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The Net PC Games Top 100 Edition 005
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The Net PC Games Top 100 Edition 5 - Week 5 - February 1, 1993
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TW LW NW Title Developer/Publisher(s) ID
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1 ( 1) 5 Civilization MicroProse [1002]
2 ( 2) 5 Ultima Underworld Origin/Mindscape [1009]
3 ( 3) 5 Wolfenstein 3D Id/Apogee [1013]
4 ( 4) 5 Ultima 7 (+ Forge of Virtue) Origin/Mindscape [1001]
5 ( 5) 5 Wing Commander 2 (+ Sp. Oper.) Origin/Mindscape [1007]
6 ( 6) 5 Links 386 Pro (+ courses) Access/US Gold [1006]
7 ( 10)^ 5 Wing Commander 1 (+ Secret M.) Origin/Mindscape [1026]
8 ( 8) 5 Ind. Jones: Fate of Atlantis LucasArts/US Gold [1003]
9 ( 7) 5 Monkey Island 2 LucasArts/US Gold [1014]
10 ( 9) 5 Falcon 3.0 (+ operations) Spectrum Holobyte/MicroProse [1005]
11 ( 22)* 4 Crusaders o.t. Dark Savant Sir-tech/US Gold [1104]
12 ( 11) 5 King's Quest 6 Sierra [1015]
13 ( 12) 5 A-train (+ constr. set) Maxis/Spectrum Holobyte/Ocean [1004]
14 ( 14) 5 Out of this World (Another W.) Delphine/Interplay/US Gold [1012]
15 ( 13) 5 Darklands MicroProse [1008]
16 ( 33)* 4 Star Control 2 Accolade [1116]
17 ( 15) 5 Aces of the Pacific (+ miss.) Dynamix/Sierra [1010]
18 ( 24)^ 5 Harpoon (+ disks) Three-Sixty/Electronic Arts [1058]
19 ( 18) 5 Star Trek: 25th Anniversary Electronic Arts/Interplay [1017]
20 ( 17) 5 Lost Files of Sherlock Holmes Electronic Arts [1016]
21 ( 19) 5 Gateway Legend/Accolade [1022]
22 ( 16) 5 Hardball 3 Accolade [1011]
23 ( 21) 5 Gods Renegade/Konami [1023]
24 ( 20) 5 Quest for Glory 3 Sierra [1018]
25 ( 37)* 4 Dune 2 Westwood/Virgin [1110]
26 ( 23) 5 Laura Bow 2 Sierra [1019]
27 ( 25) 5 Monkey Island 1 LucasArts/US Gold [1027]
28 ( 44)* 3 Railroad Tycoon MicroProse [1121]
29 ( 27) 5 Dungeon Master Psygnosis [1024]
30 ( 26) 5 Legend of Kyrandia Westwood/Virgin [1025]
31 ( 61)* 2 Ultima Underworld 2 Origin/Electronic Arts [1127]
32 ( 36)^ 5 Eye of the Beholder 2 SSI/US Gold [1067]
33 ( 47)* 4 Comanche: Maximum Overkill Novalogic [1101]
34 ( 30) 5 Darkseed Cyberdreams/Mirage/Merit [1032]
35 ( 29) 5 Push-over Ocean [1030]
36 ( 51)^ 3 World Circuit/F1 Grand Prix MicroProse [1123]
37 ( 31) 5 Crisis in the Kremlin Electr. Arts/Spectrum Holobyte [1021]
38 ( 28) 5 B-17 Flying Fortress MicroProse [1020]
39 ( 34) 5 Chessmaster 3000 (+ windows) Mindscape [1029]
40 ( 32) 5 Gobliiins Coktel V./Digital I./Sierra [1034]
41 ( 35) 5 Powermonger Electronic Arts [1036]
42 ( 43)^ 5 Red Baron (+ missions) Dynamix/Sierra [1070]
43 ( 39) 5 Police Quest 3 Sierra [1039]
44 ( 52)^ 5 SimCity Maxis/Ocean [1079]
45 ( 40) 5 Secret Weapons o.t. Luftwaffe LucasArts/US Gold [1035]
46 ( 41) 5 PGA Tour Golf Electronic Arts [1038]
47 ( 45) 5 Leisure Suit Larry 5 Sierra [1042]
48 ( 46) 5 Leather Goddesses of Phobos 2 Infocom/Activision [1045]
49 ( 38) 5 F-117A Stealth Fighter MicroProse [1028]
50 ( 48) 5 Gunship 2000 (+ missions) MicroProse [1047]
51 ( 66)^ 3 Conquered Kingdoms QQP [1122]
52 ( 42) 5 Martian Memorandum SSI/US Gold [1031]
53 ( 74)^ 2 The Incredible Machine Dynamix/Sierra [1128]
54 ( 59)^ 5 Eye of the Beholder 1 SSI/US Gold [1093]
55 ( 56)^ 5 King's Quest 5 Sierra [1061]
56 ( 49) 5 Space Quest 4 Sierra [1041]
57 ( 57) 5 Siege Mindcraft/Electronic Arts [1063]
