I have installed Diablo and played a while, very addictive :)

And another large map battle won. Maybe not quite as extensive, long but not as wide. First time I started the wrong way, got slammed and started losing units, didn't try for a few days, then tried again today and just rolled through it. Sadly two units which had been at full exp now lost a level, pushed them too hard and the deaths hurt, and a bonus area that I gather granted a unit experience I conquered with a unit that was already at max, but got a lieutenant and another squad of scouts, the leutenant being a unit that will stick around even after the continent normally, so that's nice.

If I'll finish this 3rd continent too this month, I'll consider it quite a success.

This video can resume some of the adventure games from 1996 relating actors, xD

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=goovFvN1hns&t=1s

I didn't manage to beat the second island final battle in Fantasy General but, to be honest, I haven't played much since my last post.

I installed The Settlers 2 but didn't play it at all. I always get through the couple of first maps, and kind lose interest on the map with several islands, ships and shipyards. So I thought I could start from that point but uh... it haven't happened this month. :F

Third continent, trying to make a push for it this evening to finish it this month after beating around the bush before, getting as many battles as I could before aiming for the castle. But what a difference the randomness makes, this one I just finished, once start with a mass of enemy troops a few hexes from my starting area, and a handful more a bit to the side, so direct clash from turn 1 there and risking to be flanked a bit later, and all ganged up on my wing riders and they died and I said nope, restart. So try again, see just towns, no reward locations, and there had been at least one the first time around. So try again, still just towns. Restart a 4th time, there's a shrine, and the enemies are split near the three corners of the map, and not that large a map. So I just mass my troops to attack the first area, breezing through, then walk to the other, enemy masses all troops there and just hands me over the other town (I walked a light infantry there unopposed), I mass mine, and I had all of them while enemy had already lost that part in the first clash, so was another walkover, even had a few turns at the end to decide which troops to get the last kills for the most useful experience gain.

Ah, the mighty RNG turning tides of battle. ;) Congrats on beating another island!

I really tried to play Summer & Winter: Olympic Challenge. And while some stuff is pretty good and fun to play, most of the game is a broken mess with controls not working or the game always pushing you off the track at the exact same spot (no matter what you do).

Could have been a great game, but because of the problems I will leave it alone and travel on to the next year.

Still – great thanks for participation and enjoy the next year!

Boarding for 1997 travel is in progress ;)

Thanks. Past midnight though. Would have been either way, but in the last battle I first decided to roll with it when I lost my wing riders and the amulet of blessings they had (to a very bad RNG, estimate had them trash the enemy on that attack but it went the other way around, took double the injuries that were estimated and did less, leaving my unit weak and exposed), but when I also lost a lieutenant and his amulet of resistance I said screw that. But had an earlier save, several turns back, when I wanted to see whether I should force march that same lieutenant to try to get him out of harm's way or rest him to clear broken and hope he'll make it, since I didn't know how the force march will be affected by terrain and couldn't cancel it once cast. So reloading from there and made it. With no losses actually. And won on the next to last turn without directly killing the last unit, since I captured a location that damages all enemies when captured, and that last squad of werebears I hadn't managed to wipe out on that turn with the units that could reach them was down to 1 or 2, forgot exactly, and they died then.
Annoying thing is that now it said volunteers led by a hero leave. Fortunately the hero was a sargeant with no magical items, not the one named one I have (Loric) or one of the lieutenants, but still. Air slammer, steam hawks, 2 scouts, 2 auxilia and the sgt will be noticed...

If there's one more thing I must say though is that I don't know who'd want to play it on the default hidden units setting, as in with fog of war. Seriously, when you have turn limits, can't take any time hunting for enemies, not to mention risk being surprised by them. But I guess good thing that it's a toggle, so if anyone does want to leave it on default they can, the rest of us can turn it to show all units and leave it that way.

Hello fellow time travellers!

Sorry, for reporting in so late... my time machine seems to have some kind of hickups during my visits in the year of 1996 and kept throwing me in a couple of earlier years, too. Furthermore, I suffered an accident in the middle of the month from which I am still recovering. Hence, I could not keep up with my original plan.

First, I started with "Fade to Black" (Playstation 1 version), made steady progress right through level 3 during a couple of pleasent gaming sessions, and took plenty of screenshots.

Then, I fired up "Wipeout 2097" (known as "Wipeout XL" over the pond) and got hooked again immediately, like back in the day - its atmosphere, music, presentation and progressively raising speed just pulls me in like no other racing game. And who does not get the chills when the anouncer highlights the destruction of a race competitor with his strong voice: "Contender eliminated!"
(Who ever doubts the speed of this racing game (no matter if on PC or on the old PS1) should take a look into the following gameplay video on Youtube (Wipeout 2097 Longplay) an skip forward to the latter classes and especially, challenge 1 and challenge 2! Similar to, for instance, the "Mario Kart" games, the acceleration and maximum speed of the vehicles are rising significantly, later even reaching ridiculous speeds!)
What surprised me the most, directly after having played "Fade to Black" for a while again and a long time since I have touched the Wipeout series last time, is the huge amount of verticality (height differences) in the race tracks! Lots of more realistic racing games or later arcade games (including the third installment of Wipeout and its enhanced special edition) have much more flat or smoothed out courses.

