artikels deel 3

config.toml

@@ -22,7 +22,7 @@ enableEmoji = true
   home = true
 
 [[params.navlinks]]
-  name = "Games Index"
+  name = "Appendix"
   url = "tags/"
 
   [[params.navlinks]]

content/articles/arxfatalis-review.md

@@ -45,3 +45,14 @@ Review-Cat says: A welcome addition to dungeon crawling in real time. Better tha
 
 <img src="/img/games/ArxFatalis/screens/02_library.jpg"/>
 
+### Video footage
+
+This is some gameplay footage I recorded a long time ago. It might still entertain so here goes. 
+
+**Gameplay part 1**
+
+{{< youtube "TtlEB8U5blI" >}}
+
+**Gameplay part 2**
+
+{{< youtube "RfwrjYSeVfU" >}}

content/articles/bg2-spellprotection.md

@@ -47,6 +47,9 @@ Now we get to the cases and specifics of Wes Weimer's tactics mod. And why I had
 
 First, protection from magic weapons and protection from energy stops physical attacks and area effect spells cold. (since the smarter lich script casts and stacks protection from energy, it is completely immune to elemental spells and spells like abi dahzim's horrid wilting) Then spell immunity abjuration will stop remove magic(dispell magic, including inquisitor dispell) cold. So now you must remove the spell immunity so remove magic (or dispell) can work, right?
 
+{{< youtube "Z2r4lgdVPy8" >}}
+<center>A cowled wizard fight in Athkatla</center>
+
 Now the spells that remove spell immunity are spell strike, ruby ray of reversal, and khelbens warding whip...ALL spells that must be targetted on a single target. So now you understand why the lich casts improved invisibility and spell immunity divination...You may not target improved invisible creatures with single target spells. The game engine will not allow you to target improved invisible creatures with spells, until you get rid of the improved invisibility...and spell immunity divination will make the lich immune to true sight... a seemingly closed loop.
 
 However, i have found out that Chain Contingency spell will target improved invisible creatures with single target spells!!!! (this is covered above in the Spell Cheeses section). So when killing smarter liches, (or smarmy liches) the procedure goes like this....

content/articles/castlevania-portrait-of-ruin-review.md

@@ -0,0 +1,36 @@
++++
+showonlyimage = false
+draft = false
+image = "/img/games/por.jpg"
+date = "2007-03-30"
+title = "Castlevania Portrait of Ruin Review"
+tags = ['Castlevania', 'Portrait of Ruin']
+game_name = 'Castlevania Portrait of Ruin'
+game_genre = 'Metroidvania'
+game_release_year = '2006'
+game_developer = 'Konami'
+game_platform = 'ds'
+weight = 0
++++
+
+<img src="/img/Guides/CastlevaniaPoR.jpg">
+
+Castlevania games tend to pop up each year on Nintendo's Handheld platform. The last entries: Aria of Sorrow and Dawn of Sorrow, followed the story of Soma, who mysteriously inherited Dracula's dark abilities. Forget about all that, and the soul harvesting system. Portrait of Ruin is the spiritual successor of Castlevania Bloodlines on the SEGA MegaDrive/Genesis. Jonathan Morris is the son of Bloodlines' whip-equipped hero. PoR takes place during or just after the second World War. Dracula's castle reappeared because of the many sacrificed souls during that era. Together with your childhood friend Charlotte, you'll have to explore the castle and beat Dracula, again!
+
+### Character switching
+
+Yes indeed, like the unlockable Julius mode in Dawn of Sorrow, you can now switch between characters (Jonathan or Charlotte). But instead of just switching to the person which suits your combat style, now the AI takes care of the non-active person. For instance, you can order Charlotte to cast a spell by pressing the R button if you are controlling Jonathan, and vice versa. Charlotte will automatically attack enemies and the AI does a pretty decent job at it too. Although sometimes she gets stuck but you don't have to worry about that since the non-active character teleports directly to you if the distance between both of you is too big.
+
+Using these two vampire hunters, Konami implemented a couple of little puzzles which can only be completed using them both. You can order one of them to "standby" instead of following. New orders are received through cubes like in Symphony of the Night and Harmony of Dissonance. Sadly these puzzles are more annoying than enjoyable, just like the ice blocks in Dawn of Sorrow. Speaking about those: there is no touch interaction, whatshowever. Which is good. The upper screen is still used as a map though. Many monsters make their return (of course there are new ones), mostly copied from Symphony of the Night. Most of them have been completely remodelled, which gives PoR a nice retro feeling. As said before, the soul hunting system has been replaced by a similar skill system: monsters drop either weapon or spell skills, usable by Jonathan and Charlotte respectively. Killing enough minions using these techniques allows you to "master" it and do more damage.
+
+### The Vampire Killer
+
+Instead of using souls to create new items, you can now only buy weapons, or of course find them in the castle. And of course, the whip is back in all it's glory! Buying can be done throughout the usual NPCs or this time even via WiFi. Setting up a shop sounds exciting, but almost every item can be found while playing solo so this feature is kind of useless. To lengthen the game, a series of quests are available. Kill 10 Axe Armors, Find 5 cakes, Build your INT to 100, ... All quests are too liniar and involve going back and forth in the castle. Rewards are either items to equip or MP/HP up potions. Yes, they are back, and can also be found in secret areas. Sadly 80% of those secret areas only conceal special food types which completely replenish your HP or MP. Sounds good but most potions can also be bought in the shop and the game is not that hard, apart from some amazingly well animated bosses.
+
+What is really new in Portrait of Ruin? Portraits! In the castle, you will encounter some portraits, which each holds a completely separate level, besides the main castle. Every portrait includes their own unique style: a forgotten city, an egyptian pyramid, etc. The main castle is rather small and uninspired (it only contains four areas) but the portraits more than make up for it. Sadly, the last 4 portraits are complete copies of the first 4 ones. Seems like the developers ran out of level design ideas. This game feels more repetitive than other Castlevania games because of the heavily reused level design. Too bad!
+
+### Conclusion
+
+Besides the rather uninspired level design (except the first few paintings of course) and the sometimes clumsy partner system, Portrait of Ruin is still a very good Castlevania game. The soundtrack is as awesome as ever, the whip weapon class is back and the bosses are very nicely done. I really hoped the main castle would be much bigger but oh well. I burned through the game in 10 hours but I did not finish many boring quests (Dawn of Sorrow took me 12). Despite those disappointing facts, Castlevania Portrait of Ruin still stands very strong. No other platform game on the DS achieved this level of addiction, except for the previous Castlevania game and maybe New! Mario bros.
+
+Review-Cat says: If you're a Castlevania, Platform or Metroidvania style fan: buy! If you're not, buy Dawn of Sorrow instead..

content/articles/cooperative-arts.md

@@ -0,0 +1,97 @@
++++
+showonlyimage = false
+draft = false
+image = "/img/games/BaldursGate2/logo.jpg"
+date = "2006-10-28"
+title = "The Art of Cooperative (PC) Gaming"
+tags = ['coop', 'age of wonders', 'disciples', 'heroes of might and magic', 'commandos', 'emperor', 'doom']
+weight = 0
++++
+
+<img src="/img/articles/Coop.jpg">
+
+What could possibly more fun than playing a PC game on your own? Why, cooperative gameplay mechanics of course! Every modern released game nowadays features at least one cooperative (co-op) game mode where you can play with your friends, mostly against the computer AI. Since this is part I, let's talk about Strategy games on the PC and its coopeartive capabilities. I can't possibly imagine a strategy game without multiplayer options available, even games from 1998 came with some (limited) multiplayer modes, mostly using the IPX protocol. What really separates a couple of games is the unique co-op mode. You can play with your friend, not against him.
+
+### The Strategy Games
+
+Technically speaking, an average multiplayer death match mode can also be classed as co-op as long as you and your buddies are on the same side. So I should at least mention a dozen strategy games where you can play a quick skirmish among a random chosen map, with the computer AI and anyone who joins your created game isntance. Warcraft or Starcraft mostly play like this and are still overly popular. Sometimes, one side shares resources and you should work together more carefully. Mostly though your team mates are there in case your army fails and some backup is required or they can help you defend towns. Rise of Nations, among other well-known classic RTS games like Age of Empires, also feature a dozen multiplayer options where strictly speaking "co-op" is one of them. In most RTS games, this mode is disguised as a standard Multiplayer Game, where the creating player adjusts a set number of players slots (Open, Closed, AI or Reserved) and team allocations.
+
+<img src="/img/articles/coop_wonders.jpg">
+
+**Age of Wonders** is not your average Strategy game. Your are still instructed to gather resources, build towns and enlarge your army, but instead this is all done in a turn-based fashion. Once your turn is over, you hand it to the next player - possibly the computer AI. TBS Strategy games also feature complete multiplayer game mechanics where everyone can join your newly created game. If you wish you can divide the players into different teams, who work together: cooperative gameplay. Although most games are not made especially for co-op. The sad part about multiplayer TBS games is - obviously - it's turn based! If a human player is away for a short time you can still kick that person, teams will become unbalanced after a while. Some TBS games offer a solution: play-by-email. Civilization for example offers this alternative play style. Other well-known turn based strategy games are Disciples II or the Heroes of Might & Magic series.
+
+Let's proceed to some real co-op games. These games do not even feature a standard multiplayer option: it's either playing with your buddies (of course still against the AI), or not playing at all. Commandos 2 for instance is an excellent cooperative game! You can play the game just like in singleplayer mode, except the commandos teammembers are divided among players. For instance, one person picks the Green Beret and the Sniper, while the other controls the Spy and the Thief. Together you can try to accomplish the various missions in all unlocked maps. Most co-op games utilize the singleplayer campaign but let two or more players join the Nazi killing fest.
+
+<img src="/img/articles/coop_c2.jpg">
+
+**Commandos 2** features a local network or internet multiplayer mode, where elsewhere located players also can join your game. Do not forget to apply the 1.3 patch first since some maps with more than one player can become quite buggy after a while. When you control a couple of commandos instead of your usual team, you can concentrate more on them and the enemies they are facing, instead of trying to watch the whole map. This enables players to cooperatively conquer the map much easier by working in small teams, without having to worry about a commando getting caught. For instance, your mate starts at the top of the map and you start below. You can systematically work your way through all German or Chinese enemies, picking them off one by one, while your buddy does the same. Or he can provide sniper support if you manage to screw things up. Don't forget to quicksave often if you are better in setting of the main alarm than your friend!
+
+Pyro Studios decided to add the well-known multiplayer options like death match and capture the flag to Commandos 3 the sequel. Sadly, this game plays a lot less fluid during multiplayer sessions. Time to install Emperor: Rise of the Middle Kingdom! This strategy game is actually more of a city building simulation. It's the Zeus follow up by Impressions Games - actually the game was developed by BreakAway games, using the Zeus engine and concepts. Anyway, Emperor is the first title in the City Building series to feature a multiplayer option! There's even a (Sierra) game lobby when playing via the internet instead of local LAN.
+
+<img src="/img/articles/coop_emperor.jpg">
+
+As most of us city building fans already know, in **Caesar/Pharah/Zeus** you could try to initiate a trade between different cities. If you paid enough tribute to one city, they might provide you with the very needed resources the next year. Of course you can also create enemies that way, if you do not listen to their demands. **Emperor** takes this concept to a higher level: in a co-op game, players each build their own city and you cannot directly interact with each other. But you are able to set up a trade convoy to your friend and vice versa! This works exactly the same as all AI cities: by building a trade post and setting the buy/sell resource values. You can declare war or peace, or even be in alliance with that particular city. There is indeed limited interaction available for co-op players but the result is very satisfying.
+
+For instance, when I start a map with my imaginary buddy Jake, we both get a completely separate terrain to build upon. This indicates the availability of various resources: in a wet and green area you are more likely to have rice, and in a dry area you are more likely to plant cabbage. Since your inhabitants will start demanding more than two different food products, trading is at some point virtually requried. Unless you do not care about upgrading your house levels of course. Maybe my friend Jake agrees on trading rice for cabbage (at the same price level), and we're both set!
+
+#### The Not-So-Complete List
+
+A quick list containing most available PC Strategy coopeartive games.
+To complete the list, add all "traditional" RTS Strategy games.
+Rating based on overall co-op feeling and gamaplay.
+
+     Age of Wonders series
+     Civilization series
+     Commandos 2: Men of Courage
+     Disciples II & expansions
+     Dungeon Keeper 2
+     Emperor: Rise of the Middle Kingdom
+     Etherlords II
+     Galactic Civilizations series
+     Heroes of Might & Magic series
+     Warcraft Series
+     Worms series
+     Starcraft Series
+
+### Shooting side by side
+
+While many strategy co-op variations exist, the roots of real cooperative gameplay lie in the [PC Shooter](/articles/early-shooter-clones/) genre. The release Id Software's of Doom in 1994 was a real breakthrough in network gaming. Doom featured both the classic death match mode, as a cooperative gameplay mode. You can play with up to four other players over a Local Network. The singleplayer campaign difficulty was slightly adjusted to compensate for extra human players. Since 2000, many Shooter games included a multiplayer option at some point, sometimes even embedding dedicated co-op plays. Id's next three games also contained a full co-op play mode.
+
+#### The Games
+
+**Doom** deserved all respect the game could get. It was responsible for many gaming revolutions: the game engine, the texture package system (WAD files), the entirely new multiplayer modi, e.a. You can read more detailed history information on the game here - even how some Binary Space Partitioning Trees computer graphics algorithms made it into the game. **Duke Nukem 3D** included a split-screen or network multiplay option, partially thanks to Doom's multiplayer success. It's very satisfying to shrink a nothing suspecting human player and squeeze the poor guy, instead of your usual monsterish enemies.
+
+<img src="/img/articles/coop2_moh.jpg">
+
+Most recent shooters did not explicitly include a form of cooperative gameplay but instead provided a competitive co-op option in which players are divided into different teams. This works exactly as the traditional RTS games. '**Medal of Honor: Allied Assault (MoH)** was one of the many Shooter games released in the early 2000s which also implemented various multiplayer game mechanics. The heavily focused team-based co-op play is what really distinguished MoH from previous shooters. As a WWII game, Medal of Honor logically introduced two main teams: the allies and the axis. Each team has to complete different objectives within a time limit. These gameplay mechanics gave the co-op play a much needed twist.
+
+A bunch of WWII shooters followed MoH's example. Return to Castle Wolfenstein, and later Enemy Territory further developed the team-based objective-based play mechanics, introducing different classes. Although the class system partially existed in shooters before those games, thanks to the modularity and huge fan base of Unreal Tournament and Counter Strike. Still, competitive cooperative gameplay always existed - this is nothing completely new. But those modes became standard thanks to the success of early 2000s multiplayer shooters and the internet boom.
+
+Addendum - Woah, I simply forgot to mention one of my latest favourites: **No One Lives Forever 2: A Spy in H.A.R.M.'s way**, including the freely available multiplayer extention. There is a full cooperative gameplay option present in this retro game from Monolith. You can choose to clothe your character as Cate, using the classical "Spy" costume, dressed as various enemies, etc. All full campaign maps are available in co-op: from Russia to Japan. Sadly not every map is stitched together using a plot like the singleplayer campaign.
+
+<img src="/img/articles/coop2_rs.jpg">
+
+Technically speaking, the **Rainbow Six (R6)** games introduced mass thriving competitive clan based (co-op) multiplay before MoH. Mplayer.com and Zone.com became very popular after the first release in 1999. Many internet websites offered various ladder lists for R6, but after the closure of Mplayer.com, the game's popularity waned greatly. Since then, most players switched to a more technologically advanced tactics shooter. But the R6 series co-op mode still stands apart. In Rainbow Six 3, Raven Shield, you are able to play all singleplayer missions with your friends online or on local LAN. Instead of dividing your buddies into two or more separate teams, every human player enters the game as a Special Agent, hunting for terrorists and rescuing hostages. This allows players to work together to achieve all map goals and eliminate enemies more precise.
+
+Defining real cooperative gameplay is very hard to do. Is competitive co-op play actually co-op? Look at this mode in another direction and you will see clan-based co-op is actually just a minor team deathmatch variation where all players are human. The only achievements you are able to make is winning the game round. While in other co-op play, you actually have to work together to achieve something in the game. It's almost impossible to tell both apart. Are you playing with all your friends against the AI, or with a couple, against other friends? Of course while playing against the AI, you won't encounter the same action level as playing against other humans. Only a few recently released games are actually dedicated to full co-op modi.
+
+<img src="/img/articles/coop2_ut2004.jpg">
+
+Talking about co-op games without even mentioning **Unreal Tournament (UT)** is suicide. UT is another game which is partially responsible for the popularity of mulitplayer/online gaming sessions. UT's gameplay mechanic can be expressed in one word: speed. People who played Unreal Tournament will know what I'm talking about - UT's gameplay is very fast paced. This logically enables users to play quick bursts of matches against others, online. Most Unreal Tournament games featured quite unique multiplayer options such as Domination and Assault. The last one is actually quite interesting: in Assault mode, your team has to complete a few objectives before the enemy team. If you handle all objectives within the time limit, consider yourself the winner. Assault gives you a more cooperative feeling than most other mulitplayer modi: you are able to achieve something within the game, with your friends - or against them. Every mode has its on game maps.
+
+Who invented which multiplayer modus? Technically speaking, Rise of the Triad introduced the Capture the Flag game mode in 1994, but the mode was popularised thanks to Quake and various fan-made modifications like 'Team Fortress. Remember the CTF mode can also be found in some nowadays strategy games, or even platform games. Wikipedia tells me the term Deathmatch was coined by game designer John Romero while he and lead programmer John Carmack were developing the LAN multiplayer mode for the computer game Doom. Since then, many spin-offs were made like Bombing Run, Last man Standing, etc.
+
+#### The Not-So-Complete List
+
+A quick list containing most available PC Shooting coopeartive games.
+To complete the list, add all "traditional" Shooter games.
+Rating based on overall co-op feeling and gameplay.
+
+     Doom
+     Rainbow Six series
+     Unreal Tournament Series
+     Medal of Honor Series
+     Enemy Territory
+     SWAT Series (3, 4)
+     Duke Nukem 3D
+     Rise of the Triad

content/articles/early-shooter-clones.md

@@ -0,0 +1,165 @@
++++
+showonlyimage = false
+draft = false
+image = "/img/games/BaldursGate2/logo.jpg"
+date = "2007-03-30"
+title = "Early Shooter Clones"
+tags = ['Doom', 'Wolfenstein 3D', 'Rise of the Triad', 'Quake', 'Duke Nukem 3D']
+weight = 0
++++
+
+<img src="/img/articles/ShooterClones.png">
+
+### People feeling nostalgic can play enhanced versions the games:
+
+For Quake, you'll need:
+
+1. ezQuake Win32 Installer (Just install in a directory)
+2. Pak0.pak Quake Demo version (Or copy pak0 and pak1 from your original Qake)
+3. Create a new dir in the ezQuake install dir called "id1" and Unzip pak0.pak
+4. Play! (start with ezstart, press ESC in the console!)
+
+For Duke3D, you'll need:
+
+1. eDuke32 Win32 Installer (Just install in a directory)
+2. Duke3D Demo - only keep DUKE.GRP after installing
+3. If you feel like it, install the High Resolution Pack! (115 MB) (Already includes eDuke32)
+4. Play! (setup your GRP install dir first)
+
+For Doom, you'll need:
+
+1. zDoom Win32 Binaries (Just extract in a directory)
+2. Doom.wad Demo Version (you can delete other files)
+3. Extract the WAD file to the zDoom install dir or copy your full version ones (DOOM, DOOM II, Final Doom e.a., Hexen, Heretic all fully supported!)
+4. Play!
+
+For Wolfenstein 3D, you'll need:
+
+1. DOSBox Win32 Installer (Just install in a directory)
+2. Wolfenstein 3D Demo (Unzip in a new subdir of the DOSBox install dir)
+3. Play! (Start DOSBox, mount your dir and execute 'wolf3d')
+
+Every shooter fan should by now have played at least one of id's popular shooters, wether it's DOOM or the older Wolfenstein3D. However, what most players aren't aware of is those games really popularized the shooter genre, as well as "cloning" games based on previously released ones. Let us take a look at the gaming history; specifically the shooter genre. We already took a quick look at various multiplayer cooperative gameplay modes and their origin, and we also learned a couple of Apogee's games used the Wolf3D engine. Let us narrow our viewpoint down to one game at a time, and their sequentially spin-offs.
+
+### 1. Wolf3D: Introducting first person Shooters
+
+Wolfenstein 3D is generally regarded as having popularized the first person shooter genre on the PC/DOS platforms. The game was published by [Apogee](https://3drealms.com/) and created by id - it has been ported to many other available platforms including SNES and GBA. Wolf3D was the first game (or at least one of the first) to implement a pseudo-3D world using smart computer graphics techniques such as ray casting, a special case of ray tracing. With ray casting, you bascially draw one big line for each column of pixels and check if it intersected a wall or not. Depending on that outcome it builds the entire screen, without having to draw the whole scene. This rendering technique was already used by id Software in their [Catacomb 3D game](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Catacomb_3-D), in 1991.
+
+Due to the rendering method, Wolf3D lacks many features represent in other First Person games such as [Ultima Underworld](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ultima_Underworld:_The_Stygian_Abyss). Wolf3D only featured base textures: the ceilling and floor are solid colors. Wolfenstein also misses lightning and height differences. Of course the game is not considered true 3D since it uses sprites rather than polygons to draw enemies and objects. Wolfenstein 3D was also the first game to introduce the ExLx map/level idtenfiy: Episode x Level x. Many other shareware games followed its example, not only Shooters.
+
+Initial Wolf3D features:
+
+- Create a pseudo-like 3D envoirnment by ray casting
+- Textured walls (only)
+- Introducing the ExLx map system
+- sprite based objects
+- Added Wolf3D features by clones:
+- Ceilling and floor texturing
+- Auto-map systems
+- Shootable sprites/objects
+- (Very) primitive lightning usage
+- "Fake" height differences
+
+<img src="/img/articles/shooter_RiseTriad.png">
+
+Shooters utilizing the Wolf3D game engine:
+
+- Blake Stone
+- Corridor 7
+- Operation Body Count
+- Super Noah's Ark 3D
+- Rise of the Triad
+- Shadowcaster
+- Hellraiser
+
+Many listed games implemented some extra's besides the base Wolf3D engine. For example, in Blake Stone, floors and ceillings were actually mapped to textures. (See Screenshot) Blake Stone also featured an auto-map in which players can track their location and the rooms they have visited before. Wolfenstein's map system was sometimes labyrinthic and not finding the much needed keys to access the exit zone could get very frustrating. Still no height differences or spectacular lightning sources present though.
+Rise of the Triad, the WWII game from Apogee, could be classified as an exception. Yes, it uses the Wolfenstein 3D engine. But the engine was heavily modified. Actually little of the original Wolf3D code remained in the final ROTT version. Rise of the Triad was supposed to compete with the new generation Shooters - mostly DOOM. Therefore, the developers made sure they included some of DOOM's features and even some DOOM did not have. For example, most objects in ROTT are destroyable (shoot at them). Rise of the Triad featured very wide open levels with trampolines, walkable staircase-like objects, and more. In some rooms, the game uses primitive light sourcing, with torches and lights that can be shot out, dimming the room.
+
+Even though Rise of the Triad pioneered a number of concepts, such as bullet marks, "akimbo" guns, and level-over-level support, DOOM's non-orthogonal, height-difference maps gained far more publicity. Read the "[ROTT in Hell](https://archive.kontek.net/rott.classicgaming.gamespy.com/hell/index.html)" article for a full overview of ROTT's features.
+
+<img src="/img/articles/shooter_DoomII.jpg">
+
+### 2. DOOM: Height Difference, lightning sources and multiplayer.
+
+Rise of the Triad was actually released one year after DOOM I in 1993. DOOM gained far more popularity: it was downloaded by an estimated 10 million people within two years, popularizing the mode of gameplay and spawning a gaming subculture. As mentioned in the [Cooperative Arts](/articles/cooperative-arts) article, Doom was also responsible for the overly popular mulitplayer (via local LAN for now) shooters nowadays. Doom's engine made it possible to create a more immersive feeling while playing the game, partially thanks to the excellent stereo audio system and use of lightning in dark rooms.
+
+Doom the game is widely accepted as one of the most influencive pioneers of gaming in the mid 1990s. Most gamers did not only love Doom thanks to Carmak's graphics engine, but mostly because the engine was modular! This allows the game content to be replaced by loading custom WAD files. Wolfenstein 3D was not designed to be expandable, but fans had nevertheless figured out how to create their own levels for it, and Doom was designed to take the phenomenon further.
+
+Initial DOOM features:
+
+- Height differences
+- Non-perpendicular walls instead of a rectangular grid
+- Swaying of the weapons
+- Fully textured maps including lower and upper walls
+- Varying light levels
+
+Obviously, thanks to DOOM's modularity, the game knew many Total Conversion clones, developed by other companies such as [Raven Software](http://ravensoft.com). DOOM's sequel, released in 1995, did not really modify the used engine. Instead, DOOM II featured almost twice as much different enemies, of course all new levels and one new weapon, the double barrel shotgun. DOOM's levels are also divided into episodes, and DOOM II featured one big episode instead of three little ones. DOOM's popularity also led to the development of expansion packs: the Ultimate Doom and Final Doom.
+
+<img src="/img/articles/shooter_Duke3D.jpg">
+
+Shooters utilizing the Doom game engine:
+
+- Heretic
+- HeXen
+- Chex Quest
+- Strife
+
+Instead of using ray casting, Doom used the Binary Space Partitioning technique to efficiently render the game scenes. However, this method has a few drawbacks: it is for instance inpossible for different rooms to stack. There are height differences, but you won't ever see multiple area's on top of eachother. Walls also cannot move horizontally.
+
+Shooters commonly counted as Doom clones with different engines:
+
+- Star Wars: Dark Forces
+- Rise of the Triad (wrongly classified)
+- Witchhaven
+- Gloom
+- Blood
+- Duke Nukem 3D
+- Shadow Warrior
+- Outlaws
+
+Since Doom was released and the game kept on winning players, industry gaints tried cloning the game in an attempt to push it from the throne. Almost every released shooter game after DOOM was controversially classified as a simple DOOM clone, even ROTT received many negative feedback. The most popular "Doom clone" is Duke Nukem 3D?, released in 1996. 3D Realms built their own custom engine, simply called Build Engine, also used in Redneck Rampage e.a. Like Doom, the Build engine represents its world on a two-dimensional grid using closed 2D shapes called sectors, and uses simple flat objects called sprites to populate the world geometry with objects.
+
+The Build engine did allow more flexible worlds than Doom. Sectors could be manipulated in real-time; their shape, heights, and slope angles being completely variable, without requiring recalculation of rendering information. Later versions of the Build Engine even featured "Voxels" by replacing game selected art tiles by 3D objects. Although this feature appeared too late to be implemented into Duke3D, Blood and Shadow Warrior both use them extensively. The Build Engine was also enhanced a couple of times to be able to run in modern Windows environments. For more information, visit the [eduke32](http://www.eduke32.com/) project website.
+
+<img src="/img/articles/shooter_Quake.jpg">
+
+### 3. Quake: fully 3D rendered, mouselook and multiplayer evolutions
+
+Quake incorporated several major advances in the 3D game genre: it uses 3-dimensional models for players and monsters instead of 2-dimensional sprites like it's predecessors. Previous shooter games (called "2.5D" games) used mathematical tricks to render a 3D scene - only when looking straight ahead. Quake made it also possible to view from completely different angles: slightly above, down, diagonal, ... - Quake invented (Acually it should be popularized since Bethesda firstly implemented this method in Terminator) the mouselook navigation method. You are able to use the mouse as a navigation crosshair and the keyboard to walk or strafe although this option was not set as the standard control scheme until Quake II.
+
+Because of the radically different rendering method, most 486 Computers had difficulties running the game. Pentium processors made it possible to run Quake more fluidly thanks to the more advanced floating point calculator. Quake was one of the first games to support 3D hardware accelleration techniques via openGL. \\id Software recognized, before anyone else, that the future of competitive gaming lay with the Internet, and so Quake was the second game whose multiplayer could be played against many people on the Internet rather than with only people on a local network.
+
+Again, thanks to the game's popularity and engine (and even scripting) modularity, Quake was the source of many fan-made modifications. One of those modifications incorporated the nowadays well-known Capture The Flag (CTF) multiplayer game mode. The Team Fortress modification also incorporated a CTF mode, with class-based player indexing. The [QuakeWorld](http://wiki.quakeworld.nu/Overview) update to Quake allowed the game to be played more fluidly across the internet (using TCP/IP e.a.). Many front-end clients have been released since then to further support the on-line Quake player community.
+
+Shooters utilizing the Quake game engine (with or without heavy mods):
+
+- Quake Mission Packs
+- Dark Hour
+- Eternal War
+- Malice
+- Shrak
+- HeXen II
+- Half-Life (with portions of QII engine code) e.a.
+- Lazer Arena
+- X-Men: The Ravages Of Apocalypse
+
+### Handy References
+
+Addendum 2018 - Most links were broken so I simply removed them. I'm sure you're proficient enough with Interner search engines to fish up the article to your liking. 
+
+**Resources**
+
+- Doom Clones: Wikipedia Entry
+- The Hunt: Rise of the Triad information page
+- ZDoom WAD interpreter
+- ZDaemon: enabling online multiplayer Doom
+- EZQuake modern QuakeWorld client
+- The Quake Engine Family Tree (Wikipedia)
+
+**Documents explaining Graphics techniques**
+
+- Ray Casting Tutorial including Java example
+- Ray Casting Tutorial: Making your own Wolf3D
+- Introduction to Binary Space Partitioning Trees
+- How are BSP Trees used in DOOM?
+- Volume Graphics: Voxels explained

