We’re accepting donations now

Over the years we've been asked many times how people could contribute some money to the club. We always said that wasn't necessary and it still isn't, really. But we would like to move the server to a more reliable hoster with more bandwidth.

For that we need about €500 per year. The money will go towards the podcast episode and website hosting, as well as our Mastodon instance (for which you can also request an invite, even without donating anything ;))

Anyway, if you want to help us out, you can do that on our Ko-fi.

Thanks everybody who pushed us to finally do this and to everybody donating!



Realms of the Haunting

For the Halloween season we try to pick suitably scary games, so back in October (welp) we took a look at Realms of the Haunting (1996, Gremlin/Interplay). This game ticks a lot of boxes: haunted mansion, ghosts, scary monsters, but also... Time travel? A psychic partner? Interdimensional portals? Building a bong?? It's no exaggeration to say this game covers a lot of ground, as well as genres, as Realms of the Haunting is best described as a, uh, first-person shooter full-motion video point & click adventure game. And despite this was a major production of British powerhouse of gaming Gremlin Interactive, it seems to be quite an obscure game nowadays. But we're here for it!

Joining Martijn ("Tijn") and Florian ("rnlf") on this episode are DGC veteran Richard ("Pix"), who jumped onto this game right when it came out, and Ross (who you might know from his YouTube channel "Accursed Farms") who made a video on Realms of the Haunting for his "Ross's Game Dungeon" series.

We also got sent a voice message by Wesley ("Wesbat"), thank you! And last but not least many thanks to DGC member console for helping us edit this podcast.

Enjoy!

[ download mp3 ] (87 mins, 100 MB)

< read full entry >



The Secret of Donkey Island

Everybody know The Secret of Monkey Island. But few people have ever heard of Donkey Island. This game was made by two Czech teenagers on their school computers in 1994 and ended up being the first commercial game to be developed and published in Czechia. Besides a sub-par and, frankly, weird German translation, this game has so far only been available in Czech language - until Emmy and sonneveld came along and decided to translate the game to English and make it available to everyone for free!

So join us on our journey to find out why being shipwrecked became a trope in the Czech game industry as host Martijn (Tijn) discusses The Secret of Donkey Island with returning participant Jozef ("yozy" - who was born in Czechoslovakia), as well as Emmy ("Emmxyzzy") & Sonneveld, the team who put the English translation together.

Enjoy!

[ download mp3 ] (84 mins, 96 MB)

< read full entry >



26 Jan 2024 // 1 Comment >

Jazz Jackrabbit

There is one game that showed everybody that the PC was starting to become as viable a gaming platform as any console on the market. While DOOM was an entirely new experience, Jazz Jackrabbit replicated the experience players had on their SNESes and Mega Drives. Its protagonist even became a mascot for PC gaming at large.

But how does this 1994 game by Epic MegaGames (now only Epic Games, apparently they're not Mega anymore) hold up today? Is it still good? Or do you need to put on your rose tinted nostalgia glasses? We played the game in August, trying to find out exactly that.

In this episode hosts Martijn (Tijn) and Florian (rnlf) are joined by three guests to discuss this game. First of all there's Tim (LunarLoony), returning from all the way back from our episode about Pinball games (May 2020!). We also have Patrick (patrick_wd), and Wietse (densy) joining for the first time. Wietse is a game historian currently working on an article covering Jazz Jackrabbit, which will be published on his website (see links below) next year when the game hits its 30th anniversary.

We also got a voice message by Wouter. Thanks for that, Wouter!

Enjoy!

[ download mp3 ] (133 mins, 152 MB)

We once again got lots of help from DGC member console with editing this episode. Many thanks to him and all who make this show possible!

< read full entry >



The Aching

You're in some sort of cave. A red light eminates from the northern wall, while a green light pours in from the cave's exit. This is Azra, a strange far away world where many dangers loom. You are an acolyte of the Scarlet Lady's Red Court, and have no memory of how you ended up in this cave. But while the game's world and characters are mysterious, the presentation is instantly recognisable as that of a 1980s Sierra adventure game. However, this DOS game isn't 35 years old... it's brand new!

In July we took a look at The Aching, a parser-based graphic adventure game released in 2023 by Hadrosaurus Software. Don't be fooled by its release date however, this is an authentic DOS game that has no trouble running on a Tandy 1000. Definitely something we're interested in!

In this episode hosts Martijn (Tijn) and Florian (rnlf) are joined by two guests to discuss this game. First of all there's Shawn (DJ_HiP), returning from the Stunts episode, and who is completely new to the world of adventure games. Secondly we have Mike (Zerfall), who is a true veteran of the genre growing up on classic Sierra games, and has YouTube and Twitch channels where he looks at old games.

We also got a voice message by TheLobdegg, creator of The Aching, about other modern DOS games.

Enjoy!

[ download mp3 ] (116 mins, 132 MB)

We once again got lots of help from DGC member console with editing this episode. Many thanks to him and all who make this show possible!

< read full entry >



Interview: Hadrosaurus Software

Making commercial games for DOS nowadays is not a good business model, right? Hadrosaurus Software is hard at work proving this claim to be totally wrong. Their games Acronia and The Aching (which we played in July) are getting a lot of attention from the DOS gaming community, and rightfully so, we think.

Company founder Clarissa and The Aching creator Tamsin were so kind to take the time to talk to us about DOS game development from a technical, business and personal perspective and shared some interesting and funny anecdotes.

Enjoy!

[ download mp3 ] (101 mins, 116 MB)

We got help from DGC member console, who helped us out with editing this episode. Many thanks to him and all who make this show possible!

< read full entry >



Creative Commons License
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 International License.