Abandonware DOS retro gaming spotlight

Operation Wolf: first-person shooting gallery

Operation Wolf was a hit at the arcades, in part thanks to that wonderful cabinet. I have to admit that I've never played it outside my home. I used to play Operation Wolf first on a Commodore 64 (and yes, I enjoyed it) and later on a 386 PC. What I really ...

The best PC games according to Rock Paper Shotgun

In 2017 Rock Paper Shotgun compiled a list of the 75 greatest PC games of all time. While a majority of them were published in recent years, there are quite a few good old classics we know and love that deserve to be in any PC "top games" chart.1990Red Baron1992Dune ...

Icewind Dale: better than Baldur's Gate?

When I played Baldur's Gate, I knew that RPGs weren't dead. There was this feeling that a new wave of RPGs was coming. I loved Baldur's Gate, but I found some parts of the story and the NPC's a bit too naive. What I loved of Icewind Dale, was that ...

The Magic Candle series: almost like Ultima

The Magic Candle is a series of old school RPGs developed by Mindcraft much like Ultima. You control a party of adventurers in a top-down perspective environment. You can explore towns, fight monsters, talk to people, manage your inventory and even get someone of your party to work for a ...

What was your favourite classic arcade game?

Everyone knows what "classic arcade" means. And everyone should know what the most popular and loved classic arcade games are (or, should I say "were"?). Pac-Man, Donkey Kong and Space Invaders are perhaps the most iconic classics in the early history of video gaming. If you're a true retro-gamer you ...

Lure of the Temptress: the first game made with the Virtual Theatre engine

Lure of the Temptress is an DOS fantasy adventure game, developed by Revolution Software, designed by Dave Cummins and published by Virgin Interactive in 1992. It's available for download. Lure of the Temptress was the first game to use the Virtual Theatre engine, also developed by Revolution Software.

Rampage: monsters VS buildings

As a kid, I remember spending hours at the bar down the road playing at Rampage as Lizzie. Destroying buildings and eating tasty humans was one of my favourite past-times. It's surprising that the coin-op conversion of Rampage for DOS ended up as a nice game. Granted it's not the ...

What was your favourite fighting game?

Fighting games (or VS fighting), is a genre that appeals quite a wide range of gamers.Fighting games involves hand-to-hand fighting against a single opponent for the whole duration of a match. A distinctive trait of fighting games are special attacks, i.e. combinations of graphically striking moves which enhance ...

CODiE Awards 2000: Half-Life, Links, Pharaoh

The year 2000 brought one classic to the PC video gaming world, still remembered today: Half-Life. That wasn't the only game deserving an award, but it's undeniable that Half-Life was a milestone not only in first-person shooters, but also in the whole history of PC gaming.In history, we all woke ...

Italian videogames in the 90s

Italy wasn't a prolific nation if you think about video games in the golden age of personal computers. There were a few valid software houses (Simulmondo, Milestone, Trecision, etc.) but they all disappeared leaving behind lots of mediocre games. Only a few of them are worth playing, but that doesn't ...

Retro company spotlight: Strategic Simulations Inc.

SSI (Strategic Simulations Inc.) was one of the most prolific game companies of the 80s and the 90s. SSI was founded in 1979 and developed and/or published more than one hundred games. SSI was popular among video games players for two things: wargames and RPG goldbox games.Strategy games developed ...

Electronic Gaming Monthly Game of the Year awards

Electronic Gaming Monthly is a video game magazine founded in 1988 (a long time ago!). Amazingly, it's still alive and well, in digital form. Each year, the editors of Electronic Gaming Monthly chose a Game of the Year among games realeased for almost every system.Double Dragon 1988for Arcade, NES, SMSGhouls ...

What is your favourite dungeon crawler?

Dungeon crawlers are RPGs in which the player has to explore one or more dungeons (or similar non-open world environments), fight hordes of cunning monsters, looting treasure, gain experience and levels and so on. Usually, dungeon crawlers have simple storylines and a linear progression. A lot of rogue-likes can be ...

Play classic action games online

Action games are perhaps the best genre to play online in short, intense sessions. They don’t require long tutorials, complex mechanics, or hours of commitment to be enjoyable. There’s no waiting for turns and no careful strategic planning, just quick reflexes, simple controls, and immediate fun. ...

Remake of the month: OpenTTD

OpenTTD, as the name suggests, is an open source remake of Transport Tycoon, a simulation designed by Chris Sawyer.Transport Tycoon was a business simulation game that puts the player at the head of a transport company to compete against rival companies. The player can build stations, airports, railroads to ...