abandonware games sorted by popularity

Space Hulk is an abandoned real-time tactical strategy game set in the Warhammer  40000 universe, developed and released by Electronic Arts in 1993 for DOS and Amiga systems. In Space Hulk, the player is tasked with wiping out hordes of aliens by the means of a squad of Space Marines armored and armed to the teeth. Space Hulk is the adaptation...

Lure of the Temptress is an DOS fantasy adventure game, developed by Revolution Software, designed by Dave Cummins and published by Virgin Interactive in 1992. Lure of the Temptress was the first game to use Virtual Theatre, a game engine also developed by Revolution Software. Lure of the Temptress was later released as freeware in 2003.

Castle of the Winds (1993, by Saadasoft) is a perfect example of an atypical roguelike (no ASCII, runs in Windows) turned into a liberated game. Surprisingly Castle of the Winds is still very playable to this day, if you can make it run under a recent version of Windows.

Chess was a niche genre in video gaming. There were lots of chess simulations: black and white very old games, licensed games from chess champions, etc. No one ever attempted to broaden the audience until Interplay published Battle Chess. Battle Chess appeal was almost entirely focused on the animations when two pieces ended on the same square.

F-15 Strike Eagle III is a combat flight simulation video game released in 1992. It was developed by MicroProse and is the third installment in the F-15 Strike Eagle series. The game was designed for various computer platforms of that era, including MS-DOS and Amiga. F-15 Strike Eagle 3 is a military flight simulation that puts playe...

Zeliard is a fantasy platformer - JRPG hybrid with metroidvania gameplay elements developed by Game Arts and released for DOS in 1990. Zeliard is a single-player game.

Deathtrack is an abandoned racing vehicular combat game set in a post-apocalyptic North America. Deathtrack is a mix of high-speed racing and combat and was developed by Dynamix and released by Activision in 1989 for DOS.

Laura Bow: The Colonel's Bequest is adventure game designed by Roberta Williams, developed and released by Sierra On-Line in 1989 for DOS. The titular character is one of the lesser known of Sierra On-Line but she got its own sequel in 1989 called Laura Bow 2: The Dagger of Amon Ra.