Abandonware DOS retro gaming spotlight

Command and Conquer: Red Alert

Command & Conquer: Red Alert is a real-time strategy (RTS) video game developed by Westwood Studios and published by Virgin Interactive in 1996. It is part of the Command & Conquer series and is set in an alternate history where World War II never occurred, leading to a different global conflict. ...

SimCity 2000: a sequel to THE city building game

SimCity 2000 is a classic city building simulation, part of the popular SimCity series, developed by Maxis and designed by Will Wright. SimCity 2000 is a huge step up from the 2D predecessor SimCity and boasts improvements like: isometric view, underground, water pipes, subways, new buildings like prisons, schools, libraries, museums, etc.

Oldies remade: the best remakes of old DOS games

Games developed for DOS or early microcomputers (such as the Spectrum, Commodore 64, BBC Micro, etc.) date back to the 1980s. Simply put, these games are old. Graphics, sound, user experience, and interface were vastly different compared to recent games.Game development has made significant strides over the years, and today&...

Bomb Jack: an arcade classic

Bomb Jack is a classic arcade platformer developed and published by Tecmo in 1984. In the game, players must collect bombs while dodging enemies, all within the confines of a single, fixed-screen layout. The DOS version of Bomb Jack is a port of the original arcade game. Both the arcade release ...

What are fan-made games?

Fan-made games are video games created by fans, often as a tribute to existing franchises, characters, or game mechanics. These games are typically developed by enthusiasts who have a passion for a particular series or genre and want to express their creativity by making their own game within that universe....

Mario Bros VGA: a remake

Mario Bros VGA is a fan made remake of the original Mario Bros by Nintendo, the game that popularized the character of Mario, the italian plumber first saw in Donkey Kong. Mario Bros VGA is a fixed-screen platform arcade game that truly shines when played in co-op with a friend.

The fourth King's Quest: The Perils of Rosella

King's Quest IV: The Perils of Rosella is an adventure game developed and published by Sierra On-Line in 1988. It is the fourth installment in the popular King's Quest series created by Roberta Williams. The game was originally released for MS-DOS and Apple II computers and later ported to other platforms. ...

Ultima IV: Quest of the Avatar

Ultima IV is remembered as one of the best Ultima games ever released, designed as usual by Richard Garriott. Garriott took the Ultima series to a whole new level by introducing the eight virtues: honesty, compassion, valor, justice, sacrifice, honor, spirituality, humility. Ultima IV started the trilogy known as "Age ...

Dune 2: The Building of a Dynasty

Dune II, released in 1992, is a pioneering real-time strategy game developed by Westwood Studios. Set in the world of Frank Herbert's Dune, players command noble houses in a battle for control over the planet Arrakis. With base-building, resource management, and tactical combat, the game introduced key elements of the genre ...

Sid Meier was a pirate

Pirates! Gold is an open world game designed by Paul Murphy, developed and released by MicroProse Software in 1993 for DOS, Windows 3.x, Mac and also Sega Genesis and Amiga CD32. Pirates! Gold is a remake of the game Pirates, created by Sid Meier in 1987. Pirates! Gold gameplay is a unique ...

Grand Theft Auto 2: a worthy sequel

Grand Theft Auto 2 is the second chapter in the successful Grand Theft Auto series. GTA 2 is an abandoned top-down action-adventure / driving hybrid game developed by DMA Design and released by Rockstar Games in 1999 for Windows. In GTA 2 you are a wannabe criminal roaming the streets of a fictional city, stealing ...

Canceled game: Warcraft Adventures: Lord of the Clans

There was one time, in the mid nineties, when Blizzard was developing a point & click adventure game set in the Warcraft universe. Unfortunately the game was canceled after a few years of troubled development. The few players that were able to grab an almost working copy weren't impressed: it ...

Maniac Mansion Deluxe: a remake

Maniac Mansion Deluxe is the unofficial sequel to the acclaimed point & click adventure game released by LucasFilm in 1987. Maniac Mansion Deluxe it's a fan-made adventure developed by LucasFans Games and released in 2004 and it's a complete remake of Maniac Mansion in every aspect, developed using the Adventure Game Studio ...

X-COM Apocalypse: a different X-COM

X-COM: Apocalypse is the third installment of the very popular X-COM franchise. After X-COM: Ufo Defence and Terror From the Deep, fans expected another smash hit. Apocalypse is quite different under many aspects, from gameplay to aesthetics. X-COM Apocalypse was designed by Julian Gollop (the same designer that brought the ...

