Abandonware DOS retro gaming spotlight

Spotlight: Indiana Jones games

The popular archaeologist and adventurer created by George Lucas was the star of four movies and the protagonist some of the best point and click (almost abandoned) adventures ever created for PC. Unfortunately, Indiana Jones was also the main character of some of the worst action games.All the Indiana ...

20 years ago in retro gaming: Menzoberranzan

Menzoberranzan is an abandoned DOS fantasy first person perspective RPG developed by DreamForge Intertainment in 1994 from an original idea by John McGirk. Menzoberranzan setting is based on the Dungeons & Dragons Forgotten Realms campaing setting. Menzoberranzan gameplay is party-based and class-based.Publisher: SSI Strategic Simulations Inc.Developer: ...

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 ...

Spotlight: Interactive Fiction

Interactive Fiction, or 'text adventures' is one of the oldest adventure genres around. The first interactive fiction game, called simply Adventure, dates back to 1975. One of the most well known series is Zork, developed by one of the most popular interactive fiction companies of all time: Infocom. Other popular developers ...

Play Transport Tycoon Deluxe online

If you loved Transport Tycoon (Deluxe or not) back in 1994, you will be glad to know that Aleksander Guryanov ported that wonderful simulation online. You can play Transport Tycoon Deluxe here in your browser as a single player session or even multiplayer. Transport Tycoon is an isometric business simulation ...

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 ...

20 years ago in retro gaming: Master of Magic

Master of Magic is a turn based 4x strategy game developed by SimTex and published by the well know Microprose, very similar to Civilization, with a fantasy twist. You play as a wizard and your objective is to evolve your race from a small settlement to a bursting empire. To ...

Spotlight: 4x strategy games

4x is a well known strategy genre acronym that stands for eXplore, eXpand, eXploit, eXterminate. The player controls a whole empire and is tasked with managing resources and technical developments (eXploit), expanding their domains with their military (eXplore and eXpand), and fight against computer A.I. factions or other ...

Text-only games: roguelikes and interactive fiction

In the past, lots of home computer games (PC, C64, Speccy, etc.) used ascii characters (simple text) to represent the game world, the interface... well, everything on screen. These text-only video games may seem primitive and outdated now and, in fact, the genre almost died with the fast evolving graphics ...

Fansite spotlight: The myth of Leisure Suit Larry

Leisure Suit Larry series is one the pioneers of the adventure genre. And not just that, the series broke the chains of mainstream content, dealing with themes that were considered mature and dirty for its time, although they are not anything near that by today standards. And that was ...

Remakes of the month: OpenTTD and Simutrans

Transport Tycoon is one of the best tycoon games ever developed, maybe second to Railroad Tycoon or Roller Coaster Tycoon. While both Railroad and Roller Coaster cousins had a lot of sequels, Transport Tycoon was a lonely child (well, if you don't count Locomotion...). Maybe that's why a bunch of ...

Remake of the month: Midwinter

Midwinter was a strange but very appealing game designed back in 1989 by Mike Singleton, who unfortunately passed away in 2012. It boasted something you didn't see often in games at the time: 1st person perspective, 3d graphics and an open world to explore. Midwinter sold well for Amiga and Atari ST ...

Play X-Com: Ufo Defense online

The same guy who ported Dune II, Aleksander Guryanov, made a version of X-Com: Ufo Defense that can be played in a browser. For the few ones who doesn't know what I'm talking about... X-Com is a tactical strategy game where you battle aliens in a ...

Civilization: Beyond Earth is coming this fall

This fall every Civilization fan will have something different to play with. Do you remember Alpha Centauri? Sid Meier created that 4x strategy game in 1999, to expand the Civilization gameplay beyond Earth. It's not by chance that the next Civ title is going to be called Civilization Beyond Earth. Not ...

Blackwell Epiphany from Wadjet Eye

Wadjet Eye, the publisher of many great retro flavored point & click adventure games, just released the last chapter of their Blackwell series: Blackwell Epiphany. Solve puzzles and follow the story of Rosa Blackwell and Joey Mallone in the conclusion of the Blackwell series. Go to the Wadjet Eye website ...

