Abandonware DOS retro gaming spotlight

Virtua Cops

Since Operation Wolf, shooting gallery games (or rail shooters) became quite popular. Apart from Operation Wolf, Cabal and a few others, there wasn't much on PC until Virtua Cop ("Virtua Squad" for the american audience). Virtua Cop brought 3D to the genre, but the gameplay is the same that every ...

Humor in old video games

Here's a bunch of games involving some kind of humor in one way or another. It's not always great humor and it's not always great games either. Bad Street Brawler deserves to be played! Dilbert's Desktop GamesNord and Bert Couldn't Make Head or Tail of ItMonty Python's Flying CircusUltimuh MCMLXVII: ...

Manuals, manuals, manuals

In the old days, tutorials were a plus, something that only a few developers bothered to add to their games. Today, I find tutorials almost annoying, particularly in Real Time Strategy games.Some manuals were the result of a work of careful craftmanship: think about Infocom games or Ultima manuals. ...

Different kinds of strategy games

More games have been uploaded. Two turn-based tactics games, one wargame, one real time strategy, a real time tactics game and, the best of them all (probably) a turn based tactics game from Julian Gollop, the designer of one of the most loved PC games of all time: X-Com: Enemy ...

A few more First Person Shooters

First Person Shooters revolutionalized action gaming since the advent of Wolfenstein 3D and, later, Doom. Everyone knows about these two games, but there were a lot of lesser known old FPSs. Apart from System Shock, I bet that not much of you ever heard of every single one of these ...

RPG underdog: Legend of the Silver Talisman

Inter-Active Arts developed the DOS fantasy RPG called Legend of the Silver Talisman in 1996. Legend of the Silver Talisman is a freeware top-down perspective dungeon crawler.

More platform games

These games may not be the most popular or the best among platformers, but they equally deserves a bit of attention. Take a look at Dangerous Dave or try out Tom and Jerry, you'd be surprised...Tom and JerrySink or SwimKarnovDangerous Dave in the Haunted MansionVynil Goddess from MarsRastan

Desktop adventures for Indy and Luke

Indiana Jones and his Desktop Adventures and Star Wars: Yoda Stories are two little gems that stood the test of time suprisingly well. You probably will need a virtual machine to play both, but it's worth it.

Board games!

Here's a few DOS board games to play with your family or friends (if you still have a PC with MSDOS installed). Monopoly, Othello and Backgammon are known to everyone from age 5 to age 99. Settlers of Catan is more recent, but pretty popular. Battle of Atlantis... I don't think anyone ...

Games based on comic books

Comics, manga, graphic novels were always an inspiration for game developer. Sometimes someone decided to acquire a license and make a game out of the comic itself. Here are a few examples: Batman, Dylan Dog, Fantastic Four, Ranx, Snoopy, Spider-man and even Yellow Kid.

CODiE Awards: 1987

In 1987 was a grim year remembered for awful facts: Unabomber in Salt Lake City, the Black Monday crash, a typhoon in the Philippines. Thankfully, it was a great year for videogames. Here are the CODiE Awards for 1987. From the official site: "The SIIA CODiE Awards were established in 1986 so that ...

Retro game spotlight: Stunts

Stunts is a car racing (or... should I say car crashing?) simulator focused on, well, stunt tracks. Stunts was developed by Distinctive Software in 1990 and i gained a cult following over the years. Did I mention that you can design your tracks with a track editor?

Have you ever played Eternam?

Eternam is a strange blend of adventure, RPG and action game. To be honest, is more of a first-person 3D adventure (RPG elements are few) without mouse support. Something in this game reminds me of Sean Connery in Zardoz. Ugh.

CODiE Awards: 1986

The SIIA CODiE Awards are one of the oldest still around. The first games were awarded in 1986. Cold war was a reality, USSR was a superpower and most of you weren't even born.Here's a description from the official site: "The SIIA CODiE Awards were established in 1986 so that pioneers ...

Play Rick Dangerous in your browser

Rick Dangerous is a very nice platformer reminiscent of Indiana Jones. Actually, it's more than a parody. Compared to recent platform games, Rick Dangerous is fiendishly difficult. Take my advice: play it... one of the best parts comes right at the beginning.

