Alien Nations

Windows - Released - December 11, 1999

Alien Nations is a real-time strategy game similar to The Settlers III. It features three campaigns à ten missions which are told from the perspective of one of the races: the blue stoneworking Pimmons, the militaristic and wild Amazons, or the insectoid Sajiki. The main focus lies on building a settlement with working production circles. Of course there are also other aspects which need to be taken care of, e.g. security or entertainment. So the player chooses the buildings he wants to construct and chooses a suitable place for it. The main source of income are taxes, which are mostly spent on balancing running costs - the rest can be used for research. Before the player can construct new or upgraded buildings he needs to meet certain research criteria. But of course he also needs to "build" enough fighters to win battles against the other two races. Available are five different fighters, magicians, priests who heal wounded units and more. It is possible to let units patrol between two points or divide them into groups - mass production however is no viable strategy. In most missions fighting plays no or a only small role - more important are diplomacy and trade. Some of the people's needs can only be served with goods bought from the other races. Other options are a truce or building an embassy.

Amazons & Aliens

Windows - May 11, 1999

Marketed as "Alien Nations" in Europe. About: 3 completely different nations on one planet - will it work out? Control the blue Pimmons, the wild Amazons, or the insectoid Sajiki and create your kingdom on the planet Lukkat. Direct the fate of a whole nation and make them control the planet. Be a founder of cities and ensure their growth and prosperity. Your nation requires not only food, it also wants to be kept in good mood through pubs, theatres, circuses and orgy dens. Push forward research and trade. The correct diplomatic strategy protects you from sudden attacks. But to be prepared - fighting will be inevitable.

Der Clou! Profidiskette

Commodore Amiga - DLC - 1995

This expansion disk for The Clue! adds 8 new locations to explore (including Buckingham Palace, Madame Tussaud's wax museum, a train carrying valuables, or that particular London address: 221B Baker Street), more cars and specialists to hire. There are other improvements as well (as those in the planning phase).

Prototype

MS-DOS - Released - 1995

Prototype is a side-scrolling shooter. Controlling a cutting-edge prototype craft, you must save the world from an alien attack. The ship has 4 different, always available, weapon systems. This makes the game a little bit more tactical than other shooters. Some enemies leave energy pills. These pills are necessary to upgrade your weapon systems four times. The game has 5 different (and long) levels, including mountain and forest settings plus another planet. In Prototype there are no extra lives. You have only one life, but you can always save your game.

Rent a Hero

Windows - Released - November 1, 1998

Rodrigo is a hero, but in this game it's not as cool as it sounds. He lives on the isle Tol Andar and there are many, many other heroes there. The problem is that there are not enough princesses to rescue or dragons to slay for all the heroes, so Rodrigo is currently unemployed. Another problem involves pirates who want to raid the city Smashville and create flying ships with magical gloomstones. Confronted with this situation, Rodrigo is very disillusioned. Just in time, the dwarf Ramil hires Rodrigo to find his wife Jasmin, who was captured by the pirates and is held in the city of Endavin. Rent-a-Hero is a traditional point-and-click adventure. The characters are modeled in 3D but the background graphics are pre-rendered. There are over 30 locations and over 30 characters to interact with. With its comic anachronisms and pirate theme, the game's humour is similar to that of Monkey Island.

The Clue!

Commodore Amiga - Released - December 2, 1994

An adventure game, assuming the identity of Matt Stuvysant, a burglar who is looking beyond just the clothes on his back and a hotel room on Holland Street, the player is tasked with finding accomplices, scouting potential targets, and plotting plans of burglary, down to the finest detail. Featuring the archetypal point-and-click interface during investigations, engaging in planning a job would alter the controls to include keyboard, using it to control the planned movements of the personnel.

The Clue!

MS-DOS - Released - 1994

You play Matt Stuvysant, a man of Polish descent and criminal persuasion. You arrive in London with nothing but the clothes on your back and a desire to become the greatest criminal mind this century. Once getting a room and meeting some accomplices, you must begin your career. Starting with small shops and gradually working your way up to the theft of the Crown Jewels. The game allows you to control almost every aspect of the crime, from choosing the target building and accomplices to actually planning the burglary itself.

Whale's Voyage

Commodore Amiga CD32 - Released - 1993

Whale's Voyage is a sci-fi role-playing game with trading elements. The story involves a space traveler who has made a bad deal buying a space ship known as Whale, which turned out to be half-wrecked. Stranded on the orbit of a remote planet, the traveler and his crew have to find a way to gain money and outfit the ship so that it will stand a chance in that dangerous area. The game's character creation involves shaping four crew members. Each is generated at first by selecting his or her father and mother, choosing among humans or an alien species that does not appear elsewhere in the game. Educational background chosen for characters determines their class. There are six classes in total: Soldier, Bounty Hunter, Arania, Biochemist, Psionian, and Doctor. Depending on the class, characters gain access to skills such as healing, setting traps, identifying, using computers, etc. Each character also has six main attributes that can be manually improved in the beginning of the game, increasing the character's "mutation level". In the beginning of the game the player can only explore one planet, but acquiring money allows him to buy fuel and travel to other planets of the local solar system. There are six planets in total, differing in their visual design but all represented as pseudo-3D mazes set in populated areas, which are explored from first-person perspective. Combat takes place in the same area as exploration and is fairly sporadic, usually involving selecting attack options for each player-controlled character and exchanging blows in a turn-based fashion. The player advances by talking to various characters and completing their quests. Space travel is menu-based. The Whale can be ambushed on the way to another planet, which leads to a turn-based space battle shown on a separate top-down screen. The number of turns is determined by action points of the participants. The player can also outfit the Whale with better engines and weapons. Trading plays an important part, since many objectives are based around amassing money. Buying items on one planet and selling them on another for profit becomes the main source of income.