Heroine's Quest: a beautiful homage to Quest for Glory

Crystal Shard, a group of indie developers, created a little gem: Heroine's Quest: The Herald of Ragnarok. As the title suggests, Heroine's Quest was inspired by the classic Sierra series Quest for Glory. The game is a classic adventure game with bits of RPG here and there. Did ...

Dune 2 for Android: it's real

A retro game lover named Guryanov Aleksander developed an Android version of the glorious RTS Dune 2: The building of a dinasty. A lot of (retro?) players on Google Play seems to like it. It may be time to go back to Arrakis, choose your House and go to battle!

Pac-Man Museum on Steam: is it worth your money?

A couple of months ago Namco released Pac-Man Museum, a collection of old Pac-Man games. Pac-Man Musum includes a lot of old games: PAC-MAN, PAC-MAN Championship Edition, SUPER PAC-MAN, PAC-MAN Battle Royale, PAC-LAND, etc. The user reviews on Steam are a bit harsh and the price isn't cheap, considering you ...

30 years ago in retro gaming: Below The Root

Below the root is an atipycal early 2 dimensional adventure game based on the Zilpha Keatley Snyder novels: the Green Sky Trilogy. The player can choose one of many characters, each with different skills and embark in a quest to eliminate the distrust between two races: the Erdling and the Kindar.

A publisher from the past: Sierra On-Line, founded in 1979

Sierra On-Line was a developer and publisher founded in 1979, famous for point & click adventure series like Leisure Suit Larry, King's Quest, Police Quest, Gabriel Knight and many more. After some unfortunate acquisitions (by Vivendi first and Activision later), Sierra ceased to exist in 2008.

Retro City Rampage

It's been out for a long time now, but some of us (me included) is starting to play it just now. I'm talking about Retro City Rampage, a video game opera entirely designed by Brian Provinciano, inspired by Grand Theft Auto 1 and 2 and filled with LOTS of references from ...

Apoplexy 2.0: Prince of Persia level editor

A new version of Apoplexy, the level editor for both Prince of Persia 1 and 2, has been recently released. Apoplexy is a WYSIWYG editor which allows the user to easily work with mouse and keyboard. Some of the Apoplexy features: - cross platform - can edit both Prince of Persia 1 and 2 ...

The Tesla effect

The sixth adventure in the Tex Murphy popular series is coming in 2014. The Tesla Effect will be similar to the Under a Killing Moon, The Pandora Directive and Tex Murphy: Overseer, with lots of full motion video and a 3D environment to explore in search for clues. If you want ...

Wasteland 1 re-released

Wasteland 2 is still in developement by inXile entertainment, and I know many of you backed the project via Kickstarter. What you may not know is that Wasteland 1, the old turn based apocalyptic RPG that started it all, is now available on Steam and GOG.com at 5.99$. Wasteland 1 can be though ...

The next Space Hulk

A new version of "Space Hulk", based on the tabletop game created by Games Workshop, is available on Steam. It's not cheap and the users on MetaCritic aren't too enthusiastic...

Giana Sisters: Twisted Dreams

A very old and controversial platform was remade into a nice sequel: Giana Sisters: Twisted Dreams, available on Steam or gog.com. The game is quite enjoyable and doesn't cost much, give it a try! More info on the official site. By the way... the soundtrack ...

Speedball 2 Evolution

I don't know about you, but I played Speedball 2 a lot back in the nineties against every friend who wanted a challenge. Speedball 2 Evolution is the latest game in the series, available for mobile devices (iOS and Android). A little bird tells me that Speedball 2 is coming on Steam... When? ...

Organ Trail

You read the title right, this game is actually called ORGAN TRAIL. I'm sure some of you remember "The Oregon Trail". Well, Organ Trail is more than a remake. Check it out here.

Shroud of the Avatar

From the creator of the RPG series Ultima, comes another kickstarter: Shroud of the Avatar. The title doesn't contain the word "Ultima" but the author is Richart Garriott (god bless him) and the Ultima spirit is breathing life in this project. Shroud of the Avatar already reached the successful status ...