58 ( 60)^ 5 Dune Cryo/Virgin [1075]
59 ( 63)^ 4 Alone in the Dark Infogrames [1105]
60 ( 53) 5 Lure of the Temptress Revolution/Virgin [1046]
61 ( 64)^ 4 F-15 Strike Eagle 3 MicroProse [1103]
62 ( 54) 5 Dark Queen of Krynn SSI/US Gold [1050]
63 ( 55) 5 Sherlock Holmes Cons. Detect. ICOM/Mindscape [1037]
64 ( 88)^ 2 VGA Planets Tim Wisseman [1131]
65 ( 50) 5 Prophecy of the Shadow SSI/US Gold [1033]
66 ( 69)^ 5 Conquest of the Longbow Sierra [1055]
67 ( 84)^ 2 Commander Keen 4, 5, 6 Id/Apogee [1129]
68 ( 72)^ 3 V for Victory Three-sixty/Electronic Arts [1114]
69 ( 70)^ 5 Lemmings (+ More Lemmings) Psygnosis [1095]
70 ( 65) 5 Global Conquest MicroProse [1068]
71 ( 62) 5 Lord of the Rings 2 Interplay/Electr. Arts [1044]
72 ( 97)^ 2 The Humans US Gold [1112]
73 ( 81)^ 3 Might & Magic: Clouds of Xeen New World/US Gold [1102]
74 ( 58) 5 Nova 9 Dynamix/Sierra [1051]
75 ( 76)^ 5 Perfect General (+ scenario's) QQP/Ubi [1098]
76 ( 71) 5 Battle Isle Ubi [1057]
77 ( 86)^ 3 Gobliins 2 Coktel V./Digital I./Sierra [1107]
78 ( 82)^ 3 Spellcasting 301 Legend/Accolade [1108]
79 ( 78) 5 Willy Beamish Dynamix/Sierra [1064]
80 ( 95)^ 2 The Lost Admiral QQP [1126]
81 ( 67) 5 Heimdall Core Design/Virgin [1043]
82 ( 89)^ 2 The Summoning SSI/US Gold [1117]
83 ( 77) 5 Eternam Infogrames [1066]
84 ( 79) 5 Grand Prix Unlimited Accolade [1056]
85 ( 68) 5 Jack Nicklaus Golf Accolade [1040]
86 ( 73) 5 Heart of China Dynamix/Sierra [1048]
87 ( -)^ 1 Battles of Destiny QQP [1132]
88 ( 90)^ 5 Air Bucks Impressions [1082]
89 ( -)^ 1 Spear of Destiny Id [1124]
90 ( 75) 5 Mantis X5700 Experim. Fighter Paragon/MicroProse [1049]
91 ( 93)^ 5 SimAnt Maxis/Ocean [1080]
92 ( -)^ 1 Stunt Island Infogrames/Disney [1130]
93 ( -)^ 1 Front Page Sports: Football Dynamix/Sierra [1133]
94 ( 94) 5 SimEarth (+ windows) Maxis/Ocean [1091]
95 ( 91) 5 Loom LucasArts/US Gold [1074]
96 ( 80) 5 Hook Ocean [1052]
97 ( -)^ 1 Car and Driver Electronic Arts [1137]
98 ( 99)^ 2 Curse of Enchantia Core Design [1111]
99 ( 83) 5 Jimmy White's Whirlw. Snooker Virgin [1053]
100 ( -)^ 1 Terminator 2029 Bethesda [1113]
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The Net PC Games Tip 20 Edition 5 - Week 5 - February 1, 1993
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TW LW NW Title Developer/Publisher(s) ID
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1 ( 4) 5 Rex Nebular MicroProse [1115]
2 ( 13) 2 Warlords SSG [1135]
3 ( 8) 5 Amazon Access/US Gold [1120]
4 ( 14) 2 Conflict: Korea SSI [1136]
5 ( 10) 5 A.T.A.C. MicroProse [1119]
6 ( 18) 2 Pirates MicroProse [1140]
7 ( 12) 3 Quest for Glory 1 Sierra [1134]
8 ( 16) 2 SimLife Maxis/Mindscape [1138]
9 ( 17) 2 Jill of the Jungle Epic [1139]
10 ( 20) 2 Empire: Wargame of the Century Interstel [1142]
11 ( 19) 2 Catacombs Abyss Softdisk [1141]
12 ( -) 1 Covert Action MicroProse [1143]
13 ( -) 1 Carrier Strike SSI [1144]
14 ( -) 1 Task Force 1942 MicroProse [1145]
15 ( -) 1 Harrier Jump Jet MicroProse [1146]
16 ( -) 1 Caesar Impressions [1147]
17 ( -) 1 The Ancient Art of War at Sea MicroProse [1148]
18 ( -) 1 Populous 2 (+ disk) Bullfrog/Electronic Arts [1149]
19 ( -) 1 Waxworks Accolade [1150]
20 ( -) 1 Eric the Unready Legend/Accolade [1151]
As promised, I will tell you a little about all the work that is done
every week to get this Top 100 compiled and posted to the net.
