The Download Munkey : Finder of Things …

A couple of Flash toys originally for children to learn about gladiator and medieval armour but I found these mini-toys educational yet entertaining.

© BBC

The first mini toy from BBC - Gladiator : Dressed To Kill teaches players the major differences of three classes of gladiators - the myrmillo, the retiarius and the hoplomachus.

© BBC

You have 60 seconds to select 4 pieces of weapons and equipment for a particular gladiator before he’s thrust into mortal combat with another gladiator of an opposing class e.g myrmillo vs thraex or retiarius vs secutor.

© BBC

To maximize your chances of winning the fight as well as the wooden sword thereby granting your gladiator his freedom, four clues are provided to assist you in the proper selection of his equipment ; a improperly armed and equipped gladiator runs the risk of getting condemned to death for losing in the arena.

For illustrations of gladiators, check out Johnny Shumate’s portfolio on ImagineFX.

© National Army Museum UK

The other mini toy Battle Dress comes from National Army Museum of the United Kingdom and educates players on the proper names of each piece of medieval armour and the correct sequence to don each armour piece. There are three characters to suit up : a warhorse, an archer and a heavily armoured medieval knight.

© National Army Museum UK

Although the warhorse has the least number of armour pieces (nine), it was the most enlightening experience of all three - I didn’t even know that there was a specific name Escutcheon for the metal spike affixed onto the head armour of a horse.

© National Army Museum UK

Dressing up the archer and knight is comparatively easy if you’ve played your share of fantasy RPGs

Play Gladiator : Dressed To Kill or Battledress.

MORE @ THE DOWNLOAD MUNKEY:
Edutainment Games (II) - Alpha Assault
Edutainment Games (I) - Typeracer
King Richard I The Lionheart & Saladin Wallpapers from Medieval Total War 2
Warrior Knight Wallpapers
Soul of the Ultimate Nation Wallpapers
Mark of Chaos - The Collected Concept Art

While Giga Rensya’s mini-games are never going to win any awards for deep gameplay, some of these mini-games are guaranteed to keep you at the computer for the next 5 to 10 mins or so. Furthermore there’s a total of 23 mini-games to choose from starring the cat-like (Qoo-like?) creatures Kutar that appear in every single game.

While there’s several that stand above the rest, I’ve decided to list all of the available games for the sake of completeness together with short instructions for each since it’s not always apparent what you need to achieve in some of these games. I’ll introduce the first 12 games in alphabetical order of their filenames and leave the rest for next week.

To install each game, just press enter when you run the setup files and they will extract the game into a subfolder.

Apple

© Giga-Rensya

Frankly speaking, there isn’t much much fun to be had here - holding down the left and right mouse buttons will move Kutar left or right respectively to collect falling apples and acorns. Stay clear of the mushrooms through as collect a single one of them will end the game.

Balloon

© Giga-Rensya

Distribute balloons to the visitors at the theme park - give the little ones small balloons (left click) and the big Kutars the regular ballloons (right click). Things get hectic quickly and be alert for queue jumpers.

Sword Master

© Giga-Rensya

Not sure what’s the lightsaber-wielding samurai doing on stage here. Left click and right click to strike left or right. You need to hit those lightsaber ninjas only when they are within striking distance and one missed stroke means it’s game over (somehow reminds me of iaido).

Concert

© Giga-Rensya

Giga Rensya’s latest game pits you as a crowd control specialist at a J-Pop concert where your job is to keep the overenthusiatic crowd in line (literally). Left click on anyone who steps out of line to push them back but push an innocent fan and you’re out of a job.

End Roll

© Giga-Rensya

Steer your bike left (left click) or right (right click) and avoid those stones.

Hip Dance

© Giga-Rensya

Left and right click to throw your hands in the air! Oh and remember to follow the leader.

Harvest

© Giga-Rensya

Left and right click to dodge the obstructions when harvesting in the most incredibly obstacle-strewn wheat field in the world.

Ikki

© Giga-Rensya

Mash your left button to an attempt to quaff all the water from the water dispenser in record time. A surefire way to destroy the left mouse button (even better than Diablo II!)

Kodomo

© Giga-Rensya

Choose the correct Kutar with the colour formed by mixing the colours of the two Kutar that appear on the stage. 10 seconds are given for choosing the correct Kutar for each pair and points are awarded for each second remaining on the clock. Take your time to think carefully since the wrong answer ends the game.

Powder

© Giga-Rensya

Left and right click and move Kutar to collect the powder sprinkled from the hose above. (why can’t they just get a longer pipe?) Don’t let the powder fall anywhere else but the bag!

Lift

© Giga-Rensya

Left click at the right moment to help push those lazy butts onto the ski lift.

Lift X

© Giga-Rensya

Left click at the right moment to help push those lazy butts onto the ski lift. Oh wait, sounds exactly like Lift above which it is except for a set of lovely Christmas themed graphics.

Download these games from Giga Rensya or check out Independent Gaming Freeware Database where I found these games. Stay tuned for the rest next Thursday!

