MG Owner's Club Freenet

MG is a brand of British car that has a large and loyal following. MG Owner's Club Freenet is a promotional CD that gives subscribers free access to the internet, an account with five e-mail addresses, access to MG resources. The CD installation menu offers;* Launcher: This gives quick access to the MG Owners Club (MGOC) site.

• Internet Explorer: Installs Internet Explorer 5 for WIN 9x and above and Internet Explorer 3.03 for Windows 3.1
• Masterclass: A multi media tutorial on how to use the Internet
• MGOC Spare parts lookup system
• GamesZone: A collection of on-line games. All of these games require Windows 95, playing in another operating system using compatibility mode will not work, additionally some games will not even install if the host pc uses anything other than 256 colours.

GameZone was a UK based internet provider which may have hosted the following on-line gaming web sites. Each supplier has their own launcher on the CD through which players access their sites, play the games and chat to other gamers. Though the games, or a game client, is installed on the player's pc a permanent internet connection is required to play any of them, and as the host sites are now long gone none of the games will run and many won't even show a title screen.

The host sites and their games are; + Engage Games - Rolemaster: The Bladelands: This is described as "a real-time, multi-user role-playing game based on the Rolemaster(tm) fantasy role-playing game system" - Castles II Online: This is Castles II: Siege & Conquest to which Interworld Productions and Engage have added an on-line multiplayer capability. + Darkness Falls: This is also a real-time, multi-user, role-playing game which takes place in the "once proud city of Tamia on the world of Olmran", the twist here is that the player's character walks on the dark side. + Descent Online: An on-line version of Parallax Software's space shooter. + Rolemaster: Magestorm: Here teams of magicians fight and compete to destroy shrines. + Splatterball: This is a team based combat game where wizards fire spells at each other in arenas named Splat Lake, Splat Park and Castle Splat. + Virtual Pool - play 8-ball, 9-ball, straight pool, rotation pool against an on-line opponent. Interplay and Celeris Inc are referenced in the installation sequence.

The documentation for the Rolemaster, Darkness Falls and Splatterball games gives Interworld Productions LLC as the developer and they dates the games to 1995-1997 however the license agreement shown when all these games are installed is dated 1998

• MPGNet Games.

The full name is Multi-Player Games Network and all the games here require the MPG-Net Showcase 4.0 for ICL Network to be installed before they can be installed. The games are: + Backgammon: This looks to be a standard implementation of the game. Though it must be played on-line the player can choose a human or a computer opponent and whether they wish to play as red or black. + The Kingdom of Drakkar an on-line role playing game set in the eponymous kingdom two centuries after the empress released a great evil on the land. It is intended to be a co-operative game as the rules state that killing another player is strictly forbidden! + Empire Builder: This game is set in America in the 1800's and the goal is to make money by building and expanding a railroad network. Whoever initiates the game gets to decide who can play and the victory conditions + Operation Market Garden: The version installed is v3.8.7.1.23 so it has been around a while. This is a two player game with one player controlling the Allied forces of Britain, Poland, U.S.A, and the Dutch while the other controls the Axis forces the German sS, Wehrmacht, Landwehr, Luftwaffe and the Kriegsmarine. A game consists of ten turns and the key to success is controlling territory. + Minion Hunter: A strategy game set in a post apocalyptic America where minions, entities that feed on human suffering, spawn. The game is played by a team of up to six players and involves fighting the minions and developing the players characters + Imperium. This is a two player, sci-fi, strategy game. Man has left Earth for the stars only to find that the Imperium already controls most of them which leads to an interstellar war. Players manage the resources of their fleets, planets as they aim to accrue the most glory, + Junta. While the previous MPG Net games would not load they at least had help files which could be accessed, all that can be said for Junta is that it is version 0807.00

Additionally the games cannot be run directly they must be run via a launcher program which in turn requires an active MPG Net account.

• OceanLine Games: Most of the games here seem to date to 1995/8 and many are linked to Infogrames Telematique, all of them require the display settings to be set to 256 colours. The games are;
  • Backgammon
  • Battle Of The Pirates aka Le Defi Des Pirates: This is an Battleships type of game for up to six players
  • Blitz: A fast, time limited chess game
  • Crimson Wars: A sci-fi strategy game for up to four players set on Mars
  • Dust 'N Blast: An on-line driving combat for up to eight players who fight each other using dune buggies with guns
  • Chaos: Deep Trouble: An undersea adventure
  • Diagonal Of Aces: A western themed falling block game that uses playing cards, here the player removes cards/blocks by making up poker hands.
  • Checkmate: This is a traditional chess game. It must be played on-line against another human opponent as there is no AI opponent option.
  • Pool Academy:
  • Tennis: A two player game that can be played with either the keyboard or the mouse, once again there is no AI opponent to play against.
  • Mini-Golf: This on-line game uses the golf tournament format and can cater for up to sixteen people.

The disc has separate install processes for Windows 95 and Windows 3.1. The Windows 3.1 installation does not include all the functionality that is available under Windows 95 - for example there are no games for Windows 3.1.