Let's Play Game Empire: Over 250 Shareware Games

01: Action Games, Part 1
02: Action Games, Part 2
03: Action Games, Part 3
04: Action Games, Part 4
05: Action Games, Part 5
06: Action Games, Part 6
07: Action Games, Part 7
08: Action Games, Part 8
09: Adventure Games, Part 1
10: Adventure Games, Part 2
11: Strategy Games, Part 1
12: Strategy Games, Part 2
13: Strategy Games, Part 3
14: Strategy Games, Part 4
15: Card Games
16: Kids Games
17: Mixed Games, Part 1
18: Mixed Games, Part 2
19: Mixed Games, Part 3
20: New Additions, Part 1
21: New Additions, Part 2
22: New Additions, Part 3
23: New Additions, Part 4
24: New Additions, Part 5
25: New Additions, Part 6

EX: Missing Pieces

Challenge Mode, Part 1
Challenge Mode, Part 2
Challenge Mode, Part 3
Challenge Mode, Part 4
Challenge Mode, Part 5
Challenge Mode, Part 6
Challenge Mode, Part 7
Challenge Mode, Part 8
Challenge Mode, Part 9
Challenge Mode, Part 10
Challenge Mode, Part 11
Challenge Mode, Part 12
Challenge Mode, Part 13
Challenge Mode, Part 14
Challenge Mode, Part 15
Challenge Mode, Part 16
Challenge Mode, Part 17
Challenge Mode, Part 18
Challenge Mode, Part 19
Challenge Mode, Part 20

[SA]JamieTheD: Catacomb Abyss
[SA]JamieTheD: Commander Keen
[SA]JamieTheD: Crystal Caves
[SA]JamieTheD: Blake Stone: Aliens of Gold

Game Empire was a shareware games collection released in 1994 by SoftKey International, boasting over 250 software titles and "hundreds of the very best arcade style games!" Back when I was a latchkey kid holed up in rural Pennsylvania with a 14.4k modem and a 486, Game Empire provided literally hours of entertainment for my ten-year-old self who didn't know any better because I didn't have a Genesis and Half-Life didn't exist yet. I recently unearthed my actual Game Empire disc, crammed in a jewel case along with Big Red Racing and a Star Wars Trilogy Multimedia Audio CD, and since PC gaming is dead and there's nothing happening on consoles right now, let's revisit these incredible classics.

I'm Phenwah, joined by Lobst and whomever else we could rope into this sorry mess. Welcome to Game Empire!

Prepare to be blown away.

01: Action Games, Part 1

In our first Game Empire video, we take a look at some Action Games. They are:

3 Point Basketball (MVP Software)
Aldo's Adventure (Dave & Ben Ibach)
Bandit (Mike O'Shea)
Billy The Kid Returns (Alive Software, Bill Dedes)
Bio Menace (Apogee Software)
Blake Stone: Aliens Of Gold (Apogee Software, Jam Productions)

I have an inordinate fondness for BioMenace

Holy crap, you can move faster than the human eye can perceive in Bandit. Why can't you do that in more games?

Because it's fucking sweet.

I want to see some Commander Keen action! (I actually paid for the full suite of games and played the crap out of them...but when I rediscovered the disks a few years ago, they were corrupted and useless.)

Conveniently the first 5 episodes are still available.

02: Action Games, Part 2

Not even Apogee Software can save us from the horrors of more Action Games:

Blue Balls (Pat Copeland)
The Adventures Of Captain Comic (Michael Denio)
The Catacomb Abyss (Gamer's Edge, Softdisk Publishing)
CD-MAN (Creative Dimensions)
Chopper Commando (Mark Currie)
Clone Invader (Gary Quiring)
Commander Keen In: Invasion Of The Vorticons (Apogee Software)
Crystal Caves (Apogee Software)

I've already received a handful of challenges! My original plan was to not show my efforts until after we've seen the game at its placement in the list, but most of the good stuff is actually in the New Additions category, and I might start on challenges on-the-side prematurely. Keep 'em coming!

I'm more into Duke Nukem II, but I respect your opinions!

I think movement is tied to clock speed! The same thing happens in Clone Invader.

The Commander Keen games as presented in Game Empire aren't very good, and it's not the games' faults! If I showcase either of them in Challenge Mode, I'll probably have to just fire up the Steam version.

