Abandonware DOS title

Abandonware DOS retro gaming spotlight

  • CODiE Awards 1992: Lemmings, Civilization, SimAnt

    CODiE Awards 1992: Lemmings, Civilization, SimAnt

    10th July 2019top games and awards
    In 1992 two major hits saw the light: Lemmings and Civilization. Both spawned countless sequels, still published to this day.If you were a fan of combat flight simulations, Secret Weapons of the Luftwaffe (by LucasGames) was the obvious choice.And let's not forget SimAnt, one of the weirdest (in a ...
  • The Ultima series: old school RPGs at its finest

    The Ultima series: old school RPGs at its finest

    6th July 2019RPG
    Ultima is perhaps the most popular old-school RPG series of all time. The whole series was designed by Richard Garriott, head of Origin, who redefined the genre more than one time with moral choices, cutting edge graphics, state of the art interface. It's a shame that Ultima lasted only 9 chapters (...
  • Unconventional racing games

    Unconventional racing games

    16th June 2019racing
    Racing games is a genre loved by many and ignored by others. Me, I was never a huge fan of racing games. I used to play Super Speed at the arcades long ago, but I never quite grew fond of Formula 1 simulations or Outrun-like games. In time, I completely stopped ...
  • Gamespot Greatest PC Games of all Time

    Gamespot Greatest PC Games of all Time

    8th June 2019the history of video games, top games and awards
    GameSpot is a popular website about video games and one of the oldest video gaming sites on the Internet. This chart was published a while ago on an oldest version of the current GameSpot site.The winners of the GameSpot Game of the Year were chosen by GameSpot editors.Here's ...
  • Pie in the Sky engine and the Colosso series

    Pie in the Sky engine and the Colosso series

    3rd June 2019shooter
    Pie in the Sky engine was a game engine developed by Pie in the Sky Software. The Pie in the Sky engine was also used by independent companies to develop their games.The Colosso games (three FPS part of the same series) are quite rare and, surprisingly, the developer liberated ...
  • PBEM: Play By E-Mail multiplayer mode

    PBEM: Play By E-Mail multiplayer mode

    1st June 2019strategy
    What is PBEM? PBEM stands for Play By E-Mail. PBEM games allow a peculiar multiplayer option; players can play turns in an asyncronous way and send the result of their completed turn via e-mail to all opponents. As the Internet evolved, PBEM in recent games ceased to exist and quickly ...
  • More adventures: point and click, interactive fiction, etc.

    More adventures: point and click, interactive fiction, etc.

    24th May 2019adventure
    Another week, another update. This time I added a bunch of adventure games still missing from Abandonware DOS, pretty different one from the other.Hook and Ween: The Prophecy are two fairly well know point and click adventure games; I'm sure you heard about both of them. Arthur, Legend of ...
  • Shoot 'em ups: shoot down anything that moves

    Shoot 'em ups: shoot down anything that moves

    11th May 2019shooter
    The phrase "shoot 'em up" amuses me; it's like... a redneck declaration of violent intent. As a subgenre of shooter video games, it's difficult to define. Shoot' em ups are usually identified with some kind of vehicle shooting down (pew! pew!) aliens, soldiers, planes, etc.With this update, I bring ...
  • Sokoban is a puzzle game genre

    Sokoban is a puzzle game genre

    30th April 2019puzzle
    When I had to add sub-genres to the puzzle games category, I really didn't know how to do it. I consulted Wikipedia, Home of the Underdogs (the original one) and a few other gaming sites. I thought a lot about it and then I came up with the current sub-genres: ...
  • An FPS I completely missed: Marathon

    An FPS I completely missed: Marathon

    25th April 2019shooter
    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.

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

    20th April 2019strategy
    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 simulations: combat, trading and exploring space

    13th April 2019simulation
    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

    The Underdogs on Abandonware DOS

    11th April 2019action
    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 ...
  • Qix clones and remakes

    Qix clones and remakes

    6th April 2019remakes and sequels
    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

    Horror-themed games from the past

    30th March 2019adventure, RPG
    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

    Game Critics Awards (E3): 2000

    23rd March 2019top games and awards
    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

    More RPGs: Might and Magic, Wizardry, Elder Scrolls

    16th March 2019RPG
    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

    Wargaming everywhere

    23rd February 2019strategy
    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: future, present, past

    16th February 2019shooter
    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. ...
  • Obscure abandoned DOS RPGs

    Obscure abandoned DOS RPGs

    8th February 2019RPG
    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 ...