The best abandonware sports games

Olympic games were something back in the 80s and the 90s: Winter Games, Summer Games, California Games, anything-you-can-think-of games. Some imaginative developer thought that the world needed a different kind of "multisport" action game and came up with he idea behind Knight Games.

One-Nil Soccer Manager is a text-based soccer management simulation game that was popular in the late 1980s and early 1990s. It was developed for various home computer systems, including DOS, Commodore 64 and Amiga. In One-Nil Soccer Manager, players take on the role of a soccer team manager, making strategic decisions to guide their team to s...

For those who think snooker is too posh and billiards too French, there's Archer Maclean's Pool, the most ‘90s way to simulate the timeless art of arguing over whether that shot was really legal. It’s pool in DOS — plain and pixelated, yet oddly hypnotic. Trick shots are as satisfying as they are completely accidental, and the AI ...

Baseball Mogul (1997) was the original release that kicked off the whole franchise. Developed by Clay Dreslough and published by Infinite Monkey Systems, this was a pioneer in the world of sports management sims. It was released for Windows 95. ou played as the General Manager of a Major League Baseball team, starting in a recent season (the d...

Sierra Championship Boxing is an abandoned sports boxing game, developed by Evryware and released by Sierra On-Line in 1985. You can issue instructions to the boxer between rounds, create custom boxers or choose from a list of predefined boxers.

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...

Released in 1992, 3D World Boxing tried its best to bring the sweet science into the third dimension. The result is less Rocky and more “two mannequins in pajamas slap each other in a cube.” But bless its heart, it really tries. You can jab, hook, and block like a pro, assuming you’re okay with animations that look like interpreti...

Armchair Quarterback lets you live the dream of yelling at your TV — but on your DOS machine, and with even less control. It’s part simulator, part quiz show, and all weird. You make play calls, analyze stats, and pray the dice gods like you more than they did your last fantasy football team. Graphics are minimal, the commentary snarky,...

Ballistix asks: “What if air hockey was controlled by futuristic cannons?” The answer: chaos. You frantically shoot pucks with directional blasts while the physics engine does whatever it wants. It’s fast, it’s bizarre, and it kind of feels like trying to herd cats with a leaf blower. Multiplayer is where it shines — a...

Carl Lewis Challenge is a sports simulation video game that was released in 1992 by Psygnosis for various platforms, including the Amiga, Atari ST, and DOS. Named after the famous American track and field athlete Carl Lewis, the game aims to simulate several athletic events in which Lewis excelled. The game features multiple track and field ev...