They made worlds: Space Rogue, by Origin

Space Rogue is a science fiction RPG developed by Richard Garriott's Origin and desined by Paul Neurath (Ultima Underworld 1 and 2). Space Rogue combines a rough 3D space simulation experience with a top down view RPG gameplay when in stations or on planets. As a space pilot you can ...

Death and rebirth of 3D Dungeon Crawlers

Dungeon crawling was the main purpose in the first CRPG (Computer Role-Playing Game) ever to came out on a computer. The first CRPGs were a sort of early roguelikes back then, and by "back then" I'm talking decades ago. Anyway... after a few years, thanks to the capabilities of the ...

Keyword: god games (it's good to be god)

In the so called god games, the player takes the role of a divine entity (or something similar). Gameplay involves controlling people, units or even the environment on a large scale. God games usually show some artificial intelligence in the form of autonomous NPCs.

Electronic Games Arcade Awards - 1992

What happened in 1992? Quite a lot! Bosnia Herzegovina declares independence, starting the war we all know about. The Maastricht treaty is signed and the European Union is officially born. Microsoft releases Windows 3.1: the DOS era is slowly coming to an end. 1992 also gave us some video game classics such as ...

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 ...

Play Arkanoid 2 in your browser

Yes, you can play (some) DOS games online on Abandonware DOS. Arkanoid 2: The Revenge of Doh is one of them. Just don't let your boss catch you while breaking walls and shooting balls...

Abandonware spotlight: Defender of the Crown

Lalallala, lalallala, la la la la la lallala. Well, that's how I remember the music of Defender of the Crown, one of the most peculiar games developed by Cinemaware (also their first one!). Set in medieval England, Defender of the Crown was a mix of strategy and action. You ...

Play Ultima 1 in your browser

Play the classic RPG that started the popular Ultima series. Ultima I (later renamed The First Age of Darkness) is not as good as some of the sequels, but it's worth an hour or two, just to see what Lord British was doing in his garage many years ago.

Retro spotlight: Blade Runner

Blade Runner is one of those point & click adventure games that somewhat manages to fully capture the spirit of a cult movie without copying the original plot. Fans of the Blade Runner movie will enjoy this game, even without Harrison Ford.

RPG oldie: Ultima 7 Part 2 - The Serpent Isle

I remember the moment I started playing Ultima 7 Part 2. I had The Black Gate still in my mind: I loved it, and I wanted something similar. After a few weeks (or months?) I finished Serpent Isle and I was a bit disappointed. Sure, it's a wonderful Ultima game, but it ...

Space Hulk: a board game classic

Space Hulk is a strategy game based on the board game of the same name designed by Games Workshop, the company behind the popular Warhammer 40000 franchise. Take your squad of Space Marines and go kill some alien scum!

Abandonware spotlight: Hill Street Blues

Hill Street Blues is an old DOS "driving" game developed by Krisalis in 1991. The gameplay it's similar to a Grand Theft Auto clone (we're talking about GTA 1 or 2) in which you are the police and you have to apprehend criminals. Hill Street Blues is a rare example of game based ...

Play Micro Machines in your browser

Micro Machines was one of the most successful line of toys of the 80s and the 90s. Micro Machines are cute toy cars the size of a pencil sharpener. There's a TON of them, and children of the time loved to collect them all. Actually, cars weren't the only vehicle ...

Retro underdog: Mordor: The Depths of Dejenol

Mordor: The Depths of Dejenol is fantasy RPG game released in 1995 for Windows 3.x, but it runs flawlessy even Windows XP (see this faq if you want to play Mordor in a virtual machine). Mordor: The Depths of Dejenol is a mix of first-person and top-down perspective dungeon crawler; ...

Developer spotlight: Origin

Origin Systems was founded in 1983 by one of the most popular game designers of all time: Richard Garriott. The most notable games of Origin Systems are the RPGs belonging to the Ultima series: Ultima from I to IX, Ultima Online, Martian Dreams and Savage Empire. Let's not forget the entire ...