Lamborghini American Challenge DOS PC Game Review

                                             

Lamborghini American Challenge is a game developed by Titus in 1993. It was ported to several systems (DOS, Atari ST, Amiga CD32, SNES, Gameboy, & Commodore 64), I'm mainly reviewing the DOS CD Version released in 1994, but I'll mention some differences in the ports. American Challenge is an enhanced version of Crazy Cars III, released in 1992. The enhancements are a jazz soundtrack and a 2 player split screen mode. In the original Crazy Cars (1987), the player could drive several high end automobiles. In Crazy Cars II, 1987 (Also called Pursuit Simulator F40) focused on the Ferrari F40, and featured branching paths and a more realistic driving model. American Challenge is an arcade racer featuring the Lamborghini Diablo.

I first played Lamborghini American Challenge at an after school program I went to in the early 90s. It was on that computer I got exposed to some great games, and this was one of them! The kids there thought if you hold up (gas) and click the mouse you could go faster. That always really bugged me, but I really enjoyed this game, it has colorful graphics and great gameplay.

You play as a racer taking part in illegal street races throughout the US. You can choose between three characters, a woman and two men. At the beginning of each race you can bet against your opponents. Sometimes they will try to see your bet and outbet you, the winner takes all!

The gold stars are races you can take part in, as you win races the other locations in red unlock.

The colorful VGA graphics were great for the time, (I think still today) and had good variety. I thought it was awesome how cops could chase you. When cops pull up to a CPU opponent they will stop, you can outrun them. There are also other motorists that you have to watch out for, if you hit them it will slow you down and damage your Lamborghini, and you'll have to spend more on repairs after the race.

Winning prize money from the tournament will allow you upgrade your Lambo. Improve your top speed and get nitros! 

 I have three complaints about this game. There is no music as you race in the DOS and Amiga versions. In the SNES version music plays, I haven't tried the other versions. As you progress you upgrade your car, but your opponents can't which makes the game kind of easy. In the DOS version you can only save once every tournament, which is every 4 races. In the SNES version there is a password system.

These are minor complaints however. Some other differences in the ports: in the Amiga version the Lamborghini is orange and the sound quality isn't as high. The SNES version has music during the races and a more colorful world map. If the SNES mouse or Superscope is attached it activates another mode where the player can shoot opponents! I think American Challenge is a fun arcade racer, there are better games but this one is worth checking out if you like DOS racing games.

Check out my video review~!

Doom turns 22!

Doom turns 22 today! This classic first person shooter was developed by ID Software and released for PCs running MS-DOS on December 10th, 1993. It was distributed by mail order and floppy disc, but the game was so popular it would get installed at Universities and students procrastinated several hours playing it. Ports followed for Mac and consoles. Doom was unique for it’s level of violence. It was once called a “murder simulator” by critics.

It had amazing multiplayer, 4 player deathmatch and co op modes.

Doom's 3D graphics engine was advanced for the time, it was the first to feature multiple floors. Earlier first person shooters like Wolfenstein 3D only had single floors. Even though the engine was rendered in 3D, this was actually just an illusion because the floors weren’t technically on top of each other, they had to be in parallel. It also featured outdoor environments.

I remember when I first played Doom, I think it was around 1994 so I would have been 9 years old. My Dad brought home a computer from work that was used to run a BBS. I remember thinking the graphics on the shotgun looked so realistic. I later got the Doom shareware from a store, I wish I got the mail order boxed version!

In 1995, it was estimated Doom was installed on more computers than Windows 95. When a Windows 95 version of Doom was released in 1996 called Doom95, Bill Gates put himself into the commercial. It was used to sell Windows 95 and push DirectX technology.

Doom had a sequel, Doom II: Hell on Earth, released in 1994. Doom 3 was released in 2004. Doom 4 will be a reboot, just called Doom expected to be released Spring 2016. With Doom 4 around the corner, now is a perfect time to play the original classic! It’s on sale on steam currently for $4.99. I recommend using a source port of Doom called Doomsday. Doomsday makes the graphics better, has mouse support, and cool features not present in the original like jumping. You can also play online using the Doomsday Shell.exe. Happy birthday Doom!

Happy Thanksgiving from Koopatech! May your Turkey day be filled with good food and good video games.

