In my last blog I began a look through of 20+ titles from Steam publisher Classics Digital. This library of absolute trash (soon to expand to over 100 titles according to their barely functional website) includes gems from developers Wisdom Tree, Inc., Ocean Software Ltd., Imagitec Design Inc.and Atari SA(aka Infogrames). And since I hate myself that much, I thought I would start with the bottom of the barrel and went through no less than four Wisdom Tree games last time. I promised that this time I would finish up the Wisdom Tree portion of the collection which includes two games based on the Jews' exodus from Egypt.

The first is called Exodus: Journey to the Promised Land and it is a reskin of an earlier game by the same developer before they decided to make Bible games. In it you collect some widgets in each level to open a portal to another level and then repeat. There are enemies attempting to kill you by walking into you and your goal is to avoid them. Maybe the most comparable game I can think of is Lolo's Adventure on the NES. Enemies and obstacles all have specific behaviors and patterns that you must overcome in a puzzle like manner. Expect the puzzles are dull. The sound effects, at least on this DOSBox version are grating, and five levels in, none of the puzzles were especially difficult. So I moved on to the next game, Joshua & the Battle of Jericho. This game is something of a sequel to the previous one, having similar gameplay but with more types of objects and enemies, at least early on. The puzzles are a bit more challenging and the sound effects, while not good, no longer make me want to pull my ear drums out. So of all six of the Wisdom Tree games I played, this one is maybe the best. Mind you that is an incredibly low bar to cross. It's like saying you were the best movie made by The Asylum(you'll have to look that one up yourself). It's not great, or even good, but tolerable and playable. At least for the 15 or so minutes I forced myself to play it. All told, these Wisdom Tree titles are a complete and utter disgrace to both video games and the Bible and even for the low, low, price of $0.05 that I paid, are not worth playing.

To end today's blog I wanted to look at the sole game in the collection not developed by one of the four companies listed above. Alien Rampage is a title so obscure that it has no Wikipedia entry and its entry on Giantbomb contains no information but the publisher and developer. That developer, Inner Circle Creations was made up of two brothers who have made no other games to my knowledge. There are no reviews listed for it on Gamespot, IGN, or even PC Gamer. So a title made by two guys with no experience and given absolutely no press that I can discover. It has to be bad right? Actually, it is fairly impressive. Alien Rampage is a side scrolling shoot-em-up, a la Contra or Metal Slug. You play as the titular alien, on a rampage of vengeance after his ship is shot down. There are several impressive elements to the game right off the bat. The first and maybe most noticeable thing is the sound engine, listed in the credits as the sole function not performed by the two brothers in question. Instead it was made by first person shooter sound engineering master Jim Dose, whose extensive credits include Duke Nukem 3D, Rise of the Triad, Quake 3, Doom 3, SIN, Blood, Portal, Half Life 2, Left 4 Dead, and Call of Duty Black Ops, to name a few. His mastery of the form is fairly obvious with a sound engine that seems generations ahead of anything else in the game. In addition to support for a good dozen sound cards, the game has surround sound support, utilizing spatial placement for things like explosions and weapon fire. For a DOS game made prior to Quake and the advent of 3D game engines this is exceptionally high quality sound programming.

Of course great sound effects don't mean squat if the game itself sucks. And while it isn't masterful it is a huge step above most anything else I have played from this collection. I wish I could tell you if this game was level based or a single open area, but I never made it to a second level after a good half hour of playing. There are multiple save points dotted throughout the level. Also hidden are health vials that increase your maximum health, and numerous secret areas that give you a variety of power ups as well as a currency you can spend to purchase ammo for your various weapons in a shop. While I didn't get to see most of them in action, there are what seems to be weapons of various elemental capabilities, making me think this might be some sort of Metroid inspired title. But I could find no mention of a map and at a certain point I could not figure out where to go next to progress and decided to call it quits. While the lack of a map certainly would hurt if this is indeed a single large open area, I could also have been missing something, as like with Wisdom Tree's titles, Classics Digital opted not to include a digital manual with this old game that obviously has no in game tutorial.

At least there are a list of controls and features in a help menu in the game, making this the most playable Classics title thus far. In addition, once I enabled gamepad support in the menu my Xbox One controller was immediately recognized and I was able to play through the game with that, and even was able to modify the button configuration, something plenty of current Steam games can't manage to get right.

As far as the shooting goes, it is a little finicky but that might be down to the fact that I don't think I was fully understanding the calibration screen. And yes, this game even has a joystick calibration screen. And this is before the creation of the Dualshock and not long after the launch of the N64. Just an all around impressive technical feat. Back to the gameplay, you are able to shoot in 8 directions here, but there is no button to plant your feet, so shooting diagonally can be a bit of a chore as the game might think you are trying to walk forward. That said, it works fairly well, especially considering modern analogue sticks didn't even exist when this game was being made. The fact that it is as playable as it is, is a testament to the quality of the programming and design here.

So I know I am gushing a fair bit about this title. Partly I am just surprised. I expected this to be another trash entry in Classics library but instead it is not only good, but uses fairly advanced tech for its time of release. It holds up fairly well too. The visuals are perfectly serviceable if a bit low resolution. Lots of little quality of life things are present here that were not common when this game was released. For example, your character grabs on to ledges should he fall just short of a jump. Once you reach a save point all your progress up to that point is saved. That means enemies stay dead and power-ups and items remain collected. And you get all your health back when you reload. It is still a fairly difficult game, but there are an impressive number of forward thinking features here that maybe made this a title too ahead of its time in an era when games were designed to be as tough as nails. But overall I am genuinely surprised by this game's quality and how little I can find out about it online. If you do decide to buy Classics' library on some crazy sale (I got it for $1), I would absolutely recommend checking this game out. Even on its own it is worth the $5 they are charging for it.

And that does it for today. Next up, Imagitec.