Original Release: Spirit of Discovery, 1992, PC
Other Releases: PC (Windows 3.1 version, 1995)
One of the earliest casino packages to aim for Vegas atmosphere, Beat The House does a decent job of that as well as representing its collection of games
Beat the House (MS-DOS, Spirit of Discovery, 1992)
Where to Buy: eBay
How to Emulate: MS-DOS Emulation Guide
Review by: C. M0use
This 1992 casino game package is simple and very straightforward, but looks nice for the period and puts a little more effort into ambiance and audio than was common at the time. Really, the best part of it might be the arrangements of jazz standards that accompany each table game … for some reason the music is off by default though, and has to be manually enabled at each game type. Each game also has a nice little collection of voice and digital audio clips to accompany the action.
As far as casino games go: two types of slots, four types of video poker, craps, roulette and blackjack. Pretty standard stuff. Everything is at least decently executed, but the game does kinda clunk along at times and move slowly. For example, the four-reel progressive slots look pretty nice, but can take a long time to play as you have to manually enter coins one at a time (complete with an animation) before betting and the max bets are very small. The slots also kinda take a long time to stop sometimes. The slots are at least more generous than in real life, though, I wish they worked this way in actual casinos, would be ideal for credit grinding!
The interface is also a bit pixel-hunty and frustrating at times about where exactly to click on the screen, but fortunately there is usually a hotkey (displayed on screen) for each function. Maybe not the best for emulating on a tablet or phone though.
There are also no “extras” to play for, enjoying the games at the little one-screen casino and racking up your winnings is the only purpose here. No room to furnish, toys to buy, casinos to take over etc. as some of these other games give you. Overall I felt the package was pretty decent for the early 90s and DOS, especially on the video and audio front, but with too many little hinks to the interface and gameplay experience, and ultimately just not enough to keep you occupied to bother with. I can see where this was more highly regarded in the pre-internet era where casino information was much more thin.
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