ADG Episode 197 - Gladiator

[@STaSHZILLA420]

I was obsessed with this game as a kid. Youre honestly the only person Ive ever seen play this game. Props.

[@fancyrat86]

I freaking LOVED this game as a kid! I'm happy to see I'm not the only one who remembers is Lol!

[@Wambotrot]

This is one of my all time favorites. My brothers bought this game back when it first came out and every couple years we run through it. I made a small video from the last time we played if anybody wants to see how co-op looks (excuse our shameful names). There is a surprising amount of strategy to think about, especially on the harder difficulties when every bit of cash counts. I feel like it could have been a little more popular if they had polished it up a bit. Like maybe adding a world map, and an actual ending, so you don't have to hopelessly wander around looking for any levels you missed. And an easier to use level editor would have been cool. There was also a bug which made the druid way overpowered. Still a great game though, and some of the best local co-op you can get.

[@schlomoshekelstein908]

i was like 8 years old when i played this game so i never got to play the full version. i remember replaying the shit out of the demo levels, though.

[@EchtSchwarmi]

Nice and informative episode as usual! This is one criminally underrated channel :( Best regards from Germany!

[@psychmyst]

I swear it was this game and it was in the mid to late 90s as I didn't get a windows computer until around 98 (and it ran 3.1). I remember it being zoomed in, the arrows pointing together to signify exits, the journal entries, and, oddly enough, the soldier being able to throw boomerangs.

[@Pixelmusement]

+psychmyst There's every possibility a similar game exists on Mac which this game was based off of... That might be worth looking into as I guarantee this game itself never came out on the Mac.

[@MindstormXL]

Oh yeah I played the old shareware version of this. Had no idea what the hell I was doing.

[@querpmuerp]

Oh man, I would have loved it back then. I know a lot of old dos games, but have never seen this before.

[@RetroIslandGaming]

I was thinking the exact same thing. Very cool game! I love the concept here. How did I not hear of this before? I would have played this so much as a kid.

[@oz_jones]

I played the crap out of the demo version of this back in the day. It was the tits.

[@Khazar321]

Wait, when I played a "demo" version of this from a "Best of" CD, where you basically started with an army without any choice, you had one team member that could make trees. Is that the druid?

[@1234HonkyTonk1234]

Damn, this brings back memories of a very similar DOS game that had slightly better graphics and was set in a sort of celtish/irish setting whose name I can't remember for the life of me.. it was also top-down with different classes of units. "Lucky" or something like that maybe? Now I need to go digging.

[@wardrich]

This game looks really similar to this other game I played as a kid called "Ambush"

[@psychmyst]

I think I remember this game. it also got a mac.port back in the day and that's how I know it.

[@Pixelmusement]

+psychmyst Uh... no it didn't, at least, not officially. If there was a Mac port it would have happened after it went open source in 2002 and would have been done by someone other than Snowstorm Entertainment.

[@EvilScrooge]

If you think it was hard to find info about this game due to it's title, try to find an old survival game called Deus! It will bury everything you could possibly find about it under completely unrelated Deus Ex series or will throw you in the middle of the Portuguese internet.

[@rashidisw]

I only played the shareware version so i haven't notice another secret class until recently: The "Orc Captain" which you can get if you managed to get the Orc to level 6.

[@Pixelmusement]

+rashidisw Didn't know about the Orc Captain... I don't think it's in the manual material, or it's possible it was added later on, thus why it's missing from the docs. :B

[@germaneduardopatarroyoblan148]

Medieval Cannon Fodder???!!! not to me..... good to see you review this game :)

[@cyrus649]

never seen or hear of this one... neat

[@Spacemutiny]

Hmmm this looks kinda interesting. Can the levels be replayed with enemies? Anything random about the levels like a Rogue game?

[@Pixelmusement]

+Anthony Micari Once you beat a level in a particular run the enemies never come back. There is no procedural generation at all.

[@lilwyvern4]

Yo! Well I had no idea this game existed. Time to kill an afternoon! Along with a bunch of little pixely dudes. For clarification on your little hint for 198, the game's name in its entirety is just the name of an animal?

[@lilwyvern4]

Oy. The Windows port is super tiny! I can't find any options to resize it, either. Are there no scaling options?

[@Pixelmusement]

+Torcularis No idea as I only played the Windows port long enough to confirm it was virtually identical to the original DOS version in terms of content. As for the hint for Episode 198, I'm not elaborating; interpret it the way you feel works best in your mind. ;)

[@TalonSmartMiiverseNeo]

Third

[@sholva6809]

First