content/articles/etrian-oddysey-review.md

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++++
+showonlyimage = false
+draft = false
+image = "/img/games/BaldursGate2/logo.jpg"
+date = "2007-07-03"
+title = "Etrian Odyssey Review"
+tags = ['Etrian Odyssey']
+weight = 0
++++
+
+<img src="/img/Guides/EtrianOdyssey.jpg"/>
+
+Old School dungeon crawlers. It has been a long time since we've seen these types of games properly released. Veteran Roleplaying players should remember Eye of the Beholder, the Bard's Tale, Might & Magic, Wizardry and other series, released upon different non-console platforms: DOS, Commodore 64, Amiga, ... These games all used to have a few things in common, as explained in the Roleplaying Concepts article. The most intersting gameplay mechanic is without a doubt the "dungeon crawling" principle. Enter a tomb, defeat lots of bad guys, loot items, get to the next level, defeat lots of bad guys, rest, loot items, get to the next level, and so on.
+
+Lately, several attempts have been made to bring the genre to Handheld systems. For instance, the Mazes of Fate Gameboy Advance game. Atlus decided to give it a go too, thanks to the growing popularity of the Nintendo DS. Etrian Odyssey is a First Person Dungeon Crawler, with heavy japanese RPG influence (which was originally influenced by the above listed games!). Can people who enjoy Wizardry also love this game? Read on, you're about to find out.
+
+## Basic Gameplay Mechanics
+
+First and foremost: Atlus, the American publisher, is known for releasing heavily japanese flavoured games. If you for some reason can't stand the look of "anime" characters and art, be prepared to run far, far away. If this reduces your fear somewhat: only the character (your party and the enemy) art is drawn in anime style. The game world itself is rendered in fluid 3D and the town (yes, no plural!) background art looks okay. Just as the classic dungeon delvers, by entering an inn you'll encounter the bartender who talks a bit about the situation. There is no interaction at all, you see a very old-school menu "talk/buy/sell/...", the character portrait of the bartender and a text balloon. No animation, nothing. Etrian Odyssey is very restrictive, it does not try to implement fancy stuff.
+
+While we're at it: by "basic", I mean... very basic. There are a wide variety of skills present, but all entries are accessible via the same menu, which does not makes things easy to navigate. Battling can be done via another menu: attack, defend, skill, item or run. You cannot set your prefered actions for each team member, and you'll have to mash the button again and again, it's fully turn based. While there is a boost bar present, to dish out som extra damage on very much needed times, all core strategy lies within skill selection. I wouldn't say "development" since pumping a skill point you aquire per level into a certain skill simply unlocks others. Navigating in the dungeon (yes, no plural again. There's one enourmous forest to explore, with 10+ levels) is done via the D-pad. Although navigation is very smooth thanks to the 60 frames per second, the map is still divided into individual squares, just like the classic games.
+
+## The big Difference.
+
+What's different in Etrian Odyssey? You draw the dungeon map yourself using the DS stylus. You can create notes, add waypoints, trap notifications etc to the lower screen map as much as you'd like. It's a very nice addition to the core game, but individually navigating with the map is very clumsy. Instead of providing a way to scroll up/down or left/right, you have to tap 1/2 or A/B, treasure chart index style. Touch input has been restricted to map drawing only, all menu's are activated via the buttons. Meaning a stylus and another hand is needed, there could have been a option to at least skip conversations by pressing the touch screen. There is no treasure to collect in the dungeon, only mere monster parts. Bring and sell them back to the shop if you get out of the forest alive, and the shop will magically restock with better equipment. I can think of better ways to implement forging.
+
+Apart from the easy battle system, the game itself is ridiculously hard. By hard, I mean insanely difficult. My tank, equpiped with the best starting armor and shield, died in my very first battle, before I could even hit any enemy. Is that annoying or what. You think "no problem, run back to town, revive your party members and whack away!". Indeed, this is correct. If you can make it back to town, without a very high level portal spell. Backtracking to town sometimes can be ver harsh, especially with the difficulty. All monsters appear randomly, by the way. WHAT? Yup. It's a japanese RPG thing. You'll hate it. A blue orb indicates whether a new ambush is awaiting you a few steps further by blinking green or red. If it's red, and you need to revive your tank, prepare to throw the DS out of the window. The run option doesn't always trigger when needed.
+
+## Conclusion
+
+Aside from those frustrating moments, the game *is* beautiful. Apart from the anime paperdolls. And mostly enjoying, because of the classic throwback. But considering all of Etrian Odyssey's strong and weak points together, Wizardry and other "recent classic RPG" games perform much, much better. If you're dying to play a classic FP RPG dungeon crawler, I'd recommend to take a look at Might & Magic VI, VII, Wizardry 8 and others. That is, if you did not play those yet.
+
+Review-Cat says: Let me rephrase that: If you're dying to play a dungeon crawler on your handheld, Etrian Odyssey certainly is worthy. The game is very unforgiving and has a lot of flaws compared to other dungeon crawlers. Be prepared, I cannot recommend the game for everyone.

content/articles/handheld-castlevanias.md

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++++
+showonlyimage = false
+draft = false
+image = "/img/games/BaldursGate2/logo.jpg"
+date = "2007-03-30"
+title = "Handheld Castlevanias"
+tags = ['Castlevania', 'Portrait of Ruin', 'Harmony of Dissonance', 'Circle of the Moon', 'Aria of Sorrow', 'Dawn of Sorrow']
+weight = 0
++++
+
+<p class='vspace'><a class='wikilink' href='/articles/castlevania-portrait-of-ruin-review/'>Portrait of Ruin</a> is the second Nintendo DS Castlevania game. Maybe, if Komani thinks it'll be worthwile, a third one will follow, since there have been three Castlevania games released for the predecessor the Gameboy Advance. All excellent Handheld Metroidvania games, but which one excels at what? A short overview would be handy indeed. Well here you go!
+</p>
+<div class='vspace'></div><h3>Gameboy Advance</h3>
+<div class='indent'><strong>Castlevania: Harmony of Dissonance</strong>
+</div><p class='vspace'><span class='rfloat'><img src="/img/Guides/cv-harmony.jpg"></span>
+</p>
+<p class='vspace'>Harmony of Dissonance was actually the second Castlevania game to be released on the GBA. Being developed by another game studio, they did not see the gameboy's potential music power until very late in the development process. As a result, the soundtrack uses the gameboy color chip. Compared to Circle of the Moon, it's painful to hear. Despite the failing soundtrack, the castle design has been heavily based upon PSX's Symphony of the Night - which is <em>not</em> a bad thing! The castle is larger and features a different set of monsters. Unfortunately most bosses aren't as impressive as featured in other CV games.
+</p>
+<p class='vspace'>The story is barely noticable, but never that much needed anyway. I won't spoil the classic surprises so you'll have to find it out. The game plays like classic Castlevania games: you only have your whip as a weapon and can pick up different sub weapons throughout the castle, varying from holy water to throwing axes. Nothing new or fancy.
+</p>
+<div class='vspace'></div><ul><li><img src='/img/star_full.gif' alt='' title='' /> <img src='/img/star_full.gif' alt='' title='' /> <img src='/img/star_full.gif' alt='' title='' /> <img src='/img/star_full.gif' alt='' title='' /> <img src='/img/star_empty.gif' alt='' title='' /> --- <em>General Castle Design</em>
+</li><li><img src='/img/star_full.gif' alt='' title='' /> <img src='/img/star_full.gif' alt='' title='' /> <img src='/img/star_half.gif' alt='' title='' /> <img src='/img/star_empty.gif' alt='' title='' /> <img src='/img/star_empty.gif' alt='' title='' /> --- <em>Color and graphic usage</em>
+</li><li><img src='/img/star_full.gif' alt='' title='' /> <img src='/img/star_full.gif' alt='' title='' /> <img src='/img/star_half.gif' alt='' title='' /> <img src='/img/star_empty.gif' alt='' title='' /> <img src='/img/star_empty.gif' alt='' title='' /> --- <em>Enemy and boss design</em>
+</li><li><img src='/img/star_full.gif' alt='' title='' /> <img src='/img/star_full.gif' alt='' title='' /> <img src='/img/star_empty.gif' alt='' title='' /> <img src='/img/star_empty.gif' alt='' title='' /> <img src='/img/star_empty.gif' alt='' title='' /> --- <em>Soundtrack</em>
+</li><li><img src='/img/star_full.gif' alt='' title='' /> <img src='/img/star_full.gif' alt='' title='' /> <img src='/img/star_full.gif' alt='' title='' /> <img src='/img/star_half.gif' alt='' title='' /> <img src='/img/star_empty.gif' alt='' title='' /> --- <em>Skill/Control system</em>
+</li><li><img src='/img/star_full.gif' alt='' title='' /> <img src='/img/star_full.gif' alt='' title='' /> <img src='/img/star_empty.gif' alt='' title='' /> <img src='/img/star_empty.gif' alt='' title='' /> <img src='/img/star_empty.gif' alt='' title='' /> --- <em>Story telling</em>
+</li><li><img src='/img/star_full.gif' alt='' title='' /> <img src='/img/star_full.gif' alt='' title='' /> <img src='/img/star_full.gif' alt='' title='' /> <img src='/img/star_half.gif' alt='' title='' /> <img src='/img/star_empty.gif' alt='' title='' /> --- <em>Gameplay and difficulty</em>
+</li></ul><div class='vspace'></div><div class='indent'><strong>Castlevania: Circle of the Moon</strong>
+</div><p class='vspace'><span class='rfloat'> <img src="/img/Guides/cv-circle.jpg"></span>
+</p>
+<p class='vspace'>Circle of the Moon actually tried to renew a bunch of aspects previously implemented in Castlevania games. The skill system is an obvious result because of this: combining creature and god cards (if found while crushing monsters: the <em>farming</em> effect appears!) nets you different special skills such as increased attack power or poison claws. The storyline is as basic as Harmony of Dissonance though. Circle of the Moon does feature an excellent soundtrack. I personally have the feeling the castle is a lot smaller and tougher to navigate than usual.
+</p>
+<p class='vspace'><span class='wikiword'>CotM</span>'s difficulty can be frustrating, but can also be very rewarding. Bosses are easy to beat if using the right strategy, but some area's are insane. That's a good thing, CV games are not supposed to be easy to breeze through! Too bad most locations are not that significantly different. The game controls a bit awkward, sprinting can be done by double tapping the D-pad. Running and jumping when needed can sometimes be hard to pull of.
+</p>
+<div class='vspace'></div><ul><li><img src='/img/star_full.gif' alt='' title='' /> <img src='/img/star_full.gif' alt='' title='' /> <img src='/img/star_full.gif' alt='' title='' /> <img src='/img/star_half.gif' alt='' title='' /> <img src='/img/star_empty.gif' alt='' title='' /> --- <em>General Castle Design</em>
+</li><li><img src='/img/star_full.gif' alt='' title='' /> <img src='/img/star_full.gif' alt='' title='' /> <img src='/img/star_full.gif' alt='' title='' /> <img src='/img/star_empty.gif' alt='' title='' /> <img src='/img/star_empty.gif' alt='' title='' /> --- <em>Color and graphic usage</em>
+</li><li><img src='/img/star_full.gif' alt='' title='' /> <img src='/img/star_full.gif' alt='' title='' /> <img src='/img/star_full.gif' alt='' title='' /> <img src='/img/star_full.gif' alt='' title='' /> <img src='/img/star_empty.gif' alt='' title='' /> --- <em>Enemy and boss design</em>
+</li><li><img src='/img/star_full.gif' alt='' title='' /> <img src='/img/star_full.gif' alt='' title='' /> <img src='/img/star_full.gif' alt='' title='' /> <img src='/img/star_full.gif' alt='' title='' /> <img src='/img/star_full.gif' alt='' title='' /> --- <em>Soundtrack</em>
+</li><li><img src='/img/star_full.gif' alt='' title='' /> <img src='/img/star_full.gif' alt='' title='' /> <img src='/img/star_full.gif' alt='' title='' /> <img src='/img/star_half.gif' alt='' title='' /> <img src='/img/star_empty.gif' alt='' title='' /> --- <em>Skill/Control system</em>
+</li><li><img src='/img/star_full.gif' alt='' title='' /> <img src='/img/star_full.gif' alt='' title='' /> <img src='/img/star_empty.gif' alt='' title='' /> <img src='/img/star_empty.gif' alt='' title='' /> <img src='/img/star_empty.gif' alt='' title='' /> --- <em>Story telling</em>
+</li><li><img src='/img/star_full.gif' alt='' title='' /> <img src='/img/star_full.gif' alt='' title='' /> <img src='/img/star_full.gif' alt='' title='' /> <img src='/img/star_full.gif' alt='' title='' /> <img src='/img/star_empty.gif' alt='' title='' /> --- <em>Gameplay and difficulty</em>
+</li></ul><div class='vspace'></div><div class='indent'><strong>Castlevania: Aria of Sorrow</strong>
+</div><p class='vspace'><span class='rfloat'> <img src="/img/Guides/cv-aria.jpg"></span>
+</p>
+<p class='vspace'>The last GBA Castlevania games is for many the pinnacle of the series. Aria of Sorrow fixed most issues with the previous games: it features another awesome soundtrack, has a greatly improved character and castle design and has a colorful variety of places to go to. It also includes a shop, where you can finally sell your unwanted items. Circle of the Moon's monster drops were not that well balanced. The castle is bigger than <span class='wikiword'>CotM</span> but not as big as Dissonance's (including the inverse castle, that is). 
+</p>
+<p class='vspace'>The skill system has been reworked: you now gather skills from your enemies. Even more farming may be required to get a specific skill, which can prove to be a pain. The storyline is a bit more consistent and you meet more characters. The different possible endings are a great extra to an already excellent game!
+</p>
+<div class='vspace'></div><ul><li><img src='/img/star_full.gif' alt='' title='' /> <img src='/img/star_full.gif' alt='' title='' /> <img src='/img/star_full.gif' alt='' title='' /> <img src='/img/star_full.gif' alt='' title='' /> <img src='/img/star_full.gif' alt='' title='' /> --- <em>General Castle Design</em>
+</li><li><img src='/img/star_full.gif' alt='' title='' /> <img src='/img/star_full.gif' alt='' title='' /> <img src='/img/star_full.gif' alt='' title='' /> <img src='/img/star_full.gif' alt='' title='' /> <img src='/img/star_empty.gif' alt='' title='' /> --- <em>Color and graphic usage</em>
+</li><li><img src='/img/star_full.gif' alt='' title='' /> <img src='/img/star_full.gif' alt='' title='' /> <img src='/img/star_full.gif' alt='' title='' /> <img src='/img/star_full.gif' alt='' title='' /> <img src='/img/star_half.gif' alt='' title='' /> --- <em>Enemy and boss design</em>
+</li><li><img src='/img/star_full.gif' alt='' title='' /> <img src='/img/star_full.gif' alt='' title='' /> <img src='/img/star_full.gif' alt='' title='' /> <img src='/img/star_full.gif' alt='' title='' /> <img src='/img/star_full.gif' alt='' title='' /> --- <em>Soundtrack</em>
+</li><li><img src='/img/star_full.gif' alt='' title='' /> <img src='/img/star_full.gif' alt='' title='' /> <img src='/img/star_full.gif' alt='' title='' /> <img src='/img/star_half.gif' alt='' title='' /> <img src='/img/star_empty.gif' alt='' title='' /> --- <em>Skill/Control system</em>
+</li><li><img src='/img/star_full.gif' alt='' title='' /> <img src='/img/star_full.gif' alt='' title='' /> <img src='/img/star_full.gif' alt='' title='' /> <img src='/img/star_half.gif' alt='' title='' /> <img src='/img/star_empty.gif' alt='' title='' /> --- <em>Story telling</em>
+</li><li><img src='/img/star_full.gif' alt='' title='' /> <img src='/img/star_full.gif' alt='' title='' /> <img src='/img/star_full.gif' alt='' title='' /> <img src='/img/star_full.gif' alt='' title='' /> <img src='/img/star_full.gif' alt='' title='' /> --- <em>Gameplay and difficulty</em>
+</li></ul><div class='vspace'></div><h3>Nintendo DS</h3>
+<div class='indent'><strong>Castlevania: Dawn of Sorrow</strong>
+</div><p class='vspace'><span class='rfloat'> <img src="/img/Guides/cv-dawn.jpg"></span>
+</p>
+<p class='vspace'>The direct follow-up to Aria of Sorrow begins a bit weird, but the more you progress into the castle, the more it makes up for that mistake. The DS has obviously more power capabilities than the GBA, and that is easily visible: the animations are extremely gorgeous! The high resolution monster designs are even prettier than seen in Aria. You can also now use your gathered skills to forge them into a weapon. After finishing the game, you have the option to replay with another set of characters, unlocking the "classic" whipping gameplay. 
+</p>
+<p class='vspace'>I can't think of many bad things in this game. Except for the maybe annoying touch screen usage: the boss seals and the crystal breaking mechanic. It's nice, but frustrating in later stages when you need to quickly grab the stylus to seal the boss away, before he gets a portion of his HP back to finish you off. I do feel the castle size is a little bit smaller, compared to Aria of Sorrow.
+</p>
+<div class='vspace'></div><ul><li><img src='/img/star_full.gif' alt='' title='' /> <img src='/img/star_full.gif' alt='' title='' /> <img src='/img/star_full.gif' alt='' title='' /> <img src='/img/star_full.gif' alt='' title='' /> <img src='/img/star_half.gif' alt='' title='' /> --- <em>General Castle Design</em>
+</li><li><img src='/img/star_full.gif' alt='' title='' /> <img src='/img/star_full.gif' alt='' title='' /> <img src='/img/star_full.gif' alt='' title='' /> <img src='/img/star_full.gif' alt='' title='' /> <img src='/img/star_full.gif' alt='' title='' /> --- <em>Color and graphic usage</em>
+</li><li><img src='/img/star_full.gif' alt='' title='' /> <img src='/img/star_full.gif' alt='' title='' /> <img src='/img/star_full.gif' alt='' title='' /> <img src='/img/star_full.gif' alt='' title='' /> <img src='/img/star_half.gif' alt='' title='' /> --- <em>Enemy and boss design</em>
+</li><li><img src='/img/star_full.gif' alt='' title='' /> <img src='/img/star_full.gif' alt='' title='' /> <img src='/img/star_full.gif' alt='' title='' /> <img src='/img/star_full.gif' alt='' title='' /> <img src='/img/star_full.gif' alt='' title='' /> --- <em>Soundtrack</em>
+</li><li><img src='/img/star_full.gif' alt='' title='' /> <img src='/img/star_full.gif' alt='' title='' /> <img src='/img/star_full.gif' alt='' title='' /> <img src='/img/star_full.gif' alt='' title='' /> <img src='/img/star_empty.gif' alt='' title='' /> --- <em>Skill/Control system</em>
+</li><li><img src='/img/star_full.gif' alt='' title='' /> <img src='/img/star_full.gif' alt='' title='' /> <img src='/img/star_full.gif' alt='' title='' /> <img src='/img/star_half.gif' alt='' title='' /> <img src='/img/star_empty.gif' alt='' title='' /> --- <em>Story telling</em>
+</li><li><img src='/img/star_full.gif' alt='' title='' /> <img src='/img/star_full.gif' alt='' title='' /> <img src='/img/star_full.gif' alt='' title='' /> <img src='/img/star_full.gif' alt='' title='' /> <img src='/img/star_full.gif' alt='' title='' /> --- <em>Gameplay and difficulty</em>
+</li></ul><div class='vspace'></div><div class='indent'><strong>Castlevania: Portrait of Ruin</strong>
+</div><p class='vspace'><span class='rfloat'> <img src="/img/Guides/cv-por.jpg"></span>
+</p>
+<p class='vspace'>Portrait of Ruin introduces <span class='wikiword'>WiFi</span> multiplay and character switching into the game. Both features have been received with mixed feelings as they do not really enhance the gameplay. You can explore the castle as Jonathan using the classic whip (or other weapons like the Sorrow games). The girl has sorcery at her disposal to kill enemies with. You can also perform combination attacks. The skill system is nontheless very interesting, but I prefer the Sorrow ones, or even Circle of the Moon, as sometimes the required cooperation doesn't turn out to be easy to control. 
+</p>
+<p class='vspace'>Apart from that, the castle design is disappointing, because the area's have been divided into different "portraits". See the review for more information. Some portrait area's look like exact copies with drab colors, some are beautiful. Same rule for the monster design: the attempt to do 3D designs (the peeping eye) sadly result into very ugly looking meshes. The storytelling part has been made more laughable than serious, and Death looks like a stereotype anime character instead of a terrifying opponent. If you enjoyed Portrait of Ruin, be sure to try at least one of the above Castlevania games!
+</p>
+<div class='vspace'></div><ul><li><img src='/img/star_full.gif' alt='' title='' /> <img src='/img/star_full.gif' alt='' title='' /> <img src='/img/star_half.gif' alt='' title='' /> <img src='/img/star_empty.gif' alt='' title='' /> <img src='/img/star_empty.gif' alt='' title='' /> --- <em>General Castle Design</em>
+</li><li><img src='/img/star_full.gif' alt='' title='' /> <img src='/img/star_full.gif' alt='' title='' /> <img src='/img/star_full.gif' alt='' title='' /> <img src='/img/star_half.gif' alt='' title='' /> <img src='/img/star_empty.gif' alt='' title='' /> --- <em>Color and graphic usage</em>
+</li><li><img src='/img/star_full.gif' alt='' title='' /> <img src='/img/star_full.gif' alt='' title='' /> <img src='/img/star_full.gif' alt='' title='' /> <img src='/img/star_half.gif' alt='' title='' /> <img src='/img/star_empty.gif' alt='' title='' /> --- <em>Enemy and boss design</em>
+</li><li><img src='/img/star_full.gif' alt='' title='' /> <img src='/img/star_full.gif' alt='' title='' /> <img src='/img/star_full.gif' alt='' title='' /> <img src='/img/star_full.gif' alt='' title='' /> <img src='/img/star_half.gif' alt='' title='' /> --- <em>Soundtrack</em>
+</li><li><img src='/img/star_full.gif' alt='' title='' /> <img src='/img/star_full.gif' alt='' title='' /> <img src='/img/star_full.gif' alt='' title='' /> <img src='/img/star_empty.gif' alt='' title='' /> <img src='/img/star_empty.gif' alt='' title='' /> --- <em>Skill/Control system</em>
+</li><li><img src='/img/star_full.gif' alt='' title='' /> <img src='/img/star_full.gif' alt='' title='' /> <img src='/img/star_half.gif' alt='' title='' /> <img src='/img/star_empty.gif' alt='' title='' /> <img src='/img/star_empty.gif' alt='' title='' /> --- <em>Story telling</em>
+</li><li><img src='/img/star_full.gif' alt='' title='' /> <img src='/img/star_full.gif' alt='' title='' /> <img src='/img/star_full.gif' alt='' title='' /> <img src='/img/star_half.gif' alt='' title='' /> <img src='/img/star_empty.gif' alt='' title='' /> --- <em>Gameplay and difficulty</em>
+</li></ul><p>&nbsp;
+</p>

content/articles/jagged-alliance-2-review.md

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++++
+showonlyimage = false
+draft = false
+image = "/img/games/BaldursGate2/logo.jpg"
+date = "2007-03-30"
+title = "Jagged Alliance 2 Review"
+tags = ['Jagged Alliance 2']
+weight = 0
++++
+
+<img src="/img/Guides/JaggedAlliance2.jpg">
+
+After the successful and beloved Jagged Alliance squad-based turn-based strategy game (a whole mouth full), Sir-Tech expanded the genre by adding the sequel, Jagged Alliance 2, which was published later in 1999. On a side note, it's sad to see the JA series become more and more popular thanks to mass download methods like Steam, after the virtual death of the company itself. Well anyway, decide for yourself if the purchase (while you're at it, nab the Gold version!) is worth it or not.
+
+### Mad Mercs for Hire
+
+<img src="/img/games/JaggedAlliance2/screens/1.jpg">
+<center>Whack, his shoulder's bleeding.</center>
+
+When you boot up JA2 for the first time, you'll enter a fake Computer Operating System, your operation base: the laptop. This portable will help you fund your hard earned money by hiring new team/party members trough various on-line methods. Later in the game, a huge internet store is accessible trough the laptop. It has never been easier to buy a couple of AK's - free delivery! Also crutial mission information will be directly e-mailed to you via the OS. Nice touch.
+
+The main menu allows you to edit the base parameters of a common Jagged Alliance 2 session: the kind of guns you'd like (Tons of em! or Regular), the difficulty, ... Once you login into your laptop you can create your own party member for free, which will permamently be a part of your assault team. Other members are obviously for hire - which means you'll have to raise enough funds to pay them on a either daily, weekly or monthly basis. Each mercenary (Let's just say "merc") has his own personality and speciality. You'll be able to recruit a bad guy who kills every one standing in his or her way with bare fists, while other members prefer to use a scope. 
+
+Next to the general personalities (voice, appearance) every character has a hate/love relation with all other NPCs! Yes this is indeed quite amazing. You'll have to watch who you're hiring, because some mercs can't stand each other and one of them will leave your team in time. A fight within the team will lower the moral of other non involved members resulting in less effective ways of dealing with the enemy. Trust me, you do not want this to happen. (Spoiler tip: hire Razor and Haywire and laugh your ass off!)
+
+### Money makes the world go Round
+
+<img src="/img/games/JaggedAlliance2/screens/2.jpg">
+<center>Hiring Hitman, Ace!.</center>
+
+Between the hiring of new mercs and the buying of weapons trough the internet or shops distributed among various cities, you'll have to watch your budget constantly. In the beginning of the game there is no income. None. You won't be able to hire a full team and will need to use cheap hardware like pistols. When you take over some cities, there are a few opportunities to earn (a lot of) money trough different quests. For instance, liberate an occupied mine and you'll be rewarded with the monthly income of that mine. Do not forget to keep occupying the mine with militia! Yes indeed, you are able to train militia from towns folks by using your highest educated team member. Of course using a low educated one will also work but it'll take longer and your skills won't increase that often. Be aware once you are training militia, you cannot use that member to do something else. Same story with fixing broken weapons and sleeping.
+
+During the main mission you'll cruise trough a lot of different cities and villages and they all include some or many optitional side missions. Talk to locals and ask them to help - or they'll ask you. You can for instance rescue someone's daughter, work hand in hand with the local mob (or kill them all and take their weapons!), escort a pilot, and many more things.
+
+### Combat
+
+<img src="/img/games/JaggedAlliance2/screens/3.jpg">
+<center>Tony runs one of the weapon shops.</center>
+
+
+As said before, JA2 is a TBS game, which means it plays very much like a standard board game using turns. As long as your mercs don't see or hear any enemies you can walk freely in the area and the game switches to a real-time mode. As soon as one of your team members notices something dangerous, the game switches back in TBS mode and you'll have to set actions for each party member. Every merc has Action Points (more agile members obviously can do more stuff) which you can spend during your turn to walk, run, crawl, shoot, scan, ...
+
+If you want to shoot, you can increase your accuracy by upping the amounth of APs you are going to spend. Aside from generally pointing and shooting at one enemy, you can also instruct members to aim for a specific body part like the head (''BOOM HEADSHOT! Sorry, couldn't resist...), the legs, arms or body. Hitting legs immobilizes your enemy, which is a very good thing. The arms causes most enemies to drop weapons and run. Of course the chance you'll hit a specific part is significantly lower than the normal body. It's also a smart move to save APs if you're in a corner. When the enemy peeks, you'll get a free interrupt and can still kill him.
+
+Aside from shooting, one of my favourite ways to silently liquidate enemies is using a knife. The knife requires a bunch less APs but you have to be close to the enemy. That's where stealth drops in. Enabling stealth reduces your footstep sounds and reduces the chance enemies hear something and investigate. Most professional assassins are highly skilled in stealthing and knifing. Just using your fists will render enemies K.O. and make them drop their weapons which is a very good thing: automatic rifles early in the game are a blessing!
+
+### Sir-Tech's bad side
+
+<img src="/img/games/JaggedAlliance2/screens/4.jpg">
+<center>Iceman feels something's not right.</center>
+
+Talking about the graphics is obviously a little bit over-the-top. A game from 1999 can't possibly look as good as a nowadays shooter (BOOM HEADSHOT! - Last time, I promise!). Still, back in 1999 the bad part about Jagged Alliance 2 were the graphics. Wizardry 8 did not have a potentially beautiful engine either, but both games are just so nicely put together we'll barely make that a discussion point. Sadly most gamers disagree again. Damn you all! Oh yeah, the game features OK-ish cutscenes which explain the main plot in the game. They are of mediocore quality. But another great thing about all Sir-Tech games is the amazing achievement of the composer Kevin Manthei, which also made the Wiz8 soundtrack. The bad graphics feeling completely fades once the great music tracks shows up and you are getting attached to your crew members. 
+
+I just love hearing them talk, really!
+
+### Conclusion
+
+Jagged Alliance 2 is still a fantastic game and a great example to all other turn-based strategy games recently released. Whoever lost his CD or never managed to play it, don't delay any longer and try to grab the Gold version including the expansion Unfinished Business. If you're also bored with that expansion, try the fan-made v1.13 modification which even increases the game resolution size! A fair warning to all potential JA2 players: the game sucks up all social life. And by all, I mean everything. Be warned.

