Abandonware DOS retro gaming spotlight

Bubble Bobble: spitting dinosaurs

Bubble Bobble is perhaps one of the most popular (and cute!) platform arcade games of all times. The goal of Bubble Bobble is simple: clear each screen from various monsters and reach the final stage. In order to get rid of enemies, dinosaurs Bub and Bob can spit bubbles to ...

The Twilight Zone

The Twilight Zone is an abandoned sci-fi themed adventure game based on the popular TV series of the same name. The Twilight zone released in 1988 by First Row Software Publishing for DOS and Amiga. At it's core, The Twilight Zone is a text adventure, so you have to type in ...

Electronic Games Arcade Awards: 1983

Electronic Games was the first magazine dedicated to the video game world, published in the United States. Electronic Games ran from October 15 1981 to 1997 under different titles (Computer Entertainment, Intelligent Gamer, etc). The magazine is notable for holding the first Game of the Year Award ceremony, called (obviously) the Arcade Awards. ...

Star Crusader: space combat

Star Crusader is an abandoned science fiction first-person 3D space combat simulation, developed by Take-Two Interactive and released by GameTek in 1994 both for DOS and for Amiga platforms. During the game you will have to choose on which side you want to fight: the Gorenes or the rebels. Depending on ...

Solo Flight, by Sid Meier

Not many people know that the first games created by Sid Meier were flight simulations. Solo Flight was published by MicroProse in 1983 for Commodore 64, Apple II, Atari, and a year later, in 1984, for PC. The game takes place in the United States. As a fliying mailmain, the goal of the ...

Classic game spotlight: Laser Squad

Laser Squad is an abandoned turn-based strategy/tactical game designed by Julian Gollop (the mind behind the X-COM series). Laser Squad was developed by Target Games Limited and released by MicroLeague Multimedia in 1992 for DOS and other 8-bit systems. Laser Squad is considered as a precursor of X-COM: Ufo Defense....

John Madden Football: the first of a series

John Madden Football was the first of a series of american football sports games sponsored by the coach of the same name. The first John Madden Football is an abandoned game developed and released by Electronic Arts in 1988 for Apple II and Commodore 64 and later released for DOS (in 1989). The ...

CODiE Awards 1993: A-Train, Links 386, Wolfenstein 3-D

In 1993 the games awarded by the CODiE Awards aren't the most remembered of that decade. Looking at this meager list, the only game that stands out after all these years is Wolfenstein 3-D, which is simply the father of Doom and all the first-person shooters that came after that.1993A-Train ...

Legend Entertainment: interactive fiction

Legend was a developer who created quite a few adventure games. The first ones were interactive fiction adventures with a unique interface (Spellcasting 101, Gateway, etc.). You could type commands and read room descriptions, but you could also click on a list of verbs, a compass to move from room to ...

SimEarth: a life simulation game by Maxis

SimEarth is a simulation in which you can shape and mold a planet in almost every way you can imagine. In SimEarth our planet is simulated as a whole: life, climate, atmosphere are all aspects of a single Gaia-like Earth. SimEarth can be played in two modes: game and experimental. ...

Wayne's World: from movie to game

Wayne's World is an abandoned point and click adventure game based on the movie of the same name. In Wayne's World you control both the characters of Wayne and Garth (created by Mike Myers and Dana Carvey) in a quest to save their TV show. Wayne's World was ...

CODiE Awards 1997: Tomb Raider, Monty Python, Links

In 1997 quite a few interesting things happened around the world. Scientists cloned Dolly the sheep, Hong Kong was handed over to China by the UK, the Mars Pathfinder probe landed on... Mars. In fiction, the first book of Harry Potter was published in the UK, Titanic literally hit cinemas all ...

Gobliiins: half adventure, half puzzle game

Gobliiins is a peculiar adventure game designed by Pierre Gilhodes, developed by French company Coktel Vision and released by Sierra On-Line in 1991 for DOS, Mac, Amiga and Atari ST. In Gobliiins, you control multiple goblins and you must find a way to progress to the next area by solving typical ...

Starquake: sci-fi platformer

Starquake is a weird DOS science fiction platform game developed by Bubble Bus Software in 1988 and designed by Stephen Crow and Dave Collins. I remember it fondly... it's not punishing and it's still very much enjoyable even today, after more than two decades. Genres: action, platformSystem:&...

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 ...