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

I first played National Lampoon's Chess Maniac 5 Billion and 1 back in the MS-DOS days, a 1993 release from Simon & Schuster Interactive. It fit right in with the era's weird, experimental titles that tried to do something different with established formulas. This wasn't your grandfather's chess program; it was a chaotic twist on the classic game, wrapped in the magazine's signature brand of humor.

You control your standard chess army, but the board and pieces are constantly sabotaged by the game's manic personality. The main objective is still to checkmate the opponent's king, but you do it across a series of bizarre, themed boards that warp and change. Signature mechanics include your pieces talking back with sarcastic quips and the entire game environment glitching with wild visual and audio effects, like a kazoo fanfare announcing your defeat. The pacing is deliberately disruptive, making a serious match nearly impossible. It feels less like a strategy game and more like trying to play chess during a house party that's getting out of control.

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