SNEG has announced that they’re bringing the classic games from the Close Combat and Warlords series to Steam. They were (mostly) available already on GOG, but now they're joining their other SNEG-revived brethren. Also, they’ve made the move today. 

Close Combat is a series of real-time strategy games that started off in 1996 and were created by Atomic Games. This was about the time that the RTS genre really started taking hold with 1995’s Command & Conquer and Warcraft 2: Tides of Darkness. However, the Close Combat games differentiate themselves through their more realistic gamepla?y.

The five getting re-released all take place during World War 2. It’s all land-based squad tactics with both armor and infantry. What really made the games unique for the time period was the psychological simulati??on which has your soldiers responding to the horrors of war. Squads could become fatigued and worn out and soldiers incapacitated by trauma.

The five games are Close Combat, Close Combat 2: A Bridge Too Far, Close Combat 3: The Russian Front, Close Combat 4: The Battle of the Bulge, Close Combat 5: Invasion: Normandy - Utah Beach to Cherbo??urg. The series has continued right up to 2019

As I mentioned, most of these are already available on GOG, but the original Close Combat seems to be an exception for some reason. Looking at the executable, it looks like a special wrapper may have been needed for the first game. They were all Windows titles, rather than DOS, with some of them even published by Microsoft. As such, they tend to be more difficult to get running on modern operating systems, though SNEG says they “made every effort to eliminate technical issues, with changes based on fan and community feedback.�/p>

The other three games are Warlords I + II and the separately available Warlords III: Darklords Rising. As a departure from Close Combat, these are turn-based games set in Medieval fantasy worlds. In this way, they aren’t too dissimilar from the later Heroes of Might and Magic series.

The Warlords games are also currently available on GOG, but are making their debut on Steam. Since they are DOS games rather?? than Windows, they run with a DOSbox w?rapper.

I have no personal attachment to any of ??these games, but I'm always a fan of preservation. The early days of home computers, in particular, are at risk of being forgotten as they become harder to run on modern hardware. It's great to have companies like SNEG working to make them available wherever possible.

All of the above are available on Steam today.

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SNEG continues their effort to preserve classic PC titles by releasing another long list of Strategy Simulations Inc. (SSI) and Mindscape ?games on Steam and GOG.

This latest drop of games runs a wide gamut of genres and timeframes. The first title listed is the Phantasie Collection which combines Phantasie (1985), Phantasie 2 (1986), and Phantasie III: The Wrath of Nikademus (1987). While we’re on the topic, there was a Phantasie IV: The Birth of Heroes in 1990, but that ?was released exclusively? on Japanese home computers despite the series being originally by an American developer. That's not included here.

The next up is the Great Naval Battles Collection, which brings Great Naval Battles: North Atlantic 1939-1943 (1992), Vol. II: Guadalcanal 1942-43 (1994), Vol. III: Fury in the Pacific 1941-44 (1995), Vol. IV: Burning Steel 1939-1942 (1995). You can probably guess that these? games are all WWII naval strategy games.

Continuing the theme of collections, we have Wargame Construction Set Collection. This includes the 1986 original, followed by Wargame Construction Set II: Tanks! (1994) and Wargame Construction Set III: Age of Rifles 1846-1905 (1996). These kind of sound like they should be about handling the production of va?rious implements of war, but they’re actually customizable strategy games.

Onto a la carte titles, we first have Star Command (1988), a sci-fi RPG. Then there’s Prophecy of the Shadow (1992), a fantasy RPG that came around after SSI lost the DND license to Interplay. Next is Renegade: Battle for Jacob’s Star (1995), which is technically a sequel to Renegade Legion: Interceptor (1990), which hasn’t been re-released yet. Both are space combat games. Interestingly, both games are adaptations of a FASA (Shadowrun, Battletech) board game. Savage Warriors (1995) is up next, and it’s a fighting game, of all things. Finally, we have Warbreeds (1998), which is a typical �0s RTS, but with the ability to modify your unit??s�DNA to create new configurations.

I’ve played exactly none of these games, which is why I appreciate SNEG making them available. While some of them are simply using DOSBox in the background, they’re configured in a way that makes them easy to jump into. Their most impressive effort was to re-release all of SSI’s D&D games, but the fact that they’re jumping deeper into the back catalog really warms my heart. I didn’t get to experience much of the PC landscape throughout???? the �0s and �0s, so I’ve always found it interesting what got buried behind the console and arcade scene.

Maybe I’ll make it a point in 2024 to explore some of SNEG?’s SSI re-releases.

The games and collections outlined above are now available on GOG and Steam.

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The late-century nightmare

SNEG, a company devoted to completing GOG’s manifesto of dredging up good old games, has dropped another three PC titles of yore. This time, it’s Take No Prisoners, Cyclones, and Necrodome. Those are some real �0s names!

All three games are from Raven Software, the company that brought us Hexen, Star Wars: Jedi Knight II: Jedi Outcast, and are now working in Activision Blizzard’s Call of Duty mines.

First up, we have Take No Prisoners. This is a 1997 top-down shooter set in the post-apocalypse. You play as Slade, a man tasked with finding som?e sort of crystal. It’s, oh gosh�You can just smell the 1990s on it.

//youtu.be/uJv6lFX5QG8

Moving on, we’re at Cyclones. In this 1994 FPS, you play as Havoc, a man who is essentially Robo-Cop. It was a pretty ambitious first-person shooter, being an early title with mouse control for aiming. Once again, it looks dated, but I absolutely love early first-person shooters, so I absolutely love the look of Cyclones.

//youtu.be/wGeWo1uoX9s

Finally, we have Necrodome. This one is a 1996 vehicular combat game. This one was right on the cusp of the big vehicular boom that started with 1995’s Twisted Metal. Good times.

//youtu.be/uKwJd_-Y6f4

Keepers of the time capsule

All of these look like something I’d enjoy tinkering a??round with. While GOG has moved up in the world and become a more traditional storefront, I still love seeing people dredge up the forgotten PC games that may have been missed. SNEG was actually formed by the former senior vice president of business development at GOG, Oleg Klapovskiy. There doesn’t seem to be any bad blood there (SNEG publishes on GOG), ?but Klopovskiy’s favorite part of the job seems to have been digital excavation, so he backed Elena Roor to return to it.

The preservation of video games is something I’m extremely passionate about, so I’ll be keeping an eye on SNEG. My only regret in this line of work is that there isn’t enough time to play everything, but, dammit, I still try.

Cyclones, Necrodome, and Take No Prisoners are available right now on GOG and Steam.

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