content/articles/lode-runner-legend-returns-review.md

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++++
+showonlyimage = false
+draft = false
+image = "/img/games/BaldursGate2/logo.jpg"
+date = "2007-03-30"
+title = "Lode Runner Returns Review"
+tags = ['Lode Runner: the Legend Returns']
+weight = 0
++++
+
+<img src="/img/Guides/LodeRunnerReturns.jpg">
+
+### Core mechanics
+
+A concept almost as old as Pong, the Godfather of nowadays gaming. You climb up and down little ladders, collecting various forms of loot. And guess what - you're being chased by blood thirsty (well yeah, sort of) eurhm, red humanoid shaped *things*. On your way through each puzzle, there are multiple ways of dealing with them. From digging a hole and watching earth grow as fast as it can, squashing the enemy, to picking up little and very big bombs. Of course, the objective in each level is to collect all loot displayed and get the hell outta there.
+
+Simple, yet effective and above all: very addictive if served right. And believe me, this one is. Based on the classic "Lode Runner" principle explained above, Lode Runner: the Legend Returns indeed returns to keep you occupied for as long as needed. The game improves and extends the core game mechanics with extra tools to get rid of enemies (and friends by accident when playing cooperatively, whoops!). Every few levels, the big "tileset theme" changes, together with a very nice soundtrack. The area's differ from jungle to cave and icy mountains. All enemies stay the same though: red and hungry.
+
+### Create your own Adventure
+
+The Legend Returns - with a level editor. You can choose your prefered tileset and draw/place away. Every home made level can be shared using, ... well, non-automatic methods. The game stores all levels in a single PZL file. Don't forget to download ours! Made a long long time ago... Oh and you can play every custom level with a friend, locally or via a prehistoric 56k modem way. (so forget that). The game comes with a friendly User Interface, including popup balloons, instructing the player which button to use for which action. Nice and clear.
+
+Don't expect a story or something similar. It won't be anything closer than the wide variety of different themes (I think eight in total). In fact, the "single player" game is just the puzzle file the game developer(s) (most work has been done by one single person, Todd Daggert) put together for you to wade through. The first 10-20 levels are very easy and many don't even contain enemies, but as soon as you start hitting 60, prepare to press the "use item" button a lot. Some smart level design here and there make you curse and restart the game, but then again, there's nothing much to it except blocks, earth, non-destructable floor, rope, etc...
+
+### Conclusion
+
+The best part of the game? Easily the fact it's fully downloadable for free right now, plus the cooperative part. Or rather, "friend or foe" part, since digging a hole might get your partner stuck, so think carefully before doing something stupid! Follow the links at the Lode Runner index page to download the whole game. "Lode Runner Online", the multiplayer enhanced semi-sequel is also downloadable for free, so be sure to check that one out too.
+Review-Cat says: Like co-op action? Love creating your own stuff? Enjoy puzzle games? Don't mind downloading a game for free? You know what to do..
+ 

content/articles/riviera-review.md

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++++
+showonlyimage = false
+draft = false
+image = "/img/games/BaldursGate2/logo.jpg"
+date = "2007-03-30"
+title = "Riviera: the Review"
+tags = ['Riviera', 'Yggdra Union']
+weight = 0
++++
+
+<img src="/img/Guides/Riviera.jpg">
+
+Riviera: the Promised Land is the Roleplaying debut game of the japanese developer Sting, released on the Gameboy Advance in 2005. Riviera actually tries to be two things at once: a classic japanese Roleplaying game on a Handheld system, and something more unique. What Riviera without a doubt manages to do is put down an excellent soundtrack. In fact, the inspiring tunes and tracks are of one of the highest quality music I've ever heard on the GBA. That's good!
+
+### Battle System
+
+Riviera is a turn-based jRPG. In it, the player takes turns and the enemy or enemies take turns. Simple, and nothing new. Before entering a battle however, we first select which items to use in the battle itself. You can only select four items. There's also a positioning system: you can pick two team members and place them in the frontlines, hoping they'll protect your weaker mage. So, two team members plus one weaker mage is three. That's right, you can only employ three characters at a time. There are more in your party though.
+When you decide to use one of the items in battle (this includes weapons!), their durability counter decreases by one. If the counter hits zero, the item disappears. Here once again you have to carefully plan the powerful item usage (it's best to wait for the "big" boss). Luckily for us, items do not deprecate when in training modus and your characters do learn new skills and gain experience points. Riviera kind of forces you to learn new abilities through training mode instead of the actual journey, after you've found new types of weapons. 
+
+Without new skills you won't stand a chance.
+
+Another new feature is the "Overdrive" bar Sting introduced and also used in their second game, Yggdra Union. After taking hits, the bar fills until all three levels are completely filled. You can perform special moves by depleting a certain level of the bar. For instance, casting an extra-strong level 2 freeze spell will deplete the overdrive bar 2 levels (if it's enough filled, obviously). The most powerful attacks can even shatter the bar. Enemies can also use overdrive skills but their "bar" is rather limited and simply called the Rage bar. The more you hit them, the angrier they get. During every turn switch, the rage bar thankfully drops down a little, according to who's turn it is.
+
+### Exploring the world
+
+Another quite unique feature of Riviera is the way you can explore all scenes. Instead of freely moving throughout the whole world, you can only move a certain Action Points at a time. You can win points by successfully defeating enemies or completing minor quests. Points are used by executing a set action. For example, in scene #A, there's a chest. You can either open it (Press UP), search the grass for more treasure (Press DOWN) or go a scene left or right. Every action except moving scenes requires one AP.
+
+The chest you so eager want to open may even contain traps. It can trigger an ugly snake to jump into your party and everyone will be upset. Your characters have a certain amounth of affection towards you. If you screw things up, this affection will lower and they'll be less willing to co-operate and perform certain actions. It's a neat idea and even well-implemented. Back to the snake: after triggering this kind of trap, you'll have to get yourself out of it by successfully pressing some buttons. It's like a mini Wario Ware game, except it's damn hard to execute without failing.
+
+### Conclusion
+
+
+Riviera: the Promised Land is a turn-based RPG based upon the idea of limitation. You cannot explore everything in all scenes, you cannot carry more than 15 weapons at a time, you cannot even use them more than 40 times. Urgh! Wait, there's more restrictions, don't we love them? Maximum three party members (including the main character) in combat. The overall idea of strategy is nicely thought, but most gamers are going to be severely put off by this system after a few hours. Therefore, this is a game not for everyone. 
+If you enjoy manga or anime-stylish turn-based RPG games on handhelds with a few (or rather heavy) strategy elements, don't hold back. Otherwise, try before buying!
+
+Review-Cat says: Hmmm, maybe.

content/articles/rpg-concepts-items.md

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++++
+showonlyimage = false
+draft = false
+image = "/img/games/BaldursGate2/logo.jpg"
+date = "2007-03-30"
+title = "RPG Concepts: Items"
+tags = ['RPG Concepts']
+weight = 0
++++
+
+<img src="/img/articles/RPG.jpg"/>
+
+### Items present in the World
+
+Did you ever play an RPG, wondering why the world is so empty? Do you ever wonder, while entering a noble house without any real permission, why all closets are empty or not even openable? If you happen to like looting everybody's treasure chests, bepare to be disappointed as some wealthy NPCs keep two single gold pieces in them. Wow! The RPG world "contents" should also reflect the current neighbourhood you're travelling in. Every little item must have a purpose to make the environment more believable. The more you can interact with objects, the better. Of course this concept should not be implemented as a mere gimmick.
+
+Let's start with an excellent example. In Larian's first Roleplaying game called Divine Divinity, it was even possible to move closets and chairs and beds. If you really wanted to, you could carry some furniture along with you. Of course that does not really make any sense, unless it's used in a useful way. And it is: carrying a bedroll will enable you to rest out in the wilderness. You can also grab various types of food, normally only used for display purposes. Every single closet has an interesting item for you, with some value to it. Libraries contain enourmous amounths of books (or rather scrolls), which are interesting to read. Baldur's Gate 2 enabled you to learn about the game's history via these very same scrolls. Too bad DivDiv's randomized content system didn't work out very well since most stuff was severly underpowered.
+
+<img src="/img/articles/RPG-world_divdiv.jpg">
+<center>Yes you can steal bread. Would you want to?</center>
+
+I'll have to give some credits to Bethesda for integrating some of these ideas into Morrowind and Oblivion. If you really wanted to, you could steal every single object in every house: some plates, forks, vases, spices, you name it. If the owner sees you lending his furniture, he'll react accordingly. At least, that's the way we'd like it to see. There are enough exploits in these games which makes stealing ridiculously easy, sadly enough. Sell all items and you won't be needing any money as quest rewards anymore. It would be nice to see these items actually used. Besides, this process hardly involves any role playing.
+
+<img src="/img/articles/RPG-world_ultima.jpg">
+
+**Addendum** - fable at Gamebanshee kindly pointed out that Ultima VI and VII both offered this kind of item interactivity as well, Bethesda merely copied it's concept. While you are unable to do something useful with most of the items you can carry with you in the Elder Scrolls series, most of them were actually usable in Ultima VII. Larian's Divinity series was also heavily inspired by the Ultima games.
+
+In contrast, there are more than enough recent RPGs which kindly ignore the "careful item placement" concept. One example might be Troika's Temple of Elemental Evil. I love exploring towns and houses, but this game laughed at me while I repeatedly tried to open some closets or chests next to beds. You simply can't open them! They are part of the background. Yes there still are chests enough in dungeons, and ToEE is mainly a dungeon RPG since most of the time will be spent in the Temple. But still... The temple itself contains many large area's with cupboards and other interesting objects. All part of the pre-rendered background. There goes my [Baldur's Gate](/tags/baldurs-gate-2/)-style exploring addiction. Even in all other Infinity Engine games, you could open drawers or check barrels.
+
+Of course it would be impossible to place interesting and relevant items in all houses, spread across all towns, especially in very large worlds like Amn. Waukeen's Promenade in Athkatla has enough nearly empty houses. But every house is still accessible, and every house contains at least one container, with set loot. A couple of gold coins, some potions or sometimes even gems. This makes visiting non-interesting area's worthwile. At least for me.
+
+<img src="/img/articles/RPG-world_toee.jpg">
+<center> Left: Temple of Elemental Evil. Right: Icewind Dale II.</center>
+
+### Scripted or Randomized content?
+
+Generating randomized content could be done, but most games failed using this technique. Let's take a look at Sacred, for example. Most Hack & Slash games strongly favour randomized content - and there's nothing wrong with that. Sacred includes, like most other games, class-specific items. "Oh good!". Yes indeed, unless you keep on encountering Paladin armor if you are playing as a Dark Elf. These parameters should at least be used while generating items, although obviously not while playing a multiplayer game. Well, that's not the worst part, you can simply sell items you cannot equip, right? Right. But what to do with all that gold? Buy new items you can equip! Right. Unless the weapon store constantly restocks with low level items. I used a dual bladed weapon for 20 levels straight, because all encountered shops stocked junk and all items in various containers were unusable.
+
+Neverwinter Nights also uses scripts to generate container contents. Most boxes or low level chests placed in towns or area's contain generic non-interesting equipment, also found in normal stores. The most powerful items are set items, as always. BioWare too seems to have embraced the randomized content technique: see the Infinite Dungeons module. In Wizardry 8, almost every chest containts randomly generated items, but this principle is done slightly different. Every chest has a limited amounth of set items with a possibility percentage. Upon entering the area, the content is generated by picking items from this list. This method prevents every non-set chest from containing the same "junk items". Many of the most powerful weapons can be found in these chests, if you are lucky (Rapax King's Chest, Davy Jones Locker, ...)
+
+<img src="/img/articles/RPG-world_bluedragon.jpg">
+<center>Blue Dragon's World invites you to check every single stone for items.</center>
+
+Console Roleplaying games typically endorse placement of less items in better context. Especially with the old but still mainly present Overworld system, you won't find anything of interest there, except in a very limited amounth of set chests. Dragon Quest VIII for example delivers a solid job creating busy and beatiful towns with many hidden items to discover in closets and vases. But once you explore further and exit the town, the overworld has almost nothing to offer, except set chests in semi-hidden locations and monster drops. Utilizing a little too high randomized battle rate, chest hunting can get very frustrating.
+
+The upcoming X360 RPG called Blue Dragon makes these random encounters and fairly empty overworlds less of a pain by including (again randomized) items in and under various objects. Almost every single stone in the overworld can be pushed aside and almost every container can be opened. However, this does make the game very easy as you're never short on cash or potions. And every item aquired this way comes from the same item pool, meaning most stuff is useless. All best equipment pieces are again set items...
+
+**Avoid at all costs:**
+
+- Avoid not openable containers.
+- Avoid the "junk randomized item content" system.
+- Avoid scripting the best items (although debatable)
+
+**Bad Examples of item placement:**
+
+- Temple of Elemental Evil
+- Sacred and some other Hack & Slash games. Exceptionally, Diablo II did great!
+Most Console jRPGs (DQ8 is decent thanks to the towns)
+
+**Excellent Examples of item placement:** 
+
+- Ultima VII (Released in 1992, one of the first games to heavily utilize item placement correctly)
+- Wizardry 8, again (randomized but from a set pool, all best items too)
+- Infinity Engine games (all containers produce something worthwile)
+- Divine Divinity (although the contents itself isn't that great)
+- Arcanum (Several not usable items spread but combinable through Schematics)

content/articles/rpg-concepts-npcs.md

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++++
+showonlyimage = false
+draft = false
+image = "/img/games/BaldursGate2/logo.jpg"
+date = "2007-03-30"
+title = "RPG Concepts: NPCS"
+tags = ['RPG Concepts']
+weight = 0
++++
+
+<img src="/img/articles/RPG.jpg"/>
+
+<a class="internal" data-to="#vids">Watch the NPC Reaction video tests! >></a>
+
+An NPC is basically a character not controlled by the player, who can be of great importance during the many main or side quests. NPCs vary in importance and placement: they can either be annoying and usesless or interesting and useful. Many Roleplaying games only give the most important NPCs something useful to say or do. Talking to other characters makes no sense since they only answer with one of the standard sentences: "oh, you're the princess!" or "good weather, isn't it?". This concept destroys the whole roleplaying experience since it transforms roleplaying into trying to find the right character to chat with, without any interest to other local inhabitants.
+
+<img src="/img/articles/rpg-npc_blocking.gif "/>
+
+Everyone probably already encountered a couple of NPCs just standing there, doing nothing. When you talk to them, they respond with "hiya stranger". When you talk to them again, they repeat that exact same sentence. After the tenth time of "hiya stranger" you begin to wonder whether the person was on drugs or not. What is the purpose of this NPC? Exactly: a useless object to fill the otherwise void space. Players can enjoy a "guess who holds the quest" puzzle. Things get even worse when each NPC is called "stranger x" or "villager y". This does not give them any personality and give you even less reasons to replay the game since the living world feels artificial and dead. There's a difficult balance to be kept within a city full of NPCs: do you want extreme activity but soulless beings or a less crowded area, where everyone has their own personality and interesting story?
+
+Labelling NPCs in a RPG can also be quite challenging. In Sacred for instance, people actually bearing a quest (defined useful) have an exclamation mark floating above their head. "Good, no more randomly clicking on stupid inhabitants, right!"? Yes and no. If this system was to be implemented in non-hack & slash games, everyone would ignore all other NPCs. And what is the purpose of a less imporant NPC anyway?
+
+Especially on console RPGs, it can get very frustrating to wander around town, talking to everyone to try and finish your quest. Baten Kaitos includes a subquest where you must find all relatives of a family, in order to bring them together before the grandfather dies. Members are gathered by putting their signature on a family tree so you'll need to find them, and talk to them. If you want to finish the quest, you are forced to chat with every single NPC in the game since family members cannot be separated from other non-interesting NPCs by clothes. Auch.
+
+This quest system can also reward you for talking to all NPCs if you intend to do so anyway. Some "Star Constellation Magnus" in the game can be traded for rare items otherwise not found. These constellations can be found by looking in every container and box you see. This works exactly the same: it gives you a reason to check containers, otherwise 50% empty or full with useless junk.
+
+<img src="/img/articles/rpg-npc_dontdie.jpg">
+<center>Don't open it! It could contain... err... An NPC-turns-hostile trigger!</center>
+
+It's very easy to implement a shield which renders quest NPCs immortal. Of course, how else can you finish the quest if you killed the person to deliver item x or get goods y? That's one way, but not the acceptible way. Roleplaying - yeah right. If you decide to attack your quest related person, you may do so. One of the consequences could be unable to finish the quest (if it's a side quest of course). Another better one would be to include different ways to tackle this obstacle. If you kill the NPC, everyone will turn hostile or run or just ignore you depending on their parameters (easily offended or threatened, easily scared, drunk, ...). The NPC will leave his quest item for you to collect, if you managed to get rid of everyone else. There could be a high level relative, standing next to the killed person, who frenzies if you hurt the NPC. Ha!
+
+This Oblivion footage shows exactly what direction developers should not take. A non playable character should react on your actions properly and maybe even fight you. There's an interesting interview with an ex-Troika employee, explaining the different philosophies behind NPC placement and (re)actions. The bottom line? Every NPC should have a purpose to be there, and every NPC should have something non-liniar and interesting to say.
+
+Other mechanics which greatly unbalance the importance of various NPCs include voice acting. It's good to have voice acting, but it's better to let everyone talk instead of only the main quest characters. You'll more easily ignore non-voiced ones. I do know this is very hard to realize. There's so much to be said about wandering characters in quiet towns.
+
+Interaction with those people are mostly done throughout a limited series of questions. You can select one (which might alter his personal reaction, or even attack you, the classic Dungeons & Dragons way) and the NPC will react to that selected question. The questions are usually built depending on the active quests. You can't possibly ask something about a stone mask if you did not start that quest first. Although this limited interaction technique is even being used in new Roleplaying games (including Mass Effect), these have their own problems.
+
+<img src="/img/articles/npc-rpg_kotor.jpg">
+<center>Knights of the Old Republic: select your answer among a limited amounth of possibilities.</center>
+
+For instance, why can't you ask someone about his neighbour? Why is his neighbour running in circles? Or why is this person not sleeping at night? Why is he aligned with faction x? What does he know about your previous boss encounter? etc. One of the early Final Fantasy games introduced a system in which you can store key words said by NPCs, and ask about them to others. This concept sounds very nice, but lacked execution. Most of the time the NPC did not know what you were talking about.
+
+Wizardry VII introduced a nice system which allowed players to literally type in their questions. Typing "rapax" would give you information about the rapax, including the NPCs personal opinion about this race. If you type "where are rapax" the person would give you directions. This even worked beyond these simple questions. For instance, you ask a Trynnie about a forgotten monastery. He tells you it belonged to the Higardi but they left a long time ago. "In fact I ste... eurhm, got most of my stuff from them". Ha, the little bastard! You type in "steal" and he replies "technically it's only stealing when you get caught". (screenshot) Beautiful! Now this is interaction. Even using rude or aggressive words like "bastard" or "kill" would net you a funny reply. Wizardry 8 even took this concept a step higher. You can see some interaction with Rattus and Rapax in the Gameplay video.
+
+Of course keywords are still available and stored automatically if you did not follow every conversation.
+
+<img src="/img/articles/npc-rpg_wiz8.jpg">
+<center>Wizardry 8: The 'talk about' feature.</center>
+
+**Avoid at all costs:**
+
+- Avoid artificial NPC behaviour. (Villager 2: "Hello stranger!")
+- Avoid static placement (NPCs should go to bed at night!)
+- Avoid NPCs without a purpose or (re)action
+
+**Bad Examples of NPC usage:**
+
+- Most Final Fantasy games (including the ever-annojying up- and down walking of NPCs blocking your way)
+- Diablo (what? You can't even talk to person x wandering around?), Sacred, ... - most Hack & Slash games
+
+**Excellent Examples of NPC usage:**
+
+- Wizardry 8 (fully voiced, great interaction technique and purpose)
+- Might & Magic VII (less important NPCs can be hired with unique skills)
+- Arcanum (every NPC reacts uniquely, some even directly influence quests)
+
+<a id="vids"></a>
+## NPC Reaction videos
+
+#### Arcanum
+
+<p class='vspace'>Arcanum bar test in Tarant. Throwing a molotov results in splash damage within the bar. Every NPC had their own reaction:
+</p><ul><li>the dwarf attacked me (lvl45, dead in a shot with looking glass rifle)
+</li><li>the dark elf did not care
+</li><li>the bartender disliked it
+</li><li>the woman flet but I chased her down
+</li><li>even my own party members didn't like attacking neutral aligned people
+</li></ul><p class='vspace'>Notice the bartender doesn't completely react the way it should be. At first, he dislikes it I attack his customers and his faction rating drops from 68 to 0 (hatred). If this rating drops below zero he'll attack me or flee. After the massacre, he simply offers me a drink. Ha!
+</p>
+
+{{< youtube "eAuAu4BBCKw" >}}
+
+#### Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion</strong>
+
+<p class='vspace'>During a NPC conference meeting, someone tries to interrupt the peace. Notice the cheering music in the background, which does not change at all while attacking key characters. They even stand up back again - instead of going to sit in the chair or running like mad. This is definatly <ins>not</ins> the best way <span class='wikiword'>NPCs</span> should react.
+</p>
+
+{{< youtube "6KN7cKO8-P0" >}}
+
+#### Wizardry 8
+
+<div class='vspace'></div><div class='indent'><em>Marten's Tomb (SPOILERS)</em>
+</div><p class='vspace'>Sir-Tech's [Wizardry 8](/tags/wizardry8) includes like VII a beautiful NPC interaction system which allows the user to talk about anything, including obscure words (and you'll get appropriate reactions! Wait for vid#2 to see that) Here, I ask Marten, one of the main plot characters, about the dark savant, the higardi, "die", "f*ck" and some more stuff. I forgot to wear the helmet so all members went insane... Whoops.
+</p>
+
+{{< youtube "n9RgBmP5qpU" >}}
+
+<div class='vspace'></div><div class='indent'><em>He'Li's Bar in Arnika</em>
+</div><p class='vspace'>He'Li kicks my butt as I attempt to intimidate her with my impressive vocal skills. Vi teams up, shoving a boot through my rib cage. Amazing stuff, Sir-Tech. I love the voice acting. (Fully voiced, EVERY NPC).
+</p>
+
+{{< youtube "HV7P5bCNUZI" >}}
+
+<div class='vspace'></div><div class='indent'><em>Trynton's Chief (SPOILERS)</em>
+</div><p class='vspace'>After chatting with Trynton's Chief, I decide to attack him with Madras (a trynnie) in my party. That was *not* a good idea. Glad to see he reacts properly to my actions in the game.
+</p>
+
+{{< youtube "q52EROdDuCU" >}}
+

content/articles/simon-the-sorcerer-2-review.md

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++++
+showonlyimage = false
+draft = false
+image = "/img/games/BaldursGate2/logo.jpg"
+date = "2007-03-30"
+title = "Simon The Sorcerer 2 Review"
+tags = ['Simon the Sorcerer']
+weight = 0
++++
+
+<img src="/img/Guides/SimonTheSorcerer2.png"/>
+
+Simon the Sorcerer II: "The Lion, the Wizard and the Wardrobe" is an adventure game from the British game company Adventure Soft who also produced the prequel, Simon the Sorcerer. The Simon adventure games are well known for their absurd and mostly weird British humor. If you do not like Blackadder and company, don't bother installing this game. Simon 2 features many references and funny jabs to to popular literature, pop-culture, fantasy and other adventure-games. You can clearly see the subtitle is being borrowed from The Chronicles of Narnia, and there are plenty of references to Lord of the Rings, Monkey Island and even Dungeons & Dragons. However, do not expect this adventure to be over in a couple of hours since Simon the Sorcerer 2 is actually quite hard.
+
+### Unusual selfish Sorcerers
+
+Simon is not your average protagonist. One of his most beloved hobbies is insulting people and getting on their nerves, which most of the time successfully applies. Simon the Sorcerer is an arrogant sorcerer who is unluckily teleported to this fantasy Dimension by a young boy, Runt. When Sordid, the evil boss from the prequel, decides to get rid of Simon for good, things are about to fire up real good. Most characters from Simon the Sorcerer I return and sometimes the plot is unclear so be sure to play the first game before installing the sequel.
+
+Simon loves to harass innocent people, this is an integral part of the humor carefully weaven into the main game. In most other adventure games, you've traditionally given the option to answer a couple of "straight" questions, and a couple of stupid ones. In Simon, you mostly answer sarcastig, ironic or plain brutal. It sometimes made me laugh out loud, but the humor is classified as either love it or hate it.
+
+Instead of playing a role as the protagonist in the game by moving him around, picking stuff up and solving puzzles, Simon also talks to you - the player. He sometimes makes sarcastic jokes about people walking by or talks to himself. When you're not actively doing anything for a few minutes, he'll lean forward, looking out of the monitor screen, trying to figure out whether you're alive or not. Ha!
+
+### The Hunt begins
+
+And with The Hunt, I really mean the hunt. The hunt for the lost pixels! Because that's wat Simon the Sorcerer 2 is mostly about: finding stuff, sealed away in background layers, carefully put aside. Simon 2 is just like its predecessor a painfully difficult game (at least in certain locations). You will find yourself cursing this idiotic sorcerer quite a few times. Thankfully, most characters in the game can provide you critical information on what the hell to do next. Most puzzles in Simon 2 are not as difficult as the first one, but not easy at all.
+
+Thankfully, Adventure Soft got rid of the strange minor changes to the classic SCUMM engine controls. I'm of course talking about the in-game actions you could perform in Simon the Sorcerer 1: Wear, Consume and those keywords. Simon 1 tried to separate itself from other well-known Lucas Arts adventure games by changing those keywords but this had a reversed effect. Most keywords could be simply replaced by Use anyway. But not to worry, this all has been gone and forgotten, and replaced by mostly clearly pictured icons. Talk is of course the mouth icon, but the first few hours you'll be wondering what the heck the Hat icon is about.
+
+### I'm a changed man. Or wait, am I?
+
+Nothing really worthwile has changed in Simon the Sorcerer 2, except for a completely new story line. The graphics are still colorful quirky sprites - which is a good thing - and the music still consists of excellent made tracks. I can't really place it but the sound track can be seen as good and bad. Good because it gives you a nice distinct feeling and the tunes fit in every scene. Bad because they get repetitive after a while (thus not very long). If you manage to breeze through the game in no-time, the sound track will still manage to create a couple of tune memories.
+
+The humoristic approach is not new either, but that does not matter: after the first game, you're left with a big ugly dark hole which screams I want more!. Simon the Sorcerer is a classic point and click adventure game, but also is not. It may look like an excellent child entertainer but it really is not, the insiders and funny reference stabs are the biggest part of the game. The only bad part about Simon can be applied to other adventure games too: it is sometimes inevitable to perform a full screen scan in order to grab all the stuff you'll need.
+
+### Conclusion
+
+Simon the Sorcerer 2 is an excellent follow-up to an excellent adventure game with excellent humor and excellent puzzles. The only downside, compared to the first game, might be the voice acting of Simon himself - the original voice actor has been replaced. You'd expect Simon's voice to be witty and charming since Simon 2 should be a more a grown-up version of Simon 1. After all, it has been quite a few years for Simon to hit the computer screens and puberty can be an ugly thing. But instead, you've given the same teenage wannabe sorcerer with a snidey and whiney voice. Can't beat them all, can you...
+For the record: Simon the Sorcerer 1 is unable to produce subtitles and voice acting at once - it's either the lovely voice or the stupid text. For us non-Brittains this can be a pain in the ass, some sentences are difficult to understand. Simon the Sorcerer 2 does feature both, luckily.