During the week, the messages that I receive by e-mail, and that
contain votes, are stored in one file. Most votes come in on Monday
and Tuesday, right after the new chart is published. I get a second
smaller wave on Thursday, after the repost of the chart. This all
happens on a Unix system on the Delft University of Technology. On
Friday I post the deadline-message to the newsgroups. The big file
with all the votes is then transported to my MsDos computer (by
diskette or by modem).
After this, I take a look at the messages that were posted to the
newsgroups in the last 7 days. This results in extra points for all
the games that were discussed. (The way this is done and how many
points the games get, is kept secret to avoid manipulation by the
readers.) Going through the messages of the newsgroups to collect
points is quite a lot of work. However, writing a program that could
do this for me would be very hard. It should take into account all the
different ways the titles of the games can be written, including
several abbreviations. Programming this part of the work will require
some serious thought.
On the MsDos computer the file with votes is scanned by a program.
This works great. The program first checks for ID's between brackets
and then checks if the title in the database is recognized in the
string containing the vote. If this is not the case, one may have
entered a wrong ID or altered the title slightly. The program will
then ask me what to do with this line. It also needs feedback on the
lines that contain no ID but do have some text in it. These lines may
contain new games that are not in the chart yet, or there's just some
garbage in it, like disclaimers and compliments :). One may also have
omitted the ID for a game that does appear in the chart. All possible
cases are handled perfectly.
Points are stored in the database four times, for the current week and
the next three weeks. When points are stored for a person, it is
checked if that person already had points outstanding for this week
and/or the next weeks. These are deleted. This systems implies that
the program needs to store e-mail addresses, that are treated as
unique persons. A little problem was engaged when the program got
addresses that were much longer than the storage space allowed. This
has been fixed.
When points are given to games that are not in the chart yet, they are
stored in a seperate text file, containing edition number, person,
points and game. This file can be used in the next weeks, so that
these games are also accounted for four times. This is done after
scanning the file with votes. It is checked which of these new games
have made it into the chart yet, and which of them have already been
used four times, so that their points can be discarded. The program
also discards these points when the person who gave them has already
sent new votes.
This concludes the part of collecting the points. After this the
program generates files with e-mail commands for all who have sent new
votes. They will get the new chart mailed to them. Seperate files are
generated for those whose votes have been used for the fourth time.
They are asked to send new votes. Also, the e-mail addresses are
sorted and compaired. Some people, like me, can send messages with
slightly varying e-mail addresses. The program would handle these as
coming from different people. This check assures that these cases are
detected.
Finally the new Top 100 is compiled in just a few seconds. The program
uses the points from the votes and the extra points from the newsgroup
for this, in a 4 to 1 ratio. The program not only determines all
positions in the new Top 100, but also those in the Tip 20 for the
games that were already in there. Some games will have entered the
Top 100 and have left space in the Tip 20 for new games to enter. The
lucky ones that are allowed to enter the Tip 20 are determined from
the new games that people have voted for and the ones that were
discussed in the newsgroups. These games are then assigned new ID's.
This part is done manually and should also be done by the program in
the near future.
Finally, after some integrity checks on the database and the chart, a
nice looking text file is generated and an editorial is written and
appended. A Dos-version and a Unix-version of the new list are sent to
the university, together with the files containing the e-mail
commands. The new chart is published on Monday in the newsgroups. This
allowes me to choose from three days (Friday to Sunday) on which to do
the compilation process, or I can just spread the activities over the
entire weekend.
The chart is not only published in the newsgroups, but also uploaded
to risc.ua.edu, where all the editions are zipped together for the
fanatics. The mail commands are then activated and I am already
storing the votes that came in during the weekend for the next edition
in a new file. During the week, magazines are studied for collecting
titles, subtitles and publishers. And as always, the program keeps
being enhanced to do more and more of the work.
You may have noticed that sometimes I speak of us instead of me. This
is because I get some help of a good friend of mine. He participates
in reading magazines, news and e-mail. Maybe I can get more people to
help me in the future. If you have any ideas, mail me.
Next week: some statistics concerning votes and voters.
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| The Net PC Games Top 100 is compiled using votes sent by many people from |
| all over the world. The latest chart is published every Monday on Usenet |
| in the comp.sys.ibm.pc.games newsgroup. A collection of all editions can |
| be found on the risc.ua.edu ftp-site. Mail to appelo@dutiag.twi.tudelft |
| and vote for your favourite games. More detailed information on how to |
| vote can be found in the Top 100 document posted regularly. |
|----------------------------------------------------------------------------|
| TW : This Week | (c) 1992 all rights reserved Jojo Productions |
| LW : Last Week | P.O. Box 3077 |
| NW : Number of Weeks | With many thanks to the 2601 DB Delft |
| - : New Entry | Delft University of Technology The Netherlands |
| ^ : Climbing | for providing us with the Tel: +31 15 613510 |
| * : Bullet | necessary facilities. appelo@dutiag.twi.tudelft |
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