abandonware games sorted by popularity

The Fourth Protocol is a 1985 interactive fiction video game inspired by Frederick Forsyth's 1984 Cold War spy novel of the same name. Developed by the Electronic Pencil Company and published by Hutchinson Computer Publishing, the game was released on platforms such as the ZX Spectrum, Commodore 64, Amstrad CPC, and IBM PC (in 1997). Designed as a ...

Blades of Steel is hockey the way it was meant to be. Fast, brutal, and occasionally resembling a bar fight on ice. The game lets you punch other players mid-match and the announcer’s voice sounds like a robot trying to shout through a pillow. The graphics are chunky and glorious and the gameplay is pure arcade chaos. You can pass, shoot, and...

Astro Dodge (1982) is basically Frogger — in space. You control a tiny spacecraft tasked with dodging endless waves of meteors, space debris, and possibly your own questionable life choices. There’s no shooting, no exploration, just pure, panicked evasion. The graphics are charmingly primitive, like a screensaver decided to become senti...

Ascii Sector is what happens when someone takes Privateer, removes the graphics, and replaces them with pure ASCII and sheer willpower. It’s open-world space sim meets roguelike: you trade, fight, explore, get stabbed in shady bars, and generally try not to die in a universe drawn entirely with keyboard characters. The depth is insane, the le...

Broken Sword 2: The Smoking Mirror is a point-and-click adventure game developed by Revolution Software. Released in 1997. The game follows the continuing adventures of George Stobbart, an American tourist, and his French journalist girlfriend, Nico Collard. The adventure leads the duo to various locations around the world, including Pari...

Ah yes, the golden age of video games: where catching babies yeeted from burning buildings was a fun pastime. In Bouncing Babies, you play as a heroic volunteer with a trampoline, catching pixel infants and launching them to safety. It’s like juggling, but if you drop anything, you feel absolutely awful. Equal parts wholesome and horrifying, ...

Step into the cockpit of the Apache Longbow, a 1995 combat flight simulator where you’ll experience the thrilling sensation of trying to figure out keyboard controls before getting shot down by invisible enemies. It's a serious military sim for serious joystick enthusiasts, or anyone who’s ever yelled, “I am the sky god!” be...

Berlin 1948 throws you into post-war Germany as a secret agent on a noir-flavored mission through a city drenched in trench coats and suspicion. It’s one part spy thriller, one part historical fiction, and three parts trying to find the right verb in a text parser. You’ll interrogate shady characters, sift through Cold War paranoia, and...

If you’ve ever thought, “What if Pac-Man got lost in a modernist art gallery?”, then A-Maze is your oddly specific dream come true. Released in 1989 for DOS, this game is a labyrinthine puzzle fest where the graphics are minimal, but the frustration is maximal. It's like being trapped in a maze designed by someone who hates you......

Ace of Aces (1987, DOS) is a game where you pilot a WWII plane via a series of still-image panels that suggest action more than deliver it. It’s like a flipbook with ambitions. You’ll toggle views, dodge bullets (sort of), and feel like you’re in a dogfight told by someone who once read about planes. Surprisingly addictive, despit...

Flying Tigers is an abandoned vertical-scrolling sci-fi themed shoot 'em up game developed and released by Ticsoft in 1994 for MS-DOS only. Flying Tigers is the first chapter of the two parts Flying Tigers video game series.