abandonware games sorted by release date

X-COM: Terror from the Deep (also known as X-COM 2) is a DOS science fiction tactical strategy game and the sequel to one of the most popular DOS games in history, X-COM: UFO Defense. Terror from the Deep was designed by Stephen Goss (the original X-COM was designed by Julian Gollop) and was published by MicroProse Software in 1995. Terror fro...

Released in 1995 for DOS, Zorlim's Arcade Volleyball is what happens when someone decides regular volleyball isn’t chaotic enough. Picture stick figures with the agility of caffeinated spiders and a physics engine that took the day off. It’s fast, frantic, and occasionally feels like you're trying to swat a fly with a pool noodle. The A...

From the dusty archives of 1995 DOS gaming comes Zorro, a side-scrolling platformer that asks the question: what if the legendary masked hero had the reflexes of a hungover sloth? With clunky controls and combat that’s more slapstick than swashbuckling, it’s a charmingly awkward tribute to the classic character. You’ll leap, climb...

Zyclunt is a side-scrolling action game developed and published by Phantagram in 1995. The game is set in a dystopian future where incurable diseases and a rise in criminal activities have brought society to the brink of collapse. In this setting, advanced genetic engineering has led to the creation of cybernetic organisms, or cyborgs, which have b...

This game is either a delightful brain teaser or a slow descent into madness, depending on how patient you are. 15x15 Picture Puzzle gives you a scrambled mess of tiny square tiles and challenges you to rearrange them into a beautiful image that you’ll spend hours trying to recognize. It’s like doing a jigsaw puzzle with gloves on and a...

This 1996 point-and-click western is what you’d get if Lucky Luke and Monkey Island had an awkward but lovable baby. 3 Skulls of the Toltecs throws you into a spaghetti western full of puzzles, puns, and characters with more mustache than common sense. Expect to outwit bandits, impersonate priests, and hunt ancient treasure while the game thr...

Afterlife is a simulation strategy game developed and published by LucasArts. It was released in 1996 for Microsoft Windows and later made available on other platforms. The game was designed by Michael Stemmle and was known for its unique take on the simulation genre.Afterlife puts players in the role of a semi-divine being responsible for developi...

Alien Rampage (1996) is what happens when Duke Nukem gets stranded on a hostile alien planet and decides subtlety is for cowards. It’s a side-scrolling shooter dripping with gore, attitude, and the occasional terrible pun. Everything explodes, everything wants to kill you, and the hero growls like he gargles gravel. It’s dumb, loud, and...

Alien Trilogy is a first-person shooter video game released in 1996 for various platforms, including the PlayStation, Sega Saturn, and MS-DOS. Developed by Probe Entertainment and published by Acclaim Entertainment, the game is based on the first three films in the Alien franchise. The game's narrative loosely follows the storyline of these mo...

Ever wanted to pilot a walking death machine through a series of exploding industrial hellscapes while being shot at from every angle? Welcome to Amok. This 1996 mech-shooter is a glorious mess of 3D environments, big explosions, and gameplay that occasionally forgets it needs to be fun. You stomp around in your mech like a robot with arthritis, bl...

ADOM is what happens when a rogue, a wizard, and a hungry troll walk into a dungeon and never come out. Released in 1996, this roguelike classic is brutal, brilliant, and unapologetically text-heavy. Permadeath is the norm, the story is deep enough to drown in, and don’t even get me started on the corruption system. You’ll die often, po...

Arachne is a graphical web browser for DOS. Arachne was developed by Michal Polák and released in the early 1990s as a text-mode web browser with limited graphical capabilities. Arachne allowed DOS users to browse the World Wide Web in a graphical, though quite basic, manner. It supported features such as displaying images, handling lin...

In Archimedean Dynasty, humanity did the logical thing after wrecking the surface world: moved underwater and started shooting each other in submarines. It's part tactical sim, part gritty sci-fi novella, and entirely German in its dedication to menus and moodiness. Imagine playing Wing Commander, but everyone is wet, brooding, and inexplicably ang...

Welcome to Aspetra, a 1996 DOS game that tried to cram an epic sci-fi RPG into your beige box PC — and mostly succeeded! Think “Star Trek meets budget constraints.” You explore strange new worlds, meet weirdly specific aliens, and solve puzzles that are either insultingly simple or brutally cryptic, no middle ground. The UI is... ...

When in Gaul, punch like the Gauls do. In Asterix and Obelix (1996), you control the iconic French duo on a globetrotting beat-‘em-up adventure that mostly involves sending Romans flying like ragdolls. It’s all charmingly cartoonish, with faithful visuals straight out of the comics and gameplay that’s one part arcade brawler, one ...

Azalta: Cult of the Raven is what happens when a lone developer says, “I can make an RPG better than Ultima!” and sort of does. Released in 1996, this DOS dungeon crawler features deep customization, open-ended quests, and graphics that scream “programmed at 2 a.m.” The story is delightfully dark: evil cults, bird-themed may...

Battle Arena Toshinden was the first game in the Toshinden series and was originally released for the Sony PlayStation in 1995 and later for DOS. Battle Arena Toshinden introduced 3D graphics to the fighting game genre, allowing characters to move in a three-dimensional space.The game featured a diverse roster of eight playable characters, eac...

No, not that Battlestar. Battlestar (1996) is more obscure than a reboot that never happened. Set in deep space with a top-down view and UI only a Windows 3.x user could love, it mixes tactical combat and sci-fi storytelling like a B-movie got turned into a spreadsheet. The controls are awkward, the visuals retro even for ‘96, but there&rsquo...

Ever wanted to manage a kingdom, lead armies, go dungeon-crawling, and attend budget meetings? Birthright: The Gorgon’s Alliance makes all your fantasy micromanagement dreams come true. Released in 1996 for Windows XP (yes, you read that right), it tries to do everything—and sort of does... in the way a one-man band tries to play Mozart...

From the people who brought you Dungeons & Dragons, here's Blood & Magic (1996), the RTS that nobody remembers but definitely deserves a second glance. You summon golems from magical “blood forges” because apparently swords and fireballs weren’t metal enough. The gameplay is surprisingly chill for something with “Blo...

Borderworld (1996, DOS) is a sci-fi RPG with big ideas, a tiny budget, and enough ambition to fuel a space shuttle. You’re thrown into a galaxy of politics, smuggling, and star-hopping adventure, where everyone has a quest and most of them are either morally questionable or just plain weird. The visuals are dated even by mid-’90s standa...