Abandonware DOS retro gaming spotlight

New acquisition for my collection: Jinxter

Jinxter is one of those games with feelies, items, manuals, etc. that makes "unboxing" an experience filled with pleasure. Jinxter (by Magnetic Scrolls) box contained: the magazine "The Independent Guardian", a staff memo (in the form of a letter), the adventure guide, a "Old Moose Bolter" beer mat (which is ...

An FPS I completely missed: Marathon

I loved Doom (and Wolfenstein 3D before that). I used to play Duke Nukem 3D online with a friend (and I always lost to a cunning use of the Duke hologram). I played quite a few FPSs but I have to admit... I missed the Marathon series completely. To make ...

More strategy games: Battle Isle, Army Men, etc.

Looking back at the past Abandonware DOS content updates, I noticed a few missing games that deserved to be included in the Abandonware DOS database. Most notably: Army Men, one of the Battle Isle games and a few more I remember from a time when I played them, many years ...

Space simulations: combat, trading and exploring space

Space simulation games are part of a niche genre that appeals to specific gamers, not everyone like it. I think we can categorize two main groups of space sims players: the ones who only want to fight in space (no trading, no mining, etc) and the ones who like full ...

The Underdogs on Abandonware DOS

No, I'm not talking about the long gone site Home of the Underdogs, a milestone in the abandonware website scene, I'm actually talking about games available on Abandonware DOS that almost no one pay attention to (myself included).Download count for these games is low and - for a few ...

New acquisition for my collection: Windwalker

Windwalker is not one of the most popular games developed by Origin. It's a strange RPG-action mix. Not a great game, but the big box contains lots of paper: the manual (wonderfully illustrated), a small copy of the I Ching (the chinese Book of Changes), two floppy disks, the usual ...

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 ...

Horror-themed games from the past

Sometimes I like to spend quite some time looking at Google Analytics statistics of Abandonware DOS. I'm amused that "horror" (and variants) is a much searched keyword.What is that you like in horror games of the past? Did they scare you? I remember that the game that scared me ...

Game Critics Awards (E3): 2000

The Game Critics Awards is a annual award event that happens just after the very popular E3 video game conference. The Game Critics Awards take place since 1998.In 2000, Black and White won a lot of prizes (good for you Peter Molyneaux). Neverwinter Nights was a personal favourite: it deserved both ...

More RPGs: Might and Magic, Wizardry, Elder Scrolls

While browsing the Abandonware DOS database, I noticed that a few very popular RPGs were missing. How could I forget to include them? I had to add them to the already long list of old school RPGs, even if they are not technically abandoned (and you can't download them for ...

Wargaming everywhere

As I add to Abandonware DOS every game I can think of, week after week, I get increasingly astonished by the sheer number of wargames available back in the day. I had no idea that wargaming was so popular in the 80s and the early 90s.With this update I ...

First-person shooters: future, present, past

First-person shooters is a pretty straightforward subgenre of action games. Gameplay mechanics are simple and straightforward: run away from enemies, shoot them, find items and power ups and go on.What I always liked in FPSs was the variety of theme/setting from game to game. Here's a few examples. ...

Lots of 2K games on sale

This week GOG is selling a lot of good old games published by 2K at really good prices. Here's a few of them: the Army Men series, Bioshock 1 and 2, Civilization 3 and Civilization 4, Freedom Force, Kerbal Space Program, Mafia, Sid Meier's Pirates! and Sid Meier's Railroads!, the rest of the Railroad ...

Obscure abandoned DOS RPGs

There are a lot of role-playing games already on Abandonware DOS: from the Ultima series to Might and Magic, from the Wizardry series to Rogue.I periodically convince myself that I covered every possible RPG published for DOS and periodically I find out that I missed a few ones. The ...

GOG weekend sale

It's time for the usual Good Old Games weekend sale. This time the games on sale are mainly action oriented: Unreal, Jazz Jackrabbit, Descent, Cyberia, Prehistorik, Redneck Rampage. There are also a few point & click adventures: Day of the Tentacle, Grim Fandango, Full Throttle. Go spend some money!

Flight simulations at dawn

For a game collector like me, flight simulators are something to look for. The original big boxes of flight sims published a few decades ago included all sort of items: keyboard layouts, maps, huge manuals. I own a few and I plan to buy some more.Anyway... I have to ...

My humble collection of old games

I own a small collection of old games from the era of those wonderful big boxes full of letters, maps, object, feelies. I own RPGs mostly, but also a few simulations, a couple of adventure games, strategy games, etc. From time to time I like to look at these old ...

It's winter time! Snow, Santas and trains

Christmas is coming and I decided to add a few games in theme with the holiday season. Winter, Christmas, snow... every ingredient that makes "winter time" is present in the following games. A few of them are special editions of games already published (Skyroads, Jetpack). Transarctica is a peculiar one; ...

Strategy in the far east: Japan, China, the Pacific

I'm a fan of turn-based strategy games, but I have to admit I've never played KOEI games. KOEI was a Japanese company founded in 1978 (!) known for the Romance of the Three Kingdoms and Nobunaga's Ambition series. Romance of the Three Kingdoms wasn't the only game that deserve some praise. With ...

GOG Winter Sale: freebies and games on sale

It's winter and every gamer on Earth is at home, cozy under soft blankets, waiting for the digital father Christmas to bring them toys to play with. GOG is about to slide down the chimney with a bag full of goodies: Full Throttle Remastered for FREE, Fantasy General free after ...