How to play old PC games on a modern computer and retro gaming PCs

 

The PC has a huge library of games dating back to the early 1980s. It can be difficult to get those games running on a modern PC. There are several platforms where you can find old games for sale to download. The website GOG.com (formerly Good Old Games) was launched in 2008. This website sells downloadable versions of old games designed to run on modern PCs. There are also other platforms that sell downloadable old games such as Steam, launched in 2003 (Steam also sells new games).

Newer platforms, like archive.org’s Software Library have made old PC games available free to play online. Their software library does not have every game but they still are adding to it. There is also abandonware. Abandonware is software that has been ignored for a long time by it’s creator. It might still be under copyright but the copyright isn’t enforced. There are several abandonware sites where you can download old games, like my abandonware. You will need other software to run these old games on a modern PC.

For MS-DOS games (usually games released before 1997), you can use an emulator such as Dosbox to run MS-DOS games on your modern PC. If you don’t know DOS command line interface, you can use a graphical user interface frontend for Dosbox called Dfend. Dfend has a wizard and they make it fairly easy to set up your game. You will need to have both programs installed. 

If you have a physical disk or CD you can use Dosbox or try running it in Windows. Probably the easiest thing to do is play it on an old computer if you have one.

PC games released before 2005 might only have the problem of no widescreen resolution. You can usually fix with a patch or sometimes by going into the folder and editing the .ini file. I’d recommend just Googling this for that specific game.

Enthusiasts might want to buy or build their own retro gaming PC. Personally I like Windows XP for my retro system. Microsoft Windows 98 and ME were the last operating systems to be built on DOS. Windows 98 is ideal for playing MS DOS games, but might have some problems running newer games for other versions of Windows. Windows XP isn’t built on DOS but still has some of the functionality to launch older games. I like a program called VDMS sound. This program emulates old sound hardware. With this software installed, usually most MS DOS games will play fine on Windows XP and all you need to do is right click on the game and select run with VDMS sound. Another problem is that some games were designed for a very slow CPU speed. There are utilities like CPUkiller to fix this. If your PC is below 2 GHZ you might not have a problem, but that is good to have.

Ebay sells a lot of old computers, these are usually way overpriced but sometimes you can find a good deal. There is also craigslist. People in your area might be trying to get rid of their old computer or parts. Another option is looking for a local reseller. In Sunnyvale, California Weird Stuff sells enough old components you can build an entire retro PC. So that’s what I did! I chose hardware from around 2004-2005 for my retro PC.

Koopa Retro PC Specs: 
Generic Case
Thermaltake Purepower 420 Watt Power Supply
52x Max CD Rom drive, IDE
Lite On DVD/RW, Sata 
AMD Athlon 64 3000+ @ "3800+" 2.42 ghz w/Thermaltake heatsink and CPU fan controller.
Asus K8N-E motherboard Socket 754
G.Skill 3 GB Ram DDR 400 PC 3200 
ATI Radeon x850 Pro 256 MB AGP video card
80 GB HDD Samsung Spinpoint 7200 RPM, IDE
Creative Sound Blaster Live! sound card PCI
Microsoft Windows XP Service Pack 3
Max Payne Mouse Pad
Microsoft Intellimouse Explorer 3.0 usb (mouse I had in 2000)
Logisys blue keyboard PS/2 (Keyboard I had in 2000)
22" Dell LCD monitor

Quick Ways to Speed Up Your PC

If you've noticed that your PC isn't as fast as it used to be, that is because computers will slow down over time due to several factors. New programs get installed that take up hard drive space and load when your computer starts up; using precious memory, or you could even have a virus. There are a couple quick and easy steps you can take to speed up your computer now.

Restarting your computer is the easiest way to speed up your PC. The best way to do this is to completely shut down your computer first. In Windows click on the Start button and then click “shut down”. Then press the power button on your computer to turn it back on. Next it would be good to take a look at what programs start when you first turn on your computer. You might have programs you don't need, and disabling some or all of them can significantly decrease the time it takes for your computer to start up.

You can change what loads on startup using an application called msconfig. On any Windows operating system, simply press the Windows key on your keyboard (It looks like a picture of a square window.) and R at the same time to open a run box. Type msconfig and press enter.

(on Windows 8 & 10)
Click startup, then click open task manager. Right click on any application and select disable if you don't want it to start when your computer starts. Close the task manager when you are done.