This made me contemplate again about the question, why exactly "Fade to Black" did not hooked me so much back then in 1995/96, altough I already was a huge fan of the "Prince of Persia", "Another World / Out of this World" and "Flashback" line of games?
It has a nice presentation, a relative smooth early 3D engine, story-wise connects directly with its predecessor ("Flashback"), surprisingly convincing voice acting, a lot of 'coolness' factor both in the amount of the small CGI cut scenes (a 'wow-factor' back in the day before movies like "Jurassic Park", "Twister" & co. demonstrated how far the rabbid hole can go) as well as in characters and action. In addition to that, it has some nice gameplay features that were way ahead of its time and a few utterly overlooked during the Playstation era.
But it also falls short in one significant aspect in which its contemporaries were miles ahead!

It only took me one start and brief test run on games such as "Wipeout 2097" and more importantly, the original "Tomb Raider - featuring Lara Croft", to realize what was missing in "Fade to Black":
=> The sensation of verticality in a realtime 3D space!!!
Tomb Raider's level design included so much impressive traversal in vertical spaces, that it opened up my mind for a sense of exploration that flat level layouts could not reach neither with their labyrinthian structures nor with the addition of secondary or extra 'floors'.

Just playing again the opening sequences of "Tomb Raider" or the race courses in "Wipeout 2097" showcases what the "dawn" of 3D video game graphics was about. Each consequent scene, room or race course increases in presenting and utilizing verticality (height differences).

"Fade to Black" in comparison, despite all its mechanical new gameplay features*, feels/felt conservative and somewhat 'outdated'.
*(to be described later on)

And what about the 'hickups', you may ask?

While still recovering from an accident, GOG.com has released some old classics that are just too good to be passed on, diverting even more the little time, which I had available during this (now former) month of our time travel project.

Yes, I meant the "Links" series of realistic golf simulations.

I never really was into Golf, neither in real life nor in video games. But I still have my NES cartridge of "Golf" and did know and enjoy a lot the PS1 demo of "Actua Golf" (also known as "VR Golf '97" in other parts of the world).
I also acquired and played a few other Golf related games, such as the fun-oriented "Mario Golf" series or "Kirby's Dream Course" (a kind of minigolf game on the SNES).
However, in the past I did not see the appeal of more realistic approaches in the simulation of Golf on home consoles or the PC.
With the recent additions to the GOG.com catalogue, I gave some of my other early Golf 'simulations' another spin again and found multiple of them actually interesting, and especially, relaxing - for they do not require any twitchy nor complex inputs.
Thus, I played quite a few of them from various release years between the late 80's and early 2000's on different platforms during the final stretches of June, before I decided to buy the now also available "Links LS: 1998 Edition" and "Links 386 Pro".

At least, the first "Tomb Raider" and "Actua Golf" / "VR Golf '97" (on PS1) were released in 1996, as well as certain PGA Tour titles. And "Links LS: 1998 Edition" (despite GOG's error on the game card) is from 1997, therefore fitting for our time travel in July!

(More to come...)

Kind regards,
foxgog

Wish you a full and speedy recovery!

Meanwhile, had a go at the first battle from continent four yesterday, first with no new units purchased, which was a mess and I quickly restarted, bought 2 riders of the bow and first was losing them and/or the inexperienced gunner purchased before the previous battle to replace the one lost in the one before it, which once I thought I might try to accept, but then lost the fully experienced balloon rider with a staff of winds too I said screw it again... And then actually made it to the end of the turns just fine for my units and advancing, but I broke through the two deadlocks too late and capturing the last necessary objective was never even a question, not to mention a couple more optional ones. But at least it means I'm getting the idea. Considering the complete air superiority I ended up having after clearing the initial wave, more bombers would probably be the right choice, but I'm not far from developing new magical ones so would rather wait, since those aren't upgradeable. Let's see if it'll let me...

... probably not over the next few days though, seeing as I just got the second jab today and it's crushing me, can barely sit here, saw 39.2 when I took my temperature earlier. Meh.

Strike that. Last night was bad, but today so far I'm feeling just well (or bad) enough to just sit here and play, and went all out, on top of those 2 riders of the bow, also purchased 2 ballistae (didn't research better siege so far), 2 trail runners and 2 healers, and just made it. Last turn, had 2 units which could just reach that last tower, good thing I saved because I first tried to use them to clear the way for 2 more and maybe kill one more enemy by the end and failed and wouldn't have been able to win, so reload and just go for the tower, left 2 enemy units alive but ah well. Now let's see how the rest of this fourth continent will go.

the 4th continent is really a.... well you probably know the deal ;)

I'm in pursuit, halfway through the 3d continent with Knight Marshall and a very mobile part skirmish part 'stomp away' army

<< sorry for the slowdown, and in case you are wondering... integer scaling ...

Finally I've found half an hour to start my journey!
Starts awesome – I love the sense of humour!

Well, continent 4 is going along too... But in that choice for 3rd battle between tundra and gorge, I went with tundra first, thinking gorge will have more enemy fliers and my druids would help more in tundra, but the tundra was a mess, a massive swarm of enemies I couldn't break up (and restarted a few times), had to accept the most losses so far by far, a lieutenant (and his useless eye item, just threw that on some unit, no effect unless you have hide units on), the air warriors (which were from Krell's starting army, so there from the beginning) and their wand of fireballs, a ballista and a healer. Lieutenant is irreplaceable, replaced the rest, getting 2 giants for the air warriors and lt., best I have since I didn't research heavy infantry.
... And then saw I could still do the gorge too, and tried, and was surprisingly easy. Yeah, lost one of the new giants, a gripper one-hit it, but that's an easy replacement, and I did win on last turn, but had been taking it rather easy, and that win was a wipe, goals met a few turns before, while in the tundra I had just met the goal on the last turn (refused the surrender still though, couldn't be removed from the goal areas so had a few more units get a bit more exp there).
Lots of new units researched after the tundra too.