Abandonware simulation games

If you’ve ever dreamed of becoming a 19th-century merchant sailing the high seas with a suspiciously optimistic outlook on international trade, 1869 is your jam. It throws you into the age of clipper ships, where profit margins are thinner than your sailor’s rations and storms love to ruin your day. You’ll juggle cargo, haggle pri...

A-Train (1992) is the game that proves building a railroad empire can be just as stressful as running an actual train. Available on DOS and Mac, it’s a complex economic simulator disguised as a transit game. You’ll lay tracks, buy stocks, and wonder why your rail line keeps losing money despite hauling more commuters than Tokyo. If you ...

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...

In Air Force Commander (1992), you don’t just fly planes - you run the whole air force. Think of it as being a general with a spreadsheet addiction. Assign squadrons, manage budgets, and try not to start World War III. It's dry in places, but the micromanagement will scratch an itch you didn’t know you had. A game where you’ll spe...

Welcome to the most stressful job in the world - rendered in glorious 1985 DOS graphics! Air Traffic Controller lets you experience the thrill of herding aircraft without the luxury of coffee breaks or radar resolution. It’s tense, it's crude, and it's a miracle anyone survived your first session. You’ll learn that "near miss" is just a...

Think running an airline is easy? Airlines (1994) says “think again.” This old-school management sim hands you a failing fleet and a world map, then laughs quietly as you go bankrupt in under 10 turns. Buy planes, open routes, and try to explain to investors why you scheduled 12 flights to Greenland. It’s dry, brutal, and oddly sa...

Released in 1995, AIV Networks dares to ask: what if the real hero of industrialization was... logistics? Here, you’re not conquering worlds - you’re routing freight. Build railroads, connect factories, and ensure that widgets get turned into more widgets. It’s complex, confusing, and not at all sexy - but there’s a nerdy jo...

Think of Alter Ego: Female Version as life’s greatest hits - and a few of its flops - played out one decision at a time. From childhood tantrums to awkward teenage crushes and midlife crises, you’ll make choices that define your digital doppelgänger’s path. Will she be a punk rock rebel or a buttoned-up banker? A lover, a lon...

Welcome to Alter Ego: Male Version, where your life begins with a cry and a diaper and only goes downhill - or uphill, depending on your choices. This text-based simulation lets you experience the full ride of being a man: childhood scraped knees, teenage dreams, career decisions, marriage proposals, and midlife what-am-I-doing-here moments. Funny,...

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...

Balance of Power: The 1990 Edition is a geopolitical strategy game developed by Chris Crawford and released in 1985. It is considered a classic in the genre of political and strategic simulation games. The game is set during the height of the Cold War, specifically in 1986, and it allows players to step into the shoes of either the United Stat...

Environmental doom simulator? Check. Grim statistics? Double check. Balance of the Planet lets you tinker with carbon emissions, wildlife extinction, and deforestation until you either save the world or make it slightly more inhabitable for cockroaches. It's basically SimEarth with an environmentalist hangover, and somehow makes graphs feel like mo...

Step into the gray, morally ambiguous world of corporate domination with Big Business. It’s Monopoly with fewer dice and more spreadsheets. Crush your competitors, manipulate markets, and remember — hostile takeovers are just hugs with paperwork. It's capitalism in pixelated form, where success is measured in profit margins and broken f...

With a title that sounds like a deep-sea motivational poster, Big Sea: The Better One Will Win is a maritime strategy game where the stakes are high and the water’s pixelated. Outwit your foes on the high seas while trying to figure out what exactly the game is about. Naval warfare? Diplomacy? Fish-based economics? The answer is “yes.&r...

Hospital management has never been so weirdly German. In Biing!, you hire nurses based on looks, run a completely dysfunctional clinic, and try not to get arrested. It's part strategy, part business sim, and part fever dream. Somehow sleazy and charming at the same time, it’s like Theme Hospital after one too many Jäger shots.

Black Friday (1983) isn’t about shopping mayhem—though you might wish it were after trying to figure out what’s going on. This early DOS title is part stock market simulator, part existential crisis. You play as a trader trying to make a fortune before the market crashes and takes your soul with it. There’s no real action, u...

In Black Gold (1989), you're in the cutthroat world of oil barons. It’s like Dallas, but with more charts and fewer cowboy hats. You build rigs, negotiate deals, and try to outmaneuver rivals who are probably less ethical than a used car dealership run by raccoons. The gameplay is surprisingly deep for its time, and while the graphics are not...

Black Monday (1987) combines economic panic with the thrill of—wait for it—spreadsheet navigation. It's like Wolf of Wall Street without the fun, drugs, or DiCaprio. You’re managing a business during a financial collapse, and everything is falling apart faster than your patience. Charts, graphs, bad decisions—it’s all ...

Business Simulator is an abandoned business simulation game developed and released by Reality Development in 1987 for DOS only. Business Simulator is a text-based management simulation designed by an university professor.

Capitalism 2 is simulation game designed by Trevor Chan, developed by Ensemble Studios and released by UBI Soft in 2001 for Windows and Macintosh. Capitalism 2 is the quintessential capitalistic simulation and involves stock exchange, business management, marketing, etc.