Chess Wars - DOS Longplay - Part 005 - Menu and Gameplay (at Beginner AI)

Описание: Chess Wars: A Medieval Fantasy

[Here's some in-game graphics. I had to turn cinematics off to keep DosBox from splitting the recording on video mode changes. Too bad I couldn't fit a whole match in, but maybe later.]

This is a very obscure chess game published by WizardWorks in 1998 (created by Art Data Interactive in 1996). Think of Battle Chess but with an 8 minute intro FMV introducing the live action characters representing the pieces, FMV cut-scenes for each piece capture (some very fun to watch), and short FMV endings for each side's checkmate. Gameplay is on tilted perspective, "3D rendered", board with "lifelike 3D animated pieces" with options for different textured boards and backgrounds and traditionally shaped chess pieces.

After finding this on a bargain shelf back in the late 90s, I found it to be an interesting evolution on the Battle Chess concept. However, looking it up online in 2008, I could not find record of Chess Wars on Wikipedia, MobyGames, or GameFaqs. I started to doubt the game ever existed except for the copy in my hand. Then I remembered to Google it.

Not much help there either when I checked, except for a couple of personal sites listing themselves as working on the game in 1996 and winning "Best New Video Game". Funny for an award winning game to just disappear off the map like that, but this was about the time of the crash of the live-action FMV craze (and subsequent bankruptcies).

I think I've only played a handful of matches in this game, but once in a while, I'll set the computer to play itself so that I can enjoy the (sometimes cheesy) video clips. I wanted to share this enjoyment with the community here.

After I procrastinated too long on doing it myself, I discovered this had finally been put up at MobyGames (by someone who downloaded my Torrent of the game): http://www.mobygames.com/game/chess-w...

Finally, I recently followed the links to Amazon and eBay sales from the MobyGames site, and found other owners of this game had finally crawled out of the woodwork. There was even a new sealed copy for over $130(!), while most copies went for $3 to $30 depending on condition. Makes me feel lucky for finding this on a bargain shelf for $10 in 1998.