There were a ton of shareware game packs like that back in the day. And most of them had the same games on them, too. I have at least three of them, including one BBS compilation disc from some time around 1992. Being a PC gamer on a budget back in the early 90s meant you got to know certain shareware games really, really well...

EDIT: Found them! My collection of old shareware game compilations includes: Simtel 20 MSDOS Archive CD-ROM (September 1992), CICA Microsoft Windows CDROM (August 1993), and The Best 200 Games Limited Edition (came out some time around 1994 I think). The former two are actually BBS compilation discs released by the same company, Walnut Creek CDROM (perhaps most famous for hosting ftp.cdrom.com, aka. the internet's first and most popular shareware game hub). Man, what a blast from the past... Some of the games on these old shareware archives probably aren't found in the collection you have, but we'll have to wait and see what the other categories contain first to be sure.

03: Action Games, Part 3

Sorted alphabetically, the Action Games category seems to have one legitimately popular classic DOS game for every ten or so games that aren't. See if you can spot the real game in today's video:

Cyberbox (Doug Beeferman)
Dark Ages (Apogee Software)
Defender (Softlair, Sarwan Narine)
Skunny: Desert Raid (Copysoft)
Desert Storm Command (Pod Bay Enterprises, David A. Johndrow)
Diamond Dash (Softek, David Fleming)
Doom (id Software)
Dschump! (Homebrew Software, Peter Hinz)



Probably! I know archive.org even has some variants of the SoftKey International Game Empire collection, but none of them seem to be exactly the one I dug up.

It's obviously Desert Storm Command. Only game here that anyone's heard of, I'm sure.

OK right now we need to stop because NONE OF YOU KNOW HOW TO PLAY DEFENDER AND THAT IS INEXCUSABLE.

You've got a map at the top of the screen showing you the whole level.

There are little dudes running around beneath you, chilling.

There are little spaceships which try to swoop down and carry the little chilling dudes up to the top of the screen. If they succeed in doing so, they eat their brains and become nastier spaceships.

Your goal is to shoot the spaceships, and keep the little dudes alive.

If you shoot a spaceship while it is abducting a dude, the dude will start to fall. It is at this point, and only at this point, when you can swoop on over to pick them up, and safely escort them back to their natural habitat, the ground.

Great videos so far! I remember having Shareware collections like that and playing both the Billy the Kid game and the Skunny / Desert Raid game. That one isn't that bad, actually. Too bad it crashed for you.

I guess it's because I know what to expect out of Doom already and love it, that I'm having more fun seeing all the other Apogee games I missed out on. I pretty much only got to play Duke Nukem 1, the shareware version of Jill of the Jungle, and Commander Keen. Including some weird version of it called Keen Dreams, which played nothing like regular Commander Keen but was fun anyway. But anyway, I mean I know the names of some of these Apogee games, but I sure don't actually know what they're like since I never played them.

Incidentally, let me know if you want some more Apogee classics that aren't included in that collection. It looks like, for example, Cosmo's Cosmic Adventure is not in this collection. Maybe it's in another category... Anyway, if it turns out it's really not there, I highly recommend trying it out. An underrated Apogee classic, that one.

Hot off the heels of our last update, it's another update!

04: Action Games, Part 4

Multiple real games await us in today's video, including:

Duke Nukem (Apogee Software)
Duke Nukem II (Apogee Software)
Electro Body (xLand Games)
Elfland: Gorgimer's Castle (Carl Erikson)
Epic Pinball (Epic Megagames, James Schmalz)
Executioners (Bloodlust Software, Icer Addis & Ethan Petty)
FBI FRED (Richard Spezzano)
Galacta: The Battle For Saturn (Albino Frog Software, Sean M. Puckett)
Galactic Battle (Brian Goble)
Galaxy Trek (TAC Enterprises)
Gotcha (Don Herring)

Sorry! My arcade chops start and end with Dig Dug.

I've got it to run off-camera! Hopefully I can do so again.

Keen Dreams actually plays similarly to Keen 4, at least in terms of look and feel! Also, Bobby Prince's unused musical score for a scrapped intro cinematic later became the Dopefish theme.

You can see a full game list in the "Submit a challenge" drop-down box!

Indeed I can! Here's the Apogee classics I remember that are not on that list, just in case you decide you want to try out some other interesting titles:

Cosmo's Cosmic Adventure
Rise of the Triad
Terminal Velocity

I don't remember Keen Dreams that well, but I thought it played quite differently from Keen 4 and 5 if only because it was a lot more of a Mario clone. I don't remember if it had the pogo stick, but I do remember no alien blaster and lots of collecting veggies or something like that.