content/articles/test.md

@@ -1,39 +0,0 @@
-+++
-showonlyimage = false
-draft = false
-imageActive = "gif/warioland3.gif"
-image = "gif/warioland3_still.gif"
-date = "2016-11-05T18:25:22+05:30"
-title = "Example game"
-subtitle = "sup sup"
-tags = ['Wario Land']
-game_name = 'Wario Land 3'
-game_platform = 'gbc'
-game_genre = '2D Platformer'
-game_release_year = '2001'
-game_developer = 'Nintendo RD1'
-weight = 0
-+++
-
-Even the all-powerful Pointing has no control about the blind texts it is an almost unorthographic life. One day however a small line of blind text by the name of Lorem Ipsum decided to leave for the far World of Grammar.
-<!--more-->
-
-Far far away, behind the word mountains, far from the countries Vokalia and Consonantia, there live the blind texts. Separated they live in Bookmarksgrove right at the coast of the Semantics, a large language ocean.
-
-A small river named Duden flows by their place and supplies it with the necessary regelialia. It is a paradisematic country, in which roasted parts of sentences fly into your mouth.
-
-1. Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetuer adipiscing elit.
-2. Aliquam tincidunt mauris eu risus.
-
-> The Big Oxmox advised her not to do so, because there were thousands of bad Commas, wild Question Marks and devious Semikoli, but the Little Blind Text didn't listen. She packed her seven versalia, put her initial into the belt and made herself on the way.
-
-## Header Level 2
-
-Even the all-powerful Pointing has no control about the blind texts it is an almost unorthographic life One day however a small line of blind text by the name of Lorem Ipsum decided to leave for the far World of Grammar.
-
-The Big Oxmox advised her not to do so, because there were thousands of bad Commas, wild Question Marks and devious Semikoli, but the Little Blind Text didn't listen. She packed her seven versalia, put her initial into the belt and made herself on the way.
-
-* Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetuer adipiscing elit.
-* Aliquam tincidunt mauris eu risus.
-
-When she reached the first hills of the Italic Mountains, she had a last view back on the skyline of her hometown Bookmarksgrove, the headline of Alphabet Village and the subline of her own road, the Line Lane. Pityful a rethoric question ran over her cheek, then  

content/articles/test2.md

@@ -1,39 +0,0 @@
-+++
-showonlyimage = false
-draft = false
-imageActive = "gif/warioland3.gif"
-image = "gif/warioland3_still.gif"
-date = "2016-11-05T18:25:22+05:30"
-title = "Example game 2"
-subtitle = "sup sup yoo"
-tags = ['Wario Land']
-game_name = 'Wario Land 3'
-game_platform = 'gb'
-game_genre = '2D Platformer'
-game_release_year = '2001'
-game_developer = 'Nintendo RD1'
-weight = 0
-+++
-
-Even the all-powerful Pointing has no control about the blind texts it is an almost unorthographic life. One day however a small line of blind text by the name of Lorem Ipsum decided to leave for the far World of Grammar.
-<!--more-->
-
-Far far away, behind the word mountains, far from the countries Vokalia and Consonantia, there live the blind texts. Separated they live in Bookmarksgrove right at the coast of the Semantics, a large language ocean.
-
-A small river named Duden flows by their place and supplies it with the necessary regelialia. It is a paradisematic country, in which roasted parts of sentences fly into your mouth.
-
-1. Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetuer adipiscing elit.
-2. Aliquam tincidunt mauris eu risus.
-
-> The Big Oxmox advised her not to do so, because there were thousands of bad Commas, wild Question Marks and devious Semikoli, but the Little Blind Text didn't listen. She packed her seven versalia, put her initial into the belt and made herself on the way.
-
-## Header Level 2
-
-Even the all-powerful Pointing has no control about the blind texts it is an almost unorthographic life One day however a small line of blind text by the name of Lorem Ipsum decided to leave for the far World of Grammar.
-
-The Big Oxmox advised her not to do so, because there were thousands of bad Commas, wild Question Marks and devious Semikoli, but the Little Blind Text didn't listen. She packed her seven versalia, put her initial into the belt and made herself on the way.
-
-* Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetuer adipiscing elit.
-* Aliquam tincidunt mauris eu risus.
-
-When she reached the first hills of the Italic Mountains, she had a last view back on the skyline of her hometown Bookmarksgrove, the headline of Alphabet Village and the subline of her own road, the Line Lane. Pityful a rethoric question ran over her cheek, then  

content/articles/the-hype-train.md

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++++
+showonlyimage = false
+draft = false
+image = "/img/games/BaldursGate2/logo.jpg"
+date = "2007-03-30"
+title = "The Hype Train"
+tags = ['hype train', 'Oblivion', 'Black and White', 'Fallout 3', 'Might and Magic', 'Deus Ex']
+weight = 0
++++
+
+<img src="/img/articles/HypeTrain.jpg"/>
+
+I'm pretty sure most of you know the feeling. A new game has been recently announced, maybe with some additional gameplay footage or early concept art. You knew from that point on, the game had to be great, no mistake made. A couple of logical reasons could possibly be:
+
+- The title is a sequel to your favourite game all time
+- The title comes from a well known and loved development studio
+- Both title and studio are completely new or unknown, but the genre is to your liking
+- None of the above apply. Instead the game has been aggressively hyped by the publisher and media
+
+Years pass. Every single released or leaked screenshot freaks you (and mostly the media too) out, wanting to play the damned thing more and more. You forward all released media to your friends, and help them aboard the hype train. Everyone is happy, because everyone simply knows the game has to be great. Right? Right!
+
+Until the game, demo or beta has been released. Wow what happened? Turns out all promised features proved to be false, your favourite mechanics from previous games have been left behind, the game doesn't nearly look as good as on the tasty press screenshots, some core features are in need of repair, the game is unplayable due to bugs, ... (I could go on for a few hours, you know.) 
+BAM! No more fuel/electricity for the train, everybody out! Game critics still give the released product positive points because they don't see what a hard-core fan sees or because the publisher has simply too much money. Promoted by 'accessibility', the game gets high scores and sells really well (hello Oblivion). Or the company goes bankrupt. And you're doomed forever.
+Below a short list of games which couldn't live up to their hype. More will be added soon!
+
+<img src="/img/articles/HypeTrain_ES4.jpg"/>
+
+### Mixed Feelings
+
+Typical examples of those games are Bethesda's Oblivion and Lionhead's Fable. Both games are said to be deep, complex Roleplaying games, but none of those statements turned out to be true. Both games sold enormously well because the core principles of the gameplay had been turned down to attract a new potential market, instead of a subset of gamers (the Roleplaying fans themselves). In Oblivion, a simple compass marker points to your next quest destination. You can instant-teleport to set locations and NPC interaction has been kept extremely basic. While this significantly improves accessibililty, it completely destroys all great Roleplaying ideas behind the Elder Scrolls 2 and in lesser degree 3. The result? angry fans who love to spam on Bethesda's forums. Watch out, Fallout 3!
+
+Lionhead loves to hype games. The whole company success rates are based on publishing enough hype to sell games. While most games incorporate great ideas, the implementation and end results are mostly lacking. Black & White and in lesser degree The Movies were both hyped like no other game. The result? Mixed feelings, but overall well received feedback by professional game critics. Many promised features and ideas have been cut from the game, same story for Fable. Fable 2's hyping has already started (wow you can interact with the system via your dog! Check this out neighbour!), let's hope they manage to actually pull things off right this time.
+
+Honorable mentions to the latest Need for Speed games and even FIFA. I have no idea why EA Sports games are still the #1 selling games (for consoles mostly) in America. Every year a new revision gets released, and every year features come and go. Sometimes fans enjoy a breathe of fresh air, but most expert football players are used to some mechanics EA can't simply drop. Most used-to-play-FIFA gamers I know are now playing Pro Evolution Soccer. If it ain't broke, don't fix it, right. Icewind Dale also sold relatively OK (not that good, but still) and the game was for some of us a letdown after the amazing Baldur's Gate II. Of course because both games use the same engine and D&D ruleset, we automatically get excited way too much for our own good.
+
+<img src="/img/articles/HypeTrain_BW.jpg"/>
+
+### Games who crash & Burn
+
+Simply too many games to list... But a few ones worth mentioning, starting with Lionheart. A Roleplaying game overly hyped because it was said to have mixes of Diablo, Fallout and Baldur's Gate. Even listing these kind of games generates enough hype to chew on for years. Besides, a roleplaying game which took place during the Spanish inquisition, that's original, right? It burned, really really fast. A lot of things went wrong here: lacking music (what, only one background tune?), too static and low contrast scenes, ridiculously difficult gameplay and 3 irritating spirits, overly powered or underly powered spell/skill set, ... Lionheart is another reason why we don't see Black Isle making any games anymore.
+
+Perhaps a bigger and better example: Might & Magic IX. After being disappointed with VIII: Day of the Destroyer (after all, it used the same engine and basically recycled everything from VII and VI), IX did bring a whole arsenary of new features and stuff to do. Too much radical changes, yes! The Lichtech engine suits FPS games, but not First person RPG games. The controls were horribly broken, the awesome paperdoll system from previous games diappeared and it "featured" nothing but bugs. Honestly, this isn't New World Computings' fault as they merely had time to finish the game. The publisher wanted it released and quick (guess what? Money troubles). The result: a big failure.
+
+Other games, based on their predecessor but going into a different direction quickly vanished after the release. Some games didn't even get reviews! Or were just put into the fridge. Rollercoaster Tycoon 3D failed thanks to it's switch from 2D to 3D. The camera angle was a beast, and the charming interface radically changed. Commandos: Strike Force wasn't even hyped after the lackluster Commandos 3 game. Oh come on Pyro Studios, making an FPS out of that genre? Like there aren't already enough below-average WWII shooters...
+
+<img src="/img/articles/HypeTrain_MM9.jpg"/>
+
+### Overly Hyped, now dead games
+
+MMO (Roleplaying) games usually suffer from a quick and painful death after a few years of investment from the players' and developers' side. Asheron's Call 2 isn't even supported anymore by Turbine. There are so many MMO games hitting the market today, and so many below average. Publishers think it's a good way of extra income, those monthly fees. Until they realise most features and concepts are broken, patches aren't coming fast enough and server capacity is rising. Star Wars: Galaxies knew extra hype thanks to it's George Lucas license. Who doesn't want to wander around in a big world built by a SW community? Sony's Everquest 2 has more luck, but still doesn't live up to it's predecessor.
+
+What Massively Multiplayer game does not fail nowadays, except Blizzard's World of Warcraft? The recently released Lord of the Rings Online (guess what, by Turbine) receives overall good response, but far from amazing. My guess is the game will drown into the ever growing barrel of MMO's in the near future. Shadowbane is freely playable now, and some games didn't even see any daylight at all. How about that.
+
+Even the sequel to one of the best FPS/RPG blends of all time turned out to be a waste of time. Deus Ex 2 featured... well, nothing the original game has. The creative skill development system, the bio mod system, the wide variety of gameplay possibilities - were all gone. Oh and say hello to a super buggy graphics engine: it features dynamic lightning! You won't need anything more, right? Technically speaking, critical response by professionals was still more good than bad. Only fans were more than disappointed. I guess this makes Deus Ex 2 a candidate to put into the first few alinea's of this article too.
+
+<img src="/img/articles/HypeTrain_SWG.jpg"/>

content/articles/zeus-review.md

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++++
+showonlyimage = false
+draft = false
+image = "/img/games/BaldursGate2/logo.jpg"
+date = "2007-03-30"
+title = "Zeus Review"
+tags = ['Zeus', 'Emperor']
+weight = 0
++++
+
+<img src="/img/Guides/Zeus.jpg"/>
+
+Argh, my temple, all messed up! Poseidon likes to destroy all buildings I carefully planted down on the coast line because he's cranky in the morning. Acually I did not do him a favour in the past few years and instead joined forces with one of the other major Greek Gods. What choice would you make? A couple of free superman-like heroes fighting side by side with your gaint army, or a couple of free boats to roam and rule the sea? Before we move on I should really collect more taxes. Thank you rich people! - oh, I heard a reply: "No, thank you - ruler of this wonderful wealthy city!"
+Yes, I'm getting hooked. All hooked up. Zeus: Master of Olympus is in fact the fifth time something like this happened - thanks a lot Impressions Games! Is this sad coincidence this company also had to close due to bad sell records? 
+Without further delays, let's head straight into the building fest, because Zeus is (subjectively) simply the best city building game to date.
+
+### The basics: Building a City.
+
+<img src="/img/games/Zeus/screens/kapot.jpg"/>
+<center>God, I hate Gods! Look at this mess!</center>
+
+The basic concept exists as said before longer than the day Zeus: Master of Olympus saw the green light. Successfully build up a large city, create an army to protect and empower yourself, give residents enough food and other supplies, erupt wars between neighbour cities or try to haggle with them, ... There are so many possibilities to finish a mission (or sandbox mode), but let's start with the ultimate beginning. How is this game actually played?
+The start is quite simple: "Reserve" equally big land pieces for potential inhabitants to create their home. To do this, you'll have to place a house mockup selected from the right side build menu on a piece of empty land (no rocks, stones, whatever). Every house (or future house) should be accessible by basic needs: water and food and such. To ensure your water carriers stroll trough every part of your city you'll have to carefully lay well-placed roads. If you do this in a rectangular fasion and don't create a too wide distance between the facility (a market) and the destination (houses), the business people will automatically reach the houses and they will automatically buy what they need. You can also create road blocks to ensure some parts of town are unaccessible by those people, for instance the industry part.
+
+### The Revolution
+
+<img src="/img/games/Zeus/screens/centrum.jpg"/>
+<center>The center of a city can be quite busy.</center>
+
+When there's no water supplied to houses, the critical basic needs are not met. What does this actually mean? Your houses won't "upgrade", of course. And that is the ultimate point of creating and building a city: increasing the maximum upgrade capacity! No rich person will want to live in a poorly built house wich does not provide olive for instance. Inhabitants each have their own needs and they will increase once you upgrade the house structures a couple of times. For example, the second house upgrade requires a doctor access to further upgrade. After that, people will want to visit temples, or a theatre. There are numberous of possibilities to furfill the inhabitants needs. You can built a philosophers house or a theatre, they both satisfy the relaxation need. Of course at later stages the richest and stinkiest bastards will want them both. Argh!
+
+Keep in mind all those facilities have to be placed within the initially created road block circle, otherwise certain houses won't have access to your newly created buildings. The partial solution is to create two separate buildings, but that's going to cost you quite a bit more. Besides, on this point Zeus did not really change: food is made from various industry buildings like a hunters tent or a fishing quarry. Olive is made from olive trees and an olive press. These are all separate buildings wich should be placed somewhere out of town: the inhabitans do not like the industry smell at all and you will want to keep them happy to keep you happy and collect enough taxes to fund your future wars.
+
+### Weird guys, those Greeks?
+
+<img src="/img/games/Zeus/screens/stadium.jpg"/>
+<center>A stadium in the middle!</center>
+
+So what separates Zeus: Master of Olympus from all previous City Building games from Impressions? Good question. The easiest and best answer can be concluded from watching the screenshots: the Greek mythology setting of course. The whole game breathes a fancy Ancient Greek air. You will encounter friendly Gods and not-so-friendly ones (refer to the rude introduction I gave you. Sorry for that!). Gods will get attrackted to your city eventually once you've built enough temples devoted to them. For instance, Dyonisius requires a temple devoted to him and a yearly production of 20 wine bottles. Once you've got him so far to stroll among your streets, you can ask the God to aid you in your quest of vanquishing the enemy - or surviving yourself. 
+
+If you find yourself ever running low on wine, Dyonisius will kindly provide you with the goods when things get dirty. If you manage to please him, that is.
+Next to Gods, you can also call upon your favourite Ancient Greek heroes by building a little temple for them and furfilling certain requirements like build 5 boats or stock up 20 piles of marble. Once you win the favour of the hero, he will fight among your side during a skirmish or war, wich can be really helpful. Heroes also have the power to drive away angry Gods you displeased - call it an insurance if you wish, otherwise the God will destroy buildings like mad untill you chased him away or pleased him. Heroes also increase the morale of your own army troops of course.
+
+### Demanding 10 Ton Marble.
+
+<img src="/img/games/Zeus/screens/industrie.jpg"/>
+<center>The growing Marble Industry zone.</center>
+
+What else can you achieve in Zeus? Why, ruling the import/export business of course. Once you've set up a growing industry zone, like marble, and you keep mining the expensive raw material even if your people have no need for it. Build a couple of storage spaces and try to get one of your neighbour (or daughter!) cities to trade for it. Certain materials can really slide the game balance. At least, as long as they are interested in trading and keep it that way: once a city is at war he will not want to continue trading or buying your goods and you'll have to find other ways to earn hard cash.
+
+Yes, you can build colonies. No, you cannot explicitly build them, the main campagin leads you towards building it, you cannot do this in multiplayer mode or sandbox mode. Once the campaign instructs you to build a daughter city, you can pay yearly tribute to your main city by sending them a gift every year, like 10 piles of wood. The whole point of building a colony is of course being able to get your hands on goods you couldn't get before. Besides, there is no multiplayer option present anywhere! That's too bad, since the sequel, Emperor, is quite satisfying, haggling with your friends about certain goods.
+
+### Conclusion
+
+Citybuilding. Is it something you like or is it something you dispite? Eighter way, you will be able to appreciate the Ancient Greek mythology after a while. Sadly there is no multiplayer option available; if you are looking for this, check out the Zeus sequel: Emperor, set in Ancient Chine, also made by City Building Gods Impressions.

content/tags/_index.md

@@ -1,3 +1,4 @@
 <img src="/img/logo.png"/>
 
-blabla tags
+### Codex Appendix
+

docs/404.html

@@ -71,6 +71,18 @@
           </li>
       
         
+          <li>
+            <a href="/articles/early-shooter-clones/">Early Shooter Clones</a>&nbsp;
+            <span class="sidebar-date">(03/2007)</span>
+          </li>
+      
+        
+          <li>
+            <a href="/articles/castlevania-portrait-of-ruin-review/">Castlevania Portrait of Ruin Review</a>&nbsp;
+            <span class="sidebar-date">(03/2007)</span>
+          </li>
+      
+        
           <li>
             <a href="/articles/captian-claw-review/">Captain Claw Review</a>&nbsp;
             <span class="sidebar-date">(03/2007)</span>
@@ -165,7 +177,7 @@
       
         <li><a href="https://jefklakscodex.com/articles/">Articles Index</a></li>
       
-        <li><a href="https://jefklakscodex.com/tags/">Games Index</a></li>
+        <li><a href="https://jefklakscodex.com/tags/">Appendix</a></li>
       
         <li><a href="https://jefklakscodex.com/about/">About the Codex</a></li>
       

docs/about/index.html

@@ -71,6 +71,18 @@
           </li>
       
         
+          <li>
+            <a href="/articles/early-shooter-clones/">Early Shooter Clones</a>&nbsp;
+            <span class="sidebar-date">(03/2007)</span>
+          </li>
+      
+        
+          <li>
+            <a href="/articles/castlevania-portrait-of-ruin-review/">Castlevania Portrait of Ruin Review</a>&nbsp;
+            <span class="sidebar-date">(03/2007)</span>
+          </li>
+      
+        
           <li>
             <a href="/articles/captian-claw-review/">Captain Claw Review</a>&nbsp;
             <span class="sidebar-date">(03/2007)</span>
@@ -165,7 +177,7 @@
       
         <li><a href="https://jefklakscodex.com/articles/">Articles Index</a></li>
       
-        <li><a href="https://jefklakscodex.com/tags/">Games Index</a></li>
+        <li><a href="https://jefklakscodex.com/tags/">Appendix</a></li>
       
         <li><a href="https://jefklakscodex.com/about/">About the Codex</a></li>
       

docs/articles/animalcrossing-wildworld/index.html

@@ -71,6 +71,18 @@
           </li>
       
         
+          <li>
+            <a href="/articles/early-shooter-clones/">Early Shooter Clones</a>&nbsp;
+            <span class="sidebar-date">(03/2007)</span>
+          </li>
+      
+        
+          <li>
+            <a href="/articles/castlevania-portrait-of-ruin-review/">Castlevania Portrait of Ruin Review</a>&nbsp;
+            <span class="sidebar-date">(03/2007)</span>
+          </li>
+      
+        
           <li>
             <a href="/articles/captian-claw-review/">Captain Claw Review</a>&nbsp;
             <span class="sidebar-date">(03/2007)</span>
@@ -165,7 +177,7 @@
       
         <li><a href="https://jefklakscodex.com/articles/">Articles Index</a></li>
       
-        <li><a href="https://jefklakscodex.com/tags/">Games Index</a></li>
+        <li><a href="https://jefklakscodex.com/tags/">Appendix</a></li>
       
         <li><a href="https://jefklakscodex.com/about/">About the Codex</a></li>
       

docs/articles/apogees-legacy/index.html

@@ -71,6 +71,18 @@
           </li>
       
         
+          <li>
+            <a href="/articles/early-shooter-clones/">Early Shooter Clones</a>&nbsp;
+            <span class="sidebar-date">(03/2007)</span>
+          </li>
+      
+        
+          <li>
+            <a href="/articles/castlevania-portrait-of-ruin-review/">Castlevania Portrait of Ruin Review</a>&nbsp;
+            <span class="sidebar-date">(03/2007)</span>
+          </li>
+      
+        
           <li>
             <a href="/articles/captian-claw-review/">Captain Claw Review</a>&nbsp;
             <span class="sidebar-date">(03/2007)</span>
@@ -165,7 +177,7 @@
       
         <li><a href="https://jefklakscodex.com/articles/">Articles Index</a></li>
       
-        <li><a href="https://jefklakscodex.com/tags/">Games Index</a></li>
+        <li><a href="https://jefklakscodex.com/tags/">Appendix</a></li>
       
         <li><a href="https://jefklakscodex.com/about/">About the Codex</a></li>
       

docs/articles/arcanum-gunslinger/index.html

@@ -71,6 +71,18 @@
           </li>
       
         
+          <li>
+            <a href="/articles/early-shooter-clones/">Early Shooter Clones</a>&nbsp;
+            <span class="sidebar-date">(03/2007)</span>
+          </li>
+      
+        
+          <li>
+            <a href="/articles/castlevania-portrait-of-ruin-review/">Castlevania Portrait of Ruin Review</a>&nbsp;
+            <span class="sidebar-date">(03/2007)</span>
+          </li>
+      
+        
           <li>
             <a href="/articles/captian-claw-review/">Captain Claw Review</a>&nbsp;
             <span class="sidebar-date">(03/2007)</span>
@@ -165,7 +177,7 @@
       
         <li><a href="https://jefklakscodex.com/articles/">Articles Index</a></li>
       
-        <li><a href="https://jefklakscodex.com/tags/">Games Index</a></li>
+        <li><a href="https://jefklakscodex.com/tags/">Appendix</a></li>
       
         <li><a href="https://jefklakscodex.com/about/">About the Codex</a></li>
       

docs/articles/arcanum-magick-vs-tech/index.html

@@ -71,6 +71,18 @@
           </li>
       
         
+          <li>
+            <a href="/articles/early-shooter-clones/">Early Shooter Clones</a>&nbsp;
+            <span class="sidebar-date">(03/2007)</span>
+          </li>
+      
+        
+          <li>
+            <a href="/articles/castlevania-portrait-of-ruin-review/">Castlevania Portrait of Ruin Review</a>&nbsp;
+            <span class="sidebar-date">(03/2007)</span>
+          </li>
+      
+        
           <li>
             <a href="/articles/captian-claw-review/">Captain Claw Review</a>&nbsp;
             <span class="sidebar-date">(03/2007)</span>
@@ -165,7 +177,7 @@
       
