Computer Games: Construction

This will already be our last post about nineties computer games, and this time we will talk about some games that involve some sort of construction in it and that were released in the 90’s.

Age of Empires is a series of historical real-time strategy video games and the gameplay revolves around two main game modes; random map and campaign. The games were developed by Ensemble Studios and were published by Microsoft Studios. The first Age of Empires came out in 1997 and since then seven titles and three spin-offs have been released. The other Age of Empire games that came out in the 90’s are The Rise of Rome (1998) and Age of Empires II: The Age of Kings (1999). The games in the series focus on historical events throughout time. Age of Empires (original game) covers the events between the Stone Age and the Classical Period in Europe and Asia. Its expansion, The Rise of Rome, follows the formation and rise of the Roman Empire. Age of Empires II follows Europe and Asia through the Middle Ages. The Age of Empires series has been a commercial success, selling over 20 million copies. The popularity and quality of the games has earned Ensemble Studios a strong reputation in real-time strategy gaming. Critics have credited part of the success of the series to its historical theme and fair play; the artificial intelligence players fight with less "cheating" than in many of the series' competitors.

Another well-known series of “construction” games is the Sim-series. These games were developed by Maxis and published by Maxis and Electronic Arts. The first Sim game was SimCity, released in 1989, this game was followed by a numerous amount of other games released in the 90’s and later decades (see the timeline), including the immense popular The Sims video games.  

The Sim games are city-building simulation games, in which the player has to build a city (you don’t say?) without any specific goals to achieve. The player also had to face disasters like tornadoes, earthquakes and attacks by monsters. SimCity still proves to be popular and therefore a new SimCity is expected to be released in 2013.

This marks the ending of our Computers Games week, but next week we will be back with movies from the nineties!

Computer Games: Action

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Today we wil discuss several computer games from the nineties that could be classified as action games. 

Need for speed (NFS) is a series of racing games, published by Electronic Arts (EA). The first NFS game was released in 1994 and was available for PC and PS1. All the NFS games up until 2002 were only available for PC and Playstation. The other NFS games that were released in the 90's are: Need for Speed II (1997), Need for Speed III: Hot Pursuit (1998) and Need for Speed: High Stakes (1999). NFS focuses on racing various races in different types of racing cars. 

Grand Theft Auto (GTA) is a multi-award-winning video game series that was developed and published by Rockstar. The game focuses on an open world, where the player can choose missions to progress an overall story, as well as engaging in side-activities, such as driving, role-playing, stealth and racing. The games gained some controversy for its adult nature and violent themes. The first GTA game was released in 1997, and GTA 2 in 1999. If you still want to play GTA 2, here are some cheats which you can use. You first have to activate the cheats modus by naming yourself GOURANGA:

GODOFGTA - All weapons with 99 ammo

FLAMEON - Infinite flamethrower

VOLTFEST - Infinite electrogun 

EATSOUP - Carshop is free 

RSJABBER - Invulnerability

ARESTAR - Keep you're weapons after being arrested 

IAMDAVEJ - $9,999,999

Starcraft is a military science action real-time strategy video game, developed by Blizzard Entertainment. The first game was released on 31 March, 1998 for Microsoft Windows. In 2009 Starcraft sold more than 11 million copies worldwide, making it 1 of the best-selling games for the PC. The 3 distinct races in Starcraft are widely credited with revolutionizing the real-time strategy genre.

Warcraft is a franchise of video games, novels and other media, created by Blizzard Entertainment. The series consists of 4 core games; Warcraft: Orcs & Humans, Warcraft II: Tides of Darkness, Warcraft III: Reign of Chaos and World of Warcraft (WoW). The first three games are real-time strategy games and WoW is a MMORPG. Warcraft: Orcs & Humans was released in 1994 and Warcraft II in 1995. Here are some cheats for Warcraft II:

On screen - Shows you the whole map.

Make it so - Speeds up building and unit production.

It is a good day to die - Makes your units ultra-powerful.

Unite the clans - Win the scenario instantly.

Glittering prizes - Increases your resources.

Hatchet - Trees can be cut down with two chops.

Deck me out - Gives you all the weapon/armor upgrades.

Every little thing she does - Gives you all spell upgrades.

There can be only one - Takes you to the campaign victory sequence

Quake is a series of first-person shooter video games, produced by id Software. Quake (1996) involves a marine traveling through alternate dimensions to prevent an invasion of inter-dimensional monsters. Quake II has nothing to do with the first Quake, and was originally intended to be a separate franchise. Quake II (1997) involves an assault on an alien planet, Stroggos, in retaliation for Strogg attacks an Earth. The other Quake games were released after the 90's.

Quake 2

Resident Evil 3

Resident Evil is a survival horror video game  by Capcom. The first installment in the Resident Evil series was released in 1996, and was one of the first games to be dubbed a "survival horror". Accordingly, Game Informer refers to the original Resident Evil as "one of the most important games of all time". The Director's Cut of Resident Evil was released in 1997, Resident Evil 2 in 1998 and Resident Evil 3: Nemesis in 1999 (all later games were released after the 90's).

