10 Years of Early Windows Gaming 1997 - Episode 1

Betrayal at Antarra: "You know what was important about Betrayal at Krondor! The Betrayal!"
Sierra got the Krondor rights back and there was an actual sequel next year, Return to Krondor.

Confusing game series:
Heretic -> Hexen: Beyond Heretic -> Hexen II -> (Heretic II)
All 4 games were done by Raven, but the last (Heretic II) was published by Activision instead of Id so the rights have been different. Of course, both Id, Raven and Activision all now have the same parent now (Microsoft), so maybe it will all be worked out?

Hercules (PC) in another "we don't know how 3D platformer camera works yet" title. This game doesn't choose to use movement with depth all the time, but it does well enough when it does. Honestly, it looks pretty good for the standards of the time, particularly on the PS1 version. I think the forward running sections are extremely good looking.

Mortal Kombat Trilogy: The high point of old-school 2D Mortal Kombat. They went a different way with 4 and the series got lost. I think the first game does have better atmosphere (not so much Mortal Kombat 2) but the gameplay is really shallow. I'm not sure I would recommend a PC port of the game, but I don't have the PC Trilogy. Either way, if you play a version of Mortal Kombat 3, it should probably be "Trilogy"

I always found it very weird that Kitarn was suddenly a Jedi. In Dark Forces, you're clearly a Han Solo. Now you're a Luke Skywalker? The series itself forgets about "Dark Forces" for the next game.

The question from Interstate '76 is "how did Interstate '82 go so wrong?"

Some people have specific hate for Hellfire. Official 3rd party developed expansions weren't uncommon in the late 1990's. Gearbox's Half-life expansions are probably the most obvious example. Master Levels for Doom II is another, which was specifically designed to counter all the unofficial Doom expansions.

I have no idea what Vicarious Visions was thinking with Dark Typo. Extremely strange for a boxed Mindscape-published PC game. It feels a bit like it's in the class of unusual PC action games with Crusader: No Remorse, but that game at least looked like a PC game. The company survived to become Blizzard Albany in 2022, so I guess it worked. And since it's all MS now, maybe Dark Angael can show up in Heretic V: Hexen III.

Your never resting hero👏

Atomic Bomberman is a classic for good reason, that is all.
Betrayal in Antara is not one I know? It looks interesting but kind of ugly? Still that’s not the end of the world.
Hexen II is also a classic, the series was an interesting take on the FPS in the heyday of FPS’s & absolutely one to own if you’re in to that.
Disney’s Hercules is excellent, it looks, sounds & plays great for the time, even if it should be “Heracles” in a greek setting.
MK Trilogy is technically excellent but I agree it just lacks the atmosphere of the original games, arcade or console.
Star Wars: Jedi Knight was fantastic in it’s day as you got to do things you’d never done before in a 3D game & any Star Wars fan needs in their collection.
Interstate ‘76 was awesome in its day! I have it in my stack of games to play on retro builds. If you haven’t played it & you’re in & the Nitro Pack expansion pack to retro gaming find it now.
Diablo: Hellfire adds more content to a classic game. Honestly I was never a big Diablo fan but friends gush about it (& Hellfire,) so who am I to put it down?
Dark Angael is new to me & I’m mostly glad it’s nothing to do with the terrible TV show of the same name. I’m not convinced it would have been called good looking in its day? Your character moon walks everywhere, even when she’s walking forward? 😄

Great start to the new year, thanks. This is going to be a great year to cover & it’s awesome there are still games that are new to me even from 1997.

1997 was a pretty stacked year. for....pretty much every type of media. not just pc gaming lol. it was crazy. damn great list.

You finally hit it, Hellfire, the one game my roommate received lead credit on... drum roll... WIKIPEDIA. It was kinda cool seeing the easter eggs day one. The local DJ voicing and cowquest were hysterical. Bardtest, barbtest kinda worked. I'm pretty sure our play group got multiplayer over KALI mostly working. This was the last game Synergistics ever worked on. The small nondiscript office was closed and a "few" folks were moved 9 miles north to corporate. Lore, Wizards of the Coast and Synergistics folks used to hang out at the same lunch place. HAHAH KALI is worth a video.

Absolute bangers here, mk Trilogy, hexen 2 and intestate 76

AE is simple to pronounce. Just say "Ä" and you got it. Unless you want to speak Danish, then you go for an Æ. As simple as that!

That "you want me to play a fake game? This looks cool. Wish me luck" ad can eat my lower digestive tract and associative body parts. This SFW comment brought to you by raid shadow legends.

Wow, you have a real talent for editing, great job!

Dark Angael is pronounced "Dark Hamburger"

I couldn't get into Hexen 2. It all seemed a bit sparse and plain to me, with frustratingly tough enemies to compensate for the need for as few entites as possible. Hexen 1 was too mazey for me to love it but I think it was better produced and much more varied, and even had a better atmosphere. And horsemen of the apocalypse?! Egyptian-themes etc??? On a far-away planet/dimension!?!? Weird move :P

For all its problems (the cutscenes, the present bug on GoG version with car movement, sometimes physics dose not cooperate) I76 + Nitro raiders is definitively worth playing. if only for the surreal combination of fun funk soundtrack and bloodbath of killing dozens of cars per mission. Game also appears to have some sense of hummour.

in Nitro Raiders you get to play Taurus, Jade, Skeeter and the protagonist of base game is special campaign. Personaly prefer that over playing as just one guy but i did play NR first so i have skewed view.

There is even quite a bit of strategy to loadout - permitting choices per slot that can completly transform how game gets played, since my aim is appaling i end up favouring tureted weaponry, but i cna see some favouring greater impact stuff like rockets.

An amazing year to be a gamer. Atomic Bomberman, Hexen 2, Dark Forces 2, Hercules, Hellfire are some of my favourites ! 😍

M Interstate 76 is an AMAZING game definately one of the best ever made

Dark Angael... I remember my first contact with this game was a pure accident - I bought one of those budget releases in Poland, named PC FUN (it had 10 games in total, and the "main one" was Seven Kingdoms 1). And Dark Angael was one of the games included. I didn't heard about this game earlier, on the one hand I didn't like a bit "stiff" control of protagonist (probably because the character is so big, that making jumps etc is harder and less fluent, than in Abuse). But on the other, it surely had a characteristic atmosphere. Truth be told, I was a bit confused about the game's plot and got stuck quite easily, but it still made on me significant impression.

Krondor/Antara series is one of those which are still waiting in my GOG library to be finally played :P Have hope that I will find time to play the entire series, as I heard a lot of good things about it.

I believe the Atomic Bomberman portion has some voice-over cut out.

Agreed with Hercules

Æ is like an E sound

Interstate '76 is one of my absolute favorite games of all time. Everything about it is perfect (in my opinion) and just oozes style, and I consider it to have had a huge influence on what I find cool even to this day.

Hercules was INSANE good, the quality even better than Aladdin which was already a great game. I love these vids man, I grew up with all of this!