This was posted 1 year 10 months 7 days ago, and might be an out-dated deal.

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[PC] Apogee 90s Classics: Rise of The Triad, Blake Stone, Monster Bash, Secret Agent, Crystal Caves (90% off, $0.79-$0.89) @ GOG

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[PC] Apogee 90s Classics: Rise of The Triad, Blake Stone, Monster Bash, Secret Agent, Crystal Caves (90% off, $0.79-$0.89) @ GOG
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slipkord on 19/06/2022 - 13:29 gog.com (977 clicks)
Last edited 27/06/2022 - 15:34 by 1 other user

Stumbled upon these whilst perusing the GOG Summer Sale 2022 … ITAD says that these "Apogee Entertainment"-published classic games from the 90's are currently at their all-time historic low prices:

These HD remastered games from the same publisher, are also currently on sale (thanks XyzzE):

EDIT: thanks to poopy for pointing out Cosmo's Cosmic Adventures & Hocus Pocus, and thanks to ryf for pointing out Commander Keen Complete Pack - these Apogee-era classic games weren't in my initial post, because of the way they have been categorized and tagged as "belonging" to differently named publisher IDs - "3D Realms" (which was how Apogee Software got rebranded circa 1996-1998 onwards) and "id Software"

Gaming 3D Realms 90s Apogee Blake Stone Cosmo's Cosmic Adventure Crystal Caves Dosbox GOG Game id Software Monster Bash PC Game Realms of Chaos Retrogaming Secret Agent Video Game Wacky Wheels

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  • ThirtySixNights on 19/06/2022 - 13:45
    +3

    Blake stone was a classic, so many secrets.

    • FabMan on 19/06/2022 - 14:46
      +1

      I prefer those games over Wolfenstein 3D.

    • slipkord on 19/06/2022 - 15:44
      +4

      Fun trivia / looking back at history:

      • Developers (JAM Productions) released Blake Stone: Aliens of Gold - which is based on id Software's Wolfenstein 3D game engine - on December 3rd, 1993.
      • A week later, on December 10th, 1993 - id Software released DOOM

      … which, despite solid reviews, resulted in poor sales for Blake Stone: Aliens of Gold in the weeks/months when DOOM quickly rose to the top of the charts

      • FabMan on 19/06/2022 - 16:19

        I wonder what the reasons are as to why some popular PC games weren't ported to the Mega Drive or the SNES at the time.

        Wolfenstein 3D was such a massive PC hit and I'm sure would have sold well on the Mega-Drive, but it was never officially released for it. They released a version for the SNES in 1994 after Doom was released, but excitement for next consoles was strong then. Had they done console ports of Wolf3D before Doom, Blake Stone would have probably been ported to those consoles and been relatively successful too. Though it would have probably delayed the release of Doom, so I am glad it didn't work out that way.

  • [Deactivated] on 19/06/2022 - 13:45
    +4

    Ahhh nostalgia

  • Jimothy Wongingtons on 19/06/2022 - 13:46
    +3

    Secret agent - that takes me back

  • lesher on 19/06/2022 - 13:57
    +12

    Rise of the triad is always such a good classic

    • Dogstar on 19/06/2022 - 14:16
      +2

      Played the shit out of this game when it was first released. I wonder how it holds up?!?

      • slipkord on 19/06/2022 - 16:33

        As per the post I wrote earlier, thanks to freely downloadable source ports that provide higher resolution graphics and other quality of life improvements, they definitely help with (re)playing a classic game such as ROTT on modern PC machines

      • AngusD on 20/06/2022 - 08:33
        +1

        I suspect very poorly.

        But that doesn't really matter… you don't have to play it for very long to get your 89 cents worth!

    • onomatopoeia on 19/06/2022 - 19:07

      Love th gods hand mode, it's ahead of time especially there's big difference between the shareware and full version

    • TheBooleanOne on 19/06/2022 - 20:40
      +2

      Indeed! Ludicrous Gibs mode FTW.

      Also I think it was the first time I discovered an Easter egg in a game. Play RoTT over Christmas, and the loading screen had a cool (at the time) Christmas theme.

  • ryf on 19/06/2022 - 14:11
    +5

    Also Commander Keen, but not as big a discount https://www.gog.com/game/commander_keen_complete_pack

  • beeze on 19/06/2022 - 14:31
    +4

    These would be great on a steam deck. Shame we have missed out to date (despite being able to charge a premium)

    • slipkord on 20/06/2022 - 09:21

      Interesting to think about Steam Deck with regards to these Apogee era classic games - I don't own a Steam Deck, so maybe someone else can chime in here?