Post-apocalyptic RPGs: from Wasteland to Fallout

Wasteland was an early party-based top-down RPG set in a post-apocalyptic world that filled a gap in RPG video games at the time (we're talking about the late 1980s): sci fi RPGs weren't many and post-apocalyptic ones were even less.There are two series of games that are part to ...

Asteroids: the abandoned remakes

The original game Asteroids was one of the most popular arcade games of the 80s; a fixed-screen shooter first published for arcade machines in 1979.Original title: Asteroids  First released in: 1979 Developer: Atari Publisher: Atari, Taito Designer: Lyle Rains, Ed Logg, Dominic ...

Remake of the month: OpenTTD

OpenTTD, as the name suggests, is an open source remake of Transport Tycoon, a simulation designed by Chris Sawyer.Transport Tycoon was a business simulation game that puts the player at the head of a transport company to compete against rival companies. The player can build stations, airports, railroads to ...

Qix clones and remakes

Qix is that very old arcade game in which you have to draw rectangles in order to claim portions of the screen. Like other classic arcade games of the time, Qix was later ported on quite a few platforms. A few developers took inspiration from the original Qix and created ...

Classic Arcades: clones and remakes

When I talk about abandoned games I usually think about games published at the end of the eighies and through the nineties. There are some "ancient" games that deserve the definition of "classic". Everyone knows them: Pac-Man, Space Invaders, Defender, Donkey Kong.To be honest, I don't think they can ...

Sequels to action games: Gauntlet, Rick Dangerous, Xenon and more

Back in the day, sequels were not always appreciated. That number "2" after the title for many meant lack of ideas. This wasn't just about video games, everything was subject to that kind of treatment "if it's good, why change it?".I don't see this kind of hate anymore. In fact, ...

Torment: Tides of Numenera - The first hour

Tides of Numenera is out! It took only 18 years from the release of the cult classic Planescape: Torment for us to finally be able to enjoy the sequel. I already took some steps into the game and wrote about my first hour in the world of Tides of Numenera. But ...

In the making: Kick Off World

A group of Player Manager fans are developing a wonderful remake called Kick Off World. Some of you may not know that Player Manager was a managerial football game developed by Anco (Kick Off series), designed by the popular Dino Dini and published in 1990.Here's a description of Kick Off ...

Empire TV Tycoon: a remake?

Does anybody remember MadTV? MadTV was a unique business simulation published in 1991 by Rainbow Arts in which the player had to run a TV station. To my knowledge, no other similar game existed (at least not for DOS or Windows, at the time).Thanks to Steam Greenlight, now we have ...

Satellite Reign: a game for Syndicate fans

In Satellite Reign you control a team of four agents and roam in the neon-lit alleys of a big cyberpunk city. Sounds familiar? That's because Satellite Reign was developed by the creator of Syindicate Wars (NOT the original Syndicate).The objectives can be completed in different ways and Satellite Reign ...

Remake of the month: OpenMW

The Elder Scrolls is a well known series of video games. It started with Arena, now released as freeware by Bethesda. Soon Arena was followed by Daggerfall, one of he most bug ridden games of the series. And then it was the turn of Morrowind. That's when, in my opinion, ...

In the making: Pioneers

Pioneers is a unique game. It reminds me of Colonization and Oregon Trail, but it's something quite different. To quote the official website "Pioneers is a turn-based exploration/adventure RPG where you lead a party of travellers in search of treasure-rich temples, new tribes and ways to go down in ...

In the making: Painters Guild

Painters Guild is in developement and nobody knows when it will be released, but it's a really promising and interesting little game. As the official site states: "In Painters Guild you can make paintings, sell them and develop your guild into the greatest of the Renaissance.". Painters Guild is, simply ...

Grim Fandango Remastered

Double Fine remastered one of the most loved old school adventure games of all time: Grim Fandango. Go to GOG.com to preorder Grim Fandango Remastered!

Elite is back, and it's more dangerous than ever

I'm sure I'm not the only one here to love space simulation games. I admit I didn't play the original Elite a lot... but I literally consumed Frontier and I had my share of battles in the more recent Eve Online.Someone called space sims ...

Remake of the month: Gabriel Knight 1 - 20th Anniversary Edition

The original Gabriel Knight: Sins of the Fathers, published in 1993 by Sierra On-Line is one of my favourite point & click adventure games of all time. Praise Jane Jensen for the plot, dialogues and ideas. My compliments to the voice actors. Kudos to whoever decided to drop the chance of ...