Whale's Voyage

MS-DOS - Released - 1995

Whale's Voyage is a sci-fi role-playing game with trading elements. The story involves a space traveler who has made a bad deal buying a space ship known as Whale, which turned out to be half-wrecked. Stranded on the orbit of a remote planet, the traveler and his crew have to find a way to gain money and outfit the ship so that it will stand a chance in that dangerous area. The game's character creation involves shaping four crew members. Each is generated at first by selecting his or her father and mother, choosing among humans or an alien species that does not appear elsewhere in the game. Educational background chosen for characters determines their class. There are six classes in total: Soldier, Bounty Hunter, Arania, Biochemist, Psionian, and Doctor. Depending on the class, characters gain access to skills such as healing, setting traps, identifying, using computers, etc. Each character also has six main attributes that can be manually improved in the beginning of the game, increasing the character's "mutation level". In the beginning of the game the player can only explore one planet, but acquiring money allows him to buy fuel and travel to other planets of the local solar system. There are six planets in total, differing in their visual design but all represented as pseudo-3D mazes set in populated areas, which are explored from first-person perspective. Combat takes place in the same area as exploration and is fairly sporadic, usually involving selecting attack options for each player-controlled character and exchanging blows in a turn-based fashion. The player advances by talking to various characters and completing their quests. Space travel is menu-based. The Whale can be ambushed on the way to another planet, which leads to a turn-based space battle shown on a separate top-down screen. The number of turns is determined by action points of the participants. The player can also outfit the Whale with better engines and weapons. Trading plays an important part, since many objectives are based around amassing money. Buying items on one planet and selling them on another for profit becomes the main source of income.

Whale's Voyage II: Die Übermacht

MS-DOS - Released - 1995

Whale's Voyage II: Die Übermacht is the sequel to Whale's Voyage. The story takes place twenty years after the crew of the spaceship Whale had won a great battle and became heroes, abolishing a powerful dictatorship. Now all of the money has been spent and the only thing the four heroes can do is to start trading again. The first job should be quite simple: just deliver some nuclear material to a foreign planet. There is also some payment in advance. But unfortunately the crew takes too much time for the delivery and so the easy job becomes a deadly task and they become involved in a conspiracy. This game is similar to its predecessor, being a role-playing game with trading elements. The character creation allows the player to shape four characters, distributing their primary attributes, among which are combat-related stats as well as categories such as rhetorics and humanity. The player also must select a flaw for each character, ranging from bad temper to epilepsy. These flaws may affect the character's future behavior in certain situations: for example, a clumsy character would sometimes drop an object from his inventory. The choice of education background determines the characters's class. The available classes are Soldier, Medic, Monk, Psionian, Biochemist, Bounty Hunter, Electrician, Rhetorician, Pilot, and Cybertechnician. Human or alien race traits are assigned to the characters randomly. An English retail version was also planned, but never materialised. A former developer from neo eventually took the challenge and released an official English patch for the game.

Whale's Voyage II: Die Übermacht

Commodore Amiga - Released - 1995

Whale's Voyage II: Die Übermacht is the sequel to Whale's Voyage. The story takes place twenty years after the crew of the spaceship Whale had won a great battle and became heroes, abolishing a powerful dictatorship. Now all of the money has been spent and the only thing the four heroes can do is to start trading again. The first job should be quite simple: just deliver some nuclear material to a foreign planet. There is also some payment in advance. But unfortunately the crew takes too much time for the delivery and so the easy job becomes a deadly task and they become involved in a conspiracy. This game is similar to its predecessor, being a role-playing game with trading elements. The character creation allows the player to shape four characters, distributing their primary attributes, among which are combat-related stats as well as categories such as rhetorics and humanity. The player also must select a flaw for each character, ranging from bad temper to epilepsy. These flaws may affect the character's future behavior in certain situations: for example, a clumsy character would sometimes drop an object from his inventory. The choice of education background determines the characters's class. The available classes are Soldier, Medic, Monk, Psionian, Biochemist, Bounty Hunter, Electrician, Rhetorician, Pilot, and Cybertechnician. Human or alien race traits are assigned to the characters randomly. When orbiting a planet, the player-controlled team can refuel, upgrade the ship with better components, or trade goods. Each planet has preference for a specific kind of wares, and the traders would declare it to the party. Unlike the first game, the player is not confined to one star system, though overall there are only nine planets to travel to in the game. Each planet is presented as a separate first-person maze-like environment. As opposed to the first game, exploration graphics are real 3D, with sprites for characters and objects. The interface has also been modified to include mouse control. Following the main quest involves talking to NPCs and fulfilling their requests, but the player is free to travel to any planet and explore them from the onset. Through traveling itself is automatic, the Whale may be ambushed by hostile ships on the way, participating in turn-based tactical ship combat. Ground combat, on the other hand, proceeds in real time, with a "general attack" option that makes the party attack at once. Like in other RPGs, the heroes earn experience points by killing enemies or solving quests. This being the second game in the series, events from the first game are referred to and some characters reappear. For example, a woman which will give the heroes a quest appeared in the first game, where she was still a little girl.