level that can be grabbed, resulting in bonus points and a bigger unlockable if you collect all of them. Game controls simply consist of 2 keys/buttons. On a Gameboy Advance emulator (VisualBoy), the z / x keys either propel / repel you toward or away from a planet / gravity well. The replay value consists of trying to improve your saved score / time for each level. Totally original concept with great execution. 

orbital | bit generations. screen 1. screen 2

pinball.fantasies.21st.century

Developed in Sweden by Digital Illusions, Pinball Fantasies contains one of the best pinball tables ever created - real or virtual. The Partyland table is an absolute classic. There are also Amiga and SNES versions.  The sequel was Pinball Illusions.

fantasies. screen. illusions. screen

rockstar.presents.table.tennis.rockstar

Groundbreaking next generation sports experience with fluid control and tight gameplay.  Xbox 360 exclusive that took a year to develop.

official page

russian.square.microsoft

Neat puzzle arcade game included in Microsoft Plus! for Windows XP. 

homepage. screen 1. screen 2

screamer.2.milestone

Developed by Italy's Milestone, published by Virgin Interactive. An arcade racing game that is much more enjoyable than the current racing simulations and their inherent rigid newtonian physics models. While the game can't compare to the Gran Turismo series, it remains one of the more pleasing efforts in the racing realm. 

demo

stars!.crisum

Hard to find windows turn based space conquest strategy game. The long anticipated sequel Stars Supernova hasn't materialized and has officially attained vaporware status with the exception of a handful of beta testers. Ebay is the only source for a boxed version of Stars! if you want a manual.

demo. screen

summer.winter.challenge.mindspan

Accolade's early nineties DOS Olympic Games implementations. High marks for gameplay with above average graphics for that time period. Windows users can opt for the sega genesis versions using their favorite emulator.

summer. winter

world.poker.tour.mforma

Mobile Game with slick interface / solid ai.  You can compile it and run the emulated version on your desktop PC with the utilities linked below.  

world poker tour. emulator. runtime. screen

zoop.hookstone

UK developer Hookstone unleashed this arcade classic in late 1995 with Viacom securing the distribution / publishing rights. It's a DOS game but there are plenty of emulated versions that are playable under windows [ sega game gear | snes | sega genesis | jaguar | playstation ]

While it's superior to Tetris, very few clones of the game exist. Refer to some of the other games sections for other implementations of the game including source code. Novice game programmers might want to try this game rather than tetris. The gameplay is much more satisfying.

demo