         <li><a href="https://jefklakscodex.com/articles/">Articles Index</a></li>
       
-        <li><a href="https://jefklakscodex.com/tags/">Games Index</a></li>
+        <li><a href="https://jefklakscodex.com/tags/">Appendix</a></li>
       
         <li><a href="https://jefklakscodex.com/about/">About the Codex</a></li>
       

docs/articles/arcanum-parties/index.html

@@ -71,6 +71,18 @@
           </li>
       
         
+          <li>
+            <a href="/articles/early-shooter-clones/">Early Shooter Clones</a>&nbsp;
+            <span class="sidebar-date">(03/2007)</span>
+          </li>
+      
+        
+          <li>
+            <a href="/articles/castlevania-portrait-of-ruin-review/">Castlevania Portrait of Ruin Review</a>&nbsp;
+            <span class="sidebar-date">(03/2007)</span>
+          </li>
+      
+        
           <li>
             <a href="/articles/captian-claw-review/">Captain Claw Review</a>&nbsp;
             <span class="sidebar-date">(03/2007)</span>
@@ -165,7 +177,7 @@
       
         <li><a href="https://jefklakscodex.com/articles/">Articles Index</a></li>
       
-        <li><a href="https://jefklakscodex.com/tags/">Games Index</a></li>
+        <li><a href="https://jefklakscodex.com/tags/">Appendix</a></li>
       
         <li><a href="https://jefklakscodex.com/about/">About the Codex</a></li>
       

docs/articles/arcanum-review/index.html

@@ -71,6 +71,18 @@
           </li>
       
         
+          <li>
+            <a href="/articles/early-shooter-clones/">Early Shooter Clones</a>&nbsp;
+            <span class="sidebar-date">(03/2007)</span>
+          </li>
+      
+        
+          <li>
+            <a href="/articles/castlevania-portrait-of-ruin-review/">Castlevania Portrait of Ruin Review</a>&nbsp;
+            <span class="sidebar-date">(03/2007)</span>
+          </li>
+      
+        
           <li>
             <a href="/articles/captian-claw-review/">Captain Claw Review</a>&nbsp;
             <span class="sidebar-date">(03/2007)</span>
@@ -165,7 +177,7 @@
       
         <li><a href="https://jefklakscodex.com/articles/">Articles Index</a></li>
       
-        <li><a href="https://jefklakscodex.com/tags/">Games Index</a></li>
+        <li><a href="https://jefklakscodex.com/tags/">Appendix</a></li>
       
         <li><a href="https://jefklakscodex.com/about/">About the Codex</a></li>
       

docs/articles/arxfatalis-review/index.html

@@ -71,6 +71,18 @@
           </li>
       
         
+          <li>
+            <a href="/articles/early-shooter-clones/">Early Shooter Clones</a>&nbsp;
+            <span class="sidebar-date">(03/2007)</span>
+          </li>
+      
+        
+          <li>
+            <a href="/articles/castlevania-portrait-of-ruin-review/">Castlevania Portrait of Ruin Review</a>&nbsp;
+            <span class="sidebar-date">(03/2007)</span>
+          </li>
+      
+        
           <li>
             <a href="/articles/captian-claw-review/">Captain Claw Review</a>&nbsp;
             <span class="sidebar-date">(03/2007)</span>
@@ -165,7 +177,7 @@
       
         <li><a href="https://jefklakscodex.com/articles/">Articles Index</a></li>
       
-        <li><a href="https://jefklakscodex.com/tags/">Games Index</a></li>
+        <li><a href="https://jefklakscodex.com/tags/">Appendix</a></li>
       
         <li><a href="https://jefklakscodex.com/about/">About the Codex</a></li>
       

docs/articles/bg2-magetalk/index.html

@@ -71,6 +71,18 @@
           </li>
       
         
+          <li>
+            <a href="/articles/early-shooter-clones/">Early Shooter Clones</a>&nbsp;
+            <span class="sidebar-date">(03/2007)</span>
+          </li>
+      
+        
+          <li>
+            <a href="/articles/castlevania-portrait-of-ruin-review/">Castlevania Portrait of Ruin Review</a>&nbsp;
+            <span class="sidebar-date">(03/2007)</span>
+          </li>
+      
+        
           <li>
             <a href="/articles/captian-claw-review/">Captain Claw Review</a>&nbsp;
             <span class="sidebar-date">(03/2007)</span>
@@ -165,7 +177,7 @@
       
         <li><a href="https://jefklakscodex.com/articles/">Articles Index</a></li>
       
-        <li><a href="https://jefklakscodex.com/tags/">Games Index</a></li>
+        <li><a href="https://jefklakscodex.com/tags/">Appendix</a></li>
       
         <li><a href="https://jefklakscodex.com/about/">About the Codex</a></li>
       
@@ -209,6 +221,13 @@
         
           
                         
+          <li>
+            <a href="/articles/early-shooter-clones/">Early Shooter Clones</a>&nbsp;
+            <span class="sidebar-date">(30 March)</span>
+          </li>
+        
+          
+                        
           <li>
             <a href="/articles/bg2-spellprotection/">Baldur&#39;s Gate 2: Spell Protection</a>&nbsp;
             <span class="sidebar-date">(30 March)</span>
@@ -221,13 +240,6 @@
             <span class="sidebar-date">(30 March)</span>
           </li>
         
-          
-                        
-          <li>
-            <a href="/articles/bg2-mods/">BG2/Infinity Engine Mods</a>&nbsp;
-            <span class="sidebar-date">(30 March)</span>
-          </li>
-        
       </ul>
 
     

docs/articles/bg2-mods/index.html

@@ -71,6 +71,18 @@
           </li>
       
         
+          <li>
+            <a href="/articles/early-shooter-clones/">Early Shooter Clones</a>&nbsp;
+            <span class="sidebar-date">(03/2007)</span>
+          </li>
+      
+        
+          <li>
+            <a href="/articles/castlevania-portrait-of-ruin-review/">Castlevania Portrait of Ruin Review</a>&nbsp;
+            <span class="sidebar-date">(03/2007)</span>
+          </li>
+      
+        
           <li>
             <a href="/articles/captian-claw-review/">Captain Claw Review</a>&nbsp;
             <span class="sidebar-date">(03/2007)</span>
@@ -165,7 +177,7 @@
       
         <li><a href="https://jefklakscodex.com/articles/">Articles Index</a></li>
       
-        <li><a href="https://jefklakscodex.com/tags/">Games Index</a></li>
+        <li><a href="https://jefklakscodex.com/tags/">Appendix</a></li>
       
         <li><a href="https://jefklakscodex.com/about/">About the Codex</a></li>
       
@@ -209,6 +221,13 @@
         
           
                         
+          <li>
+            <a href="/articles/early-shooter-clones/">Early Shooter Clones</a>&nbsp;
+            <span class="sidebar-date">(30 March)</span>
+          </li>
+        
+          
+                        
           <li>
             <a href="/articles/bg2-spellprotection/">Baldur&#39;s Gate 2: Spell Protection</a>&nbsp;
             <span class="sidebar-date">(30 March)</span>
@@ -221,13 +240,6 @@
             <span class="sidebar-date">(30 March)</span>
           </li>
         
-          
-                        
-          <li>
-            <a href="/articles/bg2-magetalk/">Baldur&#39;s Gate 2: Mage Talk</a>&nbsp;
-            <span class="sidebar-date">(30 March)</span>
-          </li>
-        
       </ul>
 
     

docs/articles/bg2-parties/index.html

@@ -71,6 +71,18 @@
           </li>
       
         
+          <li>
+            <a href="/articles/early-shooter-clones/">Early Shooter Clones</a>&nbsp;
+            <span class="sidebar-date">(03/2007)</span>
+          </li>
+      
+        
+          <li>
+            <a href="/articles/castlevania-portrait-of-ruin-review/">Castlevania Portrait of Ruin Review</a>&nbsp;
+            <span class="sidebar-date">(03/2007)</span>
+          </li>
+      
+        
           <li>
             <a href="/articles/captian-claw-review/">Captain Claw Review</a>&nbsp;
             <span class="sidebar-date">(03/2007)</span>
@@ -165,7 +177,7 @@
       
         <li><a href="https://jefklakscodex.com/articles/">Articles Index</a></li>
       
-        <li><a href="https://jefklakscodex.com/tags/">Games Index</a></li>
+        <li><a href="https://jefklakscodex.com/tags/">Appendix</a></li>
       
         <li><a href="https://jefklakscodex.com/about/">About the Codex</a></li>
       
@@ -209,6 +221,13 @@
         
           
                         
+          <li>
+            <a href="/articles/early-shooter-clones/">Early Shooter Clones</a>&nbsp;
+            <span class="sidebar-date">(30 March)</span>
+          </li>
+        
+          
+                        
           <li>
             <a href="/articles/bg2-spellprotection/">Baldur&#39;s Gate 2: Spell Protection</a>&nbsp;
             <span class="sidebar-date">(30 March)</span>
@@ -221,13 +240,6 @@
             <span class="sidebar-date">(30 March)</span>
           </li>
         
-          
-                        
-          <li>
-            <a href="/articles/bg2-mods/">BG2/Infinity Engine Mods</a>&nbsp;
-            <span class="sidebar-date">(30 March)</span>
-          </li>
-        
       </ul>
 
     

docs/articles/bg2-solo-blade/index.html

@@ -71,6 +71,18 @@
           </li>
       
         
+          <li>
+            <a href="/articles/early-shooter-clones/">Early Shooter Clones</a>&nbsp;
+            <span class="sidebar-date">(03/2007)</span>
+          </li>
+      
+        
+          <li>
+            <a href="/articles/castlevania-portrait-of-ruin-review/">Castlevania Portrait of Ruin Review</a>&nbsp;
+            <span class="sidebar-date">(03/2007)</span>
+          </li>
+      
+        
           <li>
             <a href="/articles/captian-claw-review/">Captain Claw Review</a>&nbsp;
             <span class="sidebar-date">(03/2007)</span>
@@ -165,7 +177,7 @@
       
         <li><a href="https://jefklakscodex.com/articles/">Articles Index</a></li>
       
-        <li><a href="https://jefklakscodex.com/tags/">Games Index</a></li>
+        <li><a href="https://jefklakscodex.com/tags/">Appendix</a></li>
       
         <li><a href="https://jefklakscodex.com/about/">About the Codex</a></li>
       
@@ -209,6 +221,13 @@
         
           
                         
+          <li>
+            <a href="/articles/early-shooter-clones/">Early Shooter Clones</a>&nbsp;
+            <span class="sidebar-date">(30 March)</span>
+          </li>
+        
+          
+                        
           <li>
             <a href="/articles/bg2-spellprotection/">Baldur&#39;s Gate 2: Spell Protection</a>&nbsp;
             <span class="sidebar-date">(30 March)</span>
@@ -221,13 +240,6 @@
             <span class="sidebar-date">(30 March)</span>
           </li>
         
-          
-                        
-          <li>
-            <a href="/articles/bg2-magetalk/">Baldur&#39;s Gate 2: Mage Talk</a>&nbsp;
-            <span class="sidebar-date">(30 March)</span>
-          </li>
-        
       </ul>
 
     

docs/articles/bg2-spellprotection/index.html

@@ -71,6 +71,18 @@
           </li>
       
         
+          <li>
+            <a href="/articles/early-shooter-clones/">Early Shooter Clones</a>&nbsp;
+            <span class="sidebar-date">(03/2007)</span>
+          </li>
+      
+        
+          <li>
+            <a href="/articles/castlevania-portrait-of-ruin-review/">Castlevania Portrait of Ruin Review</a>&nbsp;
+            <span class="sidebar-date">(03/2007)</span>
+          </li>
+      
+        
           <li>
             <a href="/articles/captian-claw-review/">Captain Claw Review</a>&nbsp;
             <span class="sidebar-date">(03/2007)</span>
@@ -165,7 +177,7 @@
       
         <li><a href="https://jefklakscodex.com/articles/">Articles Index</a></li>
       
-        <li><a href="https://jefklakscodex.com/tags/">Games Index</a></li>
+        <li><a href="https://jefklakscodex.com/tags/">Appendix</a></li>
       
         <li><a href="https://jefklakscodex.com/about/">About the Codex</a></li>
       
@@ -209,6 +221,13 @@
         
           
                         
+          <li>
+            <a href="/articles/early-shooter-clones/">Early Shooter Clones</a>&nbsp;
+            <span class="sidebar-date">(30 March)</span>
+          </li>
+        
+          
+                        
           <li>
             <a href="/articles/bg2-parties/">Baldur&#39;s Gate 2: Parties</a>&nbsp;
             <span class="sidebar-date">(30 March)</span>
@@ -221,13 +240,6 @@
             <span class="sidebar-date">(30 March)</span>
           </li>
         
-          
-                        
-          <li>
-            <a href="/articles/bg2-mods/">BG2/Infinity Engine Mods</a>&nbsp;
-            <span class="sidebar-date">(30 March)</span>
-          </li>
-        
       </ul>
 
     

docs/articles/bugs-are-features/index.html

@@ -71,6 +71,18 @@
           </li>
       
         
+          <li>
+            <a href="/articles/early-shooter-clones/">Early Shooter Clones</a>&nbsp;
+            <span class="sidebar-date">(03/2007)</span>
+          </li>
+      
+        
+          <li>
+            <a href="/articles/castlevania-portrait-of-ruin-review/">Castlevania Portrait of Ruin Review</a>&nbsp;
+            <span class="sidebar-date">(03/2007)</span>
+          </li>
+      
+        
           <li>
             <a href="/articles/captian-claw-review/">Captain Claw Review</a>&nbsp;
             <span class="sidebar-date">(03/2007)</span>
@@ -165,7 +177,7 @@
       
         <li><a href="https://jefklakscodex.com/articles/">Articles Index</a></li>
       
-        <li><a href="https://jefklakscodex.com/tags/">Games Index</a></li>
+        <li><a href="https://jefklakscodex.com/tags/">Appendix</a></li>
       
         <li><a href="https://jefklakscodex.com/about/">About the Codex</a></li>
       

docs/articles/captian-claw-review/index.html

@@ -71,6 +71,18 @@
           </li>
       
         
+          <li>
+            <a href="/articles/early-shooter-clones/">Early Shooter Clones</a>&nbsp;
+            <span class="sidebar-date">(03/2007)</span>
+          </li>
+      
+        
+          <li>
+            <a href="/articles/castlevania-portrait-of-ruin-review/">Castlevania Portrait of Ruin Review</a>&nbsp;
+            <span class="sidebar-date">(03/2007)</span>
+          </li>
+      
+        
           <li>
             <a href="/articles/captian-claw-review/">Captain Claw Review</a>&nbsp;
             <span class="sidebar-date">(03/2007)</span>
@@ -165,7 +177,7 @@
       
         <li><a href="https://jefklakscodex.com/articles/">Articles Index</a></li>
       
-        <li><a href="https://jefklakscodex.com/tags/">Games Index</a></li>
+        <li><a href="https://jefklakscodex.com/tags/">Appendix</a></li>
       
         <li><a href="https://jefklakscodex.com/about/">About the Codex</a></li>
       

docs/articles/castlevania-portrait-of-ruin-review/index.html

@@ -0,0 +1,301 @@
+<!DOCTYPE html>
+<html lang="en-us">
+<head><meta charset="utf-8">
+<meta http-equiv="X-UA-Compatible" content="IE=edge">
+<title>Castlevania Portrait of Ruin Review</title>
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+<meta name="robots" content="all,follow">
+<meta name="googlebot" content="index,follow,snippet,archive">
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+    <![endif]-->
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+    
+      <p class="sidebar-p">You’re looking at “The Codex”, a dedicated and highly opinionated website about nostalgic games that left a lasting impression on me.</p>
+    
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+      <span>Latest</span>
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+    </div>
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+    <ul class="sidebar-menu">
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+            <span class="sidebar-date">(11/2016)</span>
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+            <a href="/articles/test/">Example game</a>&nbsp;
+            <span class="sidebar-date">(11/2016)</span>
+          </li>
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+        
+          <li>
+            <a href="/articles/win-platforming/">Windows 2D Platforming</a>&nbsp;
+            <span class="sidebar-date">(03/2007)</span>
+          </li>
+      
+        
+          <li>
+            <a href="/articles/early-shooter-clones/">Early Shooter Clones</a>&nbsp;
+            <span class="sidebar-date">(03/2007)</span>
+          </li>
+      
+        
+          <li>
+            <a href="/articles/castlevania-portrait-of-ruin-review/">Castlevania Portrait of Ruin Review</a>&nbsp;
+            <span class="sidebar-date">(03/2007)</span>
+          </li>
+      
+        
+          <li>
+            <a href="/articles/captian-claw-review/">Captain Claw Review</a>&nbsp;
+            <span class="sidebar-date">(03/2007)</span>
+          </li>
+      
+        
+          <li>
+            <a href="/articles/bugs-are-features/">Bugs Are Features</a>&nbsp;
+            <span class="sidebar-date">(03/2007)</span>
+          </li>
+      
+        
+          <li>
+            <a href="/articles/bg2-spellprotection/">Baldur&#39;s Gate 2: Spell Protection</a>&nbsp;
+            <span class="sidebar-date">(03/2007)</span>
+          </li>
+      
+        
+          <li>
+            <a href="/articles/bg2-parties/">Baldur&#39;s Gate 2: Parties</a>&nbsp;
+            <span class="sidebar-date">(03/2007)</span>
+          </li>
+      
+        
+          <li>
+            <a href="/articles/bg2-magetalk/">Baldur&#39;s Gate 2: Mage Talk</a>&nbsp;
+            <span class="sidebar-date">(03/2007)</span>
+          </li>
+      
+        
+          <li>
+            <a href="/articles/bg2-mods/">BG2/Infinity Engine Mods</a>&nbsp;
+            <span class="sidebar-date">(03/2007)</span>
+          </li>
+      
+        
+          <li>
+            <a href="/articles/bg2-solo-blade/">BG2 Solo Blade: A Report</a>&nbsp;
+            <span class="sidebar-date">(03/2007)</span>
+          </li>
+      
+        
+          <li>
+            <a href="/articles/arxfatalis-review/">Arx Fatalis: the Review</a>&nbsp;
+            <span class="sidebar-date">(03/2007)</span>
+          </li>
+      
+        
+          <li>
+            <a href="/articles/arcanum-review/">Arcanum: the Review</a>&nbsp;
+            <span class="sidebar-date">(03/2007)</span>
+          </li>
+      
+        
+          <li>
+            <a href="/articles/arcanum-gunslinger/">Arcanum: the Gunslinger</a>&nbsp;
+            <span class="sidebar-date">(03/2007)</span>
+          </li>
+      
+        
+          <li>
+            <a href="/articles/arcanum-parties/">Arcanum: Party Seleciton</a>&nbsp;
+            <span class="sidebar-date">(03/2007)</span>
+          </li>
+      
+        
+          <li>
+            <a href="/articles/arcanum-magick-vs-tech/">Arcanum: Magick VS Tech</a>&nbsp;
+            <span class="sidebar-date">(03/2007)</span>
+          </li>
+      
+        
+          <li>
+            <a href="/articles/apogees-legacy/">Apogee&#39;s Legacy</a>&nbsp;
+            <span class="sidebar-date">(03/2007)</span>
+          </li>
+      
+        
+          <li>
+            <a href="/articles/animalcrossing-wildworld/">Animal Crossing: Wild World Adventure Blog</a>&nbsp;
+            <span class="sidebar-date">(10/2006)</span>
+          </li>
+      
+    </ul>
+    
+
+    <div class="sidebar-header">
+      <span>Browsing</span>
+      <img src="/img/gob_waypoint.gif"/>
+    </div>
+    <ul class="sidebar-menu">
+      
+        <li><a href="https://jefklakscodex.com/articles/">Articles Index</a></li>
+      
+        <li><a href="https://jefklakscodex.com/tags/">Appendix</a></li>
+      
+        <li><a href="https://jefklakscodex.com/about/">About the Codex</a></li>
+      
+    </ul>
+
+    
+      <hr/>
+      <div class="sidebar-game-info">
+        <div class="sidebar-header">&nbsp;&nbsp;
+          
+            <span>Game: Castlevania Portrait of Ruin</span>
+          
+        </div>
+
+        <p style="position: relative;">
+        <img src="https://jefklakscodex.com//img/games/por.jpg" alt="" class="img-responsive img-inactive" style="border: 1px solid black"/>
+        
+
+        
+          <img src="https://jefklakscodex.com//img/ds.png" alt="ds" class="sidebar-game-platform img-responsive"/>
+        
+        <br/>
+
+        
+          &nbsp;Genre: Metroidvania<br/>
+        
+        
+          &nbsp;Release year: 2006<br/>
+        
+        
+          &nbsp;Developer: Konami<br/>
+        
+        </p>
+      </div>
+      <hr/>
+    
+
+    
+    
+
+    
+
+
+    <div class="copyright">
+      <p class="credit">
+        
+          No &copy; reserved - sharing is caring. <a href='https://github.com/wgroeneveld/jefklakscodex' target='_blank'>Hack away!</a><br/>An integral part of <a href='https://brainbaking.com/' target='_blank'>Brain Baking</a>.
+        
+      </p>
+    </div>
+  </div>
+</div>
+
+
+              
+<div class="col-xs-12 col-sm-8 col-md-9 content-column white-background">
+  <div class="small-navbar visible-xs">
+  <button type="button" data-toggle="offcanvas" class="btn btn-ghost pull-left"> <i class="fa fa-align-left"> </i>Menu</button>
+  <h1 class="small-navbar-heading"><a href="https://jefklakscodex.com/">Jefklak&#39;s Codex</a></h1>
+</div>
+
+  <div class="row">
+    <div class="col-lg-8">
+      <div class="content-column-content">
+         <h1>Castlevania Portrait of Ruin Review</h1>
+         
+
+<p><img src="/img/Guides/CastlevaniaPoR.jpg"></p>
+
+<p>Castlevania games tend to pop up each year on Nintendo&rsquo;s Handheld platform. The last entries: Aria of Sorrow and Dawn of Sorrow, followed the story of Soma, who mysteriously inherited Dracula&rsquo;s dark abilities. Forget about all that, and the soul harvesting system. Portrait of Ruin is the spiritual successor of Castlevania Bloodlines on the SEGA MegaDrive/Genesis. Jonathan Morris is the son of Bloodlines&rsquo; whip-equipped hero. PoR takes place during or just after the second World War. Dracula&rsquo;s castle reappeared because of the many sacrificed souls during that era. Together with your childhood friend Charlotte, you&rsquo;ll have to explore the castle and beat Dracula, again!</p>
+
+<h3 id="character-switching">Character switching</h3>
+
+<p>Yes indeed, like the unlockable Julius mode in Dawn of Sorrow, you can now switch between characters (Jonathan or Charlotte). But instead of just switching to the person which suits your combat style, now the AI takes care of the non-active person. For instance, you can order Charlotte to cast a spell by pressing the R button if you are controlling Jonathan, and vice versa. Charlotte will automatically attack enemies and the AI does a pretty decent job at it too. Although sometimes she gets stuck but you don&rsquo;t have to worry about that since the non-active character teleports directly to you if the distance between both of you is too big.</p>
+
+<p>Using these two vampire hunters, Konami implemented a couple of little puzzles which can only be completed using them both. You can order one of them to &ldquo;standby&rdquo; instead of following. New orders are received through cubes like in Symphony of the Night and Harmony of Dissonance. Sadly these puzzles are more annoying than enjoyable, just like the ice blocks in Dawn of Sorrow. Speaking about those: there is no touch interaction, whatshowever. Which is good. The upper screen is still used as a map though. Many monsters make their return (of course there are new ones), mostly copied from Symphony of the Night. Most of them have been completely remodelled, which gives PoR a nice retro feeling. As said before, the soul hunting system has been replaced by a similar skill system: monsters drop either weapon or spell skills, usable by Jonathan and Charlotte respectively. Killing enough minions using these techniques allows you to &ldquo;master&rdquo; it and do more damage.</p>
+
+<h3 id="the-vampire-killer">The Vampire Killer</h3>
+
+<p>Instead of using souls to create new items, you can now only buy weapons, or of course find them in the castle. And of course, the whip is back in all it&rsquo;s glory! Buying can be done throughout the usual NPCs or this time even via WiFi. Setting up a shop sounds exciting, but almost every item can be found while playing solo so this feature is kind of useless. To lengthen the game, a series of quests are available. Kill 10 Axe Armors, Find 5 cakes, Build your INT to 100, &hellip; All quests are too liniar and involve going back and forth in the castle. Rewards are either items to equip or MP/HP up potions. Yes, they are back, and can also be found in secret areas. Sadly 80% of those secret areas only conceal special food types which completely replenish your HP or MP. Sounds good but most potions can also be bought in the shop and the game is not that hard, apart from some amazingly well animated bosses.</p>
+
+<p>What is really new in Portrait of Ruin? Portraits! In the castle, you will encounter some portraits, which each holds a completely separate level, besides the main castle. Every portrait includes their own unique style: a forgotten city, an egyptian pyramid, etc. The main castle is rather small and uninspired (it only contains four areas) but the portraits more than make up for it. Sadly, the last 4 portraits are complete copies of the first 4 ones. Seems like the developers ran out of level design ideas. This game feels more repetitive than other Castlevania games because of the heavily reused level design. Too bad!</p>
+
+<h3 id="conclusion">Conclusion</h3>
+
+<p>Besides the rather uninspired level design (except the first few paintings of course) and the sometimes clumsy partner system, Portrait of Ruin is still a very good Castlevania game. The soundtrack is as awesome as ever, the whip weapon class is back and the bosses are very nicely done. I really hoped the main castle would be much bigger but oh well. I burned through the game in 10 hours but I did not finish many boring quests (Dawn of Sorrow took me 12). Despite those disappointing facts, Castlevania Portrait of Ruin still stands very strong. No other platform game on the DS achieved this level of addiction, except for the previous Castlevania game and maybe New! Mario bros.</p>
+
+<p>Review-Cat says: If you&rsquo;re a Castlevania, Platform or Metroidvania style fan: buy! If you&rsquo;re not, buy Dawn of Sorrow instead..</p>
+
+         
+
+         <hr/>
+      </div>
+    </div>
+  </div>
+</div>
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docs/articles/early-shooter-clones/index.html