      … but a quick glance at SteamDB seems to indicate the following:

      No mention of compatibility (Valve probably have not yet gotten around to testing these games on Steam Deck)
      • Rise of the Triad: Dark War
      • Blake Stone: Planet Strike
      • Monster Bash / Monster Bash HD
      • Secret Agent / Secret Agent HD
      • Crystal Caves / Crystal Caves HD
      • Cosmo's Cosmic Adventures
      • Hocus Pocus
      • Realms of Chaos
      • Wacky Wheels / Wacky Wheels HD
      • Commander Keen Complete Pack
      Steam Deck: Not Supported ("game does not function on Deck due to incompatibility with Proton or specific hardware components")
      • Blake Stone: Aliens of Gold
  • XyzzE on 19/06/2022 - 14:41
    +1

    The remastered versions (of the bottom three games at least) are also on sale on GoG at the moment. I'm all about 16 colours, but if you like a few more, that's also an option.

    • slipkord on 19/06/2022 - 16:51
      +2

      Curiously enough, Crystal Caves HD is sold with the original Crystal Caves game - whereas, the original Secret Agent and Monster Bash games are sold separately, and not bundled within, the remastered Secret Agent HD and Monster Bash HD

      I'll add those as a side note on the post, pointing out that whilst they are discounted, the HD versions are not at their absolute all-time low prices

      • XyzzE on 19/06/2022 - 19:07

        Interesting! Crystal Caves was the first one to be re-released, too.

        Personally, I'm hanging out for the Cosmo remaster, but I'm glad they're not rushing it. Monster Bash HD was a bit buggy, at least on release.

  • FabMan on 19/06/2022 - 15:18

    I am not a fan of many of the Apogee games like Monster Bash released in 1993, I wonder how that could have be released and well regarded when you already had Wolfenstein 3D, Indiana Jones and the Fate of Atlantis, Super Mario Kart, A Link to the Past, Sonic the Hedgehog 2, and Streets of Rage 2.

    I guess there were plenty of people rocking 386's that still wanted to play games, but I think Apogee released some very overrated games. I guess the stiff jumping and collect-a-thon nature of those games really don't appeal to me.

    • WhyAmICommenting on 19/06/2022 - 20:02
      +1

      I guess there was a slight storyline to the games and characters - especially commander keen. But if you’re into first person shooters then Wolfenstein 3D was it.

      It was a market that matched the times - 12 year old kids with cheap computers their parents bought for “education” or their own use too.

  • slipkord on 19/06/2022 - 15:34
    +10

    A pretty neat thing to be aware of, is that many of these Wolfenstein 3D engine-based games have had their source code released some years ago … which has resulted in there being one or more third-party/community-developed source ports that are freely available to download and conveniently use on modern PC machines with higher resolution graphics and other quality of life enhancements.

    As such, I reckon its certainly worth checking out as an alternative to firing up and configuring the packaged DOSBox software that comes with these games:

    Game Source Port Name Notes Operating System(s)
    Rise of the Triad: Dark War WinROTTGL Uses OpenGL. Includes further fixes and improvements, supports up to 1920x1080 resolutions, texture filtering and sharpening, color transparency, MP3 music and parametric reverb. Requires GLgraphics.zip found on its website. Bonus: Hi-res texture pack Windows 7/8.1/10(?)
    Rise of the Triad: Dark War WinROTTAPI A 64-bit port based on WinROTT by the same developer. Uses native Windows API (based on GDI). Windows 10 64-bit
    Rise of the Triad: Dark War SDLROTT SDL 1 port of ROTT with 64-bit support and features/fixes from WinROTT. Linux and Mac users need to manually compile or look through the distribution's repository, although a (slightly dated) OS X build is available here. The Windows binary files are based on the Development version and requires SDL.dll and SDL_mixer.dll in order to run. Development has stopped as of 2015. Windows / Linux / Mac OS X
    Blake Stone: Aliens of Gold & Blake Stone: Planet Strike BStone Unofficial source port for Blake Stone series (Aliens Of Gold and Planet Strike): High resolution vanilla rendering, 3D-rendering, Upscale texture filter, Support for external textures, Allows to customize control bindings, 3D-audio, Separate volume control of sound effects and music Windows 32-bit and 64-bit / PlayStation Vita
  • Snoots on 19/06/2022 - 16:15
    +2

    I do remember specifically downloading Rise of the Triad shareware back in the day. Took about 10 hours on a 14.4 Kb Dynalink internal modem with a very very slow TPG connection.. I must have been one of their early customers back then.

    • Hugh Man on 19/06/2022 - 18:12
      +2

      Those were the days. I remember downloading the shareware file for doom (about 700kb I think) on my 2400 baud modem. I left it downloading overnight and had to tell my family not to pick up the phone or I would lose everything. That was a stressful night!

      • WhyAmICommenting on 19/06/2022 - 20:03

        I would have unplugged at the phones first lol.

        • Hugh Man on 19/06/2022 - 20:48
          +2

          Pretty sure I did but my sisters would plug the phone back in anyway. So basically only time I could download a large file was at night when everyone was asleep and hope it finished by morning. Eventually there was some download protocols that allowed you to resume a file download when the connection was lost. This was all before the internet was a thing, I used a direct connection to a bulletin board service. Man I feel old remembering all this. Would have been about 30 years ago.

