Buck Rogers PC Games IBM PC MS-DOS 1990 & 1992 SSI

Buck Rogers Games PC

SSI's Buck Rogers games are cRPGs released in 1990 and 1992 for IBM PC MS-DOS.

Specifications for Buck Rogers Games

The two Buck Rogers games share the following specifications:

• 256-color VGA 320x200 display
• Icon-driven mouse control
• Modified AD&D 2nd Edition ruleset implementation
• Set in TSR's Buck Rogers XXVc campaign setting of 1990
• 88x88px first-person flip-screen drawspace ("3D" perspective) with sprite-scaled objects and actors [1]
• 168x168px dimetric battlefield drawspace (tile-rigged)
• Installation to HDD via 5.25" floppy disks or 3.5" diskettes
• Five points of view: flip-screen, dimetric, overland map, solar map, ship-to-ship
• Built on the Gold Box engine originated by Pool of Radiance 1988
• Party importation supported by Matrix Cubed
• Requirements: 808x CPU and 640K RAM (560K free conventional RAM)

Buck Rogers: Countdown to Doomsday 1990

Strategic Simulations Inc. released Buck Rogers: Countdown to Doomsday for IBM PC MS-DOS 2.1 in September of 1990. BR:CtD was programmed by Russ Brown and Mike McNally. Buck Rogers: Countdown to Doomsday is set in TSR's Buck Rogers 25th Century campaign setting of 1990.

In Buck Rogers: Countdown to Doomsday the player assumes the role of an New Earth Organization aka NEO squad that goes up against the Ram menace that is terrorizing the solar system.

Buck Rogers: Countdown to Doomsday introduces completely new races, classes, skills and items to the Gold Box engine. In addition, it features ship-to-ship combat with lasers, missiles and kinetic cannons.

Buck Rogers: Countdown to Doomsday was distributed on 3x 5.25" 360K DS DD floppy disks and extracts and installs via PKSFX Self-Extract Utility 1.1 by PKWARE Inc. The install size is 1.8 megs.

• Buck Rogers: Countdown to Doomsday Manual aka Rule Book: 12 pages
• Buck Rogers: Countdown to Doomsday Log Book: 42 pages
• Buck Rogers: Countdown to Doomsday Clue Book: 43 pages

Buck Rogers: Matrix Cubed 1992

Sequel to Countdown to Doomsday, Strategic Simulations Inc. released Buck Rogers: Matrix Cubed for IBM PC MS-DOS 2.1 in January of 1992. Buck Rogers: Matrix Cubed was programmed by Russ Brown and Kerry Bonin.

Buck Rogers: Matrix Cubed requires 560K of free conventional RAM.

Buck Rogers: Matrix Cubed was distributed on 1x 5.25" 1.2MB DS HD floppy disk and extracts and installs via PKSFX Self-Extract Utility 1.1 by PKWARE Inc. The install size is 2 megs.

• Buck Rogers: Matrix Cubed Manual aka Rule Book: 12 pages
• Buck Rogers: Matrix Cubed Log Book: 59 pages
• Buck Rogers: Matrix Cubed Clue Book: 44 pages

[1]

Flip-screen cRPG active drawspace size comparison (in horizontal and vertical pixels):

• Dungeon Master Atari ST 1987: 16-color 224x136 drawspace
• Pool of Radiance IBM PC 1988: 16-color EGA 88x88 drawspace
• Bloodwych Amiga 1989: 16-color 2x 128x76 drawspaces
• Eye of the Beholder IBM PC 1991: 256-color VGA 176x120 drawspace
• Fate Gates of Dawn Amiga 1991: 32-color 176x107 drawspace
• Black Crypt Amiga 1992: 64-color 208x140 drawspace
• Dark Queen of Krynn IBM PC 1992: 256-color VGA 88x88 drawspace
• Lands of Lore IBM PC 1993: 256-color VGA 176x120 drawspace
• Hired Guns IBM PC 1993: 256-color VGA 4x 140x82 drawspaces
• Perihelion The Prophecy Amiga 1993: 32-color 176x120 drawspace

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