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+<head><meta charset="utf-8">
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+<title>Early Shooter Clones</title>
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+              
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+<div id="sidebar" class="col-xs-6 col-sm-4 col-md-3 sidebar-offcanvas">
+  <div class="sidebar-content">
+    <h1 class="sidebar-heading"><a href="https://jefklakscodex.com/">Jefklak&#39;s Codex</a></h1>
+    
+      <p class="sidebar-p">You’re looking at “The Codex”, a dedicated and highly opinionated website about nostalgic games that left a lasting impression on me.</p>
+    
+
+    <div class="sidebar-header">
+      <span>Latest</span>
+      <img src="/img/gob_letter.gif"/>
+    </div>
+    
+    <ul class="sidebar-menu">
+      
+        
+          <li>
+            <a href="/articles/test2/">Example game 2</a>&nbsp;
+            <span class="sidebar-date">(11/2016)</span>
+          </li>
+      
+        
+          <li>
+            <a href="/articles/test/">Example game</a>&nbsp;
+            <span class="sidebar-date">(11/2016)</span>
+          </li>
+      
+        
+          <li>
+            <a href="/articles/win-platforming/">Windows 2D Platforming</a>&nbsp;
+            <span class="sidebar-date">(03/2007)</span>
+          </li>
+      
+        
+          <li>
+            <a href="/articles/early-shooter-clones/">Early Shooter Clones</a>&nbsp;
+            <span class="sidebar-date">(03/2007)</span>
+          </li>
+      
+        
+          <li>
+            <a href="/articles/castlevania-portrait-of-ruin-review/">Castlevania Portrait of Ruin Review</a>&nbsp;
+            <span class="sidebar-date">(03/2007)</span>
+          </li>
+      
+        
+          <li>
+            <a href="/articles/captian-claw-review/">Captain Claw Review</a>&nbsp;
+            <span class="sidebar-date">(03/2007)</span>
+          </li>
+      
+        
+          <li>
+            <a href="/articles/bugs-are-features/">Bugs Are Features</a>&nbsp;
+            <span class="sidebar-date">(03/2007)</span>
+          </li>
+      
+        
+          <li>
+            <a href="/articles/bg2-spellprotection/">Baldur&#39;s Gate 2: Spell Protection</a>&nbsp;
+            <span class="sidebar-date">(03/2007)</span>
+          </li>
+      
+        
+          <li>
+            <a href="/articles/bg2-parties/">Baldur&#39;s Gate 2: Parties</a>&nbsp;
+            <span class="sidebar-date">(03/2007)</span>
+          </li>
+      
+        
+          <li>
+            <a href="/articles/bg2-magetalk/">Baldur&#39;s Gate 2: Mage Talk</a>&nbsp;
+            <span class="sidebar-date">(03/2007)</span>
+          </li>
+      
+        
+          <li>
+            <a href="/articles/bg2-mods/">BG2/Infinity Engine Mods</a>&nbsp;
+            <span class="sidebar-date">(03/2007)</span>
+          </li>
+      
+        
+          <li>
+            <a href="/articles/bg2-solo-blade/">BG2 Solo Blade: A Report</a>&nbsp;
+            <span class="sidebar-date">(03/2007)</span>
+          </li>
+      
+        
+          <li>
+            <a href="/articles/arxfatalis-review/">Arx Fatalis: the Review</a>&nbsp;
+            <span class="sidebar-date">(03/2007)</span>
+          </li>
+      
+        
+          <li>
+            <a href="/articles/arcanum-review/">Arcanum: the Review</a>&nbsp;
+            <span class="sidebar-date">(03/2007)</span>
+          </li>
+      
+        
+          <li>
+            <a href="/articles/arcanum-gunslinger/">Arcanum: the Gunslinger</a>&nbsp;
+            <span class="sidebar-date">(03/2007)</span>
+          </li>
+      
+        
+          <li>
+            <a href="/articles/arcanum-parties/">Arcanum: Party Seleciton</a>&nbsp;
+            <span class="sidebar-date">(03/2007)</span>
+          </li>
+      
+        
+          <li>
+            <a href="/articles/arcanum-magick-vs-tech/">Arcanum: Magick VS Tech</a>&nbsp;
+            <span class="sidebar-date">(03/2007)</span>
+          </li>
+      
+        
+          <li>
+            <a href="/articles/apogees-legacy/">Apogee&#39;s Legacy</a>&nbsp;
+            <span class="sidebar-date">(03/2007)</span>
+          </li>
+      
+        
+          <li>
+            <a href="/articles/animalcrossing-wildworld/">Animal Crossing: Wild World Adventure Blog</a>&nbsp;
+            <span class="sidebar-date">(10/2006)</span>
+          </li>
+      
+    </ul>
+    
+
+    <div class="sidebar-header">
+      <span>Browsing</span>
+      <img src="/img/gob_waypoint.gif"/>
+    </div>
+    <ul class="sidebar-menu">
+      
+        <li><a href="https://jefklakscodex.com/articles/">Articles Index</a></li>
+      
+        <li><a href="https://jefklakscodex.com/tags/">Appendix</a></li>
+      
+        <li><a href="https://jefklakscodex.com/about/">About the Codex</a></li>
+      
+    </ul>
+
+    
+      <hr/>
+      <div class="sidebar-game-info">
+        <div class="sidebar-header">&nbsp;&nbsp;
+          
+            <span>Early Shooter Clones</span>
+          
+        </div>
+
+        <p style="position: relative;">
+        <img src="https://jefklakscodex.com//img/games/BaldursGate2/logo.jpg" alt="" class="img-responsive img-inactive" style="border: 1px solid black"/>
+        
+
+        
+        <br/>
+
+        
+        
+        
+        </p>
+      </div>
+      <hr/>
+    
+
+    
+    
+
+    
+
+      <div class="sidebar-header">
+        <span>Related</span>
+        <img src="/img/gob_purse.gif"/>
+      </div>
+
+        <ul class="sidebar-menu">
+        
+          
+                        
+          <li>
+            <a href="/articles/bg2-spellprotection/">Baldur&#39;s Gate 2: Spell Protection</a>&nbsp;
+            <span class="sidebar-date">(30 March)</span>
+          </li>
+        
+          
+                        
+          <li>
+            <a href="/articles/bg2-parties/">Baldur&#39;s Gate 2: Parties</a>&nbsp;
+            <span class="sidebar-date">(30 March)</span>
+          </li>
+        
+          
+                        
+          <li>
+            <a href="/articles/bg2-magetalk/">Baldur&#39;s Gate 2: Mage Talk</a>&nbsp;
+            <span class="sidebar-date">(30 March)</span>
+          </li>
+        
+      </ul>
+
+    
+
+
+    <div class="copyright">
+      <p class="credit">
+        
+          No &copy; reserved - sharing is caring. <a href='https://github.com/wgroeneveld/jefklakscodex' target='_blank'>Hack away!</a><br/>An integral part of <a href='https://brainbaking.com/' target='_blank'>Brain Baking</a>.
+        
+      </p>
+    </div>
+  </div>
+</div>
+
+
+              
+<div class="col-xs-12 col-sm-8 col-md-9 content-column white-background">
+  <div class="small-navbar visible-xs">
+  <button type="button" data-toggle="offcanvas" class="btn btn-ghost pull-left"> <i class="fa fa-align-left"> </i>Menu</button>
+  <h1 class="small-navbar-heading"><a href="https://jefklakscodex.com/">Jefklak&#39;s Codex</a></h1>
+</div>
+
+  <div class="row">
+    <div class="col-lg-8">
+      <div class="content-column-content">
+         <h1>Early Shooter Clones</h1>
+         
+
+<p><img src="/img/articles/ShooterClones.png"></p>
+
+<h3 id="people-feeling-nostalgic-can-play-enhanced-versions-the-games">People feeling nostalgic can play enhanced versions the games:</h3>
+
+<p>For Quake, you&rsquo;ll need:</p>
+
+<ol>
+<li>ezQuake Win32 Installer (Just install in a directory)</li>
+<li>Pak0.pak Quake Demo version (Or copy pak0 and pak1 from your original Qake)</li>
+<li>Create a new dir in the ezQuake install dir called &ldquo;id1&rdquo; and Unzip pak0.pak</li>
+<li>Play! (start with ezstart, press ESC in the console!)</li>
+</ol>
+
+<p>For Duke3D, you&rsquo;ll need:</p>
+
+<ol>
+<li>eDuke32 Win32 Installer (Just install in a directory)</li>
+<li>Duke3D Demo - only keep DUKE.GRP after installing</li>
+<li>If you feel like it, install the High Resolution Pack! (115 MB) (Already includes eDuke32)</li>
+<li>Play! (setup your GRP install dir first)</li>
+</ol>
+
+<p>For Doom, you&rsquo;ll need:</p>
+
+<ol>
+<li>zDoom Win32 Binaries (Just extract in a directory)</li>
+<li>Doom.wad Demo Version (you can delete other files)</li>
+<li>Extract the WAD file to the zDoom install dir or copy your full version ones (DOOM, DOOM II, Final Doom e.a., Hexen, Heretic all fully supported!)</li>
+<li>Play!</li>
+</ol>
+
+<p>For Wolfenstein 3D, you&rsquo;ll need:</p>
+
+<ol>
+<li>DOSBox Win32 Installer (Just install in a directory)</li>
+<li>Wolfenstein 3D Demo (Unzip in a new subdir of the DOSBox install dir)</li>
+<li>Play! (Start DOSBox, mount your dir and execute &lsquo;wolf3d&rsquo;)</li>
+</ol>
+
+<p>Every shooter fan should by now have played at least one of id&rsquo;s popular shooters, wether it&rsquo;s DOOM or the older Wolfenstein3D. However, what most players aren&rsquo;t aware of is those games really popularized the shooter genre, as well as &ldquo;cloning&rdquo; games based on previously released ones. Let us take a look at the gaming history; specifically the shooter genre. We already took a quick look at various multiplayer cooperative gameplay modes and their origin, and we also learned a couple of Apogee&rsquo;s games used the Wolf3D engine. Let us narrow our viewpoint down to one game at a time, and their sequentially spin-offs.</p>
+
+<h3 id="1-wolf3d-introducting-first-person-shooters">1. Wolf3D: Introducting first person Shooters</h3>
+
+<p>Wolfenstein 3D is generally regarded as having popularized the first person shooter genre on the PC/DOS platforms. The game was published by <a href="https://3drealms.com/">Apogee</a> and created by id - it has been ported to many other available platforms including SNES and GBA. Wolf3D was the first game (or at least one of the first) to implement a pseudo-3D world using smart computer graphics techniques such as ray casting, a special case of ray tracing. With ray casting, you bascially draw one big line for each column of pixels and check if it intersected a wall or not. Depending on that outcome it builds the entire screen, without having to draw the whole scene. This rendering technique was already used by id Software in their Catacomb 3D game, in 1991.</p>
+
+<p>Due to the rendering method, Wolf3D lacks many features represent in other First Person games such as Ultima Underworld. Wolf3D only featured base textures: the ceilling and floor are solid colors. Wolfenstein also misses lightning and height differences. Of course the game is not considered true 3D since it uses sprites rather than polygons to draw enemies and objects. Wolfenstein 3D was also the first game to introduce the ExLx map/level idtenfiy: Episode x Level x. Many other shareware games followed its example, not only Shooters.</p>
+
+<p>Initial Wolf3D features:</p>
+
+<ul>
+<li>Create a pseudo-like 3D envoirnment by ray casting</li>
+<li>Textured walls (only)</li>
+<li>Introducing the ExLx map system</li>
+<li>sprite based objects</li>
+<li>Added Wolf3D features by clones:</li>
+<li>Ceilling and floor texturing</li>
+<li>Auto-map systems</li>
+<li>Shootable sprites/objects</li>
+<li>(Very) primitive lightning usage</li>
+<li>&ldquo;Fake&rdquo; height differences</li>
+</ul>
+
+<p><img src="/img/articles/shooter_RiseTriad.png"></p>
+
+<p>Shooters utilizing the Wolf3D game engine:</p>
+
+<ul>
+<li>Blake Stone</li>
+<li>Corridor 7</li>
+<li>Operation Body Count</li>
+<li>Super Noah&rsquo;s Ark 3D</li>
+<li>Rise of the Triad</li>
+<li>Shadowcaster</li>
+<li>Hellraiser</li>
+</ul>
+
+<p>Many listed games implemented some extra&rsquo;s besides the base Wolf3D engine. For example, in Blake Stone, floors and ceillings were actually mapped to textures. (See Screenshot) Blake Stone also featured an auto-map in which players can track their location and the rooms they have visited before. Wolfenstein&rsquo;s map system was sometimes labyrinthic and not finding the much needed keys to access the exit zone could get very frustrating. Still no height differences or spectacular lightning sources present though.
+Rise of the Triad, the WWII game from Apogee, could be classified as an exception. Yes, it uses the Wolfenstein 3D engine. But the engine was heavily modified. Actually little of the original Wolf3D code remained in the final ROTT version. Rise of the Triad was supposed to compete with the new generation Shooters - mostly DOOM. Therefore, the developers made sure they included some of DOOM&rsquo;s features and even some DOOM did not have. For example, most objects in ROTT are destroyable (shoot at them). Rise of the Triad featured very wide open levels with trampolines, walkable staircase-like objects, and more. In some rooms, the game uses primitive light sourcing, with torches and lights that can be shot out, dimming the room.</p>
+
+<p>Even though Rise of the Triad pioneered a number of concepts, such as bullet marks, &ldquo;akimbo&rdquo; guns, and level-over-level support, DOOM&rsquo;s non-orthogonal, height-difference maps gained far more publicity. Read the &ldquo;ROTT in Hell&rdquo; article for a full overview of ROTT&rsquo;s features.</p>
+
+<p><img src="/img/articles/shooter_DoomII.jpg"></p>
+
+<h3 id="2-doom-height-difference-lightning-sources-and-multiplayer">2. DOOM: Height Difference, lightning sources and multiplayer.</h3>
+
+<p>Rise of the Triad was actually released one year after DOOM I in 1993. DOOM gained far more popularity: it was downloaded by an estimated 10 million people within two years, popularizing the mode of gameplay and spawning a gaming subculture. As mentioned in the Cooperative Arts II article, Doom was also responsible for the overly popular mulitplayer (via local LAN for now) shooters nowadays. Doom&rsquo;s engine made it possible to create a more immersive feeling while playing the game, partially thanks to the excellent stereo audio system and use of lightning in dark rooms.</p>
+
+<p>Doom the game is widely accepted as one of the most influencive pioneers of gaming in the mid 1990s. Most gamers did not only love Doom thanks to Carmak&rsquo;s graphics engine, but mostly because the engine was modular! This allows the game content to be replaced by loading custom WAD files. Wolfenstein 3D was not designed to be expandable, but fans had nevertheless figured out how to create their own levels for it, and Doom was designed to take the phenomenon further.</p>
+
+<p>Initial DOOM features:</p>
+
+<ul>
+<li>Height differences</li>
+<li>Non-perpendicular walls instead of a rectangular grid</li>
+<li>Swaying of the weapons</li>
+<li>Fully textured maps including lower and upper walls</li>
+<li>Varying light levels</li>
+</ul>
+
+<p>Obviously, thanks to DOOM&rsquo;s modularity, the game knew many Total Conversion clones, developed by other companies such as Raven Software. DOOM&rsquo;s sequel, released in 1995, did not really modify the used engine. Instead, DOOM II featured almost twice as much different enemies, of course all new levels and one new weapon, the double barrel shotgun. DOOM&rsquo;s levels are also divided into episodes, and DOOM II featured one big episode instead of three little ones. DOOM&rsquo;s popularity also led to the development of expansion packs: the Ultimate Doom and Final Doom.</p>
+
+<p><img src="/img/articles/shooter_Duke3D.jpg"></p>
+
+<p>Shooters utilizing the Doom game engine:</p>
+
+<ul>
+<li>Heretic</li>
+<li>HeXen</li>
+<li>Chex Quest</li>
+<li>Strife</li>
+</ul>
+
+<p>Instead of using ray casting, Doom used the Binary Space Partitioning technique to efficiently render the game scenes. However, this method has a few drawbacks: it is for instance inpossible for different rooms to stack. There are height differences, but you won&rsquo;t ever see multiple area&rsquo;s on top of eachother. Walls also cannot move horizontally.</p>
+
+<p>Shooters commonly counted as Doom clones with different engines:</p>
+
+<ul>
+<li>Star Wars: Dark Forces</li>
+<li>Rise of the Triad (wrongly classified)</li>
+<li>Witchhaven</li>
+<li>Gloom</li>
+<li>Blood</li>
+<li>Duke Nukem 3D</li>
+<li>Shadow Warrior</li>
+<li>Outlaws</li>
+</ul>
+
+<p>Since Doom was released and the game kept on winning players, industry gaints tried cloning the game in an attempt to push it from the throne. Almost every released shooter game after DOOM was controversially classified as a simple DOOM clone, even ROTT received many negative feedback. The most popular &ldquo;Doom clone&rdquo; is Duke Nukem 3D?, released in 1996. 3D Realms built their own custom engine, simply called Build Engine, also used in Redneck Rampage e.a. Like Doom, the Build engine represents its world on a two-dimensional grid using closed 2D shapes called sectors, and uses simple flat objects called sprites to populate the world geometry with objects.</p>
+
+<p>The Build engine did allow more flexible worlds than Doom. Sectors could be manipulated in real-time; their shape, heights, and slope angles being completely variable, without requiring recalculation of rendering information. Later versions of the Build Engine even featured &ldquo;Voxels&rdquo; by replacing game selected art tiles by 3D objects. Although this feature appeared too late to be implemented into Duke3D, Blood and Shadow Warrior both use them extensively. The Build Engine was also enhanced a couple of times to be able to run in modern Windows environments. For more information, visit the eduke32 project website.</p>
+
+<p><img src="/img/articles/shooter_Quake.jpg"></p>
+
+<h3 id="3-quake-fully-3d-rendered-mouselook-and-multiplayer-evolutions">3. Quake: fully 3D rendered, mouselook and multiplayer evolutions</h3>
+
+<p>Quake incorporated several major advances in the 3D game genre: it uses 3-dimensional models for players and monsters instead of 2-dimensional sprites like it&rsquo;s predecessors. Previous shooter games (called &ldquo;2.5D&rdquo; games) used mathematical tricks to render a 3D scene - only when looking straight ahead. Quake made it also possible to view from completely different angles: slightly above, down, diagonal, &hellip; - Quake invented (Acually it should be popularized since Bethesda firstly implemented this method in Terminator) the mouselook navigation method. You are able to use the mouse as a navigation crosshair and the keyboard to walk or strafe although this option was not set as the standard control scheme until Quake II.</p>
+
+<p>Because of the radically different rendering method, most 486 Computers had difficulties running the game. Pentium processors made it possible to run Quake more fluidly thanks to the more advanced floating point calculator. Quake was one of the first games to support 3D hardware accelleration techniques via openGL. \id Software recognized, before anyone else, that the future of competitive gaming lay with the Internet, and so Quake was the second game whose multiplayer could be played against many people on the Internet rather than with only people on a local network.</p>
+
+<p>Again, thanks to the game&rsquo;s popularity and engine (and even scripting) modularity, Quake was the source of many fan-made modifications. One of those modifications incorporated the nowadays well-known Capture The Flag (CTF) multiplayer game mode. The Team Fortress modification also incorporated a CTF mode, with class-based player indexing. The QuakeWorld update to Quake allowed the game to be played more fluidly across the internet (using TCP/IP e.a.). Many front-end clients have been released since then to further support the on-line Quake player community.</p>
+
+<p>Shooters utilizing the Quake game engine (with or without heavy mods):</p>
+
+<ul>
+<li>Quake Mission Packs</li>
+<li>Dark Hour</li>
+<li>Eternal War</li>
+<li>Malice</li>
+<li>Shrak</li>
+<li>HeXen II</li>
+<li>Half-Life (with portions of QII engine code) e.a.</li>
+<li>Lazer Arena</li>
+<li>X-Men: The Ravages Of Apocalypse</li>
+</ul>
+
+<h3 id="handy-references">Handy References</h3>
+
+<ul>
+<li>Doom Clones: Wikipedia Entry</li>
+<li>The Hunt: Rise of the Triad information page</li>
+<li>ZDoom WAD interpreter</li>
+<li>ZDaemon: enabling online multiplayer Doom</li>
+<li>EZQuake modern QuakeWorld client</li>
+<li>The Quake Engine Family Tree (Wikipedia)</li>
+<li>Documents explaining Graphics techniques</li>
+<li>Ray Casting Tutorial including Java example</li>
+<li>Ray Casting Tutorial: Making your own Wolf3D</li>
+<li>Introduction to Binary Space Partitioning Trees</li>
+<li>How are BSP Trees used in DOOM?</li>
+<li>Volume Graphics: Voxels explained</li>
+</ul>
+
+         
+
+         <hr/>
+      </div>
+    </div>
+  </div>
+</div>
+
+          </div>
+      </div>
+  </div>
+  
+
+<script src="https://jefklakscodex.com/js/jquery.min.js"></script>
+<script src="https://jefklakscodex.com/js/bootstrap.min.js"></script>
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+<script src="https://jefklakscodex.com/js/front.js"></script>
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+
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+  <footer>
+      <a style="cursor: pointer;" id="totop"><img src="/img/bg-back.gif" alt="to top" /></a>
+  </footer>  
+</body>
+</html>

docs/articles/index.html

@@ -74,6 +74,18 @@
           </li>
       
         
+          <li>
+            <a href="/articles/early-shooter-clones/">Early Shooter Clones</a>&nbsp;
+            <span class="sidebar-date">(03/2007)</span>
+          </li>
+      
+        
+          <li>
+            <a href="/articles/castlevania-portrait-of-ruin-review/">Castlevania Portrait of Ruin Review</a>&nbsp;
+            <span class="sidebar-date">(03/2007)</span>
+          </li>
+      
+        
           <li>
             <a href="/articles/captian-claw-review/">Captain Claw Review</a>&nbsp;
             <span class="sidebar-date">(03/2007)</span>
@@ -168,7 +180,7 @@
       
         <li><a href="https://jefklakscodex.com/articles/">Articles Index</a></li>
       
-        <li><a href="https://jefklakscodex.com/tags/">Games Index</a></li>
+        <li><a href="https://jefklakscodex.com/tags/">Appendix</a></li>
       
         <li><a href="https://jefklakscodex.com/about/">About the Codex</a></li>
       
@@ -595,6 +607,58 @@ All credits go to Xyx, Alson and Littiz for their Spell Reference Guide!
                   </div>
               </div>
           
+              <div class="col-xs-12 col-sm-6 col-md-4 col-lg-3 masonry-item">
+                  <div class="box-masonry">
+                      
+                        
+                        <a href="https://jefklakscodex.com/articles/castlevania-portrait-of-ruin-review/" title="" class="box-masonry-image with-hover-overlay with-hover-icon">
+                        
+                            <img src="https://jefklakscodex.com//img/games/por.jpg" alt="" class="img-responsive img-inactive">
+                            
+                        </a>
+                      
+                      
+                      <div class="box-masonry-text">
+                      
+                          <h4><a href="https://jefklakscodex.com/articles/castlevania-portrait-of-ruin-review/">Castlevania Portrait of Ruin Review</a></h4>
+                          <div class="box-masonry-description">
+                            <p>
+                                
+                                  Castlevania games tend to pop up each year on Nintendo&rsquo;s Handheld platform. The last entries: Aria of Sorrow and Dawn of Sorrow, followed the story of Soma, who mysteriously inherited Dracula&rsquo;s dark abilities. Forget about all that, and the soul harvesting system. Portrait of Ruin is the spiritual successor of Castlevania Bloodlines on the SEGA MegaDrive/Genesis. Jonathan Morris is the son of Bloodlines&rsquo; whip-equipped hero. PoR takes place during or just after the second World War.
+                                
+                            </p>
+                          </div>
+                      </div>
+                  </div>
+              </div>
+          
+              <div class="col-xs-12 col-sm-6 col-md-4 col-lg-3 masonry-item">
+                  <div class="box-masonry">
+                      
+                        
+                        <a href="https://jefklakscodex.com/articles/early-shooter-clones/" title="" class="box-masonry-image with-hover-overlay with-hover-icon">
+                        
+                            <img src="https://jefklakscodex.com//img/games/BaldursGate2/logo.jpg" alt="" class="img-responsive img-inactive">
+                            
+                        </a>
+                      
+                      
+                      <div class="box-masonry-text">
+                      
+                          <h4><a href="https://jefklakscodex.com/articles/early-shooter-clones/">Early Shooter Clones</a></h4>
+                          <div class="box-masonry-description">
+                            <p>
+                                
+                                  People feeling nostalgic can play enhanced versions the games: For Quake, you&rsquo;ll need:
+ ezQuake Win32 Installer (Just install in a directory) Pak0.pak Quake Demo version (Or copy pak0 and pak1 from your original Qake) Create a new dir in the ezQuake install dir called &ldquo;id1&rdquo; and Unzip pak0.pak Play! (start with ezstart, press ESC in the console!)  For Duke3D, you&rsquo;ll need:
+ eDuke32 Win32 Installer (Just install in a directory) Duke3D Demo - only keep DUKE.
+                                
+                            </p>
+                          </div>
+                      </div>
+                  </div>
+              </div>
+          
               <div class="col-xs-12 col-sm-6 col-md-4 col-lg-3 masonry-item">
                   <div class="box-masonry">
                       

docs/articles/index.xml

@@ -158,6 +158,26 @@ All credits go to Xyx, Alson and Littiz for their Spell Reference Guide!</descri
       <description>Ah, 2D platformers. This genre disappeared after the DOS era on the PC. Also the consoles liked more the 3D platform games like hundreds of Mario 64 clones. There was almost never an attempt to revive the classic 2D sidescrolling action and add a few modern elements to it. Except for Monolith Productions of course! We know Monolith mostly from First Person games like the recent F.E.A.R. and of course the No One Lives Forever series.</description>
     </item>
     
+    <item>
+      <title>Castlevania Portrait of Ruin Review</title>
+      <link>https://jefklakscodex.com/articles/castlevania-portrait-of-ruin-review/</link>
+      <pubDate>Fri, 30 Mar 2007 00:00:00 +0000</pubDate>
+      
+      <guid>https://jefklakscodex.com/articles/castlevania-portrait-of-ruin-review/</guid>
+      <description>Castlevania games tend to pop up each year on Nintendo&amp;rsquo;s Handheld platform. The last entries: Aria of Sorrow and Dawn of Sorrow, followed the story of Soma, who mysteriously inherited Dracula&amp;rsquo;s dark abilities. Forget about all that, and the soul harvesting system. Portrait of Ruin is the spiritual successor of Castlevania Bloodlines on the SEGA MegaDrive/Genesis. Jonathan Morris is the son of Bloodlines&amp;rsquo; whip-equipped hero. PoR takes place during or just after the second World War.</description>
+    </item>
+    
+    <item>
+      <title>Early Shooter Clones</title>
+      <link>https://jefklakscodex.com/articles/early-shooter-clones/</link>
+      <pubDate>Fri, 30 Mar 2007 00:00:00 +0000</pubDate>
+      
+      <guid>https://jefklakscodex.com/articles/early-shooter-clones/</guid>
+      <description>People feeling nostalgic can play enhanced versions the games: For Quake, you&amp;rsquo;ll need:
+ ezQuake Win32 Installer (Just install in a directory) Pak0.pak Quake Demo version (Or copy pak0 and pak1 from your original Qake) Create a new dir in the ezQuake install dir called &amp;ldquo;id1&amp;rdquo; and Unzip pak0.pak Play! (start with ezstart, press ESC in the console!)  For Duke3D, you&amp;rsquo;ll need:
+ eDuke32 Win32 Installer (Just install in a directory) Duke3D Demo - only keep DUKE.</description>
+    </item>
+    
     <item>
       <title>Windows 2D Platforming</title>
       <link>https://jefklakscodex.com/articles/win-platforming/</link>

docs/articles/test/index.html

@@ -71,6 +71,18 @@
           </li>
       
         
+          <li>
+            <a href="/articles/early-shooter-clones/">Early Shooter Clones</a>&nbsp;
+            <span class="sidebar-date">(03/2007)</span>
+          </li>
+      
+        
+          <li>
+            <a href="/articles/castlevania-portrait-of-ruin-review/">Castlevania Portrait of Ruin Review</a>&nbsp;
+            <span class="sidebar-date">(03/2007)</span>
+          </li>
+      
+        
           <li>
             <a href="/articles/captian-claw-review/">Captain Claw Review</a>&nbsp;
             <span class="sidebar-date">(03/2007)</span>
@@ -165,7 +177,7 @@
       
         <li><a href="https://jefklakscodex.com/articles/">Articles Index</a></li>
       
-        <li><a href="https://jefklakscodex.com/tags/">Games Index</a></li>
+        <li><a href="https://jefklakscodex.com/tags/">Appendix</a></li>
       