We will add a little section about the video game Commander Keen, due to a request ;) Commander Keen is a series of video games developed by id Software. It focuses on the adventures of Billy Blaze, and 8-year old boy who travels through space and assumes the identity "Commander Keen". There were several episodes released in the early 90's, 1-3 in 1990, and 4-6 in 1991. The episode Keen Dreams was also released in 1991

This was all on action video games, next time we will discuss construction games!

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Computer Games: Adventure and educational

This week the 90's theme is computer games and we will start of by discussing the genres adventure and educational games. Some games might not be categorized perfectly but we needed to make some sort of equal devide (this goes for all the games we will discuss this week). The adventure games we will go over are Rayman, Final Fantasy and Prince of Persia.

Rayman The Great Escape

The Rayman series are developed by Ubisoft and was released for PC on April 30, 1996. Next to a PC game, this platform video game was also released for the Playstation, Atari Jaguar, Sega Saturn and several Gameboys. The first Rayman is a side-scrolling platform game where Rayman must travel through 5 worlds to free the caged Electoons and fight Mr. Dark. The sequel, Rayman 2: The Great Escape, came out in 1999. Several more Rayman games were released, but all after the nineties, including the Raving Rabbits series.

Final Fantasy is a huge Japanese franchise that includes the popular role-playing games for the PC (and lots of other platforms). The Finanal Fantasy games released in the 90's are: Final Fantasy III to Final Fantasy XIII (we're currently up to FF XIV).

Final Fantasay 1

Prince of Persia 2

Prince of Persia is a platform game developed by Broderbund and was released in Europe in 1990. There is a Prince of Persia trilogy, that consists of Prince of Persia (original game), Prince of Persia 2: The Shadow and the Flame and Prince of Persia 3D. The second game was released in 1993 and the third one is 1999. PoP remained popular and there were several other games released after the 90's.

The educational games we will discuss are RedCat, Junior Detectives and Freddi Fish.

 RedCat was the main character in a series of Dutch educational software for elementary schools. The first RedCat was released in 1994 and had an immediate sequel in the same year. The RedCat games released after that all were related to a subject taught in school, such as math, spelling, topography and biology.

Junior Detectives is a series of educational games for elementary schools. For each grade was a different game where you had to solve mysteries, applying knowledge you learned in school. Next to Junior Detectives there was also the Robbie Konijn series, that was designed for children in the lowest grades.

Freddi Fish is a series of educational games for children, developed by Humongous Entertainment. The first Freddi Fish game was released in 1994 and 2 more were released the 90's (the final one in 2001). Freddi is a joyful fish that helps you solve underwater mysteries, together with his colorful friends.

We hope you've enjoyed this post about adventure and educational games. Next time we will go over several 90's action games!

Collectibles: Other

This is our last short summary post about 90's collectibles.
Some of the other things that could be collected in the nineties were; Movie posters, Banners, Cardboard Cut-outs, Comic Books, Action Figures and even Cereal Boxes.

The guy in the next video will show you his enormous collection of 90's Collectibles.

Next week the nineties theme will be Computer Games, so don't miss it!

Collectibles: Trading Cards

Today's topic is nineties trading cards (or collectible cards). This is a small card, usually made out of paperboard or thick paper, which usually contains an image of a certain person, place or objects (fictional or real). On these cards are a short description of the picture, along with other text such as attacks, statistics and other trivia. There is a wide variety of trading cards an there is distinction between sport cards (like baseball and basketball) and non-sports trading cards that often feature cartoons, comics, book characters or stills from television series/films.

In the 90's, cards designed specifically for playing games became very popular, and became a category of their own: collectible card games (CCG). The world's current best-selling CCG is Yu-Gi-Oh! The CCG all have their own set of rules, which all the players have to follow and are usually accompanied by a starter set (an introductory product that contains enough cards for 2 players and includes instructional information on how to play the game). Next to the starter set are also the tournament/starter deck, theme deck and booster packs.

Some other well-known trading cards from the 90's are: Dragonball Z, Pokémon, Marvel Trading Cards (comics) and Digimon.

 

This was all on trading cards!

Collectibles: Flippos

This week we will go over several collectibles that were trending in the nineties; we will start off by discussing the Dutch fad of Flippos.

Flippos are little discs that used to be in the Smiths potato chips bags, on these discs were images of cartoon figures like the Looney Tunes and Chester Cheetah. The flippos were introduced in the Netherlands and Belgium in 1995 and became very popular instantly. The collecting and trading of flippos was very popular among elementary school children and there were several games devised (by the children as well as the company) in order to win each other’s flippos. Smiths also brought out several binders in which the flippos could be collected and the goal of this was of course to collect all the different flippos and therefore make parents buy more potato chips by Smiths.

Because the flippos were so popular amongst young children several other companies made clones in the hope of riding along on the wave of success. Some of the more familiar flippos copies are the Topshots by Croky which had soccer players on them and the Jam Caps by Jamin which displayed cartoons like Smurfen, Garfield and Hanna-Barbera Cartoons. 