          • WhyAmICommenting on 19/06/2022 - 22:31

            @Hugh Man: Haha, I started on PCs about 32 years ago, but by the time I got connected to the Internet they had 56k modems.

    • GeneralSkunk on 19/06/2022 - 19:50
      +1

      I lived in the country so for me it was still floppies and arj split archive files until about 1996. Remember the first Need For Speed was a lot of those!

      Local Internet cafe became my haunt, mostly to talk to American chicks on IRC.

  • Ravensbane on 19/06/2022 - 16:28

    Ohh jeez the insane amount of memories from these games..

  • brownsound on 19/06/2022 - 17:22
    +2

    Need raptor call of the shadows remaster

    • slipkord on 19/06/2022 - 17:32
      +1

      There is one coming, from the original creator himself, Scott Host:

      Raptor: Call of the Shadows REMIXED

      Not only am I re-releasing Raptor in its original Classic Form (With fixes and smoother gameplay), but also adding a Remixed Mode to take advantage of the incredible power of modern hardware.

      This new version of Raptor will be available for Nintendo Switch, PC, Mac, PS4, iOS, Apple TV and Android platforms.

      What is currently in development for Raptor:

      • Dynamic new music changes depending on the mood.
      • High quality sound effects.
      • Run at 60fps for smoother gameplay in both Classic and Remixed Modes.
      • Fixes for decades-old gameplay issues, and reworked levels in “Remixed Mode”.
      • Better visual effects including real-time lights and reflection effects.
      • Particle effects for explosions, shots, engines, etc.
      • Enhanced cutscenes and animations.
      • New weapons to purchase.
      • Store and hanger will use real 3D models.
      • A game editor to make new levels, edit ships and change music.
      • Steam Workshop compatibility.
      • Jdrizzle on 21/06/2022 - 18:20

        Hoo boy I played the heck out of that game!

    • GeneralSkunk on 19/06/2022 - 20:00
      +1

      Now _that _ was a master game! I spent endless time playing this. Very Amiga-ish.

  • TheDukeOfNukem on 19/06/2022 - 17:32
    +1

    I approve this deal.

    • GeneralSkunk on 19/06/2022 - 19:51

      Nice. Or should I say, Bitchin’!

  • tallkid123 on 19/06/2022 - 18:24
    +1

    Yes, got ROTD:DW!

    Never played the others as a kid.

  • poopy on 19/06/2022 - 21:10
    +1

    ah the memories (probably tainted by nostalgia but oh well). Its not on the list there, but might I suggest Hocus Pocus and Cosmo's cosmic adventures which are both Apogee published games. Fun platformers, even to this day. They lack the smooth scrolling compared to the platformers the Mega Drive and the SNES were pumping out but they have those quirks PC games use to have before the homogenisation started to creep in by the late noughties.

  • happykamper on 20/06/2022 - 07:24
    +1

    Nice one, I was remembering Rise of the Triad just recently.

  • bazingaa on 22/06/2022 - 11:25
    +1

    Thanks, got Realms of Chaos, Wacky Wheels, Commander Keen Complete Pack
    Do they support Adlib/OPL3 sound ?

    • slipkord on 22/06/2022 - 17:20
      +1

      Realms of Chaos has Adlib and Sound Blaster sound supported
      Wacky Wheels has Adlib and Sound Blaster sound supported

      Commander Keen Complete Pack:

      • Commander Keen: Episode 4 and Episode 5 have SoundBlaster/AdLib music support
      • the older Commander Keen Episodes 1, 2, and 3 only has PC Speaker support
      • bazingaa on 23/06/2022 - 00:04

        Thanks mate, hoping to play these in my Pentium 1 laptop with Sound Blaster 16 :D

        • slipkord on 24/06/2022 - 11:35
          +1

          Wait, back up … Pentium 1 laptops (with a SoundBlaster 16) are a real thing?? I definitely remember Pentium 1 desktops with SoundBlaster 16 soundcards … but not in a laptop version!

          • bazingaa on 25/06/2022 - 14:00
            +1

            @slipkord:

            Pentium 1 laptops (with a SoundBlaster 16) are a real thing

            seems so, mine is a Pentium 120 MHz from 1996, Win95 detects it as "SB16 or AWE32", I think it can't be a AWE32 anyway. Internal MIDI detected as OPL3 at 388H (there is a gameport for midi/joystick too). Below is a screenshot from windows :D

            Device manager and Multimedia Properties

            • slipkord on 25/06/2022 - 14:13

              @bazingaa: Kudos on keeping onto a Pentium 1 laptop with Windows 95

              That said, with the DOSBox programme packaged with Commander Keen being one of the most recent versions (v0.74.2 or thereabouts), I'm not entirely sure it'll be able to launch / run Commander Keen particularly smoothly on a Pentium 1 machine … versus, say, skipping DOSBox altogether and then running/booting into DOS mode and then launching CK game(s) that way

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