MSCONFIG on Windows 8.1

(On Windows 7 and earlier)
Click on startup and you can see a list of all the programs that load when your computer starts. You can click “disable all” if you want to load them yourself later, or choose what you want to have start by clicking on the check boxes next to the program name. After you are done, click okay. Then it will ask you to restart your computer, click yes. When your computer starts back up it will load the programs you selected.

MSCONFIG on Windows 7

If your computer is running low on available hard drive space, it will slow down. You can delete files, but you don't want to delete a file that your computer needs. Temporary internet files are good files to delete, because these are just files that get installed when you visit a website and temporary data needs to be stored. These files aren't necessary and can take up a lot of space. You can access these by pressing the Windows key and R again at the same type, type “%temp%”, then press “okay”. A folder will open up, delete everything inside. Some files might not be able to be deleted because they are in use, you can skip those. These files won't be permanently deleted unless you empty the Recycle Bin. Right click on the Recycle Bin on your desktop and click “empty Recycle Bin”, then click yes on the dialog box.

Viruses can slow down your computer or just be plain annoying. If you have an anti virus program installed like Norton Antivirus, open it and click run scan. It might take several hours to run, when it's finished, follow the instructions and then make sure to restart your computer. If you don't own anti virus software, there are free programs that are very good. I recommend one called Malwarebytes Anti-Malware. This program is different from Norton because it can't actively scan, it will only do so when you tell it to. You can download it for free at Malwarebytes.org. Click on “free version download” and it will start downloading automatically. When it is finished, install it, then open the program by double clicking on the Malwarebytes icon on your desktop. Click on the “Update” tab, and then click “check for updates”. It is important to run the update every time because new virus definitions are added every day. After you do this click on the “Scanner” tab and select “Perform Full Scan”, then click “Scan”. A box will open that shows the hard drives you want to scan, select those then click “Okay”. This might take several minutes to complete. Afterward, a message box will appear saying the scan has completed. Click “Okay”, then it will take you back to the “Scanner” page. Click “Show Results”, and it will open a box showing any malicious software that has been found. Select all of them then click “Remove Selected”. Then restart your computer.

If you've followed these steps, you will notice your computer will be dramatically faster and more responsive. These steps would be good to do every few months, or whenever you notice your computer becoming slow.

My PC (As of January 2015)

1/25/2015
Same specs as below but changed components:

+MSI GeForce GTX 970 4 GB
+Thermaltake 500 Watt PSU
+OCZ Technology Mouse Pad


10/2013
My PC specs:
27" Samung 1080p monitor
Logitech g510 keyboard
razer deathadder on steelseries oversize cloth pad
Corsair 300 R case
OCZ ZT 750 watt power supply
AMD FX 8350 @ 4.46 Ghz
Asus Sabertooth R2.0 AM3+ motherboard
16 GB Corsair DDR3 ram
Galaxy GeForce Gtx 660 Ti SLIx2 2 GB
Windows 7 Professional x64

Retro PC and computer memories

         Last Christmas my brother got me a PC game from 1995, The Journeyman Project II: Buried in Time. I played the first game as a kid, and was excited to play the sequel. Unfortunately it wouldn't run on my Windows 7 PC, it ran in a virtual machine but I still couldn't get the sound working, so I decided to buy an old computer off Craigslist. I found one that had Windows XP and got the game working great.

Most older games will work on a modern PC using an emulator like DosBox, ScumvVM,; but I suppose hardware junkies like me prefer owning the real thing. I'm particularly nostalgic about this era of computing from around 1999/2000 because that was when I started building my first PCs.

Here's the specs of this retro PC versus the first computer I built in 2000.

Retro PC bought on Craigslist

Intel Pentium III Coppermine 650 mhz

384 mb ram PC 100 mhz

(Upgraded from the crappy nvidia tnt2 m64 it came with) it came with) 3DFX Voodoo 3 3500 16 mb AGP graphics card

10 GB hard drive
Windows XP home

First PC I built

Intel Pentium III Coppermine 800 mhz
256 mb ram PC 133 mhz
NVidia Geforce 2 GTS 64 mb
30 GB hard drive

Windows 2000 professional

So the first computer I built was faster (especially in the graphics department), the hardware was about a year newer.

Having the 3DFX Voodoo 3 3500 is awesome because I really wanted it back in the day (It was $250 back then)

dosbox
http://www.dosbox.com

scummvm
http://scummvm.org

nglide (to emulate 3DFX Glide games)
http://www.zeus-software.com/downloads/nglide