MORE @ THE DOWNLOAD MUNKEY:
Beat Back the Zombie Hordes in Boxhead : The Zombie Wars
Monster’s Den - My Favourite Flash RPG
Zookeeper - Bejewelled with Animals
Nanaca Crash - Crazy Flash Game

Something positive and heartwarming to kickstart of a brand new week

The lyrics for Jack Houston’s beautiful ballad Dragon Fellow transcribed directly from the movie (below) made by the July 2005 class at DAVE School (see previous post on Tofu : The Vegan Zombie).

© DAVE School

And if you’re wondering whether that’s Jack Houston in the video, it is Found this photo while Googling for the lyrics.

Below are the lyrics for Dragon Fellow. Any mistakes in the lyrics below are solely my own.

A long long time ago, in a kingdom far away
There lived a gentle dragon in a city by the bay
Dragon Fellow was his name, with scales and breath of fire
A golden heart within his chest and the finest dragon attire

They sang fly Dragon Fellow, high up in the sky,
Play dragon games and float above like a firebreathing butterfly
Oh fly Dragon Fellow and feel the joy it brings
Dragon Fellow’s golden heart has earned him dragon wings
Oh Dragon Fellow’s golden heart has earned him dragon wings

Watch or download Dragon Fellow from DAVE School.

MORE @ THE DOWNLOAD MUNKEY:
Tofu : The Vegan Zombie

A collection of nearly 100 soccer jerseys intricately recreated in 32×32 sized icons by Germany-based pixel artist Mr Wong. The last time I’ve ever seen jerseys this small were in the tabletop game Subbuteo. Anyone still remember that game ?

© Mr Wong (www.mrwong.de)

The five sets available for download include 3 different collections for the German Bundesliga as well as a set for the Americian MLS (Major League Soccer) and another containing the jerseys of the 32 national teams in the 2002 FIFA World Cup co-hosted by Japan and South Korea.

Now if you were looking for corresponding heads for some of these jerseys, you’ll be pleased to know that Mikio Inose of mikworks.com has produced a great looking set of pixel art icons graced by the faces of 18 famous soccer players hailing from the previous decade. Admittedly, I believe most of the ones featured never did play in the Bundesliga or MLS with the exception of Jurgen Klinsmann to the best of my very limited and grossly outdated soccer knowledge.

© Mikio Inose (www.mikworks.com)

Download Mr Wong’s jersey icons (under Goodies) or grab those heads from Mikworks.com.

MORE @ THE DOWNLOAD MUNKEY:
Official Tuzki (兔斯基) Emoticons
Links to Singapore Related Pixel Art & More!

Tomb Chess is essentially similiar to the Half Chess (banqi) variant of Chinese Chess (xiangqi), albeit with wonderfully drawn undead and demonic pieces on a 6×6 chessboard / graveyard. Found this over at JayIsGames as usual

Tomb Chess can be played against the AI or hotseat against another human or even as a spectator sport while two AIs battle it out (of course, not to the dead since half of these guys are already dead in the first place )

© FreeWorldGroup.com.

The two players take turns to either unearth tombstones to reveal an undead creature which might belong to you (highlighted in red) or your opponent (in green) or move any existing creature already uncovered. In Tomb Chess (and similiarly in Half Chess), all pieces move the same way - one square in any of the four cardinal directions unlike in standard chess.

Tomb Chess is therefore much easier to pick up and less time-consuming to play but requires a bigger pinch of luck as opposed to the standard rules of chess due to the random locations of your pieces. There’s is still some strategy involved in selecting the most favourable tombstone to uncover as well as the need for improvisation of tactics to deal with the current situation at hand.

© FreeWorldGroup.com.

There are 6 different ghoulish creatures (or pieces in chess) in Tomb Chess arranged in ascending order of power.

Ghostly Pawn (Strength 1 : 8 pieces) - Essentially Pacman’s iconic ghosts. Although they get butchered by every other piece, guard them well since they are able to kill Demon Kings with a single headbutt

© Touchstone Pictures. Image from Cherry Lane Keepsakes

Rook of Doom (Strength 2 : 4 pieces) - A dagger-wielding ghoul on a drawcart. Reminds me of wheelchair-bound Doctor Finklestein from Tim Burton’s The Nightmare Before Christmas.

Dark Knight (Strength 3 : 2 pieces) - Armed with a vicious mace to give Rooks of Doom and Ghostly Pawns a nasty bonk on their heads.

Satanic Bishop (Strength 4 : 2 pieces) - A mummified bishop to be exact.

Hellfire Queen (Strength 5 : 1 piece) - Inspired by the mythical Nagi, the Hellfire Queen that conquers all with a single swipe of her tail except for the Demon King.

Demon King (Strength 6 : 1 piece) - Bearing a slight resemblance to Demitri from Capcom’s Darkstalkers with extra pins on his head (probably as a conduit for the electricity he uses for frying his foes), the Demon King trumps everyone except for the lowly Ghostly Pawn.

Play Tomb Chess @ FreeWorldGroup.com.

MORE @ THE DOWNLOAD MUNKEY:
Filler - Colour Strategy Game
Wodan : The Trial - Cute Strategy Game
Vantage Master Online - Tactical Fantasy Game
M.A.X - Mechanized Assault and Exploration @ Abandonia