Video Games
Conquests of Camelot
This is a very old Sierra game where you play King Arthur in your search for the Holy Grail. It's from a time when Sierra still had games where you type what you want to do instead of push crappy icons. The graphics were pretty good for their time, but that doesn't say much now, ofcourse. Just to warn you though, there are some parts in the game where you have to answer riddles in order to proceed, in which case the instruction book would come in handy, but the answers are probably easy enough to find using the internet. Here is a quick walkthrough. Some quick tips: when you visit the treasury, be sure to ask gold, silver and copper. You also need to search Merlin's room for an important item before you leave the castle. Don't forget to stop by the altar room as well.
Elf Bowling 1
This is the original game of Elf Bowling. You are Santa Claus, and the object of the game is to bowl with the elves (literally). There are some really cool surprises inside this game. Watch as the elves make funny noises and rude comments the entire game. Exceedingly fun around the holidays. Doesn't need to be installed.
Elf Bowling 2
The snickering elves are back with Santa, but there is a new twist as Santa's ne'er-do-well brother, Dingle Kringle joins Santa and the Elves on a cruise ship headed for an island adventure. Players compete in a crazy shuffleboard tournament, with the Elves - oh that naughty Santa - serving as "pucks" and providing their own special, colorful commentary. There are plenty of hilarious surprises to continue the irreverent escapades of the Elves, and players register their scores to compete with other participants from around the world.
Elf Bowling 3
Hold on to your stockings...those bawdy, naughty, wise-cracking elves are back for their wackiest adventure yet! Having returned to the North Pole Santa finds Rudolph and all the reindeer unable to fly the sleigh (or count backwards…or walk in a straight line… or touch their hoof to their nose…). Seems they have become good friends with Santa's older brother Dingle Kringle who has fallen off the wagon…again.
Final Fantasy 4: Hard Version for the Zsnes
This is a translation of the Japanese version of Final Fantasy 2 (American). Based heavily on D&D and Star Wars, it was one of the best RPGs ever released for the Nintendo. This one is the original Japanese release, which is much better than the dumbed-down Nintendo version, including extra abilities and magic items, uncensored dialogue, and (in some parts) a longer, more detailed story. The Final Fantasy series was produced by Square, which had put Enix's Dragon Warrior/Quest game to shame with the release of Final Fantasy 1 in 1988 and blew away all other games in popularity with the release of Final Fantasy 7 in 1998, only to be devoured by Enix in April 2003 after losing $150 million to the release of the Final Fantasy movie The Spirit Within.
If you download the Zsnes, you might want these quick instructions
Final Fantasy 5 for the Zsnes
This RPG is one of the best in terms of game play and is one of the most challenging. It's the predecessor of Final Fantasy Tactics. Lots of classes to choose from as you go along. The story isn't as good as either Tactics or FF4 though.
Final Fantasy 6 for the Zsnes
This is the fan favorite for classic Final Fantasy fans. It provides a long, creative story that starts off very structured but in the second half of the game allows the player to explore the world at their own leasure. There are a lot of characters to choose from with rather ridiculous classes and an Esper system that allows any character to learn any spell. The best part is that some fights involve splitting up into different groups and controlling multiple battles. Although the story is still not as good as the 4th, the variation with creative gameplay does reach a pinnacle in this installment.
The Ice Queen
Written by Angelo Bertolli, this is a small RPG set in the mountains. In this short game, you seek to kill the Ice Queen who has sent the land into an eternal winter. Ice Queen is a simple RPG game originally created on Turbo Pascal 6.0. The graphics are better than anything i've ever done, but it is still incomplete. And ofcourse, it wouldn't be one of Angelo's games if there wasn't a special appearance by Ronald McDonald.
Macbeth
Another game by Angelo, this one a political text-based game involving tactics and strategy. I found this game to be very challenging.
Procreator
Procreator is a set of 3 games I wrote a long time ago: a detective game, a fantasy story generator and a military fantasy RPG. To play them, unzip Procreator and double-click 'gwbasic.exe'. Then type: run "procreator"
Scorched Earth
The Mother of All Games. An intriguingly simple tank game where you decide what angle and at what velocity to fire your shot. Each shot allows you to gauge how much you should compensate. What really makes it durable gameplay-wise is that you can buy shields and other kinds of ammunition between rounds.
Starcraft Demo
This is the most addictive game i've ever played. There are three different races to choose from, each of which is very well balanced: the virus-like Zerg have the best offense, the Protoss have the best defense, and Terrans are the most versatile (meaning their bases can lift off for escapes) and are the best at sneak attacks. Battles work on a rock-paper-scissors basis: starships defeat ground troops, missile silos defeat starships, and ground troops defeat missile silos; that sort of thing. Unfortuneately, the demo only allows you to play Terran using only one map. I also created a Star Trek/Star Wars/War of the Worlds version of the game called "Federation vs. The Empire" with the game's campaign editor.
Tetris
Probably the simplest game ever to receive such an astounding amount of popularity as well as the only video game to cross the age gap in mass quantity. The legal battles between Atari and Nintendo make a colorful history for this Russian-born game. You'll have to push F11 in order to play the game full-screen.
Warlords
This is a great meideval strategy game in which you select one of eight countries, from elves, dwarves, orcs, giants and a couple of human nations. You then set the toughness of the other nations and start to play. You start with one castle which produces an army every once in a while and a hero. This hero can either lead an army, or simply wander around and search old ruins. In return, he is either slain, or finds special objects, gold, or mystical creatures as allies. The economy of the game is pretty simple. Each city produces a set amount of gold each turn. Each army consumes a set amount of gold each turn. The game also provides many different lists to compare how your side is faring against the other and even reports which countries fear and hate you the most. A great game for when you have lots of people over but only one computer.
X-Com: UFO Defense
Also called "UFO: Enemy Unknown", this RPG gives you control over an organization defending against an alien invasion from Mars. You not only command a force of men and tanks in elaborate turn-based battle scenes, but also have to deal with the decision-making side of the organization: building bases in the countries most at-risk of infiltration, buying weapons from the money made in selling alien corpses, interrogation, researching alien artifacts, and manufacturing anti-gravity suits or new ships. The best parts by far are the terror missions, where you can take your plasma rays and bazookas into crowded cities to (cough) defend the pedestrians from alien attack forces. X-COM can be bit complicated to learn compared to the more user-friendly titles on my list. A tip that you will need to know in order to win the game is that you can scan for alien bases simply by sending your interceptors out and "halting" them. The best way to find out where to look is to check out the alein activity linegraphs. Here are some patches and cheats for the wussies who can't handle a fair fight.