The Dutch flippo series:

Looney Tunes

Series Name	Numbers	Description
Looney Tunes	1 - 75	In the first series the Looney Tunes are displayed in a music or sports theme. The numbers 60 to 75 show the individual characters: Tweety, Bugs Bunny, Coyote, Daffy Duck, Porky Pig, Marvin, Speedy Gonzales, Road Runner, Taz, Yosemite Sam, Elmer, Sylvester, Marc Antony and Sylvester Jr. The flippo has a green backside and is worth 1 point.
Mega	101 - 120	These flippos also show the Looney Tunes, this time in a close up. The flippos have a pink backside and are twice as thick as regular flippos, which could be an advantage in flippo games.
World	141 - 240	The World-Flippos continue until the end of the first folder and is with 100 Flippos the largest series. The Flippos different from the earlier series because they are educational tinted. The Flippos show next to the various Looney Tunes characters themselves important world figures, buildings and cultural phenomena (such as sports and dancing). In the accompanying binder the images will be explained. The World-Flippos were available from mid July 1995, were blue colored and worth 4 points.
Flying	251 - 290	In this series the flippos portray the Looney Tunes and different vehicles with regard to aviation. There are also some cuts in the flippo in order to play a number of new games. With the aid of another flippo, and the cuts you can make this flippo fly. The flippos are purple and worth 6 points.
Adventure	341 - 420	In the Adventure Flippos the Looney Tunes are portrayed as being in an adventurous situation. The Flippos are green and yellow-gold and display different letters (plus possibly one or more question marks). When this set of flippos was available, some children's magazines (like Donald Duck) placed an advertisement.  Following this add, you had to use the letters on the set Flippos in order to form a long sentence, this sentence was a hint to a Smiths hidden treasure. The flippo is worth 8 points.
Olympic	431 -  490	On these flippos different Olympic facts are shown and on the back the image is illustrated. In the second folder the images are also described, sometimes with other facts than those on the flippo itself. The Flippos not have the same colors; up to 4 colors combined are combined in them. The Olympic-flippo is worth 9 points.
Griezel	536 - 545	These Flippos were, instead of plastic, in whole made ​​of cardboard. In addition to images of the Looney Tunes, several horror figures are shown on these flippos. It is possible to use a tab to bring out an otherwise hidden image. On the tab itself are some keys with which you can play a game. The flippo is worth 13 points.
Limited Edition Adventure	816 - 818	These were obtained by solving the puzzle on the back of all Adventure Flippos. They had a red and green back and are worth 25 points.
Winter	I -  X	The Giga Winter-flippo is approximately four times as large as a normal flippo, and with the aid of a cut, it is possible to use this as a Christmas tree ornament. On the front are the characters of the Looney Tunes and on the back a drawing of a snowman. These large flippos are worth 14 points.
Golden Flippo	Not numbered	This extremely rare Flippos were randomly hidden in bags of chips. The lucky finder of such flippo was awarded a cash prize by Smiths. There were also real gold Flippos to win during the Flippo Finish Show aired by Kindernet.
Special Christmas flippos, only distributed to the staff of Smiths	Not numbered	This set is really rare and consists of 10 flippos with special Christmas images on them.

Chester Cheetah

Series Name	Numbers	Description
Chester Cheetos	76 - 100	These were worth 2 points.
Techno	121 -  140	This Flippos had serrated sides and notches. This enabled a construction of techno flippos.
Strip	241A - 250C	Flippo A to C of a particular number told a little story (comic) about Chee-tos. Flippo A suggested a situation, flippo B showed that situation with a bag of chips, flippo C showed the effects of that. Furthermore, these Flippos also covered with the same cartels as the Techno-flippos.
24 Game	291 - 315	On the back of these flippos were 24-game game boards.
Guinness Record	316 - 340 and  421 - 430	These flippos portray Chester performing different records from the Guinness Book of Records.
Joker	None, only a binder	There are a total of six Joker Flippos;  the 2 and 5 Joker (cut edge with purple paw print and round edge with green paw print) and the super 10 Joker (one with a yellow paw print on the back and one with a face of Chester on both sides). If you found a Joker Flippo was, you could send it back to Smith with a request to  receive a number Flippos (2, 5 or 10, as the joker denoted), in order to make your collection complete.

Looney Tunes & Chester Cheetah

Series Name	Numbers	Description
Spiek	491 - 515	The back of the Spiek Flippo shows a mnemonic or a useful factoid, the front displays the text on the back. The Spiek Flippo consists of up to 3 different colors and is worth 10 points. The numbers 491 - 500 had pictures of the Looney Tunes, and the numbers 501 - 515 pictures of Chester.
Time	516 - 535	The Time-Flippo shows a clock in yellow on the back. Besides the clock, it also has an excuse or another factoid on the back. The flippo is worth 7 points. The numbers 516 - 531 and 521 - 535 had pictures of the Looney Tunes, and the numbers 522 - 530 pictures of Chester.

This was all on Flippos, but stay tuned because next time we’ll discuss several collectible trading cards of the nineties!

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