Play National Lampoon's Chess Maniac 5 Billion and 1 Online

Game Overview

Oh man, National Lampoon's Chess Maniac 5 Billion and 1 is the kind of game that makes you question if the developers were sleep-deprived or just geniuses. It's chess, sure, but the pieces have more attitude than a New York cab driver—I swear my pawn once flipped me off after I moved it into danger. The sound effects alone are worth booting up your MS-DOS emulator: imagine checkmate accompanied by a kazoo fanfare.

First time I played, I expected normal chess and got... whatever this is. The board glitches into weird colors, knights occasionally breakdance instead of moving, and there's this one bishop that won't stop monologuing about existential dread. The "5 Billion and 1" title isn't exaggerating—it feels like there are that many ways for the game to mess with you. Not exactly tournament material, but perfect for when you want strategy with a side of surreal humor.

Still can't decide if it's terrible or brilliant, and that's probably the point.

Each game uses different controls, most DOS games use the keyboard arrows. Some will use the mouse , "Alt" ,"Enter" and "Space bar".