I have to admit that, in spite of the slightly wonky graphics/cut scenes, I have a real soft spot for Gremlin Interactive‘s 1997 PC MS-DOS release, Realms of the Haunting. Mostly because I was lucky and got to visit Gremlin‘s offices in Sheffield to see the game in production, and to talk to the people who were making it. I drove all the way from Bournemouth – where I worked as a video games magazine editor – and spent an entire day there to preview the game for PC Power magazine.
Tag Archives: 1997
Shining the Holy Ark, Sega Saturn
A direct follow-up to the classic Megadrive game, Shining in the Darkness, and arguably the best level-grinder on the Sega Saturn, the awkwardly-titled Shining the Holy Ark is a superb first-person, party-based RPG with turn-based combat.
Fallout, PC
Interplay‘s 1997 release, Fallout, began its existence as a post-apocalyptic Role-Playing Game based on the Steve Jackson “GURPs” ruleset, and also as the ‘spiritual successor’ to the classic 8-bit RPG, Wasteland.
Ecstatica II, PC
This sequel to Andrew Spencer Studios‘ brilliant Ecstatica is a worthy survival horror game in its own right. In it you play a knight trapped inside a gigantic castle full of monsters and must fight your way out to freedom.
Final Fantasy VII, PlayStation
Final Fantasy VII is a legendary level-grinding Role-Playing Game, developed by Square and released for the Sony PlayStation in 1997.
While the Final Fantasy series had grown in stature throughout the 1990s, it was this seventh instalment that broke Japanese CRPGs into the mainstream, with its outstanding mix of 3D, polygonal graphics, Full Motion Video, and pre-rendered backgrounds.
Cotton 2: Magical Night Dreams, Sega Saturn
The second game in the infamous Cotton series, developed by Success and released into arcades first, then converted to the Sega Saturn in 1997.
Continue reading Cotton 2: Magical Night Dreams, Sega Saturn
Shinrei Jusatsushi Tarōmaru, Sega Saturn
Never officially released in English-speaking territories (but translated by fans as “Psychic Killer Taromaru“) this side-scrolling action game is one of the rarest Sega Saturn titles in existence.
Rare because publisher Time Warner Interactive only produced a very limited number of copies of the game in 1997, before pulling out of the games market altogether. So actual copies of Shinrei Jusatsushi Tarōmaru have changed hands for silly money over the decades.
Jedi Knight: Dark Forces II, PC
Jedi Knight: Dark Forces II – as the title says – is a direct sequel to the Star Wars-based shooter, Dark Forces. It was published by LucasArts in 1997.
Blood, PC
Monolith‘s 1997 shooter – Blood – is a first-person satire of every horror movie you ever saw, and also a few that you probably didn’t.
Nintendo 64 Week
Nintendo‘s 64-bit console was first released in 1996 in Japan (and in limited numbers in the USA), and 1997 everywhere else.
The N64 was the third Nintendo video game console (after the NES and the SNES) and was a leap forward in technology that had a profound effect on the games market as a whole. It is a console suited to 3D graphics and gameplay, but also extremely capable with 2D graphics (although you’d be hard pushed to find a game on the N64 that was entirely made of 2D graphics).