         <li><a href="https://jefklakscodex.com/about/">About the Codex</a></li>
       

docs/articles/test2/index.html

@@ -71,6 +71,18 @@
           </li>
       
         
+          <li>
+            <a href="/articles/early-shooter-clones/">Early Shooter Clones</a>&nbsp;
+            <span class="sidebar-date">(03/2007)</span>
+          </li>
+      
+        
+          <li>
+            <a href="/articles/castlevania-portrait-of-ruin-review/">Castlevania Portrait of Ruin Review</a>&nbsp;
+            <span class="sidebar-date">(03/2007)</span>
+          </li>
+      
+        
           <li>
             <a href="/articles/captian-claw-review/">Captain Claw Review</a>&nbsp;
             <span class="sidebar-date">(03/2007)</span>
@@ -165,7 +177,7 @@
       
         <li><a href="https://jefklakscodex.com/articles/">Articles Index</a></li>
       
-        <li><a href="https://jefklakscodex.com/tags/">Games Index</a></li>
+        <li><a href="https://jefklakscodex.com/tags/">Appendix</a></li>
       
         <li><a href="https://jefklakscodex.com/about/">About the Codex</a></li>
       

docs/articles/win-platforming/index.html

@@ -71,6 +71,18 @@
           </li>
       
         
+          <li>
+            <a href="/articles/early-shooter-clones/">Early Shooter Clones</a>&nbsp;
+            <span class="sidebar-date">(03/2007)</span>
+          </li>
+      
+        
+          <li>
+            <a href="/articles/castlevania-portrait-of-ruin-review/">Castlevania Portrait of Ruin Review</a>&nbsp;
+            <span class="sidebar-date">(03/2007)</span>
+          </li>
+      
+        
           <li>
             <a href="/articles/captian-claw-review/">Captain Claw Review</a>&nbsp;
             <span class="sidebar-date">(03/2007)</span>
@@ -165,7 +177,7 @@
       
         <li><a href="https://jefklakscodex.com/articles/">Articles Index</a></li>
       
-        <li><a href="https://jefklakscodex.com/tags/">Games Index</a></li>
+        <li><a href="https://jefklakscodex.com/tags/">Appendix</a></li>
       
         <li><a href="https://jefklakscodex.com/about/">About the Codex</a></li>
       

docs/categories/index.html

@@ -74,6 +74,18 @@
           </li>
       
         
+          <li>
+            <a href="/articles/early-shooter-clones/">Early Shooter Clones</a>&nbsp;
+            <span class="sidebar-date">(03/2007)</span>
+          </li>
+      
+        
+          <li>
+            <a href="/articles/castlevania-portrait-of-ruin-review/">Castlevania Portrait of Ruin Review</a>&nbsp;
+            <span class="sidebar-date">(03/2007)</span>
+          </li>
+      
+        
           <li>
             <a href="/articles/captian-claw-review/">Captain Claw Review</a>&nbsp;
             <span class="sidebar-date">(03/2007)</span>
@@ -168,7 +180,7 @@
       
         <li><a href="https://jefklakscodex.com/articles/">Articles Index</a></li>
       
-        <li><a href="https://jefklakscodex.com/tags/">Games Index</a></li>
+        <li><a href="https://jefklakscodex.com/tags/">Appendix</a></li>
       
         <li><a href="https://jefklakscodex.com/about/">About the Codex</a></li>
       

docs/css/custom.css

@@ -99,6 +99,18 @@ a.internal {
 	border: 1px solid black;
 }
 
+.content-column-content a:hover {
+	text-decoration: none;
+}
+
+.content-column-content a {
+    background-image: url(/img/external.png);
+    background-position: center right;
+    background-repeat: no-repeat;
+    padding-right: 13px;
+    border-bottom: 1px dotted #526A43;
+}
+
 .modal-header {
 	display: none;
 }

docs/index.xml

@@ -158,6 +158,26 @@ All credits go to Xyx, Alson and Littiz for their Spell Reference Guide!</descri
       <description>Ah, 2D platformers. This genre disappeared after the DOS era on the PC. Also the consoles liked more the 3D platform games like hundreds of Mario 64 clones. There was almost never an attempt to revive the classic 2D sidescrolling action and add a few modern elements to it. Except for Monolith Productions of course! We know Monolith mostly from First Person games like the recent F.E.A.R. and of course the No One Lives Forever series.</description>
     </item>
     
+    <item>
+      <title>Castlevania Portrait of Ruin Review</title>
+      <link>https://jefklakscodex.com/articles/castlevania-portrait-of-ruin-review/</link>
+      <pubDate>Fri, 30 Mar 2007 00:00:00 +0000</pubDate>
+      
+      <guid>https://jefklakscodex.com/articles/castlevania-portrait-of-ruin-review/</guid>
+      <description>Castlevania games tend to pop up each year on Nintendo&amp;rsquo;s Handheld platform. The last entries: Aria of Sorrow and Dawn of Sorrow, followed the story of Soma, who mysteriously inherited Dracula&amp;rsquo;s dark abilities. Forget about all that, and the soul harvesting system. Portrait of Ruin is the spiritual successor of Castlevania Bloodlines on the SEGA MegaDrive/Genesis. Jonathan Morris is the son of Bloodlines&amp;rsquo; whip-equipped hero. PoR takes place during or just after the second World War.</description>
+    </item>
+    
+    <item>
+      <title>Early Shooter Clones</title>
+      <link>https://jefklakscodex.com/articles/early-shooter-clones/</link>
+      <pubDate>Fri, 30 Mar 2007 00:00:00 +0000</pubDate>
+      
+      <guid>https://jefklakscodex.com/articles/early-shooter-clones/</guid>
+      <description>People feeling nostalgic can play enhanced versions the games: For Quake, you&amp;rsquo;ll need:
+ ezQuake Win32 Installer (Just install in a directory) Pak0.pak Quake Demo version (Or copy pak0 and pak1 from your original Qake) Create a new dir in the ezQuake install dir called &amp;ldquo;id1&amp;rdquo; and Unzip pak0.pak Play! (start with ezstart, press ESC in the console!)  For Duke3D, you&amp;rsquo;ll need:
+ eDuke32 Win32 Installer (Just install in a directory) Duke3D Demo - only keep DUKE.</description>
+    </item>
+    
     <item>
       <title>Windows 2D Platforming</title>
       <link>https://jefklakscodex.com/articles/win-platforming/</link>

docs/js/codex.js

@@ -60,5 +60,6 @@ $(function() {
 	addRandomImageToSideBarMenus();
 	enableScrollToTopOnInternalLinks();
 	enableLightboxOnClickImgInContent();
+	disableResponsiveImagesForInlineLis();
 
 });

docs/sitemap.xml

@@ -77,6 +77,16 @@
     <lastmod>2007-03-30T00:00:00+00:00</lastmod>
   </url>
   
+  <url>
+    <loc>https://jefklakscodex.com/articles/castlevania-portrait-of-ruin-review/</loc>
+    <lastmod>2007-03-30T00:00:00+00:00</lastmod>
+  </url>
+  
+  <url>
+    <loc>https://jefklakscodex.com/articles/early-shooter-clones/</loc>
+    <lastmod>2007-03-30T00:00:00+00:00</lastmod>
+  </url>
+  
   <url>
     <loc>https://jefklakscodex.com/articles/win-platforming/</loc>
     <lastmod>2007-03-30T00:00:00+00:00</lastmod>
@@ -142,6 +152,12 @@
     <priority>0</priority>
   </url>
   
+  <url>
+    <loc>https://jefklakscodex.com/tags/castlevania/</loc>
+    <lastmod>2007-03-30T00:00:00+00:00</lastmod>
+    <priority>0</priority>
+  </url>
+  
   <url>
     <loc>https://jefklakscodex.com/categories/</loc>
     <priority>0</priority>
@@ -159,6 +175,12 @@
     <priority>0</priority>
   </url>
   
+  <url>
+    <loc>https://jefklakscodex.com/tags/portrait-of-ruin/</loc>
+    <lastmod>2007-03-30T00:00:00+00:00</lastmod>
+    <priority>0</priority>
+  </url>
+  
   <url>
     <loc>https://jefklakscodex.com/tags/troika/</loc>
     <lastmod>2007-03-30T00:00:00+00:00</lastmod>

docs/tags/2d-platforming/index.html

@@ -74,6 +74,18 @@
           </li>
       
         
+          <li>
+            <a href="/articles/early-shooter-clones/">Early Shooter Clones</a>&nbsp;
+            <span class="sidebar-date">(03/2007)</span>
+          </li>
+      
+        
+          <li>
+            <a href="/articles/castlevania-portrait-of-ruin-review/">Castlevania Portrait of Ruin Review</a>&nbsp;
+            <span class="sidebar-date">(03/2007)</span>
+          </li>
+      
+        
           <li>
             <a href="/articles/captian-claw-review/">Captain Claw Review</a>&nbsp;
             <span class="sidebar-date">(03/2007)</span>
@@ -168,7 +180,7 @@
       
         <li><a href="https://jefklakscodex.com/articles/">Articles Index</a></li>
       
-        <li><a href="https://jefklakscodex.com/tags/">Games Index</a></li>
+        <li><a href="https://jefklakscodex.com/tags/">Appendix</a></li>
       
         <li><a href="https://jefklakscodex.com/about/">About the Codex</a></li>
       

docs/tags/animal-crossing/index.html

@@ -74,6 +74,18 @@
           </li>
       
         
+          <li>
+            <a href="/articles/early-shooter-clones/">Early Shooter Clones</a>&nbsp;
+            <span class="sidebar-date">(03/2007)</span>
+          </li>
+      
+        
+          <li>
+            <a href="/articles/castlevania-portrait-of-ruin-review/">Castlevania Portrait of Ruin Review</a>&nbsp;
+            <span class="sidebar-date">(03/2007)</span>
+          </li>
+      
+        
           <li>
             <a href="/articles/captian-claw-review/">Captain Claw Review</a>&nbsp;
             <span class="sidebar-date">(03/2007)</span>
@@ -168,7 +180,7 @@
       
         <li><a href="https://jefklakscodex.com/articles/">Articles Index</a></li>
       
-        <li><a href="https://jefklakscodex.com/tags/">Games Index</a></li>
+        <li><a href="https://jefklakscodex.com/tags/">Appendix</a></li>
       
         <li><a href="https://jefklakscodex.com/about/">About the Codex</a></li>
       

docs/tags/apogee/index.html

@@ -74,6 +74,18 @@
           </li>
       
         
+          <li>
+            <a href="/articles/early-shooter-clones/">Early Shooter Clones</a>&nbsp;
+            <span class="sidebar-date">(03/2007)</span>
+          </li>
+      
+        
+          <li>
+            <a href="/articles/castlevania-portrait-of-ruin-review/">Castlevania Portrait of Ruin Review</a>&nbsp;
+            <span class="sidebar-date">(03/2007)</span>
+          </li>
+      
+        
           <li>
             <a href="/articles/captian-claw-review/">Captain Claw Review</a>&nbsp;
             <span class="sidebar-date">(03/2007)</span>
@@ -168,7 +180,7 @@
       
         <li><a href="https://jefklakscodex.com/articles/">Articles Index</a></li>
       
-        <li><a href="https://jefklakscodex.com/tags/">Games Index</a></li>
+        <li><a href="https://jefklakscodex.com/tags/">Appendix</a></li>
       
         <li><a href="https://jefklakscodex.com/about/">About the Codex</a></li>
       

docs/tags/arcanum/index.html

@@ -74,6 +74,18 @@
           </li>
       
         
+          <li>
+            <a href="/articles/early-shooter-clones/">Early Shooter Clones</a>&nbsp;
+            <span class="sidebar-date">(03/2007)</span>
+          </li>
+      
+        
+          <li>
+            <a href="/articles/castlevania-portrait-of-ruin-review/">Castlevania Portrait of Ruin Review</a>&nbsp;
+            <span class="sidebar-date">(03/2007)</span>
+          </li>
+      
+        
           <li>
             <a href="/articles/captian-claw-review/">Captain Claw Review</a>&nbsp;
             <span class="sidebar-date">(03/2007)</span>
@@ -168,7 +180,7 @@
       
         <li><a href="https://jefklakscodex.com/articles/">Articles Index</a></li>
       
-        <li><a href="https://jefklakscodex.com/tags/">Games Index</a></li>
+        <li><a href="https://jefklakscodex.com/tags/">Appendix</a></li>
       
         <li><a href="https://jefklakscodex.com/about/">About the Codex</a></li>
       

docs/tags/arx-fatalis/index.html

@@ -74,6 +74,18 @@
           </li>
       
         
+          <li>
+            <a href="/articles/early-shooter-clones/">Early Shooter Clones</a>&nbsp;
+            <span class="sidebar-date">(03/2007)</span>
+          </li>
+      
+        
+          <li>
+            <a href="/articles/castlevania-portrait-of-ruin-review/">Castlevania Portrait of Ruin Review</a>&nbsp;
+            <span class="sidebar-date">(03/2007)</span>
+          </li>
+      
+        
           <li>
             <a href="/articles/captian-claw-review/">Captain Claw Review</a>&nbsp;
             <span class="sidebar-date">(03/2007)</span>
@@ -168,7 +180,7 @@
       
         <li><a href="https://jefklakscodex.com/articles/">Articles Index</a></li>
       
-        <li><a href="https://jefklakscodex.com/tags/">Games Index</a></li>
+        <li><a href="https://jefklakscodex.com/tags/">Appendix</a></li>
       
         <li><a href="https://jefklakscodex.com/about/">About the Codex</a></li>
       

docs/tags/baldurs-gate-2/index.html

@@ -74,6 +74,18 @@
           </li>
       
         
+          <li>
+            <a href="/articles/early-shooter-clones/">Early Shooter Clones</a>&nbsp;
+            <span class="sidebar-date">(03/2007)</span>
+          </li>
+      
+        
+          <li>
+            <a href="/articles/castlevania-portrait-of-ruin-review/">Castlevania Portrait of Ruin Review</a>&nbsp;
+            <span class="sidebar-date">(03/2007)</span>
+          </li>
+      
+        
           <li>
             <a href="/articles/captian-claw-review/">Captain Claw Review</a>&nbsp;
             <span class="sidebar-date">(03/2007)</span>
@@ -168,7 +180,7 @@
       
         <li><a href="https://jefklakscodex.com/articles/">Articles Index</a></li>
       
-        <li><a href="https://jefklakscodex.com/tags/">Games Index</a></li>
+        <li><a href="https://jefklakscodex.com/tags/">Appendix</a></li>
       
         <li><a href="https://jefklakscodex.com/about/">About the Codex</a></li>
       
@@ -332,6 +344,33 @@ All credits go to Xyx, Alson and Littiz for their Spell Reference Guide!
                   </div>
               </div>
           
+              <div class="col-xs-12 col-sm-6 col-md-4 col-lg-3 masonry-item">
+                  <div class="box-masonry">
+                      
+                        
+                        <a href="https://jefklakscodex.com/articles/early-shooter-clones/" title="" class="box-masonry-image with-hover-overlay with-hover-icon">
+                        
+                            <img src="https://jefklakscodex.com//img/games/BaldursGate2/logo.jpg" alt="" class="img-responsive img-inactive">
+                            
+                        </a>
+                      
+                      
+                      <div class="box-masonry-text">
+                      
+                          <h4><a href="https://jefklakscodex.com/articles/early-shooter-clones/">Early Shooter Clones</a></h4>
+                          <div class="box-masonry-description">
+                            <p>
+                                
+                                  People feeling nostalgic can play enhanced versions the games: For Quake, you&rsquo;ll need:
+ ezQuake Win32 Installer (Just install in a directory) Pak0.pak Quake Demo version (Or copy pak0 and pak1 from your original Qake) Create a new dir in the ezQuake install dir called &ldquo;id1&rdquo; and Unzip pak0.pak Play! (start with ezstart, press ESC in the console!)  For Duke3D, you&rsquo;ll need:
+ eDuke32 Win32 Installer (Just install in a directory) Duke3D Demo - only keep DUKE.
+                                
+                            </p>
+                          </div>
+                      </div>
+                  </div>
+              </div>
+          
         </div>
     </div>
 </div>

docs/tags/baldurs-gate-2/index.xml

@@ -57,5 +57,16 @@
 All credits go to Xyx, Alson and Littiz for their Spell Reference Guide!</description>
     </item>
     
+    <item>
+      <title>Early Shooter Clones</title>
+      <link>https://jefklakscodex.com/articles/early-shooter-clones/</link>
+      <pubDate>Fri, 30 Mar 2007 00:00:00 +0000</pubDate>
+      
+      <guid>https://jefklakscodex.com/articles/early-shooter-clones/</guid>
+      <description>People feeling nostalgic can play enhanced versions the games: For Quake, you&amp;rsquo;ll need:
+ ezQuake Win32 Installer (Just install in a directory) Pak0.pak Quake Demo version (Or copy pak0 and pak1 from your original Qake) Create a new dir in the ezQuake install dir called &amp;ldquo;id1&amp;rdquo; and Unzip pak0.pak Play! (start with ezstart, press ESC in the console!)  For Duke3D, you&amp;rsquo;ll need:
+ eDuke32 Win32 Installer (Just install in a directory) Duke3D Demo - only keep DUKE.</description>
+    </item>
+    
   </channel>
 </rss>

docs/tags/captain-claw/index.html

@@ -74,6 +74,18 @@
           </li>
       
         
+          <li>
+            <a href="/articles/early-shooter-clones/">Early Shooter Clones</a>&nbsp;
+            <span class="sidebar-date">(03/2007)</span>
+          </li>
+      
+        
+          <li>
+            <a href="/articles/castlevania-portrait-of-ruin-review/">Castlevania Portrait of Ruin Review</a>&nbsp;
+            <span class="sidebar-date">(03/2007)</span>
+          </li>
+      
+        
           <li>
             <a href="/articles/captian-claw-review/">Captain Claw Review</a>&nbsp;
             <span class="sidebar-date">(03/2007)</span>
@@ -168,7 +180,7 @@
       
         <li><a href="https://jefklakscodex.com/articles/">Articles Index</a></li>
       
-        <li><a href="https://jefklakscodex.com/tags/">Games Index</a></li>
+        <li><a href="https://jefklakscodex.com/tags/">Appendix</a></li>
       
         <li><a href="https://jefklakscodex.com/about/">About the Codex</a></li>
       

docs/tags/castlevania/index.html

@@ -0,0 +1,275 @@
+<!DOCTYPE html>
+<html lang="en-us">
+<head><meta charset="utf-8">
+<meta http-equiv="X-UA-Compatible" content="IE=edge">
+<title>Castlevania</title>
+<meta name="description" content="Retro game thoughts">
+<meta name="viewport" content="width=device-width, initial-scale=1">
+<meta name="robots" content="all,follow">
+<meta name="googlebot" content="index,follow,snippet,archive">
+<link rel="stylesheet" href="https://jefklakscodex.com/css/bootstrap.min.css">
+<link rel="stylesheet" href="//fonts.googleapis.com/css?family=Roboto:400,300,700,400italic">
+<link rel="stylesheet" href="https://jefklakscodex.com/css/font-awesome.min.css">
+<link rel="stylesheet" href="https://jefklakscodex.com/css/owl.carousel.css">
+<link rel="stylesheet" href="https://jefklakscodex.com/css/owl.theme.css">
+
+
+  <link href="https://jefklakscodex.com/css/style.default.css" rel="stylesheet" id="theme-stylesheet">
+
+ 
+
+  
+    <!--[if lt IE 9]>
+        <script src="https://oss.maxcdn.com/html5shiv/3.7.2/html5shiv.min.js"></script>
+        <script src="https://oss.maxcdn.com/respond/1.4.2/respond.min.js"></script>
+    <![endif]-->
+  
+
+
+<link href="https://jefklakscodex.com/css/custom.css" rel="stylesheet">
+<link rel="shortcut icon" href="https://jefklakscodex.com/img/favicon.png">
+
+  <link href="https://jefklakscodex.com/tags/castlevania/index.xml" rel="alternate" type="application/rss+xml" title="Jefklak&#39;s Codex" />
+  <link href="https://jefklakscodex.com/tags/castlevania/index.xml" rel="feed" type="application/rss+xml" title="Jefklak&#39;s Codex" />
+
+
+</head>
+<body>
+  <a name="top" id="top"></a>
+  <div id="all">
+      <div class="container-fluid">
+          <div class="row row-offcanvas row-offcanvas-left">
+              
+
+<div id="sidebar" class="col-xs-6 col-sm-4 col-md-3 sidebar-offcanvas">
+  <div class="sidebar-content">
+    <h1 class="sidebar-heading"><a href="https://jefklakscodex.com/">Jefklak&#39;s Codex</a></h1>
+    
+      <p class="sidebar-p">You’re looking at “The Codex”, a dedicated and highly opinionated website about nostalgic games that left a lasting impression on me.</p>
+    
+
+    <div class="sidebar-header">
+      <span>Latest</span>
+      <img src="/img/gob_letter.gif"/>
+    </div>
+    
+    <ul class="sidebar-menu">
+      
+        
+          <li>
+            <a href="/articles/test2/">Example game 2</a>&nbsp;
+            <span class="sidebar-date">(11/2016)</span>
+          </li>
+      
+        
+          <li>
+            <a href="/articles/test/">Example game</a>&nbsp;
+            <span class="sidebar-date">(11/2016)</span>
+          </li>
+      
+        
+          <li>
+            <a href="/articles/win-platforming/">Windows 2D Platforming</a>&nbsp;
+            <span class="sidebar-date">(03/2007)</span>
+          </li>
+      
+        
+          <li>
+            <a href="/articles/early-shooter-clones/">Early Shooter Clones</a>&nbsp;
+            <span class="sidebar-date">(03/2007)</span>
+          </li>
+      
+        
+          <li>
+            <a href="/articles/castlevania-portrait-of-ruin-review/">Castlevania Portrait of Ruin Review</a>&nbsp;
+            <span class="sidebar-date">(03/2007)</span>
+          </li>
+      
+        
+          <li>
+            <a href="/articles/captian-claw-review/">Captain Claw Review</a>&nbsp;
+            <span class="sidebar-date">(03/2007)</span>
+          </li>
+      
+        
+          <li>
+            <a href="/articles/bugs-are-features/">Bugs Are Features</a>&nbsp;
+            <span class="sidebar-date">(03/2007)</span>
+          </li>
+      
+        
+          <li>
+            <a href="/articles/bg2-spellprotection/">Baldur&#39;s Gate 2: Spell Protection</a>&nbsp;
+            <span class="sidebar-date">(03/2007)</span>
+          </li>
+      
+        
+          <li>
+            <a href="/articles/bg2-parties/">Baldur&#39;s Gate 2: Parties</a>&nbsp;
+            <span class="sidebar-date">(03/2007)</span>
+          </li>
+      
+        
+          <li>
+            <a href="/articles/bg2-magetalk/">Baldur&#39;s Gate 2: Mage Talk</a>&nbsp;
+            <span class="sidebar-date">(03/2007)</span>
+          </li>
+      
+        
+          <li>
+            <a href="/articles/bg2-mods/">BG2/Infinity Engine Mods</a>&nbsp;
+            <span class="sidebar-date">(03/2007)</span>
+          </li>
+      
+        
+          <li>
+            <a href="/articles/bg2-solo-blade/">BG2 Solo Blade: A Report</a>&nbsp;
+            <span class="sidebar-date">(03/2007)</span>
+          </li>
+      
+        
+          <li>
+            <a href="/articles/arxfatalis-review/">Arx Fatalis: the Review</a>&nbsp;
+            <span class="sidebar-date">(03/2007)</span>
+          </li>
+      
+        
+          <li>
+            <a href="/articles/arcanum-review/">Arcanum: the Review</a>&nbsp;
+            <span class="sidebar-date">(03/2007)</span>
+          </li>
+      
+        
+          <li>
+            <a href="/articles/arcanum-gunslinger/">Arcanum: the Gunslinger</a>&nbsp;
+            <span class="sidebar-date">(03/2007)</span>
+          </li>
+      
+        
+          <li>
+            <a href="/articles/arcanum-parties/">Arcanum: Party Seleciton</a>&nbsp;
+            <span class="sidebar-date">(03/2007)</span>
+          </li>
+      
+        
+          <li>
+            <a href="/articles/arcanum-magick-vs-tech/">Arcanum: Magick VS Tech</a>&nbsp;
+            <span class="sidebar-date">(03/2007)</span>
+          </li>
+      
+        
+          <li>
+            <a href="/articles/apogees-legacy/">Apogee&#39;s Legacy</a>&nbsp;
+            <span class="sidebar-date">(03/2007)</span>
+          </li>
+      
+        
+          <li>
+            <a href="/articles/animalcrossing-wildworld/">Animal Crossing: Wild World Adventure Blog</a>&nbsp;
+            <span class="sidebar-date">(10/2006)</span>
+          </li>
+      
+    </ul>
+    
+
+    <div class="sidebar-header">
+      <span>Browsing</span>
+      <img src="/img/gob_waypoint.gif"/>
+    </div>
+    <ul class="sidebar-menu">
+      
+        <li><a href="https://jefklakscodex.com/articles/">Articles Index</a></li>
+      
+        <li><a href="https://jefklakscodex.com/tags/">Appendix</a></li>
+      
+        <li><a href="https://jefklakscodex.com/about/">About the Codex</a></li>
+      
+    </ul>
+
+    
+
+    
+    
+
+    
+
+
+    <div class="copyright">
+      <p class="credit">
+        
+          No &copy; reserved - sharing is caring. <a href='https://github.com/wgroeneveld/jefklakscodex' target='_blank'>Hack away!</a><br/>An integral part of <a href='https://brainbaking.com/' target='_blank'>Brain Baking</a>.
+        
+      </p>
+    </div>
+  </div>
+</div>
+
+
+              
+  <div class="col-xs-12 col-sm-8 col-md-9 content-column">
+    <div class="small-navbar visible-xs">
+  <button type="button" data-toggle="offcanvas" class="btn btn-ghost pull-left"> <i class="fa fa-align-left"> </i>Menu</button>
+  <h1 class="small-navbar-heading"><a href="https://jefklakscodex.com/">Jefklak&#39;s Codex</a></h1>
+</div>
+
+
+    
+
+    <div class="grid">
+        <div class="row">
+          
+              <div class="col-xs-12 col-sm-6 col-md-4 col-lg-3 masonry-item">
+                  <div class="box-masonry">
+                      
+                        
+                        <a href="https://jefklakscodex.com/articles/castlevania-portrait-of-ruin-review/" title="" class="box-masonry-image with-hover-overlay with-hover-icon">
+                        
+                            <img src="https://jefklakscodex.com//img/games/por.jpg" alt="" class="img-responsive img-inactive">
+                            
+                        </a>
+                      
+                      
+                      <div class="box-masonry-text">
+                      
+                          <h4><a href="https://jefklakscodex.com/articles/castlevania-portrait-of-ruin-review/">Castlevania Portrait of Ruin Review</a></h4>
+                          <div class="box-masonry-description">
+                            <p>
+                                
+                                  Castlevania games tend to pop up each year on Nintendo&rsquo;s Handheld platform. The last entries: Aria of Sorrow and Dawn of Sorrow, followed the story of Soma, who mysteriously inherited Dracula&rsquo;s dark abilities. Forget about all that, and the soul harvesting system. Portrait of Ruin is the spiritual successor of Castlevania Bloodlines on the SEGA MegaDrive/Genesis. Jonathan Morris is the son of Bloodlines&rsquo; whip-equipped hero. PoR takes place during or just after the second World War.
+                                
+                            </p>
+                          </div>
+                      </div>
+                  </div>
+              </div>
+          
+        </div>
+    </div>
+</div>
+
+
+
+          </div>
+      </div>
+  </div>
+  
+
+<script src="https://jefklakscodex.com/js/jquery.min.js"></script>
+<script src="https://jefklakscodex.com/js/bootstrap.min.js"></script>
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+
+
+<script src="https://jefklakscodex.com/js/codex.js"></script>
+
+
+  <footer>
+      <a style="cursor: pointer;" id="totop"><img src="/img/bg-back.gif" alt="to top" /></a>
+  </footer>  
+</body>
+</html>

docs/tags/castlevania/index.xml

@@ -0,0 +1,24 @@
+<?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-8" standalone="yes" ?>
+<rss version="2.0" xmlns:atom="http://www.w3.org/2005/Atom">
+  <channel>
+    <title>Castlevania on Jefklak&#39;s Codex</title>
+    <link>https://jefklakscodex.com/tags/castlevania/</link>
+    <description>Recent content in Castlevania on Jefklak&#39;s Codex</description>
+    <generator>Hugo -- gohugo.io</generator>
+    <language>en-us</language>
+    <lastBuildDate>Fri, 30 Mar 2007 00:00:00 +0000</lastBuildDate>
+    
+	<atom:link href="https://jefklakscodex.com/tags/castlevania/index.xml" rel="self" type="application/rss+xml" />
+    
+    
+    <item>
+      <title>Castlevania Portrait of Ruin Review</title>
+      <link>https://jefklakscodex.com/articles/castlevania-portrait-of-ruin-review/</link>
+      <pubDate>Fri, 30 Mar 2007 00:00:00 +0000</pubDate>
+      
+      <guid>https://jefklakscodex.com/articles/castlevania-portrait-of-ruin-review/</guid>
+      <description>Castlevania games tend to pop up each year on Nintendo&amp;rsquo;s Handheld platform. The last entries: Aria of Sorrow and Dawn of Sorrow, followed the story of Soma, who mysteriously inherited Dracula&amp;rsquo;s dark abilities. Forget about all that, and the soul harvesting system. Portrait of Ruin is the spiritual successor of Castlevania Bloodlines on the SEGA MegaDrive/Genesis. Jonathan Morris is the son of Bloodlines&amp;rsquo; whip-equipped hero. PoR takes place during or just after the second World War.</description>
+    </item>
+    
+  </channel>
+</rss>

docs/tags/fallout/index.html

@@ -74,6 +74,18 @@
           </li>
       
         
+          <li>
+            <a href="/articles/early-shooter-clones/">Early Shooter Clones</a>&nbsp;
+            <span class="sidebar-date">(03/2007)</span>
+          </li>
+      
+        
+          <li>
+            <a href="/articles/castlevania-portrait-of-ruin-review/">Castlevania Portrait of Ruin Review</a>&nbsp;
+            <span class="sidebar-date">(03/2007)</span>
+          </li>
+      
+        
           <li>
             <a href="/articles/captian-claw-review/">Captain Claw Review</a>&nbsp;
             <span class="sidebar-date">(03/2007)</span>
@@ -168,7 +180,7 @@
       
