Dungeon Keeper

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Name: Dungeon Keeper Year: 1997 Publisher: Electronic Arts Developer: Bullfrog Platform: PC Genre: Strategy Total rating: 80.4% - rated 107 times rate now: please log in to rate Submitter: Fabiombu Score: 10 points Added: Feb 22 2006 Warez status: Abandonware

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Author: R8a Date: Mar 12 2006 - 01:17 Score: 30 points

Introduction

In 1996, rumors about Bullfrog developing an RTS were the daily news in the gaming community. Among Quake, and Grand Prix 2, Dungeon Keeper got many gamers waiting countless days for its appearance in the market. Bullfrog has always been one of the finest game developers of all time, and strategy games like theme park and syndicate are good examples of their talent. But the arrival of the long awaited Dungeon Keeper changed a lot of things in the RTS arena, making us, the gamers, happier than ever before.

The intro in Dungeon Keeper is one of the few intros I could say "Wow, hehe"... In fact, I could see it again and again, every time the game starts, is really fun to see the intro. So If you have not played Dungeon Keeper yet, I will not spoil it for you, see it for yourself, you will have a big laugh!. But is not an introductory video the reason why we love games. Dungeon Keeper is simple to control, yet complex to beat, and entertaining as well. Gameplay couldn't be better for an RTS. In fact, it brought many things that the RTS genre games lacked for the time being.You are the master of a maze, and yes, you play the (always better) evil side of the story. The objective of the game is to beat the hero (or heroes!) and other dungeon masters found in each level. To do so, you have to attract as many evil creatures as possible, that come out of your dungeon's heart as you improve the conditions for them to live inside of it. Construction is fun, and an important part of the game. You start each level with the heart of your dungeon (if your enemy destroys this, you are beaten, game over) a few money and little workers to help you out. Instead of building structures, you lay down the floor each room of your dungeon will have, like a granary, bedrooms, torture chambers (yes, there are) and many more. If you are wise designing your dungeon, you will beat levels effortlessly. The economics are fair simple, you have to dig ore to fill your treasure rooms, the more you dig, the richer you are. Combat is fair simple, and there is even a cool option to "got into the spirit" of one of your creatures, meaning you gain control of it, changing to a first person perspective, like an FPS. Difficulty is not a problem, beginners will find it easy to get the idea and learn what it takes to beat the first levels. But as you advance, things get more complicated and enemies more powerful. Here each unit has special powers and different attacks, and it is always better to study your enemy before launching a full scale attack and realizing your opponent is stronger than you. and the most important part of this game, the funny part, units are funny, attacks are funny, even your enemies are fun, so you will have tons of laughs while playing the game (just keep staring at their meals hehehe).

Graphics

Graphics, represented a vast, huge improvement for the 2D/isometric view. Command and Conquer and others were great, but to be fair, this game had the best graphics at the time for an RTS. The action was handled by an old style isometric view, but you get to appreciate the benefits of being a full win9x game, that uses directX. The light effects, the moody atmosphere, everything was better than anything seen before. It used the same pixel units that every RTS used for the time, but even these units were better good looking. And the FPS option although not much useful, was cool.

Sound

Sounds were great. You actually feel you are in a horror maze, and the sound of flesh and bones being thrown all over the place is constant, when there is someone in the torture chamber, you actually hear the screams and the laugh of some, and at meal time... ok you get the idea, the sound is just perfect to keep you playing with the speakers on the max level.

Controls

Controls, fair simple, like any other RTS, the mouse controlling a menu driven interface, and with less options than others. Icons rule here, and everything is highlighted if you roll the mouse over, explaining what is each icon.

Conclusion

For me, one classic of the RTS genre, and I think many of you will share my opinion. Deserves a 9, the only thing that I did not like was that sometimes, it was kind of repetitive between levels and objectives. Download it, you will appreciate it.

	Type / Title	Downloads / Views	Action
	Download full game	1295	Download
	Cheats	3163	Read
	Patch: Windows 98 IPX patch	420	Download
	Patch: Official AI patch	439	Download
	Patch: Official Direct3D patch	556	Download

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By Bee_94 - Apr 01 2015 - 22:07 The sound FX are taken from various, Sound Ideas CDs.

By Bee_94 - Oct 10 2014 - 15:16 This was the final game by an Bullfrog employee, who would later form Lionhead Studios.

By Kbclassicdl - Sep 01 2011 - 09:49 Like the attempt and works of bringing the pay and design ideas and realisations of older games to people's working desktops. Most interesting although DOS Box might not be the universal enlightenment people would like it to be. Think I willlll scrape together a DOS PC as well!!! )))

By Kbclassicdl - Sep 01 2011 - 09:47 Tried downloading again after not getting any sound. the game plays in Windows 98SE with DX8.1b but no sound at all although the CD version worked on the same PC. MMMMmm. Could my laptop be confined to the Dungeon? I will let you know.

By Bigbangnet - Mar 21 2011 - 18:47 I got Windows 7 64 bit and got this game to work. How ? Look at this Youtube video and it will tell you how: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PQgw0Bnnq_E&feature=related But it says to install the Microsoft Application Compatibility Toolkit. After its installed, open the 32bit version of ACT and "create" a database. The only option you have to choose is ONLY the one named ForceDirectDrawEmulation... That's it. Nothing else. Then right click on "new database" and click on install. All you have to do is run keeper95 and it will run. But you wont get the intro movie though. You will also the color on the screen is messed up. Here is how to fix this small problem: 1. run the game, then open task manager. Find explorer.exe in the process tab and end it. go to application tab and bring dungeon keeper in front. Once you do that the colors will be back to normal. When your done with your game, click new and type in "explorer" and you got your tasbar back. Only problem with all of this is at the end of the first level, the game crashes to destop and tries to find a solution. Anyone knows this solution. I hope this solves lots of problems

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