Abandonware DOS retro gaming spotlight

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 ...

Graphic adventures with a text parser

There's a fine line between a "text adventure" (also called interactive fiction) and a modern graphic adventure. Before the advent of point & click adventure games such as Monkey Island, Gabriel Knight or Day of the Tentacle, designers first attempted to create graphical adventure games with a text-based interface. You ...

Abandoned games set in the 19th century

The 19th century was the age of steam, railroads and remarkable discoveries. It was the age of literary masterpieces like the Sherlock Holmes novels, Dracula and Jules Verne's sci-fi stories.Some of the most popular games set in the 19th centurey are:The Oregon TrailThe Lost Files of Sherlock HolmesMartian ...

Al Lowe: the father of Larry Laffer

Al Lowe is an American video game designer, programmer, and musician who developed several adventure games, mostly for Sierra On-Line. He is best known for creating the Leisure Suit Larry series.Name: Al Lowe Born on: 24/07/1946Occupation: video game designer, game programmer, musicianKnown for: Leisure Suit LarryWiki page: http://en....

What were your favourite shoot'em ups?

Shoot 'em ups were extremely popular in the '80s and '90s, even among PC owners.In a shoot 'em up, players control some sort of vehicle (or an aircraft) with the only goal of destroying the largest number of enemies while dodging their bullets as long as they ...

The worst games based on movies

Movies have always been a source of inspiration for video games. Almost every successful movie has its video game (and sometimes even unsucessful ones). The results in the gaming world weren't always so good. I remember lots and lots of mediocre games that tried to patch together different moments of ...

Puzzle games based on TV game shows

Games based on TV game shows were popular in the early days of DOS video gaming on older PCs. I don't think I'm exaggerating when I say that every major game show of the eighties was translated into a video game: Family Feud, Jeopardy, Wheel of Fortune, and more.Here's ...