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01.27.1999 - GnomeREPORT King's Quest: Mask of Eternity -- One of Gretchen's all-time favorite game series is Sierra's King's Quest. Still crafted by the hands of Roberta Williams, this (the eighth) KQ installment leaps into 3D action--a far cry from KQ's humble 2D beginnings. I had Gretchen looking over my shoulder while I installed it--after all, she's the KQ goddess around here. Our first impressions weren't that positive. I really dislike any type of game which requires me to install more than a few MB on my hard drive; KQ:MoE requires around 500 MB free. Ouch. Gretchen couldn't load it on her own machine. Beyond that, since this is a 3D game, you're really going to need (want) to have a 3D accelerator card--another thing that Gretchen doesn't have. Getting past those initial (and rather minor) disappointments, the gameplay impressed me. If you enjoy 3D action/adventure games, KQ:MoE will make a great addition to your collection. You have to use your brains as well as your brawn--from either a first or third person perspective (cool)! A little bit of fighting, a little bit of thinking... just what every good game needs to keep you interested. Your ultimate goal: travel to seven different worlds and collect pieces of a shattered "Mask of Eternity" to restore peace in Daventry. I just wish I had more time to play it!
King's Quest MoE Prices on CNET's Shopper.com Half-Life -- Adventure isn't Sierra's only claim-to-fame. No doubt most of you have already seen (and possibly played) Half-Life. It, too, requires that you have ~500 MB free on your hard drive (major pet peeve) and a 3D accelerator card is strongly recommended. Sure, it's a shoot-em-up game, but the AI is absolutely phenomenal. I can still remember playing Doom (I) and knowing exactly where each enemy was hiding. But after a while, once I knew everything, I got bored. Well, I don't think I'll tire of Half-Life anytime soon. The graphics are fantastic, the enemies are smarter, the action is outstanding, the terrain is challenging, both A3D and EAX audio extensions are supported, and the ability to hook up with up to 32 different players is... awesome. To put it bluntly: if you want a killer game, Half-Life is wholly entertaining. No wonder so many Lockergnomies were screaming for me to review it!
Half-Life Prices on CNET's Shopper.com Oh, and while we're talking about Sierra, have you ever heard of the Space Quest series before? Does the name Roger Wilco ring a bell? If so, I'd like to "introduce" you to another famous Lockergnomie, Scott Murphy. He's ONE of the Guys from Andromeda! Now, he admits that his website hasn't been updated in a while, but hey--he's been really busy being creative. Anyway, I wanted to let the world know that I'm up for "Honorary Guy from Andromeda" status. My life is now complete. When's dinner? GnomePROGRAM ASPack v1.5 [135k] W9x/NT FREE
http://www.alenka.spb.ru/aspack/aspack.exe As strange as it sounds, this program actually works... at least, it appears to work. What it'll do is compress your EXE or DLL files... and there's (virtually) no difference in launching or running speed! I tried it on a few different applications on Mr. Bigglesworth, Joe, and Manny III... each time it worked flawlessly--and rather well. If your hard drive is running low on space, consider compressing your EXE files. Of course, you should always backup before doing anything like this--YMMV! It's pretty darn cool, if you ask me. GnomeSYSTEM Swapping the Windows 95/98 Shells [6k]
http://www.98lite.net/getshellswap.html This is the easiest way to switch between Windows 95 and 98 shells--virtually no headaches involved. Will you see a speed difference when you switch between them? I don't know... everybody's computer is different--but this tweak works well. Kinda cool, actually... GnomeCANDY
Terragen v0.6.11 [2.3M] W9x/NT FREE
http://www.jado.org/users/terragen/tginstall_0_6_11a.zip WOAH! This, my friends, is what they call a killer app. I'm not a graphics genius (by far), but within a few moments, Mr. Bigglesworth was rendering beautifully drawn REALISTIC LOOKING nature scenes. I was able to configure the terrain (mountains, grass), sun position (color, size), atmosphere (clouds), water, and the camera's point of view. After some serious tweaking, you could have a fantastic image that'll impress your closest friends. Rendering the final image may take a while to complete (even on faster computers)--but the output is usually well worth the wait! If you don't believe me, I personally created the following picture in less than 5 minutes with this program. I told you: IT ROCKS!
![]() GnomeFAVORITE DVD Talk There are "specials" all over the Internet. However, it's virtually impossible to keep track of every one of them (Lockergnome can only do so much). When it comes to DVD specials (pricing, purchasing, bonuses, etc.), this site looks like one to watch. It's run by a fellow Lockergnomie--and updated on a regular basis with useful DVDish information. I almost don't want to visit it again because I'm afraid I'll buy another DVD! Who knew these discs could be so darn addictive? GnomeDESKTOP THEME: TRON Walks [461k]
http://www.csam.montclair.edu/~roth/TronWalks.zip The day I ordered Manny (the first), I went to a local electronics store to pick up a few DVDs. Ya know, I'd need something to watch when I finally got a working machine. Anyway, I found that store-bought DVDs are a bit more expensive than ones you can purchase online. Nevertheless, I was too excited to care. I swiped "The Nightmare Before Christmas" and "TRON" off the shelves--two of my all-time favorite movies. Gretchen hasn't seen TRON yet... but as soon as I can stop working, we'll start watching. GnomeTIP A couple of weeks ago, I featured a tip where you could hold onto the ALT key, enter a numerical string on your number pad, and a non-keyboard character would appear in your currently-opened document. At that time, I referred you to your Character Map for number codes. However, here's a web page that displays them all for you in a single chart--plus accented character codes for Microsoft Word: http://www.cse.bris.ac.uk/help/docs/win-r1.htm -- Thanks to Lockergnomie Clive Mansbridge for the pointer! |