Enthusiastically Reviewed Text Adventure of the Chicago World's Fair
Available Online for the First Time
Price Reduced to $14.95

An old school text adventure dressed up with hundreds of period photographs and other images, 1893: A World's Fair Mystery takes place at the Columbian Exposition, held in Chicago in that year, the last and greatest of the 19th century's World Fairs. Coupling a well-researched and evocative depiction of the Exposition with interesting puzzles and a mystery to solve, 1893 proves there's life in the text adventure yet. Both fans of the genre and those interested in Chicago's history will enjoy it greatly.

But don't take our word for it: the Chicago Sun-Times called it "excellent," and Adventure Games called it "one of the most fantastic adventure games I have ever played."

The Risks of American History

American History Lux, like Sillysoft's Lux Delux, uses the rules of Risk. But in this case, you play through a series of maps representing American wars (from the French and Indian War through the Iraq War), with armies and geography that shape the experience into a reasonable recreation of those wars. Not an intensive simulation, in other words, but something that does give a cool sense of historial progression. Before each level begins, you're presented with a little bit of information about the war (and a link to Wikipedia if you want to know more).

Fun with Physics

The name may make BCS sound dull, but actually, it's quite entertaining--and quite innovative. In a series of levels of increasing difficulty, you're challenged to build increasingly complicated bridges, then drive over them in a train--and if you haven't done a good enough job, watch it collapse. The key is that it's in 3D with a robust physics engine that simulates the stresses on bridge members in detail, and provides a nice view of the occasional disasters. It's no surprise that BCS won the "audience choice" award at the 2003 Independent Games Festival. (Mac and Linux versions, too.)

Balance Real Needs, or Cynically Work to Reelection?
Game Tunnel's 2005 Sim Game of the Year

Books can be important; movies can be important. Games, however, are the degraded purview of violent male adolescents. Democracy cannot exist.

Except that it does, of course. It is not without flaw; but it's a game that every citizen of a democracy should play, to get a better gut understanding of the pressures faced by they leaders--and every citizen of a tyranny should play, to get a better gut understanding of why democracy, whatever its flaws, is better than the alternatives.

In this game, the player--we won't say "you", because "the player" in this instance is ideally your 9-13 year-old child or nephew (probably not niece--after all, Chess is a boy's game)--visits various sites portrayed in the Disney flick, and at these sites meets a variety of NPCs who engage him in conversation, pose puzzles and challenges for him, and teaches him the rules to Chess.

When you leave the "Chess Adventures" bit and start to just play "a quick game against the AI", the AI doesn't totally suck.

Covering the Israeli-Palestinian Conflict as a Journalist

Global Conflicts: Palestine takes a very different approach to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict from PeaceMaker; rather than casting you as one of the opposing leaders, you are a journalist, and rather than making high-level decisions, you are exploring a 3D environment meant to represent a section of Jerusalem.

In each of six missions, you must investigate a story--in one, a checkpoint where Palestinians are being screened for entry--and interview the people you meet. In each, some newsworthy event occurs--e.g., a suicide bombing. You are permitted a limited number of "quotes," and must choose when, during a conversation, you choose to write a quote down in your notebook. At the end of the mission, your story is submitted to your editor, and scored--on the basis of the quotes, and the political bias of the paper you choose to write for (you can choose an Israeli, Palestinian, or European paper).

Adventure Games Are for Kids

Well, at least this one is. Great Journey follows the adventure of two children seeking to help their friend Mr. Penguin prevent a polluter from dumping garbage in Antarctica. It's a simple point-and-click adventure in a classic mold with puzzles that tweens should have no problem solving, a bright kid-friendly palette, and engaging animations. Though the developer is Polish, the dialog has clearly been massaged by native English speakers, and the voice-over talent is clear and engaging.

The "What Ifs" of World War II

Making History is more than a wargame; it's a grand strategic military, economic, and diplomatic simulation of the entire globe, starting in 1934, and going on until the end of the Second World War. If that happens, of course.

As such, it addresses one of the central failings of most WWII games; it doesn't lock you into a historical straightjacket, with Russia inevitably coming into the war even if the Nazis don't attack, and with the Japanese attacking Pearl Harbor on inevitable schedule. Instead, you can play with all sorts of what-ifs: What if France had resisted the reoccupation of the Rhineland in 1934? Or if Italy had gotten pissy about the Anschluss? Or if the Western Allies and the Soviet Union had stood firm behind Czechoslovakia in 1938?

Life Aboard the International Space Station

There have been a number of space station sim games over the years, but in the past most have been firmly of the tycoon game style--that is, primarily about building modules and expanding your station, with some notional flow of dollars increasing if you do it well. SpaceStationSim takes a somewhat different approach; it's more of a hybrid of a life sim (the granddaddy there being The Sims) and a tycoon game. You create an astronaut, and the gameplay involves both building out your station and satisfying the needs of your crew. Which includes, naturally, things like making sure they have enough to eat and time for potty breaks--and also enough to breathe. Life on the final frontier isn't always easy.