Abandonware DOS retro gaming news

Master of Magic is a turn based 4x strategy game developed by SimTex and published by 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 do so, you ...

After the success of Ultima 6: The False Prophet, Origin decided to "create worlds" not part of the popular Ultima series using the same engine as Ultima 6. They came up with two games: The Savage Empire and Martian Dreams. The Savage Empire is set in a stone-age-like time period and features ...

Space Quest games are all somewhat "abandoned". Sierra is defunct and no one is maintaining the old Space Quest games. (Un)fortunately a few digital stores have Space Quest games in their catalog (se GOG) and that's why almost all Sierra games on Abandonware DOS aren't available for download.

Cadaver (and the expansion Cadaver: The Payoff) is a blend of adventure and platform game. The gameplay reminds me of the glorious Head over Heels, with a fantasy setting, an inventory and the fact that you can die... and I died a lot, when I played it back in the ...

I own a small collection of old games from the era of those wonderful big boxes full of letters, maps, object, feelies. I own RPGs mostly, but also a few simulations, a couple of adventure games, strategy games, etc. From time to time I like to look at these old ...

The Aethra Chronicles is not a well know RPG, but it deserves some praise. It was developed by only one person (Micheal Lawrence) and, as the title implies, was intented to be the first volume of a saga. Unforunately, volume two and three were never made. For a shareware game, ...

InfoComics was an engine developed by Infocom, used for a series of games that today would be defined as visual novels (very similar to almost non-interactive comics). InfoComics weren't much popular and, apparently, were one of the causes that lead to Infocom demise.

Sierra On-Line published lots of games back in the 80s and the 90s and was famous for the various "Quest" series. Think about King's Quest, Quest for Glory, Space Quest, Leisure Suit Larry ("Love Quest"?). I'm sure you remember a few.Police Quest wasn't perhaps one of the most popular ...

Chess was a niche genre in video gaming. There were lots of chess simulations: black and white very old games, licensed games from chess champions, etc. No one ever attempted to broaden the audience until Interplay published Battle Chess. I'm a chess fan (I barely remember the rules), but I ...

I clearly remember the first time I heard about Populous. I was young and still living with my parents. It was a late sunday morning, the sun was high in the sky and the smell of roasted chicken was all around the house: lunch was almost ready, but I was ...

Back in the day, sequels were not always appreciated. That number "2" after the title for many meant lack of ideas. This wasn't just about video games, everything was subject to that kind of treatment "if it's good, why change it?".I don't see this kind of hate anymore. In fact, ...

Jones in the Fast Lane is the kind of game that you don't see often these days. It's a mix between a digital board game and a modern day life simulation. The goal of the game is to live the life of Jones, making choices about school, work, your home, ...

Caesar 2 can be defined in several ways: a simulation set in ancient roman times, a city builder, a strategy game. Caesar 2 is all of this and more: it's one of the early games developed by Impressions that set the gameplay and quality standards later implemented in both Zeus and Pharaoh.

If you're a managerial simulation fan, you probably know about Transport Tycoon, a sim "tycoon" game where you're tasked with managing a transport company. Transport Tycoon became a cult and a few fans started their own projects to remake it: OpenTTD and Simutrans.

I'm not a big fan of racing games, this one though catched my attention. I owned the original big box game for C64 and to this day I can't remember why I bought it. Anyway, I found Stunt Car Racer very enagaging (and very difficult). The suspended tracks and the ...

I bet not many of you remember Utopia. It's a single-player strategy game with strong city building elements set in the future. Utopia: The Creation of a Nation objective is to build and manage a planetary colony in an open-ended gameplay.

The puzzle genre for PCs did not leave lots of memories of the past. I mean, if you exclude Tetris and Lemmings, it's not that easy to remember REALLY good puzzle games for DOS or even Windows. Sure, there's The Incredible Machine, Atomix, Logical, but none of them comes immediatly ...

Wolfenstein 3D made the FPS genre known to the world, Doom raised the quality bar and the popularity of First Person Shooters. Then came Heretic, a fantasy version of Doom with the addition of an inventory. Heretic was one of the few FPS I actually finished (and loved). I never ...

I'm not a fan of platformers. I love RPGs, I enjoyed many point & click adventures, I like most strategy games, but I never got excited while playing a platform game. Lost Viking is different. I LOVED the concept of controlling three different vikings in order to solve riddles and ...

20 years ago PC gaming was thriving. Half-Life re-defined the game design of FPSs. Baldur's Gate and Fallout 2 gave hope to gamers who were waiting for the next generation of RPGs. Adventure gamers enjoyed Grim Fandango immensely. Real-time strategy fans spent countless hours playing StarCraft. And let's not forget&...