         <li><a href="https://jefklakscodex.com/articles/">Articles Index</a></li>
       
-        <li><a href="https://jefklakscodex.com/tags/">Games Index</a></li>
+        <li><a href="https://jefklakscodex.com/tags/">Appendix</a></li>
       
         <li><a href="https://jefklakscodex.com/about/">About the Codex</a></li>
       

docs/tags/index.html

@@ -74,6 +74,18 @@
           </li>
       
         
+          <li>
+            <a href="/articles/early-shooter-clones/">Early Shooter Clones</a>&nbsp;
+            <span class="sidebar-date">(03/2007)</span>
+          </li>
+      
+        
+          <li>
+            <a href="/articles/castlevania-portrait-of-ruin-review/">Castlevania Portrait of Ruin Review</a>&nbsp;
+            <span class="sidebar-date">(03/2007)</span>
+          </li>
+      
+        
           <li>
             <a href="/articles/captian-claw-review/">Captain Claw Review</a>&nbsp;
             <span class="sidebar-date">(03/2007)</span>
@@ -168,7 +180,7 @@
       
         <li><a href="https://jefklakscodex.com/articles/">Articles Index</a></li>
       
-        <li><a href="https://jefklakscodex.com/tags/">Games Index</a></li>
+        <li><a href="https://jefklakscodex.com/tags/">Appendix</a></li>
       
         <li><a href="https://jefklakscodex.com/about/">About the Codex</a></li>
       
@@ -329,6 +341,24 @@
                                 
                                   
                                 
+                            </p>
+                          </div>
+                      </div>
+                  </div>
+              </div>
+          
+              <div class="col-xs-12 col-sm-6 col-md-4 col-lg-3 masonry-item">
+                  <div class="box-masonry">
+                      
+                      
+                      <div class="box-masonry-text">
+                      
+                          <h4><a href="https://jefklakscodex.com/tags/castlevania/">Castlevania</a></h4>
+                          <div class="box-masonry-description">
+                            <p>
+                                
+                                  
+                                
                             </p>
                           </div>
                       </div>
@@ -347,6 +377,24 @@
                                 
                                   
                                 
+                            </p>
+                          </div>
+                      </div>
+                  </div>
+              </div>
+          
+              <div class="col-xs-12 col-sm-6 col-md-4 col-lg-3 masonry-item">
+                  <div class="box-masonry">
+                      
+                      
+                      <div class="box-masonry-text">
+                      
+                          <h4><a href="https://jefklakscodex.com/tags/portrait-of-ruin/">Portrait of Ruin</a></h4>
+                          <div class="box-masonry-description">
+                            <p>
+                                
+                                  
+                                
                             </p>
                           </div>
                       </div>

docs/tags/index.xml

@@ -73,6 +73,15 @@
       <description></description>
     </item>
     
+    <item>
+      <title>Castlevania</title>
+      <link>https://jefklakscodex.com/tags/castlevania/</link>
+      <pubDate>Fri, 30 Mar 2007 00:00:00 +0000</pubDate>
+      
+      <guid>https://jefklakscodex.com/tags/castlevania/</guid>
+      <description></description>
+    </item>
+    
     <item>
       <title>Fallout</title>
       <link>https://jefklakscodex.com/tags/fallout/</link>
@@ -82,6 +91,15 @@
       <description></description>
     </item>
     
+    <item>
+      <title>Portrait of Ruin</title>
+      <link>https://jefklakscodex.com/tags/portrait-of-ruin/</link>
+      <pubDate>Fri, 30 Mar 2007 00:00:00 +0000</pubDate>
+      
+      <guid>https://jefklakscodex.com/tags/portrait-of-ruin/</guid>
+      <description></description>
+    </item>
+    
     <item>
       <title>Troika</title>
       <link>https://jefklakscodex.com/tags/troika/</link>

docs/tags/portrait-of-ruin/index.html

@@ -0,0 +1,275 @@
+<!DOCTYPE html>
+<html lang="en-us">
+<head><meta charset="utf-8">
+<meta http-equiv="X-UA-Compatible" content="IE=edge">
+<title>Portrait of Ruin</title>
+<meta name="description" content="Retro game thoughts">
+<meta name="viewport" content="width=device-width, initial-scale=1">
+<meta name="robots" content="all,follow">
+<meta name="googlebot" content="index,follow,snippet,archive">
+<link rel="stylesheet" href="https://jefklakscodex.com/css/bootstrap.min.css">
+<link rel="stylesheet" href="//fonts.googleapis.com/css?family=Roboto:400,300,700,400italic">
+<link rel="stylesheet" href="https://jefklakscodex.com/css/font-awesome.min.css">
+<link rel="stylesheet" href="https://jefklakscodex.com/css/owl.carousel.css">
+<link rel="stylesheet" href="https://jefklakscodex.com/css/owl.theme.css">
+
+
+  <link href="https://jefklakscodex.com/css/style.default.css" rel="stylesheet" id="theme-stylesheet">
+
+ 
+
+  
+    <!--[if lt IE 9]>
+        <script src="https://oss.maxcdn.com/html5shiv/3.7.2/html5shiv.min.js"></script>
+        <script src="https://oss.maxcdn.com/respond/1.4.2/respond.min.js"></script>
+    <![endif]-->
+  
+
+
+<link href="https://jefklakscodex.com/css/custom.css" rel="stylesheet">
+<link rel="shortcut icon" href="https://jefklakscodex.com/img/favicon.png">
+
+  <link href="https://jefklakscodex.com/tags/portrait-of-ruin/index.xml" rel="alternate" type="application/rss+xml" title="Jefklak&#39;s Codex" />
+  <link href="https://jefklakscodex.com/tags/portrait-of-ruin/index.xml" rel="feed" type="application/rss+xml" title="Jefklak&#39;s Codex" />
+
+
+</head>
+<body>
+  <a name="top" id="top"></a>
+  <div id="all">
+      <div class="container-fluid">
+          <div class="row row-offcanvas row-offcanvas-left">
+              
+
+<div id="sidebar" class="col-xs-6 col-sm-4 col-md-3 sidebar-offcanvas">
+  <div class="sidebar-content">
+    <h1 class="sidebar-heading"><a href="https://jefklakscodex.com/">Jefklak&#39;s Codex</a></h1>
+    
+      <p class="sidebar-p">You’re looking at “The Codex”, a dedicated and highly opinionated website about nostalgic games that left a lasting impression on me.</p>
+    
+
+    <div class="sidebar-header">
+      <span>Latest</span>
+      <img src="/img/gob_letter.gif"/>
+    </div>
+    
+    <ul class="sidebar-menu">
+      
+        
+          <li>
+            <a href="/articles/test2/">Example game 2</a>&nbsp;
+            <span class="sidebar-date">(11/2016)</span>
+          </li>
+      
+        
+          <li>
+            <a href="/articles/test/">Example game</a>&nbsp;
+            <span class="sidebar-date">(11/2016)</span>
+          </li>
+      
+        
+          <li>
+            <a href="/articles/win-platforming/">Windows 2D Platforming</a>&nbsp;
+            <span class="sidebar-date">(03/2007)</span>
+          </li>
+      
+        
+          <li>
+            <a href="/articles/early-shooter-clones/">Early Shooter Clones</a>&nbsp;
+            <span class="sidebar-date">(03/2007)</span>
+          </li>
+      
+        
+          <li>
+            <a href="/articles/castlevania-portrait-of-ruin-review/">Castlevania Portrait of Ruin Review</a>&nbsp;
+            <span class="sidebar-date">(03/2007)</span>
+          </li>
+      
+        
+          <li>
+            <a href="/articles/captian-claw-review/">Captain Claw Review</a>&nbsp;
+            <span class="sidebar-date">(03/2007)</span>
+          </li>
+      
+        
+          <li>
+            <a href="/articles/bugs-are-features/">Bugs Are Features</a>&nbsp;
+            <span class="sidebar-date">(03/2007)</span>
+          </li>
+      
+        
+          <li>
+            <a href="/articles/bg2-spellprotection/">Baldur&#39;s Gate 2: Spell Protection</a>&nbsp;
+            <span class="sidebar-date">(03/2007)</span>
+          </li>
+      
+        
+          <li>
+            <a href="/articles/bg2-parties/">Baldur&#39;s Gate 2: Parties</a>&nbsp;
+            <span class="sidebar-date">(03/2007)</span>
+          </li>
+      
+        
+          <li>
+            <a href="/articles/bg2-magetalk/">Baldur&#39;s Gate 2: Mage Talk</a>&nbsp;
+            <span class="sidebar-date">(03/2007)</span>
+          </li>
+      
+        
+          <li>
+            <a href="/articles/bg2-mods/">BG2/Infinity Engine Mods</a>&nbsp;
+            <span class="sidebar-date">(03/2007)</span>
+          </li>
+      
+        
+          <li>
+            <a href="/articles/bg2-solo-blade/">BG2 Solo Blade: A Report</a>&nbsp;
+            <span class="sidebar-date">(03/2007)</span>
+          </li>
+      
+        
+          <li>
+            <a href="/articles/arxfatalis-review/">Arx Fatalis: the Review</a>&nbsp;
+            <span class="sidebar-date">(03/2007)</span>
+          </li>
+      
+        
+          <li>
+            <a href="/articles/arcanum-review/">Arcanum: the Review</a>&nbsp;
+            <span class="sidebar-date">(03/2007)</span>
+          </li>
+      
+        
+          <li>
+            <a href="/articles/arcanum-gunslinger/">Arcanum: the Gunslinger</a>&nbsp;
+            <span class="sidebar-date">(03/2007)</span>
+          </li>
+      
+        
+          <li>
+            <a href="/articles/arcanum-parties/">Arcanum: Party Seleciton</a>&nbsp;
+            <span class="sidebar-date">(03/2007)</span>
+          </li>
+      
+        
+          <li>
+            <a href="/articles/arcanum-magick-vs-tech/">Arcanum: Magick VS Tech</a>&nbsp;
+            <span class="sidebar-date">(03/2007)</span>
+          </li>
+      
+        
+          <li>
+            <a href="/articles/apogees-legacy/">Apogee&#39;s Legacy</a>&nbsp;
+            <span class="sidebar-date">(03/2007)</span>
+          </li>
+      
+        
+          <li>
+            <a href="/articles/animalcrossing-wildworld/">Animal Crossing: Wild World Adventure Blog</a>&nbsp;
+            <span class="sidebar-date">(10/2006)</span>
+          </li>
+      
+    </ul>
+    
+
+    <div class="sidebar-header">
+      <span>Browsing</span>
+      <img src="/img/gob_waypoint.gif"/>
+    </div>
+    <ul class="sidebar-menu">
+      
+        <li><a href="https://jefklakscodex.com/articles/">Articles Index</a></li>
+      
+        <li><a href="https://jefklakscodex.com/tags/">Appendix</a></li>
+      
+        <li><a href="https://jefklakscodex.com/about/">About the Codex</a></li>
+      
+    </ul>
+
+    
+
+    
+    
+
+    
+
+
+    <div class="copyright">
+      <p class="credit">
+        
+          No &copy; reserved - sharing is caring. <a href='https://github.com/wgroeneveld/jefklakscodex' target='_blank'>Hack away!</a><br/>An integral part of <a href='https://brainbaking.com/' target='_blank'>Brain Baking</a>.
+        
+      </p>
+    </div>
+  </div>
+</div>
+
+
+              
+  <div class="col-xs-12 col-sm-8 col-md-9 content-column">
+    <div class="small-navbar visible-xs">
+  <button type="button" data-toggle="offcanvas" class="btn btn-ghost pull-left"> <i class="fa fa-align-left"> </i>Menu</button>
+  <h1 class="small-navbar-heading"><a href="https://jefklakscodex.com/">Jefklak&#39;s Codex</a></h1>
+</div>
+
+
+    
+
+    <div class="grid">
+        <div class="row">
+          
+              <div class="col-xs-12 col-sm-6 col-md-4 col-lg-3 masonry-item">
+                  <div class="box-masonry">
+                      
+                        
+                        <a href="https://jefklakscodex.com/articles/castlevania-portrait-of-ruin-review/" title="" class="box-masonry-image with-hover-overlay with-hover-icon">
+                        
+                            <img src="https://jefklakscodex.com//img/games/por.jpg" alt="" class="img-responsive img-inactive">
+                            
+                        </a>
+                      
+                      
+                      <div class="box-masonry-text">
+                      
+                          <h4><a href="https://jefklakscodex.com/articles/castlevania-portrait-of-ruin-review/">Castlevania Portrait of Ruin Review</a></h4>
+                          <div class="box-masonry-description">
+                            <p>
+                                
+                                  Castlevania games tend to pop up each year on Nintendo&rsquo;s Handheld platform. The last entries: Aria of Sorrow and Dawn of Sorrow, followed the story of Soma, who mysteriously inherited Dracula&rsquo;s dark abilities. Forget about all that, and the soul harvesting system. Portrait of Ruin is the spiritual successor of Castlevania Bloodlines on the SEGA MegaDrive/Genesis. Jonathan Morris is the son of Bloodlines&rsquo; whip-equipped hero. PoR takes place during or just after the second World War.
+                                
+                            </p>
+                          </div>
+                      </div>
+                  </div>
+              </div>
+          
+        </div>
+    </div>
+</div>
+
+
+
+          </div>
+      </div>
+  </div>
+  
+
+<script src="https://jefklakscodex.com/js/jquery.min.js"></script>
+<script src="https://jefklakscodex.com/js/bootstrap.min.js"></script>
+<script src="https://jefklakscodex.com/js/jquery.cookie.js"> </script>
+<script src="https://jefklakscodex.com/js/ekko-lightbox.js"></script>
+<script src="https://jefklakscodex.com/js/jquery.scrollTo.min.js"></script>
+<script src="https://jefklakscodex.com/js/masonry.pkgd.min.js"></script>
+<script src="https://jefklakscodex.com/js/imagesloaded.pkgd.min.js"></script>
+<script src="https://jefklakscodex.com/js/owl.carousel.min.js"></script>
+<script src="https://jefklakscodex.com/js/front.js"></script>
+
+
+<script src="https://jefklakscodex.com/js/codex.js"></script>
+
+
+  <footer>
+      <a style="cursor: pointer;" id="totop"><img src="/img/bg-back.gif" alt="to top" /></a>
+  </footer>  
+</body>
+</html>

docs/tags/portrait-of-ruin/index.xml

@@ -0,0 +1,24 @@
+<?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-8" standalone="yes" ?>
+<rss version="2.0" xmlns:atom="http://www.w3.org/2005/Atom">
+  <channel>
+    <title>Portrait of Ruin on Jefklak&#39;s Codex</title>
+    <link>https://jefklakscodex.com/tags/portrait-of-ruin/</link>
+    <description>Recent content in Portrait of Ruin on Jefklak&#39;s Codex</description>
+    <generator>Hugo -- gohugo.io</generator>
+    <language>en-us</language>
+    <lastBuildDate>Fri, 30 Mar 2007 00:00:00 +0000</lastBuildDate>
+    
+	<atom:link href="https://jefklakscodex.com/tags/portrait-of-ruin/index.xml" rel="self" type="application/rss+xml" />
+    
+    
+    <item>
+      <title>Castlevania Portrait of Ruin Review</title>
+      <link>https://jefklakscodex.com/articles/castlevania-portrait-of-ruin-review/</link>
+      <pubDate>Fri, 30 Mar 2007 00:00:00 +0000</pubDate>
+      
+      <guid>https://jefklakscodex.com/articles/castlevania-portrait-of-ruin-review/</guid>
+      <description>Castlevania games tend to pop up each year on Nintendo&amp;rsquo;s Handheld platform. The last entries: Aria of Sorrow and Dawn of Sorrow, followed the story of Soma, who mysteriously inherited Dracula&amp;rsquo;s dark abilities. Forget about all that, and the soul harvesting system. Portrait of Ruin is the spiritual successor of Castlevania Bloodlines on the SEGA MegaDrive/Genesis. Jonathan Morris is the son of Bloodlines&amp;rsquo; whip-equipped hero. PoR takes place during or just after the second World War.</description>
+    </item>
+    
+  </channel>
+</rss>

docs/tags/troika/index.html

@@ -74,6 +74,18 @@
           </li>
       
         
+          <li>
+            <a href="/articles/early-shooter-clones/">Early Shooter Clones</a>&nbsp;
+            <span class="sidebar-date">(03/2007)</span>
+          </li>
+      
+        
+          <li>
+            <a href="/articles/castlevania-portrait-of-ruin-review/">Castlevania Portrait of Ruin Review</a>&nbsp;
+            <span class="sidebar-date">(03/2007)</span>
+          </li>
+      
+        
           <li>
             <a href="/articles/captian-claw-review/">Captain Claw Review</a>&nbsp;
             <span class="sidebar-date">(03/2007)</span>
@@ -168,7 +180,7 @@
       
         <li><a href="https://jefklakscodex.com/articles/">Articles Index</a></li>
       
-        <li><a href="https://jefklakscodex.com/tags/">Games Index</a></li>
+        <li><a href="https://jefklakscodex.com/tags/">Appendix</a></li>
       
         <li><a href="https://jefklakscodex.com/about/">About the Codex</a></li>
       

docs/tags/wario-land/index.html

@@ -74,6 +74,18 @@
           </li>
       
         
+          <li>
+            <a href="/articles/early-shooter-clones/">Early Shooter Clones</a>&nbsp;
+            <span class="sidebar-date">(03/2007)</span>
+          </li>
+      
+        
+          <li>
+            <a href="/articles/castlevania-portrait-of-ruin-review/">Castlevania Portrait of Ruin Review</a>&nbsp;
+            <span class="sidebar-date">(03/2007)</span>
+          </li>
+      
+        
           <li>
             <a href="/articles/captian-claw-review/">Captain Claw Review</a>&nbsp;
             <span class="sidebar-date">(03/2007)</span>
@@ -168,7 +180,7 @@
       
         <li><a href="https://jefklakscodex.com/articles/">Articles Index</a></li>
       
-        <li><a href="https://jefklakscodex.com/tags/">Games Index</a></li>
+        <li><a href="https://jefklakscodex.com/tags/">Appendix</a></li>
       
         <li><a href="https://jefklakscodex.com/about/">About the Codex</a></li>
       

layouts/_default/baseof.html

@@ -13,9 +13,6 @@
       </div>
   </div>
   {{ partial "scripts.html" . }}
-
-  <footer>
-      <a style="cursor: pointer;" id="totop"><img src="/img/bg-back.gif" alt="to top" /></a>
-  </footer>  
+  {{ partial "footer.html" . }}
 </body>
 </html>

layouts/_default/terms.html

@@ -0,0 +1,36 @@
+<!DOCTYPE html>
+<html lang="{{ .Site.LanguageCode }}">
+<head>{{ partial "head.html" . }}</head>
+<style>
+.content-column-content ul li:before {
+	margin: 0 !important;	
+}
+</style>
+
+<body>
+  <a name="top" id="top"></a>
+  <div id="all">
+      <div class="container-fluid">
+          <div class="row row-offcanvas row-offcanvas-left">
+              {{ partial "sidebar.html" . }}
+              
+			  <div class="col-xs-12 col-sm-8 col-md-9 content-column white-background">
+				  {{ partial "mobile_nav_toggle.html" . }}
+				  {{ .Content }}
+				  <div class="row">
+				    <div class="col-lg-8">
+				      <div class="content-column-content">
+							{{ partial "taglist.html" . }}
+				         <hr/>
+				      </div>
+				    </div>
+				  </div>
+			  </div>
+
+          </div>
+      </div>
+  </div>
+
+	{{ partial "footer.html" . }}
+</body>
+</html>

layouts/partials/footer.html

@@ -0,0 +1,3 @@
+  <footer>
+      <a style="cursor: pointer;" id="totop"><img src="/img/bg-back.gif" alt="to top" /></a>
+  </footer>  

layouts/partials/portfolio.html

@@ -5,26 +5,19 @@
 
     <div class="grid">
         <div class="row">
-          {{ range .Data.Pages }}
+          {{ range first 10 .Data.Pages }}
               <div class="col-xs-12 col-sm-6 col-md-4 col-lg-3 masonry-item">
+                  
                   <div class="box-masonry">
                       {{ if and (isset .Params "image") .Params.image }}
-                        {{ if eq .Params.showonlyimage true }}
-                        <a href="{{ .Permalink }}" title="" class="box-masonry-image with-hover-overlay">
-                        {{ else }}
                         <a href="{{ .Permalink }}" title="" class="box-masonry-image with-hover-overlay with-hover-icon">
-                        {{ end }}
-                            <img src="{{.Site.BaseURL}}{{ .Params.image }}" alt="" class="img-responsive img-inactive">
-                            {{ if .Params.imageActive }}
-                              <img src="{{.Site.BaseURL}}{{ .Params.imageActive }}" alt="" class="img-responsive img-active">
-                            {{ end }}
+                          <img src="{{.Site.BaseURL}}{{ .Params.image }}" alt="" class="img-responsive img-inactive">
+                          {{ if .Params.imageActive }}
+                            <img src="{{.Site.BaseURL}}{{ .Params.imageActive }}" alt="" class="img-responsive img-active">
+                          {{ end }}
                         </a>
                       {{ end }}
-                      {{ if eq .Params.showonlyimage true }}
-                      <div class="box-masonry-hover-text-header">
-                      {{ else }}
                       <div class="box-masonry-text">
-                      {{ end }}
                           <h4><a href="{{ .Permalink }}">{{ .Title }}</a></h4>
                           <div class="box-masonry-description">
                             <p>
@@ -35,9 +28,10 @@
                                 {{ end }}
                             </p>
                           </div>
-                      </div>
-                  </div>
-              </div>
+                      </div> <!-- box-masonry-text -->
+                  </div> <!-- box-masonry-hover-text-header -->
+              </div><!-- box-masonry -->
+
           {{ end }}
         </div>
     </div>

layouts/partials/sidebar.html

@@ -8,12 +8,12 @@
     {{ end }}
 
     <div class="sidebar-header">
-      <span>Latest</span>
+      <span>10 Latest</span>
       <img src="/img/gob_letter.gif"/>
     </div>
     {{ with .Site.GetPage "section" "articles" }}
     <ul class="sidebar-menu">
-      {{ range .Data.Pages.ByDate.Reverse }}
+      {{ range first 10 .Data.Pages.ByDate.Reverse }}
         {{ .Date.Format (.Site.Params.dateFormat | default "01/2006") | $.Scratch.Set "subtitle" }}
           <li>
             <a href="{{ .RelPermalink }}">{{ .Title }}</a>&nbsp;

layouts/partials/taglist.html

@@ -0,0 +1,30 @@
+	<!-- https://discourse.gohugo.io/t/lists-of-content-divided-by-posts-first-letter/8534/2 - create a list with all uppercase letters -->
+	{{ $letters := split "ABCDEFGHIJKLMNOPQRSTUVWXYZ" "" }}
+
+	<!-- range all pages sorted by their title -->
+	{{ range .Data.Pages.ByTitle }}
+	  <!-- get the first character of each title. Assumes that the title is never empty! -->
+	  {{ $firstChar := substr .Title 0 1 | upper }}
+	 
+	  <!-- in case $firstChar is a letter -->
+	  {{ if $firstChar | in $letters }}
+	    <!-- get the current letter -->
+	    {{ $curLetter := $.Scratch.Get "curLetter" }}
+	    <!-- if $curLetter isn't set or the letter has changed -->
+	    {{ if ne $firstChar $curLetter }}
+		    <!-- update the current letter and print it -->
+  			</ul>
+  			<hr style="clear: both;"/>
+	      	{{ $.Scratch.Set "curLetter" $firstChar }}
+
+      		<h5 style="float: left; color: grey;">
+      			<i class='fa fa-tag'></i>&nbsp;{{ $firstChar }}
+  			</h5>
+      		<ul style="text-align: left; float: left; margin-left: 20px; list-style-type: none; border-left: #eee 1px solid;">
+	    {{ end }}
+
+	   	<li>
+	    	<a href="{{ .RelPermalink }}">{{ .Title }}</a>
+		</li>
+	  {{ end }}
+	{{ end }} 

static/css/custom.css

@@ -99,6 +99,23 @@ a.internal {
 	border: 1px solid black;
 }
 
+.content-column-content a:hover {
+	text-decoration: none;
+}
+
+.content-column-content a:not([href]) {
+	padding-right: 0;
+	background-image: none;
+}
+
+.content-column-content a {
+    background-image: url(/img/external.png);
+    background-position: center right;
+    background-repeat: no-repeat;
+    padding-right: 13px;
+    border-bottom: 1px dotted #526A43;
+}
+
 .modal-header {
 	display: none;
 }