Is it just me or did the aliens put a shirt on Duke Nukem after abducting him?

05: Action Games, Part 5

All of the game's in today's video successfully booted up! It's a Christmas miracle.

Today's Game Empire selection is brought to you in CGA, EGA, and VGA:

Halloween Harry (Interactive Binary Illusions, SubZero Software)
Heavy Water Jogger (Viable Software Alternatives, Casey Butler)
Helious (Albino Frog Software, Sean M. Puckett)
Jetpack (Software Creations, Adam Pedersen)
Jetpack: Christmas Special (Software Creations, Adam Pedersen)
Jill Of The Jungle (Epic Megagames)
Joust VGA (Dave / Ron Sharpless)
Commander Keen In: Goodbye, Galaxy! (id Software)

I have a feeling this LP is going to branch out beyond what's on the Game Empire disc once it's been thoroughly exhausted, and I'm kind of looking forward to that! If we last that long.

Groovy.

Klax: The Motion Picture sounds an awful awful lot like Tokyo Gore Police.

Jeez, the prices some of these jokers were asking make me feel good about the cost of gaming today.

How is it possible that a shareware collection exists which does not include Moraff's World? That was the quintessential roguelike Ultima I knock-off.

06: Action Games, Part 6

We explore copyright infringement and disparity of tone in today's Game Empire selection:

Ken's Labyrinth (Epic Megagames)
Llamatron: 2112 (Llamasoft, Jeff Minter / Bewildebeest)
Major Stryker (Apogee Software)
Mario Bros VGA (Dave Sharpless)
Megatron (Stanley Design Team)
Monster Bash (Apogee Software, Frank Maddin)
Invasion of the Mutant Space Bats of Doom (Elven Software)
Avoid The Noid (ShareData)

JamieTheD over at the Awful Forums posted a couple of supplemental videos, seen here:

Catacomb Abyss
Commander Keen

Taxus is not-surprisingly a huge fan of Japanese body horror and David Cronenberg films.

I'm sure the OUYA or XBLIG marketplaces have similarly-outrageous prices here and there.

They had to make room for all the incredible Soleau Software hits we'll be seeing later!

I think what makes this different from the Shareware collections I had back in the day, is that the ones I had didn't cover as many years. So you wouldn't find something like "Avoid the Noid" from 1989 on them. Really strange mix.

I think for me and my friends the holy grail of Shareware was Rise of the Triad. Everyone had the Shareware version but we could never find a complete copy of the game.

Fun Fact(tm): The guy who coded Ken's Labyrinth is none other than the man who invented the BUILD engine, which Duke Nukem 3D, Shadow Warrior, and Blood all used as their base. In fact, Ken's Labyrinth was the first released version of BUILD ever.

Avoid the Noid was a full retail game, wasn't it? Makes its inclusion doubly odd here.

07: Action Games, Part 7

The bitter end of the Action Games category is in sight, as we close in on:

One Must Fall (Diversions Entertainment, Rob & Ryan Elam)
PC Galaxy Wars (Stephen Haigh)
Perestroika (Locis)
Skunny: Save Our Pizzas (Copysoft)
Skunny: Lost In Space (Copysoft)
Solar Winds (Epic Megagames, Stone Interactive Media)
Spear Of Destiny (id Software)
Spitball (Amode Barrier, Bored College Students)
Starfire (Silver Lightning Software, Paul Turbett)

And I guess JamieTheD on SA is still doing his thing, too:

Crystal Caves
Blake Stone: Aliens of Gold

There's been a lot of ROTT talk surrounding this shareware disc. I should probably do something with ROTT.

It's really strange how much the soundtrack for Solar Winds sounds like the Dune II Soundtrack. Oh, and the font looks like the font for Tyrian / Tyrian 2000.

Too bad you only got to play One Must Fall and not One Must Fall 2097, one of my favorite fighting games of all time.

Too bad you didn't mess with Solar Winds some more, it was a legitimately fun game (at least, in my memory of it).

I'm looking forward to VGA Miner, as if it's the game I'm thinking of, you not only mine for precious minerals, but you have to buy condoms in order to avoid getting STDs from the local whores.

PROTIP: buy a lamp and torch, and spend too much time moving back and forth next to unknown squares in order to reveal their secrets!