[Xanarki]

in reply to: WinTex? #12338

Pandora Directive worked great for me via PCem/86box (86box gets more updated recently).

Although, that was thru a Win98se install. It’s possible to do a native DOS install on ’em, but I don’t normally play games prior to ’93 so a DOS box (or restarting into DOS mode) in Win98 typically works for me.

I had a friend ask me about it recently and I zipped up my 86box install/setup into a 1.2gb download. No formatting or installing required, just extract and run (and of course, obtain the game’s iso from elsewhere). Let me know if this is a route anyone’s interested in, especially cuz it could be useful for other games too.

[Xanarki]

in reply to: I’m glad to have found this place – especially because… #12322

Thanks for the kind words you 2 ! Yeah I’m always down to talk about the old eras so I’ll be up n around.

(dunno if I’ll ever reinstall IRC – it’s been a decade since I’ve used it and that was EFnet – but it’s cool seeing some folks still using it)

[Xanarki]

in reply to: Magazine Reviews #12317

Yeah Pandora Directive didn’t get as much coverage as it should’ve. I feel like most reviews I came across (US/Aus/UK) leaned positive.

However, one of the most negative ones I stumbled upon was in the UK, via PC Format. IMO they were way too critical of it. Almost seemed like the writer wasn’t even an adventure fan (surprising since PCF was usually pretty well-balanced, moreso than PC Gamer UK at the time):

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[Xanarki]

in reply to: Built-in hint system #12303

Technically ya. But, it’s possible to get a ‘negative’ score I believe, lol.

[Xanarki]

in reply to: I’m glad to have found this place – especially because… #12290

Oh I see now. I thought both WGC and DGC were combined into just one site (here, lol). I didn’t know the other one literally split off, so thank you for linking to it.

Yeah I don’t really like spamming about my project. I’m not an influencer or full-on journalist or anything like that. I’ve seen plenty of coverage on 3D cards, or a specific game, or a genre, or the dot com bubble, etc., but my goal was to connect ’em all together under one roof. My book’s temporary home is on my very simple GeoCities-like site: https://win9xera.neocities.org/ (if ultimately I’m not allowed to link to it, please delete this msg and/or yell at me).

I started off with a few NES games in the early ’90s. But then I mostly skipped 16-bit & DOS (except for Police Quest III & the 1st Oregon Trail at school). Got my first PC in 1997, and so I went from those 8-bit games straight to the likes of Age of Empires, Carmageddon, Quake, Interstate ’76, Outlaws.. and never looked back. It was quite the leap.

[Xanarki]

in reply to: This game stresses me out #12288

Yeah, as already hinted at, Gamer Mode does increase the difficulty via the inability to get hints in-game and certain puzzles being timed (whereas in the normal mode they’re not timed at all or they have a more generous time limit). The tradeoff is that there’s extra puzzles tossed into the game, although it’s not a lot.

I’m uncertain if any of the extra locales/puzzles are hugely relevant to the story, though. The “normal” mode already contains plenty of locations and endings, at least.

So all in all, Pandora Directive did pretty decent in the replayability dept. Although tbh I’m not sure if I have the resilience to re-play it through that 2nd mode lol.